Really weird experience whilst walking my dog

[Roseshavethorns]

I had a really weird experience last week.
I live in a small village in the Highlands. Anyone who lives in a rural area will confirm it is never quiet just a different type of noise to a town or city.
Last Wednesday I was walking my dog lost in my own world as I often am since DH died. This part of my walk is a dirt path besides fields and so I don't really have to concentrate. I started to feel really weird. I couldn't think what was wrong until I realised it was completely silent.
There was no bird song, no animal noises, cars or children. We have a small industrial estate and a fairly big house building site at the moment there was no noise from either of those. The strangest thing was the two horses in the field that normally come running to play with my (very big) dog. They were both standing stock still.
I kept walking and could hear our footsteps. When I got to the house building site it was completely still and silent. There were vans with open doors but no-one there.
It genuinely felt like that scene in a film where everything stops and is silent just before an atomic bomb hits.
I was probably only aware of this for a minute or so. Then I heard a bird then a few more, then some animals in fields. It eventually all started again. It was a beautiful still day so noise would normally travel.
Any one of those things is not remarkable in itself but everything being silent and still was completely weird.
I have no explanation (I even went out at the same time this week to see if it was tea-break time but no, the noise from the builders and industrial estate is constant).
I love my friend's theory that I stepped in to a parallel universe. I said it may be a "Life on Mars" scenario and I am actually in a coma and in the real world my DH is still alive and life is still wonderful.
I know it is probably all just a coincidence but it is strange.
Has else experienced anything like this?

It may be something paranormal.

I would also consider if it could have been some kind of focal seizure

Firstly, I'm very sorry to hear about the loss of your DH, that's very sad.

I haven't experienced anything like this myself but I'm fascinated. Was there any 'weird' weather afterwards, like a thunderstorm or something? And also what was your dog doing at this time, was s/he behaving as normal?

It is generally a very remote area with no one around?

are you saying that these horse were utterly frozen and you you stood and watched them not even blink for how long?

Yes, I've experienced exactly this, just once, 50 years ago when I was walking my dog along the seafront. I seemed to fall into another dimension and was dragged back by my dog, who'd been well ahead of me, coming back barking and distressed and actually looking for me. And no, I don't drink, and I wasn't taking any medication whatsoever. I have no explanation, but I do believe it was somehow a product of my own brain. I had also kept on walking through this, which surprised me, as I couldn't remember doing so.

To answer a couple of questions.
No seizure as far as I am aware. I was walking, didn't stop. I could hear and was aware of both mine and my dogs footsteps (which in itself shows how quiet it was). I didn't have a headache or dizziness or feel tired or anything afterwards.
No weather changes at all. It was beautiful, bright and still. Not too hot - it's the Highlands, there is still a patch of snow on the hill 😀
The dog was just plodding along. I wasn't aware of him acting any differently.
The horses were absolutely still. I wasn't close enough to see them blink but their tails were not waving. They kind of looked like a snapshot. They normally gallop over to the fence to nuzzle my dog, it's really sweet. The only time they don't do that is if they are lying down. I didn't stop I watched them as I walked towards and past them.
It's not remote. It's a path in a village that runs between the back of houses and some fields. It leads to a road. It is a small village but has a school, church and a small industrial area.

So you walked past the horses, didn’t stop, didn’t look at them closely, they just didn’t come over and were still when you glanced over?

This just sounds like a remote walk that was a bit quieter than normal (and it’s normally very quiet!). Dirt paths running along fields in the highlights are surely remote?

And van doors on a project in a remote area will often be left open as back and forth and don’t have the usual worries re security

I've experienced this. I was in my garden at my old house, where it was generally quiet. Ordinary weekday morning. Was hanging out washing, and it was during the Iceland earthquake that grounded all the planes.
I was just looking up in the sky, which was v blue and clear, and thinking how amazing not to see any planes or vapour trails. Then all the birds stopped singing - it was completely silent, for about a minute or two.
Animals/birds sense things we don't - I wondered if it was a v mild earth tremor that we humans just couldn't feel.
It reminded me of watching the solar eclipse in Cornwall in 1999, where all the birds stopped singing - it was the spookiest feeling ever. It was like that, only it didn't get dark (thank god!)

