Introduction to Time Distortion

Instructor: Rainsong
Date: July 7, 2018 (Saturday)

Seminar: Topic: Introduction to Time Distortion (by request of Kate) -Saturday, 7 July 2018 at 6:30pm/1830hr New York Time — text format in the PSC #lecture room (Discord) — Instructor: Rainsong — Search LECTURE31

Rainsong: Good afternoon/evening/whatever, ladies and gentlemen and lurkers-in-the-weeds

Rainsong: Welcome to another psionics seminar here at the social club.

Rainsong: Strictly speaking, our topic for today is probably not psionic per se.

Rainsong: It is, however, a handy skill to have on hand, and its building blocks are all things that psionicists use routinely.

Rainsong: That topic is “time distortion.”

Rainsong: Time distortion alters a person’s perception of time… as opposed to time dilation that affects the time-space continuum itself. We won’t be dealing with the latter in this latter.

Rainsong: Probably.

Rainsong: Any questions or comments before we dive into today’s topic?

Kate Embers: Nothing from me ^^

Rainsong: Time distortion is one of those interesting effects that most people have experienced “accidentally” under various circumstances.

Rainsong: For example, when you were in school, did you ever find the last half hour of class of a sunny spring day seemed to linger for hours?

Rainsong: Or how an hour or so seemed to “go missing” when you’re working against a deadline, or at a party, or… um, doing other fun things?

Rainsong: “Time flies when you’re having fun” is a common English saying. It’s referring directly to this effect.

Rainsong: Five minutes waiting for the bus when there’s a hard sleet feels longer than those same five minutes waiting for the bus on the same route in fine weather.

Kate Embers: yyeeeep, know it too well

Rainsong: When you’re nervous or scared, time seems to move faster. It’s why folks stumble on the keys in their first piano recital, and have trouble tracking what their opponent is doing in a fight (whether sparring in a martial arts class or fighting for real in a bar or on the streets… or in military conflicts)

Rainsong: You can probably imagine how slowing down your perception of time, so that five seconds feels like a minute – or longer – could be handy in those situations: It’d feel like you were poking at the keys in a leisurely can’t-possibly-mess-this-us manner. Or you could see your sparring partner begin that right hook with lots of time to counter, block or get out of the way.

Rainsong: Speeding up perception of time can be convenient when waiting for that bus in a sleet-storm in January.

Rainsong: Seeing as you’d requested the topic, you probably had specific uses in mind, yea?

Kate Embers: yep, pretty much

Kate Embers: it can come in very handy

Kate Embers: skipping waiting times

Kate Embers: getting more time in critical situations (may it be needing time to think, reducing stress, etc)

Kate Embers: the uses are practiveally infinite

Rainsong: It’s true.

Rainsong: And the really cool thing? Because it’s a mental effect that happens naturally anyway, it’s actually pretty easy to accomplish, with appropriate practice.

Kate Embers: nice :3

Rainsong: The simplest way to approach it is as a usage of self-hypnosis.

Rainsong: (Or regular hypnosis, if you prefer and know a practitioner whom you trust)

Rainsong: A book I’d recommend, if you want all sorts of interesting information about the phenomenon is “Time Distortion in Hypnosis – An Experimental and Clinical Investigation” by Drs Linn F Cooper and Milton H Erickson

Kate Embers: Okay, sadly don’t have that book yet ^^

Kate Embers: Hmm, how would one go about doing this in self-hypnosis? Just reinforcing “time runs slow/fast”?

Rainsong: Presuming you already know how to induce a usable self-hypnotic trance, how you proceed depends on whether you want to distort your time perception right then, or work on being able to distort it at will later.

Rainsong: If you don’t already know how to do the trance part, it should be a separate class… or several.

Kate Embers: Hmm, I used to, sorta. I lay down and repeat “I am calm” until I’m in some sort of trance. Time actually seems to slow down when doing it, when we’re at it already 😀

Kate Embers: At that point I just repeat a phrase for 5 to 10 minutes with the appropriate intent

Kate Embers: Though I’ve rarely made use of that so far, but did it for a while back when I was 15 or 16.

Kate Embers: Nowadays I’d have issues falling asleep :joy:

Rainsong: Heh. Well, you’ve got one more-or-less workable approach you could use for now, anyway.

Rainsong: As for the phrasing to use, to address the issue at hand,…

Rainsong: If you’re doing the thing right then, something like, “Pay attention to the ticking of the clock (or any other steady sound… ) and notice the ticks getting further and further apart (or closer and closer together).”

