Time slip
Encyclopedia
A time slip is an alleged paranormal
phenomenon in which a person, or group of people, travel through time
via unknown means. As with all paranormal phenomena, the objective reality of such experiences is disputed.
(16 September 1846 - 7 May 1937) and Eleanor Jourdain
(1863–1924), the principal and vice-principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford
, who claimed they slipped back in time in the gardens of the Petit Trianon
at Versailles
from the summer of 1901 to the period of the French Revolution
.
television series Strange But True?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdWXMD4rOGQ&feature=related, concerned the Simpsons and the Gisbys, two English married couples driving through France en route to a holiday in Spain. They claimed to have stayed overnight at a curiously old-fashioned hotel and decided to break their return journey at the same hotel but were unable to find it. Photographs taken during their stay, which were in the middle of a roll of film, were missing, even from the negative strips, when the pictures were developed.
from the 1990s to the present day.http://www.parascience.org.uk/articles/time.htm
Andrew MacKenzie, of the Society for Psychical Research
, investigated several British cases, including an experience in which three naval cadets appeared to travel back in time to Kersey
in Suffolk at a time when it was a medieval plague village, and one in which a Scottish woman experienced the aftermath of the Dark Age Battle of Nechtanesmere in 685AD.
in some reports of encounters with supposed extraterrestrial craft.
Moberly's account of her experience at Versailles records:
Jourdain's report of the same event states that:
In other cases, the subject is a passive observer of the "past" scene, and it seems that the "typical" time slip lasts only a matter of a few minutes.
Liverpool, Bold Street incidents
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
phenomenon in which a person, or group of people, travel through time
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
via unknown means. As with all paranormal phenomena, the objective reality of such experiences is disputed.
Ghosts of Versailles
One of the best-known, and earliest, examples of a time slip was reported by two English women, Charlotte Anne MoberlyCharlotte Anne Moberly
Charlotte Anne Moberly was an English academic. She was the daughter of George Moberly, and was made the first Principal of St. Hugh's College, Oxford...
(16 September 1846 - 7 May 1937) and Eleanor Jourdain
Eleanor Jourdain
Eleanor Jourdain was an English academic and author, and Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford, 1915 to 1924. She rose to fame following a claim that she and a fellow teacher had slipped back in time to the period of the French Revolution while on a trip to Versailles, known as the...
(1863–1924), the principal and vice-principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford
St Hugh's College, Oxford
St Hugh's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. It is located on a fourteen and a half acre site on St Margaret's Road, to the North of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 as a women's college, and accepted its first male students in its centenary year in 1986...
, who claimed they slipped back in time in the gardens of the Petit Trianon
Petit Trianon
The Petit Trianon is a small château located on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles in Versailles, France.-Design and construction:...
at Versailles
Versailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
from the summer of 1901 to the period of the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
.
The Vanishing Hotel
A widely-publicised case from October 1979, described in the ITVITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
television series Strange But True?
Strange But True?
Strange But True? was a British supernatural documentary television series, presented by Michael Aspel, which explored supernatural phenomena and unexplained mysteries. It was produced by LWT and broadcast in the United Kingdom on ITV between 1993 and 1997...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdWXMD4rOGQ&feature=related, concerned the Simpsons and the Gisbys, two English married couples driving through France en route to a holiday in Spain. They claimed to have stayed overnight at a curiously old-fashioned hotel and decided to break their return journey at the same hotel but were unable to find it. Photographs taken during their stay, which were in the middle of a roll of film, were missing, even from the negative strips, when the pictures were developed.
Other cases
More recent reports include a series of accounts of apparent time slips in the area of Bold Street, LiverpoolBold Street, Liverpool
Bold Street is a street in Liverpool, England. It is known for its cafés and for the Church of St Luke, which is situated at the top end. The bottom end leads into the area surrounding Clayton Square, which is part of the main retail district of central Liverpool. The bottom end contains more...
from the 1990s to the present day.http://www.parascience.org.uk/articles/time.htm
Andrew MacKenzie, of the Society for Psychical Research
Society for Psychical Research
The Society for Psychical Research is a non-profit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand "events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal by promoting and supporting important research in this area" and to "examine allegedly paranormal phenomena...
