Episode 44: Time

Welcome to wisdom from the aerial view, the podcast for those who wish to learn how to crush their anxiety and find meaning and purpose in their lives. Good morning. Good afternoon. Dr. Klein, how are you today?

How are you?

I'm very good. know that you've been away with your grandchildren. think that's so, I keep thinking about how wonderful it is, what a wonderful life you're leading and how good it is that you get to be with the kids. It's just great, the grandkids. It's wonderful, good for you. But I wanted to talk to you today about a chapter in your book, the book, for everybody's... edification, wisdom from the area of view, the superpower that can change your life and this world. And it can. And I'm perplexed by one of the chapters. So I want to talk about it today. The chapter is called, maybe flummoxed and perplexed. I'm perplexed flummoxed Because the name of the chapter is the world is not what you think. So today we're going to take a deeper look into the article. And there's an article that actually sits

Are you flummoxed or perplexed?

on my night table that I read and reread every night by one of my favorite writers. It's called On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies by Albert Einstein. Now seriously, I've never read it, but I know you have. In fact, it's mentioned in the very first chapter of your book. So let me quote what it is you say about it. And then really let's get into the idea that you and Einstein and others ruminate about on this concept. time. You say, I quote, Most of us believe that we have a clear understanding of how time works. We imagine a classic timeline, where the past lies to the left, the present is what's happening at the current moment, and the future, to the right of the present, is blank and unknown. Moments follow moments. Tomorrow hasn't yet occurred, and yesterday is merely a memory. We also accept that time is the same for all of us. We assume a single now on which we all agree. time passes the same for everyone, no matter where you are, what you're doing. According to Einstein and proven by many experiments over the past 100 years, the statements that I've just read to you are false. As a consequence of Einstein's theory, it turns out that time is not the same for all of us. And if I'm standing still and you're moving, time will pass more slowly for you. Go fast enough relative to me for long enough and the difference in the amount of age could be years. You wrote it. Explain that, please.

Oh, goodness gracious. Yes, I did write. I do take responsibility for that. When I learned about this, this is called Einstein's theory of special relativity. I have to say the hair stood up on the back of my neck. Now, it didn't stand up on my head because I don't have enough hair on my head. But I figured I would disarm you before you viciously attacked me with that. Yeah, my pleasure.

Well, I wasn't going to say that.

Yes, and I will. Yes. Thank you.

Yeah, it is absolutely insanely crazy. I'll tell you a story. Yes, I was visiting some of my grandchildren in Texas and I happened to take one of the older ones to a hockey practice. He plays ice hockey. And while there I was sitting next to a woman whose son was on the same team and so we were watching the practice together. Luckily they have a room that's overlooks the ice rink and it's warm, it's heated, so it's very nice. So we were chatting and she told me that she had lost her mother almost exactly a year ago. Well, you know me, Enid, I can't look at people who I feel are having some kind of emotional or psychological difficulty without trying to help, right?

Good.

doesn't always work. I have been known to put my foot in my mouth. But generally speaking, most people will appreciate that you care enough to try and make the effort. So I said to her, look, I something I can explain to you that I think might make you feel better. I said, would you like to hear it? She said, sure. I said, look, I'm going to talk to you a little bit about time, specifically I'm going to talk to you about Albert Einstein, theory of special relativity. And I explained, I began to explain to her what you've just asked me about. and that is how time works. just a little background, this sounded interesting. Isaac Newton from the 1600s, everybody knows who Isaac Newton was. He created these theories of physics that have proven to be extremely accurate and been used for hundreds of years. And it wasn't until Einstein came along in 1905 to actually I won't say disprove, but to change some of the things that Isaac Newton had professed as what was real reality, was how the world works. One of those things was how time works. So Isaac Newton talked about this clockwork universe, meaning that there's a giant clock somewhere and it's ticking off the same no matter whether you're where we are or... in a spaceship or on another planet, it doesn't matter. There's only one universal clock and it's the same for everybody. Now the time would be different basically on time zones. Obviously California is different than New York and so on. the idea that allowing for the differences in... in time zones, the actual time that goes by is the same. the theory is if you're in California and we're here in Washington DC and we set our clocks, we say ready, set, go, we turn on our atomic clocks, our highly accurate clocks, the time will tick off the same whether we're in California or whether in New York. That's true, except if one of us is moving relative to the other. If two people are at rest, like let's say you're in California and I'm here.

