AIBU to believe FIL time slip experience?

[elsiesbonnet]

FIL was round yesterday evening for dinner with his wife. We were talking about the Uncanny podcast & recent TV episode then he told us of two experiences he'd had in the same place a number of years apart. After I went & did some research & asked a couple questions today, he's told us of another experience he had in the same place that was similar to one of the other experiences but that happened when he as a child.

I'm quite sceptical about paranormal type events I guess because I've never witnessed anything myself but am generally quite open minded. I don't believe FIL to be the type to make this sort of thing up & he was almost unwilling to tell us in case we thought he was crazy. He's never told anyone before.

AIBU to think what he experienced could've been real? In one of the instances he interacted with people in the past, his recall was quite genuine & he had some significant detail that you couldn't just make up. Has anyone else experienced a time slip or some other paranormal event they couldn't explain? I'm intrigued!

I think the concept of reality is very difficult. Even the most ardent realist must accept that all of what we perceive has an element of subjectivity.

it is, of course possible that somehow my film is me tapping into a multiverse and not my imagination at all, or maybe that’s what imagination is, a gateway to another universe. When you write, if you write “fiction” maybe you’re writing up real life events in another dimension you have a link to. You just perceive this as happening in your head.

Really the possibilities are endless.

In my spiritual practice I’m constantly faced with situations where I can never be sure if something is real or not. But for the most part, once you break it down the answer to this is of very little consequence, the important thing is my experience of it.

As a matter of interest have you ever tried anything to access alternative states of consciousness eg, past life regression, lucid dreaming, shamanic journeying? Sorry you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to

The shoring up thing....

Controversial suggestion

Is it a reverse psychology thing? Is that why sceptics post? Sceptics post because they are looking to other to shore up their beliefs in the face of (non scientific) testimony to the contrary?

Personally I just thought it was because people like to debate things they care about.

@Maatandosiris - thanks for asking.
Hypnotherapy, guided visualisations & self-hypnosis, yes.
Past life regression - no, it's exploitative bullshit ime.
Lucid dreaming - did it for a while, got bored.
Shamanic journeying - do acid trips count?
Bonus - I'm a 'certified reiki practitioner'. More exploitative bs.

I get what you're saying about not really needing to know whether something's real (or how real it is). As I posted upthread, I have strong reasons for needing to know so have developed a habit of fact checking. I've got no outstanding ability here - I always fail those 'AI or not' tests - but what I have got is a fully featured, multifunctional reality-checking toolkit 🤓

I’ve certainly enjoyed our conversation on the topic.

I think where we may differ is that, while I will not outright and conclusively state the impossibility of (say) the Bold Street time portal, I cannot say that I give any credence to the claims whatsoever. I see it more as a very abstract (but fun) philosophical question than something that would inform my day to day mindset. I get the sense that you are far more open to the possibility than I but I may be wrong.

I’m sure that you and I both engage in the weighing of evidence. For me, and re Bold Street, the evidence in support of the claims is so vanishingly slight compared to the evidence against that the possibility that actual time travel (or similar) has occurred is so remote that it is not worthy of serious consideration.

It would be helpful, for me to better understand your position, if you could put a very rough percentage figure on your perception of the likelihood of time travel (or similar) having occurred specifically on Bold Street, in the manner described. Although my question is specific to Bold Street, I accept that other claims of time slips (like the one in the OP) are relevant evidence.

So far as I have been able to tell, there are no first hand accounts available to read, just third-party retellings that might reasonably be characterized as Urban myths - they have been collected and summarized by various publications in broadly the same manner, so I don’t think you’d need to read far and wide by any means, I just think it would be more appropriate for you to pick a source or two than have me provide them.

Just to confirm, I’m not trying for a ‘gotcha’ or anything like that, I think our chat is approaching an end, but I think a % would help me better understand your mindset and I have no intention of critiquing it. I also appreciate that a % might be a very difficult form of measurement and that whatever answer you give today might be different tomorrow and the day after.

For me, and my subjective perspective, the odds are a very small fraction of 1%, probably more like 0.0000000000000000001%, if not slimmer.

