An Experiment with Time

Author J. W. Dunne

Country United Kingdom

Language English

Publisher A. & C. Black

Faber & Faber

Publicationdate

1927

Pages 208pp

ISBN 1-57174-234-4

OCLC 46396413

(http://worldcat.org/oclc/46396413)

LC Class MLCM 2004/02936 (B)

An Experiment with TimeFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An Experiment with Time is a long essay by the Irishaeronautical engineer J. W. Dunne (1875 — 1949) on thesubjects of precognition and the human experience oftime. First published in March 1927, it was very widelyread, and his ideas promoted by several other authors, inparticular by J. B. Priestley. Other books by J. W. Dunneare The Serial Universe, The New Immortality, andNothing Dies.

Contents

1 Contents

2 Basic concepts

3 Dunne's experiment4 Parallels with other scientific and metaphysical

systems

5 Scientific reception

6 Popular culture

7 See also

8 References9 External links

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 Eddington

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, ifa cat were to spend its whole entire life living in a box, anyone looking into the box could see the cat's birth, lifeand death in the same instant - were it not for the human consciousness, which means that we perceive at a fixedrate.

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 ofconsciousness, leading to pre-cognitive dreams, resulting in the phenomenon known as Deja vu. Henceforth,Dunne believes that we are existing in two parallel states, which requires a complete rethink of the way that weunderstand time.

Dunne's experiment

In An Experiment with Time, Dunne discusses how a theoretical ability to perceive events outside the normalobserver's stream of consciousness might be proved to exist. He also discusses some of the possible otherexplanations of this effect, such as déjà vu.

He proposes that observers should place themselves in environments where consciousness might best be freedand then, immediately upon their waking, note down the memories of what had been dreamed, together with thedate. Later, these notes should be scanned, with possible connections drawn between them and real life eventsthat 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 andlater interpretations of them as possible predictions. Statistical analysis was at that time in its infancy, and nocalculation 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 Aboriginal people ofAustralia, for example, believe that the Dreamtime exists simultaneously in the present, past and future, and thatthis 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 allowsawareness of reality and time in only a limited way and that it is in the sleeping state that the mind can go freeinto the multi-dimensional reality of time and space (examples: "Dreams are the wandering of the spirit throughall nine heavens and nine earths," The Secret of the Golden Flower, trans. Richard Wilhelm). Similarly, allmystery traditions speak of the immortal and temporal selves which exist simultaneously both within time andspace and without.

There are also parallels with classical relativity theory, in which time and space are merged into "spacetime", andtime is not absolute and independent but is dependent upon the motion of the observer.

Scientific reception

In 1928, Sir Arthur Eddington wrote a letter to Dunne, a portion of which was reprinted in the 1929 and latereditions of An Experiment With Time, in which he said:

“I agree with you about 'serialism'; the 'going on of time' is not in Minkowski's world as it stands.

My own feeling is that the 'becoming' is really there in the physical world, but is not formulatedin the description of it in classical physics (and is, in fact, useless to a scheme of laws which is

fully deterministic).[1] ”

Some psychical researchers such as George N. M. Tyrrell and C. D. Broad have pointed out problems withDunne's theory of time. As Tyrell explained:

“Mr. J. W. Dunne, in his book, An Experiment with Time, introduces a multidimensional

scheme in an attempt to explain precognition and he has further developed this scheme in laterpublications. But, as Professor Broad has shown, these unlimited dimensions are unnecessary,

and unless I have misunderstood Mr. Dunne's argument, they resolve themselves into space-dimensions, and the true problem of time — the problem of becoming, or the passage of events

from future through present to past, is not explained by them but is still left on the author's handsat the end.[2] ”

In an article in the New Scientist in 1983 it was reported that Dunne had written a book just before his deathadmitting that he was a medium and a believer in spiritualism, the article reports that Dunne had deliberatelychosen to leave this out of his An Experiment with Time book as he judged that it would have affected the

reception of his theory.[3]

In a review for the New Scientist John Gribbin described An Experiment with Time as a "definitive classic".[4]

Paul Davies in his book About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution (2006) wrote that Dunne was anentertaining writer but there is no scientific evidence for more than one time and that Dunne's argument seems ad

hoc.[5]

In his book Is There Life After Death? (2006), British writer Anthony Peake wrote that some of Dunne's ideasare valid and attempts to update the ideas of Dunne in the light of the latest theories of quantum physics,

neurology and consciousness studies.[6]

Popular culture

In literature, interest in Dunne's theory may be reflected in T. S. Eliot's Burnt Norton, from Four Quartets,which opens with the lines:

Time present and time past

Are both perhaps present in time future,

And time future contained in time past.[7][8]

J. B. Priestley used Dunne's theory directly in his play Time and the Conways, professing in his introductionthat he believed the theory to be true. Other writers contemporaneous to Dunne who expressed enthusiasm forhis ideas included Aldous Huxley, who was also interested in the expansion of human consciousness toexperience time, and Adolfo Bioy Casares, who mentioned this book in the introduction to his novel TheDream of Heroes (1954).

