The other day I stopped by the Kipling Natural Health and Healing Expo for an article for The Citizen. Here a question that was posed to me was, "What would you say if I told you time didn't exist?"
I didn't really think about the question, I simply said, "I would say there are many different beliefs in the world and that would be one of them."
In Western countries the belief that time follows a linear line and that events happen at fixed points in time is the norm. There are 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week, and 52 weeks in a year. We measure our life, how old we are, based on the amount of time that has passed since our birth starting at zero and working our way forward.
What if I told you in China you are one when you are born? Because this is their reality, they are one-year at birth because they are in their first year of life.
Western practices, however, are very much rooted in moving forward along this linear time frame towards a fixed point in time. There are cycles of seasons, of days and nights, and of life; but, we are rooted in the lineal.
Other beliefs believe fully in cycles and show the smaller cycles of seasons and the like as proof time is cyclical. That the young become older and eventually die; but, this is not the end as they will be recreated in another form. Again this new form will begin as a baby human, baby animal, or maybe even a seed. The circle of life will then play out again and again and again, thus, there comes to be an idea of past lives.
Another idea is that this cyclical belief in time can be used on a larger scale. If I were able to travel fast enough I would be able to turn back time or jump into the future; but, if I went far enough into the future I would end up in the past.
These beliefs are all valid. Time is a construction of society. Growing up with Western beliefs most of us will say that time is linear. That there was a set beginning point and that we are moving towards an end point, whether that end point is tomorrow or a billion years from now time is not infinite.
But, once the world comes to an end, will it begin again? Depending on your beliefs the Big Bang may have gotten us here, so what is to say this won't happen again? Or if God created everything would He possibly create another world again after the end?
Time is not the only social construct that a society creates based on what people are able to rationalize.
Other social constructs include anything not found in nature. Language, politics, religion, education, etc... are all created by the agreement of a group on their meaning or the way they work, society establishes them. Just as we as a society establish our version of what time is.
For example, why is a table called a table? Could I not as easily call it a fish? Society has given meaning to these words and together we have agreed collectively on what the meanings are of each word. This is why words continue to be added and eliminated to the dictionary depending on use.
