Podcast Summary

Episode Overview

Podcast: Philosophy For Our Times
Episode: How to Fathom Timelessness | Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes
Date: October 14, 2025
Host: IAI (Ali and Ed)
Guest: Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes

In this episode, philosopher Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes explores the concept of timelessness, questioning the reality of time and whether experiencing timelessness is possible. Drawing from Spinoza, mystic traditions, modern physics, and personal psychedelic experience with 5-MeO-DMT, Peter offers a rich, interdisciplinary examination of the nature of time and our capacity to transcend it.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Framing the Big Questions (01:11)

• Main Questions:
  • Why might time not be real relative to timelessness?
  • Can timelessness be experienced?
• Answers: Peter affirms both, referencing Spinoza’s "intellectual love of God", mystical accounts, and psychedelic experiences.

2. What is Time? Deconstructing the Abstract (01:47)

• Duration vs. Timeline:

  • Duration is the lived experience of change, while timeline is a mental and scientific abstraction (e.g., t1, t2 on a line).
  • "The real thing we experience is the change... and from that we extract the abstraction that is time." (A, 02:23)

• Triplicity:

  • According to J. M. E. McTaggart, time consists of past, present, and future—a subjective triplicity, not an objective property.
  • "In absolute reality, mind-independent reality, we can't have past, present and future. This is also, of course, the view of the classic idealists, especially Kant, who says time is merely a projection of our mind." (A, 04:12)

• Specious Present & Rhythm of Duration:

  • The perceived "now" varies subjectively (William James, Henri Bergson). Individual and even species-level variations in perceived time are highlighted.
  • Example: Near-accident "time slowing down".
  • "Everything for him suddenly slowed down... the rhythm of duration, speed of time, was suddenly slowed down." (A, 07:18)

• Time as the Fourth Dimension:

  • Drawing on Minkowski, Einstein, Ouspensky, and modern physics, Peter explains how time can be considered another spatial dimension, but with key differences (e.g., unidirectionality).
  • "Minkowski, Einstein, then heralding the theory of relativity, said that time is a fourth spatial dimension. This is still controversial..." (A, 09:19)

• Relativity and Multiple Dimensions:

  • Modern string theory proposes up to 11 dimensions, but the nature and status of time remain debated and speculative.

3. Is Time Independent of Mind? (13:31)

• Mind and Time:

  • Without the mind, distinctions like past, present, and future disappear. Even the “present” is a subjective phenomenon.
  • Quote: “If one considers time without subjectivity, without the mind... there is no distinction of past, present and future.” (A, 14:17)
  • Echoes St. Augustine and Einstein:
    • Einstein (1955): “People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” (A, 16:30)

• Bergson’s Point:

  • Experience is fundamentally durational, but duration is mind-dependent.

4. What is the Eternal? (17:51)

• Definition:
  • Eternal denotes existence outside of time (timelessness), not “everlastingness” (infinite duration).
  • Eternal includes “eternal objects” (cf. Whitehead) and mathematical/theoretical truths (e.g., the Pythagorean theorem): facts that transcend any point in time.
  • “Essence itself is eternal outside of any duration of the experience. Also mathematical theorems. The Pythagorean theorem seems to be an eternal truth.” (A, 19:16)

5. Experiencing Timelessness: Spinoza’s Vision (21:00)

• Spinoza’s Metaphysics:

  • Overcame Descartes’ dualism by uniting mind and matter as attributes of a single substance—God or Nature.
  • Quote (Einstein): “Spinoza is the greatest of modern philosophers because he is the first... who deals with the soul and the body as one, not as two separate things.” (A, 24:57)
  • Spinoza denied a dualistic soul, but held that something “eternal” remains after bodily death, accessed through a “third kind of knowledge” (intuition/intellectual love of God).
  • This intellectual love (Latin: amor dei intellectualis) is a form of union with the eternal substance—becoming “one with God”, experiencing timelessness directly.

• Mystical Parallels:

  • Neoplatonist Plotinus described similar experiences, where self and the One become indistinguishable:
    “How can one describe as other than oneself that which, when one saw it, seemed to be one with oneself?” (Plotinus, A, 27:15)

6. Psychedelics and Experiential Timelessness (28:15)

• Ancient Greek Mysteries:
  • Eleusinian rituals may have used psychoactive substances (e.g., ergot) to induce mystical, fear-dissolving encounters with “the eternal”.
• Modern Psychedelic Reports:
  • Psychedelics, especially 5-MeO-DMT, often generate experiences where time collapses—“time stops, but yet experience is there.” (A, 29:13)
  • Peter’s Account:
    • On 5-MeO-DMT, he felt a “complete contraction of all time within one and a complete blocking of normal experience and duration.”
    • “I am exploring... the association of 5-MeO-DMT and other psychedelics with mystical experiences and with Spinozist and Whiteheadian metaphysics—to see if these things are not mere hallucinations, but actually are veridical.” (A, 29:40)
• Critique of Reductionism:
  • To call such experiences hallucinations assumes a physicalist ontology. Peter challenges the dominance of physicalist metaphysics and argues for the philosophical significance of these experiences.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the unreality of time:
  “The real thing we experience is the change... and from that we extract the abstraction that is time.” (A, 02:23)

• On subjective time:
  “Everything for him suddenly slowed down... the rhythm of duration, speed of time, was suddenly slowed down.” (A, 07:18)

• On time’s illusion (Einstein):
  “People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” (A, 16:30)

• On Spinoza’s monism:
  “Spinoza is the greatest of modern philosophers because he is the first philosopher who deals with the soul and the body as one, not as two separate things.” (A, 24:57)

• On mystical union:
  “How can one describe as other than oneself that which, when one saw it, seemed to be one with oneself?” (Plotinus, 27:15)

• On psychedelics and timelessness:
  “It was a complete contraction of all time within one and a complete blocking of normal experience and duration.” (A, 29:13)

Important Timestamps

• 01:11 – Introduction of main questions: The reality of time & possibility of experiencing timelessness
• 02:23 – Distinction between duration and the abstract timeline
• 04:12 – Subjectivity of past, present, future (McTaggart, Kant)
• 07:18 – Example of “time slowing down” in a near accident; subjectivity of temporal perception
• 09:19 – Time as the “fourth spatial dimension” after Einstein and Minkowski
• 14:17 – Argument that, without the mind, time distinctions disappear
• 16:30 – Einstein’s quote on the illusory distinction of past, present, future
• 19:16 – Eternal as existence outside of time; mathematical/theoretical truths as eternal
• 21:00 – Spinoza’s biography & introduction to his metaphysics
• 24:57 – Einstein’s praise for Spinoza’s monist unification of soul and body
• 27:15 – Plotinus on mystical unity
• 28:15 – Ancient Greek mysteries and psychoactive initiation
• 29:13 – Personal report of 5-MeO-DMT and feeling of timelessness
• 29:40 – Challenge to the reductionist dismissal of mystical/psychedelic experiences

Tone & Style

Peter speaks with philosophical precision, weaving historical context, personal reflection, and metaphysical argumentation. He is intellectually rigorous yet open to the experiential and mystical, inviting listeners to critically reconsider common assumptions about time, experience, and reality.

Summary

Peter Sjöstedt-Hughes’s talk is a deep dive into the unreality of time, the possible existence of the eternal, and whether this can be experientially accessed. Through Spinoza’s philosophy, mystical traditions, and psychedelic states, he contends that timelessness is at least conceivable—and perhaps attainable. The episode invites listeners to rethink the very fabric of existence and open themselves to the possibilities of the “endless now.”