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!

Thank you. I did try to find it but failed.

GarlicGrace I never met my doppelgänger who was at a boarding school near to where I lived.
Given she was at school and I think she was about 10-12 years younger than me
I would have loved to have met her as I have a really mixed up heritage

It was the landlord of a local pub who noticed her first in the local shop. He told me about her and it explained a few instances where people had said I blanked them.

In the pub with dh and other friends one Sunday lunchtime I was carrying a round of drinks back to the table when this older guy stopped me and started shouting at me to get back to school immediately. I stood there with a round of drinks feeling really confused. The whole pub fell silent. The landlord stepped in and told him that I wasn’t who he thought I was and explained how he had made the same mistake.
I said I was too old for school. I have a job a mortgage and dh (who was with our friends finding it all really hilarious)

I think it was when I started talking that made him doubt himself as I have a distinct accent.

To this this day I don’t think that teacher truly believed that his pupil and I were 2 different people

My explanation is, you walked past the caravan park, missed the entrance, and walked back to it.

(And I am astonished at the arrogance of anyone who think it’s more likely that a supernatural time slip episode happened than you were a bit distracted and missed something!)

I would describe myself in exactly the same way as you have, OP. I'm a sceptic about the supernatural - a very rational person who isn't easily convinced.

But! 2 things:

I experienced what would be classified as poltergeist activity some years ago in our home. Won't go into detail here, but the whole family were affected and my both DH and I saw objects move (quickly and with force) right in front of our eyes. Plus other stuff.

We also had an experience which could only be described as telepathic.

WE are not 'wooooo!' in any way, and while I'll always happily listen to folks' experiences, I have a high bar for believing them. But I'm with Danny Robins - I don't think they are all lying - it's just whether what happened had any objective existence.

I always remember a quote from an interview with Hilary Mantel. Someone asked her if she believed in ghosts and she said 'I can't imagine that ghosts exist, but then the universe is not limited by my imagination!'.

Hilary Mantel details her uncanny experience as a child in her autobiography 'Giving up the Ghost'. In fact she had a few.

Brilliant book. Prefer it to some of her fiction, though I liked Fludd.

Looks like there's a collection of her non-fiction out as well.

Well, you are if course entitled to your opinion, but it was actually impossible for us to miss the entrance.

Next to the ornamental pond was a huge sign with the name of the caravan site. (Its name escapes me now, but it was in Brynteg near Bryn Bras Castle.) But this day all we saw was a dried-up pond (no name sign).

Until we turned off to ask the woman directions, it was a straight route along the path and opposite the caravan site were just trees so we can't have been looking in the wrong direction.

When we walked back as the woman advised, the ornamental pond and name sign were there again.

Now whether it was a time slip, some kind of ancient memory, whatever, I have no idea. All I know is something weird happened and I never want to experience anything like it again, it really freaked me out!

I don’t think you’re the arrogant one tbh!

Back in the early 90's my now ex and Iwere househunting in East London. We went to see a terrace house. I liked the lounge but the kitchen and dining room were in need of a lot of work. It was your typical brown and beige older stuff and the floor was partially lino and partially horrible carpet tiles. There was a door to the back garden from.the dining room and when I went to open it it scraped on the paving slabs. The back garden was dark, overgrown and very mossy. It was cold and overcast even though it had been sunny when we walked in. The upstairs was fine and modern but when we got out I said how i'd not liked the downstairs rooms.

Ex had seen completely different rooms to me. Not at all the same. And a patio area that was manicured with lights and seating. I couldn't marry my sights with his at all. We even went back to the agents and I looked at the paperwork and photos and it was true- what I had seen was nothing like what was actually there.

Couldn't explain it then, still can't and never had another weird experience yet.

it was actually impossible for us to miss the entrance.

Clearly it wasn't, because you did. You didn't know the area very well and it was full of trees. It's easier to get lost in woods than in most places! Sounds like you went wrong earlier than you think you did...pretty standard way of getting lost.

