Concept of slowing down time

[Jericho]

I read the article on mindreality.com on Rapid Perception and how the human mind is supposedly able to slow down time when the need arises. I was severely intrigued by this idea and have applied myself to learning and mastering this technique, but it's turning out more difficult than I had thought.

For one, I don't really know where to start. In the article, various references are made to the heightened state of consciousness that one can attain (I believe through meditation) which allows one, amongst other things, to slow down time in one's mind. However, the exact method used to attain this trance-like state is not clearly described, nor is it in any way clear to me at this point.

I'd really like some suggestions on where to get started if I were to learn the technique involved in slowing down time and what the first step would be. To be frank, with all the material on these forums and mindreality.com, it's really hard for a novice like me to even know where to start.

A slight push in the right direction would be very, very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[skydust]

well i can only tell you what i do. it doesnt require any sort of meditation or trance. all i do is state firmly in my mind 'time warp: slow down please' or you can do it the other way around by saying 'time warp: speed up' the please is optional

as for if it works... im not sure. i did use it a while ago because i felt like my days were just rushing by and now my days seem very long in comparison. so maybe it does. i guess the best bet is to try it and see for yourself.

[DoAnyOfYouExist]

You want some time dilation? I know a few things that can both slow down time and speed it up(minutes becoming hours(hours becoming minutes)). Very interesting to sit and watch time warp.

[yesyesyes]

Before homework I use to meditate with a metronome and I would will it to slow down and I eventually I could get a 60bpm ticking down to about 4-10 bpm and would do my homework in this state!

[Jericho]

So how do you know when you're living in slow motion? How do you know when you're in this heightened state of consciousness? If it's only perceivable by the outside world, how can you confirm for yourself that time is slowing down in your mind? Do you actually feel time slowing down? Does your vision get blurry, etc.?

Thanks so far for the replies.

[yesyesyes]

I think the metronome is confirmation enough.

You slow down YOUR mind enabling you to process things faster in relation to your normal time frame than you once did in a normal state. Its not like I can run really fast or something.. haha.

[skydust]

yeah its not like things go in slow motion, its just the perception of time that changes the hours feel longer, and you get more done in a day than you previously did.

[Jericho]

I'll try the thing with the metronome, thanks for that suggestion.

But I must confess I'm still not sure how to actually reach that state we're talking about. Does anyone know of some exercises that might help me with this? Like I said, I really don't know where to start. Just telling myself consciously to "slow down" like Skydust suggested doesn't seem to do the trick for me, though I wish it were that easy :P

And apart from the exercises, I'm also interested in hearing some of your own stories and experiences.
Can you give me some examples of your own experiences with slowing down time in your mind? I'm very curious how some of you apply it in real life. And I'll count myself lucky if one of you has something to share that's even half as interesting as doing your homework in slow motion xD

[skydust]

well the trick is not to just say it like a chore, but to believe it and feel it. its very much like IM actually. you have to know it will work. yeah, can be difficult, but pretend you are 5, you are playing, and anything is possible

[Akashic_Librarian]

Bullet time anyone...hmm?


Its a NLP Technique that helps you slow Down time, there is a more efffective way to do this than meditating on a metronome, Its can warp time and distort your perceotions...its great on plane flights so I hear.

[Erki]

How does it look to other people around me whose time isn't slowed down? Would I have an amazing reaction time then?

[Akashic_Librarian]

No. Time doesn't slow down. You will be going at a normal speed, you would snap out of it i fsomeone attacked you or threw something at you. Without pracrtice you can only remain there whilst you stay still and calm.

[nara]

I have had this experience a number of times now. It always happens when I'm about to get into a car accident. Thankfully I've never had a car accident; I've been very very close a number of times but due to this effect I've been able to avoid them.

It is strange feeling, like a focused adrenaline rush. My rational mind tends to "shut-off" at this point and as best as I can describe I don't consciously think anymore... I see, feel and react. Time slows down as well. It feels like my body and reaction times still moves at the same speed but my environment appears to move slower.

I remember one time I was driving down a highway and as I approached an intersection a car on the side street sped past the stop sign and plowed into the car that was about 50 ft in front of me. I immediately dropped into the focused state at that point and was able to avoid all of the flying debree and swerve away from the cars as they reeled from the impact. It was a surreal moment because I remember seeing the hubcaps and other debree explode from the cars in slow motion after impact.

