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Time Quirks: Perceived Time Flow Slowing, Stopping Or Speeding Up

I can't really follow that ... but one day I was stood in my doorway in the garden and one of sons was messing about with a golf club and a golf ball. He must of sort of clipped it as the next second it was although time stood still, all I could see was this golf ball soaring in the air right towards me! I couldn't move, I felt like a rabbit in headlight for split second. The golf balll hit the wall about 2 feet above my head. But as it was coming towards me it was in slow motion.
 
Years ago I was in a car with my cousin's wife and her toddler son.
He had managed to get out of his seat belt and when a car suddenly turned in front of her and she had to brake hard there was a danger that he would be thrown through the window.
It was like time slowed down and we were able to grab him as he came through between us and she was also able to turn the car so we didn't connect as well.
A bit like the time the Asian woman on her mobile looking the other way stepped in front of my car but strangely ended up back on the nature strip.
 
I had a somewhat similar experience when I was supervising some children playing cricket. Something distracted me briefly then I heard a ball being struck (tennis not cricket ball), glanced back, and saw the ball as if suspended in midair just in front of me. I automatically tried to catch it but it deflected off my hand and right into my glasses, knocking them off. In a daze a I picked them up and they were seriously twisted. The boy was a very good 10 year old who was in the Middlesex youth team, so he had hit it very hard!
 
Time Dilation

This happened about 4-5 years ago when out walking the dogs in the Thames Valley area of the UK near Reading.

Hi Richard,

Stumbled across this post and thread whist killing some time, and had to comment. I too have had the exact same thing happen to me a number of years back;

My own case was that I was driving home late one Friday night from my parent's house, which at the time was a very regular thing, and I had grown used to cruising along the A12 at around 70 mph with no real interruptions as the traffic was very light.

The night my experience happened was one night out of the ordinary when I rounded a bend at 70mph (as usual) and suddenly found myself confronted with stationary traffic just ahead of me.

In that instant my mind ("consciousness" / brain / what have you etc) realised that I was travelling way too fast to stop, everything seemed to "freeze" and time stood still, for want of a better phrase.

I found myself going over each option as I saw it, such as "OK, so you certainly can't brake in time to avoid hitting the traffic... what about going over to the left and up the grass verge? Hmmm... how about aiming for the space between that car on the right and the crash barrier? If you do that, then at least the car won't take a full-on hit from behind and you'll likely ride up the crash barrier..." and so on... even to the extent of me thinking "in the two lanes of traffic, What type of cars are there? Can I see the number of occupants in each? Which one would be 'best' to aim for?"

It felt like I had all the time in the world to make a decision and I vividly remember "sitting there" going through all sorts of scenarios, over what felt like at least 5 minutes of "normal" time... there was no perceptible noises or anything I remember within my "frozen time", and perhaps mulling over is a better description, as I felt like I was even able to wait for thoughts or things I'd missed to come up, if that makes sense.

Eventually, I decided that the best course of action was to try and place the car so it struck the right-hand side of the car in the outside and the crash barrier, hoping to minimise any impact. I even had time to say to myself something like "Yes, I'll do that, I think..."

Then as suddenly as the freeze had started, I "snapped" back and everything was "back" to normal time, with me braking hard and trying to steer the car to my chosen "target area".

What happened was that as I was skidding towards the car in front, the traffic began to move and I managed to stop pretty much where the car was, before it had moved on. Needless to say I pulled off at the next layby and had to take a moment to regain my composure.

My own take on this and following research I made, was that my mind / brain "stepped up a gear" when it was needed, and time didn't actually stand still for me; my mind was just working at such a rate it appeared like that. in that situation. That would tally with your own fall experience.

If you've ever seen the movie "The Matrix", there's a scene near the end where Neo is fighting Agent Smith and is just literally standing there, blocking him with one hand with total ease and is going "faster" than Agent Smith can ever hope to go.... I suppose in a metaphor that the human brain has no finite limit to how fast it can go, when compared to an electronic "written" program, if that makes sense.

Sorry for the rambling, and the no doubt too many "quote marks"... I can't help myself.

I did actually email Paul Sieveking about a possible FT article on time "standing still" effects and hypothesis, but didn't hear anything back (yet).

Regards

James
 
This kind of effect has happened to lots of people, and it has happened to me.
I think it's just your subjective experience of time that has changed, not time itself. This is probably due to adrenalin causing an almost instantaneous speed-up of heart rate and mental processes, allowing you to react to a dangerous situation.
I was the victim of a violent crime (grabbed the blade of a knife that was at my throat), and the whole thing did play out in slow motion, which I attributed to physiological response to the event.