, investigated several British cases, including an experience in which three naval cadets appeared to travel back in time to Kersey
Kersey, Suffolk
Kersey is a village and a civil parish in the Babergh district in Suffolk, in the east of England. The main street has a ford across a stream. Its principal claim to fame is that a coarse woollen cloth called Kersey cloth takes its name from it...
in Suffolk at a time when it was a medieval plague village, and one in which a Scottish woman experienced the aftermath of the Dark Age Battle of Nechtanesmere in 685AD.
Feeling of unreality
Many time slip witnesses report that, at the start of their experience of the phenomena, their immediate surroundings take on an oddly flat, underlit and lifeless appearance, and normal sounds seem muffled. This is sometimes accompanied by feelings of depression and unease. In some respects, this facet of the phenomenon is similar to the Oz Factor identified by British UFO researcher Jenny RandlesJenny Randles
Jenny Randles is a British author and former director of investigations with the British UFO Research Association , serving in that role from 1982 through to 1994.-Career:Randles specializes in writing books on UFOs and paranormal phenomena...
in some reports of encounters with supposed extraterrestrial craft.
Moberly's account of her experience at Versailles records:
We walked briskly forward, talking as before, but from the moment we left the lane an extraordinary depression had come over me, which, in spite of every effort to shake off, steadily deepened. There seemed to be absolutely no reason for it; I was not at all tired, and was becoming more interested in my surroundings. I was anxious that my companion should not discover the sudden gloom upon my spirits, which became quite overpowering on reaching the point where the path ended, being crossed by another, right and left…Everything suddenly looked unnatural, therefore unpleasant; even the trees behind the building seemed to have become flat and lifeless, like a wood worked in tapestry. There were no effects of light and shade, and no wind stirred the trees. It was all intensely still.
Jourdain's report of the same event states that:
there was a feeling of depression and loneliness about the place. I began to feel as if I were walking in my sleep; the heavy dreaminess was oppressive.
Ability to interact
Reports vary as to whether those experiencing time slips can take an active part in the event, interacting with the time being "visited". In the Versailles case, the two ladies were apparently seen, and spoken to, by people they saw. The British holidaymakers in 1979 went further, staying in a hotel and eating dinner and breakfast in the course of their experience. Both these cases are also unusually prolonged experiences, taking place over at least several hours.In other cases, the subject is a passive observer of the "past" scene, and it seems that the "typical" time slip lasts only a matter of a few minutes.
Time slips in popular culture
- The idea of the time slip has been exploited by a number of science fictionScience fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
and fantasyFantasyFantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
writers. Notable stories using the theme include John WyndhamJohn WyndhamJohn Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was an English science fiction writer who usually used the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names, such as John Beynon and Lucas Parkes...
's short stories Odd and Stitch in Time in Consider Her WaysConsider Her WaysConsider Her Ways is a 1956 science fiction novella by John Wyndham. It was published as part of a 1961 collection with some short stories called Consider Her Ways and Others .-Plot:...
(1961). Chronoclasm and Pawley's Peepholes, included in the collection The Seeds of TimeThe Seeds of TimeThe Seeds of Time is a collection of science fiction short stories by John Wyndham, published in 1956 by Michael Joseph.The collection contains:* a foreword by John Wyndham* "Chronoclasm", a time-travelling romantic comedy....
(1956), explore the subject from the point of view of those being visited.
- 1990s sitcom Goodnight SweetheartGoodnight SweetheartGoodnight Sweetheart is a sitcom that ran for six series on BBC1 from 1993 to 1999. It stars Nicholas Lyndhurst as Gary Sparrow, an accidental time traveller who leads a double life after discovering a time portal allowing him to travel between the London of the 1990s and the same area during the...
saw its main character Garry Sparrow walk down a passage in 1993 only to find himself in 1940. He was able to go back and forth at will, with the time in the past running concurrently with the present day. The series finished in 1999 with the 'past' year being 1945.
- The 1990 novella The LangoliersThe Langoliers"The Langoliers" is one of four novellas published in the Stephen King book Four Past Midnight in 1990.- Plot summary :On a cross-country red-eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston, ten passengers awaken to find that the crew and most of their fellow passengers have disappeared.The ten remaining...
by Stephen KingStephen KingStephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
involved a jet airliner which had passed through a timeslip into yesterday, and the crew and passengers' desperate attempts to return to today before being consumed by the eponymous Langoliers.
