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CHAPTER world. What is the nature of time? This subject may at first strike us as complex because we experience it with a brain that seems to have deac- tivated the part designated to understand it. To us time is flat, whereas it should be seen in 3D. In the beginning, this may require some exhausting gymnastics like continuously switching focus between an object close by and an object at a great distance. When we speak of the past and the future we must first ask: the past or the future of what? We see everything around us on the same plane. We instinctively create a logic based on this illusion: everything is in one and the same whole called “time.” This state of fact exists many others. Usually films on time travel show a view of a city where time is fast-forwarded. Everything moves very fast, but when we look more closely we notice that some things do not move as fast as others. Unfor- tunately, such films do not show thoughts, emotions or reflections. Suppose we could materialize and film them in fast motion; they would obviously be invisible due to their extreme speed. Remember the hypervelocity stroboscope. You are probably beginning to under- stand where (i.e., when) the ETs are. In a way, we are ETs to plants. However, we remain utterly materialist! This does not mean that our scale of values solely tends towards the lure of profits or that our explanations are falsely rationalist. We are materialists when we accept the point of view of the “matrix,” i.e., this causality that depends on time. Just as we believe that time is one and 53 Time versus materialism LET US MAKE OUR FIRST INCURSION in the ET because we identify ourselves with our body, a piece of matter just like