AIBU to believe FIL time slip experience?

No I was barely ever there, about twice a week at most.

You didn't have to walk past it to leave the building.

So no your explanation is not the reality of the situation.

No doubt I remember it because it was horrible news but the chances of me being there at that exact moment when I was there at most 30 mins over 2 periods to make calls or pick up post in a week of 168 hours means the chances were definitely remote!

Not quite a premonition but I couldn’t shake the fact that someone very close to me was going to die during the second lockdown. I thought it was going to be someone I saw a lot, maybe a good friend, and assumed it would be from covid. I was really uneasy and told quite a few people how worried I was.

The week we went into lockdown my dad died, completely out of the blue. It wasn’t entirely accurate as not a covid death but the uneasy feeling disappeared completely after that. I do think I should have had an inkling the last time I saw him though but I didn’t.

I am very sorry about your friend.

But there was nothing unusual about you being in a spot you went to regularly, right by where you lived, especially when you went there frequently to pick up your post and phone calls. I realise you weren't expecting that phone call at that time, but the chances of you being there were not incalculably slim at all. They were pretty good.

You remember this time because it was when you got that horrible news. You will have been there lots of other times when nothing memorable happened.

I'm another one whose had premonitions.

The strangest one was having a feeling that I needed to go out of my flat when I was living abroad for a year to check if there was something in my post box. I lived on the 3rd floor of a student residence inhabited by probably 150-200 people.

At the time, in the late 90s, I didn't have a mobile phone so I used the pay phones next to the post boxes to phone friends and they would call me at arranged times or call me back etc.

Anyway I was by the post boxes and one of the pay phones rang so I answered it and it was one of my friends on the end of the line calling to try to get a message to me that a mutual friend had died.

The chances of me actually being there at that precise moment were incalculably slim, but there I was because I KNEW I had to be.

Strange.

I am perfectly happy with the explanation of sleep paralysis because it's proven and makes sense. What's more likely - that a demon visited me in my sleep, paralysed me, sat on me and my bed and conjured up a magic fire in the room that disappeared as soon as I woke up properly.... or that the normal paralysis we have in sleep that stops us from sleepwalking and acting out dreams switched off a bit later than it was supposed to and my frightened, half-sleeping brain created a few sensations while it tried to orientate me?

It's not open minded or intelligent to reject the evidenced and reasoned explanation for the woo woo one. I can completely understand why people thought sleep paralysis was paranormal, but we now know that it isn't. We may not fully understand every brain mechanism that leads to it but we know it's not a visit from demons. Which is just as well because I've got enough problems.

And as for the frigging Scouse time portal, this is just about proving negatives again. Do I have to mention mice in teapots again? You can't prove those don't exist either. If you think there's a time portal on a Liverpool high street, you'll need some proper evidence before you can expect anyone to take it seriously.

Until then, the mice bid you good day and have closed their teapots.

Scouse time portal would be a good cocktail

But of course there are several scientific theories most notably in theoretical physics which would allow for experiences we would call time slips.

"Theory" in scientific terms doesn't mean "theory" in colloquial parlance. To say our understanding of physics is likely wrong because it's "only a theory" is a fundamental misunderstanding of scientific theory.

Yes absolutely this. There’s so many gaps in our understanding only a fool would dismiss these possibilities. It’s nearly always done in such a derogatory way too.

There's lots we don't know about the time continuum and how it works. Read about cosmic inflation and multiverse theory. Much of what we understand about time is based on theories. Theories can be wrong. I think there have been so many incidences of time slips to suggest that perhaps time works in a more complex way than we currently think. If the multiverse theory is partly correct, it way go some way to explain what people consider to be paranormal activity. Its quite fascinating and I don't think there's any harm in taking your FIL's account seriously.

I guess that is where our perspectives differ. Why do you think there’s a PP maybe this whole thread is in your mind😀.

Yes - I do agree that a holographic universe would resolve some of the issues that would seemingly make time travel impossible, like the spatial problem.

Well then ignore the Harry Potter example, if you like, and focus on the Liverpool one (although there certainly seem to be a at least a few people on the internet who do claim to believe that Hogwarts is or may be real…)

In an everyday sense, if someone (presumably not from the UK) asked me if Liverpool is a real place, I would say yes. Technically I should be accounting for the possibility that it is not, per solipsism, but in an every day sense I don’t think that is necessary. I feel the same about the PP’s statement about there being no time portal in Liverpool.

I actually feel quite comforted that there are other people out there having premonitions, but like me don't tell anybody!

Not a premonition but a false memory - we went on holiday to UK seaside town and I was convinced bone deep I'd been there before and knew the town well.

I assumed must have been a childhood memory of UK holiday that no-one mentioned when we booked - but upon asking my parents nether had been there and as far as they were aware it was my first trip there - it's some distance from all my family.

