Well, you are actually incredibly well-versed in yet another subject, it's taken me some time to reflect.

I think I read a good explanation somewhere. We experience time by forming memories. If our molecules somehow participated in times still future to us but no memories were formed, we would not be aware of it. And the formation of memory (in the brain, or in any mechanical recording system) is a creative process, which because of that famous law can only reliably happen when energy is consumed and entropy increases. Given that memories can only form in the "positive" direction, we are obligated to experience time that way.

That's a great explanation of the current physical situation of our consciousness. I agree that it's logically sound, definitely can't throw it out. Only semi-related: sleep's weird though. It's not like you're experiencing reality. It's definitely related to toxin purging and memory processing. The reason I'm bringing it up is because the idea also ties into physical/chemical capabilities/limitations.

I love thought experiments. So imagine if you were able to encode your consciousness into the brain-capacity (or greater) equivalent of an entangled mass of matter that was additionally programmed to act like a neural network. That could be fun!

In my view, the psychology of perception is more complex and mysterious than the physics.

Yeah, and they're both basically dead ends for any professional career. Which, I think I'm OK with, because most theories would prove ultimately untestable. It's like art. How do we value this sort of musing? Well, we don't, from a capitalistic perspective, but neither do I find it a worthless pursuit.

Experimenters concluded that "frightening events are associated with richer and denser memories ... And the more memory you have of an event, the longer you believe it took." This, I think, is the key to resisting the common perception of time accelerating with aging: avoid getting stuck in repetitive behaviors, seek novelty and adventure. Buy experiences and not material goods.

Like I said, adrenal responses. Maybe a "heightening of the senses" leads to better quality sensory input processing and logging, which is perceived as time dilation (slowing). OK, yep, I wrote the previous two sentences before reading the "hard to come by" link article, sorry to waste everyone's time.

And 100% with you on novelty, adventure, and experiences. Neurogenesis will result.

I remember a bizarre time perception I once experienced. I had listened to a Radiolab episode about Ötzi while biking to the train station, then started reading the Wikipedia article on the train. The podcast was quite affecting, and I felt an uncanny connection to a man so remote in time and space. Then, with perfect timing, Pandora began playing "Beyond This Moment". I was about a quarter through the article, and sensed that I would still be reading it when the song finished. I felt like I was aware of the whole of that time at once, as if the little slice of time called the present had expanded to several minutes, and I was already enjoying the memory of the beautiful experience I was about to have.

Little bits of transcendence just aren't common enough. I can see how a crazy synchronicity like that might have triggered a chemical event leading to your profound impressions. But if it was common, the significance would of course be diminished.

Tangent Paragraph: I have an incredibly arbitrary memory bookmarked. It was like a diagnostic test that I ran sometime in late elementary school. The memory is around two seconds long, the headlights of my school bus rounding a sharp corner early in the morning. It was dark, and all that was illuminated were cedar tree branches. Must have been sometime soon after daylight savings went out of effect in the fall. Absolutely nothing significant happened, apart from me telling myself "I'll remember this one moment for the rest of my life," and I never forgot it. I think about it every now and then, for no apparent reason.