Does Time Exist?

      If the future can be foretold, then surely it must have happened, and be in the past.   Or is there no time at all?   One explanation asks one to imagine that you are a passenger in a compartment train, looking out of the window.   The view is limited, and only a small part of the present passing scene can be seen, at any one moment.   But, if you were up on the roof, you would be able to see all around, back into the past whence you have just come, and far into the future which is rushing towards you.   Admittedly when you arrive in the future, it may be slightly different, but depending upon the speed of travel, nothing will have moved, or changed very much from what you foresaw.

      The Ancient Greeks believed that the smallest particle of matter was the atom.     Scientists now believe that the atom is made up of much smaller particles, and this study is known as 'quantum physics'.     Let us suppose then, that a particle of 'time', which from a higher perspective looks like a non-dimensional speck, is in fact made up of sub-temporal particles, that we know as the past, present, and the future.     Zooming in from that higher viewpoint, the train roof observer can discern the various aspects, and can even see them merging into one overall picture.     That picture is not unlike the glow from an electric light bulb which is powered by an alternating current.     If the observer were to swing the eyes and head sideways fast enough, in the manner of a Wimbledon tennis fan, the overall impression would be some form of singularity.    

     Time then, may well be oscillating, but without any fixed limits.     The Gnostic view of spiritual life, is that there was no beginning and there is no end.     Unlike the scientist probing into quantum physics from a higher level, or someone who is basking in the apparent constant illumination from an incandescent bulb, we are within some speck of time, and can only see an infinitesimal section on one single pulse of the pendulum of time.

      Consider too, the effect that the speed of a ship has on its own future.   The water that it is about to sail through, is compressed, thus forming a bow wave.   Even before the vessel gets there, the Ocean ahead has been disturbed.   A piece of flotsam in its path, like an event in the future, will be swept up, and sent flying back at high speed into the Ship’s past.   This example is a long way off Einstein’s theory of relativity.   It does show though that the speed of travel can distort time in more ways than one.   In this case the future has been altered slightly by the force field sent out from the present.   Of course, anything in the past or present can change what might happen in the future.   The ‘bow wave’ example is different, for an event in the present is actually changing the future at the same time.   Think about it.

Slipping Into the Past

        There are two types of ‘ghost’ stories.   On the one hand, it is like watching a piece of the past being acted out, time and time again, with the actors completely oblivious of their audience.   In the other there is some interaction between the players and the observer.

      Usually the ‘instant replay’ ghost story is explained away as a record of events long past, having been stored in surrounding stonework like a video film on a DVD.   I have yet to come across any plausible explication for momentary transfer to another time.   That may be, because apart from fiction, there are too few cases.   Were I not reasonably convinced of the true nature of life itself, I would, like most people, dismiss the following story as a day dream, a new folk tale, or some flight of fancy.

      In the early Seventies, and only about three years after the introduction of decimal currency in Britain, a coin collector in Great Yarmouth had heard that there was a shop where he could get the right kind of envelopes for his collection.   The street was cobbled and the front of the Shop looked bright and freshly painted.   Inside the theme was distinctly belonging to days gone by, with the assistant wearing a long skirt and old fashioned blouse.   This isn’t that unusual, since most antique and craft shops in tourist areas maintain Victorian or Edwardian decor.   Having found the envelopes that he required, she asked him for a ‘shilling’, instead of 5p.   But many people still used the old terms, so he didn’t find it all that unusual.   The girl though, seemed to be taken aback when he proffered a 5p coin.   Nevertheless she accepted it, and he left with his purchase.   Throughout the transaction, there was a notably deep silence, with no sound of any traffic outside.

        A week later he went back to buy more envelopes.   This time he was really shocked, for the cobble stones had all gone as had the bright painted facades on all of the shop fronts.   Everything was faded, both outside and in.   More alarming was the complete change of counter and fittings.   An elder woman was serving, who denied all knowledge of any young girl having been employed there.   Furthermore she claimed that they had never stocked such envelopes.   Later an examination of the envelopes that he had bought earlier, indicated that they were from the 1920’s era.

        Can their be time portals that we can sometimes slip through?   If so, it might explain why so many people regularly go missing.   It is a popular subject with sci-fi writers, and the idea of a ‘dimensional’ gateway into the past, is at the heart of the television series “Goodnight Sweetheart”.   The ingenuity of the script writers, and their humour, made the show a hit, calling for more series to be written.   But, it would have to be the fantasy of being able to go back in time, that captured and held everyone’s imagination.

Slipping Into the Future

      Again, like the past, there is a distinction between 'seeing' and actually 'going there'.   Perhaps like dreams, there is a memory safeguard.   Imagine the damage that could be done, if there weren't.

