Recipe #9

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What I’m about to tell you, you are not going to believe. There’s no way to sugarcoat it; it will sound crazy, inconceivable, ludicrous even. It defies fundamental concepts such as common sense and stretches even the most complex theoretical postulations such as Einstein’s Lambda. You may think me mad for even suggesting the feasibility of such a preposterous idea, let alone proposing an actual reality. Yet, it is a truth, and one that I’ll share with you now. 

I’ve stumbled upon the formula for time travel; yes, it is possible. Not going back through history and visiting ancient civilizations or taking a sneak peak at what the futuristic societies will hold. No, you will have to leave at the door your predispositions of what you assume time travel to be, for it has nothing to do with the misconstrued thematics that are overplayed on the silver screen. Time travel is elusive, not something that can be fabricated or caught, but, like the spirit in the stairwell, can only be happened upon when not looking for it. It’s not something that will take you to another place, rather, it is something that will bring the other places to you. It is the folding of map and absolute stillness. It is the unending waves on the shore and a fleeting moment of suspension. It is the trust in a free-fall. It is deafening silence and a roar so loud as to drown out all thoughts. An intricate helix of everything and nothing all at once.

Here’s what is needed: two servings of impossible, four parts desire with a dash of desperation, a three to one ratio of hope to fear, and a heaping of chaos diluted with a pinch of perfection. Mix in some doubt and heavily season with passion. Strain out all the excess regret and then bake at the heat of one solar flare through the ozone of next Tuesday for a duration in the key of C double sharp minor.

Hark, a tear in the fabric.

Now, start by traveling east towards the rising sun. Move through the unchanging, disorientating, desert landscape as the burning orb moves through the sky overhead and begins to dissolve the senses. Continue driving through dusk as black oblivion settles down around you and the stars swirl endlessly above. Are you coming or going? Change the clocks as you cross through one time zone, and then another. Daylight provides the comfort of visibility but the darkness bears its own secrets if you are keen enough to seek them out. Note the waxing of the moon as it unfailingly appears on the horizon each night, ever bigger. Keep your eyes open until the sunrise and then watch the world stir and wake around you. Sleep will take you when you’re tired and cycles will spiral out of your control. Move the clocks again for daylights savings. Is it forwards or backwards? Press onward; North, East, South, West, upward, downward, inward, outward. Cross over immense plains, foothills, valleys and mountains. Traverse through grandiose rivers, fields, canyons and peaks. Continue further still into another time zone, only this time… don’t change the clocks. Let the concept of time slip through your fingers like the proverbial grains of sand. Hours are but an accumulation of breaths. Days no longer bear name. Seasons come and go as they may. Time is marked only by past, present and future experiences. The Earth turns on its axis, hurling through an infinite void at a rate of thousands of miles per experience, lasting only as long or as short as you are able to appreciate them.

Soon you will forget all that you know about the human concept of time. Minutes could be drawn out as long as years and you’ll live a whole year within an isolated minute. The past, present and future will all exist simultaneously, and that’s when you’ll know you’ve done it. Gaze into the pair of eyes across from you and witness an entire lifetime in a single, longing blink. Breath in the present and remember what tomorrow feels like. Peer down the mountain and see all the memories of a friendship laid out before you in the mist. Drift on the lake of continuum, as the ripples on the surface both push and pull. Look to the heavens and understand what is to become is not dictated by what has transpired. Hear the melodies of tomorrow echoing up from yesteryear. Behold all existence regarded in a lone instant.

That is time travel, my friends. 

So now you know the formula. But here’s the catch; it can never be accomplished the same way twice. I share with you my own recipe, but be warned it is a fool’s folly to pursue the end by these same means. Even I can’t say how long this will last, or when it leaves, if it will ever come again. I am contented just to cherish it while I can. In any case, the final bit of advice I can leave you with in your pursuit is this; if you do discover the folds of time, prepare yourself for some initial discomfort, as the sensation can be jarring and overwhelming at first if you’re not accustomed to it. It will make the head spin, the heart pound, the throat dry and the palms sweat. It is not for the faint of heart nor the craven of spirit. But don’t let that deter you, because just on the other side of that threshold is a realm of endless possibility. Persevere and recalibrate and soon you will look at the world in a whole new light. So take a full breath, open your eyes, and jump in.

Dive deep.