Time & Rythmn

Note on perception of Time and Rythmn

Our 'sense' of time passing is a function of sense data presumably looping through some time awareness in the brain. It works with information from all the other senses to establish relative speeds of pulse. A pulse is a regular variation in the intensity of sensory input. A fundemental example of which is our awareness of our own heartbeat. Add to this a conceptual (memory) ability to be aware of things happening sequentially, one after the other, with a certain degree of regularity or a rythmn.

Pulse patterns, or pulses with accents, may reappear and be recognisable often with other sensory associations that give them meaning. The patterns can also relate to mathematical regularities of proportion which we appreciate through our senses as music. Clearly rythmn can be perceived in every sense although it is largely associated with the sense of hearing.

A sense of time that can recognise a precise regular beat may be a learnt faculty. The omnipresence of clocks and other precise beat keepers in modern life makes it difficult to say what the perception of regular time beats would be capable of without this reference point. Although the heart muscle is fundemental to the idea of beat it is of course not regular. Other muscle groups can be important like hand claps or thigh slaps and foot stomps.

Blues rythmn often referred to walking as the reference point. Shoes and pavements certainly gave the modern world a newly clipped sense of rythmn.

Basically rythmn is somewhere between sense, mind and muscle. It is a function of the wholeness of our being and a reminder that the structure of STA is artificial and only a temporary expedient.

I'd welcome anyone who wants to start a section of rythmn and time exercises and take these thoughts further.