Сергей Кравченко – The Spark of Time. How Meaning Transmutes Worlds (страница 3)
Objective Time – Not the Simplest of Realities
Traditional classical physics treated time as a uniform background scale, identical for everyone – this was the Newtonian image. The 20th century introduced corrections: Einstein’s theory of relativity showed that the «sameness» of time is an illusion; the ticking of clocks depends on speed and gravity – time becomes local and relative. For practice, this carries a simple implication: there is no single universal «arrow,» but local rhythms and connections.
Beyond that lies quantum physics and cosmology – domains where the familiar «before and after» sometimes blur: the order of micro-events may not be strictly determined, and interpretations such as Everett’s «many-worlds» suggest the branching of realities. In theoretical physics, time may be multidimensional and part of a more complex structure than the one we are accustomed to. For us, as practitioners, this set of ideas matters not for its abstraction, but because it opens space for a model in which «time» can be locally reconfigured – what I later called the working hypothesis of the QTC (Quantum-Temporal Configuration).
(Behind this paragraph stands a serious body of scientific literature on relativity and modern hypotheses: Einstein on space-time and contemporary reviews on temporal structures.)
Subjective Time – The World of Experience
Subjective time is what we feel: the stretch of a minute in anxiety, the «flight» of an hour in the flow of creativity, the weight of memories that make the past heavy. This realm is closely tied to memory, attention, and emotion – but even more deeply, to states of consciousness. Altered states (meditation, hypnosis, autogenic training, sensory deprivation, psychedelic sessions) change not only the content of experience but also the very metric of time by which the brain organizes events. Research shows: experienced meditators regularly report a «slowing down» of time and an increase in the density of present experience. This is not just poetic description – empirical studies record stable changes in subjective time among practitioners of mindfulness. (Frontiers, PubMed)
Neuroscientific data provide us with working tools: there are brain networks associated with self-reflection and «background» activity – above all, the Default Mode Network (DMN). Immersion in a task or in a meditative state reduces DMN activity; in psychedelic states its organization is reconfigured. This correlates with the loss of ordinary self-reflection and with altered time perception. Such observations link the phenomenology of experience with concrete neurophysiological markers. (PNAS, annualreviews.org)
Psychedelics represent a separate case, now re-emerging into scientific discourse. Under the influence of psilocybin and similar substances, people often experience distortions in the familiar time scale: the sense of «stretching» or «dissolving» time, the loss of self-boundaries, the intensification of sensory connectivity. Neuroimaging shows that during such states the brain’s functional connectivity reorganizes, and its repertoire of dynamic states expands – providing physiological grounding for the experienced «blurring» of time. (PubMed, PMC)
Extreme Experiences: Near-Death States and the «Eternal Present»
Reports from people who have survived clinical death or deep near-death experiences often contain vivid temporal phenomena: «a whole life in an instant,» or the presence of countless images and events within one «now.» The large prospective AWARE study recorded a wide spectrum of cognitive experiences in cardiac arrest survivors; some reports pointed to the persistence or return of consciousness under conditions traditionally considered anatomically incompatible with awareness. These data do not offer an unequivocal interpretation of «timelessness,» but they do show that in extreme states subjective time can diverge radically from the linear model. (PubMed)
Ancestral Memory and Unconscious Layers of Experience
Our sense of the past is not limited to personal autobiography. Modern biological research points to inheritance mechanisms that shape descendants’ reactions: classical experiments on the transmission of specific fear responses across generations indicate epigenetic traces of experience. This does not prove «ancestral memory» in the mystical sense, but it provides a scientific context for understanding why in collective and archetypal images the past can feel more alive than mere recollection. For the psychologist, this means that representations of the past may emerge from deep intergenerational layers of the psyche, not only from individual memory. (PubMed, PMC)
Attention, Intentionality, and «Where the Present Resides»
Traditionally, psychologists said: «attention keeps us in the present.» I prefer a more precise formulation: the present is held by the intentional orientation of consciousness – the capacity to point «toward» a significant locus of the world. This notion, borrowed from phenomenology, helps explain why certain temporal objects (for example, the memory of a beloved person or the anticipation of danger) become centers around which the whole experience is organized. This intentionality also underlies the effectiveness of therapeutic methods: changing intentionality (reorienting attention, symbolic processing) alters the quality of the time in which a person lives.
Integration: The Boundary Between Dimensions Blurs
Bringing scientific and phenomenological observations together makes it clear: the boundary between «objective» and «subjective» time is conditional. Physics shows the locality and relativity of time; neuroscience shows that brain states reshape our metric of experience; psychology and epigenetics point to deep influential layers of memory and meaning. Taken together, they suggest that time is not a single background, but a multilayered fabric – something that can be studied and, under certain conditions, reshaped.
Transition to the Next Chapter – Experiences Beyond Time
If physics and cognitive science provide frameworks and tools, then a natural question arises: can this be experienced firsthand – purposefully or spontaneously? I do not limit myself to theory: in the next chapter I will describe my own experience of stepping beyond the familiar temporal scale, the methods of entering altered states of consciousness (autogenic training and other practices), clinical observations, and the checks that make foresight and altered states the subject of disciplined research.
Key Sources and References (for specialists and further reading):
– Wittmann, M.
– Raichle, M. E. et al.
– Studies on psilocybin and brain dynamics (e.g., increased repertoire of brain dynamical states under psilocybin; Carhart-Harris et al., various studies). (PubMed, PMC)
– AWARE studies on awareness during resuscitation (Parnia et al.). (PubMed)
– Dias, B. & Ressler, K. J.
Chapter 3. Altered States of Consciousness and Transcending Time: The Author’s Experience
– William Blake
Altered states of consciousness (ASC) for me are not a poetic metaphor, but a working laboratory. Within them, the habitual flow of time disintegrates and reorganizes anew; within them, the boundaries of the «I» dissolve, and past, present, and future may become interwoven in a single experience. I came to this gradually – through practice, observation, and thousands of hours of recording – and I wish to describe here not only the sensations themselves but also how they may be aligned with contemporary scientific perspectives.
My acquaintance with the subject began at the age of twenty through autogenic training. This method became my key to inner states: regular practice led to stable shifts in perception and to the possibility of entering what I later came to call the «conversion point.» Once, in a dream, numbers appeared to me – the sequence almost coincided with the winning combination of the «Sportloto» lottery. I awoke, hesitating whether to write them down – and this hesitation clouded my memory. Years later, a similar episode recurred with the «Stoloto» lottery: the image was there, the win was real, yet in both cases an error crept in – and I drew from this an important lesson: the mere fact of an experience does not automatically guarantee accuracy. Recording, protocols, and verification – these are what distinguish a random image from a reliable signal.
The Arctic became my «polar» laboratory of time. During the long nights, in the silence of snow and wind, I read and wrote extensively – Jung and Grof, books on the collective unconscious and on trance experiences. Stanislav Grof provided me with a map of states and practices that enabled me to comprehend experiences beyond the ordinary cognitive framework. Castaneda at the time seemed to me more of a literary reconstruction, but in the works of Grof and Jung I found both clinical and conceptual foundations for what I was observing myself. (Holotropic Bohemia, SCIRP)