An Experiment with Time
Encyclopedia
An Experiment with Time is a long essay by the Irish aeronautical engineer J. W. Dunne
(1875 — 1949) on the subjects of precognition
and the human experience of time. First published in March 1927, it was very widely read, and his ideas promoted by several other authors, in particular by J. B. Priestley
. Other books by J. W. Dunne are The Serial Universe, The New Immortality, and Nothing Dies.
Appendix to the third edition:
Index
According to Dunne, whilst human consciousness prevents us from seeing outside of the part of time we are "meant" to look at, whilst we are dreaming we have the ability to traverse all of time without the restriction of consciousness, leading to pre-cognitive dreams, resulting in the phenomena known as Deja vu
. Henceforth, Dunne believes that we are existing in two parallel states, which requires a complete rethink of the way that we understand time.
.
He proposes that observers should place themselves in environments where consciousness might best be freed and then, immediately upon their waking, note down the memories of what had been dreamed, together with the date. Later, these notes should be scanned, with possible connections drawn between them and real life events that occurred after the notes had been written.
While the first half of the book is an explanation of the theory, the latter part comprises examples of notes and later interpretations of them as possible predictions. Statistical analysis was at that time in its infancy, and no calculation of the significance of the events reported was able to be made.
people of Australia, for example, believe that the Dreamtime
exists simultaneously in the present, past and future, and that this is the objective truth of time, linear time being a creation of human consciousness and therefore subjective. Kabbalah
, Taoism
and indeed most mystical traditions have always posited that waking consciousness allows awareness of reality and time in only a limited way and that it is in the sleeping state that the mind can go free into the multi-dimensional reality of time and space (examples: "Dreams are the wandering of the spirit through all nine heavens and nine earths," The Secret of the Golden Flower
, trans. Richard Wilhelm). Similarly, all mystery traditions speak of the immortal and temporal selves which exist simultaneously both within time and space and without.
There are also parallels with classical relativity
theory, in which time and space are merged into "spacetime
", and time is not absolute and independent but is dependent upon the motion of the observer.
Burnt Norton
, from Four Quartets
, which opens with the lines:
J. B. Priestley
used Dunne's theory directly in his play Time and the Conways
, professing in his introduction that he believed the theory to be true. Other writers contemporaneous to Dunne who expressed enthusiasm for his ideas included Aldous Huxley
, who was also interested in the expansion of human consciousness to experience time, and Adolfo Bioy Casares
, who mentioned this book in the introduction to his novel The Dream of Heroes (1954).
Charles Chilton
used Dunne's analogy of time as a book to explain time travel in his radio play Journey Into Space
. Philippa Pearce
's childhood fantasy Tom's Midnight Garden
also makes use of Dunne's ideas.
The idea that time might be experienced differently in enfolded space is one posited by quantum physicist David Bohm
, who also believed that consciousness defined how we perceived the world. Bohm, who called for a revolution in human consciousness to free us from the old, Newtonian, mechanistic understanding of the universe, even posited that through a transformation of consciousness Time could possibly cease to exist in the way we perceive it now (cf., "The Ending Of Time" by Jiddu Krishnamurti
and Dr David Bohm).
In his book Is There Life After Death? (2006), British writer Anthony Peake
attempts to update the ideas of Dunne in the light of the latest theories of quantum physics, neurology and consciousness studies.
The 1964 novel Froomb! by British writer John Lymington
refers to and is inspired by some of Dunne's concepts. The protagonist, intended to be scientifically "killed" and revived to bring back an account of Heaven, is instead physically transported into the future, a parallel "time-band." He attempts to communicate with the controller of the experiment through dreams.
In the 1970 children's TV series, Timeslip
, a time bubble allows two children to travel between past, present and future. Much of the show's time travel concepts were based on An Experiment with Time.
An Experiment with Time is referenced in the book Sidetripping by William S. Burroughs
and Charles Gatewood.
It is also mentioned in the book "Last Men In London" by Olaf Stapledon
(1932).
It is also mentioned in the story "Murder in the Gunroom" by H. Beam Piper
, and in "Elsewhen
" by Robert A. Heinlein
.
The ideas of Dunne also form the basis for "The Dark Tower" a short story by C. S. Lewis
, and the unpublished novel, "The Notion Club Papers
" by J. R. R. Tolkien
. Both Tolkien and Lewis were members of the Inklings
.
In the 2002 French movie Irréversible
, one of the characters is seen reading the book by Dunne. The movie also investigates the aspects of the book through the style of filming, in that the story is told backwards, with each beginning sequence beginning either minutes or hours prior to the one which preceded it in the narrative. Also, the tagline is Le temps détruit tout meaning "Time destroys everything" – it is the first phrase spoken and the last phrase written.
