Page 106 - The Evil Called Mockery

104 THE EVIL CALLED MOCKERY

time is best explained in Einstein's own words. "The experiences of an
individual," he says, "appear to us arranged in a series of events; in
this series the single events which we remember appear to be
ordered according to the criterion of 'earlier' and 'later'. There
exists, therefore, for the individual, an I-time, or subjective time.
This in itself is not measurable. I can, indeed, associate numbers with
the events, in such a way that a greater number is associated with the
later event than with an earlier one. 14
As Barnett wrote, Einstein showed that, "space and time are
forms of intuition, which can no more be divorced from conscious-
ness than can our concepts of color, shape, or size." According to the
Theory of General Relativity: "time has no independent existence
apart from the order of events by which we measure it." 15
Since time consists of perception, it depends entirely on the
perceiver—and is therefore relative.
The speed at which time flows differs according to the refer-
ences we use to measure it, because the human body has no natural
clock to indicate precisely how fast time passes. As Barnett wrote,
"Just as there is no such thing as color without an eye to discern it, so
an instant or an hour or a day is nothing without an event to mark
it." 16
The relativity of time is plainly experienced in dreams.
Although what we perceive in a dream seems to last for hours, in
fact, it only lasts for a few minutes, and often even a few seconds.
An example will clarify the point. Assume that you were put
into a room with a single window, specifically designed; and were
kept there for a certain period of time. A clock on the walls shows
you the amount of time that has passed. During this "time," from the
room's window, you see the sun setting and rising at certain inter-
vals. A few days later, questioned about the amount of time spent in