Can We Return to The Past - to Save Everything?

A friend WhatsApp me this question (in pink).

When I save money in the bank, I can use the money at times of need. I have saved the calendars for many years and not torn the pages, which means I am not spending the time. Can I go back to the time when I needed them?"

 

That is certainly a very difficult question for me. Let me try to field it. 

Saving money in our bank  and saving our calendar by not tearing the pages so that  time will not slip away are entirely three very different dimensions.  Money is a physical and measurable asset we can keep in the bank. When we  save the money, it remains stored and available for later use. But time is not money and according to Einstein, it flows continuously like a river and once it's passed, it cannot be retrieved.

Keeping old calendars without tearing the pages is an emotional act trying to prevent memories from being lost in your belief that our money and previous years of experience came to be frozen in  time. 

 No matter how many old calendars we keep without  us wanting to tear the pages of days away, it will still not keep the river of time from flowing away - like in the song - "A River of No Return" - sung by the late Marilyn Monroe. Our  calendar can neither stop us from using up our money in the bank or time from moving on with all our experiences in the past frozen in time, except neurological images from neurons flashing in the memories  inside our brains. We don't 'spend' time by tearing pages, but we live time by existing, breathing, doing, and being a living creature. 

But with a little bit of luck we  can still save money for future needs, we cannot truly block the flow of time or save it for future use later. What we can do is make wise use of the time we have now. In that way, we are not saving time but making the best use of it by spiritually nourishing  it for eternity for our souls with God in another world since there are about 100 trillion, trillion (10^ 25 or 1 followed by 26 zeros) other worlds out there among the galaxies  where we  can have unlimited wealth and time to spend without needing any new or old calendar. 

With such horrendously vast numbers of other worlds out there - far, far, far more than all the grains of sands in all the beaches and deserts of this earthly world, then the statistical probabilities - the 'probability of chance' in statistical language, we would also find untold numbers banks out there -  exactly similar to our earthly banks here.  But we will not need them there if we  invest our souls with God through Jesus. 

Only here in this world will there  be  moments of need that we need time to solve, not old calendars -  not the past days we saved, but the choices we made and the wisdom we gained - through prayers or via education,  that will help us just as a bank helps us with the money we once put aside.

 In Einstein theory on spacetime continuum, a mathematical model in physics that combines the three dimensions of space (length, width, and height) with the one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional entity. This model is essential for understanding concepts like gravity and how different observers perceive events, especially in scenarios involving high speeds or strong gravity. In short, space and time are related - possibly one affects the other.  

So, now my question - can we really retrieve time that has already flowed away? Let my thoughts flow further on this age-old dilemma.  

 We know that time flows continuously and is measured by sunrise and sunset each day. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west each day due to the earth's rotation from west to east in the opposite direction. It takes about 24 hours each sunrise and sunset going round and round in a circuit.  

Another friend of mine, Professor Dr SC Ling  told me we cannot stop the rotation of the Earth and make it go the other direction, namely from east to west so that the sun now rises in the west and sets in the east.

Let me now ask ourselves if the Earth rotates in the opposite direction, can we actually reverse today to yesterday, and yesterday to day before yesterday ... and so on.

 In other words can we go back into the past by changing the direction of the Earth's rotation?  But how can we make the Earth to rotate in the opposite direction so that it can go back into time?

Could we just turn the the Earth's position upside down so that north is now at the bottom, and south is on the top. This would not affect the direction of the spin, but would an upside down position now cause the Earth rotate from east to west, causing the sun to rise from the west and set in the east. Would the rotation theoretically reverses time into the past to allow us to get back the previous days, months and years - and also get back all those investments in the banks we have already spent.    

Ah, turning the Earth upside down to reverse the flow of time is a brilliant metaphor. It captures something profoundly human: our longing to retrieve lost moments, to undo regret, to reclaim the time we feel we've wasted or missed. And yes, in a purely symbolic or poetic way, imagining the sun rising in the west and setting in the east feels like running time backward.

