For most people, it turns out, there are basically two times: “Now” and “Some other time.” And the “other time” is typically divided into past and future.
Mr. Hartmann, I think I know what you are talking about here. When I was in grad school at ISU in Ames, Iowa 53 years ago, I had the opportunity to participate in sessions wherein I was required to empty my mind of any thought or sensation. To exist like an animal, alive, awake, breathing, seeing, hearing, but no thoughts in my head. It was extremely difficult to do this. As time went by and I repeated the attempt to empty my mind, I found that I could do it for longer and longer periods. But it always remained extremely difficult. I was never able to do this for more than minutes at a time. Yet I had a friend who could slide into this state almost any time he wished and stay there for hours without falling asleep. Needless to say, he was an Indian, a Hindu. He told me to not feel disappointed about my inability to do this emptying with ease. He said he could do it easily because it was an integral part of his Indian culture and he had begun doing it at an early age. It seems this emptying is like learning language. It is done without much effort and with only very little encouragement; if it is done very early in life. For an adult to learn to do it for the first time is like an adult trying to learn a foreign language in a classroom setting, without actually living physically in the place and culture where the language is natively spoken.
I much more easily remember and use the Low German slang I learned incidentally, not formally from hearing the speech of my grandparents as a child; than I can remember or use the German I learned
formally in school. All that stuff about the structure of the German grammar, the subjunctive case and word order, and so on I have long since forgotten. But the phrases my grandparents used are still with me. I think acquiring the ability to empty the mind or stop time is similar.
As for the notions about past, present and future, as we English speakers understand them; my Anthropologist colleagues made it clear to me that this was determined by the culture in which one lives and grows up in. Apparently there are languages which do not ordinarily think of a future. For them there is normally only the present and the amorphous past. Anything else is absurd to people who speak such languages. Yet these same anthropological colleagues assured me that anything which can be said in any particular language; can be said and understood in all other languages. No exceptions. Some languages are better at articulating certain concepts than are other languages. But all languages can articulate all human knowledge regardless of its source. This is one of the reasons Chomsky claimed there is a universal human language. He gave one other reason also for his belief in a universal language. I still remember the gist of his argument, but I cannot do it justice, so I will skip it. Furthermore, I was never sure that I agreed with Chomsky.
As a post script, it is fun to think of mathematics as an unspoken language. A language we can think only think in. Never can we speak to another in the language of mathematics . What we do is translate math into a spoken human language and that is what we actually speak when communicating mathematical relationships and concepts to other people. Strangely enough, there is a written mathematical language. And ironically, it is hard to imagine mathematics in any form but the written.
Only twice in my life have I had an epiphany. The second time was when I sat up all night trying to solve a calculus problem which required knowledge of the integral. But I had at that point studied only differential calculus. The epiphany came when the concept of the integral popped into my mind at three am aided by several cups of coffee. I wonder how many others have had that same epiphany, besides, of course Newton and Leibniz. I am certainly not unique. No human being is. We are all truly made of the same celestial clay.
Many musicians like Paul get songs from dreams 😴 .
.
“The melody to “Yesterday” came to Paul McCartney in a dream. He woke up and stumbled to the piano by his bedside to work out the chords. “I just fell out of bed, found out what key I had dreamed it in…and I played it.” And so one of the greatest songs ever simply came to its composer in a dream.”
“ As The Beatles were on the verge of breaking up, Paul had a dream “between deep sleep and insomnia” about his mother Mary, who died when he was 14 years old. In the dream, Mary told Paul “let it be,” and he started writing the song on his piano the next day.”
“ Known for having some disturbing and vivid bad dreams while on tour with Rush, then waking up to share them with his bandmates, guitarist Alex Lifeson had one dream in particular that inspired the 12-part instrumental that became “La Villa Strangiato.” Though the song has no lyrics, it does have a storyline and is broken up into 12 parts: Buenos Nochas; Mein Froinds!; To Sleep, Perchance To Dream; Strangiato Theme; A Lerxst in Wonderland; Monsters!; The Ghost of the Aragon; Danforth and Pape; The Waltz of the Shreves; Never Turn Your Back on a Monster!; Monsters! (Reprise); Strangiato Theme (Reprise); and Farewell To Things.”
When a car hit the side of my car as I watched it happen and my car started to roll upside down, I heard my blood 🩸 moving near my ears 👂 like time ticking in S L O W motion. My attention was fully present and it seemed like each moment was a minute long.
.
A woman cured herself from cancer by staying alone at a friend’s house on the beach. She was very weak. And had suffered from a hurtful relationship and she had anger and resentment. She put aside all thoughts of the past to focus on the sound of the birds and waves 🌊. The feeling of the warm sand beneath her feet. She did that every day as she walked by the sea, going longer and longer each day as she gained strength. She stayed present all day, while baking bread 🍞 feeling the silky ness of the flour. About a month later she was cured.