Rainsong: “You have lots of time (to do… whatever)” or “Time is zipping by…”

Kate Embers: Alright, makes sense

Kate Embers: Think I should be able to pull that off, and probably tie it to an anchor

Kate Embers: Any other methods that can be used?

Rainsong: nods tying it to an anchor for later use is the simplest approach for regular bored-in-the-queue purposes.

Rainsong: Pro-Tip: choose an unobtrusive gesture and/or sound if you’re using gestures and sounds, unless you like alarming other folks around you.

Kate Embers: I thought of a unique feeling in a random spot. Otherwise I thought I may be able to tie it to two crystals, though that’ll be harder.

Kate Embers: May be able to put the respective feeling into two crystals and use empathy to reproduce it, but I’ll have to experiment on that.

Rainsong: nods You could make a construct programmed to make time speed up or slow down. Attach the construct to a piece of jewellery (or a cotton ball) and trigger it with clutching or squeezing the item.

Kate Embers: Something along those lines, yea ^^

Kate Embers: Which raises a question, is this in any way energetic or merely mental?

Rainsong: If a construct is involved, then it’s also energetic.

Rainsong: If just hypnotic, then “merely mental”

Kate Embers: Where would this energy work? :thinking:

Rainsong: The construct itself is energetic.

Rainsong: The book “Mind Games,” by Masters and Houston, also has some interesting things to try, involving time distortion, in case you happen to come across it. Be aware that the two researchers in question might possibly have consumed a spot more recreational pharmaceuticals than was strictly good for them, in the course of their research, in the last century

Kate Embers: nope, haven’t got it either :thinking:

Kate Embers: I’ll try it out the next few days :3

Kate Embers: if any more questions come up I’ll just ask 😀

Kate Embers: oh, wait, there’s some :joy:

Kate Embers: do you have any idea where this comes from, and why we have different perceptions of the mind to begin with?

Rainsong: Go for it. We’ve already covered the basics of it.

Kate Embers: Like, sure, it makes sense.

Kate Embers: But what decides whether we need slow or fast perception, how slow or fast we need it, and what’s normal or good for us?

Rainsong: Do I know? No, not with certainty. What I think is likely the case is that time perception is a cultural construct, and so subject to interpretation anyway. And some biochemical reactions in the body alter the sense of time, too (Adrenaline reactions come to mind immediately).

Rainsong: I think “normal” is the cultural construct part. And then chemical/hormonal reactions alter it along with the chemicals’ other cognitive effects.

Rainsong: Panic messes up all sorts of stuff, for example.

Kate Embers: Yea, I know panic. Time gets very weird with it sometimes.

Kate Embers: It passes really fast but it feels slow while it happens >.>

Rainsong: And, as a person gets older, perception of longer periods of time feel shorter. For example, in many countries, the time between evening of Christmas Eve/Saint Lucia’s Day/similar holidays and the morning can seem like eons for small children. While for someone in their seventies, feels entire years as being shorter with each passing year… mostly because a year becomes a smaller and smaller portion of the total life lived to that point.

Kate Embers: I’ve heard of that, yea. And feeling it myself already :sweatsmile:

Rainsong: Passage of time in dreams is also weird. The actual time passed might only be minutes, but the “storyline” can take hours or days.

Kate Embers: 9 weeks summer holidays were an eternity as a kid. Now I’m in mont 7 of not doing anything and feels like nothing.

Kate Embers: My dreams usually last about 15 to 30 minutes perceived :thinking: Though they may have gaps of several hours or days

Rainsong: nods

Rainsong: Any other questions or comments about this?

Kate Embers: I assume perceived time would be different across species, spirits, etc?

Rainsong: I would presume so. Have you heard squirrels talk? If their perceived time isn’t slower than hours, they would have trouble tracking what the other squirrels are saying, yea?

Rainsong: I’d imagine it’s a complicated concept for a non-corporeal being, lacking the “space” part of “time-space”

Kate Embers: At least I’ve heard that human time is a weird and sometimes hard concept for some beings

Rainsong: Even within our own species, differences in cultural expectations at least – and quite possibly different perceptions entirely – have sometimes caused misunderstandings.

Rainsong: There’s different interpretation of colour across cultures, even allowing for differences in sensation on account of organic and structural differences in the eyes. So differences in perception of time would seem to be logical.

Kate Embers: okay, yea, makes sense

Kate Embers: already with how some cultures are more punctual than others :joy:

Rainsong: Indeed

Kate Embers: my questions would be done so far :3

Kate Embers: thanks a lot 😀

Rainsong: You’re welcome. Thanks for participating. 😀

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