      Physical transition across the future time border is very rare.   Well, at least, memory of a future time slip is extremely uncommon, and even then, only momentary.   In one case a family were driving along an Autobahn in Germany, when suddenly they all felt that something was different.   Then, coming in the other direction, was a vehicle, like no other they had ever seen before.   The streamlined shape was out of this World, and more from the realms of some futurama comic book.   As the two vehicles passed each other, they had a quick glimpse of the faces of those in the other car.   They were staring back in obvious astonishment, and clearly taken back with what they were seeing.

      So some kind of interaction between different slots on the Wheel of Time is possible.

Speaking Personally

      Whereas my other pages of 'Understanding', are based on my own experiences and theories, I have had to rely on second hand reports, like those above to illustrate adventures into the past and the future.   Nevertheless, I can claim two dreams, which may have been precognition, or simple coincidences.

      At the beginning of 1983, I woke up, very impressed with a dream...to such an extent, that I tried to remember it, until I got up, and then wrote down in a diary as much as I could remember.   This started something.   Dreams became more vivid, and in the end I kept a pencil and paper by the bed, trying to catch them as soon as they were over.   In the end I realized it was interfering with normal sleep, and I stopped it.   Some 5 years later, I came across the old diary, and began to read the ‘zany’ things that I had dreamt about.   In one dream, I had been queuing alongside a brick wall, and I knew that I was waiting to see a Doctor West.   Then it clicked.   n 1985, a Doctor referred me to an Eye Specialist - his name.....Doctor West.

      Coincidence perhaps?   Another dream that I had, was less easily explained away.   This one was more nightmare than dream, and it was very vivid.   So vivid in fact, that I could remember most of it, after I awoke.   I was hiding from the Germans.   I kept finding cupboards and hidey holes, but always they seemed to be getting dangerously close.   I think they found me once, but I got away.   Then, they were chasing me down a kind of wooden railed ramp.   It made such an impression that I couldn’t help but keep thinking about it well into the morning.

      Then while having my lunch I flicked the TV on, not bothering to look at the programme guide, and not sure what there might be.   On Showtime, they had a film which had just started, and there was this young boy in Warsaw, with German troops in the background.   His father and grandfather were being taken away.   Seeing them arrested, he manages to run off and escape.   He then hides in a ruined building that only has the outside and surrounding walls left, rising up some three or four storeys.   He looks in cellars, but there are other fugitives, and it is very dangerous.   He finds a storeroom with old furniture and some rope, and makes a rope ladder out of it, using chair legs for the rungs.   Next he throws a line up and over a very high beam that is sticking out from the little bit of flooring left, and hauls the ladder up.   At the top, he finds a tiny cubby hole and cup-board large enough to live in.   Several times the Germans nearly catch him.   Eventually a soldier does find him.   But he just looks at the boy and turns away, not wanting to have to shoot him.   The film credits said that this was a true story, and that the boy is now a successful writer.

      I was so engrossed in the film, that I had forgotten all about the nightmare.   It was only the next day, that I put the two together, and saw it for what it really was, a brief look into the future.   I hadn’t examined the tv guide, and in any case, it didn’t say anymore than that it was about World War II.

Seeing Into the Future.

      So how is it possible to get glimpses of what is about to happen?   There is no question that definitive knowledge of the future is at times passed on to us.   It is well documented and proven.   We tend to hear about those which portend some coming disaster, like an aircrash, an earthquake, while lesser premonitions are hardly mentioned or recorded.   Because of this, attempts have been made to explain it all away as some animal instinct for danger that is just around the corner.   It would have to be a remarkable instinct that can pick up the finest details, like a certain rail crash that was forewarned of, in Britain.   The ‘Seer’ had picked up a vision of a very serious accident, which included a ‘close up’ of a number on the locomotive.   Months later there was a crash with fatalities that matched the premonition in every way, save the Diesel engine’s number, for a while.   Later it was revealed that British Rail had taken the matter seriously, since the lady had been right before.   They had renumbered the locomotive, just in case, and in vain.   She had been right, down to the last figure.

      Another disaster that was foretold, and not dismissed with doubt, was taken down as a statement in a Welsh Police Station.   A week before Princess Diane’s terrible tragedy in Paris, a man told the Police that he thought that she was going to be in an accident.   He, too was known for his accuracy.   His ‘vision’ was accepted by the Police, but it went no further.

      Countless people have cancelled their flight bookings because of some premonition, before an air crash, and there was at least one cancellation from prospective ‘Titanic’ passengers, just before her fatal voyage.   So it seems that the final outcome cannot be changed, but some of the details can.   Could it be that the whole script of life has already been written down, leaving participants the option to choose a different path?   Many computer games use this concept.   You may knock on a door, dive into a cave, take the lift, or fight a monster.   Only one option may be safe.   You have the choice.

HOME	PATHS	33	33 THEORIES
REALITY	CREATION	GHOSTS	COINCIDENCES
TIME	BIBLE INCIDENTS	READINGS	MEETINGS
GOD	CYFAREDDOL	ANSWERS	FACES
LIFE	CONCLIFFE	DRAFFAN	GRANT

These pages are still under construction and other 'Paths' will be opened eventually.