Schizoaffective

 Einstein's theory of relativity holds that the faster an object moves, the slower time passes. This means that a spacecraft traveling close to the speed of light for five years, according to those on board, will return to an earth that has aged 36 years. Indeed, a photon traveling from a distant star to earth gets here in billions of years according to us, but according to the photon the elapsed time would be much, much less. This aspect of Einstein's theory has been experimentally confirmed many times, and it has practical applications when it comes to satellites and space travel. It is called "time dilation." I point this out to show that time is not an absolute. It depends on the frame of reference of the perceiver. Not surprisingly, various cultures have conceptualized time in radically different ways. Ancient Jewish and Christian cultures saw time as a falling away from a paradisiacal past—namely, the Garden of Eden. Time has alienated us from a direct experienc...

by Jay Paul   finding myself to also be a great raven soaring over a rolling field of long grass and wildflowers and a few isolated trees with great canopies a family walked on a trail mown through the grass the father a young bearded man pushed a baby buggy and the pretty young mother walked along   suddenly realizing that man was me 25 years ago with my now adult daughter and ex-wife in a scene that never happened but is representative nonetheless because we all did love each other in our limited and limiting ways and things did seem open to vast possibilities   then seeing myself as raven floating in the sky and realizing I am also a constellation of a great bear high in the sky behind the blue veil of sky I am a bear constellation watching a soaring raven who is also me watching a man who was me a quarter century ago   this could go on who is watching the great bear perhaps the moon there is no end to the multiplication of selves across space and time   and ...

 After last week's post on the nature of the interrelatedness of what we call self with other people and even things, I got to thinking about memory. What is it, and how does it work? In particular, I was interested in how memory interacts with the present moment. Before addressing memory, we need to establish what the present moment is. This is not easy. The present moment seems to be composed, for the most part, of anticipations, of ways of organizing toward a conceptualized and hoped-for near term future. For instance, if I am having a genial conversation with a friend, I focus on how to keep the geniality and friendliness flowing. I anticipate conversation topics that may amuse or entertain my friend. I anticipate topics that may comfort her. I pay attention to how what I am saying impacts her so that I can adjust, if needed, my tenor and emphasis. This is all toward keeping the conversation flowing into the future. I can sense her doing something similar in response to me. The...