Out of time and out of place

Hello fellow truth-seekers,

I would like to share the following experience with you. And I am looking forward to you responses, especially ones similar like mine, so please don't hesitate to comment.

It happened 15 years ago (I was 22 at the time) and up till a couple weeks ago I never read anything noteworthy regarding to my experience.

Me and my boyfriend (husband nowadays) were camping in the wild in the south of France. Our tent was next to a river along a small road (just big enough to let 1 car pass). The road was about 3 kilometres. At the beginning of the road there was a field on the left where friends of us were camping bordered by a mountain chain.
On the right side was the river. Nearly at the end of the road we had our tent next to the river. The road ended 50 meter futher at the steep mountainside. The only possibility to go any further was by foot, on a small goat-path up the mountain.

We had been celebrating my boyfriends 31st birthday in the bar in the nearest small village and got drunk ans stoned on marihuana (can I say that here?) and it would take us half an hour to walk back to our tent. A very nice local France gypsy (who was completely sober) offered us a ride in his car. Very pleased we hopped in at 2.00 AM. We entered the small very dark road on the left riverbank and told him we were nearly there. We also told him there was a small parking lot near our tent where he had the possibility to turn the car.

2 hours later we were still driving in the same direction! We were completely sobered up and had goosebubs everywhere. It was just impossible! The gipsy got very silent and looked real worried and a bit angry. The guy was raised down there and knew every little road. We were panicking and the guy decided to turn the car anyway. This was very difficult because of the dark and all the trees but he managed. It took us again nearly 2 hours bu then we were at the beginning of the road again (near an illuminated official camping site) The guy nearly threw us out of his car and speeded away.
I was really upset and scared and crying that I didn't dare to walk that same road up to our tent, what if the same thing would happen? We did it anyway since we had no choice.

And after a half hour walk during which I was sobbing loudly we came to our tent and went to sleep.
The next day we heard from our friends (insomniacs) that they were worried because we were so late. They heard me crying but they never heard a car passing by! They showed us a map of the environment and said that it was simpley immpossible what happenend to us.

We went to the same bar the next night, anxious to talk to our gypsy friend. He didn't want to have anything more to do with us! He was upset and angry and kept saying it was impossible. He never again talked to us during our stay there!

Let me know what you make out of this, please.

reply to post by leapoffaith


All I can say is, some kind of distortion of your time/space perception took place (duh... I know ). And perception is EVERYTHING when time/space is concerned.

I am sure others will have something to say, but meanwhile I am posting a link to a thread here that you might find interesting.

Time slips, anyone?






[edit on 20-5-2008 by Vanitas]

reply to post by leapoffaith



P.S.

Would you mind telling where exactly that happened? I mean, the name of the place?

Also, do you remember the weather conditions at the time? Was it stormy? Hot? Cloudy? Anything you remember as a fact?

Were there any power lines nearby?
Anything like that?

Welcome to ATS..

Can I ask if you were offered anything to eat or drink from the gypsy.

From reading your story my understanding is that you lost 2 hours then you were aware that you were driving down country lanes. Is it possible that you could of just passed out due to drink / drugs.

How well did you know this guy, he may of seemed nice but it could of been an attempted abduction / kidnap on his part. Not a nice thing to say I know but the world is full of strange people, who knows what a person is thinking at 2am in the morning.

I prefer the thought of time slips ...

JQ

Weird experience. If i were you, i would have completely freaked out, especially because it happened at night and in the middle of nowhere. Not to mention you were stoned, which can get you a little paranoid... Speaking of which, i assume you actually looked at the clock before leaving, when you turned the car around, and when you got back to where you started from? And you didnt just assume it was 2 hours? I dont wanna seem rude, i just wanna get all the facts, plus smoking can do that to you, make 10 minutes seem like hours.

