In a recent Akashic Record Insights Workshop, we explored a bit about time. Discussion began with this question:
What is Time?
In this profound Akashic Records session, a simple question—What is time?—opens the door to a deeper exploration of linearity, awareness, and dimensional experience. The Records explain how time is shaped by human agreements, spatial awareness, and individual perspective, and what changes when we step beyond Earth’s frame of reference. This is more than a metaphysical musing—it’s an invitation to experience time as a living awareness, not a fixed measure.
Cheryl Marlene: It’s a great question. I mean, in a certain sense, what you’re asking is: What is time?
Student: But I didn’t want to be that blunt or sound that overwhelming, like a title.
Cheryl Marlene: No, they’re actually very excited. They’re happy to answer the question, “What is time?” because that’ll get into the depths of it. And as we do that, if you have more questions, they want you to not hesitate but to ask.
So first of all, what they want to do is answer the question: What is linear time? Because that’s what most human beings know, and that’s how we understand time—as linear time. Linear time, for human beings on Earth, essentially comes out of the agreements of what it means to be human. And here on Earth, the agreement to be human is that we live within linear time and space. The linear part of it—the word “linear”—means of or pertaining to a line, in a very simple, direct kind of way.
To call time linear means that you look at it, in a sense, as a line. Because of space, we look at that line and define the different parts of it as past, present, and future. We see time running along that line from the past to the present to the future. In a lot of ways, it’s almost like you could think of time as a train on a train track. The train has been someplace, now it’s here, and it’s going someplace else.
Time, in that linear sense, has a sense of progression—that something happened outside of your present moment awareness that preceded this moment. And then there’s the sense that something will come after this moment—that’s what we call the future. So, one of the things that linear time does is give you a connection to the present moment within a line drawn in space. That line in space is what we call time.
Another way to talk about time is to talk about how awareness is connected to the continual motion within space. A person has awareness of time—of the past, the present, and likely a future. What you have there is a perspective of a particular point of awareness within a particular space, connected to that line of time. In other words, the awareness of the individual connects the individual to the passing of time within the space that person is connected to.
My brain’s like, whoa, wait a minute—okay—because this is how we get to what’s outside of linear time.
So, one way to talk about linear time is to look at it from a bird’s-eye view—of past, present, and future—a line that happens within a space. In that way, linear time on Earth is the awareness of the passing of time—past, present, and future—in the Earth. We understand this from a bird’s-eye view, a third-party observer kind of view.
The next piece comes from one person’s perspective: a person’s awareness of the motion of time through space that the person is connected to. It’s like saying, “This is my awareness of time—my experience of time—within the place on Earth that I am located.”
One of the parts of the human agreements on Earth is that we are all connected—our awareness is all connected—to more or less the same passage of time as a line from past to present to future. If I say, “Ten years ago,” everyone else’s “ten years ago” is the same moment on the time line. Now, what happened may be completely different, but the passage of that year is the same.
So, for the most part—and there are definitely differences—the volume of time is equal within all human awareness.
We don’t each have a vastly different experience. We have experiences that are very similar. That’s part of what it means to live in a linear existence. The human agreements are what help us have that connection so that, generally speaking, our experience of time is the same.
There are cultural differences in how time is understood, of course. Some people use watches and clocks to keep time or stay on time. Humanity has created all kinds of equipment and technical means to help everyone stay within the same time framework.
The important part about time is that the reference point for time is always the individual awareness.
Student: The what of time is individual awareness? The—
Cheryl Marlene: Reference point.
Student: The reference—
Cheryl Marlene: Point. As we begin here, I think we’re going down a road that’s really going to mess with our brains about what time is. But the reference point is the individual point of awareness.
Essentially, what connects us all to experiencing time within the same volume is the human agreements. We agree to follow time’s passage in more or less the same way. We're not each having separate timelines. Our individual awareness is connected to the entire human experience of time on the Earth plane.
That’s why, from a scientific point of view, time is seen as a dimension of experience. We deal with height, length, and width—three dimensions—and time is brought in as the fourth dimension.
But this is why time becomes problematic in space—because you're in an environment that doesn't have the same connection to Earth’s human agreements.
In a certain sense, what you’ve done is changed space. You don’t have to go far off the planet to get to a place where there isn’t a sense of space in terms of length, width, and height.
Your spaceship—or whatever is containing your physical body—still has a sense of space. But the space around the spaceship is infinite and eternal. Say you're hanging out somewhere between Earth and the Moon—where you are, there’s more than just height, width, and length. Your three dimensions can move in at least 360 degrees of directions and still be maintained.
Now you have three dimensions moving within infinite space.
Student: And time then is—
Cheryl Marlene: Infinite. Or at least, time is no longer tied to your three dimensions. It is now entirely of your awareness.
Student: Does this have something to do with using the sun as our clock? Big, big clock?
Cheryl Marlene: Yeah—well, yes. Part of being on Earth is that we use the Earth’s motion around the sun to help us tell time. It’s part of the agreement—like there are 24 hours in a day.
But even dividing it all up—that’s still a mechanical choice. We could have the experience of the Earth moving around the sun and talk about it differently. Some cultures base time on the moon moving around the Earth rather than the sun.
All of that is about choosing a reference point.
Student: Unknown color. Does that make sense? It’s a reference point when you’re parked here on Earth. But the concept of being in space—your feet aren’t on the ground and they’re not going to touch it again—you’re like a little dust mote out there.
Cheryl Marlene: Yes. And so, as far as the idea of time is concerned, your reference point is now entirely you.
So human beings go into space and we disconnect from Earth as our plane of reference—our space reference. We move out of how time is connected to our three dimensions on Earth.
But even though we’re up there, we’re still human—still guided by the human agreements to be on Earth. Yet we’re no longer on Earth. We’re out in space. And the infinite and eternalness of space-time becomes how our point of awareness makes a difference between this present moment and this present moment.
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