In this article I’d like to present the way I perceive time - both from the human and the ‘Higher Self’ perspective. The reason I decided to do that is the fascinating - especially in relation to our earthly life and to the linear time perception - concept of viewing time by the “highest” aspect of ourselves.
Besides, perhaps this article will shed a little bit more light on a suspected by many (and even proven by some) illusory nature of time phenomenon. Let’s get started :) .
I view (and sense) a human as a multidimensional being - consisting of various aspects, each existing on its own plane. A common illustration of this state of affairs is a simple, dualistic perception of a human - as a being possessing a physical aspect and a spiritual aspect. The physical aspect You could define here as “a physical body”, existing within material space-time - while the spiritual aspect You could identify as “soul”, existing on spiritual plane.
There is, however, a possibility of viewing - or distinguishing - more aspects which make up our being. An example of such another aspect is so-called Higher Self - which is another - next to the soul - spiritual aspect of a human. In relation to the soul, however, it is superior. Actually, when we include the higher self aspect while talking about a human - the soul could be defined more precisely as an identity, because this term reflects character of the Higher Self-Soul relationship in a way pretty easy to comprehend. It can be then summarized what the Higher Self is: the source of many identities, each of them being another “disguise” of ourselves. This multitude of identities finds its reflection within reincarnation concept - where You probably have many incarnations, and Your Higher Self is their source.
At this point we’re reaching one of the most fascinating aspects of the Higher Self concept: a timeless nature of the plane on which it exists - and its implications.
Time in relation to Higher Self.
Having a strong bond to the one particular identity, living mostly in a material reality, grounded within time and space - we’ve become used to viewing time in a linear manner. This concept is very easy to comprehend: by mutual agreement we can point out the present moment and - in relation to it - the past and the future. Always, regardless of where we are on the time line - we are able to easily view separated “time spaces” of the past and the future.
Now, if we’d like to think about reincarnation - from the perspective of a space-time-grounded human being probably we will perceive it in a similar, linear and chronological way: identifying our own present incarnation - and differentiating the past and the future ones. It seems obvious that all the future incarnations we see as something which does not take place yet - as the past incarnations as something which has already gone.
The thing is quite different, tough, if we take the timeless-plane-grounded Higher Self perspective. Here a linear time does not exist, therefore there is no distinction between the future, the past, and the present. The present moment on the Higher Self plane I could call rather symbolically as the “time space”, which You could envision as a lake of an endless surface (the Higher Self You could consider here as a angler :) ). As I’ve mentioned, in the time space there is no past-future-present distinction - because all those concepts exist simultaneously, as the one “surface”, one “time space”. To put another way, while in the linear time it has always been possible to pick up a single reference point in a form of a symbolic “present moment” - in the time space such a point does not exist, due to the whole surface representing the one endless “Now” (eternity - the whole endless amount of time). This “Now” You can envision a bit easier by presenting reincarnation from the Higher Self perspective.
As we’ve said before, speaking about reincarnation in the linear time we can talk about the current incarnation, the past and the future ones. While in the time space, stripped off of such distinction, there is one endless lake (“a lake of time”) and one “angler” at its bank :) (our Higher Self). When the angler wants to experience a particular incarnation within the space-time, it can “cast a fishing rod” anywhere on the lake. To put differently, he has the whole amount of time available, or in short: the whole eternity. Moreover, our “angler” not only perceives the whole time simultaneously at one glimpse (the whole lake), but it is able to cast many fishing rods at once. It can cast them anywhere on the lake - it isn’t confined by any chronology, because it perceives all the existing time at once, not being enclosed within a single reference point. “The present moment” is not a moment for a Higher Self - it is eternity. While the linear time, in which we could always point out the past and the future - is differentiating into those past/future/present when on a particular identity/single incarnation level, when consciousness becomes focused on a single “moving moment”. Only from our human identities perspective there can be future, past and current incarnations - for the Higher Self all of those happen simultaneously. Moreover, not only it is possible to simultaneously cast rods toward areas which from our perspective are viewed as the past and the future - it is also possible to cast many rods within one and the same area. The result? From Your perspective it is possible for Your another incarnation to exist just next to You - in the same time, in the same space. You can even live with each other, not necessarily being aware of that - and all of that will be nothing more than a natural and even obvious consequence of a timeless nature of a plane where Your Higher Self exists.
A projector and a film.
To better comprehend the concept of the linear time and the time space, we can present them in a form of a comprehensive visualization of a projector and a film.
Imagine the whole time (the whole amount of time) as a roll of film, while Your consciousness as the ray of light from the projector. In the classical view the light always shed on a single movie frame at once - regardless of the speed they’re moving. The speed is fast enough to give a movement impression - nevertheless Your ray of light stays still, going through only a single frame - no more, no less.
