Friday, April 13, 2007

Temporal Judgement

Altered states of consciousness are sometimes characterized by a different estimation of time. Some psychoactive substances--such as entheogens--may also dramatically alter a person's temporal judgement. When viewed under the influence of such substances as LSD, psychedelic mushrooms and peyote, a clock may appear to be a strange reference point and a useless tool for measuring the passage of events as it does not correlate with the user's experience.

At higher doses, time may appear to slow down, stop, speed up, and even go backwards when under the influence of these agents.

A typical thought might be "I can't believe it's only 8 o'clock, but then again, what does 8 o'clock mean?" As the boundaries for experiencing time are removed, so is its relevance. Many users claim this unbounded timelessness feels like a glimpse into spiritual infinity. To imagine that one exists somewhere "outside" of time is one of the hallmark experiences of a psychedelic voyage.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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