The Illusion of Time

Imagine a video file. The frames that comprise it constitute a linear sequence of events that can be viewed from start to finish. As we watch it at a frame rate of 60 frames per second or higher, the illusion is created of smooth motion along a time line. Once we've finished watching, the video remains on a storage device somewhere and can be watched again if desired. Until that time however, it simply exists and the illusion of time is created only when we open the file and traverse the frames contained within it.

I'm using this as an analogy to describe the human perception of time. Suppose the universe is a series of configurations, each configuration being a unique arrangement of elements that differ only slightly from the related configurations that precede it and follow it. As we move or are carried from one configuration to the next, the perception of time is created but in reality all the configurations already exist. They simply are. Eternity is experienced when not caught up in the configurations. If this is achieved, the perception of time vanishes and we see that the configurations were always there. There was no beginning and no end, just the totality of configurations.

This is not an original idea. I first read about it in Julian Barbour's 1999 book titled The End of Time: The Next Revolution in Our Understanding of the Universe and it came as quite a revelation. Here is a summary from Good Reads:

Time is an illusion. Although the laws of physics create a powerful impression that time is flowing, in fact there are only timeless `nows'. In The End of Time, the British theoretical physicist Julian Barbour describes the coming revolution in our understanding of the world: a quantum theory of the universe that brings together Einstein's general theory of relativity - which denies the existence of a unique time - and quantum mechanics - which demands one. Barbour believes that only the most radical of ideas can resolve the conflict between these two theories: that there is, quite literally, no time at all. The End of Time is the first full-length account of the crisis in our understanding that has enveloped quantum cosmology. Unifying thinking that has never been brought together before in a book for the general reader, Barbour reveals the true architecture of the universe and demonstrates how physics is coming up sharp against the extraordinary possibility that the sense of time passing emerges from a universe that is timeless. The heart of the book is the author's lucid description of how a world of stillness can appear to be teeming with motion: in this timeless world where all possible instants coexist, complex mathematical rules of quantum mechanics bind together a special selection of these instants in a coherent order that consciousness perceives as the flow of time. Finally, in a lucid and eloquent epilogue, the author speculates on the philosophical implications of his theory: Does free will exist? Is time travel possible? How did the universe begin? Where is heaven? Does the denial of time make life meaningless? Written with exceptional clarity and elegance, this profound and original work presents a dazzlingly powerful argument that all will be able to follow, but no-one with an interest in the workings of the universe will be able to ignore.

It's tempting for me at least to connect these configurations with the Akashic Records, described by this site as:

The Akashic Records, or "The Book of Life," can be equated to the universe's super-computer system. It is this system that acts as the central storehouse of all information for every individual who has ever lived upon the earth. More than just a reservoir of events, the Akashic Records contain every deed, word, feeling, thought, and intent that has ever occurred at any time in the history of the world. Much more than simply a memory storehouse, however, these Akashic Records are interactive in that they have a tremendous influence upon our everyday lives, our relationships, our feelings and belief systems, and the potential realities we draw toward us.

On this same website, there is an excerpt from one of Edgar Cayce's readings (Reading 294-19) in which he vividly describes accessing these records:

I see myself as a tiny dot out of my physical body, which lies inert before me. I find myself oppressed by darkness and there is a feeling of terrific loneliness. Suddenly, I am conscious of a white beam of light. As this tiny dot, I move upward following the light, knowing that I must follow it or be lost. As I move along this path of light I gradually become conscious of various levels upon which there is movement. Upon the first levels there are vague, horrible shapes, grotesque forms such as one sees in nightmares. Passing on, there begin to appear on either side misshapen forms of human beings with some part of the body magnified. Again there is change and I become conscious of grey-hooded forms moving downward. Gradually, these become lighter in colour. Then the direction changes and these forms move upward and the colour of the robes grows rapidly lighter. Next, there begin to appear on either side vague outlines of houses, walls, trees, etc., but everything is motionless. As I pass on, there is more light and movement in what appear to be normal cities and towns. With the growth of movement I become conscious of sounds, at first indistinct rumblings, then music, laughter, and singing of birds. There is more and more light, the colours become very beautiful, and there is the sound of wonderful music. The houses are left behind, ahead there is only a blending of sound and colour. Quite suddenly I come upon a hall of records. It is a hall without walls, without ceiling, but I am conscious of seeing an old man who hands me a large book, a record of the individual for whom I seek information.

