  By using techniques developed in quantum cosmology, it is found that a
tunneling particle spends purely imaginary time on a barrier region. The {\it
imaginary} time is associated with the stochastic acausal behaviour of a state,
while the {\it real} time is associated with the deterministic causal evolution
of a state. For the tunneling case the nonzero imaginary time is associated
with the transmission rate of the tunneling process, which is related to the
thickness of the barrier. The physical meaning of the zero real time is that
the particle instantly jumps from one side of the barrier to the other
regardless of the thickness. This leads to the illusion that tunneling
particles could actually travel faster than light. The results of recent
experiments in quantum optics concerning tunneling time can be thought of as
the first experimental confirmation of the existence of imaginary time.
Relativity is not violated.