Due to the stonage, you know that could make this discountable. But it reminds me of the Bermuda Triangle. "I want to believe". Something strange happened to me before. Sometimes, people say that time only SEEMS to slow but it's a product of the chemicals in the brain during the fight-or-flight response. There was a moment that i personally discount as a possible product, in such a way. I was in this mall, and i had fallen behind, and i was running to catch up with a few friends, when there was this boy.
(As if that wasn't shocking enough all on its own,) we were both running, but the moment lasted a minute. Almost as if to make sure it happened. We just met eyes and nodded, and then both went on our ways.

Really, i find this type of thing fascinating. I think time distortions are possible, and i think that i (being sober as always at the time!) experienced a short one. So strange.

reply to post by Levita



They are not really distortions of TIME, Levita, but rather of our perception of it (and, by implication, of space).
I am sure you perceive the difference.
And if not... you shall.

In other words, it is us, the way we are wired, what makes us perceive the world, time/space in certain ways. But, as you have experienced yourself - and it is a fascinating experience, thanks for sharing it! - that "wiring" is not inescapable.
And if it undoubtedly had a sound purpose throughout human history, that purpose seems to have outlived itself, to a certain degree.

But that's a different, longer story...








[edit on 21-5-2008 by Vanitas]

reply to post by John Q


No, I didn't take anything from the gypsy. In fact I hadn't been talking to him at all, my boyfriend had met him and spent the evening in the bar talking to him. The bar closed at 1.30 AM and because of previous hassle with the police the owner urged us to leave when we stood outside talking.

My boyfriend stepped in the frontseat next to the gypsy and me in the back in the middle so I had a direct look at the clock right in front of me. The night in the bar is all very blurry to me but during the ride in the car I was very alert.

Both me and my boyfriend remember both exactly what happened that night. We remember entering the little road next to the camping site, we had been walking that road many times (we know our way around in that whole area).
After we entered the gypsy started to get very nervous. We reassured him and told him we were nearly there. But time went on and we just kept driving this bumpy dark road and several times he threatened to throw us out of the car. We both really panicked because we strongly fell that leaving the car would be the worst thing we could do. By then we all looked at the clock, it was 4 AM then, and the gypsy started to turn the car around.

reply to post by Vanitas


It was in a village called Ussat les Bains in the department of France called the Ariege. The bar was in Ornolac. These 2 villages are seprated by a bridge.

The weather was hot (it was the 9th of august 1993), I remember vividly looking at the stars.

2 years ago we returned there for the first time and drove around and had to reach the same conclusions, it was just not possible that we were on the wrong road, because there was no other road down there.
We wanted to go back to the bar, but all the houses in Ornolac were sold to the government years ago because they were planning a freeway there to Andorra. We went back to our campsite at the river and everything there was pretty much the same.

reply to post by Wallachian


Maybe it was silly of me to mention that we had drinks and joints, but I wanted to be as accurate in my account as possible. The gypsy was completely sober and me and my boyfriend were in a relaxed mood.

I understand your scepticism, that's exactly why we still are reluctant to talk to people about this but its's still in our mind.

Oh I forgot to mention that we spoke to the old people of Ussat les Bains about this. They were not surprised at all and told us lot of strange things happen in the Languedoc Roussillon. Unfortunately that was alle they wanted to say about the subject, they were like the gypsy, very reluctant to talk about this.

reply to post by leapoffaith


Thank you. That's very precious information.
No only is it good to have an "inventory" of places where such things have happened, but it also enables one to locate possible sources of geomagnetic or electric activity.

And I especially appreciate your accurate account of the date and time - thats very rare.

