Getting Off the Time Line

"Worry has never been known to accomplish any great solutions to situations, in fact, moving to a place of "no time” can clear the mind so effectively that it can allow the space for the creative intellect to solve a great deal. In a state of ''no time” you are not unconscious. You may indeed, be in a very heightened state of consciousness, a very high state of awareness." - John-Roger

This article by John-Roger was first published in the Movement Newspaper, June 1978.

As soon as you enter on to a time line of comparative analysis, you may be headed for some trouble. Comparisons might include: “He meditates longer than I do,” “She does more spiritual exercises than I do,” “These people are more devoted to God than I am,” “Those people aren’t so good — look at what they do.” Et cetera. When you start doing this, you start looking at practically everyone to compare yourself with, to see where you fit. You don’t fit anywhere as long as you are in the process of comparison, because there is no place to fit you.

You’re sitting on a time line that keeps extending forward or backwards from today. Tomorrow, yesterday, tomorrow, yesterday, tomorrow, yesterday, etc.; and you never seem to get right here. To get right here and now, you abolish the time line. To do this: first get yourself away from others, even if you have to put earplugs in your ears and blinders on your eyes. Do whatever it takes to get rid of all the distractions, the attractive disturbances that are all around you and that block you from the awareness of your Self. Get your consciousness flowing in one, positive, directed stream of energy. Lie down and look into inner space. There are no time lines there.

As you tune inward to the inner self, you may find that you start getting calm; then you may begin to feel very much at one with yourself, and you may start blissing yourself out. Resist that urge to jump up and run to tell someone of your experience. If there’s snow all over your face and eyes, you may find it difficult to explain that you’ve been staring into space. If there’s water dripping off your eyelashes, it may be hard to sound credible when you say that you’ve been looking blissfully into rain. Can you really tell people about these levels? You can, of course, but it may be difficult for them to understand.

Have you ever seen people space out while driving in a rain storm and find it really difficult to maintain the concentration necessary for safe driving? Have you ever gotten “lost” looking into a fire? Have you ever sat by the ocean, watching the waves and listening to the surf until you were just caught up in that moment? These experiences abolish the time line. Time in conventional sense, time as measured comparatively, ceases to exist for those moments. Some people label this type of phenomenon as hypnotic trance, and by inference label it as “bad.” But by that same inference it might seem “better” to sit and worry about yesterday, tomorrow, yesterday tomorrow, etc. Is the one who worries better than the one staring into space where there is no time, but only a blissful uplifted feeling? It’s highly doubtful. Worry has never been known to accomplish any great solutions to situations, in fact, moving to a place of “no time” can clear the mind so effectively that it can allow the space for the creative intellect to solve a great deal.

In a state of ”no time” you are not unconscious. You may indeed, be in a very heightened state of consciousness, a very high state of awareness. Don’t worry about what you will do when you start to come down. Just go get that blissful feeling. You’ll be able to handle the come-down when you come down, if you come down. There’s a good chance that high that you started from will be your new low; so you have to establish newer, higher highs. They may feel strange at first. They may seem peculiar. And you may find that people will call you all sorts of names in an attempt to separate you and your experience. If you want to give “weight” to those names, come down and get on their time line with them and see what progress you are not making because of last year, or last month, or the failure that might occur in the next three weeks. Get in with them; it’s called the rat race.

As with almost everything else, this process of getting off the time line can be used in a positive or a negative way. In this world, it is not always appropriate to be ”blissed out” and in a “no time” space. Ultimately, that space where there is no time and where you can have a clear awareness of your Self is more real than anything else. But while you are living on the physical you must deal, also, with physical reality. So you must learn to move in and out of the time line and to use both places to your best advantage.

When I was teaching school years ago, I noticed that a lot of the youngsters spent a lot of time daydreaming in class instead of paying attention to the academic materials that were being presented. That process of daydreaming gets you off the time line and into a timeless space, but it may not attune you to yourself or lift you into any heightened states of consciousness. I remember one young man in my class who had stolen thirty-two cars before anyone found out that he could steal cars. He was a dummy on a lot of levels, but he was sure good at stealing cars. He drove them up to a very high cliff and then over the edge, to watch them bounce. I wasn’t aware of this for some time, but one day when I was talking to him, I saw him suddenly “take off” in his consciousness.

Having the ability to follow this thought pattern, I decided I’d take a look at this process in which he was involved. This youngster started unraveling a scenario in his mind, and I saw the process involving the car thefts, and then I saw him becoming concerned about getting caught by the police. In his fantasies he was outside the time line. But in the objective reality of the physical, he was set on a time line that would eventually catch up to him, and he would be apprehended for theft.

Finally I said, “Why are you so worried?” He said, “Because they will probably catch me on the next car I take.” I said, “How are you going to handle that?” He shrugged and said, “I guess I’ll just daydream, like I do regularly.” I said, “Sure why don’t you do that? But in the meantime, I’ll bet you I can name more parts of a car than you.” That caught his attention, moved him into the time line of the physical and away from what was becoming a negative pattern of daydreaming, and he said, “You’re on!” I said, “I’ll supply the pencil and paper and spell the words for you, if necessary. You name as many parts of the car as you can. When you’re through. I’ll get the one you’ve missed.

