It's not so much the instability of general perceptual models about time, but the general perceptual models of "words" are. Only in America can "fat chance" and "slim chance" mean the exact same thing. If we could gain a better perceptual understanding of "The Word", the instability would disappear. Few people take into consideration that "words" have a force of their own. Simply calling another person a derogatory name can make that person "feel" like the name given. It literally travels across the space between us and impacts on whatever neuronal entities that are responsible for creating the "feelings" within us. Anyone who reads to any extent understands that even the written word can "create" and have a life of their own. In other "words", communication itself is alive. We who are Christian call this "Word" the Son of God. If you can look beyond the natural skepticism of religiosity and all that it represents, you will gain an understanding of how
"we" really operate and how "time" really affects us. Only then can we really have any hope of traveling through, within or outside of time. Someone once wrote that anything the mind can conceive--it can achieve. All of present reality was once conceived in the mind. All of the greatest scientists who ever lived, first "saw" their models before they were ever able to build them. In another thread on this forum about global consciousness, many of the ideas of the future are being discussed "now" and will impact the thinking of those who don't really "know" what they are looking for, but you can be assured that there is some "force" at work to see that it is conveyed to exactly the right person at exactly the right time. Some call it synchronicity, some call it spirit, some just call it blind luck. Whatever you call it, it achieves what everyone sees as inevitable. If we cannot "perceive" the possibility of the "NOW" that Biblical sources say that God exists in the past, the present or the future, then we will never "achieve" it. In the 60's, every self-respecting "head" or "freak"--as we called ourselves back then because of our desire to seek out those things which did not fall into the mainstream of ideas, we all just "understood" that the present moment was the only reality. Only in the "now" did the past have any meaning and the future have any promise. These concepts were eventually corrupted by the "free love" and "free sex" movements and "turn on, tune out, drop out" as preached by Timothy Leary. As drug conscious as he was, he still perceived a City of God being built in outer space that would transcend time and space and take mankind out to the stars. True, he "saw" these things under the influence of LSD, but if you ask anyone who has experienced hallucinations--whether drug induced or not--those experiences were "more real" than the reality that they were used to. There are dimensions we are not perceptually aware of, communication that we cannot see, influences that are scoffed at. This doesn't mean that they don't exist or cannot be interacted with. This "reality" may be the only reality that has any true substance. Eastern religion calls it illusion, psychologists call it delusion, religion calls it confusion, moralists call it degradation. I like to think it's illumination. It is not just a morality play when Jesus said to bless those who persecute you and call evil good. There is some real practical advice here. We are a pain-avoiding, pleasure seeking species. Only a God could conceive of embracing pain, avoiding pleasure, dying so that we may live. Our own preconceived ideas are what prevent us from seeing the truth of matters. God counsels us to "buy of me GOLD, tried in the fire--and eyesalve that you might SEE.<hr size="1" width="80%" color="#000099" align="left">Zerubbabel--The Seed of Babylon