Your perception of time does not always adhere to "world time." If a man with a
bass voice reads a script at exactly the same speed as a man with a tenor voice, the
bass voice sounds as though he's reading more slowly. When your body
temperature is high, your sense of time is also slowed. In one experiment, subjects
with fevers were asked to count to 60 at one number per second. They counted to 60
in much less time than a minute. Other subjects with low body temperatures counted
slower, because their sense of time was speeded up. It was also found that under the
influence of blue light, time is likely to be underestimated. Under the long
wavelengths of red light, time is overestimated and feels like it is in slow motion.
When you're young, time appears to move slower than when you grow older.
Time is often a subjective experience and seems to almost stand still when you're
intensely longing for something. For instance, people in pain often experience this
slow down in time, because they're longing for relief. Conversely, when you are
experiencing pleasure and fun, time seems to fly. To experiment, the next time you
take a long car trip, you can actually 'shorten' your elapsed travel time by thinking of
the feeling of intense anticipation and longing. Hold in your mind that kind of mood
and feel yourself intensely longing for something throughout the trip. You'll be
surprised at the results. A 40-minute cross-town trip can be reduced to 20 minutes,
and the reason for it defies current scientific explanation!
As Einstein pointed out, time flows at different rates for each person's perception.
John Brodie of the San Francisco 49er’s football team experienced an effect during
moments of playing time where he perceived things around him moving slower than
usual, giving him a longer time to observe, plan and react. Practicing meditators have
a distinct advantage for they accustom themselves to these relaxed states of slower
brain waves where moments of timelessness can be experienced. Perhaps
consciousness is merely an appearance of separate, sequential flashes or frames of
awareness. Some people experience their whole life flash before their eyes in a
matter of seconds just prior to a sudden death-risking situation. Also dream
researchers have discovered that a one minute dream sometimes feels like hours to a
In one experiment, hypnotized subjects were given imaginary tasks to perform in
their minds -- like designing a dress and preparing a complicated meal. They were
tricked into thinking they had an hour to accomplish their tasks, but they really had
only 10 seconds. After 10 seconds had elapsed in world time, the hypnotized
subjects experienced intricate and accurate detail in their inner perception that seemed to
them to be a complete hour! Given the same tasks in the waking state often stymied
them so badly that they couldn't think of a single dress design and actually prepared a
meal in a very disorganized fashion. A posthypnotic interview revealed that the
subjects experienced no difference in their "thinking" and that at no time did they feel
hurried or speeded up. Time distorted thought thus seems to have superior clarity to
normal conscious thought beset with constant distraction.
Begin this exercise by assuming a very relaxed state to achieve the rapport
necessary to create an alteration of perceived time. Next, review "Exercise - Learning
Self-Hypnosis" and achieve a self-hypnotic state. To initiate progress in time
distortion, begin with remembering your morning hours in a quick succession of
mental flashes -- from getting out of bed to going about your morning activities.
Now recall the hours after that and so on. Using your imagination, this will become
easy and should be practiced frequently.
Next, visualize seeing a recent movie that you're familiar with and start at the
beginning and whiz through to the end. Since most movies are about 2 hours long,
reviewing them in a matter of seconds will show you that you are progressing. Next,
mentally go to a familiar window in your house that overlooks some vegetation or
trees. Now visualize the seasons rapidly changing before your eyes (rain, snow,
sun, defoliation, rebudding, etc.) as 12 months pass by you like you are in a time
machine. Next, imagine you are superman (or supergirl) and you are swiftly flying
around the world very close to the ground while taking in all the scenes and wonders
as they flash by you.
These drills give you practice in consciously thinking fast as well as improving
your conscious memory of daily events. Practice these visualizations often and soon
you will see how easy they become. After each drill, you can bring yourself out of
the self-hypnotic state by counting backwards from 10 to 1 and progressively
Have you ever had the experience of looking at your watch or clock with a sweep
second hand only to find that it appeared stopped; then after a moment of shock,
watch it start moving again? There is a direct relationship between slower brain
waves and time appearing to slow down. This is your perceptual subjective time. As
an exercise, get in a comfortable seated position in front of a clock with a sweep
hand. Look at the clock while progressively relaxing your body and mind (review
"Exercise -- Relaxation For Improved Awareness"). Now close your eyes, relax
completely and visualize some activity with a feeling of intense anticipation or longing. Experience your visualization with all your sense. When you have achieved the
visualization and feeling, open your eyes slightly and look at the clock. You should
see the sweep hand stick or stop in a few places. After practicing this exercise, you
eventually will be able to slow or stop time consistently for varying periods of time as
you experience a slower brain wave output. Since time distortion does not always
depend upon slower brain waves, you can help the effect by reiterating the
suggestions in "Exercise -- Learn Through Time Distortion."
To monitor your progress with time distortion, have a friend help you or set up a
10-second timer for yourself. During 10 seconds, mentally and in a time distorted
state count on your fingers the number of times you can say, "I am getting better and
better at distorting time." Then say the same sentence aloud as many times as you can
and compare the two. When your mind goes into hyperdrive, you'll be amazed at
how many times you can say the sentence in 10 seconds of world time.
You'll find the more you practice any visualization, the more vivid it becomes, and
that a peculiar time distorted process will take over and your expended "real time" on
each visualization will be greatly shortened. By learning how to click your mental
button to go into a time distorted mode, formerly stressful situations will become
easier to handle, problems will become easier to solve, and you'll find that you'll
have all the time you need for any situation that confronts you.