I've got an appalling sense of direction. I've missed many things that were apparently impossible to miss. I used to go on a roundabout every day that, from the way the roads were laid out, always felt exactly as though I was going straight back down the road I'd just come off, but I wasn't.

You didn't have a paranormal experience with a time slip. You missed a turning in an unfamiliar area and saw a frog.

No, we weren't in woods. It was a straight path. We were on the same path we had walked along several times before during our week's holiday. If we "missed" the entrance, then that entrance had turned into a dried-up pond.

You know how it was @Mondaymorningtoday it doesn't really matter what others think.

Why was it impossible for you to miss the entrance?

It was clearly not as straightforward a route as you think, because you made a wrong turn and can't even figure out where (clearly it was much earlier than you think it could have been, which makes your sense of direction even less reliable). People who get lost usually don't know how they went wrong. That's why they're lost.

The simplest explanation really is usually the right one, and the simplest explanation here is not that you somehow entered another dimension or travelled in time, but that you got lost in an unfamiliar place. And saw a frog. It's really OK. We all have mundane experiences.

I mean, the nuances of the story are changing already. In the first post, it was "We were walking back with food shopping, something we'd done at least once before without anything strange happening." Then, on being challenged, it became "We were on the same path we had walked along several times before during our week's holiday." Emphasis mine.

I know both statements can be true, but you're already exaggerating from "at least once" to "several times over a week" to make it seem more impossible that you just made a wrong turn. Next time you tell the story, you'll have definitely done the walk twice a day for a week and were guided by Kenton Cool or something...basically, every time you retell it, you'll have even more reasons why you couldn't possibly have just taken a wrong turn.

Do you really, truly believe that it's more likely that you travelled through time than that you just...made a mistake in an area you didn't really know?

But I don’t think these statements are any different. The emphasis being yours is probably true in more ways than one.

Which is more likely? Well surely that depends on your perspective- being lost is Only the more likely explanation if you’re sceptical surely?

Story 1: I might well have done this journey only once.

Story 2: I did this journey several times over a week. And it was impossible to take a wrong turn.

It's actually a pretty significant change, and that's with only two tellings. What's it going to look like on the seventh telling?

Whereas if I told this story - and I've got lost numerous times on "easy" routes - there'd be no suggestion of time slips. It would be a comical story about how I managed to get lost on a route everyone said was too easy to get lost on. Everyone would laugh and nobody would imagine I'd time travelled because I wouldn't frame the story that way.

I'm always trying to make it happen when I'm wandering on Bold Street.

Could it have been a vivid dream OP? I occasionally take dreams as fact, until I realise I was dreaming.

Ah but now you’re the one reframing the narrative to fit your perspective.

maybe you’ve experienced several time slips but been so desperate to discount them you’ve explained the narrative away within a framework you’re comfortable with

I'm not reframing anything. I'm noticing that the poster's story has significantly changed in just two tellings, and the only reason anyone might think it was paranormal is because she's saying it was.

The objective facts are that she was on holiday (so in an unfamiliar area), tried to walk somewhere and ended up somewhere she didn't recognise. She then got directed to the right place by a local.

She is framing this as something that can be explained only as a paranormal time slip experience, whereas when that happens to me, I assume the simplest, most obvious and most likely thing - that I went in the wrong direction.

As the time slip experience is nigh on impossible (actually it is impossible but I'm humouring you), the only reason to suppose it is if you twist the story to it...which we are seeing already as the story has changed significantly on the second telling to try to support the time slip theory.

I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm flattered at the idea that I'm so infallible that unintentional time travel is more likely than the idea that I just make wrong turns sometimes. But I'm not. And with no disrespect to the poster, I don't think she is either.

Honestly, I can't relate at all to the idea that time travel is more likely than me just making a common mistake!

And if we hear the story again, there'll be some further change towards a time slip theory. I can definitely see how over time the story becomes "and the local was wearing weird clothes" or whatever. It's already changed significantly from the original.

Actually you are.

Now let’s deconstruct your answer.

