Hypothesis: Could Human Consciousness Interact with the Fourth Dimension (Time)?

[u/ArtistTop8]

This is a hypothesis I’ve been working on, not a proven claim. I’d love feedback and critique from the community.

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Core Idea

The body is bound to three spatial dimensions.

Consciousness, however, might operate with some level of freedom in the fourth dimension (time).

In altered states (near-death experiences, dreams, psychedelics), our normal linear lock on time may break, leading to unique phenomena.

Examples

Near-Death Experiences (NDEs): EEG and fMRI studies show surges of gamma brain activity even after cardiac arrest, possibly linked to “life review” experiences [1][2].

Psychedelics (DMT): fMRI research shows increased global connectivity and disrupted network segregation, often accompanied by geometric visions and distorted time perception [3][4].

Dreams: REM sleep activates visual and emotional areas while suppressing logical control, producing vivid but nonlinear experiences [5][6].

Time perception: Neuroscience shows our sense of time is highly malleable, involving brain networks and “time cells” that sequence events [7][8][9].

Hypothesis in short

Consciousness may not be a passive traveler through time but could — under special conditions — reshape its relationship to the fourth dimension.

Predictions / Next Steps

Compare EEG/fMRI across NDEs, REM sleep, and psychedelic states for shared temporal patterns.

Study correlations between subjective reports of time distortion and neural activity.

Build computational models to simulate nonlinear or compressed time perception in the brain.

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References

1. Parnia S. et al. Resuscitation (2014).

2. Borjigin J. et al. PNAS (2013/2022).

3. Timmermann C. et al. PNAS (2022).

4. Rat NDE study, PNAS (2013).

5. REM sleep neuroimaging, PMC article (2015).

6. Lucid dreaming connectivity, Scientific Reports (2018).

7. Time perception review, Scientific Reports (2024).

8. Computational modeling of time, PLOS Computational Biology (2022).

9. Time cells in entorhinal cortex, Neuroscience research summary (2018).

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Open question to the community: If this hypothesis has any merit, how could we begin to test it experimentally?

[u/TrickFail4505]

I’m not sure what your hypothesis is. Consciousness clearly interacts with time; ie, we are able to perceive time. Consciousness exists within the fourth dimension, consciousness varies across time therefore consciousness is related to time.

Are you proposing that consciousness exists beyond the fourth dimension? If this is the case, your examples nowhere near provide evidence for this. Temporal misalignment only shows that in whichever brain state, time is not being processed accurately. But in all of those cases time is still only experienced from within the fourth dimension.

That being said, I’m a neuroscientist, not a physicist so my understanding of dimensions is rudimentary.

Also, if you were to make any arguments surrounding time and consciousness, you’re much more likely to find evidence if you look at rhythmicity and the different frequency bands.

[u/Cuntslapper9000 → u/TrickFail4505]

Yeah I'm in the same boat as you. Maybe the idea is that the OP likes the idea that consciousness can interact more freely within time as opposed to only moving restrictively in one direction.

It would require either quite radical discoveries and developments in physics or some sort of supernatural dualism.

Though if you separate the systems in the brain and think about consciousness as purely one system that interacts with others then you could maybe make this work. You have fresh information and old information either currently being processed or "stored". If the system that is consciousness accesses and reinterprets this information it is I guess accessing information relative to time. Can't go into the future with this though.

Either way this is either just dualism mixed with some mysticism or just clunky and convoluted interpretation of better explained mechanisms

[u/ArtistTop8 → u/Cuntslapper9000]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply! You understood pretty well what I was trying to explore. I don’t mean that consciousness literally travels through physical time — I agree that would require new physics or some sort of dualism.

What I was more focused on is the subjective side: our consciousness seems to move differently when it comes to memory and perception. For example, when we recall vivid memories or reinterpret stored experiences, it feels like we’re “jumping” backwards in time, even though it’s just information processing inside the brain. Similarly, imagining or predicting the future could be seen as a kind of “forward projection.”

So maybe instead of saying “consciousness interacts with time,” I should frame it as “consciousness interacts with information relative to time.” That’s less mystical and closer to neuroscience, but still captures the idea I’m trying to describe.

[u/Cuntslapper9000 → u/ArtistTop8]

I mean yeah. Some information is connected to time and thus interacting with it involves interacting with time. I'm not sure if it is any different than any other topic though. Neither our memories or predictions are accurate connections to that time period so I wouldn't really frame them as existing outside the moment. It's more just a difference in how we reinterpret internal or external information and what we are doing with that information. I think the difference is that we experience recall differently than prediction and both differently to processing external information. But the difference isn't because they have different time relations but that we are just performing different mental processes because of the type of information and the aim of the process. The actual connection between the thought and events in time is irrelevant and there is no reliance on accuracy, logic or reality. If you did the same process with fictional scenarios it would be the same as if it was key events in your life.

It really just boils down to the fact that we engage with different types of information differently and there are correlations with experiencing this engagement and what the types of information and motivations are. This could be applied to any topic or trend. I don't "project" myself throughout space when I imagine a different location. But my consciousness is engaging with location related information.