From time to time, we all dream about time travel – whether it’s wanting to take back something you said, remembering a happy memory and wanting those feelings again, or actually wanting to go back or forward in time.
How did they get those stones there… and why?
As you may know, I recently visited the UK and was lucky enough to visit some of its amazing historically-impressive sites: Stonehenge, Conwy Castle, Hampton Court Castle, St Briavels Castle, Corfe Castle, Hadrian’s Wall, Shakespeare’s home… and I came to wonder things like: how closely did Shakespeare really copy other people’s stories, and were all those stone castles actually quite snug once lined with carpets and heated with roaring fires? I’d love to go back in time and find out!
What about you? If you could go back in time, when would you go? Just for a day? My hubbie’s always wanted to see Tutankhamun, or the dinosaurs…
Just Imagine the Amazing!
Of course he could right now if he really wanted to, we all could, because the first method of time travel is to use your imagination. Don’t groan! It’s true. Do you really need to chance catching the plague, or being chomped on by a Trex? Even if you did actually travel through time, it might kill the present version of you and only recreate a copy of you in the past or future. You may never be able to get back. You may even change the past such that you never end up existing!
Imagine being in the time of Robin Hood?!
Whereas these days thousands of internet images wait to feed your imagination, along with movies and documentaries. Historians, explorers and archaeologists use their knowledge and skill to time travel every day! All you have to do is think about a place and imagine what people might do there – and ‘people’ haven’t changed much over time. In the past they did exactly as we do now – struggle to get out of bed in the morning, hunger for better food and facilities, wish we had the goodies other people seem to have – except in the past everyone had less-advanced technology. In the future, people will be people too, except with more advanced technology. Yes, our moral codes will change, and the world at large will influence our daily lives in different ways, but we will have more-or-less the same drives and dreams. I guess that’s why we love reading and watching sci fi and fantasy!
Watch Sci Fi and/or Fantasy!
Picture yourself as ruler of a far away kingdom! Would you be good at ruling?
In fact, the second method of time travel is to read and/or watch some science fiction or fantasy. Take a person, any person, and put them in a different time or place, a distant world or a future time… The people there will still be people, so you’ll be able to identify with their dreams and drives. Then, provided the writer of whatever you’re reading or watching has achieved a reasonable degree of ‘suspension of disbelief’ in their worldbuilding, you’ll experience what the character does along with them. You will be with them, sometimes even feel exactly like them! Thus sci fi and fantasy enables you to travel through time (and sometimes space).
Change Your Perspective
When we want to remember something from the past, we often recall a specific memory. But have you ever thought differently about past events after learning something new in your present? Perhaps you thought your parents didn’t care much about you growing up but, after becoming a parent yourself, you realise they were simply juggling work, mortgages and other responsibilities as best as they could – same as you do now.
Perhaps you’ve had an argument with a friend or family member, and at the time could only see things from your own perspective? As time passes and new information comes to light (talking things through, or learning something from a third party), you start you to see things from the other person’s perspective and re-experience things from their viewpoint – thus your view of the past changes when your perspective changes. It changes your memories, your perspective of the past, and therefore what you think now in the present. You have, in effect, time travelled!
In fact, scientists at Harvard have described the brain as a time machine because we are able to take information from the past and future, and interpret that information to effect our present… which brings me to the fourth method of time travel…
Plan Ahead
Some of us think more about the future than others. I don’t do it nearly as often as I should, because the more you think about the future and plan for what different scenarios you might encounter there, the better you become at anticipating the future, and making decisions.
Thus athletes who anticipate what will happen in future games or races will be able to think quicker on their feet and become better athletes. Business people who plan 10-15 years in the future, or travellers who more thoroughly research their next location, have more information about their future than others and thus experience that future, when it comes, with more knowledge than otherwise. Thus exploring possible decisions in advance changes your future experience of an event. Without any forethought, you are bound to experience any future event very differently.
Look Up!
Be careful what you wish for as you look up to the stars!
Of course the simplest way to experience time travel is to look up. Sunlight takes around eight minutes to reach the Earth, so by looking at the sun we are actually looking at the sun’s past. Time is not an absolute, since it passes at different rates in different places (thanks gravity!). Thus GPS satellites orbiting the earth have to be reset every day so their clocks match those on Earth – time passes differently for them, ticking faster until they lose around 8 microseconds a day. So look at the sun to see into the past, and a passing satellite to see into the future!
Enjoy!
Yep, I can see you in Game of Thrones. You looked like you were meant to sit on that throne. 😉
Ah, time travel; once you start, there’s no going back. Well, unless you want to live a very short life. And there’s no stopping; you may as well hitch a ride with Dr Who and see the universe!
You know, even though I’d love to go back and spend some time in the most interesting times in history, the hassles would be enormous. Learn the language first; dress appropriately; understand the money; decide whether you want to be the son of a blacksmith or the daughter of Henry VIII. Not sure whether any of these would be that much fun, actually [without some kind of support]. 😉
For the moment, I’m happy doing my time travel through books, because they’ve romanticised it so much that there’s little discomfort to me hanging around Uhtred, the future king of Mercia and the task handed to him by Alfred to rid London of the occupying Danes as a gift to his pussy cousin, AEthelred, the man with more aspirations to the throne than Uhtred, and Uhtred is THE warrior in greater Britain in 500 BCE!
Happy days 🙂
I agree Robert! Time travel through books – it’s so much safer and convenient… you can even do in while soaking in the bath!!
Zena – thanks for a great post! I couldn’t guess how you were going to deliver on your intriguing title – but you did and very cleverly.
You’ve followed in my footsteps round Britain (or perhaps I followed in your earlier footsteps in some places) I always went out of my way to visit iron age forts on miserable misty hilltops, as well as the Roman walls and the castles. Long before I ever wrote a thing, I think the magic of those place was drawing me in, inviting me to imagine life there long ago.
The authors I most enjoy are those that take me to those places in a way that makes me forget the book in my hands and has me walk those same battlements and corridors and streets. Definitely the funnest way to time travel!
Rob
Ah yes, miserable misty hilltops… or in William Blake’s words “England’s mountains green”!
Words have the power to take us anywhere – to a different time or place, mood or memory. How lucky are we that write them, and how lucky are we that read them.
Lovely to hear from you, Rob! 🙂