Science and Spirituality: Time Machine Could Be Real!
We are all familiar with the three phases of time — the past, present and future. This division is necessary because of the exponential order of magnitude of the difference between the speed of time and that of the flow of events in Nature. If this gap is removed, the division of time will also lose its existence. Only the present tense would be possible and relevant in that case.
Every activity in this world begins with the present tense, later on it becomes the past experience. The existence of life manifests with the advent of what is its present moment. But the flow of time proceeds extremely faster than that of life. As a result, the experiences of life also get distributed in the past and the future intervals of time.
Wherever we experience the existence of the division of time, we would also find the difference between the flow of what we perceive or conceptualize and the flow of the time instant in which we realize it. If we could somehow control or eliminate this difference and catch the other ends (the past or the future) of time to experience the present, we might bridge the division of time phase. The spiritual masters of the deeper science of consciousness are known to successfully experiment with such experiences in the subliminal horizons of life.
Martin Rhone has reported one such incredible but true incident of a voyage beyond the barrier of time in his book "Prophesy of Our Time" (c.f. page 142). September 4, 1956! Mr. and Mrs. Paul McCohen, residents of Inglewood, California, had reached Grand Canyon to spend their holidays. In the evening, while they were relaxing in the lawns of their hotel, the couple saw Mrs. Nash and her family passing through the nearby street with their kids and luggage. The next morning, when they went to meet these friends, the Nash family was astonished — they had only arrived an hour before; they were in some other town the previous evening. Yet the McCohens could even describe the type of outfits that Mr. and Mrs. Nash were wearing and the luggage they and the kids were carrying. Surprisingly, their description was indeed correct. "It was such a clear and lively experience of the future in the present… we still can't believe that it did not happen when we saw it happening…" wrote Mrs. McCohen. This remained a mystery forever.
M. Bruce discusses a similar incident in his popular reportage on "The Silent City of Alaska." A group of tourists headed by the Duke of Abruzzi, while trekking the coastal mountains of Alaska in the summer of 1897, saw an old city. In the words of C.W. Thornton — "the buildings, the streets, the trees, everything was so clearly seen by all of us that we could not resist the attraction of photographing it. But we found nothing, as we reached that spot." Several other tourist groups have also experienced the same in the valley of these mountains. It is said that the mysterious city of the ancient times reappears momentarily every year sometime between 21st June and 10th July.
Scientific theory also accepts the possibility of such experiences — beyond the reach of the present. Mathematical physics describes several dimensions of time. According to this theory, if someone reaches into the higher dimensions of the time of realization of a particular incident or an event associated with a place or a person, he would be able to experience the corresponding instance of the past or the future as happening in the present. The past, present and future exist in a continuous linear segment in one horizon of time. However, they might intersect, exist along directions making an acute angle, or get superimposed in some other dimension.
Theoretical Physicists have resolved this paradox by defining time as the fourth dimension. Whatever we see or process in the three-dimensional space is therefore a cross-section of its four-dimensional existence; the 4th dimension of time remains invisible to us because what we see in the present moment is only a cross-section in the 3D physical space of its 4D existence.
Similarly, the motion of the earth around the sun and that of the sun around the center of the galaxy, motion of the galaxy around another cosmic center, etc., are the higher dimensions of existence. The existence of every object in the space is inseparable from these continuous motions. All these motions and multiple dimensions of cosmic existence could be realized with respect to the conceptualization of time as the fourth dimension.
Existence of higher dimensions of time is possible, as affirmed by scientific theories. If we — our mind — could reach these otherwise 'subliminal' horizons, we might experience what would be attributed as extrasensory or supernatural. We will then experience the past and the future in the present tense. There will be no barrier of time or space in that state. While the modern science has proved the reality of the time-dimension in theory, the science of yoga and spirituality offers the modes of experimenting and experiencing this reality through evolved consciousness. In its dormant and maligned state, human consciousness could be declined to the level of a lower organism. On the contrary, if refined and spiritually enlightened, the consciousness of a person could reach divine realms and know the unknown anywhere in the higher dimensions of time, in the infinity.
"Religion is poetry plus, not science minus." — Krister Stendahl
"Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes." — Pope John Paul II
"Two things continue to fill the mind with ever-increasing awe and admiration: the starry heavens above and the moral law within." — Immanuel Kant
"He who has Art and Science also has religion, but those who do not have them better have religion." — Goethe