Time Of Mind—Concept In Need Of Explanation And A Home

There Is Something Deficient In Our Idea Of Time Concluded

Why Relativity Theory And Quantum Mechanics Are Irreconcilable Scientific Theories

Discontinuity occurring in continuity (~bb) not only permits the fruits of civilization to manifest, it also allows individuals to actualize their own personal potentials— actualization that gives pleasure and meaning to life. But, "time of mind" is not recognized by science. Time, for science, has nothing to do with actualizing potential; time is merely an objectified measure of scale. As we attend to psychological "mind stuff" time speeds up. Nature's meaningful and cyclic events are, typically, how we think of time, but that kind of time is not the time encountered in inquires concerning the meaning and significance of embodied physical events. If we are ever going to appropriately respond to the big questions, "time of mind" must be included, in one form or another, in this response. The physicist Edward Harrison, in his discussion of Relativity, tells us that this second nature of time (he calls it the time of becoming) is precisely what is needed if we are to put a "human face" on science. He says:

"In one sense we are aware of time as a state of being throughout which things
are diversified. From this point of view the now embraces all time—the past,
present, and future—in a state of being. This is the aspect of time that has
been spatialized and woven into the fabric of space-time. But in another sense
we are also aware of time as an act of becoming, of one state of being flowing
and wheeling into another state of being…The now of today with its past,
present, and future is different from the now of yesterday with its past,
present, and future. The tapestry of being in each act of becoming is rewoven.
This aspect of time defies spatial representation. It has been omitted from the
physical universe because we have so far not learned how to express it either
linguistically or mathematically. To condemn the act of becoming as an illusion
oversimplifies the world in which we live….If we cannot put the now with its act
of becoming into the physical universe, then it seems safe to say that we cannot
put consciousness and its awareness of free will into it either. We have failed
to represent in the physical universe even the rudest aspects of ourselves as
experiencing individuals. Possibly the next major step in the design of universe
will be the discovery of a more sophisticated way of representing time." (Masks
Of The Universe, 1985, p. 155-56)


In the time of becoming, civilizations are born, endure, and are sometimes
destroyed. Anthropologically speaking, at the time when animals refused to
passively accept their environment and instead worked to actively transform that
environment was also the time when animals acquired the rudimentary
beginnings of “time of mind” (the implicative-affirmative's symbol-generating capacity) i.e., the birthright of inquiry, analysis, conscience and imagination. So, we might ask, is it possible to reconcile this new concept of "time of mind" with the time-concepts of science? Or, to put it another way, maybe this new concept of time can help us to better understand why relativity theory and quantum mechanics are irreconcilable scientific theories.

Because observations occur in the space of continuity, determinism and locality
there is an unavoidable clash of worlds-the world of continuity, determinism and
locality (Relativity) clashes with the world of discontinuity, indeterminism,
and non-locality (quantum physics). Bottom line-Relativity accurately describes
natural phenomena. Einstein's equations, when applied to the world of physical
events, provide accurate information concerning our status as participating
self-conscious agents in the physical universe. Likewise, quantum mechanics
accurately describes natural phenomena. The phenomena being described are
"fuzzy" because, as it is throughout the synchronic structure of freedom, the space
that separates also embeds and connects. At the quantum level, self-consciousness confronts its own ground condition in the form of the "phenomenal strangeness" of quantum physics. Ultimately, from its most holistic perspective, the synchronic structure of freedom tells us existence is a product of opposites; opposites are necessary for existence to exist. Therefore, were it not for synchronic structure (wholeness preserving opposites) self-consciousness, with its attributes of discontinuity, non-locality, and indeterminism would not/could not exist without opposites, i.e., determinism, continuity, and locality. In other words, if it were not for the existence of determinism, continuity, and locality we would not be free in a world of our own experience (by degrees, experience of our own choosing), seeking truth, justice, and religious meaning!