We all know that time appears to pass at different speeds in different circumstances. For example, when we travel to unfamiliar places time appears to pass slowly. A week spent abroad seems much longer than a week at home.
When we are bored, or in pain, time also seems to pass more slowly. It seems to speed up when we are in a state of absorption, such as when we play music or chess, or paint or dance. In general, most people report that time seems to speed up as they age.
However, these differences in time perception are quite slight. Our experience of time may change in a more fundamental way. In my new book, I describe what I call the “time dilation experience” – in which seconds can stretch into minutes.
The reasons behind time speeding up and slowing down are a bit mysterious. Some researchers, including me, think that mild changes in time perception are associated with information processing. As a general rule, the more information – such as perceptions, sensations, thoughts – is processed in our brain, the slower time passes. Children’s time passes slowly because they live in a world of newness.
New environments increase time due to their unfamiliarity. Absorption compresses time as our focus narrows, and our mind becomes quiet, and only a few thoughts pass by. Conversely, boredom increases time as our focused minds become overloaded with thoughts.
time dilation experience
Experiences of time dilation (or tease) may occur in the event of an accident or emergency, such as a car accident, fall, or assault. In time dilation experiences, time appears to expand by several orders of magnitude. In my research, I have found that about 85% of people have at least one T.
About half of tees occur in accident and emergency situations. In such situations, people are often surprised by how much time it takes them to think and act. In fact, many people are convinced that the extension of time saved them from their serious injury, or even saved their lives – because it allowed them to take preventive action that would normally be impossible.
For example, a woman who reported a t in which she was saved by a metal barrier falling on her car told me how “slowing down the pace of the moment” allowed her to “decide that How to avoid metal falling on us”.
Tees are also common in the game. For example, one participant described a tee that occurred while playing ice hockey, when “the game that was supposed to last about ten minutes happened in the span of about eight seconds”. The pain also occurs in moments of peace and presence, during meditation or in natural surroundings.
However, some of the most extreme teases involve psychedelic substances like LSD or ayahuasca. In my collection of tees, about 10% are related to psychedelics. One man told me that, during an LSD experience, he looked at the stopwatch on his phone and “one hundredth of a second was going by as slowly as seconds normally go. It was a really intense time stretch,” he said.
But why? One theory is that these experiences are linked to the release of noradrenaline (both a hormone and a neurotransmitter) in emergency situations related to the “fight or flight” mechanism. However, this doesn’t fit with the calm goodness that people typically report in tees.
Even though their lives are in danger, people usually feel strangely calm and relaxed. For example, a woman who had a T when she fell from a horse told me: “The whole experience lasted a few minutes. I was extremely calm, uncaring that the horse had not yet regained his balance and could possibly fall on top of me.” The noradrenaline theory also does not square with the fact that many teases occur in peaceful situations, such as deep meditation. Or unity with nature.
Another theory I have considered is that teasing is an evolutionary adaptation. Perhaps our ancestors developed the ability to slow down time in emergency situations – such as encounters with deadly wild animals or natural disasters – to better their chances of survival. However, the above logic applies here too: it doesn’t fit in non-emergency situations when teetered.
The third theory is that teases are not real experiences, but an illusion of memories. In emergency situations, as this theory states, our awareness becomes heightened, causing us to gain more perception than usual. These perceptions become encoded in our memories, so that when we recall the emergency situation, additional memories give the impression that time passed slowly.
However, in many teases, people are convinced that they have extra time to think and act. The dilation of time allowed complex series of thoughts and actions that would have been impossible if time had passed at a normal pace. In a recent (not yet published) survey of 280 teens, I found that less than 3% of participants believed the experience was an illusion. About 87% believed it was a real experience that occurred in the present, while 10% were undecided.
altered states of consciousness
In my view, the key to understanding tease lies in altered states of consciousness. The sudden shock of an accident can disrupt our normal psychological processes, causing sudden changes in consciousness. In sports, rapid altered states occur due to what I call “super-absorption.”
Absorption usually makes time pass faster – as in flow, when we are absorbed in a task. But when absorption becomes particularly intense over long periods of sustained concentration, the opposite happens, and time radically slows down.
Altered states of consciousness can also affect our sense of identity and our general sense of separation between ourselves and the world. As psychologist Mark Wittman has pointed out, our sense of time is closely linked to our sense of self.
We usually have a sense of being inside our mental space, while the world is “out there” on the other side. One of the main characteristics of the intensely changed state is that the feeling of alienation disappears. We no longer feel locked inside our minds, but feel connected to our surroundings.
This means that the boundary between us and the world softens. And in the process, our understanding of time expands. We go out of our normal consciousness and into a different time-world.
,Author: Steve Taylor, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Leeds Beckett University)
,disclosure statement: Steve Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in, or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and he has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond his academic appointment. haven’t done)
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