because you deserve a vacation, we'll send you to California. No, no, we're going to beam you there because I know you don't like airplanes. But we would just start our atomic clocks and then we would just click, click, click. And when we stopped them, we'd say, the same amount of time passed for both of us, which is true for both sitting still. But if one of us is moving.

putting that on an airplane. have to start walking.

then the time will pass differently. So the faster you go, the slower your clock goes. So if you were to, for instance, even though, let's put me on the plane, you don't like planes, let's say you stay here and I get on a plane and I start flying.

Okay.

And now I start going really, really, really fast. It actually doesn't matter how fast, but we wouldn't notice the difference unless I'm going very fast. The faster I go, the slower my clock goes. So when we get back together again, if I've gone really, really fast, like some fraction of the speed of light, and I come back to you and we look at our clocks, my clock will have gone a shorter amount of time, would have traversed a shorter amount of time than your clock. There would be a difference in our clocks. This is what Albert Einstein discovered. So when you extrapolate that idea, okay, so all you have to get from that is that time is not the same for everybody. If you are in motion relative to somebody else, your clock will tick more slowly than that person. It's just the way it is. If you run fast enough, you will age, but much more slowly, which is why if you send somebody off on a spaceship at some fraction of the speed of light and send them out for some amount of time, like a year, they'll come back, they'll be way younger than you are.

So if I run fast, I won't age.

So it's true, this is actually true. This is not science fiction, this is science, this is physics.

Younger, but what about their cells? mean, are the cells younger? What's younger? So if I send them up in space and they come back, they're young. In what sense are they younger?

So let's say you both leave at the age of 10 years old, right? Exactly on your birthday. And this person flies off into space at some fraction of the speed of light for five years. I'd actually have to do the calculation or get some very smart physicists to do it. I could probably ask Chad GPT to do it. But when that person came back, let's say two years had gone by, so you would have aged two years.

Okay. Okay.

But he would have aged less than two years. Now, his clock would be ticking along the same rate. He wouldn't notice it. He would think everything's just hunky-dory. Time was passing just quite normally. But when he got back, less time would have elapsed on his clock than on your clock. He would be younger than you. You started off at 10 years old. You would now be 12. He'd be some number less than 12. This is very difficult to understand and the physics is a bit complicated, I will admit. But we don't have to worry about the physics. We just have to worry about the conclusion or not worry about it to accept the conclusion, which is accurate. This is accurate. What I'm telling you is true. What does that mean? That means everybody who's in motion relative to somebody else has their own individual clock. Your clock is your clock. It's nobody else's clock. Time will traverse differently from you relative to anybody else depending on your relative speed compared to them. But here's what's so cool. What that means is that what two people think or happen, what one person says is, let's say two events, two things happen. A firecracker goes off and a light goes on, right? And you would say they happened at the exact same time. You're sitting still, you look, there's a firecracker to the left of you, there's a light to the right of you, the firecracker goes off, the light goes on, they happen to go on at the same time. You would say they are simultaneous events. Let's say somebody is moving relative to you, either towards you or away from you, it doesn't matter. they would not see those two events occurring at the same time. And here's a very simple way to think about it. The light from both has to travel to that person. So let's say you're on a football field on a 50 yard line and the firework is to the left of you and the light is to the right of you. The switch is thrown and both of them go on the same time and you would say, yes, there are simultaneous events happening at the same time. Let's say somebody is running out of the stadium. They start where you are and they start running out of the stadium, right? So they're running, so the fireworks further away from them than the light which is on the other on their end of the field. One of those things is close to them than the other. Light has to travel a distance to hit that person to get to that person. So if that person is running away it's going to take longer for the light from let's say the fireworks to get to them and then light than the actual light.

that we turned on gets to them. They would say one happened before the other. You would say, no, no, no, they both went on the same time. And he would say, no, they didn't. The fireworks went off before the light. Who's right? You're both right because you each have your own clock. Events that are simultaneous to one person will not be simultaneous to another person if that person is in motion relative to you. It's just.