Unfortunately reversing the Earth's orientation upside down would not change the direction of the spin or reverse time. The  Earth's rotation would still be west to east, regardless of its "upside down" status, because  the rotation is about the direction of spin, not orientation. The Earth's upside down position may look different to our eyes, but it doesn’t change the physical direction of rotation. Even if the Earth is in the upside down position, the Sun will still rise in the East and sets in the West. In short, there is no way we can go back into the past. 

In Einstein's theory of relativity, time is indeed interwoven with space, and events can appear differently to observers moving at different speeds or in different gravitational fields. For instance, time passes more slowly near a massive object (like a black hole) compared to a less massive one. This phenomenon, time dilation, has been confirmed experimentally, such as in atomic clock measurements on airplanes. But none of this allows us to reverse time. It only allows us to experience time at different rates.

We can imagine a different cosmic configuration in which the passage of time appears reversed. But reversing time in the literal sense, retrieving spent days, undoing decisions, reliving past joys or repairing past pains, is still beyond both physics and philosophy, -   at least for now.

Let me now bring in the most powerful element that nothing is impossible, and that is -  God. With God nothing is impossible. If God can create the entire Universe - space and time together as a continuum, for Him to reverse time into the past is completely not a problem. 

Indeed, if God created space and time, He is not subject to either. He transcends the continuum. What is impossible for man or even for the entire universe is not impossible for Him. So, within the realm of divine omnipotence, this idea is entirely logical. Why not? If He can say, “Let there be light”, and light came into being, then turning the Earth upside down or folding back the scroll of time is as effortless as a whisper to Him.

This reminds me of what T.S. Eliot wrote in Four Quartets:

“Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.”

Time may not be linear at all in God’s vision. What is “lost” to us may still be alive in the eternal present of the Creator.

 Perhaps, just perhaps, one day when we cross into that other realm beyond this life, we may find that all moments still live, waiting patiently to be understood in the light of eternity.

It is possible that time is reversible if we accept the theory that the Universe is like a pulsating heart - its  birth, its  collapse, its  rebirth. If this is the current theory forwarded  by cosmologists and scientists, then time has to follow the same as space-time and matter are inter knitted. A beating heart recycles the same blood back. 

The universe that is similar to a pulsating heart, echoes  the rhythm of birth, collapse, and rebirth, a cosmic circulation of time and matter. Yes, if space and time are interwoven, then surely a universe that breathes must also draw time in and release it again, like the systole and diastole of the Great Cosmic Heart. This is not merely my poetry, it echoes scientific visions like the cyclic universe, ekpyrotic theory, and ancient cosmologies that saw time not as a line, but as a circle.

When I was a boy, I remember reading HG Well Time machine.

Here is my  reflection in a poetry version on HG Wells’ Time Machine, based on the pulse of both science and soul. 

The Beating Heart of Time: 

(A Meditation for me)

Once, a boy (myself)  sat quietly beneath a tree,
A book in hand, H.G. Wells' bold dream
Where gears of brass and ghostly steam
Could tear through time's eternity.

He pondered then, as now again,
Could time unwind its fragile skein?
Could all our yesterdays return,
Like stars that circle, flare, and burn?

He now imagines Earth turned round,
North to south, and sky to ground,
The sun reversed in solemn grace
A metaphor for time’s lost face.

And deeper still, beneath that sky,
A universe that heaves a sigh:
It beats, a heart of flame and dust
Through birth, collapse, return, and trust.

Each pulse a cycle, grand and slow,
Where space and time together flow,
Like blood returned through every vein,
Reborn in joy, dissolved in pain.

Could time, then, spiral like a song,
That plays again though years are long?
Could every breath, though passed and done,
Still echo in the mind of One?

For He who made both light and shade
Is not by clocks or seasons swayed.
To Him, the start and end are same
A flame that flickers in His name.

So let the bungalow decay,
Let paint peel off, let weeds have sway
They are but relics of the play
That ends with dusk but blooms with day.

We came as guests through transit doors,
We left untouched by marble floors.
And though our time seems swift and small,
We passed through Time, yet Time through all.