Thanks in advance for indulging me, if you choose do so, otherwise thank you for discussion.

Ah that’s for answering

The use of drugs is an interesting matter.. Have you read Huxleys Doors of Perception? He makes an interesting point People like Blake can see this alternative world naturally and it weaves round what people might call the ordinary world whereas others (such as himself) need drugs. I always thought this was strange as he was an author and just assumed he would fall into the Blake category .

I’m never really sure what rekindle is doing - I would consider it a type of almost guided meditation. But not something I’ve ever been drawn to. What made you a practitioner?

Re past lives. I have done this I find it very interesting, But was my detailed story a past life or my brain creating a story to make sense of a deep seated understanding of my current life. Could be either- I have no real way of knowing to me it doesn’t matter - I’m happy with that.

why did you find lucid dreaming boring? There’s a great line from the song Silent Lucidity by Queensryche

“Living twice at once you learn
You're safe from pain in the dream domain
A soul set free to fly
A round trip journey in your head
Master of illusion, can you realize
Your dream's alive, you can be the guide”

Sorry, I missed your post re the need for fact checking. How does this work? It must be rather exhausting I should imagine. Memories are Variously reliable and largely a matter of story telling. Yet most of the time we are confident in their accuracy. Do you have a system for fact checking memories?

Being human is tremendously complicated - Jeremy vine used to have a segment (he might still do occasionally) on what it means to be human. The answers were so different for each person and really that’s the answer. We all are so unique. None of us experiences life in the sane way., there’s the real possibility that there are as many realities as there are people. If we both witnessed an event a month ago, which of our memories is correct? Time slips might exist in some realities but not others. Your fact checking can only ever exist in your reality and be a reflection of your philosophical position.

I think this line of thinking has tremendous possibilities in the fields of mental health and dementia. But we’re so busy on the uphill struggle to make everyone the same we don’t stop to recognise the value and purpose of these differences

Hi, yes thank you, I always enjoy a good discussion.

it’s difficult for me to put a % on something I’ve never experienced. So to me for those who experienced it there’s a 100% probability it’s true. For me who hasn’t experienced it there’s a0% chance it’s true.

I guess within my philosophy the better question we oils be what is the chance of me experiencing something like this if I walk down Bold Street. Well I could base this on it might or might not be true so on a very simple level 50:50. Or I could look at the amount of people this has happened to and the number of people who walked down Bold Street in that time v the number who experienced time slips and base it on that. The fact I am more open to the possibility might have some effect or it might mean I’m more likely to notice anything.

sorry that’s not a straightforward answer but I don’t think it’s a straightforward question

I often wonder whether, like genes, memories can be somehow inherited and maybe even skip generations. That could explain those deja vu type moments and maybe even time slips …

I have told this story on Mumsnet somewhere before and would be interested to hear people's opinions. Several years ago, my sister and I were on holiday at a caravan site in Brynteg, Wales. We were walking back with food shopping, something we'd done at least once before without anything strange happening. But this particular day, the path that would lead to the caravan park seemed to go on forever. The path seemed much more uphill and much longer. We noticed a frog near a small, very dried up pond, and remarked it was a long way from water. Finally, we saw a woman with a sheepdog ahead of us who was turning into a lane so we hurried to catch up with her. She was astonished when we asked the way to the caravan park and said we couldn't possibly have missed it as it was a straight path, no turnings. So we headed back...and there was our caravan park complete with its ornamental pond (definitely not dried up!!!) at its entrance. So what happened??? Did we go through a time slip, was it ancestral memory (we discovered later that the path we walked along was an ancient drovers trail from Wales to England and Mum's grandparents were from Wales) or is there a more logical explanation? I know I didn't dream the experience as my sister remembers it too. I'm curious to know what everyone thinks.

Make a detailed note of all these things and add the date/time etc, then you will remember when/if it does actually happen. The same with your other visons/premonitions and then you have a record of proof. Always trust your instincts! Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.

I'm from Liverpool and I've been to Bold St many times, so have friends, family and neighbours.
Nobody I know of has ever experienced any strange happening there.

