The temporal capsule is personal development tools close to the personal newspaper aiming at putting in relation to its future me. In its simplest form, it is anything else only one letter intended for oneself which must be open in the future. It is enough to write it, then to give him a label on which one registers the date of opening envisaged: that is to say five, ten or twenty years later. And at the date of opening, one will be pleased to read a message on behalf of our me former.
A temporal capsule makes it possible to make a pause and to think of its life in a way in which one on generally little the occasion to do it. One captures there a testimony of the present like our waitings for the future. And later when it is opened, these elements will help us to become aware of our advance and to red�couvrir certain elements of our wisdom of then.
A testimony of the past
To create a temporal capsule, write a letter as if you address to your best friend. Establish a true connection with your future me, are friendly and diverting. You can speak about anything but it is good to concentrate on the situation present. Describe your reality most accurately possible.
A such photograph of the spirit, the temporal capsule aims at capturing what it occurs in our head at a given moment. Each version of oneself contains a form of quite particular wisdom. And it is necessary to keep in mind which the major part of what we hold for acqui at the moment present is volatile and will be probably forgotten while our life evolves/moves. Reality in which these two versions of ego live will have all the more changed that the date is remote. It will thus be necessary to take care to be sufficiently explicit to render comprehensible itself by its future me.
In your letter, it will be good to refer to all that constitutes your identity of the moment. For example some suggestions to be considered here:
- A list of your favourites: What do you appreciate today? Made for example of the lists of films, books, tele emissions, songs, moments, people, festivals, surprises, lessons, quotations or success.
- Questions and states of heart: Which are the greatest questions that you are posed? Which feelings currently prevail? How do you feel in the world which surrounds you? What do you appreciate today? Of what are you grateful?
- Goals: Which is the direction of your life today? Which vision do you have your future life? Which are your priorities? What do you hope for your future me? Up to what point and how do you expect to be different when you read the letter?
- One day in my life : Describe your life of every day. Describe one day typical with work/the house. Who are your daily close relations? What do you appreciate to make each day? Which are the small unimportant moments which you will miss tomorrow?
- Great moments of the year: From which moments do want you to laugh or to recall you in the future? Which are 10 the best/worse things which arrived to you this year? How would you describe this year in a sentence? in a word?
- Learned lessons and councils for oneself: Which councils would you give to your future me? Which important lesson did you learn recently that you would not like to forget?
When to open the temporal capsule?
The date of opening must be considered carefully. The more distant it will be in time and the more you will have changed. Although it can be amusing and moving by reading 30 years a temporal capsule, it is probable that you have evil to identify you with your old me. The framework of life and the priorities will be so different that the letter will have a limited utility from the point of view of the personal development. Contrary, a one year old capsule is likely to simply point out things to you which you have already at the head, since the framework of life will be probably similar. Blow, the contained informations will not have a great impact. Best will be thus to choose a compromise, for example five years.
The writing of the letters to your future me can also be done with regular intervals. In this manner, last the first time, you will have constituted a stock of temporal capsules to open time with other. And why also not establish a ritual of temporal capsules to write at each new year or for your birthday?
Lastly, it can be judicious to not choose a precise time but event. For example, you can write letters to be opened at the time of your marriage, the birth of your children, your 40 years or why not the day of your retirement? It would be certainly very appreciable to find there your opinions, councils or projects imagined then.
Various alternatives of temporal capsule
One finds a large variety of temporal capsules. In fact, the term would have been invented by Doctor Thornwell Jacobs in 1936, when it created off The Crypt Civilization, a room sealed containing a whole of recordings and objects testifying to civilization until this date and intended to be open into 8113 (1936 being halfway between 8113 and the beginning of the Egyptian calendar). Since, one regularly celebrates the closing of such temporal capsules, and one also sends some in space. International Time Capsule Society was created besides to maintain a database total of the whole of the existing temporal capsules.
Like the capsule of Doctor Thornwell, we can add in our personal capsule some relics like photographs, tickets of transport/d' entered to a concert, receipts, magazines, which one will place in one limps with shoe or a bag ziplock and which will testify to the strong moments of the present. One will be able to describe also there the technological objects of our environment which evolve/move rather quickly like the memory of our computers or the car that we have.
On the level of the message, one can imagine various forms such as a mindmap, a drawing, an audio/video recording or email. Annoying with the formats numerical is the question of their safeguarding, the supports evolving/moving so much quickly. And certain companies became specialized in this field like the futureme.org site, which makes it possible to send emails in the future. This site with the advantage of being able to make the message public while remaining anonymous, which is interesting to find inspiration (to read the book Dear Futur on this subject Me, gathering the bestof messages of the site).
The temporal capsule can also vary on the level of the recipient. One can for example send a letter to his own children, when it have our age or with their majority, by describing their very first years of existence there, or to organize a tradition of writing of letters each year for all the family. And even to write letters post-mortem. All these letters are gifts which have often much more value than tangible properties.
Lastly, why not reply to the letter after having read it? This would make it possible to give new a progress report on its life and of reconnecter with our old me. And it would be an excellent starting point for a new capsule. Later, it will be certainly very amusing to read again these various dialogues between several old versions of ourself!
What do you wait?
As you saw, the temporal capsule is an excellent tool for introspection which can help us to become aware of the change which takes place in us through the years. Then to taste with the pleasure of communicating with your me former, why not create a temporal capsule this very day?
And if you practise already this kind of tradition in your family or personally, do not hesitate to offer to us a testimony of your experiment in the comments
