Is it true that Past and Future don't exist but ONLY Present exists?

[NoMasXlMas]

Since past is what happened due to Present moments and Future also doesn't happen unless Present moment is there then both Past and Future don't exist at all. Isn't that why when you look back in time and recall certain time frame you always seem to say, "it seems like yesterday."

So if my theory is correct couldn't we choose to relive any moment of our past again as present, if we can figure out how to manipulate time and go back there again and make it present?
To Dr. Funkenstein: I'm trying to prove that TIME could very well be continuum state. Since past is really the Present then Present is all we have then why can't we go back to the other Present that which we have created in the past and relive it??! I believe it may very well be possible to do that as long as we know how and I believe there is a solution to that.

To Katguy: That's what I'm trying to say. Since Present is what created the Past and Past doesn't exist then the Past must be the Present! Get it! So we can relive that!

[TraitortotheSelf]

It is only within the present that the past and future can be understood.

All knowledge is subjective in this way - by learning more of the past our understanding of the present or even the future may change.

The same goes for the future - what occurs in the future may cause our understand of the present and even the past may change.

When i look at it like this, it seems almost reasonable to say that there is no such thing as a solid fact.

[derrickw]

The past happened,the future will happen and the present is happening. As our body progresses threw time and space the time space continuum is constantly changing. Say you are walking straight forward your last step was the past, the step you are taking is the present and the next step you will take is the future. This is all apart of your conscience. But manipulating time and memories of the past is called hypnotization.

[Jim]

You have hit the nail on the head.

The answer is that the only thing that has ever existed is RIGHT NOW.
In fact, spiritually, everything that ever was, is or will be, already exists and so time is a meaningless illusion.

Yet the human MIND is constructed to deal with HERE and NOW. Every experience you have had as a human being is right now. When it was yesterday, it was being RIGHT NOW and when it becomes tomorrow, it will still be RIGHT NOW. No matter where you are in the illusion of time, it is RIGHT NOW.

So the answer is, YES, you can traverse time in your MIND if you can convince your MIND that NOW is yesterday or NOW is tomorrow, you can transport yourself in time to other times and even other places.
I have done this while I am asleep. I have dreamed I was in a time period years ago, and sometimes, I wonder if I am dreaming about times yet to come. Doing this in the dream state is much easier than doing it in the conscious state, because the conscious state requires a phyiscal material change - requiring a lot of energy and mastery of energy. It is much easier, if you purposely and intentionally, put it into your mind that you will go back in time using your sleep state.
THere is a difference in your sleep state that tells you, this is REAL and not just a dream (a creation of the subconscious mind).

I have done time travel, with my mind. Notice, your memory is a kind of time machine, after all, you REMEMBER your past do you not? And thoughts are real things, real objects, so thoughts are not an illusion. Given the right state of mind, you can overcome the physical limitations of the universe and travel into past times or future times.

Future times are more uncertain, because they have limitless potentials to change, limitless points to diverge, so the future experience you may have, may not be the one to crystallize into physical reality. Realize that past experiences, have already happened, and so their happenings have already crystallized into reality. Therefore, it is a lot easier and a lot more realistic to travel with your mind into the past. Yet, when the future gets here it will be the product of the past!

So just remember, your current NOW produces your FUTURE and the choices you and eveyone make on this planet, produce the crystallized future. That future, is always being formed, by the collective consciosness of mankind and by your own, which is a part of the collective, yet centered on the SELF.

YOu do NOT need a machine to travel into time. Your MIND IS a time machine already. You just have to discipline your mind in order to use it on PURPOSE rather than aimlessly and randomly using it.

[KrazyforK9s]

Today will be yesterday when tomorrow is today!

[melanie]

if you look at it in perspective the only thing that shaped your past was your present and the only thing that shapes your future is your present, so perhaps yes, the only thing that exist, or matters is the present. But i dont believe we would be able to go back to the past but simply shape our present events as we did our past so we can have the illusion that we are living the past.

[Juggernaut]

Are you high right now.

[JoeFinkle]

I wrote my college thesis on this subject.

The traditional debate in the metaphysics of time is between "presentism", which states, as you put it, that only the present exists right now. The past existED and the future WILL exist, but only what exists now exists now.

That is opposed to the idea of "eternalism" which states that there is nothing special about the moment "now" except that it is the time in which I am saying the word "now". The past, present, and future are all equally real parts of the space-time continuum.

My thesis modified both theories to be consistent with the modern physics theories of relativity and quantum mechanics. In relativity, there is no absolute present. Instead, you end up with a sort of existential localism in which only the point of space-time of the observer exists and all points of space-time are built up out of that event (as Einstein used the term) through the interactions and rules of quantum mechanics.

For eternalism, quantum mechanics forces you to give up the idea of a definitive future that exists at any point from the past. Instead, if you insist that the future must exist, than all possible futures must be equally existent.

With both theories modified (and this modification is a HUGE simplification, my thesis backed it up with a rigorous argument and created first order logical languages to describe these ideas), you can see some aspects of the nature of time. There is only one possible past, according to Consistent Histories theory, and many possible futures, according to Bell's Theorem. On both views, you cannot travel to the past whether or not it exists and you cannot predict the future, whether or not it exists.

With quantum mechanics, there is a limited degree of "turning back the clock", similar to what you have in mind. A small system that has evolved over time can be devolved back to a previous state in some circumstances. In that state, it is unclear to what extent we can say that it has returned to the past. Some have suggested that if the whole of the universe devolved, time would travel back to that point. However, this is completely impossible. The directionality of time is set by the statistical laws of thermodynamics and (to a greater degree) by collapsing wavefunctions. The more a system interacts with the surrounding world, the more implausible it is to turn it back to a previous state. It is theoretically impossible to turn back the entirety of the universe.

[KatGuy]

You can't go back there again... because that implies that the past actually exists. Since the past doesn't exist you can't travel back in time - there is only the present.

[Thehelper]

The Past existed and the Future has yet to exist. The Present is what we've got now.
There is, unfortunately, no way to physically take yourself back to the past and relive it, unless someone is hiding a time machine. All we can do is learn from the past to make the future better.