WRITING
TIME DOES NOT EXIST Time is a concept.  An idea, an abstraction.  It has no self existing qualities, no substance.  Time is a word that describes a method of measurement, a  process that is used to compare relationships Objects exist relative to us, and  reside together  in a commonly shared volume we call space. Gases exist in a different way than objects, or perhaps as a special case or condition of objects.    What we call objects has a lot to do with the existence and conditions of our own bodies.  The density of our flesh and the muscle mass of our bodies determines the standard or measuring point from where we determine the experience of what is an object and what is not.  Sometimes the boundary seems obvious and sometimes it is not. When a form is denser that  our body material it can  easily be classified as an object. When a form is less dense, it becomes more difficult.  Is water an object? Can it be an object when it is liquid?  When it its frozen into ice, then it has a more fixed form, a more apparently solid form, so it is easier to name as an object. Most of us are familiar with the three groupings of material into Solid, Liquid, and Gas.  Solids are most apparently objects. Liquids seem less distinguishable as objects, and gases to most difficult to describe as objects. Let's move  away from attempting to define and describe an object and into a consideration of movement itself.  If there is movement, there must also be thing that moves.  And, if there is movement, there must be a space, place, or environment in which something moves.  Perhaps the broadest definition or description of an  object involves anything that can move,  can in some sense of its form or existence be described as an object. When we consider the movement of a gas it is hard to locate the edges of the object, or the body or mass of the gas.  It may also be penetrated by some other gas that is blended in part with it so it has no distinct autonomous shape,  edges, boundary or barriers.  Whether a shape or object is defined or described by an edge marking its extent or just one characteristic molecule  as with a gas, the movement or  change of shape or position of this object in space or an environment must be looked at closely when  considering the nature of what is described by the word Time.         Time is a four letter word Time is a word used to describe the movement and relationship between an  object or objects moving in relationship to one another in in relationship to some point or reference mark placed in the space.  The word can be also used to describe changes of shape or form of an object itself. Can time be used to describe a process or change that does not involve objects or changes in objects? Consider the cartoon character Mickey Mouse. On the screen Mickey may throw a rock.  The rock changes position or falls to the ground.  We can use the concept of time to measure the changes in position of the rock as it moves across the screen.  Is Mickey Mouse an object?  Is the drawn cartoon a rock and object?  Yet the measuring function of time can to be used to   mark its change of position across the screen?  Of course it is easy to say the rock is an imaginary object, but then is the time measurement imaginary also? Relating movement or change within space Measuring time.  When we talk about measuring time we often have the impression that there is something actually being measured.  Like measuring a piece of wood, or measuring out some flour for a cake.  Measuring time is not like this at all.   When time is being measured, nothing  is being cut in half or poured out of a bag.  There is no "thing" called time that is being measured.  It is more like marking a distance, or comparing something with something else.  If I say "I will make a comparison."  Who would think or assume that I am cutting or drilling gluing something to "make a comparison."  Only someone who didn't know the language would make this kind of mistake.  Yet we who know the language make all kinds of mistakes concerning the meaning of the word Time Measuring Time How IS time measured?   Since time is an abstraction and doesn't have any independent existence as do objects or anything of formed of matter or material it can't be actually measured, it is only a figure of speech.  Time is a concept, an idea and we find this  idea useful in certain ways.  The idea of Time is used in measuring the changed in positions of objects relative to one another, or changes of position  in space.   Before we continue with the difficulties of the nature of time, let's consider another abstract concept or idea useful in measurement that also has no independent existence. That is the Inch.         Inch by inch " Give him an inch and  he'll take a mile. "  How can you give anyone an Inch.   What is an inch.?  Is there a sixth dimension of inches.  Can we go back in inches as we talk about going back in time.  Where do inches go when they die?  Do they have souls?   Folk history says that the inch was determined to be measured as the distance from the tip  of a certain King's thumb to the first joint..  So what is an inch?  Just a certain distance arbitrarily   defined.  There is nothing grand or unique about an inch nothing of cosmic significance.  It is just a standard of   comparison, a reference used to make comparisons. The   concept of time is exactly the same. Be there in a minute Do you expect to see someone dressed or wrapped or transported  in a minute?  Of course not.  Well  then, what is a minute?  How is it different from an inch. A minute is very much like an inch but with some differences.   An inch is a linear measurement concept.  It begins to be defined  along a line or along the arc of a curve, or even can mark of the length of an irregularly shaped line.  (Does length exist)?  An inch is static, it is defined using static references. It is motion, movement, the change of position in space of on object or reference that makes it possible to invent the concept of time, and that small part of it called a minute. Just as the inch is defined along a length, time units must be defined using a regularly repeating event. The first regularly repeating events that provided the basis for the concept called time was the alternation of light and night, then perhaps noticing and marking out the changes of the moon which eventually defined the period or frame of reference called the month.  