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

Time Or Dimensional Slips

Mooka, I found this possible old newspaper report about somebody in the distant past experiencing a timeslip, buried within a current Mumsnet thread:

Clovacloud · 16/11/2022 11:04


I’m a huge family history nerd, and I love reading old newspapers to see what my ancestors have been up to. And I think I came across a time slip story in a 1898 local newspaper.

There was a story about a local man, who had walked out into the lane in front of his house. Apparently he saw hundreds of people in the lane, and terrified he ran to the neighbours screaming about seeing all these people. They went out, just saw an empty lane, but he insisted they had been there. The neighbours by this point thought he had gone mad (which in fairness he might have done), and called the police. He told his story to the police who took him away to calm him down. And then there isn’t any follow up story. Now 100 years later that lane is now a main road, and one of the most walked routes into town with an Aldi and a massive Sainsbury’s on it. I wonder if he had a brief time slip?

Source: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_b...ainable-and-spooky-has-happened-to-you?page=9

Sorry it's not more specific about which newspaper or whereabouts it happened, just that it's from 1898.
Nice find, thanks!
 
Great case, where did this happen please?
Red- building
Green- MrsF and her boss
Black- man walking to the building; (The building used to be a school many years ago).
St Mary's.png
 
Mooka, I found this possible old newspaper report about somebody in the distant past experiencing a timeslip, buried within a current Mumsnet thread:

Clovacloud · 16/11/2022 11:04


I’m a huge family history nerd, and I love reading old newspapers to see what my ancestors have been up to. And I think I came across a time slip story in a 1898 local newspaper.

There was a story about a local man, who had walked out into the lane in front of his house. Apparently he saw hundreds of people in the lane, and terrified he ran to the neighbours screaming about seeing all these people. They went out, just saw an empty lane, but he insisted they had been there. The neighbours by this point thought he had gone mad (which in fairness he might have done), and called the police. He told his story to the police who took him away to calm him down. And then there isn’t any follow up story. Now 100 years later that lane is now a main road, and one of the most walked routes into town with an Aldi and a massive Sainsbury’s on it. I wonder if he had a brief time slip?

Source: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_b...ainable-and-spooky-has-happened-to-you?page=9

Sorry it's not more specific about which newspaper or whereabouts it happened, just that it's from 1898.
This sounds almost identical to the 'ghost funeral' story that I was listening to on a podcast recently. Maybe Boggart and Banshee? Anyway, the essence is that a man goes out of his house and encounters a huge crowd of people all milling about, and there's a coffin at the centre in which he sees either himself or someone he recognises (can't quite remember which). The crowd vanishes and it all goes quiet again, only for the scene to be repeated for real later.

I wonder if this is an archetypal story, that has become garbled somehow?
 
Could be, I did try a quick search on the British Newspaper archives in the area I thought the Mumsnet poster may be talking about but I didn’t come up with anything.

@floyd there’s a Whitchurch’s Most Haunted group on Facebook (it’s private so you’d have to join to search), just wondered if they’re be any other people with similar sightings in the area your wife and her boss spotted the man.
 
Could be, I did try a quick search on the British Newspaper archives in the area I thought the Mumsnet poster may be talking about but I didn’t come up with anything.

@floyd there’s a Whitchurch’s Most Haunted group on Facebook (it’s private so you’d have to join to search), just wondered if they’re be any other people with similar sightings in the area your wife and her boss spotted the man.
Yes that's a good thought. Anyway, I'll mention it to a few people and see what they say. There are quite a few ghosts around here.
 
Found the episode that the Mumsnet story reminded me of. It's Episode 106 on the Ghosts and Folklore of Wales podcast series, entitled 'Phantom Funerals'. Probably coincidental, but the two stories sound so very alike...
 

Haunting on The Great North Road! A motorcycle Journey I will never forget!​

I came across this account of a possible timeslip or time glitch by chance today on youtube -worth a listen.

Great find. Seems a genuine guy and lots of interesting comments that have a few similar experiences included. Shame he doesn't share the location.
 
