Perception Of Time

[Koji]

I am a firm believer that time is just a perception. It is not the same for everyone at a given time. There are elements that can affect our perception of time. Such things as sensory deprivation, emotions, and activity can all affect this valuable sense in some way or another. Take sensory deprivation. Without all your senses intact, one can lose the perception of time because they can no longer judge it visually, audibly, or “feel” it. Sensory deprivation is usually done in an isolation tank, and I have read it can be quite exhilarating. You can also take emotions. When you are in a depressed state, time sometimes seems to dilate, almost making the situation become more unbearable. Conversely, when you are excited, time might seem to move fast, more so than you might want it. Have you ever been dreading an exam to such an extreme that the anticipation seemingly stretches time, thus burdening you with a protracted sense of anxiety? I am sure we have all experienced activity to the same extent. When you are doing something fun and interesting, you may feel that time simply slips away. This can be seen in playing games (of any sort), reading, and other such activities. In fact, it can even be seen when you are not particularly having fun, for example, when you are working or studying very hard (you feel like there is not enough time in the day). Other times, when you are overly bored and remain rather idle, the feeling is the opposite, where you wish time would pass faster. A reoccurring bored state might even lead you to a depressed state where the feeling is doubly so, or at least fractionally increased. In our lucid dreams, we can learn to change spatial objects or expanses. We can even learn to influence that mental space in some way. All we have to do is either gain more control, or figure out clever ways to “trick” our mind into giving us what we desire (i.e. opening a door or spinning around). I think time operates similarly. It is just another controllable variable in our dreams. What we must do is find ways to “trick” our mind into expanding this perception, so that we can experience lucid dreams to an even greater extent. I am not saying that this will necessarily work. I am not saying that we will get days or months in our dreams as some people have implied. It seems like a plausible avenue, and thus worth exploring. Who knows, we might very well find a way to get the time in a lucid dream that we desire. Basically, think of ways that one might be able to dilate time. They might be relatively obvious methods or very abstract ones. That is what this topic is dedicated to though – any method to prolong time in a dream. One method might be drinking something, like an elixir, that knowledgeably effects time (might even want it on a label or something of that sort). You might even need to clarify how much time will be dilated by. I have heard of another idea where one tries to cast a spell that slows time down, but keeps everything within the dream moving at a normal speed. Both of these ideas can be adjusted at the will of the LDer. Unfortunately, I am unable to apply these ideas myself. I am still learning to gain lucidity. I have only had two lucid dreams since I started on this forum, and I do not yet have much control. I hope that expert LDers will aid this cause.

[Orcanta]

This is definitely a good idea. I just had an LD last night and although I stabilized lucidity, I must have been toward the end of a REM cycle when I realized. I also have an idea to tell your subconscious or something to let you know when you have a certain amount of time in a dream left, so if you have 5 minutes left, then a light will flash or someone will tell you or something.

[WaaayOutThere]

I have said the same thing for years... that time behaves differently depending on certain variables, but no one has ever believed me. I thinkyou could be on to something though.

[Koji]

I also have an idea to tell your subconscious or something to let you know when you have a certain amount of time in a dream left, so if you have 5 minutes left, then a light will flash or someone will tell you or something. [/b] I once had something like this happen, minus the desire for it to happen. On my first lucid dream I had a dream character obnoxiously counting down the time I had left. "Only one more minute before you wake up," she eventually said. I hurried to try to finish at least one of my tasks, but then my minute expired and I awoke. Of course, this fueled my wish to last a long while in a dream. I have noticed that a lot of people don't believe that time can be expanded in a dream. I hope this topic can take a step in proving that notion wrong.

[really]

Koji, I totally agree with your theory, I've read briefly about time perception and lds somewhere... Some guy had experienced a hundred years in an OBE! Still, I wouldn't want to try that in an OBE...long story, maybe in lds. I like your idea, anyone got a method of achieving this? A spell, a switch!? Sounds cool.

[lord soth]

I am a firm believer that time is just a perception. It is not the same for everyone at a given time. [/b] time is relative, einstein proved that. You can see this when something happens to you and you need to react very fast, such as someone throwing a heavy object at you, and time seems to slow down as you dodge it. I'm not certain adrenaline has anything to do with that situation, because there isnt much time for the chemical to spread around. i'm no expert in this field, but in situations where adrenaline starts to pump out, it might be increased reaction time that gives the appearance of time being slowed, or it could be the fact that your brain is processing information faster that gives the appearance of time distortion. you said that when you are "excited" that you have an exam comming up, and you are dreading it, so time seems to go slower. I believe this is because you are paying attention to the event, if it was just a normal day of school, you would go around in zombie-mode like the rest of us, not paying attention to your surroundings, ect. and the day would seem shorter. but if you were going to a new school, it might seem like you had a long day because you had to pay attention to everything and make sure you get to your classes... just my two cents

[Koji]

time is relative, einstein proved that. You can see this when something happens to you and you need to react very fast, such as someone throwing a heavy object at you, and time seems to slow down as you dodge it. I'm not certain adrenaline has anything to do with that situation, because there isnt much time for the chemical to spread around. i'm no expert in this field, but in situations where adrenaline starts to pump out, it might be increased reaction time that gives the appearance of time being slowed, or it could be the fact that your brain is processing information faster that gives the appearance of time distortion. Einstein did indeed show that time is relative. He explained how moving objects observe time. His theory even covers the effects of space travel in correlation with time. I did not bring up the effects of physics on time because I feel it is irrelevant. Though, I probably should have mentioned it incase of nonbelievers, but I do not think physics hold much ground in our dreams. Concerning your example, some neuroscientists believe that adrenaline, or epinephrine, affects our perception of time. As far as I know, they are uncertain about the way in which it does this. you said that when you are "excited" that you have an exam comming up, and you are dreading it, so time seems to go slower. I believe this is because you are paying attention to the event, if it was just a normal day of school, you would go around in zombie-mode like the rest of us, not paying attention to your surroundings, ect. and the day would seem shorter. but if you were going to a new school, it might seem like you had a long day because you had to pay attention to everything and make sure you get to your classes... just my two cents I think you are on the right track here. Some psychologists believe that time moves faster when you are not paying attention to it. In this case, with anxiety and anticipation, one would be focusing on time constantly, thus it seems much longer than normal. So, you are right that it would be what you are focusing on (time) that makes it so dreadful, not necessarily the task in which you have to complete. The task is simply what makes the feeling; the feeling makes you focus on time; and that is what makes time seem to expand. This brings up a question though. Let's say that it is ONLY our focus, or lack of focus, that controls our perception of time. If that is the case, then can it be affected in a dream? Would you not have to focus on it almost unbearably to make time dilate within a lucid dream? I think that would take away from the experience if that were the case. I don't think it is just limited to our focus on it though. I think there are a variety of ways to manipulate the feature of time within our dreams. This leads me to something that I might want to test though. Within a lucid dream, if one tries to conduct an extreme amount of activity (activity that we could hardly imagine in a normal, every day life), like participate in an intense battle of even godly proportions, how would time change for that individual? Would it run out in a dream relatively quickly or would time expand because he is not engaged in concentrating upon it at all? Now, of course, that means you are not conducting time sensitive operations in the dream (like formulating a battle strategy). Instead, one would have to be in the midst of a raging battle and report how long he felt engaged with it. This is more of a secondary experiment to see how time is affected related to how it is affected in the real world. The idea would be to take your mind off of the fact that you are in a time constrained dream. One could also do something a lot less intensive (like create something that might induce fear or anticipation). This would be a lot less fun though. [/b]