Partly because we think of time only as a external reality, not as something that's somehow dependent on us. We relate to time as a phenomenon outside ourselves, a universal 'clock' that keeps ticking as it quickly passes by. We've all experienced it, but far too rarely. If we know where this malleable sense of time comes from, perhaps then we'll understand how to change it. In one line of reasoning, used especially in the first half of the book, the author says that time problems are caused by, or at least very strongly influenced by, the speed or pace of modern life.
Young children have no sense of time. . . .
Unconsciously, like a poison ingested by our bodies in a deceptively sweet syrup, we have entrained with a faster rhythm. We are at the mercy of all the messages in our society that tell us to go faster, do more, produce more, buy more . . . . At a book-signing that I attended, Dr. Rechtschaffen said that we're addicted to going fast. He seems to be saying that we quite helplessly and automatically attune to the speedy rhythms of culture. Indeed, some of the most exhilarating experiences of my life have involved considerable speed, whether mental or physical, but with little sense of time passing, similar to a hurricane with its peaceful eye.