Going hand in hand with the thread about Black holes, Bose-Einstein condensates, Event Horizons et al, here is an observation of mine which merits reflexion. I came up with it about five years ago.

All of us have experienced the sensation that, as we grow older, the days seem to pass more quickly. Many are disposed to pooh-pooh (poo-poo?) the notion that time is indeed changing its rate of passing, but I for one, think otherwise.

The argument is, that our perception of time passing more quickly is due to the fact that as we grow older, each day represents a smaller and smaller proportion of the sum of our entire life. That is, on our first day, that day represents a whole of experience, the next, half of our entire experience, the next day, a third, and so on as we grow older. A man in his thirties is experiencing days that represent less that 1/10,000 of his entire experience, so that relatively speaking, his experience of that day is much less significant than the experience in the beginning of his life.

Consider the following:

In the beginning, the Universe consisted of a singularity, a dimensionless point of infinite mass where time, relative to an outside observer (God?), does not pass. This point contains all matter/energy existing in our Universe (now). Contained in the singularity is all the time in the universe, however it is not "passing" because of the infinite density and dimensionless aspect of the point. There is within that point, a constant amount of time, space and matter (which really are just another manifestation of the trinity of the states of being) existed, invariable due to the "one-ness" of the Universe. How can one say otherwise, it *is* the Universe.

When this singularity was disturbed by something (God? I have no idea what did it), the singularity began to expand, what is called the Big Bang.

Now the interesting part starts: the amount of time for the Universe is constant. The Universe is expanding, and its density decreasing.

As the Universe expands ---
Birth of Universe: <->
BOU + some time: <-->
BOU + more time: <---->

and so on.

So, what does that have to do with the price of eggs? Nothing. But, what is happening that as the Universe expands, the total amount within the Universe stays constant. Of everything. And so, consider that if time were a string (yes, I was surprised by the conjectures of D. Bellisario), it would be stretched tighter and tighter, but consider it more as a string with little knots tied in them, and the knots seem farther and farther apart as the Universe grows older. (Not to confuse the knots with time-space distortions at this juncture.)

Now we get to the clincher.

Consider the notion that our consciousness lies outside of the boundaries of space/time. Although the brain, as an organ, occupies space and is subject to all of the afflictions of human existence, the consciousness seems to be -- elsewhere.

When we are born, our consciousness has been developing within the womb for some time. Perhaps it is at the point of conception that is its spark, or perhaps a critical mass of brain tissue has developed, and *that* is the moment that consciousness comes into existence. In any case, our consciousness *is* there, more or less at the time of our birth.

From that point, our perception of the passing of time is fixed. Consciousness lies outside conventional space/time, and therefore is unaffected by local space/time.

As we grow older, the Universe expands. The distance between the "knots in the string" increases. Our perception of the 1 second per second changes as we grow older. As children, we experience summer vacation, a mere two months, as an eternity. As adults, two months flies by in a flash.

What is happening? For each human being (perhaps for all sentient beings) the passage of days seems to be going faster and faster, until our twilight years, when clocks seem to spin the hours and minutes with fury.

That's it.

As an aside, if our Universe *was* a singularity, perhaps it has its own Event Horizon unseeable and unknowable to us. Maybe that is what we pass through at the end of our lives, arriving to Heaven/Nirvana/Asgard/Narnia or wherever.

And Finally...
As humans with our limited perception, time and space seems infinite. Our instruments are showing us otherwise.

as a post-datum, I was visiting the dictionary.com site to check a few of my terms, and after posting *this* message, I clicked on the Word of The Day, which was:

empyrean \em-pie-REE-un; -PEER-ee-\, noun:
1. The highest heaven, in ancient belief usually thought to be a realm of pure fire or light.
2. Heaven; paradise.
3. The heavens; the sky

To that I add a final thought: synchronicity