background: I write all the time, just stuff in general and some of this 'stuff' happens to be what might be considered philosophy, but is more likely stoner armchair philosophy. but anyways, i've gotten used to writing what I consider to be personal philosophies and revelations. in the process, i've become more grounded and i know when an idea is far-fetched and when an idea is worth sharing. i post most of my 'worth sharing' ideas on my blog (houseofxen.wordpress.com) but this is something i wrote a month ago. it's not that it's far-fetched once you get where I'm going, but to really understand it, you HAVE to think in metaphor. for the record: what you see here is after i deleted four paragraphs If time travel is possible, and a fifth dimension exists, then this means that life is, as described in watchmen, like a diamond. The whole is unable to be seen by those within it, but it is possible to see the whole all at once, when viewed from an objective third viewpoint. In other words, if time travel is possible, then we are on a timeline. A literal line of events, an order in which the universe occured in. In the fifth dimension, somehow it is possible to step outside of that line of events, that order of existence. The universe has multitudes of perspectives, but when observed on the whole, from an external viewpoint, it is one entity. All moments are represented, all perspectives represented, as they happened and interacted with one another and all events as they WOULD have happened and interacted with on another. In this light, time is not real. Our perspectives are not real. We are moreor less the subconscious dreamworld that is generated when trying to manifest what existence is in a four dimensional state -- i.e., including "time". Imagine how absurd it is to think of an endless timeline of a single perspective and then imagine every perspective in the universe. Then, imagine trying to map all of these perspectives horizontally upon a single line. It is absurd to suggest this is how our dimension is perceived from an objective fifth-dimensional viewpoint. Instead, imagine a diamond. Imagine one entity (the diamond). One, three-dimensional container consisting of the result of trillions and trillions of four-dimensional perspectives. A transparent diamond -- inside of this diamond, all perspectives of the universe are NOT outlined in massive amounts of horizontal time-lines. In it, in these time lines, the general mindset/pattern/feeling of each would-be-horizontal time-line is manifested in a floating, slightly changing, image. Imagine an image for every perspective imaginable, and you could imagine a universe of floating bright stars. What would it be like inside that diamond? Perhaps space IS the interior of that diamond. Everything in this universe, represented in an abstract, yet accurate, image -- the image itself a summary of every timeline of every perspective. Ultimately, changing the behavior of any entity in the universe, would seemingly "destroy" future timelines, so to say. Instead, imagine the universe as a diamond entity enclosing an interactive symbolic world. Each "symbol", so to say, when affected or changed in behavior, in real-time, alters the entire symbolic system (as every symbol is linked, ultimately). Timelines wouldn't get destroyed, the behavior itself would change, said change taking with it the symbol itself -- not "killing it". It wouldn't exist in that form, because that form resulted from a separate behavior. Assuming you somehow could travel back in time, you would still be witnessing this change in time from your singular perspective. Altering time is still going to occur during the present moment from the current perspective -- even if it is an objective one. It would still be considered "now", "present", "happening". In this perspective (this perspective being one who is going back in time), in this moment, you relived an event that already happened in an effort to alter the flow of time. In the metaphor of a timeline for every entity, it would show up on said timeline, as it focuses on perspective -- not "measured passed time". The previous timeline has already occurred and still exists on this metaphorical horizontal timeline. From the perspective of a metaphorical diamond where every angle is one summary of one moment (several years, days, dependent but etc), one could jump from one side to the other, without altering, leaving out or missing out on previous timelines. One would just go around "the circle", again, so to say, living out their life in present overall behavior, one's perspective dependent on the circumstance. The point being, is that changing the circumstance doesn't change the observer having the perspective.