I've done a small bit of reading on the subject and it appears to have to do with the fight-flight response. When your senses receive new information the "data" goes to the thalamus where it splits off and goes to the neo-cortex and the amygdala. The neo-cortex is responsible for rational thinking and the amygdala is responsible for the emotional respone. The data reaches the amygdala much faster than it does the neo-cortex. Which is why you'll often find yourself reacting emotionally to a situation before you've had the time to think it through.

In extreme situations, the amygdala can hijack the mind and prevent the rational mind from interfering. This is important when you life is in extreme danger and you don't have time to mull over your different options of escape. In those cases you need to react and you need to do it NOW! The mind no longer consciously thinks, at this point, but instead relies on it's subconscious programming to respond to situations.

I've tried to find ways to invoke this rationally but haven't had any luck mainly because it's dealing with two different parts of the brain. You would have to somehow consciously trick your emotional brain into believing it was in a life or death situation. How can you fool yourself when you know you're trying to fool yourself? It could possibly be done through hypnosis of some kind.

I've had the effect others speak of where the perception of time conciously (rationally) slows down. This state is induced through the neo-cortex though and not the emotional state that I described above. In the emotional state I believe I could move and react much faster because my body still feels to be moving in "normal" time while my environment slows down. In the time-state induced by conscious thought, I can't physcially move too much without bringing myself out of the state.

A good mental exercise I found to help induce the mental time distortion is this:
Imagine yourself in a car traveling down the highway. In the middle of the street see the yellow lines as they pass by you. On both sides of the highway see trees whizzing by you as well.
To slow down your environment, imagine the trees slowing down while keeping the yellow lines moving at the same speed as before.
For the opposite effect, imagine the yellow lines slowing down while the trees remain at the same original speed.

[ondrej]

Great post, nara.

[Joshiepoo3000]

Correct me if I am wrong, but the universes expanse is the speed of time. I compare the universe to tidal wave. When you are caught in it, you only travel at the rate of speed that wave carries you. Another example is that people on earth can only move at a maximum speed of the earth. At what velocity is our earth, solar system, or galaxy moving?

Our minds do not slow time. If that were true then the world would be like the matrix. That doesn't exist. The rate of the universe' expansion dictates times rate of speed. Light travels slightly slower than time, which is why things would slow down drastically if you could travel at that speed.

[Eli]

Some things are in Gods hands. There are some things we just won't do...Peace........Eli

[mtrimpe]

Originally Posted by Erki

How does it look to other people around me whose time isn't slowed down? Would I have an amazing reaction time then?

Yes you will have an amazing reaction time. To me it's essentially nothing more than choosing to make the speed of your brain a running, walking or sitting one. Most people on this planet, in my experience, are gently walking around and sitting most of the time. I used the technique for quite a while but I used it in such a way that it eventually gave me a sort of burnout. Looking back, those three months did seem to last longer than several years of my life though.

Don't think this has any use though if you only do it using meditation. That'd be like practicing running and still walking everywhere very very slowly.

In response to how to practice this, I've never really been interested in the slowing down part (to make an airplane ride seem like it lasts a few minutes), I've only been speeding things up.
I view it not as some meditation thing. For me it's a whole body experience. I still have the same concept of time, I just do more in the same amount of time. I just start typing faster, I start reading faster, when talking I come up with 5 different sentences to say and choose between them instead of justing thinking of one and saying that. When being creative I try to come up with 30 ideas in the same time that I would usually come up with 5. When walking I don't just control the muscles I need to move but I control a lot of extra muscles as well.

All in all I believe it's a really important skill for being truly in the moment. In my view the present moment is only as rich as the processing power we use to perceive it, so my hypothesis is:

speeding up time = being in the moment

(Another benefit is that you're far less afraid of making mistakes, since you can correct them before other people even pick up on them. Think of slowly writing an essay in one go in 30 minutes compared to writing the exact same essay in 5 minutes, then reviewing it 10 times and still having the time to check references.)

[mtrimpe]

Hey everybody, thanks for reminding me of this.

I just started doing this again and realized why I eventually quit: boredom. It's almost the same kind of problem why Steve quit polyphasic sleep. You get so much time, you are going to have a really hard time finding things to do with it.

Also things like watching TV become so incredibly boring. Watching it will only take up something like 10% of your mental processing power and the other 90% really has trouble finding anything useful to do.

