Theoretically we all know that time does not actually exist… And in reality we all are familiar with the phenomenon that the subjective experience – the felt time – has nothing to do with the objective passing of time. So we can have the impression that a two hour long play in the theatre actually lasted six… Or that a day with friends felt like an afternoon.
So time and its perception is far more determined by our state of being and our consciousness than by ticking clocks. As a matter of fact us humans can actually overcome the power of the wandering clock hands with our feelings. We can determine our personal time experience ourselves. In dreams we do that easily: in the time of hardly an hour´s sleep we can experience entire eons. But that has nothing to do with sleep and everything to do with our consciousness. And that – we can influence!
Managing our own time consciously
Every time I have more things to do than I seem to have time for or others complain that time is not on their side, I recommend time expansion. I have integrated it completely into my life by now and I am getting better and better at it. Here is my procedure for
Time expansion at work
It is important not to be overstressed. If you are irritable or nervous it is difficult to outsmart our body. For the body is the carrier of the time feeling.
Step 1: Preparing everything
You create a time space during which are undisturbed and uninterrupted. Everything you need is available: all the work materials, something to drink etc.
Step 2: Express a clear intention
You make a clear decision, to accomplish everything you plan in the designated time window and consciously choose time expansion. In the beginning you can say it once out aloud. The intention must be clearly stated to the environment and can be something like: “I will manage to write the whole chapter in the next three hours.” Or “I will get my book keeping done in the next two hours.”
Step 3: Define a time window
You set an alarm clock or your mobile phone to the ending time of the choosen time window or 15 minutes earlier. So if the time window is from 2-5 pm, you set the alarm for 4h45. Then you switch the flightmode on on the phone and put it or the alarm clock out of sight, but within hearing distance.
Step 4: Free your work environment from visual or auditory time reminders
You take all clocks and dials out of your visual range where you´re working. Wristwatches should be taken off. Wall clocks removed or covered, grandfather clocks halted. And the small clock on your screen should be covered by a sticky note. It is very important that your “inner clock” is not influenced by external ones. For the inner clock is to be outwitted.
If you´re sensitive to ticking clocks or a grandfather´s clock chiming every quarter of an hour: turn them off or find a different work space.
Step 5: Work with a clear focus
You begin working and stay focused with it – true to your intension, to write the chapter or finish your book keeping. Surfing on the internet should be avoided for we all too often lose our time there…
Right now it is important to stick to the task and be faithful to your goal. Don´t stop until you´ve reached it. Mentally you should also focus on “I accomplish that effortlessly” rather than the frequent: “I´ll never get this done.”
It also works outside work
I usually get finished about twenty minutes before the alarm goes off. For me it works not only at my desk, but also when I´m using public transport and am actually already late. With time expansion I so far managed to be on time, even though I was already too late. It works the better the less I doubt it.
With a bit of practise the time windows can be shorter. If you experienced ONCE that it works, you are not so dependent on circumstances anymore. Then it also works when you are on the road. Then train station clocks etc. cannot distract you any longer from your own time path.
But it can also work the other way: a dear friend of mine choose time expansion on his way to the airport, when he was already too late to catch his flight. Determined not to miss it, he focused intensely on: “I will get on the plane.” And he did, however the plane then didn´t take off for another five hours…
There is also time lapsing of course
If you´re done sooner with an appointment than planned and want to get ahead “faster”… Or are anticipating a long time in a doctor´s waiting room… You can consciously choose time lapsing and set a clear inner intenion. For example: “I choose time lapse until I’m home again or until I have my next appointment.” Then it can happen you get to take an earlier flight, or meet a nice acquaintance with whom you enjoy spending your time etc. The ‘how’ is not important at all. It is way more important to trust that it works.
Teach your own consciousness
To make this reliably work for us, we can practise. For some it is easier to outsmart their inner clock than for others. The following experiment can be a great help with that.
Itzhak Bentov, the cech-israeli inventor, physicist and mysticist published his legendary book “Stalking the Wild Pendulum –On the mechanics of consciousness” in 1977. It includes an instruction for a most effective self-experiment. Here the excerpt from the 1988 edition of the book:
Time Experiment according to Itzhak Bentov
“The only thing we need is a clock with a second hand or a wrist watch with a fairly large dial and an easily visible second hand.