I nodded along with explanation that it has period characteristics with other UK holiday seaside towns I had been to before and I may have seen documentaries/you tube video about cliff railways and hotel and IL had occasionally talked about their few holidays there and it was all that coming together in my subconscious- but never felt it really fitted the very definite feelings that lasted entire time we were there and layout knowledge I had.

That was for @SylvieB74 as I was confused when she brought out a cookbook and tv programme… she looked so familiar… but knew I’d seen her before and only remembered much later she was JDs wife

Nigella Lawson’s late journalist husband was diagnosed with throat cancer in 1997. I remember watching a tv series about the family around this time with a very young and the beautiful Nigella cooking in their kitchen while talking about the impact on John Diamond and his family.

Nigella wasn’t well known, I hadn’t realised her dad had been CotE under Thatcher, but John was really famous as the first(?) person to document his cancer journey publicly in a newspaper column.

The programme made quite an impact on me as a young person- never heard of throat cancer before then.

I feel like I was aware of Nigella Lawson in the 1990s - she was regularly on TV talking about newspapers and books. You've likely just mingled and conflated various things and produced a false memory. My brain has certainly done that to me. How to Eat came out in 1998 so perhaps you made recipes from that. She was on Nigel Slater's programme before her own too.

Thinking further about this we could look at many different ideas around time travel Maldacena’s holographic universe theory allows the possibility of time travel. Slightly different but somewhat connected would be the possibility of multiverses.

is time actually even linea? We could be experiencing simultaneous events rather than time travel.

But, again an example is being used to compare that no one is claiming to be true in an effort to undermine rather than examine peoples claimed experiences.

Now solipsism - that is something that arises in various spiritual and philosophical systems and beliefs throughout time annd place (if either exist) and is certainly worthy of exploration.

I actually feel quite comforted that there are other people out there having premonitions, but like me don't tell anybody!
When I was younger I had a premonition of a really tragic, unexpected event many times before it happened. For a long time, I felt like I'd made it happen because I'd visualised it.
Now I'm older, I know this isnt true as I get them all the time. Sometimes about people I don't even know personally and often of no importance at all. I can't read people or make myself have them on command. It's of no use to me and is actually quite scary, because I don't want to see a tragedy before it happens again.
I know it sounds insane and like there must be a rational explanation. But me and DH have tried to explain them away with logic many times. Lots of times though, there is just no reason we can find. It's good to talk about it here, because we'd be laughed at irl.

Yes and no.

I would be happy enough to state, in an every day sense, that there is no time portal in Liverpool, in the same way that I’d feel comfortable saying that Hogwarts is not a real school for wizards in Britain.

I actually couldn’t prove either of the statements so, if pushed, I would have to ultimately revert to one of the softer statements you suggest. Still, it would be incredibly tiresome on a day to day basis by having to qualify every simple statement of fact with a recognition of the possibility that the world may not be as they see it.

Otherwise, we should all take some time to recognize the possibility that Liverpool might not even exist. If the rest of you posting actually exist yourselves, of course.

No joke. I used to run a ghost hunting events company for 4 years, and the Galleries is our local, and all the electronics are turned off and it was in the middle of the night. It was the only experience of a time slip as such. Id like to think it was more like stone tape theory, where common sounds and noises (ie footsteps) get absorbed by the fabric of the bulding and every now and again it gets thrown out again.

But this is what I’m saying, you’re happy with those explanations because they fit your narrative on how the world works. Other peoples explanations work just as we within their narrative.

You cant say there’s no time portal in Liverpool, you can say I don’t believe there’s any time portal or there is no scientific evidence for a time portal in Liverpool.

what’s interesting is why you want to state something as true when you have no way of proving it.

Yes of course it's ridiculous. That's the point. That's why you can't prove a negative.

The power of suggestion and expectation, however, are very well documented. Several people have provided links to explain some of the most common paranormal experiences. I've experienced sleep paralysis. It's terrifying if you don't know what it is and I can understand why people used to think it was paranormal. But it isn't.

There's no frigging time portal in Liverpool.

This has been ridiculous arguments. Have many people claimed that there are invisible mice in a teapots circling mars and truly believed it and believed they had experienced it?

Meanwhile time slips and other paranormal experiences have been claimed by many.

in what way are these things linked.

If we can’t know that someone’s experience is false then it cannot be totally dismissed. If someone actually claims they have seen invisible mice in a teapot are circling mars then we don’t know they aren’t.

yea things might be more or less likely, the decision about this is really subjective and based on one’s philosophy. If you’re a materialist you might conclude it is unlikely. Whereas if you believe in something beyond the material, eg you’re an idealist it is probable that you would consider the presence of a timeslip
more likely.