"Mysterious Universe' is one of several Fortean podcasts that I listen to whilst cooking etc. During the week I was listening a quite recent episode that mentioned some impressive and intriguing time-slip cases from Australia's Blue Mountains and included someone seeing a town that hadn't existed for decades as it was flooded for a reservoir. I am kicking myself for not noting down the episode, but I think it was this one:

https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2022/10/28.13-MU-Podcast-How-the-CIA-Created-Mothman/

Although the time=slips are not mentioned in the show notes. I will listen again later today but a Google search isn't bringing up much at all re the Blue Mountains + time-slip. Anyone have any sources...?
 
A few posts in this thread, which is probably my favourite of the entire forum, have referred to the evidential value of old photos.
Haven't they mostly been thoroughly scrutinised and satisfactory explanations proffered for the apparent woo factor though?
The famous 1941 "hipster time-traveller" photo of a young man with wraparound sunglasses and a shirt with a curious logo was initially impressive, until the shirt was identified as being a "Montreal Maroons" ice hockey team shirt from 1938 and, apparently, such sunglasses were available at the time, but just hadn't become widely popular yet.

tt1.png


Then there's the woman in a 1928 Charlie Chaplin film supposedly having a conversation on her mobile. In reality, it was almost certainly an early form of hearing aid, like the 1905 version shown below, which is only slightly larger than say a Samsung Galaxy S22:

TT2.png
TT3.png


My favourite though, has to be the "surfer dude" in the 1917 photo of a picnic in San Josef Bay, British Columbia.
Everyone is dressed as you would expect, in sober post-Edwardian clothing - except for one young man. With his unfashionably long, tousled hair, dark T-shirt and what looks like cut-off jeans or boardshorts he seems decidedly out-of-place (and time!). He also seems to be attracting some strange looks from those around him.
Does it mean that a pukka time-traveller gate-crashed this genteel picnic?
Probably not. But am I right that this photo still retains a certain degree of weirdness?

TT4.png
TT5.png


Anyone else have a favourite photo of an alleged time-traveller?
 
A few posts in this thread, which is probably my favourite of the entire forum, have referred to the evidential value of old photos.
Haven't they mostly been thoroughly scrutinised and satisfactory explanations proffered for the apparent woo factor though?
The famous 1941 "hipster time-traveller" photo of a young man with wraparound sunglasses and a shirt with a curious logo was initially impressive, until the shirt was identified as being a "Montreal Maroons" ice hockey team shirt from 1938 and, apparently, such sunglasses were available at the time, but just hadn't become widely popular yet.

View attachment 62783

Then there's the woman in a 1928 Charlie Chaplin film supposedly having a conversation on her mobile. In reality, it was almost certainly an early form of hearing aid, like the 1905 version shown below, which is only slightly larger than say a Samsung Galaxy S22:

View attachment 62784View attachment 62785

My favourite though, has to be the "surfer dude" in the 1917 photo of a picnic in San Josef Bay, British Columbia.
Everyone is dressed as you would expect, in sober post-Edwardian clothing - except for one young man. With his unfashionably long, tousled hair, dark T-shirt and what looks like cut-off jeans or boardshorts he seems decidedly out-of-place (and time!). He also seems to be attracting some strange looks from those around him.
Does it mean that a pukka time-traveller gate-crashed this genteel picnic?
Probably not. But am I right that this photo still retains a certain degree of weirdness?

View attachment 62786View attachment 62787

Anyone else have a favourite photo of an alleged time-traveller?
My problem with the Chaplin woman (taken from a film clip) she seems to be talking to someone but there’s no one with her. I’ve watched it many a time and can’t figure out what’s going on.
 
I’m not saying it’s a mobile phone. But who is she talking to and how?
Yes, that's odd. Could she be talking to or singing to herself? If she had hearing problems she may not even be aware she was being so overt about it. I've known people who do that but it isn't noticeable now because everyone assumes they're on a mobile. Or of course it has to be ....Aliens! :)
 
I’m not saying it’s a mobile phone. But who is she talking to and how?
1. Could it be a normal telephone out of sight from the viewpoint of the photographer?
2. She's a nutter - in the pre-mobile phone days you used to know that anyone loudly talking to themselves while walking down the street was mentally unbalanced; these days those people are still there, you just assume they're using bluetooth.
 
1. Could it be a normal telephone out of sight from the viewpoint of the photographer?
2. She's a nutter - in the pre-mobile phone days you used to know that anyone loudly talking to themselves while walking down the street was mentally unbalanced; these days those people are still there, you just assume they're using bluetooth.
1 She moves too much.

