Thesis on the Nature of Time

Everything is happening right now

Consider that time is a man-made construct, a logical tool that we use to support the illusion of a three dimensional world.  More accurately, how we measure time (seconds, hours, years, aeons, etc.) is a purely logical function of setting a reference point.  If we see that time is only a man-made reference point, then we can say that time does not truly exist independently outside of that reference. Thus, any conclusions based on the false premise that time exists outside of our conception of it, certainly are false and should be rejected. 

Further, consider that our commonly held conception of time reflects an assumption of cause-and-effect, and describes what we see as a linear moment to moment experience. This perception reinforces a view of the world in which things always happen in a one-way sequence of events.  However, if we reject the premise that time does not actually exist outside of our own conception of it, then we can hypothesize alternatively that existence conceived as a chain of events linked together from starting point to ending point is only that way because we have always been told it is that way, and we choose to see it like that. 

This thinking opens up a wide possibility for different visions of how we can experience the world and the universe.  In these scenarios, for example, we can imagine that people, things, and events which normally are experienced on a one-way highway moving from beginning to end can be perceived instead as the expanded continuity of the total duration of their existence.  The apple in our hand is the seed it came from, and the stem, bud, leaf, flower, and the fruit all at the same time. The building we are sitting in exists right now as it does throughout its entire lifetime from first construction through its many renovations to its ultimate demolition years from now. 

From this perspective, it is possible to see, experience, and remember our entire life from birth to death. We are no longer ‘stuck’ in what appears to be the present moment as we watch events unfold moment to moment with our limited perceptive faculties. We exist right now as the babies we were when we were born, and as we are here and now today, and as we will be in 10 years and more. All in this single moment, which exists right now outside of any conception of time, and as part of the continuous universe which also exists without beginning or end. Without anything to define and mark the course of time, everyone who has ever lived and died is here right now. 

Everything IS. Right now.

This description of a universe operating without the limiting factor of time is in keeping with the idea of a single eternal phenomenon that exists with no true separation of one thing with another, that has no beginning and no end. 

“Every number is infinite; there is no difference.” -- Liber AL I:4

From this vantage, the universe and everything in it has always been here, and always will be here now. The universe divides and experiences itself in all its manifestations, but it is still a single embodiment, regardless of how much illusion goes into the fantasy of separate existence. This means that everything and everyone in the universe, no matter how separate it all appears to us, is actually all part of the same thing looking at and experiencing itself in the mirror.

“For I am divided for love’s sake, for the chance of union.” -- Liber AL I:29