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Have you experience moment that stretch for so long that makes you thought it would stay forever? Is it where the time slows down; or is time running too fast that our brains can't perceive correctly? I am particularly curious why and how time can be slowing down or speeding up.
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(background picture on image :Funny women | text on image: @juecoree)

Slowing down or speeding up

When you are in an imminent danger, miss accident, or exposed to violence. People tend to unfold that this events happen in a slow motion. According to Marc Withman, PhD, physical things does not slows down. It is more on how we experience such event. In an imminent danger, our senses becomes heighten. We becomes full aware of our surrounding. I think it is cause by our brains response of either to flight or fight.

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Neuroscientist David Eagleman has one great example of slowing time.

Put a book down in front of a mirror and go look in a mirror. Now, move your eyes back and forth, so that your looking at the left eye then the right eye. When your eyes shifted from one position to another, your eyes take time to move from one position to another. The trick here is that you need not see your eyes moving. There are no gaps or blank films when you do the exercise. What you see is being edited by our brain. The complicated scene of our eyes moving back and forth is re-cut and perceived as if your staring one time frame in time.

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Where does some moments go? It is the same when a little girl exposed to some physical violence and traumatic event. As if time froze, the act of violence is heighten to some degree that make a little girl shock in silence. Slowing down of moment in time is cause by temporal dilation.

How we perceived time?

Our brain takes a whole lot of information from our senses; but our sense of time is quite different from our taste, sight, smell, hearing, and touch. Our regular senses are receptors of stimulant in our surrounding. However, our sense of time can't be directly perceive. Our brain reconstruct how we perceived time; and is subjected to cognitive biases.

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Our five senses has a distinct brain area were it is being processed. For our sense of time, more parts of the brain is working. Our brains receives new information in an order that needs to be processed properly in an understandable form. As our brain recognize familiar information, a lesser time for processing this information and present so easily. In this case, we perceived time a bit faster. For example, doing some routine task or meeting deadlines over a period of time makes you feel time is running fast or running out. As for new information, our brain needs more time or extended time for processing this information. It is why we perceived time a little longer. For example, attending seminars, conventions or lectures, time becomes a little bit too slow.

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Our perception of time is also associated with our attention to it. Measuring a duration of an event and become more aware of the time, it makes time to be perceived too long. For example, having a plan to go on a date or a movie night with friends after work. As you become aware of the remaining time till next break or your out from work, the more time becomes too slow. When your too busy working your stuffs, it is as if time moves too fast.

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Closing

Time does not slows down, literally; but how we experience and perceived time varies. The more attention to time itself. The more time becomes too slow. So, if you want to feel and make your work hours short, preoccupied with all work stuffs. If you want to make precious moment take longer, make it as if it is a new experience. Once again, time does not slows down or speed out on its own. It is your choose of how you wan to perceived time; and how to take advantage of it.

Thank you for reading this post! I hope you learn something! Have a great day!

@curiousson

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Web references:

1. The Matrix Effect: When time slows down
2. The Science of Time Perception: Stop It Slipping Away by Doing New Things
3. Time perception
4. How our brain perceive time