Imaginary time is not on the back of the clock—it is a matter of the axis of description and consciousness connection.

The day before the deadline. Since morning, not a single item has been crossed off the to-do list. I look at the clock. Six hours left.

The harder I try to concentrate, the more the timer's ticks flicker at the edge of my vision. I think to myself that I don't have enough time. So I look up time management techniques. I search for ways to process things faster.

However, what is lacking is not time. It's just that you are only using a single axis.

To put it bluntly, imaginary time is not a special type of time. It is an independent descriptive axis, $it$, orthogonal to the real time axis $t$. And the question is whether consciousness is connected to that axis or not.

Do not look at the back of the clock.

The image that comes to mind for anyone who hears the word imaginary time is mostly the same. On the flip side of this world's time, there is another line of time flowing at a different speed. Enter that side, and time stretches out. That kind of image.

But that is not the case. Imaginary time is not another kind of time hidden behind $t$. It is a different axis of description that cannot be reduced to $t$.

── I will separate imaginary time in physics beforehand.

Imaginary time also appears in physics. Wick rotation. The Hartle-Hawking no-boundary proposal. However, that is a quantity introduced methodically as an analytic continuation of real time. It is derived from $t$.

The imaginary time dealt with here is not derived from t. It is postulated from the beginning as a description axis independent of t. Therefore, the two do not compete. They are orthogonal to each other at different levels of description.

And this orthogonality does not refer to the right angles of geometry. It means that they cannot be reduced to one another. The vertical axis cannot be translated into the length of the horizontal axis. That is all it refers to.

Why is another axis required?

Right now, you are reading this single line. Please take a precise look at what is being experienced at that moment.

There is a phase that is happening right now. At the same time, there is a phase that is passing away. And there is a phase yet to come. These three are not arranged in a sequence. They overlap within the single point of the present.

Here is the point. This coexistence cannot be reduced to sequential order on the t-axis. The vocabulary of before and after cannot capture overlap.

In other words, $t$ alone is not sufficient to fully describe time. If it is not sufficient, the only option is to add an axis. Imaginary time, $it$, is the axis required to accommodate this coexistence. A complete description of time is given as a two-dimensional structure: $T = t + it$.

── I'm not saying that "it" actually exists

Just to be sure, I will double-check. This is not the claim that "imaginary time exists somewhere." It is based on the descriptive fact that the description of $t$ does not close on its own.

This is not a matter of actual reality, but of description. If you confuse the two, it instantly turns into the occult.

The shortfall is caused by the structure, not personality.

When consciousness is bound only to the axis of real time, what happens is predetermined. You are chased by tasks. You are buried in schedules. Your attention is stolen by impatience and regret. And always, there is a sense of lack.

Many people write this off as poor planning or a lack of concentration. It also becomes ammunition for self-blame.

But that is not the case. Consciousness is simply placed upon a straight line that can only move in one direction. That is all.

As long as you are on the line, the rest keeps decreasing

From the past to the present. From the present to the future. From cause to effect. From labor to result. This single line is real time t.

On the line, there is only one direction to go. Straight ahead. If you can only move forward, what remains is always decreasing. "Not enough" is merely the natural report generated by that structure.

As long as the report is accurate, even if you try to increase the amount while staying on the line, the sensation won't change. The increased portion will simply be filled in.

What happens when consciousness is connected to the IT axis?

When consciousness connects to the imaginary time axis, the sense of time disappears first. Fragmented thoughts are integrated. It begins to resonate with the future. And reality emerges not as something fixed, but as something editable.

There’s one point here that’s easy to misunderstand. This isn’t about “making time feel longer.” Nor is it about being able to process things more quickly.

The scale itself detaches. From the perspective of practice, imaginary time is the elimination of the concept of time.

Time, which had been one-dimensional, becomes two-dimensional.

An imaginary axis was drawn in the world of numbers where there was only a number line, and the complex plane appeared. The structure is the same as back then. It's close to a Copernican revolution.

On the horizontal axis, there is physical continuity and causality. On the vertical axis, there is a realm of non-existence, meaninglessness, and non-time.

What was once forced to move along a line can now travel across a surface. When the directions in which one can move increase, the very concept of "remaining" loses its meaning.

This is not a superior version of time management.

To avoid any misunderstanding, I'll draw the line here as well. The pursuit of imaginary time is not about superior time management skills.

One is tempted to read it this way: if one becomes able to handle planes, the work on lines will also be dispatched more quickly. But the reverse is true. One does not move out to planes in order to finish things quickly. The very idea of finishing things quickly can only exist on a line.

The pursuit of imaginary time is the act of detaching consciousness from the structure of linear causality and connecting to an axis that cannot be reduced to $t$. It is not a matter of efficiency. It is a matter of the position of existence.

The feeling of not having enough time is not a lie. As long as you are on the line, it is an accurate report.

However, that accuracy is guaranteed only when one is on the line. If one continues to trust reports without checking the axes, a person will spend their whole life counting quantities on the scale.

That is precisely why the question to ask is not, "How can I increase my time?" Rather, the first thing to check is: "To which axis is my consciousness connected right now?"

↓Yuma Murakami's Fifth Paper "Imaginary Time - Non-closure of Description and the Principle of Minimal Extension" is here↓

To learn more about imaginary time, check out "Λ Meditation" right now!

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