The Great Illusion: Why "Later" is a Ghost

Right now, I am looking out my window at the river. It’s winter, and the water is a deep, metallic grey, moving with a heavy, quiet grace.

If I let my mind wander, I can almost feel the "future" version of this view—the way the sun will eventually bake those rocks, the way the waves will turn a bright, translucent blue and ripple warmly over the stones. I can practically smell the summer silt.

But as soon as I go there, I’ve left the room. 

We spend our lives checking our watches, yet we’ve never actually lived in a minute that wasn't "now."

We treat time like a long hallway we’re walking down, with a door at the end labeled The Future and a trail of dust behind us called The Past. But if you stop and look around, the hallway is an illusion. There is only the room you are standing in.

Memory vs. Anticipation

Think about it:

• The Past is just a collection of neural firings—a memory occurring now.

• The Future is just a mental simulation—an anticipation occurring now.

When we obsess over what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow, we aren't actually traveling through time. We are just cluttering the only moment we actually possess with "ghost data."

The only time that exists is now.  All else is but memory and anticipation or worry. 

The Shadow of the End

The reason we cling to the concept of time so tightly is usually fear. Specifically, the fear of death.

We view death as a distant, looming event on a timeline. Because we are so afraid of that "final" moment, we spend our "current" moments trying to prepare for it, prevent it, or outrun it. This creates a tragic paradox: We are so worried about the end of life that we forget to actually inhabit it.

Fear is a future-oriented emotion. You can’t really be afraid of the now, because in the now, you are simply breathing, being, and experiencing.

Waking Up to the Present

If time doesn't exist, then you aren't "running out" of anything. You aren't "behind" in life. You aren't "losing" years. You are simply here.

When we drop the weight of the past and the anxiety of the future, the present moment stops being a stepping stone to something else. It becomes the destination itself.are simply breathing, being, and experiencing.

Don't worry, readers.   Worry takes you away from now.  And there is only right now. When we get to the future - to that point in time we worried over so much - it will be right now  again.