[v-zero]

(Original post by yozzo)
Answer this one question: is it ever not NOW? Walk up the stairs, just observe yourself taking one step at a time. You do not need to watch your feet. Focus on your breathing. And just realise that each step taken is taken in the now. You will probably think about the top of the stairs or wherever you are going when you reach the top, but what is this? Is it real? No, it is just a thought. I am not saying you won't reach the top of the stairs, but when you do, it will be NOW.

I once seen a sign in a pub that said 'FREE BEER TOMORROW!'. Those poor drunks will be turning up tomorrow only to realise that tomorrow never comes.

You could make the same statement about anything, it doesn't mean anything. There is no 'now'. Time isn't a thing you can put a hand on, it's not something you know or have or experience, it is something that describes the passage of events from a particular reference point.

[SnoochToTheBooch]

(Original post by TheHuman)
Also there is no 'NOW'/Present according to physics, I don't know much about that, but logically one can assume that since time also keeps moving forward and never stops, then how can there be a 'NOW'/Present. So you can assume that 'NOW'/Present is an illusion, rather than time. Hope this clears it up!

but what if time did momentarily reverse, then go back to normal, how would we ever notice it? what's to say we don't live each moment 587399083 times and only remember the very last one before moving onto the next?

[yozzo]

(Original post by v-zero)
You could make the same statement about anything, it doesn't mean anything. There is no 'now'. Time isn't a thing you can put a hand on, it's not something you know or have or experience, it is something that describes the passage of events from a particular reference point.

Like a history book. So, in other words, time is not something that is actually real. Therefore, time is an illusion. No offence, but you have just admitted what I have been saying all along. Past and future have no reality of their own and are nothing more than thoughts in our heads. Thoughts that we are having NOW. The NOW is the space in which everything exists and happens. Your whole life exists now. To keep it simple: You are born, you go to school, go to university, get a job, work till 65, grow old and then die. Right now you are reading these words, most likely in your university dorm. Everything that happened in your life is a memory trace, which you think of now. The future has no reality of its own as it is always now. If you get to those further stages in life (i.e. you do not die before they happen), when they happen it will be Now. Is that not FACT?

[Jimbo1234]

(Original post by yozzo)
Is time an illusion? I mean, when is life ever not NOW? The past (whether 10 years or 10 seconds ago) exists merely as a mental trace and the future, when it happens, will happen now.

Not at all.
Time is based on the position of energy within the universe, hence why nothing can ever achieve zero kelvin as that would mean it is essentially frozen in time.

[TurboCretin]

(Original post by v-zero)
Actually that is incorrect, the finite and constant speed of light is a key postulate of Both of Einstein's theories.

The OP is incorrect for a multitude of reasons, though.

I know that, but why does that make me wrong?

Not arguing, just curious.

[TurboCretin]

(Original post by yozzo)
It weren't an illusion. It happened, but in a former NOW. And I know by using the words Former NOW it appears as a contradiction to what I am saying. But you are getting attached to the words. Do not get attached to any words. There is no perfect way to describe what I am saying. Words are not the thing, event, situation, truth, they just point to it. They are nothing more than signposts. It is not possible to really describe, using words, the point of time being an illusion. All the words can do is, at best, act as pointers to the truth that is already within you. The mind cannot understand that time is an illusion. Time and mind are inseparable. Without mind, there would be no time. With the mind running your life, you are stuck in this illusory time; the illusion of there being a past, present and future, when in reality there is only a present. You need to stop trying to understand what I am saying with your mind and realize the truth within yourself. Focus on the NOW as much as possible. Watch your mind, feel the body from within, listen to the sounds, all these without judging or analysing.

Ok, now I know you're a troll.

[tl,dr]

(Original post by Obadetona)
Time doesn't exist, it's something we made up to help order things.

Space-time. It does exist but I think we initially made up the concept, as you say, to help order things. Curious co-incidence.

[Peace'n'loveman]

(Original post by yozzo)
Is time an illusion? I mean, when is life ever not NOW? The past (whether 10 years or 10 seconds ago) exists merely as a mental trace and the future, when it happens, will happen now.

Everything is an illusion, a mental construct. Thus spake the Buddha and all the sages of the Vedas.Realizing this is the path to freedom. Experiencing this is Nirvana or liberation.

[billynofriends]

prove you exist


that is all

[Gakama]

(Original post by yozzo)
I am just stating a simple fact. It is not some philosophical statement. If you are able to quieten the mind for just a second you may be able to see the truth in what I am saying.

"Time is now" just shows how little understanding you have about this and that is fine but you aren't even making the attempt to comprehend the physics behind this because as much as you may not like it, it just isn't a simple fact.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toT6OHJbHKE

[blacklistmember]

(Original post by Abbadon27)

lol, but this is a valid topic

[blacklistmember]

(Original post by billynofriends)
prove you exist


that is all

I think, therefore I am


that is all

[blacklistmember]

(Original post by Peace'n'loveman)
Everything is an illusion, a mental construct. Thus spake the Buddha and all the sages of the Vedas.Realizing this is the path to freedom. Experiencing this is Nirvana or liberation.

I was just going to post 'is the self an illusion?'

i think its more effective when you remove words like 'the buddha' from your post, people tend to take it more seroiusly

[miser]

Time is a property of the universe, the same as space. Just as we exist at a location in space, so do we exist at a location in time, and that location is constantly changing for each of us (not necessarily at the same rate).

However, in terms of an individual's perception of time, it may as well just be an illusion. The past does not exist save that it has left behind artifacts that hint at it, and once a memory has been formed there becomes no way to prove its accuracy - we just check its conformity to others' memories and artifacts of that time that continue to exist in the present. This moment, 'now', could exist forever and we would not realise it, and similarly it could exist for far more or far less than we feel it to be - measuring time in terms of time becomes meaningless. The only time we know that has actually existed is now. The past could be an illusion, the concept of the future could be an illusion, and a person's perception of time as a linear sequence could be wholly innaccurate. Maybe we go through time backwards, 'remembering' the things that are still yet to come.

[v-zero]

(Original post by TurboCretin)
I know that, but why does that make me wrong?

Not arguing, just curious.

I was stating that yozzo was wrong, not you, but my point about relativistic effects is accurate.

[viriol]

(Original post by yozzo)
What makes those things facts? Because some guy with a lab coat says so? Why not ask yourself this one question: is my life ever not NOW? Is it ever not this moment? We think of life as consisting of many moments. But is there not only one moment? This moment. Does your whole life not unfold in this one moment? Is this not a fact?

Look at the available data yourself. Only then will you have the right to say such idiotic things. It's useless to keep replying if you insist in being blind to everything beyond yourself.

[absta101]

Present can not exist unless the flow of time stops. Future simply doesn't exist, yet.
Therefore things seem to exist only in the past.

[yozzo]

I have just reread this topic and realised I missed something. Some people have said the NOW is an illusion since we are always moving forward. What I should have said earlier was that the NOW is not what is happening NOW. This seems to be the confusion. The NOW is the SPACE in which everything exists and happens. So, the NOW is not what is happening but the space in which it happens. And you are inseperable from that space. You are that space. You will only realise the truth in this once you have experienced it. But most of us will never experience it as the mind is always making too much noise. The little me, the voice in the head we mistake as who we are. The one that is always complaining, judging, worrying... Read The Power of Now - Eckhart Tolle and A New Earth - Eckhart Tolle.

[AverageExcellence]

I want some of what you're smoking.