Strange experience with slowing time.

Hey fellow ATS'ers, don't really post alot these days but thought I would share a strange experience that happened today.

I was driving along the motorway at 70 mph, it was hot here today so took a quick swig of water (I know its not cool whilst driving) and as I did the drink went down the wrong hole as we say here in the uk. With that I started having a massive coughing fit and couldn't breath as if I was choking.

I closed my eyes for a moment and when I looked up everything around me was going in slow motion except for me. The traffic seemed to be going at a snails pace but I seemed to be at normal speed.
Was like something out of a movie.
After the briefest of moments.. probably around 3 seconds, everything started to go back to normal speed which was a gradual thing not instant.

As a bizarre experience it was, and a fleeting moment, I put it down to some weird response from my brain as I was momentarily starved of oxygen.

Anyway thought I would share it, has anyone else had a similar experience? Or can shed some light on what happened?

a reply to: Misterlondon

All the time. The faster I drive my car it's as if I left early and therefore travel back in time.

Yes, it has something to do with quantum physics and the brain.

I've had a similar experience on different occasions, but the one I'll post here was when my husband ran a stop sign, and we crossed a 4-lane highway to get to the road on the other side. We were on vacation and didn't know the area. We came around a curve, and there was the stop sign. Neither of us saw it in time for him to stop.

As he kept going, my mind entered a "different realm", just waiting to be plowed into by another vehicle. He crossed all four lanes, and when we reached the other side and started up the road, I was befuddled with what just happened. Time slowed into slow motion except for our car.

We were both speechless and amazed that we made it across a busy 4-lane highway without being hit! I still don't know how that happened, but it was almost like a shield of some kind surrounded us, keeping us safe.

When we reached the top of the mountain at our destination, a policeman was behind us. He snapped at my husband, saying cars were throwing on their breaks, screeching tires, etc.; said we came in a hair of causing a major pile up... but I never heard or saw any of that. It was like I had entered into a different parallel timeline.

We apologized and told him we missed the sign because of not being familiar with the area, and all of a sudden, there it was. He was nice enough and never gave us a ticket.

We went back to the same place again several years later and the road had been changed at that spot. Part of the mountain that hid the sign was removed so that it could be seen in plenty of time to stop.

originally posted by: Misterlondon
Hey fellow ATS'ers, don't really post alot these days but thought I would share a strange experience that happened today.

I was driving along the motorway at 70 mph, it was hot here today so took a quick swig of water (I know its not cool whilst driving) and as I did the drink went down the wrong hole as we say here in the uk. With that I started having a massive coughing fit and couldn't breath as if I was choking.

I closed my eyes for a moment and when I looked up everything around me was going in slow motion except for me. The traffic seemed to be going at a snails pace but I seemed to be at normal speed.
Was like something out of a movie.
After the briefest of moments.. probably around 3 seconds, everything started to go back to normal speed which was a gradual thing not instant.

As a bizarre experience it was, and a fleeting moment, I put it down to some weird response from my brain as I was momentarily starved of oxygen.

Anyway thought I would share it, has anyone else had a similar experience? Or can shed some light on what happened?

Yes, right before 2 accidents, one was a 5 car pile up on a major route, cars everywhere. I had two choices hit the car in front of me, with people staring out the windows, or head for the pole. Chose the pole, managed to avoid it, hit truck in car dealership after flying thru air. The whole thing was slow motion the whole time. Thought it must be a shock thing.

a reply to: Misterlondon

Time did not actually slow down - just your subjective perception of it did.

What happened is that you were thrown into a FLOW state where you functioned at the very boundary of your capability in a condition of extreme challenge.



Life threatening events will almost always produce the FLOW experience.

Read "Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience " by
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi for more.

Ted Talk -

www.ted.com...

a reply to: FyreByrd

That does make sense, ill check out the ted talk.

a reply to: Misterlondon

I have had at least one experience i will not forget so easily, but i have read quite a few of these happening while in a car usually right before or during an accident. It is quite the phenomena! I had a few friends that have been in crashes, unfortunatly most ended in tragedy that could have been avoided. Anyway, I had some friends over my place at the time (over 10yrs ago) and ingested fungi.

Things got weird on the come-up, so i went to get some air. I walked this street every day i lived there to work and a buddys house so it wasnt unfarmiliarity that threw me. I walked for 5 min down the street, at a landmark i turned around back to the apartment. I was pretty elevated. Visions and distortions of the trees, shadows and time. Anxiety started kicking my chest and i sped up my pace.

