but this rhythm is short term. If you don’t know that today is Tues-
day, for example, there is nothing inside of you to give you that in-
formation. You can, however, tell what day of the week it is by
consulting a calendar or a daily newspaper. This means that we built
the structure we now use to perceive time from external events.
If a child asks, “How long until Christmas?” and you respond,
“Twenty-three days,” the child is likely to ask “How long is that?”
This child has not yet built a structure to represent time. We de-
velop this structure sometime in early childhood, certainly by the
time we get to school, where events occur at specific, announced
times. Thus you most likely formed your own perception of time,
including the past, present, and future, at an early age, and you may
not have considered it since. The perception of time is a person’s
timeline.
HOW DO YOU PERCEIVE TIME NOW?
Recall brushing your teeth this morning. Remember as many de-
tails about this as possible. Good. Now recall brushing your teeth
five years ago, also with as many details as possible. What differ-
ences are in these two images of the same event at different times?
Most people report they perceive the more recent event as closer to
them. Our minds naturally perceive time in a linear structure.
Figure 8.5 presents eight examples of how your mind may repre-
sent time to you; or it may do so in a completely different way. In
the eight diagrams, you see the individual from above (note both
ears and nose), looking at various kinds of timelines. In the upper
left-hand example, the individual sees himself as off to the side of
the timeline with the past stretching out to the left and the future to
the right. In the lower left-hand diagram, the individual sees herself
in the flow of time with the past and the future stretching in the
same directions as the previous example and the present moment
inside her body.
There are other possibilities. Some people report they see the
past and the future as the same line stretching away from them.
Others report they see the future as a spiral fading away into the dis-
tance. Some people represent the future not as a line but shaped
like a quarter of a pie with their point of view at the sharp point of
the slice.
There is no right answer here. What you want to determine is
how your mind represents time to you now. How your current per-
ception of time affects you matters more than what it is.
Your Traditional Perception of Time 151