Thread: Is time an illusion?

Originally Posted by Dianeva

I've never been sure what people mean when they say that time is an illusion. I understand that units of time are illusions. Seconds, minutes and hours are concepts we've made up. But that seems so trivial it isn't worth mentioning, so I've always felt that something more than that is meant. ...

In eastern philosophy the illusion of time is pointed out by the fact that it is always now. All experience is created and experienced in the immediate moment, reborn again and again in all it's entirety out of nothing, now... and now... and now... and now... this includes the experience of concepts of time, like imagination of past and future, so now is not the result of a past, but the past is an experience that you have now.

I believe that the confusion about time comes from one important property of all experiences: change is the only constant. If something was not changing, it would not be experienceable in the same sense that if ALL your field of vision was green, you would not be able to perceive it, because it only exists in relation and contrast to something. Or in music, if there were one single tone only (i.e. no time/change) you would not be able to hear it, the perception comes from the intervals in rhythm and tones. So no change means no illusion of time, but also no experience and non-experience (or non-existence) is not an experience.

PS: glad I ended up between people who are interested in life and therefore ask relevant questions about it, instead of worrying and discussing dumb culture/mass-media/politics/fear-based concepts. Nice to read the interesting perspectives about what actually IS from all of you.

Originally Posted by Nelzi

In eastern philosophy the illusion of time is pointed out by the fact that it is always now. All experience is created and experienced in the immediate moment, reborn again and again in all it's entirety out of nothing, now... and now... and now... and now... this includes the experience of concepts of time, like imagination of past and future, so now is not the result of a past, but the past is an experience that you have now.

This is something I've thought of too. If it's always now, and the past only exists in memories, then time can't exist as a "thing", it's just a concept, which would mean it's an illusion. But at the same time, how can anything change if time isn't passing?