I have had a very similar experience to this. When I was younger I had very bad period pain that would make me faint and I knew it was going to happen because the whole world would stop and go quiet. I always assumed that perhaps it was my body closing down, but not all at once.

Just out of interest do you suffer with tinnitus? I do, and every few years, my brain appears to shut down my tinnitus completely so the world appears to be strangely silent. It's a very odd feeling and just as soon as I've started to get a bit concerned, it's returned.

Sometimes things just align, and the effect is unnerving. I once pulled into the A1M around 7:30pm, so not late, to find not another car on the road. It was winter, so dark, and I couldn't see any car lights ahead or behind me, on my side or oncoming. At the time I drove that route a couple of times a week so was used to the usual level of traffic. I drove along for a good few minutes until another car appeared. I was genuinely worried I'd missed a police cordon or something and was planning to come off at the next exit. It felt like the world had stopped. But I'm fairly sure it was just a weird coincidence.

In your case some stuff aligned that you'd never have noticed if it had been one thing. Sometimes the birds don't sing (maybe a fox had just passed by?), sometimes the horses don't come over, sometimes the work men are having a meeting over the far side of the site. Individually you'd never have thought anything of it, but all together it was strange.

If it makes you feel better, i'm fairly sure your brain was doing what it's supposed to do - noticed a change in the patterns and make you more alert to any potential danger.

It's my normal walk so I saw them as I approached the field and looked at them as I walked along the field. I didn't stop at all. I see them almost every day and they have never done that before.
I don't think of the path as remote as gardens back on to it. I guess it depends on what you are used to.
It's not normally quiet. That is why it was weird. On a summer's day in the school holidays I normally hear lots of birds, cattle, sheep, children playing, cars driving through the village and on the A9, low level noise from the industrial estate and much sharper noise from the building site.
Vans doors are probably left open but normally you also see the guys working and hear machinery and tools.

As much as I would love it to be something paranormal I do think it was just a coincidence although it's the first time I have ever experienced anything like it.
All of the things I noticed (apart from the horses and the industrial and building sites) are not that unusual at that time of day. The unusual thing was it all happened at the same time.
I'm pretty sure I'm not suffering from tinnitus or seizures although if I start to experience other weird phenomenon I will mention it to my GP.

Why would you love it to be something paranormal??

Slightly unconnected but yes, 40 years ago walking with a ex boyfriend who suddenly declared he had an uncontrollable build up of static/pressure around the rear of his trousers. Barely had time to finish his sentence and he was struck by lighting. He was fine but we were told by the fire brigade the feelings he felt just before was the lighting getting ready to 'take root'

This happens to me but every few months!

Animals can be aware of anything like fire, earthquakes etc. Of course you'd also know about anything obvious like this-but something less obvious?Can't really say what as I'm only a human, but some smell?

This reminds me of a few extra terrestrial encounters I’ve heard of

Focal aware seizures you are aware of your surroundings but not fully aware. It’s why children who have a sense seizures don’t get picked up because outwardly you can’t always tell they aren’t daydreaming but they miss chunks of what’s happening and information.

It’s very unlikely this is what happened (or though more likely than something paranormal and I love paranormal stuff!)

I would just keep an eye and if it happens again see the GP.

Asan aside if you like para formal stiff and weird stories I highly recommend Uncanny on BBC sounds.

My money would be on some kind of predator that you were not aware of.
We live rurally, and I have witnessed this several times when there have been birds of prey around. Everything stops. Its eerie when the small birds go silent because we are so used to the constant background noise.
I have also witnessed both a sparrowhawk and a cat taking a bird, and that is equally weird because all the birds go nuts, squawking and dive-bombing it!

Yeah @MangeTrout I notice when birds go quiet and then you look up and see a huge bird of prey circling. They don't do it for cats or anything else round here.
Each thing individually I genuinely wouldn't have noticed (apart from the horses but that's just because I love it when they cuddle my dog) but all together it really was chilling.

I think you had some sort of disassociation experience. I have had these at times of prolonged stress/ trauma. It’s a psychological state not a paranormal one.

I find it fascinating how the human brain, that normally filters out sounds we're accustomed to or puts them in a 'not a danger' box in one's mind so those sounds are not flagged up as unusual, will suddenly become alert and notice when there's no sound! Must be a remnant of instinct that it can mean danger (as a pp said, maybe a predator, or an oncoming earthquake).