Tell me the practical application of that. You said, let's go back to the woman at the ice skating rink, hockey rink. Okay, I'm just, ahead of you. See, I'm ahead of you because my time, you see, but you see, this is time because I'm moving and you're just stationary. Go ahead.

Okay, I'm gonna get to that. So all you have to accept it, you've been ahead of me always, this is nothing new. No, this is because you are more mature, more thoughtful and wiser. Well, that's way more. All you have to get at this point is that there's no such thing as a universal clock. Isaac Newton's clockwork universe is wrong.

Well, that is true and I have more hair on my head. So go ahead. Yeah, keep going. I'm listening.

Everybody is no such thing as a universal clock. Everybody carries their own individual clock relative to anybody else, depending on how fast they're moving. There's no such thing as absolute time. That's the first thing. There is no such thing as absolute time. That alone is a mind bender. Right. You would assume that everybody's experiencing time the same. What Einstein discovered 100 years ago, more than 100 years ago, is 1905. So now it's 120 years ago. Time flies. But.

Okay.

Yes it does.

But it's amazing that people don't know this 120 years later that there is no such thing as a universal clock. There is no such thing as absolute time. Time is relative to your motion in space relative to somebody else. Simultaneous events, two events that you would swear happened at the same time, somebody in motion relative to you would say no, no in it, those two things did not happen at the same time. One happened first, the other one happened afterwards. So who's right? You are both right. You are both right. You have seen them as simultaneous events, the other person has not. One has occurred before the other because they're in motion and it takes time for light to travel, right? So if you're moving away from an event, it takes long if that light to get to you than it would for somebody who's sitting still, right? That's number two. So what does that all mean? Okay, this has tremendous repercussions. So it tells you when you start it, when you extrapolate out all the repercussions of these, of the simple thing I just told you, it turns out that for any person at any speed, anywhere in the universe, Two events are occurring simultaneously. That to you or somebody else are not even close to being simultaneous. So what that tells you is that all moments exist contemporaneously. All time exists contemporaneously. Instead of thinking of time as that timeline that you discussed when you read that from my chapter, that ancient history is to the left on the timeline, then you get to the present, then the future is blank. And it looks like this, like a railroad track. You're moving from

Mm-hmm.

past to future, right? But that's not true. The correct way to think of time is what is often referred to as a block universe or one of the scientists who I really like, Brian Green from Columbia University, calls it a block of ice. I use instead the jukebox of time. I used to use a loaf of bread and my daughter made fun of me, but she's made, my daughter's very funny. And she's, she would just make fun of me. She'd go on this little, you know, soliloquy about, you know, this loaf of bread and slicing it, you just make... make a mincemeat out of me, right? So I then went to the jukebox of time, which anybody who's been listening to this podcast will know we talk about all the time, the jukebox of time, which is this gigantic, near infinite jukebox with an infinite number of records and each record represents a moment of time. Instead of like in a normal jukebox is where one record plays and goes back in, then the next record plays, goes back in. Every record is playing simultaneously and forever. Every moment is alive and occurring simultaneously and forever. That's the consequence of Einstein's identification about how time works. That there's no universal clock, that each us carries our own clock, that simultaneity of events is relative to each individual person depending on their speed, and therefore all moments exist contemporaneously in this shoot box of time. Okay, that's all you don't have worry about the physics, I promise you it's all real. But let's go back to this woman who I was talking to at the hockey rink. So I said to her, said, what that means to you is that every moment you spent with your mother in your life, you're still spending with her. Now again, people who've listened to this podcast have heard this before, but because all moments are alive, they're not just memories, they're not history, they're not moments in the past, these are all alive. Every moment is just as alive as the moment that you and I are talking or people are listening to this, whether a week from now or a year from now or 10 years from now.

