No, not getting all philosophical on you… well, not intentionally. But my question still stands. And, yes, I know actual real life time travel doesn’t exist. Or so the governments tell us. 😉

So we’ll start by agreeing that actual, dyed in the wool, time travel does not currently exist/ work? Or does it? And it is really more of a mental travel than a physical one?

Okay, yes, there is a mild streak of insanity in that, I grant you. But just hear me out. I will assume readers of my blog are also, like myself, avid readers. So how many of you feel, at the end of a book, you’re transported from another place back to boring old home and have to somehow struggle on with the everyday mundane after learning everything that book just had to say? I bet it’s not just me… and hence mind travel.

Perfect example for me is that I’ve just read a six book series set in Regency England. They were by an author renowned for her Regency era books and I enjoy them for the description of the world, from food to fashion through to the dialect. Yes, I’ve been learning a lot about the cant/slang of the time and will never look at the phrase ‘old hat’ the same way ever again.

But from Friday Faced missus, to the rakes and fops and dandies that surround Prinny to be part of the top ten thousand – the Bon Ton. I do find it hard re-adjusting to my local dialect and remember that hey, I actually do wear the pants in the family, along with my husband. That I’m not one of those blue stocking types, I am an equal and not an alive figurine able to pop out offspring if handled right.

Yes, I do enjoy to dabble in Regency era England. It is my dream to find one of the cryptic cookery books from that era to call my very own. But I hope I’ve got my point across?

Same happens when reading about a certain monk from the twelfth century. I get into my herbal frame of mind… not so much seeking out murderers and ignoring my Abbott. Or who hasn’t wanted to run away to Middle Earth and spend some time in Bag End? Journey to an Edwardian riverbank and watch those ducks a dabbling with Moley and Rat while listening to Toad going Poop poop? Okay… that last one may just be me.

But what I’m trying to say is time travel is possible! Every time we immerse ourselves in a book and feel lost, alone and out of place when it has ended – that’s it! But it’s only our minds, our imaginations that can do it… and we can only do it based on what other people have researched and said about the era. But it does happen. You’re there, in that place, in that time, feeling the events of the book rushing about you. And then you put it down, blink a few times and sigh as you’re just back home in the sane, normal, dull life that surrounds the one within the book. Mind Travel.

The more I think about it, and waffle here, the more I feel Mind Travel is the better phrase to use as I am often hurtled over to the Cotswolds or the Highlands of Scotland while staying close to the twenty first century… again watching as people seek out murderers and motives. But when you think of how most time travelling is depicted, that there are a bunch of shadowy figures watching history unfold… Who’s to say that’s not what it’s like in Mind Travel?

No, don’t go spoiling it by saying these are just works of fiction, made up worlds often based on our own. I will just stick my fingers in my ears and sing loudly until you stop! Because if that’s how you feel you’ve obviously missed the point and honestly don’t feel the same way about being immersed in a book as I do. 😉

I know I’m talking about fictional worlds… but when it comes to Mind Travel – who cares! Seriously, why can’t I go visit a flaky Queen of the Vampires with a love of shoes? Or deeply envy what a real witch’s kitchen is like, with pixies, gargoyles, demons and all? Who’s to say you can’t wash dragon scales out of your clothes if you really try… and where can I get me a dragon to practise it with?

Mind Travel is what makes it all worth it. You can go and be there, witness for yourself and feed off the emotions of the moment. In some ways, it’s better than in real life as it has the option of being closed, put down and stopped to allow you a moment to get over the death of a much loved character or try and get over the fear of just what happened in the bottom of that Pyramid. Real life doesn’t have a stop or off button like this and that’s possibly why so many people like to lose themselves in books as it allows their minds to travel to a nicer place… if even for just a few pages.

In conclusion, yes time travel does currently exist… and in the modern day it really is Mind Travel. And what is best of all is, so long as we have books, we will have the ability to visit the minds of the people who wrote these stories, created these lives, places and times even long after the author themselves has passed.

Sure does beat the heck out of Maths travel any day. 😉

Until next time,

Janis. XXOO