Stop Time Illusion

[Zampano]

http://www.grasshopper.com/mind-games/how-to-stop-time/

My friend is convinced that this is real. Though I'm no one to cast doubt upon the idea that we can transcend time, I'm think that this experiment is just an illusion.
Reasons include:
-the constance of sound
-our brains' ability to create images we don't necessarily see
-though time is 'stopped', we are still able to think at our normal speed

Does any one want to shed some light on how this illusion (I think) works?

[StealthArcher]

I can't get it, no matter what i do the clock keep moving.

[Zampano]

There are so many things that could possibly obscure your perception that I doubt we can agree on what is actually supposed to happen in the illusion. I used to watch it for 10 s, and then look at the second hand to see it jump back about 2 s. Now I actually see that the second hand appears to slow momentarily. Keep trying and you should get it.

[Sane]

Doesn't it seem even a little bit strange to you that it only works with a smooth sweeping second hand? Furthermore, it only works for 1-2 seconds? If we could truly bend time, why would it only be under such specific circumstances? Also, would there not be some people who could bend it more than others? Perhaps, without a clock?

It is just a neat little exercise to show how time is related to perception.

Something I found from another site:

The book Mind Hacks cites some hypothesis about visual and audio chronostasis: see hack #18 on page 52.
The book gives some scientific search references:

One in Nature: "Illusory perceptions of space and time preserve cross-saccadic |perceptual continuity," Kielan Yarrow, Patrick Haggard, Ron Heal, Peter Brown, John C. Rothwell

SUMMARY: When voluntary saccadic eye movements are made to a silently ticking clock, observers sometimes think that the second hand takes longer than normal to (...)
Nature 414, 302-305 (15 Nov 2001)

And some in Current Biology (full texts available) :

"Auditory Chronostasis: Hanging on the Telephone," Iona Hodinott-Hill, Kai V. Thilo, Alan Cowey, and Vincent Walsh
Current Biology, Vol 12, 1779-1781, 15 October 2002

"Manual Chronostasis: Tactile Perception Precedes Physical Contact," Kielan Yarrow and John C. Rothwell
Current Biology, 2003, 13:13:1134-1139

Current Biology points to a short summary about "Chronostatis" (click on "Article via ScienceDirect").

Edit: Oh. And another thing to think about. Set a tick that goes off every second while you watch the clock. You'll notice the ticking never slows down, thus time was never slowing down. And it's not because ticking prevents you from being able to bend time! Smarten up people.