< previous page page_114 next page >

Page 114
that we review in Chapter 9 suggests that our minds are connected through space, and that mind-to-mind communication may be instantaneous. In the summary Chapter 12, we discuss the physics of these nonlocal connections.
When it comes to writing about time, we have a fundamental problem, because no one knows how to measure time. Rulers measure distance, but clocks do not measure time; they simply tick at the rate of one tick per second. They do not measure the "passage of time," or our supposed progress down the time line at a rate of one second per second. Today, a second is defined from the vibrational period of an excited cesium atom. Time is a mental construct, and cannot be measured by scientific instruments. According to author-physician Dr. Deepak Chopra, time is a continuity of memories. There is no instrument that allows us to watch time flow through it, like water past a paddle wheel, because time does not flow.
It has often been said that time was invented by God so that everything wouldn't happen at once. In that view, time is seen as the "distance" between events that occur at the same place. My birthday was celebrated in the same house this year as it was last year. The temporal distance separating the birthdays is one trip of the earth around the sun; one tick of the planetary clock. But, can next year's birthday be sensed from the previous year's party? It certainly can be. There is no doubt about it. The goal of this chapter is to try to make that assertion believable.
Einstein asserted that we live in a four-dimensional universe, which we have learned to call space-time. To represent this as a coordinate system, we can visualize a tall apartment house large enough to fill a city block. We can imagine the space axes of this system as being the cross streets at the base of the building. Forty-second Street goes from left to right, and Fifth Avenue goes from back to front. Time is the vertical dimension in this model, with each story of the building representing one year. This is a three-dimensional space-time coordinate system. As we sit quietly in our armchair on the first floor of this building, our whole universe rises up with us at the rate of one second per second along the vertical time line. Our travel along the timeline may be said to be through "block time." It carries the definite implication that the upper floors of our building are already occupied, and our

 
< previous page page_114 next page >