John William Dunne
John William Dunne FRAeS was an Anglo-Irish aeronautical engineer and author. In the field of parapsychology, he achieved a preeminence through his theories on dreams and authoring books preoccupied with the question of the nature of time...
(1875 — 1949) on the subjects of precognition
Precognition
In parapsychology, precognition , also called future sight, and second sight, is a type of extrasensory perception that would involve the acquisition or effect of future information that cannot be deduced from presently available and normally acquired sense-based information or laws of physics...
and the human experience of time. First published in March 1927, it was very widely read, and his ideas promoted by several other authors, in particular by J. B. Priestley
J. B. Priestley
John Boynton Priestley, OM , known as J. B. Priestley, was an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster. He published 26 novels, notably The Good Companions , as well as numerous dramas such as An Inspector Calls...
. Other books by J. W. Dunne are The Serial Universe, The New Immortality, and Nothing Dies.
Contents
- I. Definitions
- II. The Puzzle
- III. The Experiment
- IV. Temporal Endurance and Temporal Flow
- V. Serial Time
- VI. Replies to Critics
Appendix to the third edition:
- I. A Note by Sir Arthur EddingtonArthur Stanley EddingtonSir Arthur Stanley Eddington, OM, FRS was a British astrophysicist of the early 20th century. He was also a philosopher of science and a popularizer of science...
- II. The Age Factor
- III. The New Experiment
Index
Basic concepts
Dunne's theory is, simply put, that all moments in time are taking place at once, at the same time. For example, if a cat were to spend it's whole entire life living in a box, anyone looking into the box could see the cat's birth, life and death in the same instant - were it not for the human consciousness, which means that we perceive at a fixed rate.According to Dunne, whilst human consciousness prevents us from seeing outside of the part of time we are "meant" to look at, whilst we are dreaming we have the ability to traverse all of time without the restriction of consciousness, leading to pre-cognitive dreams, resulting in the phenomena known as Deja vu
Déjà vu
Déjà vu is the experience of feeling sure that one has already witnessed or experienced a current situation, even though the exact circumstances of the prior encounter are uncertain and were perhaps imagined...
. Henceforth, Dunne believes that we are existing in two parallel states, which requires a complete rethink of the way that we understand time.
Dunne's experiment
In An Experiment with Time, Dunne discusses how a theoretical ability to perceive events outside the normal observer's stream of consciousness might be proved to exist. He also discusses some of the possible other explanations of this effect, such as déjà vuDéjà vu
Déjà vu is the experience of feeling sure that one has already witnessed or experienced a current situation, even though the exact circumstances of the prior encounter are uncertain and were perhaps imagined...
.
He proposes that observers should place themselves in environments where consciousness might best be freed and then, immediately upon their waking, note down the memories of what had been dreamed, together with the date. Later, these notes should be scanned, with possible connections drawn between them and real life events that occurred after the notes had been written.
While the first half of the book is an explanation of the theory, the latter part comprises examples of notes and later interpretations of them as possible predictions. Statistical analysis was at that time in its infancy, and no calculation of the significance of the events reported was able to be made.
Parallels with other scientific and metaphysical systems
Dunne's theory of time has parallels in many other scientific and metaphysical theories. The AboriginalIndigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
people of Australia, for example, believe that the Dreamtime
Dreamtime
In the animist framework of Australian Aboriginal mythology, The Dreaming is a sacred era in which ancestral Totemic Spirit Beings formed The Creation.-The Dreaming of the Aboriginal times:...
exists simultaneously in the present, past and future, and that this is the objective truth of time, linear time being a creation of human consciousness and therefore subjective. Kabbalah
Kabbalah
Kabbalah/Kabala is a discipline and school of thought concerned with the esoteric aspect of Rabbinic Judaism. It was systematized in 11th-13th century Hachmei Provence and Spain, and again after the Expulsion from Spain, in 16th century Ottoman Palestine...
, Taoism
Taoism
Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
and indeed most mystical traditions have always posited that waking consciousness allows awareness of reality and time in only a limited way and that it is in the sleeping state that the mind can go free into the multi-dimensional reality of time and space (examples: "Dreams are the wandering of the spirit through all nine heavens and nine earths," The Secret of the Golden Flower
The Secret of the Golden Flower
The Secret of the Golden Flower , a Chinese Taoist book about meditation, was translated by Richard Wilhelm . Wilhelm, a friend of Carl Jung, was German, and his translations from Chinese to German were later translated to English by Cary F. Baynes...
, trans. Richard Wilhelm). Similarly, all mystery traditions speak of the immortal and temporal selves which exist simultaneously both within time and space and without.