/other than a scar, some numbness from severed nerves not entirely regrowing, and still not liking people to come up behind me, I'm fine.
 
I was the victim of a violent crime (grabbed the blade of a knife that was at my throat), and the whole thing did play out in slow motion, which I attributed to physiological response to the event.

/other than a scar, some numbness from severed nerves not entirely regrowing, and still not liking people to come up behind me, I'm fine.

Kamalktk, out of interest, and if I may ask... were you able to "do" anything positive based on your slow-motion "time"? Like make a really good note of the person's accent (assuming they spoke) or facial features (assuming you got to see them), or was it more of a slow-motion paralysis you found yourself in?

Totally understand if you do not wish to reply, and please do not feel any need to do so.

Regards

James
 
Kamalktk, out of interest, and if I may ask... were you able to "do" anything positive based on your slow-motion "time"? Like make a really good note of the person's accent (assuming they spoke) or facial features (assuming you got to see them), or was it more of a slow-motion paralysis you found yourself in?

Totally understand if you do not wish to reply, and please do not feel any need to do so.

Regards

James
I didnt do anything special physically, no slow motion matrix fighting or anything. I thought I was being strongarmed and made the snap decision to fight (I am large and was very athletic). Then realized I had grabbed the knife as I got the guy off me, then weighed the decision of me trying to fight a guy with a knife given I was already bleeding severely from one hand versus letting him tie me up (and thus leave me defenseless if he decided to kill me) and take my money. Long story of that decision short, I had just had a vocal argument that day with a member of the local mafia about several thousand dollars I was owed for business (I knew when I argued with him he was in the mafia), so decided to let the guy take the money as he must have been sent by the mafia guy to get the money we'd argued about from me. Decided to only tell the attacker where half the money was, the half that wasn't with my several thousand dollar laptop (I'd split the money into two places in a backpack, and he probably wouldn't have been happy if he'd figured that out).

All those decisions were in probably less than a minute of real time, but all were fully analyzed as I realized my life probably depended on making the correct one. I also realised that since I was at home, I was going to have to get myself out of being tied up because no one was going to happen on me. But that was immediately after the attacker had left, and so didn't fall within the "time dialation" effect, though I was extremely calm about it given what happened.

/ For the curious, the attacker only got half the money, which the mafia guy would have realized when my attacker brought the money back, so I "won". And I was out of that country once I'd healed sufficiently from surgery, I had been due to leave the day after I was attacked in any case.
 
[...]

All those decisions were in probably less than a minute of real time, but all were fully analyzed as I realized my life probably depended on making the correct one. [MORE...]

Hi again,

My goodness, that wasn't the story I expected, but I really appreciate you sharing that.

I wanted to quote the line I have above because it reminded me that I also think the whole "when I nearly died, my life flashed in front of my eyes" occurrences one reads / hears about falls within my "it's your brain working x times faster than usual" theory.

If one is to postulate that there truly are areas of our brains that seem "redundant" and unused, it would be fascinating to see if one could capture a brain scan at the exact moment someone has one of these episodes, and see what areas of their brain "lights up".

I wonder how you'd bring on such a state in any volunteer... how about taking them blind-fold into a closed lab room, wiring them up, and "lifting" them onto a small platform / block, explaining that they need to be still as they are very high up and to fall would result in likely death... then surreptitiously "pushing" them off would work?

Seems too close to a form of torture to me... anyone got any other suggestions (serious or humorous)?

Regards

James
 
... I wanted to quote the line I have above because it reminded me that I also think the whole "when I nearly died, my life flashed in front of my eyes" occurrences one reads / hears about falls within my "it's your brain working x times faster than usual" theory. ...

Yep. That's my explanation for total life recall (TLR) incidents - which I've experienced (and reported here on FTMB) more than once. A complete TLR replay takes less than 2 or 3 seconds in 'real' time, but subjectively feels like sitting through an entire movie.

There is no ethical means for inducing a TLR, because it requires both a conclusion that 'this is the end' and situational helplessness to be triggered.
 
I recall listening to F1 driver Nigel Mansell being interviewed by Murray Walker back in the late 1980s about how it was possible to drive a 1500bhp F1 car at 180mph towards a corner with a competitor just behind, a competitor just in front and someone trying to overtake round the outside while not crashing, applying the brakes and looking for an overtaking position all in a split second. I might add that in those days there was no traction control and gear changing was with a foot clutch and a gearstick

Mansell replied that he just slows everything down in his mind which gives him more time to work out what to do while in reality everything whizzes along in real-time.

