本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛from wiki

"In reality all time is eternally present, that is, that past, present and future are all happening together in some way. Human consciousness, however, experiences this simultaneity in linear form. In the dreaming state this way of interpreting time ceases to be as concrete as when we are awake. Thus we are capable of having what we call precognitive dreams as consciousness finds itself free to roam across past, present and future. We exist on two levels ourselves, both inside and outside time, thus suggesting the notion of Immortality .
The idea that time (and, by extension, humanity) exists both simultaneously and linearly is a difficult one to grasp. One analogy is that of a book. At any given moment the entirety of a book exists in itself but at any given moment we can only read one page at a time. The other pages, while existing simultaneously with the one we are reading, remain outside our consciousness. If we could somehow read every page of the book at once, or be able to experience the book in its entirety in a single moment then we would be closer to a real experience of it. Similarly in our lives we are conscious of only one moment in time, the present, rather than our past, present and future together. The past is remembered but not physically experienced, the future remains unknown. In some respects this is comparable to Thomas Aquinas's description of God seeing all things past, present and to come in the "now" of eternity: likened to a watchman looking down from the top of a valley and apprehending at a glance all the events taking place in worldly time — the valley — from a perspective outside of time"更多精彩文章及讨论，请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net