backward causation

Film still from "Arrival"*

What's your take on free will? Are you fer it or agin it? Or do you shrug when you hear the phrase? Or does it depend on the circumstance? I'm not taking a firm stand, but I have a tentative position: there is an appearance of free will, but there's no hard evidence of it. As the physicist Brian Greene said, in one of my all-time favorite quotes, from the NPR program, "On Being":

So, if by “choose,” you mean that you could have done otherwise, then I would say yes. But I would say that you need to redefine the meaning of the word “choose.” “Choose” is the sensation of choosing. Now it is the fact that the laws of physics were just playing themselves out, and that is fundamentally why you did what you did, but to choose is to have the sensation of making that choice. And we all have that sensation. ... But yes, that sensation of choice is real. And that’s what we should redefine free will to mean.

This statement was not a big hit with the questioner. We are loathe to give up our faith, our belief, our trust in free will, especially if our worldview, our ethics, and our spiritual beliefs rely on it.

I heard that radio program in 2017, and I think it fundamentally changed how I think. I've never forgotten it. Last year, when I came across Eric Wargo's work, especially his book, Time Loops, I felt the resonance across the years. We like to believe in free will because we like to believe we have some agency to determine the future. But what if there is no future in the sense of "that which hasn't happened yet"? What if much of our experience is simply "time" bending in and back on itself?

Retrocausation, retrocausality, backward causation. All these are terms that point to the perspective that time and space are perceptions but not absolute realities. What if everything has already happened? Except, we can't really use a tense because what does a tense--past, present, future--mean if we step out of space and time? Everything happened, is happening, will happen. We need a new tense that encompasses all of these.

And, no, this isn't about the "present moment." Yes, we can experience the present moment, and many spiritual and psychospiritual paths emphasize that via mindfulness or other practices. We aren't in a present moment in which experience constantly changes, as most spiritual teachings suggest. We are in a present moment that constantly changes. Got it? No? Have a little read about the block universe.

So how, you may ask, do we tap into this hypothetical retrocausality and experience it for ourselves? One pretty easy way is through dreams. I will give a recent example from my own life.

A few nights ago, I dreamed of a wooden walkway on the sea. I had to cross it to get where I was going. One side of the walkway was partially submerged, and the walkway moved slightly, so I knew it was floating on the water. I reached a narrow strip of beach where a group of people was standing, watching orca whales swimming near to shore.

I mentioned the dream to a friend with whom I occasionally exchange dream material. I just thought it was an interesting and intriguing dream. There were other dreams from that night and other nights that I could have shared, but I chose ("chose") that one.

A few days before, that same friend had told me about the movie, "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou." He loved it so much that I said I would watch it.

The day after this dream, I rented the film. Lo and behold, there's an orca whale and a floating wooden walkway in it! I immediately recognized the resonance.

I knew absolutely nothing about the film before I watched it. I certainly hadn't seen these particular scenes, yet as soon as I saw them, I knew they were the source of my dream images.

Is this premonition? psychic powers? No. Or yes, but not in the way you may think.

Here is how I understand what happened: The little jolt of "oh, wow!" when I saw the whale and the walkway in the movie traveled back to my dream state and sparked the images to appear in my dream the night before. The emotional tone of the recognition is the signal that sends information backwards through time. At least, that is the hypothesis of retrocausation.

But, wait, what caused what? Did seeing the film cause the dream? or did the dream cause me to watch the film? Who's on first?? And when is free will going to make a guest appearance??

Yes, this is a mind-bending topic. And it's why Wargo called his book "Time Loops." Time loops back and forward on itself.

Try tracking your dreams and then reviewing them every few days. I suspect you will find this "time loop" fuction to be alive in your world. My example was pretty clear and literal, but often the loops are encoded. There's a play on language, a joke, a slighly askew feeling to the resonance. Be open and be creative in your understanding of your dreams.

And just a wee tip. Much of the "oh, wow!' impact comes from media we consume...something we hear or read or watch. Perhaps it's a function of our media-rich lives. I don't know. But often the time loops manifest through our media feeds. (Some time maybe I will go back and show how dreams that seem to be premonitions of future events, like 9/11, are also examples of time loops and not paranormal, psychic phenomena. Til then, just hold that thought.)

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* The film, "Arrival," is a great way to immerse yourself in the experience of retrocausation.