He implied that he could bring on his own personal time dilation.
 
I recall a similar thing happening to me ref avoiding a car accident many years ago.

I was travelling in the outside lane of a dual carriageway at 40mph in heavy rain - the road ahead was clear and went on for about a mile before reaching a roundabout where I needed to turn right. I probably was going too fast for the conditions as there was a lot of surface water but being young and invincible... A car pulled out of a side street over the carriageway to turn into the oncoming two lanes. He obviously didn't notice me coming and he blocked my outside lane with most of his car whilst he paused for his break in the traffic coming the other way. I hit the brakes and just aquaplaned straight towards him. I must have had literally 3 seconds before I hit him at 40mph T bone into the side of his rear passenger door.

In that 3 seconds time seemed to slow. I weighed up the outcomes. Smash into the side of him or yank the handbrake to try to stop were going through my mind. I chose to check the rear view mirror then check the inside lane was clear over my shoulder, I stopped braking, downed gear and jammed the accelerator to gain traction and whip my car into the inside lane and undertake his back end before swapping back to the outside lane again.

It all seemed to happen in those 3 seconds and my mind and body must have accelerated the decision making in fight or flight mode almost instantly.
 
I have experienced this, once, but in more mundane situations than the other stories on here. I had got off the school bus and was running along the path to my house when suddenly I tripped and fell, but as I fell forwards everything slowed right down and it took an eternity to complete the fall. The pavement got closer and closer but very slowly.

As soon as I smacked into the tarmac, time went back to normal.

This was when I was between 12 and 15, exact year I can't remember. But the sensation of time slowing down for me is something I'll never forget.
 
I recall listening to F1 driver Nigel Mansell being interviewed by Murray Walker back in the late 1980s about how it was possible to drive a 1500bhp F1 car at 180mph towards a corner with a competitor just behind, a competitor just in front and someone trying to overtake round the outside while not crashing, applying the brakes and looking for an overtaking position all in a split second. I might add that in those days there was no traction control and gear changing was with a foot clutch and a gearstick

Mansell replied that he just slows everything down in his mind which gives him more time to work out what to do while in reality everything whizzes along in real-time.

He implied that he could bring on his own personal time dilation.
In sports this is often referred to as being "in the zone", at least in US sports.

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/10300610
 
[...]

Mansell replied that he just slows everything down in his mind which gives him more time to work out what to do while in reality everything whizzes along in real-time.

He implied that he could bring on his own personal time dilation.

I recall a similar thing happening to me ref avoiding a car accident many years ago.

[...] I weighed up the outcomes. [...MORE]

Xbergman, thanks for posting that. Fascinating stuff. I wonder how many other sportsman, or perhaps those with stressful "quick decision" jobs, such as ambulance paramedics are able to do this at will, or rather have trained themselves to do it at will?

I'm aware there are conditions like having a eidetic memory or synesthesia which you just "have"; you can't switch them on or off at will (to my knowledge / understanding)... but I do remember a letter in FT that was from a girl who could "rewind" whole days in a kind of eidetic memory video player, and who said she gradually lost the ability to do this at will over time, but then suddenly "did it" one afternoon after a long break without realising it.

Terracuk, I quoted you as that's EXACTLY the phrase I should have used; I was able to weigh up all the choices in my time "bubble" almost ruminating on what to do.

Regards

James
 
... Mansell replied that he just slows everything down in his mind which gives him more time to work out what to do while in reality everything whizzes along in real-time.

He implied that he could bring on his own personal time dilation.

Just a note for clarification ...

Expertise in performing tasks more efficiently than (e.g.) a novice is an example of 'flow', in the sense popularized by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Time dilation is a subjective effect experienced by an actor.

An expert actor may or may not experience a subjective sense of time dilation when 'in the flow'.

My point is:

- Subjective time dilation is not necessarily entailed in 'flow', and therefore ...
- Achieving or exhibiting 'flow' doesn't automatically mean the 'flowing' actor is experiencing a time dilation.

These are two distinct things that may or may not intersect in a particular actor / situation / performance.
 
Hi again,

My goodness, that wasn't the story I expected, but I really appreciate you sharing that.

I wanted to quote the line I have above because it reminded me that I also think the whole "when I nearly died, my life flashed in front of my eyes" occurrences one reads / hears about falls within my "it's your brain working x times faster than usual" theory.

If one is to postulate that there truly are areas of our brains that seem "redundant" and unused, it would be fascinating to see if one could capture a brain scan at the exact moment someone has one of these episodes, and see what areas of their brain "lights up".

