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In the recent January 29th edition of Time Magazine, a mind and body special issue, one article in particular caught my attention. Daniel Gilbert and Randy Buckner's essay entitled "Time Travel in the Brain" springboards from the very concept of inputs and outputs and delves into what is in fact happening when neither input nor (ostensibly) output is present in the brain.

The piece begins with a rather striking assertion: "What are you doing when you aren't doing anything at all? If you said 'nothing,' then you have just passed a test in logic and flunked a test in neuroscience." Put simply, the human brain has what can best be described as a vast network. When we appear idle and removed from present tasks, our brains are actually active. Within such a network, one is able to retrieve memories of past occurrences as well as access thoughts regarding the potential future.

However obvious Gilbert and Buckner's general point appears to be, there nonetheless lies a truly profound and perhaps even supernatural undercurrent to this explanation. The power of one's imagination is indeed boundless, moving freely from past to present to future. In terms of the past, one may recall a fond memory. As for the future, one could envision an important upcoming event. We have the ability to escape the present for a period of time and experience another time all together.