No past, no future: Why deep meditation experiences feel 'timeless'

Deep meditative states are often described as “pure consciousness experiences,” where individuals feel alert but do not perceive anything other than “awareness itself.” These states of meditation are frequently characterized as “timeless,” with no sense of past, future, or any other temporal features. 

Yet, a paradox emerges: if one is consciously aware and alert, wouldn’t one also be aware of the passage of time? Can these profound meditative states genuinely be devoid of any temporal dimension?

Understanding timeless meditation

In an article published in The Philosophical Quarterly, Professor Akiko Frischhut from Sophia University in Japan examines this intriguing contradiction.

“My paper aims to give a coherent conceptualization of deep meditative states, focusing in particular on phenomenal temporality during meditation,” she explained.

“The central question is whether it is possible to have an experience that is completely timeless, without any temporal feature whatsoever.”

Thomas Metzinger, a prominent philosopher, has argued that first-person accounts of deep meditation from diverse cultures and eras consistently describe these states in strikingly similar terms.

A common theme is that such states of meditation feel both “completely timeless” and “continuously ongoing.”

However, if something is described as “ongoing,” it implies the presence of duration, meaning that it cannot be entirely timeless.

This contradiction forms the basis of Frischhut’s investigation. She argues that deep meditative states must inherently involve at least one minimal temporal quality: duration.

Timeless meditation: No beginning or end

To resolve this paradox, Frischhut introduces the “Extended Now Interpretation (ENI).” This concept identifies a critical ambiguity in the term “timeless.” 

While some use the word to mean entirely devoid of any temporal features, others apply it to describe a state with an indeterminate duration that lacks specific temporal structures such as change, order, succession, beginning, or end. 

Meditators may describe their experience as “timeless” because they perceive no temporal structure, even though they experience a sense of ongoing duration.

Frischhut’s argument suggests that deep meditative states occur within what can be described as an extended present.

During these states, meditators perceive no change or progression of moments, yet they are immersed in an experience with duration. 

According to the ENI, “timelessness” refers not to the absence of time entirely but rather to the absence of any discernible temporal framework within the experienced duration.

Alertness in deep meditative states

Frischhut delves deeper into the role of sustained alertness in providing meditators with an implicit awareness of duration, even in the absence of explicit temporal markers. 

This form of alertness, found in deep meditative states, can be thought of as a poised state of attention. Over time, meditators either maintain this alert state or slip into less attentive conditions.

The choice to remain alert — or the potential to lose alertness — provides a subtle sense of time’s passage, Frischhut argues. This awareness does not require meditators to consciously track successive moments. 

Instead, the very act of maintaining attention creates an awareness of duration, even without recognizing the progression of one moment to the next.

Addressing the lack of memory

A significant challenge to Frischhut’s argument lies in the fact that meditators often report an absence of memory during these deep states. 

Without memory, how can one perceive any sense of time? To address this, Frischhut posits that the experience of alertness itself carries a unique phenomenological quality that distinguishes it from a lack of alertness.

She draws an analogy to hearing two consecutive knocks on a door: the second knock feels different because it follows the first.

Similarly, even without conscious memory, the flow of alertness from one moment to the next provides meditators with an implicit awareness of duration. 

This seamless continuity of momentary alertness allows meditators to experience a sense of ongoing presence, even without actively recalling or recognizing previous moments.

This is cool, but why does it matter?

This analysis sheds new light on the nature of deep meditative states and helps clarify reports that have emerged consistently throughout human history. 

Frischhut, whose academic focus includes unusual states of consciousness, hopes her findings will spark further discussion in this relatively underexplored area.

“In my opinion, non-ordinary states of consciousness such as deep meditative states, dreams, and psychedelic states have not been sufficiently investigated in contemporary philosophy,” Frischhut said.

She emphasizes that exploring how time is perceived in these altered states could offer profound insights into human cognition and the workings of the mind. 

By examining the subtle dynamics of phenomenal temporality, Frischhut’s work paves the way for a deeper understanding of how we experience time across both ordinary and extraordinary states of consciousness.

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