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Have you ever wondered about time and the way we perceive it? Did you know that time can dilate?

[mygestaltherapy-blog]

The Illusion of Time Explained

In order to comprehend why physicist assume that time is an illusion, we first need to understand what time is and how we perceive it.

How we perceive time

Time is a fascinating concept, but even more fascinating is the idea of time perception and time dilation. Physicists supposedly proved that time isn’t linear, what we call past, present and future are happening at the same moment, yet we perceive it differently.

What is Time Dilation

Before Einstein’s theory of relativity, we thought time was linear, meaning that every interval is the same as others, a year for you is a year for me, and so on. But then came time dilation and everything changed. In October 1971, the Hafele-Keating experiment took four synchronized atomic clocks aboard commercial planes and flew around the world, twice. The clocks then proceeded to be compared against others that remained at the US Naval Observatory; the result was consistent with special and general relativity.

To put it simply, say you place an atomic clock in the ground, and you take another aboard an F-22 Raptor (one of the fastest fighting jets at the moment) then proceed to take a flight. When the Jet comes back after 6 minutes, the pilots would’ve only experienced 3 minutes (if they were moving twice as fast as you were, of course).

Speed affects time, the concept of space-time means that both are intertwined, so, if you move in space, you move in time and vice versa. If you stay still in the same place, you’re not moving in space or time, except for the Earths movement, which makes you move as fast as it does, but if you add enough speed to that movement, you could double the passing of time (which would be considered time travel to the future), so yes, time travel is possible!

When you travel from one place to another, in a car, at speed relatively faster than others, then you’re time traveling. The astronauts who spend one year at the International Space Station arrive some milliseconds younger. Take US Astronaut Scott Kelly who spent 11 months aboard the ISS and returned 13 milliseconds younger than his twin.

The same way if you board a plane from Texas to New York, you will arrive in the future, since the plane was moving a lot faster, relative to the speed of others on the ground.

But what about time going faster or slower?

It turns out that we can experience time slower than it is actually passing for everyone else. Imagine a Bengal tiger is chasing you, suddenly time slows down, seconds could seem to become minutes, this is nothing more than a response to a threat. When your heart rate goes up, and adrenaline fills your blood system, your perspective changes, muscles become tenser, your senses sharpen, you think time is slowing down, but in reality, YOU are going faster, you think and move faster, become more alert and notice small details. Since it is necessary to respond to a threat in the best possible way, it gives you a chance to think and react before the threat does.

But time can also seem to go really fast. If you’re having a nice time, you become more relaxed, your body gets filled with oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine, and other hormones that make your muscles and whole body relax, you become less alert and aware of your surroundings since it is not necessary because you’re in a safe environment or at least that’s how your brain perceives it.

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