TIME, TIME, TIME, SEE WHAT’S BECOME OF ME
WARNING!!! You need to have read my last post (“Entanglement”) or have a basic understanding of quantum entanglement for this post to make sense.
I didn’t say much about “time” in my first free ebook about quantum physics (Butterflies Are Free to Fly: A new and radical approach to spiritual evolution). In Chapter 27, entitled “Past Lives,” I briefly discuss how I can’t call “past lives” past anymore, since “from the research in quantum physics, we know time does not exist in The Field, where all experiences are created that make up the physical universe. Space and time are created as part of a hologram—scientists would say space/time is a “function of the hologram”—and therefore time is not “real” in the same way the hologram is not “real.” In fact, as many others like Seth[i] and Eckart Tolle[ii] have said over and over again, the only thing that’s “real”—or better, “relevant”—is the present moment.
But recently there was an interesting article in Popular Mechanics, by Caroline Delbert, claiming that “Time May Actually Be One Big Illusion.”[iii] (I’m amazed at how Popular Mechanics magazine seems to be on the leading edge of scientific inquiry.) Here’s what Caroline had to say….
“In new research published in the American Physical Society's peer-reviewed journal Physical Review A, scientists from Italy (led by Alessandro Coppo) try to translate one theory of time into real life—or, at least, closer to it. The theory is called Page and Wootters mechanism, and Coppo has studied it for years. It’s a quantum mechanics idea that dates back to 1983.
“While general relativity (in the classical physics model) lets time be a variable—like the perception-dependent difference between time on Earth and time in space in stories like Interstellar—quantum physics requires it to be nailed down. That means instead of a dependent variable (something defined by an external property, like local gravity or an object’s distance from Earth), time must be independent, and there must be some way to measure it as such.
“This may seem counterintuitive. After all, quantum mechanics is considered the newer version of things—the one that destabilizes the foundation of physics in order to be reconciled with the classical model. But time has a unique role in quantum systems. After all, everything in a particular time, defined in some objective way, is knitted together through quantum interactions until it forms a capture of the entire universe (if you zoom out enough).
“In their paper, Coppo and his coauthors turn the Page and Wootters approach into a real concept for a clock. Within quantum physics, a clock isn’t much like the one you wear on your wrist or hang in your office—it’s anything that has a predictable and uniform behavior that can be used as a measurement. (For example, a 2021 Quanta article[iv] lists increasingly stinky garbage as a kind of clock!)
“Page and Wootters wondered if our world is so quantumly entangled within itself that any visible passing of time is a symptom of entanglement. They also suggested that we ourselves are implicated in that entanglement just by seeing the passage of time—because someone outside of the entangled system would see it standing still. The “clock,” therefore, is the item within the entangled system that shows time passing.
“It’s easy to see why this theory has stayed mostly abstract for over 40 years. To turn it into something with measurements based in real life observation, scientists took iconic physics equations and restricted them to conditions that match the Page and Wootters scenario. They considered two systems that are entangled but do not interact, where one system is a harmonic oscillator—like a quartz timing in a watch, or a pendulum.
“Their solution may prove to be consistent within classical and quantum mechanics, because when enough particles are placed into each quantum system—when it reaches the threshold called “macroscopic,” based on mass—the systems align with classical physics as well.
“That‘s a big deal—if our entire, very macroscopic world fits into this definition of time based on entanglement, it means everything around us is entangled. Things would need to be entangled almost by definition in order to be part of our observable world. And it would mean that anything we see where time passes (no matter how far away it is) is linked with us in a vital way.”
It’s time we rethink our concept of time. Einstein said, “reality is merely an illusion—albeit a very persistent one;” and it’s true that “reality” seems to have continuity, as one moment blends into the next moment, and time seems to move in only one direction. But it’s also possible to look at those moments as individual holograms coming quickly one after the other, like a movie consists of one individual frame and then another in rapid succession. Therefore, the “persistence” itself is illusory. It’s even possible there actually is nothing except the present moment, and that everything we consider to be the “past” is created in each present-moment hologram.
Dr. Karl Pribram spent years trying to find the location of “memory” in the brain and finally decided the brain itself was a hologram. So, what if “memory” really doesn’t exist at all? What if our “memory” of the “past” is being created in the present-moment hologram instead?
My mother married the past Chairman of the Board of AT&T, Fred Kappel, as her 5th husband—a brilliant man with an amazing career. Not long after the marriage, my mother walked into Fred’s room, and he said, “Who are you?” My mother answered, “I’m your wife.” Fred exclaimed. “The hell you are. Get out!” Fred was quickly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and put on drugs. But it’s entirely possible that Fred simply did not want to acknowledge the nuptial mistake he had recently made and tried to rewrite his past, to escape the consequences of marrying my mother that the four previous husbands could not.
So, maybe the “past” is simply a “story” that is part of the present hologram. Chew on that for a little while….
[ii] Tolle, Eckhart, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
[iii] https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a61021621/is-time-just-an-illusion/
[iv]https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-new-science-of-clocks-prompts-questions-about-the-nature-of-time-20210831/