The Many Worlds may be a 2nd time dimension

The classic novel Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut explores the concept of time as linear and unchanging. In it the main character, Billy Pilgrim becomes “unstuck” in time. His conscious mind moves back and forward through his life such that he experiences it out of order. He encounters an alien species that experiences all of time simultaneously. From them, he learns that human beings are oddly handicapped in being unable to experience more than one moment.

Vonnegut’s concept of consciousness is not that far off from Descartes’ dualistic view of the soul. In this concept, the soul carries a lot of information around with it giving it the sense of where it has been before. In reality, the mind is likely devoid of information, dependent on the brain to provide all knowledge and experience. This means that your mind could be moving around through time randomly but you wouldn’t notice because your brain would not be going with you. Your brain progresses, instead, according to the laws of thermodynamics to provide sensory experience and memory one moment after another.

For proof of this, if you were to develop a degenerative disorder where you lose memory and sensory abilities, your mind would cease to experience these. Brain injuries to short-term memory have been to cause people to experience time as disjointed.