Makes sense, I can appreciate the merit in that a lot!
Hmm, I donāt really have any formal methods or anything like that. Iāve always perceived time like that since I was little and just kept a sense of wonder about the universe, asking questions and experimenting with concepts of perception.
One thing that may help, is that I paid very close attention to what it āfeltā like when I experienced changes in perception of time. For example, when a day feels like itās just flying by, or moments in time that slow down. There are so many different emotions and possibilities in this, and I just tried to pay attention to them all and grasp how they worked on a conceptual and intuitive level, paying close attention to what influences that. I was always just fascinated with it and had a feeling that time couldnāt be a rigid or finite thing. I think just having a sense of curiosity and fascination with anything can carry us far in learning the workings of it.
I think that itās possible when we pay attention to time, we might all notice these slight changes in things speeding up or slowing down all the time. Little things like when we donāt notice a few minutes or even an hour has already passed. I think these things happen to us on a smaller scale constantly, that our perceptions are actually changing all the time, and perceiving the changes more closely can help see that itās really just all quite fluid how we can experience time.
I also just try to think of time as this very fluid and slippery thing and feel it. I think itās similar to the description in the Time Manipulation article on enlightenedstates.
Regarding feeling like the world is lagging behind, Iāve run into the same issues with that sometimes, and the feeling of a distortion of day/night and the cycle of life when things are very slow. Itās possible that this is where being able to speed up and slow down oneās perception helps, because at times it can feel a bit trapping and tedious to me to only be perceiving things more slowly. But I also think thereās a lot of insight and wisdom that can be gained by just continually slowing it down and building up the effects even if they are tedious and monotonous at times. I did that for a long time and learned a lot!
While I was really slowing down my perceptions of time, I also found that itās possible to connect to each moment, and exist in between them. Maybe this is similar to some meditative states, Iām not sure. Then it doesnāt feel quite so tedious, but it also doesnāt really feel like time exists in the same way.
Sometimes I feel more in sync with people even if my perception of time is slower than their experiences when I nurture an enjoyment of a few moments at a time with people (sort of like if youāve ever had a great discussion or a party that feels like it lasts forever), also understanding that everyone already lives within something much more fluid whether or not they are aware of it. Or if it feels like the world is going so slowly, I try to occupy my spare moments with meditation and other worthwhile things, and speed up and play around with perception in short bursts.
If you want to freeze time, you might be able to try to perceive the finer and finer details in experiencing just a few moments, taking the concept of experiencing many days within a day and applying it to experiencing many moments within the few. Then, you could expand the concept by having many more moments of time existing within each āslowerā moment youāre now perceiving, and so on. Itās a smaller focus on a few moments (or seconds or minutes if you prefer to start with those) than an entire day. That may be a way to play with it and learn. At times I have felt like there is so much time within a moment like that, itās as if things are almost standing still. Or like all moments exist at once within every moment we can experience.
Thatās great! Itās great that Dream made those audios for people to discover. I think it can be pretty liberating to not feel bound to a rigid experience of time. Slowing down the perception of time is really interesting! Itās fun to play with. I think itās definitely possible to alter our perception of time to a tremendous degree. Iāve often experienced things like feeling like a few years have passed within a few weeks. Itās a bit disorienting in some ways at times, but there can be readjustment over time to noticing finer and finer increments within moments.
I actually imagine many people of wisdom (mystics, sages, shamans, etc.) throughout the ages experienced things this way, and had much more time. So maybe, when we hear stories about a mystic on a mountain living to be 600 years old, whether or not he physically lived that long he probably did have that much time.
Haha, thatās cool, I like that word too!