Step 1. Relax. Position the watch in front of you on a table so that it will be easily visible without any effort through half-closed eyes. Lean with your elbows on the table if you wish.
Step 2. Look at the watch in a relaxed way and follow the second hand. Try to absorb and remember the rhythm at which it moves. All this has to be done quite effortlessly.
Step 3. This is the crucial step in the experiment. Close your eyes and visualize yourself engaged in your most favourite activity. This visualization has to be as perfect as possible. For instance, if you visualize yourself lying on a beach in the sun, you have to be there – all of you. Don´t just think you are there, but feel the warmth of the sun and the texture of the sand; hear the sound of the waves; use all your senses. The results will be better if you choose a relaxing activity rather than a hectic one.
Step 4. When you feel that you have stabilized this visualization, slowly open your eyes just a bit. Don´t focus on the watch, just let your gaze fall on the dial as if you are a disinterested observer of this whole affair. If you have followed the instructions properly, you may see the second hand stick in a few places, slow down and hover for a while. If you are very successful, you´ll be able to stop the second hand for quite a while.
To some people this is a shocking experience. The moment one feels shocked, the second hand accelerates and resumes its normal speed. Clearly, there is something very disturbing here.
Undreamed-of possibilities
If you really embrace this you develop a very different understanding of time. For time is truly ONLY dependant on our consciousness. Time exists, because we believe it exists. And we believe we need it, to organize our lives. For example to get to school or work on time, meet friends and not miss deadlines.
However in my experience it is actually the other way round: when we DECIDE that we´re at the right place at the right time, then the clock yields to this. Or rather, she happily ticks along, but we move effortlessly through traffic jams, because we know, we will be on time.
Deliberately managing healing and aging
If you have practised enough, you can even speed up healing. I know a naturopath who was told by her doctor that the bone fracture in her foot would take seven weeks to heal. She accomplished it in ten days. She spoke daily with her body and lifted it out of the “gridwork of conditioning” and she was already in her late seventies.
We´re also not helplessly exposed to aging. In her wonderful books Samarkand and White Land of the Soul (Translation of German title) Russian Psychologist and Shaman meets a couple, that has managed to make time for their bodies run backwards. In their family album the first pages show the youngest pictures whereas the oldest are in the back. A friend of mine wanted to try this out for herself. She took her albums apart and reassembled them. She began by sticking her oldest childhood photograph on the last page and then worked ‘backwards’ finishing with the youngest picture in the beginning. When she was done, she leafed through the album front to back and told herself: “I`m getting ever younger.” She does this regularly. By now she is in her late sixties but still looks as if she was in her mid-forties.
We are own biggest obstacle
If something like this does not work, the reason is very often that we doubt it or rather have the feeling that we´re not permitted to do things like that. It may sound ridiculous, but those who have a feeling of doing something forbidden, when they expand time, will know what I am talking about. May they be aware that also the time perception of the people around them is highly subjective. For when we expand our time, their clocks keep running. Each of us moves on his or her own timeline in his or her own world.
It is really like the phenomenon in a science fiction or Harry Potter movie, where time is halted and all characters freeze except for the hero, who can now move freely… But when he has reached his destination, the moment unfreezes and the passing of time for the other characters continues without a missed beat. Therefore they consider the movement of the hero magic.
We can do so much more than we believe
I am firmly convinced that one day we´ll able to do everything (again) that currently technology does for us. Telepathy, telekinesis, teleportation are actually human abilities. Laura Knight-Jadzyck came to the conclusion in her research (See her book series “The Wave” and “Secret History of the World”) that the people of the megalithic era who built Stonehenge and other stone circles, didn´t leave any artefacts because they didn’t produce any. If you master telepathy, you don´t need a phone. If you master telekinesis you don´t need any tools and if you can teleport you don´t need any luggage. I believe, our evolution is taking us back to these abilities. It is merely a question of self-trust, courage and our willingness to change our consciousness…and of time!
