Do Past and Future Really Exist?
Published by As every second ticks away, with every event that we experience, it turns into past, a moment that once was, but no longer exists. It is scientifically proven that memory is stored in the brain and that what we remember only encompasses around the average of eight percent of what we experience.
When we go to a film, lecture or play, we only induce but a small portion of the story, the memory being but an interpretation of what we have seen through our senses, chosen through our own perception. What this means is that our personal perception of past really is just a fabricated memory of the event having taken place, and not really the total event that would have existed.
To look at this in more detail, a person could imagine themselves at a party with a group of friends. They induce memories of the interactions that they had throughout the night, all things that directly relate to them specifically. They remember a moment that they wanted to get a drink, and they remember having poured it into the cup, one snapshot of memory of the event that took place. They do not remember the whole time that they poured the drink into the cup from beginning to end, but they remember a moment when they were participating in the experience, enough to know that the event did occur. They do not remember having drunk the entire drink either. Maybe they do not even remember drinking it at all, and only know they did from seeing the cup empty.
We do not induce in our brains the memory of every moment that we experience, instead only taking a snapshot of memory into our brains for future reference. This snapshot is not the event that took place in physicality, but an interpretation from the individual who had the experiences. This interpretation is often based on interest that a person has, or choice of what they wish to focus on.
A person will not notice something if they have no interest in it. They might be at a party and all night long they do not even remember having seen certain people there. This does not at all mean that these people were not at the party in that moment in time, but it simply emphasizes that the past within our brains is but choice based depending on the viewer and what they wish to remember.
Does past really exist? Can we really determine past by our thoughts alone as being factual when in all essence it is only but a small interpretation of the event having taken place?
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On February 21, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Very interesting article! Didn’t know many things that you wrote!
On February 21, 2009 at 1:42 pm
good article, I believe if someone believes in something enough they can talk themselves into anything. Children to this a lot , fishermen to. The fish get bigger every year.
On February 21, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Good reading- thought provoking in parts
On February 21, 2009 at 9:51 pm
Very fascinating and profound!
On February 23, 2009 at 3:47 am
Thanks for your lectures. I appreciate.
On April 12, 2010 at 10:37 am
While I have had this question in my head for a very long time I only began actively looking for answers on April 11, 2010 one day after you, per your blog site, appear to be ending your writing. Boy, isn’t time funny.
On January 10, 2011 at 6:13 pm
That is understandable, but normally we feel that whatever has passed is passed. But is it so? At a particular moment if we are looking at the sun, we actually see the sun approx. 9 minuts in the past.Or suppose there is a civilization 1000 light years away from our earth, and they have developed the technology to observe at that distance. When they focus on the earth, they see what was going on a thousand years before. For us, nothing exist beyond an infinitesimal moment, but for others that exist.
So I feel past always exist, whether we observe it according to our choise or not.
Future could also exist side by side, although I am not capabe of making a mental model of that. Hope some illuminated fellow would clear that.