Time

[Mileena Chardonnay]

Thinking of the anime, perhaps time is a Spiral...  

[Bellabie]

In a spiral outwards or inwards? Downwards or upwards?
b  

[Dameon the -V-]

or does it spiral within itself looping like a sound track?  

[scintillio]

black holes spiral....as do systems in space...stars, nebulas...

you may be onto something, Mobius...

as for which direction, thats very interesting---would direction matter? Coming, going...

backwards, forwards...Quite interesting...  

[Bellabie]

I don't like the spiral theory so much, though, because there must be a definite beginning and (likely) end.  

[scintillio]

Oh! maybe times like a ray, you know, from geometry?

with one beginning, but never ending....  

[Bellabie]

Is there a beginning?
b  

[scintillio]

Bellabie

Is there a beginning?
b

You mean a beginning of time? well, i do believe there's a start to everything, but i dont believe there has to be an ending to everything...I mean, even after you die---theres somewhere you go...somewhere you keep 'living'...  

[Mileena Chardonnay]

Perhaps time is merely an illusion. Reality is relative.

As for the whole spiral concept, the anime could probably explain far better than I. Those questions have been answered, but I could not properly express the answers.  

[Bellabie]

Where were you before your birth? If something is put into existence, then there ought to have been something there to make it be.
Perpetual existence is so challenging to describe...
b  

[Mileena Chardonnay]

You were the egg and the seed before you were born. Plain and simple. Now, Adam and Eve, or whatever original life there was, is a different story...  

[scintillio]

Mobius Nightshade

You were the egg and the seed before you were born. Plain and simple. Now, Adam and Eve, or whatever original life there was, is a different story...

thats mostly faith, though surprised

but their all tied together---who really knows what those two peoples names were, but there were lifeforms *more ape than homosapien* but there still was the egg and seed :3  

[Master Clockfish]

Bellabie

Where were you before your birth?

Um...in my mother's womb?

Seriously, though, maybe I was nowhere. In my opinion (and I'm just pulling things out of the air), there are two timelines: the general timeline (time itself) and a personal timeline (individual timelines each organism follows once it comes into existence). When an organism is conceived, its own timeline is set in motion, even if the rest of the universe is still going on its merry way.

So, that said, I think it's impossible to honestly answer your question because it's like asking what happened before the beginning of time, since time, for you, didn't exist until you were conceived.

Great, now I'm confused.

Mobius

You were the egg and the seed before you were born.

I think Bellabie was asking where one was before they actually came into existence. The way I see it, when the sperm and egg collide is when the timeline starts.

EDIT: Considering what I said, time could be a tree; the trunk is the general timeline, forming the base for all the personal timelines (branches) that deviate from it. Then the leaves on those branches could represent an organism's current existence in any given location on that personal timeline branch.

Then, maybe, the branches from those personal timelines could represent individual points in time (days, weeks, months, etc.), and then branches from THOSE timelines could represent smaller increments of time (minutes, hours, seconds, etc.) Of course, if you continue on like that time becomes a fractal. Though fractals really don't have an end, and if time began, time has to end somewhere.  

[Mileena Chardonnay]

Exactly. Life begins at conception, man. Though my theory in 'what makes a saint' also seems to give an idea...  

[Master Clockfish]

Mobius Nightshade

Exactly. Life begins at conception, man. Though my theory in 'what makes a saint' also seems to give an idea...

Great, you turned what I said into a stance against abortion. I never said life begins at conception. Life =/= time. A person's timeline begins when they're conceived, but their life begins at the first breath.