There are also parallels with classical relativity
Theory of relativity
The theory of relativity, or simply relativity, encompasses two theories of Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity. However, the word relativity is sometimes used in reference to Galilean invariance....
theory, in which time and space are merged into "spacetime
Spacetime
In physics, spacetime is any mathematical model that combines space and time into a single continuum. Spacetime is usually interpreted with space as being three-dimensional and time playing the role of a fourth dimension that is of a different sort from the spatial dimensions...
", and time is not absolute and independent but is dependent upon the motion of the observer.
Influence
In literature, interest in Dunne's theory may be reflected in T. S. Eliot'sT. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
Burnt Norton
Burnt Norton
"Burnt Norton" is the first poem of T. S. Eliot's Four Quartets. He created it while working on his play Murder in the Cathedral and it was first published in his Collected Poems 1909–1935 . The poem's title refers to a Cotswolds manor house Eliot visited. The manor's garden served as an important...
, from Four Quartets
Four Quartets
Four Quartets is a set of four poems written by T. S. Eliot that were published individually over a six-year period. The first poem, "Burnt Norton", was written and published with a collection of his early works following the production of Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral...
, which opens with the lines:
- Time present and time past
- Are both perhaps present in time future,
- And time future contained in time past.
J. B. Priestley
J. B. Priestley
John Boynton Priestley, OM , known as J. B. Priestley, was an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster. He published 26 novels, notably The Good Companions , as well as numerous dramas such as An Inspector Calls...
used Dunne's theory directly in his play Time and the Conways
Time and the Conways
Time and the Conways is a British play written by J. B. Priestley in 1937 illustrating J. W. Dunne's Theory Of Time through the experience of a moneyed Yorkshire family, the Conways, over a period of nineteen years from 1919 to 1937...
, professing in his introduction that he believed the theory to be true. Other writers contemporaneous to Dunne who expressed enthusiasm for his ideas included Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
, who was also interested in the expansion of human consciousness to experience time, and Adolfo Bioy Casares
Adolfo Bioy Casares
Adolfo Bioy Casares was an Argentine fiction writer, journalist, and translator. He was a friend and collaborator with his fellow countryman Jorge Luis Borges, and wrote what many consider one of the best pieces of fantastic fiction, the novella The Invention of Morel.-Biography:Adolfo Bioy...
, who mentioned this book in the introduction to his novel The Dream of Heroes (1954).
Charles Chilton
Charles Chilton
Charles Chilton MBE is a BBC radio presenter, a writer and a producer. Born in Bloomsbury in London, England, he never knew his father - who was killed during World War I - and when he was six his mother died as a result of having a botched abortion, so he was raised by his grandmother. He was...
used Dunne's analogy of time as a book to explain time travel in his radio play Journey Into Space
Journey Into Space
Journey Into Space is a BBC Radio science fiction programme, written by BBC producer Charles Chilton. It was the last radio programme in the UK to attract a bigger evening audience than television...
. Philippa Pearce
Philippa Pearce
Ann Philippa Pearce OBE was an English children's author.-Early life:The youngest of four children, Pearce was brought up in the Mill House in the village of Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire...
's childhood fantasy Tom's Midnight Garden
Tom's Midnight Garden
Tom's Midnight Garden is a children's novel by Philippa Pearce. It won the Carnegie Medal in 1958, the year of its publication. It has been adapted for radio, television, the cinema, and the stage.-Plot summary:...
also makes use of Dunne's ideas.
The idea that time might be experienced differently in enfolded space is one posited by quantum physicist David Bohm
David Bohm
David Joseph Bohm FRS was an American-born British quantum physicist who contributed to theoretical physics, philosophy, neuropsychology, and the Manhattan Project.-Youth and college:...
, who also believed that consciousness defined how we perceived the world. Bohm, who called for a revolution in human consciousness to free us from the old, Newtonian, mechanistic understanding of the universe, even posited that through a transformation of consciousness Time could possibly cease to exist in the way we perceive it now (cf., "The Ending Of Time" by Jiddu Krishnamurti
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Jiddu Krishnamurti or J. Krishnamurti or , was a renowned writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. His subject matter included: psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and bringing about positive change in society...
and Dr David Bohm).
In his book Is There Life After Death? (2006), British writer Anthony Peake
Anthony Peake
Anthony Peake is a British writer whose work focuses on near-death experience, deja vu and the nature of reality.Peake has suggested a different explanation as to what happens to human consciousness at the point of death. This theory, which he terms Cheating the Ferryman was first published in the...
attempts to update the ideas of Dunne in the light of the latest theories of quantum physics, neurology and consciousness studies.
The 1964 novel Froomb! by British writer John Lymington
John Lymington
John Lymington was born John Richard Newton Chance in London. He was a prolific writer of short stories, children's literature, mystery and science fiction novels...
refers to and is inspired by some of Dunne's concepts. The protagonist, intended to be scientifically "killed" and revived to bring back an account of Heaven, is instead physically transported into the future, a parallel "time-band." He attempts to communicate with the controller of the experiment through dreams.
