How to stop time

Einstein demonstrated that time is relative.

But the rabbit-hole goes much deeper. Quantum physics discovered that
consciousness is entangled in matter in some inexplicable ways; but other
than the very fast, or very small, or very large, we tend to assume our
ordinary! reality conforms more to the laws of "ewton. #imple cause and
e$ect unfolding with cloc%wor% constancy &well, it's time to shatter this
assumption. (et's stop time.
)ind a cloc% with a smooth sweeping second hand. *f it appears relatively
smooth, it will still wor%, you'll be able to factor out what you are controlling.
+fter watching the second hand for a bit, loo% o$ to the side of the cloc%,
outside of the box, and about ,- to ./ minutes ahead of the second hand.
0ou should still be able to see the second hand, but you won't be loo%ing
directly at it. "ow 1ust relax and see if you can stop the second hand. *f it
starts catching up to the point you are loo%ing at, 1ump ahead to another spot
about ./ minutes ahead. 2ith very little practice you are extremely li%ely to
ma%e a most remar%able discovery. 0ou can stop time. 3erhaps at 4rst for
only a second or two, but with practice, you'll be able to free5e it for longer. *f
you can't get it right away, try playing with your focus point, move it further
away or closer to the frame of the cloc%. 6r loo% at one of the hour mar%ers
on the cloc% about ./ to 7/ minutes ahead. +fter you get it, try counting
internally. 8he count you reach is the number of discrete thought processes
you performed in 5ero cloc% time.
6nce you've accomplished this ama5ing feat, what does it mean9 #ome
people thin% it's 1ust a simple optical illusion, that they merely stopped seeing
the second hand which was actually still moving :which gets entertaining with
banishing incantations of blind spots, foveal vision, saccades and such.; But if
they as% themselves why it started moving again from the point it stopped
:and most won't;, their explanation doesn't <uite pan out. #ome will 1ust
dismiss it as a curious blip that doesn't really 4t into their radar about
reality! and it won't be cause for further concern. But a few of us will notice
the crac% between experience and beliefs and want to play. =oes it stop
sound at the same time9 )or some people, for others not, which is curiouser
still.
2hy did 8ime #top9>
can * rule the world now9
?aybe. But 4rst, some house%eeping. Before discussing what happened, let's
tal% about some of the theories used to explain away the e$ect. *f you
haven't done the experiment yet, please try it here 4rst. 8he rest of this will
ma%e much more sense.
8he 4rst natural assumption :besides suspicion that it may be a screamer; is
that it's an optical illusion. 8hrough blind-spots, foveal vision and other
anomalies of sight, somehow we may have missed the fact that the second
hand was actually still moving. 8his is easily discounted when you do the
experiment successfully &the second hand doesn't 1ump ahead, as if bloc%ed
from vision temporarily, it starts precisely where it stopped.
8he next pseudo-explanation that's loc%ed onto, from those that have read
?ind Hac%s:excellent boo%, btw;, is an explanation in ?ind Hac% @,A about
saccades and suppression of vision. 2hen we move our eyes <uic%ly over a
relatively large span we retain a type of visual constancy that may explain
split-second free5es :which will sometimes occur while you are reading the
instructions and notice, as your eyes Bip over to the cloc%, that it is stopped.;
8his does not explain how, without moving the eyes, and in fact 4xing them
on a speci4c location, you can stop time for much longer than a sub1ective
second or two. #cience has no viable explanation of our experience in terms
of physiology, sorry about that. :+lthough the dilation does occur more
readily with higher levels of theta brainwaves.;
But actually, something far more interesting may be at play.
?ilton Eric%son, the father of +merican medical hypnosis, performed a series
of fascinating experiments in ,CDA-,C-D documented in the boo% 8ime
=istortion and Hypnosis. He used a metronome with sub1ects imagining
themselves doing various tas%s under hypnosis, at a normal pace, li%e
counting beans or pic%ing cotton :hey, this was the D/s and -/s ; 6ne sub1ect
counted AE. cotton bolls, ta%ing her time, brushing the leaves aside to insure
she hadn't missed any, in a period of 7 seconds in external cloc% time. 6thers
had similarly remar%able experiences.
Eric%son also wor%ed with author +ldous Huxley who could enter into a light
trance and develop writing themes; Huxley could sub1ectively experience E-F
hours in the period of a few minutes, an ability he explored and further
re4ned with Eric%son.
Gltimately the cloc% doesn't measure! time in any ob1ective sense in the
way a thermometer measures temperature, rather it creates something we
can synchroni5e experience to. 8his synchroni5ation is a learned, cultural and
social conditioning that is largely unconscious.
Edward 8. Hall, a cultural anthropologist, describes an experiment in =ance of
(ife where one of his students surreptitiously 4lmed activities at a
playground. 2hen they bro%e the 4lm down later, running it at di$erent
speeds, they found that one little girl who was s%ipping and cavorting across
the playground was synchroni5ing the subtle movements of each group she
came in peripheral contact with, both with her and with each other. +
student, recogni5ing something familiar about the beat, found a particular
roc% song which 4t the soundtrac% of her rhythm precisely. Hall theori5ed, in
discussing this with musicians, that music actually may form a type of
consensual rhythm for a culture, one of many mechanisms that instruct and
reBect how we experience time. But how can we re-program this conditioning
if it is largely unconscious9
2hen we see indicators of our stress levels on something li%e a H#I meter
:which measures s%in conductivity; during biofeedbac% we discover that, with
such a device providing feedbac%, we can rapidly learn to control our own
physiology. By seeing internal changes reBected in the external readings we
can directly a$ect our physiological arousal and relaxation. 8he mind sees the
e$ect of its ad1ustments to sensations that are more minute than we are
typically aware. *n our experiment, the cloc% provided the feedbac% device,
even the smallest dilation of awareness in time is immediately evident.
"ow some of us are disappointed that we can't stop ob1ective! time li%e a
superhero and run around while everyone else is fro5en in place. But
merely! altering your own relation to time still has several intriguing
possibilities. + report in Eric%son's boo% tal%s of a sub1ect who was able to
bring about a slowing of observed physical phenomena at will, and to have
employed this ability to advantage while boxing. ?artial artists sometimes
experience this, in exceptional circumstances, with time slowing down so
they have plenty of opportunity to react to an opponent's moves. 8ime
dilation has applications in sports, video games, sensations you would li%e to
prolong, or 1ust having an extra - minutes to thin% of a snappy come-bac% in
a split-second of cloc% time. 3erhaps, with a little practice and calibration,
these possibilities are closer than we thin%.
*'m going to utter perhaps the greatest piece of %nowledge anyone can voice.
(et me see what you can do with it.
=o you %now that at this very moment you are surrounded by eternity9 +nd
do you %now that you can use that eternity, if you so desire9
- =on Juan, 8ales of 3ower