The OP says that she had done the journey at least once before, you choose to reframe that as “ might have only done this journey once before”. Now while both might be true, it is equally as true that she might have done this several times. - this would indeed be the more likely scenario as the OP then clarifies they had done it several times before. However you choose to reframe that as a change in an attempt to make the OP seem an unreliable witness.

You then appear to try the same tactic of undermining me - “I’ll humour you”. Lol.

So let’s discuss the physics of this, why do you think it’s “nigh on impossible” to experience a time slip? What about the Multiverse? How do you see time?

Your position is vert interesting. You seem extremely certain in an area with no certainty. Why is that? How would it affect you if time slips were proven to exist?

,

@SurprisedWithAHorse

whereas when that happens to me, I assume the simplest, most obvious and most likely thing - that I went in the wrong direction.

I think the thing is that this hasn’t happened to you? Quite often on these threads, people say that a certain stand-out experience, unlike anything they’ve experienced before, changes their view. For you to suggest that they’re just misinterpreting ‘mundane’ events that you have all the time is surely missing the point?

I get that you’re a super-sceptic so this is what you do, but at some point even you must believe the evidence of your own senses? So if something really contravenes all normal rules of the universe as you normally experience them every other day of your life, aren’t you going to remark on that, wonder about it, question it? Or is it immediately just funny to you?

There may be some other bizarre explanation, sure, but to just reframe it as normal, funny or ‘mundane’ when it is the single weird, stand-out experience of someone’s life is, frankly, condescending, supercilious and ungracious.

It's generally boring misremembering then constructing a narrative around that, then people come up with wild theories to explain simple misremembering and the brain (or the individual) making things up.

It's like with the 'Mandela effect' where people claimed they specifically remembered Nelson Mandela dying years before he did, when what they remembered was the extensive coverage of his release from prison. Then that was extended to many other accounts of misremembering which where then attributed to time slips or glitches in the matrix or whatever nonsense.

My favourite is in the UK, the idea that Walkers crisps swapped the colours for cheese and onion and salt and vinegar.

Which never happened. Walkers even put out a statement saying their C and O had always been blue, and S and V always green. Which led to lots of bizarre conspiracy theories about why Walkers were lying. I mean, why would they?

There have been several threads about it on MN and hundreds elsewhere with people railing about how they very specifically remember when Walkers swapped the colours.

The problem being that not only did it never happen, all the very specific memories people had of it happening span decades. Some people relate really detailed 'memories' of it happening in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.

So even if Walkers were for some bizarre reason, lying, it still couldn't possibly correlate with all those people's 'memories' and narratives.

What actually happened was Golden Wonder always had blue packets for S and V and Green for C and O. Walkers the opposite. Golden Wonder was the most popular brand for years so people identified with the colour scheme. You picked up a packet of blue crisps knowing it was S and V.

When Walkers started taking over as brand leader, people started picking up blue crisps not paying attention to the brand and got Walkers C and O.

Which led to the idea that all crisp makers had had blue meaning S and V so Walkers had swapped the colours.

The rest of all the conspiracy theories were all the people 'specifically remembering' when Walkers changed their colour scheme because one day they picked up a blue packet of crisps and were shocked to find it wasn't the flavour they intended to buy.

And the rest of it is just about how susceptible people are to implanted/false ideas and memories.

Like all the people who think they saw the first plane hit the twin towers on 9/11 and think they have specific memories of how shocking and traumatic it was, when the only footage of the 1st plane hitting the twin towers was filmed by 2 French brothers making a documentary about NY firefighters who just happened to film it and it wasn't on TV the day of 9/11 and came out later.

False memories. Susceptibility to implanted memories and then curating a narrative around that. It doesn't mean people are lying, just misremembering and then constructing a story around it.

I think we all know about the Mandela effect and the crisp colours etc.

What’s being discussed on this thread is things that seem extraordinary when they happen, so a different phenomenon altogether.

‘A glitch in matrix’ rather than a time slip?