Time Isn’t Real: Linear vs Cyclical Time

INTRODUCTION

We live by the clock. We schedule, we plan, we count down and look ahead. Time seems like an ever-moving line - past, present, future - rushing forward whether we’re ready or not. But if you’ve ever lost yourself in a moment, sat in stillness, or experienced a déjà vu, you’ve felt the truth: time doesn’t always behave the way we expect.

The deeper I’ve gone into meditation and healing, the more I’ve questioned whether time is something we move through - or something that moves through us. And more often than not, I’ve found that when I stop obsessing over time, I somehow end up with more of it.

SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE

From a scientific standpoint, time is one of the most debated concepts in physics. At its core:

• Time is relative, not absolute. According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, time isn’t a fixed constant. It stretches and contracts depending on speed and gravity. This means that time can actually pass at different rates depending on where you are in the universe.

  
  

• Your brain influences how you perceive time. Neuroscience shows that when you’re focused, relaxed, or in a flow state, your brain processes fewer “time stamps,” making minutes feel longer or shorter. In contrast, anxiety or anticipation can make time feel agonizingly slow.

  
  

• The present moment is all that exists. While we remember the past and anticipate the future, the only time we ever actually experience is now. Memory and prediction are constructs of the mind, not properties of time itself.

SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE

Many spiritual traditions don’t see time as linear at all. Instead, time is cyclical, layered, or even illusory:

• In ancient cultures, time was often seen in cycles - seasons, moon phases, birth and rebirth. These cycles were understood not as repetition, but as spirals - each return to a point brought deeper wisdom and evolution.

  
  

• Mystical teachings suggest all moments exist simultaneously. This idea is echoed in the Akashic Records, where every event, thought, and emotion is said to be recorded - not in the past, but in the eternal now.

  
  

• In meditation and altered states, time becomes irrelevant. Moments stretch out or disappear entirely. You’re simply present, and that presence feels more real than any ticking clock.

  
  

For many of us, awakening spiritually means stepping out of the race against time and into a different relationship with it - one that honours timing, presence, and rhythm over pressure and deadlines.

BRIDGING THE GAP

We’ve all felt it: when you’re bored, time crawls. When you’re joyful, it flies. That alone tells us that our experience of time is deeply connected to our state of consciousness.

In my own life, I’ve noticed that meditation changes my relationship with time completely. When I’m present - truly present - it’s as if time slows, or even disappears. I’m not watching the clock, I’m in the moment. And strangely, after I meditate, I often find I have more time than I thought I would. It’s like I stepped outside the rules for a little while - and when I returned, everything felt easier, lighter, and somehow more spacious.

This experience echoes both science and spirit. The brain is processing differently. The body is grounded. The soul isn’t rushed. Presence collapses the illusion of time and expands our capacity to live fully.

Understanding time as flexible, cyclical, or even non-linear doesn’t mean we abandon our schedules. It means we stop being ruled by them. We begin to trust life’s timing. We learn to move with our own natural rhythm instead of the relentless tick of expectation.

CONCLUSION

Time may be a useful tool - but it isn’t the ultimate truth. When we stop treating it like a fixed line and start experiencing it as a flow, a cycle, or even a spacious now, we find freedom. Freedom to be here. Freedom to trust the timing of our lives. Freedom to stop racing and start living.

Because maybe time isn’t something we measure. Maybe it’s something we remember - every time we return to the present and realize… we were never behind.