Eventually in climates that had sharply noticeable changes of plant life and contrasts of cold snowy periods with hot sunny periods, these became named and identified by the names of spring, summer fall, winter and summer. Time Machines Somewhere along the movement of history (does history move?) crude machines were constructed that used the shadow cast by the sun  and the movement of the sun and the earth relative to one another  to document the changes in the length and movement of the shadow.  We sometimes call the movement of the shadow as "time passing."  (Where does it come from, where does it go?).  Nothing is passing.  Only the shape of the shadow is changing. Eventually, the wheel, and the ordinary characteristics of this smoothly changing curvature around a central point or axle became used to relate the rotation of wheels to the changing sky from light to dark, and to  measure the changes of day and night against and in comparison to the number of rotations of a wheel suspended and rotating on an axle. Natural changes versus Mechanical Changes Using machines and wheels to make comparisons to natural processes of day and night and the seasons etc.,  marked a significant change in human culture.  Eventually this extended to using machines to make comparisons with the motions and actions of other machines.  Simply said, a clock-wheel machine can be compared in its motions and movements with  a steam engine to determine how long it will run on a certain amount of coal or wood.  Comparisons of this type are  essential elements of all science.  Without the abstract concepts of measurement in   both the linear  dimensions of inches etc. and spatial measurements using time  references, there would be no study of science. One day and night cycle was compared against the rotation of a wheel, first on the ground as the movement of a shadow marked the passage of a day and night, and then using a wheel suspended and slowly rotated by the flow of water.  Once the rotation of a wheel was closely paralleled to the cycle of movement of light of day, and dark of night, the circumference of the wheel was marked into equally divided marks and then minutes, seconds and hours were constructed, and invented. They are only marks on a wheel equated to naturally occurring motions and cycles of days and nights, moon cycles, and seasonal changes. Time is only a way of talking about changes                   by making comparisons Hours, minutes and seconds only exist verbally because of the markings on the face of a clock-machine.  Without time-marking machines our way of describing events would immediately change back again to approximations based on perception.   "How long will it take?", would be answered by  "a while", or "a day or two."  Without clocks, all science would grind to a silent stop.  Without time-marking machines, changes would continue, but time would vanish. Past, Present, and Future Along with this grand misconception about the nature of time and the assumption that this word stands for something essential and real,  there is also the tight-fisted assertion that is commonly held, that a past, present and future exist as distinct   states of existence or experience. I feel sympathetic that this assumption held by so many for so long is not founded in truth, and with the factors and influences that create and maintain this appearance.  My position is a little like being backstage at a magician's performance and see how the tricks are contrived to fool the audience.  After the performance, many are utterly convinced that the rabbits coming out of hat and the chains and locks escaped are the results of mysterious forces or the magician's ability to outwit the usual so-called laws of nature.   To meet those who have seen been convinced that the magician's tricks are real, then to try to convince them otherwise would be a lengthy and perhaps futile task.  Only a few of the more patient,  curious, and intelligent would allow the evidence of their senses and beliefs to be questioned and reoriented. Convinced as you are by education, cultural acclimation and experience, I must insist that your assumptions about past, present, and future are mistaken. Only the present It is the effects of the written word, and the use of clock-machines, that foster the acceptance and conditioning of   the existence and divisions of past, present, and future. What exists is a continuous reality.  It has no relationship to past, present, or future.  It only is, it only exists, self-sustaining and complete.  Everything all-at-once  occurs, everything-at- once exists fully in this moment, a timeless, infinite place of being. Until one has experienced this sense of things, the closest that can be communicated is that of the three words used to describe time-states, the idea of the present is the easiest to present. The present has an emptiness of time.  Objects move and change their form, events come and go, but never into the past and never into the future.  Everything happens here and now.   Whatever exist, exists now in this present.  Whatever will happen will happen now, this is the only place, this is the only moment.   Infinite, boundless with no edges to cut it off from everything.   Any holy books or lost languages that will ever be discovered exist right now whether uncovered or not.  Any and all dinosaur bones or prehistoric fossils that will ever be uncovered  and reconstructed exists right now.  Any lost cities that are buried, messages carved on cave walls are here right now, and yet within all this change occurs.  Some bones are being ground to dust, some ancient books are  changing into unrecognizable dust and are beyond recognition. Yes, change occurs but only in this moment in this present; strange and condradictory as that may seem at first glance. For Visual aides see: Diagram One,  Diagram Two, and Diagram Three. Copyright: L. Epston. 11.15.04 Written:10.16.89