All moments are alive and active, not just alive but active so that as I explained to this woman, she is still with her mother. She's still having lunch with her mother. She's still having going out shopping with her mother. She's still watching TV with her mother. She's still hanging out with her mother. These moments never go away. It's extremely comforting and it is absolutely in my view, perfectly correct to say the following, we never lose anyone. Those moments are always there. I've told you this, Enid, you lost your dog not too long ago. you're still with your dog. More importantly, you're still with, I remember when you lost your mother, you're still with your mother, you're still with your father, you're still with all the moments, we are still together on the playground at our schools. These moments don't go away. It is super comforting. So when you lose somebody, you have some kind of tragedy or loss, it's nice to remember that it's not just a memory that you have with these people, it is still going on.

But you can still, let's talk about mourning. M-O-U-R-N. We mourn people because we've lost them. You're saying, I guess, we lose them physically, but not spiritually. I guess we can sort of...

Yep.

No, it's more than that. It's more than that. So do we lose them physically? Sure. I mean, let's face it, you you can't hang up and call up your mother. And I sometimes think about my mother and go, and it's the craziest feeling I get to go, I think I'll call my mother as if I can. I really get that feeling as if I can. I'm not alone. Everybody goes, many, many people have this. I'm sure you do too. But the next thing I think about, because I know this crazy story of our universe, is that I think, oh, I am talking to my mother.

They're Right.

Yeah. Right.

Sure, of course.

So I'm not talking to her at this moment, at this point in my story of my life, but I am still talking to her in all the other moments of my life when she was alive, during her lifespan. The intersection of the time, the years that she was alive and I was alive, that intersection, that Venn diagram of our lives when we shared those years together. So for me, my mom died when she was 82. And I think I was 40, how old was I? 40 something, right? So there were this 40 something years of us being together in our lives. Those moments are alive. They're there. It's still happening. I'm still with her. I'm at, you know, Junior's luncheonette, we remember, right? We used sit at the counter when I was a little kid and she would order me a toasted onion roll, you a fresh roll. The bakery, remember the bakery was down, two doors down.

I do.

Wolves Bakery.

Wall's Bakers, would get, and of course the luncheonette didn't have packaged baked goods from a factory. They got them two doors down, So we would have a fresh toast, I would have a fresh toasted onion roll with my mother while she had a cup of coffee, right? I remember that. Now, it's not just a memory, it's still happening. It is still happening. This is the hardest thing for people to wrap their heads around. People look at me when I tell them this. Kind of like you're looking at me now. I think you're insane. No, this isn't me. This is Albert Einstein. This is true. These moments are still happening. Wow, how comforting is that? So when I say we never lose anybody, I mean that those moments never go away. We are always together in perpetuity, in eternity, forever. To me, that is extremely comforting. And it's not comforting because it's a nice idea. It's a nice thought. It's true.

Yeah.

Do you talk to her?

Well, not in the sense you do. don't... Well, sometimes I'll make an off the cup remark about, know, I'll say something, but I know I'm still talking to her. That's the difference, right? I don't have to think about talking to her now because I'm still talking to her during those overlapping years when we were together. This is how the world works. This is another humongous clue to the purpose of our lives. This podcast is about purpose and meaning and how to decrease stress. Well, this idea does all of that in one fell swoop. Because it decreases stress about the loss. You haven't lost anybody. You are still together. Yes, you're not together today, but just remember this. This is another idea that we've talked about, but I'm going to bring it up again. We lament the fact

Tell me how.

for ourselves and those we loved, for us personally when we're gone from this earth. We say, oh boy, it's going to be that day we die and we're going to miss everything going forward and it's going to be sad and I don't want to think about the fact that I'm not going to be here anymore. It's a perfectly normal thought. But how many times have you worried about all those years before you were born that you weren't on the planet? Nobody ever says, Man, wish, you know, I'm so sad that I wasn't alive in the 1870s or the year 100 or whatever it was. I mean, we don't lament the fact that we weren't on earth in those times, yet we do think about the fact that we're gonna be gone someday. Why? They're exactly the same. We have this lifespan from the these are the records are on from the in our jukebox of time from the moment we're born to the moment we leave this earth. That's our lifespan on earth. Right? We think about the moment the records after are gone but we don't pay any attention to the records before we arrived. Why not? They're exactly the same. There is no difference.

Because you weren't in it. Because you weren't in it. See, I think it'd be...

