'100 moments slowed': How your brain can create its own time machine
Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
Time’s Mystery
Time isn’t as constant as it seems. Gravity bends it, and, as psychologist Steve Taylor explores, so does the human mind during extraordinary moments.
Mind Bends
Steve Taylor experienced "time expansion" in a 2014 car crash, where everything slowed down, allowing him to perceive incredible details during the chaos.
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Crash Insights
Taylor’s research analyzed 96 “time expansion experiences” (TEEs), finding that half occurred during accidents, while others emerged during sports, meditation, or psychedelic states (Journal of Humanistic Psychology).
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Evolutionary Hack
One theory posits that TEEs are triggered by noradrenaline during fight-or-flight moments, helping us process life-threatening events with greater focus.
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Memory Illusion
Another hypothesis suggests TEEs are illusions created by acute awareness during emergencies, where heightened perceptions are misinterpreted as slowed time.
Altered Consciousness
Taylor challenges these ideas, proposing that TEEs are moments of shifted consciousness, stepping into a different “time-world” where mental processing accelerates.
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Super Absorption
In sports, intense focus creates altered states of consciousness, similar to TEEs, enabling athletes to feel time slow down and perform at their peak.
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Beyond Danger
TEEs also occur during non-life-threatening moments, like meditation or concentration, defying the theory that they are tied solely to survival instincts.
State of Mind
Taylor’s findings suggest that while physics controls the flow of time, the human mind can warp it, revealing a profound link between consciousness and time perception.