• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Gravity Surge

A

Anonymous

Guest
My story concerns myself and an old friend I served in the army with. It happened on a sunny Saturday afternoon in mid 1990, we were walking down Corporation St toward New St in Birmingham City center, as we crossed the road at the junction I felt a force against my body that I can only describe as being similar to walking submerged under water but with slightly more resistance.


http://www.forteantimes.com/happened/gravity.shtml

Link is dead. See post below for complete text.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
One posible explanation for such phenomena is the presence of strong magnetics fields in the area. It has been proven by scientific research that when strong magnetic fields are applied to the temporal lobes of the brain, it reacts in a strange manner. For example, test subjects often "felt" pressure being exerted on their bodies when there was clearly none.

Currently, I do not remember the source of the experiments but I will look into it. I hope this helps.
 
I fear you have been to long a soldier, civilians usually call this a gust of wind. Ok I'm joking. I don't know what is could have been. An explosion from roadworks or building work in the area, an earthquake? Wouldn't the street have been very crowded on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Did anyone else notice anything? Usually when I have been there on a Saturday it has been jammed. Best to do your shopping on a Sunday when it is empty.
 
Vortex

The same thing must have happened to me!

My job sucks too! :blah: Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
 
"when strong magnetic fields are applied to the temporal lobes of the brain, it reacts in a strange manner."
michael persinger's work...there are lots of refs to this on other threads. but it would need a very strong field, which I'd expect to affect several people in the area, but then again, they probably wouldn't react externally. Strange!
 
brian ellwood said:
"when strong magnetic fields are applied to the temporal lobes of the brain, it reacts in a strange manner."
michael persinger's work...there are lots of refs to this on other threads. but it would need a very strong field, which I'd expect to affect several people in the area, but then again, they probably wouldn't react externally. Strange!
Click to expand...
There is the possibility that the fields were focussed at that particular point. More an intersection of two (or more) fields, than one single one.

Or as you say, it affected a large number of people, but you couldn't tell from their outward appearance.
 
I also Remember reading in a couple of places, that intense build up of static electricity can cause a physical manifestation similiar to the one described, but if I remember correctly this was usually in placed like factories making clingfilm and other plastic sheeting. So how that happened in the open i have no Idea.
 
subjective or real?

Many studies have indicated profound effects of electromagnetic radiation (EM) on the brain. Beginning in the 1990's, such research has occupied a niche in various scientific literature. Indeed, this subjective effect certainly has a very palpable basis. Being that the brain functions through electrochemical and electromagnetic phenomena, external magnetic sources may well affect neurosynaptic communication. Recently, Chinese researchers found that increased brain blood flow resulted in subjects exposed to EM. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2003-08/19/content_1034031.htm

Could there be an alternate explanation? While perhaps more improbable, an actual gravitational fluctuation may be responsible. Ordinarily, gravitational anomalies are static and vary only slightly from the mean geodetic. Subsurface ore bodies are often responsible for the variations, being more dense than surrounding rock. However, because the earth's interior is dynamic, localized and fleeting anomalies are possible. Perhaps there was a combination of effects. Because the dynamo of Earth's interior creates a large EM field, an EM anomaly might have magnified the perception of a surge in gravity. Both such effects could be the result of an upwelling of an anomalously dense magmatic body.
 
Upside down gravity?

Has anyone ever experienced the upside down gravity phenomenon? I had a friend who took me to a place in Buckinghamshire named Magnetic Hill by the locals becuse you could leave your car handbrake off and roll up the hill. I have to admit that it wasn't THAT impressive because the incline was only very slight, so you couldn't REALLY tell if you were going up the hill or not!

I've heard of other places like this though. Anyone ever been to any?

I also went to a pub called The Crooked House somewhere near Stourbridge (forgotten the actual place name) where you can roll things up the sloping bar.

What's that about then?
 
Re: Upside down gravity?

stargazeypie said:
Has anyone ever experienced the upside down gravity phenomenon? I had a friend who took me to a place in Buckinghamshire named Magnetic Hill by the locals becuse you could leave your car handbrake off and roll up the hill. I have to admit that it wasn't THAT impressive because the incline was only very slight, so you couldn't REALLY tell if you were going up the hill or not!

I've heard of other places like this though. Anyone ever been to any?
Click to expand...
I can recommend in 'The Electric Brae' in South Ayrshire, Scotland. Does just what it says on the Website. ;)

Or, Try this one: 'The Electric Brae'
 
Thanks!

