The mechanism of psychological time involves releasing consciousness from clock time and bodily limitations through relaxation and inwardly directed attention.

Conduct a pre-registered randomized controlled trial involving approximately 360 participants assigned to four groups: psychological time practice, focused-attention meditation, progressive relaxation, and a neutral activity of equal duration. Participants would practice for 20 minutes daily for eight weeks, with a three-month follow-up. Standardized explanations establishing credibility would be provided, expectancy measured, and assessors blinded. Primary endpoints would be the temporal bisection point and discrimination threshold; secondary endpoints would include duration estimates on the scales of seconds and minutes, the sense of time passing, and experiences of bodily boundaries. A mechanistic substudy involving approximately 120 participants would add synchronous/asynchronous rubber hand conditions and tendon vibration conditions, measuring position error, sense of ownership, and suggestibility separately. The project would take 12–18 months. This can test training effects and proprioceptive mechanisms, but cannot demonstrate that consciousness objectively leaves the body.

Effects of Internally Focused Relaxation on Interval Timing and Body Representation: A Preregistered Randomized Trial

Specific effects that active controls cannot explain would revise the null hypothesis that changes in time and bodily experience during this practice are entirely attributable to general relaxation, task repetition, and expectancy.

Sylvie Droit-Volet；Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive; Irene Reppa；Swansea University; Olaf Blanke；Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience，École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Relaxation and inwardly directed attention overlap substantially with existing mechanisms proposed for meditation. No necessary components, doses, or directions of effect that distinguish the practice from control practices are specified.

The complete claim of “release from bodily limitations” has not been directly tested and is therefore labeled untested. The weaker proposition that subjective time and body representations can change already has support, while the specific effects of brief practice remain disputed. The mechanism underlying Rob’s illusion cannot be retrospectively established from his historical account. [Body representation research](https://www.epfl.ch/labs/lnco/research/)