The visualization above represents the linear time - or a human perspective of perceiving time. If we would take a similar way to present the time space concept (the Higher Self perspective) - we could do it as follows.
The projector regarding the time space.
Regarding the time space visualization our projector becomes a pretty interesting thing, probably a little bit abstract for a human mind. The differences come down to: lack of movement and the reach of light ray. The film roll is not played this time - it is completely unfolded instead. The ray of light doesn’t have to be focused on a single frame - it is able to enclose all of them simultaneously. Add the lack of chronology to this picture, while in case of the first projector frames always have been moving toward one direction, therefore presenting to the light in the particular order. We couldn’t, for example, view the past sequence once it has already happened - due to inevitability of its frames “playing” direction: future-oriented. Therefore the frames, once played, have moved into the memories, making space for the chronological future.
In case of the projector which visualizes the time space frames are not moving - but the ray of light may become wider, focused on any frame/frame sequence, with no enforced direction - therefore with no chronology “obligation”.
In the projector visualizing the linear time we are kind of forced to watch a film toward one direction - from the beginning to the end. Moreover, at any given moment we can access only a single frame - in which our whole perception is enclosed. Although thanks to the frame speed we view them as animation - we are in fact still “enclosed” within a single frame - and within the particular order.
In the time space-visualizing projector You can watch the movie, with the additional features available: to rewind, fast forward (to one’s hearts’ content), pause and play any particular fragment, any amount of times. Most importantly, You have the whole movie available, You can view it at once - i.e., at one glimpse You can perceive all the frames, one particular frame or one particular frame sequence.
A movie - vs video editing.
Another analogy rendering those differences is to envision the linear time as watching a movie - while the time space as video editing (e.g., using a computer). When You want to watch a movie, You set everything up, till You begin watching. The only thing You can do then is to watch - You’re watching the movie from the beginning to the end, and if You miss anything - You’ll lose it for ever.
The thing is pretty different, tough, when You’re working with the same movie within a video-editing app. In such an app a movie is presented in a form of frames, consisting the whole story - from the beginning to the end. You, however, as a director, are perceiving all of them at once on Your screen. While working You can play any sequence - and You won’t be confined to any chronology (there is no problem to play the future sequence first, and then the past one). Moreover, each sequence You can play any times You want. To complete this metaphor, let’s add that playing any sequences may take place simultaneously - in the same time You can view the “past” and “future” sequences You’re interested into - in any order/with no necessary chronology.
Does it exist - or not?
At this point You should have a pretty good understanding of how we perceive time as humans - and how it may be perceived by our Higher Self. All the implications of the Higher Self perspective, which for a human mind may be “fantastic” and “incomprehensible” - now become clear - as, for example, the possibility of meeting Your Own - another - incarnation, in this lifetime, within the same space-time.
When to take a closer look on various ways of visualizing time - either from a human (linear time) or the Higher Self (the time space) perspective - some doubt arises: does such a thing as time actually really exist? Let’s remind ourselves the current analogies/visualizations and ask the question: what does time is in relation to them? At which point, out of where does it heave into view?
As far as the liner time metaphor is concerned we could perceive the time as coming out from movement illusion or - to be more precise - being the very illusion itself. Regardless of how fast the frames of our life will be “moving” in front of the ray of our consciousness - the “ray” always stays still, focused on a single frame. In the time space projector metaphor the consciousness/“the ray of light” still stays motionless - but is not confined to a single frame, having available all of them on the equal basis. Note that such consciousness is also able to play frames sequentially and chronologically, too, if such a need arises - but it still does not move itself (only the frames are “moving”).
There is also another question to complete this way of time interpretation: why are frames moving - and do they really move? Could this be also just another illusion? In my opinion this is indeed the case, but we need to leave the current projector metaphors to unveil this mystery. I think that consciousness always has access to all the movie frames, with the difference that it acts different way on a human identity level (a single incarnation) than the Higher Self level. To be more precise, the identity-level consciousness takes different perspective than the Higher Self (where we probably have a great many of such identities). For a single identity’s sake consciousness will play the chronological movement via focusing on consecutive frames of our life, in the perfectly chronological manner, toward one particular direction (past » present » future). Note that during this process consciousness still stays motionless, neither any of the frames are moving. There is only a particular “vector of attention” - which organizes frames according to the specific pattern. Similarly in the Higher Self perspective, whose consciousness is not confined to the behavior described above, having available much wider area of possibilities: it can “play any movement” by focusing on any interesting frame sequence - therefore taking any vectors simultaneously (note the plural), toward any direction, of any duration and, of course, with the possibility of replaying.
To sum it up, it’s possible that now statements like “Time does not exist” or “Everything happens Now” become more understandable (repeated within various philosophy, esoteric or even scientific narrations, e.g., Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now”, Bashar channellings, Gregg Braden’s “Fractal Time”).
Filed in: spiritual growth /26/