He loved the challenge and he actually named more parts of a car than I knew existed at that time. He could have beat me many times, but he didn’t know that; and I had him. We had sheets and sheets of paper filled with names — and he finally ran out of parts to name. I imagine he had named every part there was — except the front windshield. And of course, I gloriously just trumped! His oversight was indicative of his state of consciousness.

That challenge happened to be the common ground between me and that youngster, and from that start I was able to teach him how to spell, to write, to listen, to read, and a lot of other things. On that one day I could have said that I was teaching windshields. And it might not have made a lot of sense to an outsider, but it was an extremely valid process.

In daydreams there is no time, no yesterdays, todays, or tomorrows. Sometimes meditation is not much more than glorified daydreaming. You think, “Oh, if it could just be like this…” and you mock up the “ideal.” For a little while you get out of the river of life and are able to look down on yourself as you bob down the river of life. From this height you dream you can see where the raft has come from and where it’s going. From the elevated position, you can see that you’re going to make it okay, and you can actually plan ahead and bypass potential disasters. The danger is that you can get caught into the hypnotic effect of it and use it as an avoidance of life, never coming out of it long enough to complete in the physical world of objective reality.

There is a time and a place for both functioning on the time line and outside of the time line. Ideally there is a balance. Getting off the time line can allow you to lift naturally into an altered state of consciousness from which you can get a different perspective on your life and all its relationships. But staying off the time line could cause you to be less than effective in your physical life pattern. In extreme cases it could render you incapable of a normal, productive life. Always maintaining that rigid time line, however, can become destructive, as there is never the time or space to be “you,” and you tend to lose much with the inner essence of yourself. You tend to get too caught up with outside reference points and outer expectations.

By getting away from the thing called your physical body, by getting into a high enough consciousness, you find out that everything is right here and now. When you get high enough in consciousness, you don’t have to use the process of imagination or stare into space or look into flames or daydream. You’re out of the time line from a higher consciousness. You don’t have to go on a back track or a forward track; you can see directly, not by way of any illusion, hallucination, wishful thought, or urging of your reproductive system. From the higher consciousness, you won’t be caught in those lower areas. You’ll be high enough to see clearly.

The big challenge, then, becomes to get smoothly back to the physical consciousness, into the stream of life, moving through all its rapids and currents in full awareness. You learn how to move out of time line and then back into the time line by practice, practice, practice, etc., etc., etc.

The stream of life is going on, and it’s difficult, if not impossible, to get out of it. It must be completed. It is the lesson, and it cannot be avoided. Those who appear to be successful in avoidance find later on that they re-embody into another life to pick up the level of consciousness and continue. If they’re lucky, they continue on and make it.

Completion is the name of the game, and if that’s so, you might as well do it now. Handling your life right now means that you won’t go into yesterday and you won’t go into tomorrow. You will start lifting into a higher consciousness. As you do, you’ll find there is only One consciousness. When you are flowing in that consciousness, it will matter very little what your physical body does.

The consciousness that is One with all is found by going within. The Spirit is within. The kingdom of heaven is within. The Father is in heaven. The source of power is within. If you don’t believe me, think of what happens when someone dies. Does the body disappear? No. It stays around; it can be observed. But it doesn’t move. That source of its power is gone — but that is an inner thing. So we say that the energy that powers the body resides within. It could be called Soul, cosmic energy, electricity, refracted energy — call it anything you want, but know that it does exist. This spiritual energy flows from the inside out. So the process of going within (whether you call it spiritual exercises, meditation, contemplation, daydreaming, or fishing) can become a difficult process to maintain, because as you attempt to move within, you may be moving against your stream of energy. It’s like an uphill swim.

As you move into meditation, in a passive state of consciousness, you often will get caught up by the senses. The mind takes off; the emotions take off; the stomach growls, ”I’m hungry!” And you’re up out of meditation, out into the world again. The energy has forced you back out. That inner attunement becomes a very, very hard thing to hold onto.

Ultimately, you can’t be kept from that which you are seeking. You will find it, at some point. Everyone will find that kingdom within. The heritage and the promise belongs to everyone. Moses parted the Red Sea, and Jesus walked on the water, which proved that it could he done. Their actions put that potential within each human Spirit. But in this age, the challenge is to find the spiritual heart, the living love, the Beloved within. We are no longer looking at the outer miracles as much as we are at the inner miracles of love and truth and brotherhood.

Lay down the ego and let it die. Let the old things die and then pick life up anew. You must die to the old time line and pick up the new. You attune yourself to the new things that you want and drop the old programming. The responsibility for this lies within each person. No one will do it for you. It must be done individually and from the inner heart. Outer form or ritual or patterned behavior will not do it. Individually you will pull yourself out of the time line of the masses to individualize your own spiritual consciousness and then to elevate it. There are techniques that can assist. But they will not do it for you. A technique only works as long as you work it. And when you no longer do it, it becomes empty and meaningless. As you reprogram yourself and recondition yourself, you may use many techniques. Some may work for only a short time, but long enough to get you through to a better technique.

Use everything that works. Use it for as long is it works. Then find the next thing that works. The idea is always to keep moving forward into each new experience, because that will lead you into your own spiritual heart and into the awareness of God.