When we?re in danger, time seems to slow down. This may bean evolutionaryadaptation that gives us an opportunity to make the rightmoves to save ourselves. But it doesn?t always work?forinstance, scary movies and amusement park rides aren?tenough to produce a sense of time slowing down. So whatcauses it?

Since riding a roller coaster isn?t scary enough to producethe illusion, scientists tried frightening volunteers bydropping them from great heights backwards, with no ropesattached, into a net that helped break their fall. InLiveScience.com, Charles Q. Choi quotes researcher DavidEagleman as saying, “I knew it was perfectly safe, and Ialso knew that it would be the perfect way to make peoplefeel as though an event took much longer than it actually did.”

Choi writes that researchers learned that time slowing downis an impression tied to ourmemory. When aperson is frightened, the part of the brain called theamygdala becomes more active, and gathers extra memories.Choi quotes Eagleman as saying, “In this way, frighteningevents are associated with richer and denser memories, andthe more memory you have of an event, the longer you believeit took.” According to Eagleman, this illusion “is relatedto the phenomenon that time seems to speed up as you growolder. When you’re a child, you lay down rich memories forall your experiences; when you’re older, you’ve seen it allbefore and lay down fewer memories. Therefore, when a childlooks back at the end of a summer, it seems to have lastedforever; adults think it zoomed by.”

Art credit: freeimages.co.uk If time zooms by so quickly when you?re at work that youcan?t find the time to listen to our great Dreamland shows,you should remember this: while regular listeners only haveaccess to a month of shows, subscribers can listen?andre-listen?for an entire year. They also get a special subscriber interviewevery week just for them and can also download shows to anMP3 disc so they can listen in their cars and in otherplaces away from their computers. As a subscriber, you getall this for less than $4 per month, as well as get 10% offour extraordinary newcrop circlecalendars, as well asThe Path andThe Key, sowhat are you waiting for?Subscribe today!

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