Awareness of the passage of time and self-consciousness: What do meditators report?

Summary

The study investigates how humans perceive the passage of time, particularly in altered states of consciousness like meditation. It distinguishes between 'self-time perspective,' 'self-duration,' and 'world-duration.' The findings suggest that an altered sense of self during meditation affects the experience of internal time. Qualitative analysis of testimonials from four meditators supports these links, indicating that when the sense of self diminishes, the perception of time can also change significantly.

Study at a glance

Abstract

What do humans mean when they say that time passes quickly or slowly? In this article, we try to respond to this question on the basis of our studies on the judgment of the passage of time and its links with the judgment of physical durations. The awareness of the passage of time when consciousness is altered by meditation is also discussed. A dissociation is then made among the "self-time perspective," the "self-duration" (internal duration), and the "world-duration" (external duration). A link is also established between the self-time perspective and the "narrative self," on one hand, and the self-duration and the "minimal self," on the other hand, that is confirmed in our qualitative analysis of testimonials of four meditators. The awareness of self-duration is thus related to the awareness of the embodied self. When the sense of self is altered and the consciousness of the body is lower, then the subjective experience of internal time changes. However, the mechanisms allowing the disappearance of the self with the feeling of being outside time during meditation remains to be elucidated.

Tags