Time is basically an illusion created by the mind to aid in our sense of temporal presence in the vast ocean of space. Without the neurons to create a virtual perception of the past and the future based on all our experiences, there is no actual existence of the past and the future. All that there is, is the present.”
Abhijit Naskar
I stood with my sons in the same spot – in front of this church door – where my grandparents were married 77 years ago and showed them this wedding video on my cell phone. I asked what they thought and my oldest replied that perhaps time is an illusion and the event is still happening, we just cannot see them. It was a profound moment, standing in the same place where a young couple was just about to start a family in 1945 and here 77 years later, were their great-grandchildren watching the event through the magic of technology. In 1945 my young grandparents would have no idea who their grandkids would be and my boys never knew their great-grandparents. Yet, standing in the same spot watching the video I feel as though there is some connection, some sort of energy created that I can only barely perceive.
Einstein called time an illusion. When I think deeply about the aforementioned quotes I think of a movie reel. We are only able to perceive the frame the projector light is shining through, yet all of the frames in the entire roll continue to exist as the projector turns. Perhaps the frame the light is shining through is what we perceive to be the “present.” All it takes for any of the frames to be noticed is for the light to shine through it again.