Of course, the author of The End of Time, as a reputable scientist, would probably be outraged at any connection being drawn between his concept of timeless "configurations" of the physical universe and the Akashic Records. However, it seems to me that everyone has her or his own configuration file or Book of Life. The contents of this book are hidden from us and of course we are still writing in our books as we live our little lives. The Avatar, Meher Baba, could read this book for any individual who entered his circle and thus he knew exactly what was needed for that individual's spiritual advancement. With enlightenment comes full access to the book of oneself and of others:

Nowadays scientists deal with physical matter as well as so-called dark matter. They have only the vaguest notions about what dark matter might be composed of but they happily accept its existence on the basis of its observed effects on physical matter. In my previous post, I proposed a connection between dark matter and either the astral plane or more likely the subtler states of physical matter comprising the etheric planes. I propose that the configurations have a gross physical (solid, liquid, gas), a finer physical (etheric) and an astral dimension. Each configuration has, is and always will be because of the illusory nature of time. Each action produces an impression. On the gross physical level, my footsteps in the sand are always there, they always were, they always will be. Just as my feet leave an impression in the sand, likewise my thoughts and feelings impress themselves on the substance of the etheric and astral planes.

As a physical being I am constantly disturbing the equilibrium of the physical world that I live and move about in. Even sitting in meditation, my weight is upon the surface of the Earth, I am radiating heat and chemically interacting with the atmosphere as I breathe in oxygen and breath out carbon dioxide. The disturbances I am creating in such a situation are very slight and quite unavoidable. Travelling to and fro however, produces far greater disturbances as, unawares, I trample ants to death underfoot as I walk about. It's for this reason that Jain priests don't travel very much. They are sensitive to the damage that they will necessarily cause as they do so. Similarly, thinking and feeling disturb the equilibrium of these non-physical realms. A positive thought and a negative emotion both leave an impression in the same way that my foot leaves an impression in the sand. Looking at an individual's Book of Life, all the recorded impressions can be read, including the footprint in the sand, the positive thought, the negative emotion.  

Dark Matter

I've just acquired a copy of Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs by Lisa Randall after reading an excerpt from it in Nautilus Cosmos, dated February 2017. In the Nautilus article she writes:

In the usual scenario, dark matter lacks this type of interesting influence and structure. The common assumption is that dark matter is the “glue” that holds together galaxies and galaxy clusters, but resides only in amorphous clouds around them. But what if this assumption isn’t true and it is only our prejudice—and ignorance, which is after all the root of most prejudice—that led us down this potentially misleading path? 

If we were creatures made of dark matter, we would be very wrong to assume that the particles in our ordinary matter sector were all of the same type. Perhaps we ordinary matter people are making a similar mistake. Given the complexity of the Standard Model of particle physics, which describes the most basic components of matter we know of, it seems very odd to assume that all of dark matter is composed of only one type of particle. Why not suppose instead that some fraction of the dark matter experiences its own forces? 

She goes on to say:

Perhaps nuclear-type forces act on dark particles in addition to the electromagnetic-type one. In this even richer scenario, dark stars could form that undergo nuclear burning to create structures that behave even more similarly to ordinary matter than the dark matter I have so far described. In that case, the dark disk could be populated by dark stars surrounded by dark planets made up of dark atoms. Double-disk dark matter might then have all of the same complexity of ordinary matter. 

Partially interacting dark matter certainly makes for fertile ground for speculation and encourages us to consider possibilities we otherwise might not have. Writers and moviegoers especially would find a scenario with such additional forces and consequences in the dark sector very enticing. They would probably even suggest dark life coexisting with our own. In this scenario, rather than the usual animated creatures fighting other animated creatures or on rare occasions cooperating with them, armies of dark matter creatures could march across the screen and monopolise all the action. 

But this wouldn’t be too interesting to watch. The problem is that cinematographers would have trouble filming this dark life, which is of course invisible to us—and to them. Even if the dark creatures were there (and maybe they have been) we wouldn’t know. You have no idea how cute dark matter life could be—and you almost certainly never will. 

