Beyond the Internal Clock Model: A Reference Frame Shift Hypothesis of THC-Induced Time Perception

This paper proposes the hypothesis that THC shifts the reference frame used for time estimation in the brain, from external environmental cues to internal bodily and cognitive states. The author is a cannabis cultivator in his sixties, growing cannabis in Phayao, northern Thailand. Prior research has confirmed that THC distorts time perception (D'Souza et al., 2012), but existing explanations leave a gap: the "internal clock speeds up" account cannot explain why the same person, on the same day, sometimes experiences time as passing faster and sometimes slower. This paper does not claim a theoretical correspondence with physical relativity, but uses the concept that "time depends on the observer's reference frame" as a structural analogy. THC alters the observer's neurochemical state, thereby changing how time itself is measured. The hypothesis is falsifiable and consistent with existing evidence.