Charles Chilton used Dunne's analogy of time as a book to explain time travel in his radio play Journey IntoSpace. 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 DavidBohm, who also believed that consciousness defined how we perceived the world. Bohm, who called for arevolution in human consciousness to free us from the old, Newtonian, mechanistic understanding of theuniverse, even posited that through a transformation of consciousness Time could possibly cease to exist in theway we perceive it now (cf., "The Ending Of Time" by Jiddu Krishnamurti and Dr David Bohm).

The book is instrumental in Dr Philip Raven's production of his future history as 'edited' by H G Wells in his1933 work The Shape of Things to Come.

The 1964 novel Froomb! by British writer John Lymington refers to and is inspired by some of Dunne's

concepts.[9] The protagonist, intended to be scientifically "killed" and revived to bring back an account ofHeaven, is instead physically transported into the future, a parallel "time-band." He attempts to communicatewith 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.[10]

An Experiment with Time is referenced in the book Sidetripping by William S. Burroughs and CharlesGatewood.

It is also mentioned in the book "Last Men In London" by Olaf Stapledon (1932) and in Bid Time Return, a1975 novel by Richard Matheson (although the reference is not retained in the later movie adaptation madeunder the title Somewhere in Time (film).)

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 unpublishednovel, "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 moviealso investigates the aspects of the book through the style of filming, in that the story is told backwards, witheach 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 andthe last phrase written.

See also

Aldous Huxley

David Bohm

Dreamtime

Four QuartetsJ. B. Priestley

Quantum Physics

Theory of RelativityTime

Time and the Conways

References

1. ^ http://home.us.archive.org/stream/AnExperimentWithTime/Dunne-AnExperimentWithTime_djvu.txt

2. ^ George Nugent Merle Tyrrell Science and psychical phenomena 1938, p. 135

3. ^ Ruth Brandon Scientists and the supernormal New Scientist 16 June 1983 p. 786

4. ^ John Gribbin Book Review of An Experiment with Time New Scientist 27 Aug 1981, p. 548

5. ^ Paul Davies About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=mOgIGyD1uSIC&pg=PT303&dq=paul+davies+%22experiment+with+time%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=TJYMT9-TA9aqsgaEtdmdBA&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false)

6. ^ Anthony Peake Is There Life After Death? The Extraordinary Science Of What Happens When We Die 2006

7. ^ Verlyn Flieger, "Time in the Stone of Suleiman," in The Rhetoric of Vision: Essays on Charles Williams, byCharles Adolph Huttar & Peter J. Schakel (Bucknell University Press, 1996), p. 82(http://books.google.com/books?id=3NBWBoT5mI8C&pg=PA82&lpg=PA82&dq=%22ts+eliot%22+%22an+experiment+with+time%22&source=web&ots=-qvdO9CDnU&sig=2WUy5I6deYb_D5Hrs-qlEdnzJnc) Retrieved 2007-09-15.

8. ^ T. S. Eliot and the Use of Memory, by Grover Cleveland Smith (Bucknell University Press, 1996), p. 96(http://books.google.com/books?id=fUMJFn-uRZAC&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96&dq=%22ts+eliot%22+%22an+experiment+with+time%22&source=web&ots=qLbbloIkAU&sig=HVH937CnL1rimQpH1Z09i8YO_-w) Retrieved 2007-09-15.

9. ^ The reference to Dunne's Experiment with Time is in Section 3, Chapter 4 of Lymington's novel (see theHodder Paperback edition, 1966, p.97), where it is explained as 'a theory of Time Belts, that other worlds existat the same time as ours, in the same places, but only occasionally can you tune in from our waveband toanother'.

10. ^ Thompson, Andy. (2004). Introduction to Timeslip, p. 2. [Timeslip DVD Special Feature]. London: CarltonVisual Entertainment. 37115 06243.

External links

Review by Andrew Crumey (http://cms.panmacmillan.com/picador/ManageBlog.aspx?

BlogID=d853b604-23d4-48ae-beb0-a7c018d8a6b5&BlogPage=Permalink)A tribute to the dream work of J. W. Dunne (http://www.geocities.com/felixrayman/) (Archived

(http://www.webcitation.org/5knHT9uWt) 2009-10-25)

Anthony Peake's website (http://www.anthonypeake.com/)

The Serial Universe (http://www.archive.org/details/serialuniverse032783mbp) The Open Archive'scopy of the first edition, Faber & Faber, 1934.

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