No, no, no, you weren't in it and you aren't going to be in it. If you look at all of time together, look at the jukebox of time, you don't ever think about those records that you weren't on before the moment you were born because you have nothing to relate to. But so you say, OK, well, then I had this lifespan, then I think I'm going to miss what I had. But.

Right.

Right.

But stop and think about it. There is no difference between the moments on the records before the day you were born and the records after the day you were born. You think they're different because you had some experience while you were here on earth, but they are absolutely no different. They are indistinguishable. You weren't on the ones before the first day of your life, and you're not gonna be on the ones after the last day of your life. They are exactly the same. This is a clue. This is a huge clue to why we're here. Don't worry about the moments after you die. worry just as much about them as the days before you arrived. They're meaningless. You have a set number of days or moments, let's say, on this earth. What's the point of them? What are you going to do with them? Ah, I know I'm going to die. I must be here for a reason. Or let's put it this way. I think we're here for a reason. It's possible we're not, but I'm going to go with that we are. We've talked about that a lot. OK, what is it? Well, what am I supposed to do while I'm here? What am I supposed to do on those records that constitute the lifespan that I have? I can't do anything about the ones before I was here, and can't do anything about the records after I'm gone. But what can I do with the records that I'm on? Make the world a better place. Help as many people as you can. Grow as many ways as you can. Become a person of substance. That's the point. So the stress should go away. When you understand this because because you're going to be on a certain number of records you weren't on ones before you got here and you're not gonna be on the ones after Stop worrying about death. Stop worrying about the end of your life. Stop worrying about what if you didn't worry about before you got here Don't worry about after you're gone. That's number one number two the the So that decreases stress that when you stop worrying about your own death and you recognize it for what it is just the record after your last record, being no different than the record before you were born, then that should release at least, I think all, but at least some of the stress of worrying about your demise, your own life, length of your life.

happens, I'm gonna throw a curbel at you, I think, so what happens if you're sitting and watching television and you realize that your heartbeat is really slow but you worried? were, why, this is just not you, but let's somebody else, why would that person worry if they're not really worried about death?

Yeah.

Well, I'll explain to you. So if that were to happen to somebody, I think that person should not worry. And I can tell you that...

Yeah.

We're just goofing around here, folks, because I had told Enid before we started that I had this experience where my heart rate went, got very low. I was not, I don't worry about that at all. I find it more interesting than anything else, but I don't worry about it. I do not worry about my death. No, because it's a foolish thing to worry about. First of all, every moment of your life is playing in perpetuity. You don't ever go away.

No?

But you weren't worried about your death, but you were worried about your health.

No, no, I was more interested than anything else. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. That's one of the points. It is so hard to get across to people. It is so difficult that, you know, you want to look, nobody wants to feel poorly. Nobody wants to be in a situation where they can't function and do even the simplest things in life.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Nobody looks forward to that. Nobody wants that. I'm not minimizing them. They're no fun. They're not fun for you. They're not fun for the people doing it who have to care for you. It's no fun, right? But it is. It just is. But don't worry about it because it doesn't change anything about your purpose and why you're here.

All right.

you have a limited lifespan. You have a limited health span. We talk about health span and lifespan, right? So have a limited health span. Now, if you're really lucky, your health span and your lifespan are exactly the same. And that happens to lot of, to many people, right? So there are people who age exquisitely well and they don't feel poorly until the very end, right? So you want to make, you hope your health span is as close to the, as close to equal to your lifespan as possible. And so you, you try to do the right things. You eat right. You watch, you know, your, you watch your blood pressure,

Right, yeah.