Looking around as i passed streetlight into dark, back to light to dark.. wow its taking a min getting back! the sidewalk in front of me stretching out as i tried to walk faster, breathing getting fast now. Did I pass that house already? I swear i just did back there! it took a few minutes to get back in view of my apartment. I ran up to the door, falling in laughing my balls off to everyone. freaked me the hell out!!

a reply to: FyreByrd

I can't speak of that being an explanation for the other reports, but it certainly does not explain two driving experiences that I've had. To put it briefly, something was going to happen and then it didn't. If that sounds cryptic, so be it. That was about as a good account of what happened as I can muster.

a reply to: sled735

It sounds a similar experience with the time slowing.. was a wtf just happened moment..

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: FyreByrd

I can't speak of that being an explanation for the other reports, but it certainly does not explain two driving experiences that I've had. To put it briefly, something was going to happen and then it didn't. If that sounds cryptic, so be it. That was about as a good account of what happened as I can muster.

If tine hadn't slowed there was a real chance I could have been involved in a serious accident.. The road was busy. 4 lanes of fast moving traffic.
As I was choking the slow time allowed me to keep control of the vehicle until it had stopped.

Afterwards I was completely normal again and carried on.. was just a real sureal moment.

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: FyreByrd

I can't speak of that being an explanation for the other reports, but it certainly does not explain two driving experiences that I've had. To put it briefly, something was going to happen and then it didn't. If that sounds cryptic, so be it. That was about as a good account of what happened as I can muster.

I was not trying to explain your experiences, only the OPs.

a reply to: FyreByrd

Agreed (I think?). Though I never used that terminology before.
Most people who write about a subject often not discussed will create new terms to etch their way into a new niche.

I would have just said that the 'brain went into hyperdrive' and made better use of it's capabilities for a brief moment. When it became clear that the danger had passed, the brain went back into regular mode.

So rather than time slowing down, I'd say the brain sped up.

Sounds kinda like athletes who are able to "get in the zone." Many describe a feeling of time slowing down or seeing things in slo-mo. Like a Jedi using the Force, if you will.

It's a pretty amazing sensation. I started referring to it as "feeling the flow." I've experienced it playing basketball, snowboarding and oddly enough, hackey sack. For a brief, fleeting moment, you feel like the most powerful being in the universe. And just like that, it's gone.

I've woken up in strange places with no idea of how I got there more than once.

a reply to: Misterlondon

Good evidence of relativity? Perhaps your brain slowed down how you see things, or even, some part sped up, til you were in control of your breathing, to help you avoid an accident? Doesn't really fit, though, does it? Reminds me more of stories I have heard, and one of my own, of space seeming to bend, or be altered, to avoid an accident. Someone was watching out for you.

I've experienced it several times. As a kid I believe I experienced it when I was attacked and had to defend myself. That's probably why it seemed like I was knocking others out of the air as if they were floating in air. Later in life I had a weird experience that seemed like a hallucination when I only had one hour of sleep and had a college PE class. It was like everyone was moving super slow but I was too. I could not move my muscles as fast as my brain seemed to be processing everything. At some point things changed.

I once had the experience last over an hour after drinking a few beers at a bar. I played an arcade game in the bar and not only blew away my lifetime high score, but everyone else's and played through all 23 or so levels of the arcade game and then it started over. I suppose sometimes a little bit of alcohol must make me a little bit hyper in more ways than one. After about 4 beers, the regular effects of alcohol rapidly escalated more like what everyone else experiences.

I see and have experienced other weird things. I also see ripples in the air around cars and moving objects a lot. I used to see tv's and computer monitors flicker a lot if I was eating anything before they came out with faster speeds.

Whenever I experience super speed from drinking, I try to move slowly so I don't appear super fast. I remember a girl said I moved super fast one time when I wasn't thinking about not trying to draw attention. I have wondered if my brain often operates at the super speed rate and a little alcohol impairs whatever is slowing me down more like a normal slow person. Driving and many other tasks often seem super slow. The local cable tv guide channel moves so slowly it is like watching paint dry. I see that at someone else's house.
I'm glad tv's are much faster now. I used to occasionally see larger pixels pop up when the refresh rate was slower.

I have had this slowtime 3 times and all of them in life threatening situations.
The last time this happened i felt i had all the time in the world to make the right decisions.
I never expect this gift to kick in but boy is it good to have it coming when you need it.
Felt blessed after walking away from a burning car without a scratch on me or my son.
Tried to talk to friends about this but stopped because the way they looked at me when i mentioned it.
I started to wonder if there was something wrong with me.
Nice of MISTERLONDON to make this thread, now i understand i am NORMAL.

I have seen time do strange things around me but while walking along a road but i had the opposite effect time vanished , twice this happened within weeks of each other and still freaks me out thinking about it

a reply to: Misterlondon

It reminds me of several occasions when I have broken bones or been in accidents. Time slows down and the exact moment is imprinted in memory forever. It happens in moments of severe danger or trauma, sometimes. Why not independently of those scenarios?

Time is a subjective construct, and the brain is involved somehow. This is all we know for sure.