RealityTest's Opening Page

Time Travel -- the State of the Art:

Arnold J. Toynbee -- Time Traveler

Mind Loosed from its Tether -- The Channelled H.G. Wells

Bringing the Body Along -- Physical Time Travel

The RealityTest Interviews

An Outline of the Future

Doorways

Resources

RealityTest's definition of time travel: The transcendence of the apparent linear nature of time.

Most people, hearing the words "time travel," picture mad scientists, peculiar vehicles and machinery (updated versions of that employed by H.G. Wells’ time traveler in The Time Machine), or the sorts of portals and rocketry procedures common to modern science fiction films. References to Einstein’s theories and more recent (and somewhat arcane) scientific ideas are often employed.

This is to be expected in a culture in which a belief in an "objective reality" -- something which is "out there," observable via the physical senses and their extensions (those wonderful devices and instruments, the fruit of industrial and scientific development over the last three centuries or so) -- is rarely carefully examined.

Despite some serious objections here and there, some even from within the scientific community itself (see RealityTest’s Resources section), the idea of time employed in these visions is still generally very narrow, entirely consistent with standard beliefs regarding the nature of objective physical reality.

This usual idea of time is of a more or less uniform medium through which everyone and everything passes at the same rate (leaving aside for the moment situations involving very high velocities). Time is seen as having one direction, and as we travel in that direction we leave "the past" behind us, like the wake of a ship, as we move into "the future." Inexorably we move along in this time, today becoming yesterday as what was tomorrow becomes today. Yesterdays become only today’s memories, and tomorrows have no existence (neither can be seen or measured, although our passage through this time does leave evidence which can be carefully examined).

Some of these necessary unorthodox concepts (more fully explored in the Seth material -- see RealityTest's Resources) include:

o Non-material entities of which each and every physical individual is an extension. This concept at first glance would seem to have much in common with that of "soul" but is used without any of the religious dogma usually associated with that word. The revolutions of science have tended to create a distancing from all concepts smacking of religion, perhaps only natural as these opened up new conceptual horizons for humanity. RealityTest believes science, in its zeal to dismiss older beliefs, has overlooked the significance of what was once called "soul." At the same time, older religious ideas of soul are often restrictive in nature, veering away from direct experience in the same spirit in which the Catholic church suppressed the implications and conclusions of Galileo's experiments. Buddhism, much more inclined to teach ways of direct experiencing, has always been notably weak in this area. Nevertheless, if in fact each of us is an extension of a non-physical entity, we have only to focus our attention in this direction to achieve an immediate awareness of our own non-material entity, a region of self or consciousness not at all bound by linear time. (See 5. Regions of Self Focusing Exercise on RealityTest's Doorways page.) Time "travel" or transcendence cannot be fully considered without taking our own entity into account.

o Probable realities. The plots of many books and films about time travel take for granted the existence of a single past and a single future. These plots often involve temporal paradoxes such as the classic dilemma in which a time traveler accidentally kills his or her own grandfather or grandmother, calling the traveler’s own existence into question. Sometimes alternative timelines are explored, the characters intent on changing the historical past in some way. These last provide a hint of probable realities, created whenever anyone makes a choice, however large or small. The concept of probable realities has much in common with certain "Many World" variations of quantum mechanics, but none of these take into account a non-material entity capable of accessing probable realities formed by the choices of its physical extensions. (See 2. Preliminary Probable Self Exercise on the Doorways page for an excellent exercise enabling the direct -- and consciousness altering -- experiencing of probable realities and the selves who inhabit them.)

o Individual Space Continua. Closely connected to the idea of probable realities and absolutely necessary once the concept of an objective physical reality is ruthlessly exploded is the concept of individual space continua, unique for every individual. This would seem to drift into philosophy’s solipsism but RealityTest will steer away from that as it builds the case for time travel. The physical variation of time travel requires an explanation of how mass reality is constructed within a multitude of individual space continua; such an explanation necessarily gets into the outer edges of time travel as currently understood, involving areas such as Coordination Points. Fortunately, recent archaeological discoveries (or discoveries made long ago but until recently finding no place within prevailing theories) will provide RealityTest with some very supportive information in these areas.

o Simultaneous Time. All of the above concepts, supplemented by exercises and explorations enabling subjective validation, lead to a concept called simultaneous time. This is the essential concept which underlies all time travel techniques and enables the transcendence of the apparent linear nature of time. The short version of all of this is that time, as it is usually considered, is a creation of that part of consciousness usually called "ego," but this statement alone fails to convey the reality behind its words. Experiencing timelessness (paradoxically a place in which all times exist at once) requires an expansion of consciousness; accessing a particular moment in time distinct from that apprised by the physical senses requires a focusing within such an expansive awareness, necessarily calling upon areas of self or mind not often utilized in day-to-day existence. The possibilities raised by such activities are endless, fascinating, and potentially groundshaking within our present civilization.