watch your cholesterol, you exercise most importantly of all, you don't drink or you drink to you know minimal amounts, you don't smoke, all these things you can do right to maximize that health span but there is a limit to your lifespan for sure. for everybody, 100 % of people have a limited lifespan. Longevity is not the goal. It can never be the goal. It never was the goal. It shouldn't be the goal. Stop thinking about that as the goal. Start thinking about the fact that you are on a certain number of records and they will be playing in perpetuity. Whatever you do in your life is going to be happening in perpetuity. So you do something really bad, you're gonna be doing that really bad thing for eternity, right? Let's try and minimize those. None of us are perfect. Let's try and minimize those. Let's try and maximize. the good things we do. Let's try and make something of our lives, become people of purpose by acquiring accomplishments, developing relationships, being honest, becoming a person of integrity, all those things we talk about all the time. Maximize the value of your utility to others. That's how you maximize your life. Then those records are going to be fantastic going forward. They'll always be playing and people will, that life that looks like you left behind, but you really didn't live behind will be exemplary forever. You will forever be doing the wonderful things you do. And you, I like to use you as an example, even though you don't like when I do this, but you have spent your adult life taking care of other people. You've been feeding them, whether they be poor people, especially elderly people, you've been taking care of people. Wow. What a legacy. What a lifespan. That's fantastic. So, you know, if people want to emulate somebody in this podcast, emulate Enid because she walks the walk. You see, there we go. But that's the point. That's how you minimize your stress. That's how you maximize your purpose. And when you understand how time works, that

God. Okay, well, we'll run out of time now. We've run out of time.

that we each have our individual clocks, that it means that all time exists contemporaneously and all moments are alive and active forever, for eternity. Those records never stop playing. This is another combination of minimizing stress, because you realize longevity is not the purpose of life, and maximizing your meaning and purpose.

Yeah.

You know, I have to say it is a very difficult concept to understand. I make jokes and we're a little, you with each other. But, and it's just hard to wrap your head around it, but the longer I listen to it, the more I realize maybe it's got something there. I don't know. I mean, in many respects, it's scary concept because we're talking as you and I, as we age, you don't, but I do. think what happens when I'm gone? What happens to this? What happens to that? And what... what you're telling me and what I need to start thinking about and believing in it, it doesn't matter. It's what I do now, right? And not to worry. So it will reduce stress if I actually start unstressing about this. Yeah.

Well, the good news is, the good news is you don't have to believe me because that article you have on the electrodynamics of moving bodies, by the way, that is the name of Einstein's paper on special relativity. It's not called the paper on special relativity. It's called on the electrodynamics of moving bodies. By the way, it's one of the greatest discoveries of all time. And he did not win the Nobel Prize for that, believe it or not. He did win one Nobel Prize, but...

Right, that I read every night, yeah. Yes, I love it.

They saved their for Trump. The reason I have that beside my bed is because I thought it was about moving bodies and I put it in my bedroom and I thought, well, this is terrific. And then I stopped reading it because it wasn't about that at all. But it's fascinating.

you

No, it's not really that good, right? But you understand the, so getting back to this woman in the hockey rink, so. When you understand how time works and you understand that all moments exist contemporaneously, and this is not myth, this is not fiction, this is actual physics, I like to say it's not faith, it's physics, then it's easier to look at your life as the book that we talk about. So you're not really aging, you're just on a different page. And I wish we had more time. We have to discuss something that I thought about this one. All our sessions, episodes go fast for you and me, I hope for the listeners, but this one seems to go exceedingly

Yeah.

fast. But we have to talk about consciousness and how consciousness fits into this idea of aging and moving through time. It's something I've been thinking about a lot lately. Nobody understands what consciousness is. We don't have time right now but we will talk about that sometime in the next couple of episodes because it is fascinating. But we'll leave it at this. All moments exist forever which means you're still with all the people you've loved forever. Those moments never go away. We never really lose anybody.

Great.

Okay, I'm going to end with, as I usually do, with something from your own book again. You say, our confidence in how our world works should be shaken. My goal is simply to prove beyond any doubt that the world you thought you knew is not the world in which you live. Our senses deceive us. These hard clues are like icy cold water poured on us as we sleep. They should cause us to leap up and question just about everything. Thank you. Thank you for this as always. This is a lot to think about, a lot to chew on, but I'm gonna do it. And I thank you and I'm looking forward to a conversation about consciousness. So we'll hold that for another time. But in the meantime, thank you. I appreciate this and I will give you the final word.

Final word is the world's a crazy place, but all the clues in physics point to the fact that our world is indeed different than we think and it opens up the possibility to lives of purpose meeting and very little stress, hopefully. Thank you, Enid. Always a pleasure. Thank you everybody for listening. We'll speak to you next time.

Thank you. Peace.