Livng in the Past There are two ways to live in the past Some people live in the past for personal or philosophical reasons, but everyone lives in the past because of the time lag in perception. We do not perceive sensations from our extremities until something around 0.20 seconds have passed; it depends on where and how large the person is, but it is written that nerve impulses travel at about 180 feet per second. That's a lot slower than electricity through ...