I do really regret giving this whole thing up a year ago! Looking back I think the boredom is a really great motivator for finding more important things to do with your life.

[Erki]

Originally Posted by mtrimpe

In response to how to practice this, I've never really been interested in the slowing down part (to make an airplane ride seem like it lasts a few minutes), I've only been speeding things up.

Hey, if an airplane ride lasted five minutes then it would be speeding the time up. Or am I wrong?

Originally Posted by mtrimpe

(Another benefit is that you're far less afraid of making mistakes, since you can correct them before other people even pick up on them. Think of slowly writing an essay in one go in 30 minutes compared to writing the exact same essay in 5 minutes, then reviewing it 10 times and still having the time to check references.)

If you slowed time down so much that writing the whole essay lasts like five minutes then you're also slowing the time down.

I think we mean essentially the same thing, just different terms.

Actually something similar happens(happened to me) when learning to drive. At first 50kph(30mph) felt fast as hell, now it's more like painfully slow. But might also be just getting used to speed..

[mtrimpe]

Yes, we use reverse definitions. I use speeding up time to refer to the concept of fitting more mental time into the same amount of physical time. Slowing time down would be stretching your normal mental time out over a longer period of physical time.

[yesyesyes]

It just depends on what perspective your looking at it from... your mind or the world.

[MartialDev]

Originally Posted by Akashic_Librarian

No. Time doesn't slow down. You will be going at a normal speed, you would snap out of it i fsomeone attacked you or threw something at you. Without pracrtice you can only remain there whilst you stay still and calm.

Some people snap into it when they are attacked.

[Anagogy]

Slowing down time perceptually isn't as difficult as it may seem, but it does take practice. To do it, you must put yourself into a trance state. Basically, trance is the normal way our minds perform actions more efficiently. Another name for it is "learning". It involves disassociation. The more times you do something -- that is more or less repetitive -- the less energy it requires to do that thing. Hence, you may get the perception after doing something over and over that you can think slightly "other" thoughts while doing that activity. An example is riding your bike. When you were young, and you learned to ride a bike, at first it required all your concentration, but slowly yet surely, you eventually gained the capacity to effortlessly ride the bike and not really have to think about it while doing it. This is true for just about anything, and the key lesson is: practice makes it more efficient.

And while thinking these slightly "different" thoughts while doing whatever it is you are doing, you may feel that you are perfectly conscious and not in any reduced or altered state of consciousness at all. But...you would be wrong. Doing that activity uses up some of your cognitive processing capabilities, and while you may feel perfectly conscious, your awareness is actually in an altered state. Depending on the activity, you may notice some characteristics of trance. Some of these are: increased self observation (i.e. you feel like you are watching yourself do the activity rather doing the activity yourself -- clear sign of disassociation), narrowed or focused attention, reduced awareness of surroundings (tunnel vision), increased creativity or ability to visualize, and less or more observant thoughts. There are many others not listed here.

And now....to answer your question:

To slow down time you need to simply practice relaxing your mind (not necessarily your body, but it helps) and then proceed to concentrate on how SLOW everything is getting. It doesn't matter if the things you are observing are not going slow, simply command and intend for your perception to only notice how slow things are getting. Imagine that the entire world is literally slowing down and keep intently watching for the slowness. Don't allow yourself to analyze, just intently observe with expectation of slowness. Keep practicing this for 10 or 15 minutes a day, and in a couple weeks you will feel the trance state solidifying into a stable state of mind. And, just like riding that bike, you will eventually be able to produce this state of mind at will. The key to all this is discipline and practice. This can be used for anything. Enjoy.

[Joshiepoo3000]

I think it is totally cool that you are all going to realize the matrix. I have gained cat-like reflexes from my ability to slow time. I hope to travel time sometime next week so I can teach myself from the past the lessons I have learned from the present. I am inventing a time rocket in my mind. I know all of you know about the force too. Can anyone tell me how to choke people with their minds yet. I don't think I would ever actually use my power to choke people, but it would be comforting to know I had it in case I got into trouble. I can already slow time down enough that I have escaped from my enemies, but I would really like to know I could choke them with my mind. So when one of you people are about to punch me in the face, I can just relax my mind and command my perceptions to realize the slowing and escape? I can already do it. Like I said I do it to none friendly people all the time. Listen to Anagogy. That person can probably slow you down and beat you senseless without you even knowing until it was too late. I wonder if any of you people wear capes at home while to type this stuff. I do.