That's interesting @Mondaymorningtoday. I've no explanation to offer you but it's a fascinating story. Were you children at the time? Does your sister remember it in the same way?

@Mondaymorningtoday The way I approach these things is to look for possibilities, likelihoods & proof either way, rather than flat-out discounting something.

It seems to me that there could be everyday explanations for parts of your experience. For example:

'We were walking back with food shopping... the path that would lead to the caravan park seemed to go on forever. The path seemed much more uphill and much longer.'

Is it possible that the shopping was heavier than before, making the walk seem longer & more arduous?

'We noticed a frog near a small, very dried up pond, and remarked it was a long way from water.'

Was the pond on the same side of the path as the caravan park & its pond? If it was on the other side & you were both distracted looking at it & the frog, maybe you walked right past the caravan park without looking at it, on your way up the hill. That would also make the walk longer than before.

I'm not disssing your experience. I'm just saying there might be a rational explanation for it. Or it might be something woo. The poster & her DH driving around looking for the disappeared abbey, though - no idea about that one.

Last night I watched Uncanny on iPlayer. Well I say watched - I made it most of the way through the ghost story but fell asleep & missed Bold Street. I'll have to watch it again. Or for the first time.

No, we weren't children. My sister remembers it exactly as I do.

We hadn't bought much really, just bread and milk. The pond was on the same side as the caravan park. We saw the frog a couple of minutes before we reached the dried-up pond, which was why we remarked on it being a long way from water.

But she remembers it as you do because you’ve reinforced one another’s memory of it over time.

Honestly, it sounds as if you were carrying shopping, the road felt steeper and longer than usual because you were tired and/or carrying more than usual, and you were distracted enough by the frog or your conversation to walk past the entrance without noticing, hence the road felt even longer…?

I think we’ve all at some point done some journey on autopilot and misfired, despite knowing perfectly well where we’re supposed to go…

No problem. I am just curious to know others' viewpoints, whatever they wish to make of it :)

I'm imaginative, pretty open to woo but have never experienced any.

The closest is when coming round from anaesthetic 30 years ago. I had a very clear dream of sitting on a veranda on rocking chairs with my best friend but we were old women, watching a sunset that was unnaturally bright and fierce. I do sometimes wonder if that day will actually come - we are still friends now, so are likely to be into our old age. She now lives in a country where it's not that unusual to have houses with verandas, and forest fires.

I have the strangest feeling that I know who ….. is it law by any chance?

@justiceandtruth - No! I wonder how often this happens??

Ah. It must just be the Baileys I’m drinking then giving me odd feelings 🤣

Not a time skip but I had a very strange experience 4 years ago just after my second DC was born.

I was laid in bed with my DH beside me and baby in the Moses basket. I felt paralysed and my body was like pulled deep into the mattress and I could see particles of my body leaving to float above me. I was completely awake but felt calm and I remember saying in my head 'No, I'm not ready to leave' and attempting to shake my head until it just stopped suddenly. Totally freaked me out!

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/parasomnias/sleep-demon#:~:text=Sleep%20demons%20commonly%20involve%20temporary,semi%2Daware%20during%20the%20episode.

It's sleep paralysis. I've had the same. It's terrifying when you don't know what it is, but once you do it makes sense. Your body naturally paralyses itself during sleep to stop you acting out your dreams. It's supposed to click off when you wake but sometimes it doesn't, usually because you're not actually fully awake even though you think you are. And it brings about those very sensations and feelings. Hallucinations of fire are very common too.

That's why it stopped as soon as you managed to shake your head; the paralysis stopped and you woke fully.

I know how powerful and supernatural it feels, but that's what it is.

I had an elective c section with my daughter as my sons birth was bad so they used a spinal block . As I was lying there , I started to drift - just like I was fainting ( I used to faint a lot) but deeper . I couldn’t see anything but I could hear and I heard the nurse say she’s going then I felt as if I was walking in a park in autumn , kicking piles of leaves and smiling .I could hear the music playing in the theatre and the dr saying quick adrenaline and like a banging sensation in my chest and suddenly I was awake again