2 Quite possible. It was easier to avoid them before.
 
If anyone hasn’t seen the Chaplin ‘phone’ woman.

Thanks @MorningAngel I had seen it but not for a while. It does look odd. Do we know whether she was an extra or it was an actual “crowd shot”?

I think there is a difference between time slips and time travellers. A time slip would probably involve someone in anachronous costume, probably looking confused and maybe trying not to be noticed depending on where in the time slip we’ve seen them. Have they just “arrived” or have they been there for a subjective few minutes/hours etc.

A time traveller would probably dress to fit in and try not to be caught doing anything anachronous – unless the picture they were captured in was somehow important in their future and therefore they had to go back in order to be in it.:pop:

The Chaplin lady isn’t in anachronous dress so unless she’s only travelled a few years( in which case she’s unlikely to have a radio/mobile whatever she’s speaking into) she’s more likely to be a time traveller but not a very careful one. She either knows she’s going to be in that movie or she’s relying on being regarded as a nutter.

Of course it may be someone with an early deaf aid and some mental health issues.

As for the surfer, I suspect either period dress that looks modern as in the “sunglasses” guy or a fake. The way the people around him are reacting somehow doesn’t look right and he doesn’t look confused or distressed. It seems the photo was taken at the time of another failure to establish a fishing colony at San Josef Bay. Possibly like the original by Danish settlers. Is the dress more “normal” for a 1917 Danish fisherman?

https://driftward.com/products/san-josef-bay?variant=42824020230392
 
A few posts in this thread, which is probably my favourite of the entire forum, have referred to the evidential value of old photos.
Haven't they mostly been thoroughly scrutinised and satisfactory explanations proffered for the apparent woo factor though?
The famous 1941 "hipster time-traveller" photo of a young man with wraparound sunglasses and a shirt with a curious logo was initially impressive, until the shirt was identified as being a "Montreal Maroons" ice hockey team shirt from 1938 and, apparently, such sunglasses were available at the time, but just hadn't become widely popular yet.

View attachment 62783

Then there's the woman in a 1928 Charlie Chaplin film supposedly having a conversation on her mobile. In reality, it was almost certainly an early form of hearing aid, like the 1905 version shown below, which is only slightly larger than say a Samsung Galaxy S22:

View attachment 62784View attachment 62785

My favourite though, has to be the "surfer dude" in the 1917 photo of a picnic in San Josef Bay, British Columbia.
Everyone is dressed as you would expect, in sober post-Edwardian clothing - except for one young man. With his unfashionably long, tousled hair, dark T-shirt and what looks like cut-off jeans or boardshorts he seems decidedly out-of-place (and time!). He also seems to be attracting some strange looks from those around him.
Does it mean that a pukka time-traveller gate-crashed this genteel picnic?
Probably not. But am I right that this photo still retains a certain degree of weirdness?

View attachment 62786View attachment 62787

Anyone else have a favourite photo of an alleged time-traveller?
There is nothing inherently anachronistic in the photo - note that the man sitting to the left is wearing similar shorts. After some digging around, I found this page, with the relevant part being this:
The origins of the t-shirt date back to the late 19th century, when laborers would cut their jumpsuits in half to keep cool in warmer months of the year.

The first manufactured t-shirt was invented between the Spanish-American War in 1898, and 1913 when the U.S. Navy began issuing them as standard undershirts.
So short-sleeved shirts had been in circulation for several decades before the photo was taken (assuming the article is correct). He's taken off or lost his hat, and is dressed a little unusually for the time, but not anachronistically so.
 
It could have been influenced by the Breton shirt which was introduced in 1858 by the French navy. "The shirt was also designed with three-quarter length sleeves and a boat neckline - a low cut hem around the neck". Perhaps he's rolled up the sleeves.

https://therake.com/stories/style/how-the-breton-shirt-earned-its-stripes/

There are few garments in circulation today that have sailed through time and remained as current as the Breton - or marinière- pullover shirt. To have such timeless clout and the ability to outlast changes in fashion, the Breton striped shirt — or in fact any garment — needed to be designed with function and purpose in mind. After all, many articles of clothing we now take for granted and often wear had this initial design philosophy. For instance the safari shirt designed to be practical with its storage and unrestricted design and denim jeans — road tested on gold miners and cowboys — are arguably two of the most ubiquitous garments ever created. Yet the Breton’s story is somewhat more aquatic, let’s say.

