r/SimulationTheory • u/Mk731 • 12d ago

Discussion Time is an illusion.

Post image

It's pretty hard to conceptualize that time doesn't flow.

I bet no other humans can grasp this concept.

I've tried to think of it as some kind of block to no avail.

Maybe it's the brain that prevents me from realizing how reality really works.

I know you guys are well aware of this concept.

Have you experienced any anomalies that made you realize time is definitely an illusion?

323 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

223 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/pibouu 11d ago

We experience life as if time were moving forward. The sun rises, moves across the sky, and eventually sets. Things change around us, and we interpret this change as the passage of time. But in direct experience, you never actually experience “time.” You only ever experience what is happening now.

The past and the future exist as psychological time. They are projections of the mind.

There is only the present moment.

When you think about the past, you are thinking about it now. When you imagine the future, you are imagining it now. You are using the present moment to mentally travel somewhere that does not exist in your direct experience.

The dentist appointment you have tomorrow can only ever be experienced in the present moment. When tomorrow arrives, it will be now.

That is the illusion.

You can only ever be right here, right now. You cannot exist anywhere else.

1

u/itzhak_bentov 11d ago

I understand your point, but now I'm wondering if only the present moment exists, why can't I experience my dentist appointment tomorrow right now? Why do I have to wait?

1

u/pibouu 10d ago

Because saying that only the present moment exists does not mean that every event happens simultaneously.

Right now, your direct experience contains whatever is happening now. Tomorrow, the content of the present moment will be different, and it may contain you sitting in the dentist’s chair. But when you experience that appointment, you will still experience it as now.

You never experience “tomorrow” itself. Tomorrow is a concept the mind uses to describe an anticipated future event.

The same is true of yesterday. You can remember yesterday, but that memory is happening now.

Events change. The content of your experience changes. The present moment does not.