Boss
Take a Memo:
But I am perceiving it in the present, so therefore I must exist in the present or I wouldn't be perceiving it.
In short...at the time I am perceiving something, I exist.
But you're not perceiving it in the present, you only believe you are.
Anything you perceive, whether it is sight, sound, taste, smell or touch, is perception of something that has already happened. You perceive the past which has just happened.