Scientists have long dismissed the notion of an astral plane, a plane supposedly as real and diverse as our own physical plane but composed of a finer state of matter. The justification is that it can't be seen or felt and that it is totally invisible and undetectable. With dark matter however, scientist are admitting the existence of a state of matter that "can't be seen or felt and is totally invisible and (largely) undetectable". What if this dark matter harbours dark life that is as real and diverse as the life we experience here on the physical plane? What if dark matter is in fact what constitutes the substance of the astral plane?

While the two planes usually remain distinctly separate, there is overlap as for example when a person has an out-of-body experience during a medical emergency. In such a case, the consciousness of the person is resident in the astral body that is usually floating above the physical body.

As Randall says:

Dark objects or dark life could be very close—but if the dark stuff’s net mass isn’t very big, we wouldn’t have any way to know. Even with the most current technology, or any technology that we can currently imagine, only some very specialised possibilities might be testable. “Shadow life,” exciting as that would be, won’t necessarily have any visible consequences that we would notice, making it a tantalising possibility but one immune to observations.

Proponents of an astral plane describe it as being "very close", interpenetrating our physical plane but not having "any visible consequences that we would notice" and being "immune to observations". It's tempting to suspect that such a "shadow" plane and the "shadow life" that it supports are composed of dark matter.

For a long time I've dismissed the notion of dark matter and dark energy as representing an inadequacy of the Standard Model of particle physics to explain what's really going on in the physical universe. At the same time, I've fully accepted the notion of the astral plane made up of a finer state of matter than is found in the physical plane. Dark matter seems to be a way of reconciling my doubts about the Standard Model with my belief in the astral and higher planes.

There's confusion about the difference between the astral plane and the etheric plane, just as there is about the difference between the astral body and the etheric body. However, these words of Max Heindel shed some light on what the ether is:

According to the Rosicrucian writings of American occultist and mystic Max Heindel there is - in addition to the solids, liquids, and gases which compose the Chemical Region of the Physical World - a finer grade of matter called ether that permeates the atomic structure of the earth and its atmosphere. It is disposed in four grades of density and is considered to be a kind of physical matter. Source.

In this conception, the first three subplanes of the physical are solid, liquid and gaseous whereas its four higher subplanes are comprised of finer matter in four grades of density. Could this finer matter be the elusive dark matter? To quote from Max Heindel again:

According to Max Heindel's Rosicrucian writings, the etheric body, composed of four ethers, is called the "Vital Body" since the ether is the way of ingress for vital force from the Sun and the field of agencies in nature which promote such vital activities as assimilation, growth, and propagation. It is an exact counterpart of our physical body, molecule for molecule, and organ for organ, but it is of the opposite polarity. It is slightly larger, extending about one and one-half inches beyond the periphery of the physical body. Source.

These four uppermost subplanes, as conceived by Max Heindel, are still comprised of physical matter, "finer matter" if you will, and maybe it is this that constitutes dark matter. An excerpt from an article at this site tries to clarify the difference between etheric and astral:

The etheric body is usually divided, for clarity, into two parts. The first of these is the etheric double; this closely resembles the ordinary body of matter, extending out perhaps an inch beyond the surface of the skin, and provides the framework of subtle formative energies on which the material body is built. It contains a series of channels (the meridians of Oriental medicine) and energy centers, which have an important role in mystical work. 

The second part of the etheric body is called the aura or, in another context, the Sphere of Sensation. This is a roughly egg-shaped field of energies surrounding the etheric double, extending out several feet from the physical body. It serves as the interface between the etheric body of the individual and that of the cosmos, and all the forces of the universe are reflected on its surface. 

The astral body cannot be so easily mapped out in this kind of spatial language. A body of consciousness, it comes closer to the modem idea of "mind" than to that of "body," although neither of these too-rigid categories fits well anywhere in the mystical view of the Soul. The astral body can be thought of as a field of energy occupying roughly the same space as the aura, but constantly shaped and reshaped by patterns of thought and feeling. All images, words, and sensations affect this body, and are affected by it in turn; it interacts freely with the astral level of the cosmos, and with the astral bodies of other human and non-human beings. It contains most of those parts of the self we normally think of as "mental" or "inner"— intellect, emotion, imagination, will, and memory, the instruments of concrete consciousness — and it is also the basis for the individual personality.