The Breton’s story starts in 1858 with The Act Of France, whereby the French navy introduced a white pullover with indigo blue horizontal stripes made from cotton as its official uniform. Due to its design, when seamen fell overboard they were easier to spot due to the contrast of the indigo stripes against the white main body of the shirt. The shirt was also designed with three-quarter length sleeves and a boat neckline — a low cut hem around the neck — so that it could be easily removed and waved around, thus making the lost sailor easy to spot. Made by independent tailors in Bretagne, a cottage industry of sorts, the Breton originally had twenty-one stripes: a nod to Napoleon’s twenty-one naval victories over the English. As the Act states: “The body shall have 21 white stripes, each twice as wide as the 20 or 21 navy blue stripes.” However, now a striped cotton shirt — regardless of thickness and number of stripes plus the colour of them (within reason, of course) — is referred to as a Breton shirt. Since, it has become a universal garment and a signifier of effortless French style. However, it’s also become much more.
 
Are there any historical time slips say from a couple of hundred years ago? Or is it a modern phenomena?

Further to my reply above, I would clarify that the Versailles incident 111 years ago was probably the first to be described as a time slip in modern parlance.
There are, however, far earlier accounts of time seemingly misbehaving. I'm thinking of the "Seven Sleepers" legend and ancient Jewish scholar Honi HaMe'agel. But their accounts of time distortion tend to be based around extended slumber (à la Rip Van Winkel) or a religious framework.
I wouldn't be surprised if many people in centuries before Moberly and Jourdain did experience some similar temporal weirdness, but were afraid to report such incidents for fear of being persecuted as witches
 
It could have been influenced by the Breton shirt which was introduced in 1858 by the French navy. "The shirt was also designed with three-quarter length sleeves and a boat neckline - a low cut hem around the neck". Perhaps he's rolled up the sleeves.

https://therake.com/stories/style/how-the-breton-shirt-earned-its-stripes/
When you look, the shorts are the same as the man next to him. It's mainly the hair and the lack of facial hair that makes him look 'different'. If he was, as he appears, a teenager, he may not have managed to cultivate the enormous moustache look, and his hair is perhaps being blown by the wind so looks longer and more unkempt than would otherwise be the case.
 
Clearly many people are reporting first hand experiences that seem to them to be time slips. There are many more second-hand, or "canonical"stories.

My Big Objection: Earth is spinning on its axis, and moving around the sun. The sun itself is moving relative to other stars, in a galaxy that is rotating relative to other galaxies. The Earth is moving round the Sun at roughly 108,000 kmh. Every point on the Earth's surface is over 100 km from where it was when you started reading this paragraph — and it will never be in the same position again, ever.

So if you were to slip back just an hour in time, you would appear in space over 100,000 km behind the Earth. The Earth is millions of miles away from where it was in Victorian times.

So whatever is happening — and I don't deny the sincerity of many of the reports —it is not a case of simply slipping back through time, or something from history slipping forwards through time, or some sort of veil lifting so you can see what was happening in the same place 100 years ago, because it wasn't the same place.
 
Clearly many people are reporting first hand experiences that seem to them to be time slips. There are many more second-hand, or "canonical"stories.

My Big Objection: Earth is spinning on its axis, and moving around the sun. The sun itself is moving relative to other stars, in a galaxy that is rotating relative to other galaxies. The Earth is moving round the Sun at roughly 108,000 kmh. Every point on the Earth's surface is over 100 km from where it was when you started reading this paragraph — and it will never be in the same position again, ever.

So if you were to slip back just an hour in time, you would appear in space over 100,000 km behind the Earth. The Earth is millions of miles away from where it was in Victorian times.

So whatever is happening — and I don't deny the sincerity of many of the reports —it is not a case of simply slipping back through time, or something from history slipping forwards through time, or some sort of veil lifting so you can see what was happening in the same place 100 years ago, because it wasn't the same place.
But it is in relation to where it is. We stay where we are so why shouldn’t these slips? Especially as we don’t know how they work or even how time works. There are theories that all time is happening all at once. So you just have slip a level.
 
Back
Top