I'll tell you what... not even for a second did I imagine this thread would have blossomed the way it has, and I couldn't be happier. There is some awesome information expressed here in ways I personally don't feel qualified... hmmm, it's not that I don't understand what has been written "through and through", but my voice is one that any longer only speaks comfortably from an experiential place. And, in the past, not so comfortably have spoken from. I thank the powers that be that we have a place to discuss the concept of time openly and honestly.....
Once in a large auditorium Geology class at USF the classroom discussion had turned into a heated debate between a few Fundamental Christians and most of the rest of the scientifically minded students, the debate about time and the age of the planet. The instructor was obviously reveling in the many against the few and I was incited, like a wrecking ball, by his "taking sides" when he was the one that asked the question, "Just how old is the planet do you think?" He, supposedly one in a position to allow for the free flow of debate without judgment, wasn't appearing to have the best of intentions, or he appeared to have had the best of ego intentions would be a more correct analysis. To be fair, I have seen a number of teachers allow for such debate without laughing out loud at students the way he was laughing at the Fundamentalists. Now I myself am not fundamentally a religious person in any way, shape, or form, yet I still have an acute awareness of what is fair.
Being the warrior of truth to the extent that I was at the time I shot my hand up in the air, and then five minutes later stood up with my hand raised to make sure I was seen and called on, there was such a hullabaloo going on in the classroom it was near chaos, this you can imagine knowing how science and religion don't fair well together. Finally, I was called on, still standing, apx.180 pairs of eyes on me, and I said, "Time is but a man made measurement used to calculate mankind's progress, it's a method of substantiation, time is not a natural force (my voice raised with frustration), the earth doesn't know of minutes, hours, days...". That's as far as I got. Reenter chaos. The whole debate/classroom setting was a highly volatile situation from the start.
If the Fundamentalists were being "crucified" by their peers for their view that the earth was only 6,000 years old, I was lucky there wasn't a stake, rope, hay, and fire in the auditorium because they ALL proceeded to come after me... it's rarely easy to be a warrior of truth in public, or at the least, a 'lil eco-feminist terrorist whose monkey wrench is her voice and spirit (I've NEVER considered myself to be witch-like, but if I was I'd be a Green Witch 
) I never really got to say that the realm we live in is a naturally occurring fluidity, a fluxing of consciousness, though I was trying to yell out as much over all the guffawing at my expense. Trust me, it wasn't pretty. I might as well have been burned at the stake because my face was sooo red and I was sooo hot for the way I was chastised. It's a good thing there wasn't a crate of tomatoes in the room because I would've been red for another reason as well. But, bless my green heart and soul, I stood my ground.
A week later the class discussion surrounded earthquake phenomenon, he was talking about how he had been on a local radio talk show, I think he was promoting a book he had written or something like that, he is well respected by his own peers for his life's work. He stood up there postulating about how the public sector wasn't calling in to talk about earthquakes (well duh! FL's not known for it's earthquakes) and how frustrating that was for him, a lot of dead air happening. Then a caller called commenting on Edgar Cayce's prophecies concerning earthquakes... he said from that point on the phone lines were jammed.
He then launched into a diatribe, in the classroom, about telephone psychics, pointing out the sham that was Ms. Cleo, that supposed Jamaican woman with all those commercials a few years ago. He was equating/comparing Ms. Cleo to Edgar Cayce! He was the only one talking this time as this was, I guess, a part of his lecture, though other classmates were snickering with him about psychics being "incredibly insane", his words. Up shot my hand, I wasn't laughing. I then proceeded to tell him he was way off base that there's a BIG difference between the value of a Ms. Cleo psychic and the value that is Edgar Cayce, that he was.... oh yeah, I said it, I told him he was wrong. There was not a sound in the auditorium when he asked me to, "Please come to my office after class." !!!!! Again tomato red was I, and fire hot. In his office he asked if I would keep my ridiculous views to myself for the remainder of the course. I had scored better that 100% on my exams, the man had no right to count me as "ridiculous", this translating to a lack of my intelligence from his point of view, him telling me as much. Oh ouchie! Burn, little dove burn.
This was not the only time I was called into an instructor's office. A Biology teacher once called me out telling me that the way I incited the class scared the hell of him... all I did was ask an honest question about the truth of DNA, the complete truth, not just the textual view, my question being about "junk" DNA. Luckily, this instructor liked me, he didn't question my intelligence in his office, he just wanted me to "tone it down", he said he actually felt fear due to the reaction of my peers, he thought he was going to have to leave the classroom, he had let the class out almost 30 mins. early because of this. The man was indeed visibly shaking. Of course, this was not my intention, my intention was to learn about it all, not just what the societal infrastructure wants for us to learn.
I may have had a knack for regurgitating educational/textual information and scoring well on exams and papers, but I've never had a knack for sublimating the truth. I'd rather burn in the fire than blow out the match.
Noble Realms is my/our "new" University, and fortunately for us, ALL are teachers and ALL are students... all are Warriors of the Truth. Nothing short of this is expected/accepted/desired from anyone of us, as well as of ourselves... if I may speak so broadly.
I sincerely hope you feel my heart as I write--
Namaste... I bow deeply to the Warriors of Truth in all of you.
Auendove
PS--To all of those readers of NR that only look on and don't post... STOP SKIPPING CLASS!!! 
Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.
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Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we might as well dance.
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If you spin around on your chair really fast, things around here will make a lot more sense.
