It's About Time

For centuries, we’ve lived by the ticking of the clock, treating time as a straight line, equal in every hour, objective in every moment. But what if that’s not how time really works?

It’s About Time dismantles the illusion of flat, linear time and offers an evidence-based alternative: layered time. Drawing from biology, physics, astronomy, neuroscience and ecology, the book presents time as a living system made of seven interacting layers:

Circadian time, the body’s internal rhythm.
Lunar time, shaped by gravity and light.
Seasonal time, driven by shifts in solar exposure.
Cosmic time, formed by planetary motion and gravitational architecture.
Relational time, shared between people.
Locational time, created by place.
Intentional time, generated through clarity and focus.

These layers are not metaphors. Each is supported by hard data, natural observation, and measurable outcomes. The book references established studies, such as those linking circadian misalignment to disease, lunar influence to sleep latency, solar storms to cardiovascular risk, and relational entrainment to synchronised heart rate and brain activity. Time is not simply a unit to measure. It is a system we live inside.

The core finding is simple but radical: time is not a neutral backdrop. It is a field of converging signals, and each person is already participating in it, whether they realise it or not. From gravitational distortion confirmed by Einstein’s general relativity, to the measurable sleep disruption caused by geomagnetic storms, the reality of layered time is already in motion. The science is there. The observations have been made. What has been missing is a model that brings them together.

This book does not offer belief or prediction. It offers pattern recognition. It teaches readers how to ask better questions about timing, how to notice alignment, and how to work with the flow of real-world signals instead of pushing against them.

You don’t need to change your life. You just need to understand what time is actually doing. Once you do, you can stop fighting the wrong current and start placing your energy where it belongs.

You don’t live in time. You are time. And once you learn how to read it, everything changes.

In my previous work, I’ve dissected some of the most complex and sensitive structures we live inside, religion, politics, mental health. The Beyond series was a way of pulling back the curtain on the systems that shape our beliefs, our decisions, and our internal landscapes. It was about seeing clearly. Naming what’s rarely named. Asking questions we’re not always encouraged to ask.

But once you’ve looked at those foundations, there’s one more question that won’t let you go:

What exactly are we living in?

That’s where It’s About Time began. Not as a theory, but as an observation. A series of patterns I couldn’t ignore. Days that didn’t land the same way. Decisions that worked one day and failed the next. Energy that came in waves, not schedules.

I started paying attention. To my body. To the sky. To conversations. To light. To sleep. To the things I used to call coincidence.

And what I found wasn’t chaos or mysticism. It was pattern. Measurable. Observable. Sharper than I expected. Time wasn’t flat. It was layered. And we were all living inside something far more complex and more generous than we’d been taught.

This book isn’t about philosophy. It’s not about hacks. It’s about precision. It’s about understanding time not as a fixed track, but as a system we’re part of. It’s about asking: What if the timing was never wrong, just unread?

I’ve written this as clearly and practically as I can. Not to impress, but to be useful.

Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned in all of this, it’s that once you see how time really works, you stop blaming yourself for being out of step and start finding the moments that move with you.

Scott Pettifer

1. Time is layered, not linear
Time is not a flat, forward-moving line. It operates in multiple overlapping cycles; circadian, lunar, seasonal, cosmic, relational, locational, and intentional, all of which shape our daily lives, decisions, and states of being.

2. Chronological time is a tool, not a truth
The modern clock is a human construct. It helps us coordinate technology and society, but it does not reflect the way biology, emotion, or planetary motion actually work. Mistaking the tool for the truth creates constant friction.

3. Science confirms ancient knowledge
From lunar effects on hormones to solar storms affecting sleep and mood, modern research now validates many traditional and indigenous ways of tracking time, which were based on land, cycles, and relationship, not fixed calendars.

4. Living with time means harmony, not control
This is not a self-help method or a new productivity system. It is a way of recognising when to move, when to pause, when to act; based on real conditions, not rigid routines.

5. Attention is the practice
Readers are taught not to master time, but to observe it. By asking “what kind of time is this?” and responding accordingly, they begin to live in alignment, even without perfect information.

6. The individual is a time field
Every person carries their own convergence of rhythms. Your body, your location, your relationships, your clarity; these become a micro-climate of time. The system is not outside you. You are the system.

7. Technology should reflect layered time
Current digital tools assume flat time and uniform energy. The book challenges this, proposing that future technology should support biological and emotional coherence, not override it.

8. Shared time matters
We don’t live in isolation. Relational and group timing can shape outcomes more than individual preparation. The right move at the wrong time fails. Shared harmony increases the likelihood of things landing well.

9. Global timing can be tracked
The book ends with a powerful vision: if people everywhere logged what kind of time they were in, emotionally, biologically, cosmically we could generate a real-time planetary view of human alignment. Like weather, but for timing. This could improve decisions, relationships, creativity, and systems at scale.

10. You are time
The deepest theme of the book is identity: you don’t live inside time; you are an expression of time itself. And when you begin to notice how it moves, everything becomes more accurate, more grounded, and more alive.