I wonder how you'd bring on such a state in any volunteer... how about taking them blind-fold into a closed lab room, wiring them up, and "lifting" them onto a small platform / block, explaining that they need to be still as they are very high up and to fall would result in likely death... then surreptitiously "pushing" them off would work?

Seems too close to a form of torture to me... anyone got any other suggestions (serious or humorous)?

Regards

James
I'm afraid that the powers that be have introduced "ethical rules" that would certainly prohibit such an experiment! Today psychologists have to reveal to their subjects a lot of information that in effect, nullifies the methodology, since what you want is that the subject doesn't know what you are really aiming at. And threatening with death or similar scenarios would be totally forbidden. What you could do, maybe, is a survey study asking people such as soldiers, firemen, policemen, etc., who are more likely to have had life threatening experiences than most of us, whether they have ever had this happen to them. I think there are studies that have found that for soldiers in a full day of combat, many tend to experience this as a much shorter period.
 
[...]

What you could do, maybe, is a survey study asking people such as soldiers, firemen, policemen, etc., who are more likely to have had life threatening experiences than most of us, whether they have ever had this happen to them. I think there are studies that have found that for soldiers in a full day of combat, many tend to experience this as a much shorter period.

Thanks for that Carl, and that's an angle I'd totally overlooked. Perhaps one day, when my £10 Million Pound research grant comes through... ;)

Seriously, I'd love to dedicate some real time to working on this.

Thanks again, appreciate the reply.

Regards

James
 
Thanks for that Carl, and that's an angle I'd totally overlooked. Perhaps one day, when my £10 Million Pound research grant comes through... ;)

Seriously, I'd love to dedicate some real time to working on this.

Thanks again, appreciate the reply.

Regards

James
It's great to hear someone really interested in looking into time-related phenomena. You don't need millions really, with the internet you don't even have to send out questionnaires by post, a lot of useful work could be done on the cheap! I didn't get actively involved until I lost my main job and had time on my hands -- and the most expensive thing I've actually had to pay for was a search at the local record office.
 
Just a note for clarification ...

Expertise in performing tasks more efficiently than (e.g.) a novice is an example of 'flow', in the sense popularized by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Time dilation is a subjective effect experienced by an actor.

An expert actor may or may not experience a subjective sense of time dilation when 'in the flow'.

My point is:

- Subjective time dilation is not necessarily entailed in 'flow', and therefore ...
- Achieving or exhibiting 'flow' doesn't automatically mean the 'flowing' actor is experiencing a time dilation.

These are two distinct things that may or may not intersect in a particular actor / situation / performance.


Here is our Nige expanding on the topic, I might add that this is not the interview I remember but a different one although Nige still claims to be able to control time, maybe he is a Time Lord (cue dramatic music)

 
A normal human can probably separate a second into 50 frames. If someone is able to separate a second into 100 frames it may look like they're slowing time down from their point of view. Is is probably necessary for professional drivers and pilots etc. to develop this ability.
 
Here is our Nige expanding on the topic, I might add that this is not the interview I remember but a different one although Nige still claims to be able to control time, maybe he is a Time Lord (cue dramatic music)


XBergMann, thanks for that, much appreciated. I'll give it a view when I have access to YouTube next.

I've just started reading "The Labyrinth of Time" by Anthony Peake (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00995FS22/), and although I'm finding it a bit hard-going, there's a fascinating paragraph on the whole tortoise and the hare race, and which I'd like to quote here;

/q

Zeno's second paradox is officially known as the 'argument of Achilles' although most readers will recognize it as the story of the race between the tortoise and the hare. In modern times it has also been called the 'bisection paradox'. This asserts that in any race the slower runner can never be overtaken by a faster one who is pursuing.

In the popular tortoise-and-hare version there is a 100 metre race. As the hare is a much faster runner than the tortoise,it is agreed that the tortoise will be given a 50-metre start. So it is only when the tortoise passes the halfway stage that the hare is allowed to shoot off in pursuit. The hare then runs 50 metres and arrives at the point that the tortoise had reached when the hare first started to race.

In the time it has taken the hare to run that 50 metres the tortoise has strolled another metre.

In order to catch up with its opponent the hare has to run the additional metre. However, as it takes an amount of time for the hare to cover this additional metre, the tortoise will have already moved nearer the finishing line.

In this model the hare can never catch the tortoise. It is continually arriving at a point in space and time that the tortoise has already moved on from.