Oooh, I will have a look at that when I'm up that way. And fab views too! Excellent. So, that's all it is, an optical illusion?

That's a shame. Still worth a look though! :)
 
I live not far from the crooked house, it's not really that much of a mystery. The builing leans to one side due to subsidence (on the picture key rings they sell you can see the support wall that has been built to hold it up) so inside your perspective gets kind of mucked up.

When I went as a child they used to have a jar of marbles on the bar so you could watch them roll 'up' the surfaces. The illusion is quickly broken by puting a drink on the surface and using it as a make-shift spirit level. It becomes apparent that the marbles are actually still good friends with gravity and rolling down the surface like all good marbles should.

I'm not familiar with Magnetic Hill so I can't really comment on that but I would assume that much the same perspective problem is at work there.

This is certainly the case on a hill somewhere in america (forget where, saw it on Mysteries, Magic and Miracles a couple of years ago) which has a train track running accross it. The main road is on a decline, when it comes 'up' to the hill it appears that the hill is inclining like any normal earth-bump. While it is inclining from the rest of the road it is still in actual fact declining with respect to the real horizontal.

If you turn your engine off there the car will roll 'up' the hill and over the train tracks. Local legend says that it is the ghosts of children who were killed on the tracks years ago pushing the cars to safety so the occupants don't suffer the same fate they did.
The local roads are all named after children. Not sure whether this is because of the legend or if this is where the legend came from.

People eh?

Still, I'm sure the story does wonders for the tourist trade.
 
Thanks, DogMan Star!

Just been having a look at some sites about The Crooked House and it looks even more crooked than I remember. Also found lots of places (mostly in the US) where gravity is alledged to be upside down.

Shame it's all an illusion (ooh... Imagination - Just an Illusion from the 80s, them were the days...) but very interesting none the less.

And The Crooked House pub really is very cute! I must go there again when I'm down that way!
 
Hmmm...

I hate rational explanations.

I feel like I've just cancelled christmas.
 
Know what you mean...

They're a bit boring aren't they really? You always get that bit of a 'oh, is that all it is, then?' reaction.

It would be much more exciting if it was something really bizarre that no one could explain. Never mind though. Christmas is pretty much cancelled for me anyway!! :(

Incidentally, where is your sig quote from? That's if you didn't think it up yourself. I like it a lot! :)
 
The quote is arthur C Clarkes shortest story. Heard it a few years ago and have been using it ever since.

I know, I know, but I like being a sad nerd.
 
Cool story!

Arthur C Clarke, great bloke! I used to love his TV programmes when I was a kid. What was it, Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World or something?

:D
 
Yeah, in his retreat in Sri Lanka, the inventor of the communications satellite... and so on.

While we're on the subject of inverted gravity, ever stood up too fast and felt like your just gonna keep going up?

Like when you pick up somewthing that is a lot lighter than you think it is and your hand nealy goes through the ceiling.

Or that thing where you press your arm against a wall for ages then move away from the wall and your arm floats up against your will.

That's cool.
 
Yes!

And what about the thing you can do with five people. One in a chair and four around them, they put their two index fingers under the sitting person's armpits and knees and lift and they go nowhere fast. Then they all place their hands in succession over the person's head but not touching them or each other. Remove them one by one, and lift the person again and they can lift them right up to the ceiling!

Amazing party trick! I've done it loads! And no one's ever explained it to me!

My laywoman's theory was that it was the concentration of energy, everyone pulling together so to speak. The whole being more than the sum of its parts...

:confused:
 
The link in post #1 is long dead. Here's the complete text, salvaged from the Wayback Machine ...

-------------------------------------------

GRAVITY SURGE

Rob

My story concerns myself and an old friend I served in the army with. It happened on a sunny Saturday afternoon in mid 1990, we were walking down Corporation St toward New St in Birmingham City center, as we crossed the road at the junction I felt a force against my body that I can only describe as being similar to walking submerged under water but with slightly more resistance.

It happened briefly, maybe 2-3 seconds but was strange enough for me to turn to my friend Alan and ask if he had felt anything as we had crossed the road and he replied that he felt as if the gravity had increased causing him to slow down.

It was a strange experience for both of us and we have often talked about what it may of been, mostly we joked that we had been through a vortex and had wound up in a parallel universe where our jobs sucked! Any ideas what it might of been?

--------------------------------------------

SALVAGED FROM: https://web.archive.org/web/20030626030918/http://forteantimes.com:80/happened/gravity.shtml
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top