By the way, one of the most famous "time slip" stories ever happened on August 10. Not that it had anything to do with the date (well, I don't think so), but with the weather... :-)


The Versailles Time Slip (1901)




[edit on 21-5-2008 by Vanitas]

Maybe it was silly of me to mention that we had drinks and joints,

No, no, no - anything else would have been unethical.
"Incomplete" accounts are often worthless.

reply to post by leapoffaith



Interesting... There are mineral water sources there; and 800 years ago, there were the Cathars (and there are caves with ancient, probably Cathar symbols engraved in the walls) - and it was the very place where Otto Rahn, and later the Nazis, went looking for the Holy Grail, no less... (Because of the proximity of the Cathar stronghold, of course. In fact, the cave of Lombrives, at Ussat-les--Bains, where Rahn searched for the actual Holy Grail - see the photograph in the article above - is apparently the same one where Simon de Montfort and his people had hid 700 years before.)

Does any of this have anything to do with your experience?

It seems too far-fetched to even utter such a thing...

But in truth, such things are rarely totally unconnected.
It's the nature of the connection - IF any - which currently escapes us.


EDIT: Here is another, much more extensive article about Rahn and later Himmler's interest in the caves around Ussat.





[edit on 21-5-2008 by Vanitas]

Hi Leapoffaith, thanks for answering the questions.

I do have some more though.... have you had any strange dreams since the event took place or even a dream that repeats itself.

Can I ask why you were crying... I mean was it due to a feeling or were you hurt in some way.

Have you looked into the history of the area, just a thought.

Thanks in advance,

JQ

Have you looked into the history of the area, just a thought.

See above.

reply to post by leapoffaith


No, i think you did the right think mentioning all the details. And just because you were a little "under the influence", doesnt mean i for one dont believe your story, i just wanted to have all the facts, like if you re sure that the way took indeed 2 hours and 2 more back. If you re sure of that, its enough for me. There is always room for skepticism, but in this case i wasnt being a skeptic.

Sounds to me like it is something about that place. There are many places in the world where weird things keep on happening, and this might be one of them.

reply to post by Vanitas


We have been there. In the caves I mean.

Thank you for all this background information, it means a lot to me! Nowadays we don't go anywhere without collecting as much information as possible, but back then I was in love and not so much interested in the history of places.

I am not sure if there's a connection but I am sure there is something about that area. Last year we visited Carcassone ans Montsegur and ever since I feel sort of homesick, I didn't want to leave, it fellt like home.

The part of my story I really can't figure out is this: the mountains have been there longer than there is human life on earth, thats whats so puzzling. So it cannot be that we went to another time dimension or something (not like that is common experience for me, but it would make sense)

the mountains have been there longer than there is human life on earth, thats whats so puzzling. So it cannot be that we went to another time dimension or something

Oh, it most certainly CAN be...!
(Obviously, I am not saying it IS so, but it can be.)

For all we know, those mountains could contain minerals (just a thought) or any other substance that could induce powerful geomagnetic activity - which, by the way, MIGHT have been one of the causes leading the Cathars to settle just there, instead of choosing any other mountainous and cavernous place of the region.
After all, I am sure we all have had the experience of certain places having a good (or bad) "feel" to them. Sometimes the reasons are purely subconscious, based on personal memories - but often there are actually physical factors that influence our choices.

And it's interesting that those mineral waters that the place was called after were and still are used to cure nervous and psychosomatic ailments, of all things...

Is it connected?
Who knows...

But it's good to list all the facts and possible factors.











[edit on 21-5-2008 by Vanitas]

Nowadays we don't go anywhere without collecting as much information as possible, but back then I was in love and not so much interested in the history of places.

Ah - love is a force to be reckoned with in more than just one sense...

I have the suspicion that knowing very many historic details beforehand might actually BLOCK - and certainly confound - the perception of such phenomena.

What's important is to take note of all the geographic, meteorological and, of course, relevant personal details.
History won't go anywhere - it'll wait. :-)




[edit on 21-5-2008 by Vanitas]

reply to post by John Q


Yes but I don't know if there's a connection. As I also just started working in a psychiatric hospital for psychotic drugaddicts a couple of weeks before this holiday.

I had a lot of dreams in which I was falling down a very long time and actually landing so hard that it woke me up. My dreams about people turning into black cats also started round that time.

Thank you for your interest!