Mr. Hartmann, I think I know what you are talking about here. When I was in grad school at ISU in Ames, Iowa 53 years ago, I had the opportunity to participate in sessions wherein I was required to empty my mind of any thought or sensation. To exist like an animal, alive, awake, breathing, seeing, hearing, but no thoughts in my head. It was extremely difficult to do this. As time went by and I repeated the attempt to empty my mind, I found that I could do it for longer and longer periods. But it always remained extremely difficult. I was never able to do this for more than minutes at a time. Yet I had a friend who could slide into this state almost any time he wished and stay there for hours without falling asleep. Needless to say, he was an Indian, a Hindu. He told me to not feel disappointed about my inability to do this emptying with ease. He said he could do it easily because it was an integral part of his Indian culture and he had begun doing it at an early age. It seems this emptying is like learning language. It is done without much effort and with only very little encouragement; if it is done very early in life. For an adult to learn to do it for the first time is like an adult trying to learn a foreign language in a classroom setting, without actually living physically in the place and culture where the language is natively spoken.
I much more easily remember and use the Low German slang I learned incidentally, not formally from hearing the speech of my grandparents as a child; than I can remember or use the German I learned
formally in school. All that stuff about the structure of the German grammar, the subjunctive case and word order, and so on I have long since forgotten. But the phrases my grandparents used are still with me. I think acquiring the ability to empty the mind or stop time is similar.
As for the notions about past, present and future, as we English speakers understand them; my Anthropologist colleagues made it clear to me that this was determined by the culture in which one lives and grows up in. Apparently there are languages which do not ordinarily think of a future. For them there is normally only the present and the amorphous past. Anything else is absurd to people who speak such languages. Yet these same anthropological colleagues assured me that anything which can be said in any particular language; can be said and understood in all other languages. No exceptions. Some languages are better at articulating certain concepts than are other languages. But all languages can articulate all human knowledge regardless of its source. This is one of the reasons Chomsky claimed there is a universal human language. He gave one other reason also for his belief in a universal language. I still remember the gist of his argument, but I cannot do it justice, so I will skip it. Furthermore, I was never sure that I agreed with Chomsky.
As a post script, it is fun to think of mathematics as an unspoken language. A language we can think only think in. Never can we speak to another in the language of mathematics . What we do is translate math into a spoken human language and that is what we actually speak when communicating mathematical relationships and concepts to other people. Strangely enough, there is a written mathematical language. And ironically, it is hard to imagine mathematics in any form but the written.
Only twice in my life have I had an epiphany. The second time was when I sat up all night trying to solve a calculus problem which required knowledge of the integral. But I had at that point studied only differential calculus. The epiphany came when the concept of the integral popped into my mind at three am aided by several cups of coffee. I wonder how many others have had that same epiphany, besides, of course Newton and Leibniz. I am certainly not unique. No human being is. We are all truly made of the same celestial clay.
Many musicians like Paul get songs from dreams 😴 .
.
“The melody to “Yesterday” came to Paul McCartney in a dream. He woke up and stumbled to the piano by his bedside to work out the chords. “I just fell out of bed, found out what key I had dreamed it in…and I played it.” And so one of the greatest songs ever simply came to its composer in a dream.”
“ As The Beatles were on the verge of breaking up, Paul had a dream “between deep sleep and insomnia” about his mother Mary, who died when he was 14 years old. In the dream, Mary told Paul “let it be,” and he started writing the song on his piano the next day.”
“ Known for having some disturbing and vivid bad dreams while on tour with Rush, then waking up to share them with his bandmates, guitarist Alex Lifeson had one dream in particular that inspired the 12-part instrumental that became “La Villa Strangiato.” Though the song has no lyrics, it does have a storyline and is broken up into 12 parts: Buenos Nochas; Mein Froinds!; To Sleep, Perchance To Dream; Strangiato Theme; A Lerxst in Wonderland; Monsters!; The Ghost of the Aragon; Danforth and Pape; The Waltz of the Shreves; Never Turn Your Back on a Monster!; Monsters! (Reprise); Strangiato Theme (Reprise); and Farewell To Things.”
When a car hit the side of my car as I watched it happen and my car started to roll upside down, I heard my blood 🩸 moving near my ears 👂 like time ticking in S L O W motion. My attention was fully present and it seemed like each moment was a minute long.
.
A woman cured herself from cancer by staying alone at a friend’s house on the beach. She was very weak. And had suffered from a hurtful relationship and she had anger and resentment. She put aside all thoughts of the past to focus on the sound of the birds and waves 🌊. The feeling of the warm sand beneath her feet. She did that every day as she walked by the sea, going longer and longer each day as she gained strength. She stayed present all day, while baking bread 🍞 feeling the silky ness of the flour. About a month later she was cured.
" Be Here Now" - Ram Dass