In the 1970 children's TV series, Timeslip
Timeslip
Timeslip is a British children's science fiction television series made by ATV for the ITV network and broadcast between 1970 and 1971. The series centres around two children, Simon Randall and Liz Skinner who discover the existence of a strange anomaly, known as the “Time Barrier”, that enables...
, a time bubble allows two children to travel between past, present and future. Much of the show's time travel concepts were based on An Experiment with Time.
An Experiment with Time is referenced in the book Sidetripping by William S. Burroughs
William S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
and Charles Gatewood.
It is also mentioned in the book "Last Men In London" by Olaf Stapledon
Olaf Stapledon
William Olaf Stapledon was a British philosopher and author of several influential works of science fiction.-Life:...
(1932).
It is also mentioned in the story "Murder in the Gunroom" by H. Beam Piper
H. Beam Piper
Henry Beam Piper was an American science fiction author. He wrote many short stories and several novels. He is best known for his extensive Terro-Human Future History series of stories and a shorter series of "Paratime" alternate history tales.He wrote under the name H. Beam Piper...
, and in "Elsewhen
Elsewhen
Elsewhen is a novella by Robert A. Heinlein, concerning time travel and parallel universes. It is collected in the 1953 book Assignment in Eternity but was first published in 1941 in Astounding Science Fiction....
" by Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
.
The ideas of Dunne also form the basis for "The Dark Tower" a short story by C. S. Lewis
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis , commonly referred to as C. S. Lewis and known to his friends and family as "Jack", was a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist from Belfast, Ireland...
, and the unpublished novel, "The Notion Club Papers
The Notion Club Papers
The Notion Club Papers is the title of an abandoned novel by J. R. R. Tolkien, written during 1945 and published posthumously in Sauron Defeated, the 9th volume of The History of Middle-earth. It is a space/time/dream travel story, written at the same time as The Lord of the Rings was being developed...
" by J. R. R. Tolkien
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Pembroke College,...
. Both Tolkien and Lewis were members of the Inklings
Inklings
The Inklings was an informal literary discussion group associated with the University of Oxford, England, for nearly two decades between the early 1930s and late 1949. The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction, and encouraged the writing of fantasy...
.
In the 2002 French movie Irréversible
Irréversible
Irréversible is a 2002 French drama film written and directed by Gaspar Noé, starring Monica Bellucci, Vincent Cassel and Albert Dupontel. The film employs a non-linear narrative and follows two men as they try to avenge a brutally raped girlfriend...
, one of the characters is seen reading the book by Dunne. The movie also investigates the aspects of the book through the style of filming, in that the story is told backwards, with each beginning sequence beginning either minutes or hours prior to the one which preceded it in the narrative. Also, the tagline is Le temps détruit tout meaning "Time destroys everything" – it is the first phrase spoken and the last phrase written.
See also
- Aldous HuxleyAldous HuxleyAldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. Best known for his novels including Brave New World and a wide-ranging output of essays, Huxley also edited the magazine Oxford Poetry, and published short stories, poetry, travel...
- David BohmDavid BohmDavid Joseph Bohm FRS was an American-born British quantum physicist who contributed to theoretical physics, philosophy, neuropsychology, and the Manhattan Project.-Youth and college:...
- DreamtimeDreamtimeIn the animist framework of Australian Aboriginal mythology, The Dreaming is a sacred era in which ancestral Totemic Spirit Beings formed The Creation.-The Dreaming of the Aboriginal times:...
- Four QuartetsFour QuartetsFour Quartets is a set of four poems written by T. S. Eliot that were published individually over a six-year period. The first poem, "Burnt Norton", was written and published with a collection of his early works following the production of Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral...
- J. B. PriestleyJ. B. PriestleyJohn Boynton Priestley, OM , known as J. B. Priestley, was an English novelist, playwright and broadcaster. He published 26 novels, notably The Good Companions , as well as numerous dramas such as An Inspector Calls...
- Quantum Physics
- Theory of RelativityTheory of relativityThe theory of relativity, or simply relativity, encompasses two theories of Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity. However, the word relativity is sometimes used in reference to Galilean invariance....
- :Time
- Time and the ConwaysTime and the ConwaysTime and the Conways is a British play written by J. B. Priestley in 1937 illustrating J. W. Dunne's Theory Of Time through the experience of a moneyed Yorkshire family, the Conways, over a period of nineteen years from 1919 to 1937...
External links
- Review by Andrew Crumey
- A tribute to the dream work of J. W. Dunne (Archived 2009-10-25)
- Anthony Peake's website
- The Serial Universe The Open Archive's copy of the first edition, Faber & Faber, 1934.