Blog #87--Time Travel Truths And Fallacies

I have great respect for a number of science fiction writers. Some of their writings have served as excellent predictors for future inventions and discoveries. The best ones seem to possess a vision of what is to come, and they use their excellent writing skills to bring the future to life for those attracted to the genre.

One of the common threads among many science fiction writers is the concept of time travel. Many people wish they could return to the past to correct mistakes they made. Many others have a strong curiosity about the future and would love to travel to times beyond their expected lifespan. A number of scenarios have been explored in science fiction books, movies and television programs.

The time travel paradox can become extremely complex. For instance, if one travels to the past and changes it, how many other events might be changed as a result? Life is a continuous chain reaction; changing a single event can have disastrous consequences for what we consider our history.

Theoretically, people could actually prevent events important to them by traveling into the past to change something that happened to them at a younger age. If they travel to a distant past, they might prevent their own births. It would be practically impossible to predict all the consequences if the time line is affected in the slightest way.

Meeting oneself in the past is also a common although dubious theme. I’ve seen story lines that have as many as three of the same person, all from different time periods. Such complex situations stir our imaginations and confound our logic, making the stories a fun ride for those who can keep up with all the twists and turns.

A number of science fiction works stress the necessity for time ships from the future going back in time to eliminate causality loops that might alter history. Perhaps it soothes our conscience to think someone is capable of correcting our mistakes. That way, we can interact with the past without guilt. Of course, this is science fiction, not science fact.

Some scientists have been working on theoretical models for time travel. This despite the fact renowned physicist Stephen Hawking says it is impossible to travel back in time. Entrepreneurs could make mega bucks sending people to change their past mistakes, if only they could figure out how to do it. So the research continues.

I don’t have Dr. Hawking’s credibility, but I agree with his assessment. While we are all one with each other and the universe itself, we simultaneously believe we are each unique. In my opinion, we can’t have two or more of us at any one time. And we can’t change the past.

It’s a good thing we can’t because we would no doubt foul things up good if we could. We hardly remember minute details of events in our daily lives, let alone things that might have happened long ago. And there is certainly no way we are smart enough to follow every thread of every interaction we had with others in our environment over time. A seemingly insignificant event might have led ultimately to the best event of our entire lives. If that time line was changed, even by accident, it could destroy our own future. We should be thankful we are prevented from changing the past.

However, there is a form of time travel we utilize daily without realizing it. Our minds are not limited to chemical reactions in our brains. We can relive events in our minds, sometimes in great detail, by mentally traveling along the space-time continuum. I believe this is how memory actually works. Our brains record events we experience, but we can actually visit past memories. I believe that is what we do when we answer a question on a school test. We travel backward to the time we encountered the answer in our notes, books or classes to obtain the correct answer.

We can peer into the future by the same method since past, present and future all exist simultaneously in the space-time continuum. If nothing else, we can get a general idea of our immediate future by planning ahead about what we might need to do tonight, tomorrow or next week. One can argue this isn’t time travel, but if future events proceed as smoothly as we sensed them, we cannot state with certainty we were not engaging in time travel to see them ahead of time. We may not get all the details right, and we often must make corrections as other events alter our preferred time line, but those events which we complete successfully as planned may indeed have been predictable.

This is how prophecy works as well. We don’t experience the space-time continuum every moment of every day, but all of us experience it once in awhile. When a light flashes in our heads, we receive inspiration that can come true in our future. For instance, I knew I would eventually write the book “It’s a Secret, So Pass It On: a Toolbox For Life.” I could see the basic outline for it in 1978, but I didn’t write it until 2013. There is no doubt in my mind I saw the future, and it came true pretty much as I sensed it would. This type of information is available to all of us and becomes clearer once we learn how to access it.

I do believe we can slow or even stop time, not in actual fact but within our perceptions. Time seems to stand still when that light flashes in our heads, allowing us to experience large amounts of information instantaneously. Theoretically, one could find his or her perception stretched to believe much time has elapsed and much activity completed, only to end up back in our bodies at basically the same time as when the experience began. Some scientists think one returns to normal time through a temporal wormhole, but such a device may not be necessary. Even if there is such a thing as temporal wormholes, they would likely return us to normal time, not the distant past.

So while we cannot move our bodies into the past to give us successes we don’t deserve or eliminate failures that caused us pain, we can observe the past multiple times if we so choose. We may or may not be able to predict our own future. After all, our egos will distort or reverse visions of future events that don’t coincide with our present self-interests. But if we are supposed to win the lottery, we may see the numbers with which to gamble in our minds before the drawing occurs.

There is truth to time travel, but time can’t be changed to fit our whims. We can enjoy the science fiction stories related to time travel, but we likely can’t duplicate most of them.

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