/endquote

Regards

James
 
I agree with others about time seeming to slow in a crisis.

I was involved in a serious RTA on the M25 some years ago which saw my VW Passat written off in a head on smash at 60mph.

A motorcycle undercut a car in front of mine in lane three causing her to slam on the anchors.

Although I was some distance behind her I was helpless and saw her car looming larger and larger and, something that took about 2 seconds went on for ages.

I was able to think, right, I'm going to hit this car hard and the airbag will deploy, I had time to slide back on my seat to avoid a broken nose, lift my non braking foot to lessen the chance of breaking both legs and throw the car to the right and the central reservation and crash barriers rather than spinning into the inside lanes and certain death under a HGV.

I remember it so clearly.
 
I agree with others about time seeming to slow in a crisis.

I was involved in a serious RTA on the M25 some years ago which saw my VW Passat written off in a head on smash at 60mph.

A motorcycle undercut a car in front of mine in lane three causing her to slam on the anchors.

Although I was some distance behind her I was helpless and saw her car looming larger and larger and, something that took about 2 seconds went on for ages.

I was able to think, right, I'm going to hit this car hard and the airbag will deploy, I had time to slide back on my seat to avoid a broken nose, lift my non braking foot to lessen the chance of breaking both legs and throw the car to the right and the central reservation and crash barriers rather than spinning into the inside lanes and certain death under a HGV.

I remember it so clearly.

Thanks for this, Nick.

Out of interest, how do you interpret what happened with regard to the time slow-down?

Regards

James
 
I imagine that this is a mechanism which is inherent in all of us where, with death or serious injury imminent, our primal instincts are triggered in an attempt to preserve life.

In our evolution weve have had to contend with lightning fast predators and other humans, trying to kill us and our last line of defence is an ability to focus our entire being into one make or break moment.

I personally think that time is, in some regards, subjectively "fluid" by which I mean that, on an individual basis, we can briefly, step outside of normal time to act in a crisis. I have absolutely no way of proving that feeling though.

There are countless tales of, for example, soldiers or police officers who claim that...in a crisis, they are able to perform an act of self preservation or the saving of a colleague in a timeframe which defies logic.

I have also heard of soldiers who claim to have " seen" a projectile, bullet or shrapnel, flying towards them but their bodies are too slow to take evasive action in time to avoid injury.

I was able to react in time because I was young with young reflexes.

These days I'd have ended up seriously damaged I fear.
 
[SNIP]

I was able to react in time because I was young with young reflexes.

These days I'd have ended up seriously damaged I fear.

That's another interesting thought you've raised... I wonder what the ratio of these experiences is when the age of the person reporting it is taken into account?

If it were possible to graph say, 1000 people who've had a like experience by their age at the time they had the experience, would you see a sharp declining trend as the age increases? Do adolescents / children ever experience it (notwithstanding the whole childhood feeling that minutes / hours / days seem to take forever to pass) in the sense that they recognise it as something different and not the norm.?

Opens up even more questions... would older people feel less inclined to report it and so on and so on...

Regards

JKW
 
That's another interesting thought you've raised... I wonder what the ratio of these experiences is when the age of the person reporting it is taken into account?

If it were possible to graph say, 1000 people who've had a like experience by their age at the time they had the experience, would you see a sharp declining trend as the age increases? Do adolescents / children ever experience it (notwithstanding the whole childhood feeling that minutes / hours / days seem to take forever to pass) in the sense that they recognise it as something different and not the norm.?

Opens up even more questions... would older people feel less inclined to report it and so on and so on...

Regards

JKW
The older you get, the faster the time seems to go. Not sure if it has anything to do with the fact that one year is one tenth(1/10) of a ten year old child's life, while it is one fiftieth(1/50) of a 50 year old person's life.
 
The older you get, the faster the time seems to go. Not sure if it has anything to do with the fact that one year is one tenth(1/10) of a ten year old child's life, while it is one fiftieth(1/50) of a 50 year old person's life.

This subjective effect seems to be universal. I don't know any fellow survivors of a half-century or more who don't mention, or at least acknowledge, it.

I ascribe it to the vagaries of learning and memory. The first time one encounters X, it takes substantial effort to deal with it. Fifty years later one has encountered so many 'things-like-X' that the surprise and effort have diminished, and encounters with X elicit considerably more humdrum / routine responses based on experience.

Phrased more simply ... The first time you wrestle with X is a big deal. The 100th time you have to deal with X it's just 'more of the known / same'. Big deals get written large in memory, whereas the same ol' same ol' hardly registers a blip.
 
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