- The 1970 children's TV series TimeslipTimeslipTimeslip is a British children's science fiction television series made by ATV for the ITV network and broadcast between 1970 and 1971. The series centres around two children, Simon Randall and Liz Skinner who discover the existence of a strange anomaly, known as the “Time Barrier”, that enables...
explores the notion of two children who are able to slip through time. In the series the children are able to travel backwards to visit their parents as young people and forwards to meet themselves as adults.
- Billy Pilgrim, the protagonist of the Kurt VonnegutKurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a 20th century American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle , Slaughterhouse-Five and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor and science fiction. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.-Early...
novel Slaughterhouse-FiveSlaughterhouse-FiveSlaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death is a satirical novel by Kurt Vonnegut about World War II experiences and journeys through time of a soldier called Billy Pilgrim...
, experiences a series of time slips throughout his life after becoming "unstuck in time".
- Martian Time-SlipMartian Time-SlipMartian Time-Slip is a 1964 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. The novel uses the common science fiction concept of a human colony on Mars...
is a 1964 science fiction novel by Philip K. Dick. It advances the idea that the flow of time can change or even be reversed from place-to-place. Time on Mars is much more malleable than time on Earth or at least there are more portals and loop holes on Mars.
- The Moberly and Jourdain story was filmed with Wendy HillerWendy HillerDame Wendy Margaret Hiller DBE was an Academy Award-winning English film and stage actress, who enjoyed a varied acting career that spanned nearly sixty years. The writer Joel Hirschorn, in his 1984 compilation Rating the Movie Stars, described her as "a no-nonsense actress who literally took...
and Hannah GordonHannah GordonHannah Cambell Grant Gordon is a Scottish actress who is well known in the United Kingdom for her television work, including Upstairs, Downstairs, Telford's Change, My Wife Next Door, Joint Account and an appearance in the final episode of One Foot in the Grave.-Early life:Gordon was born in...
as Miss Morison's Ghosts in 1981.
- In The Sandlot: Heading HomeThe Sandlot: Heading HomeThe Sandlot: Heading Home is the second direct-to-video sequel to the 1993 theatrical film The Sandlot and the first direct-to-video sequel The Sandlot 2. It was released straight to DVD on May 1, 2007...
, Tommy "Santa" Santorelli gets hit by a baseball during a mis-firing of fireworks and ends up in 1976 on the Sandlot when he was almost 13. At the end, he gets hit by a ball again landing him back in his 40's where the future's changed. (e.g. Benny's his manager, he stayed on the Dodgers, etc.)
- Picnic at Hanging RockPicnic at Hanging RockPicnic at Hanging Rock is a 1967 drama and mystery novel by Australian author Joan Lindsay. She wrote it over a four-week period at her home Mulberry Hill in Baxter, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. It was first published in 1967 in Australia by Cheshire Publishing and was released in...
hints at the theme of a time slip, though it is more of a film about unexplained disappearances. The ones depicted in the film are entirely fictionFictionFiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al.
- The Long Love LetterThe Long Love LetterThe Long Love Letter is a 2002 Japanese television drama series based on the manga Hyouryuu Kyoushitsu by Umezu Kazuo .-Plot:...
is a Japanese dramaJapanese dramaJapanese drama may refer to:*Japanese television drama or Dorama, about dramatic television shows in Japan*Radio drama in Japan, often related to anime and manga series- See also :...
that focuses on students who have been sent years in the future along with their entire school building. Not knowing a time slip has occurred, they must traverse to survive in such a dismal situation.
- In Operation LoveOperation Loveis a Japanese TV drama series that was aired on Fuji TV. The series started on April 16, 2007 and ended with 11 episodes on June 24, 2007. A special aired on March 25, 2008.- Overview :...
, another Japanese dramaJapanese dramaJapanese drama may refer to:*Japanese television drama or Dorama, about dramatic television shows in Japan*Radio drama in Japan, often related to anime and manga series- See also :...
, Ken Iwase (Tomohisa YamashitaTomohisa Yamashita, also widely known as Yamapi, is a Japanese idol, actor, and singer.Yamashita joined the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates in 1996 at the age of 11 and made his official CD debut with NEWS in 2004. He debuted as a solo artist in 2006 with the hit single "Daite Senorita". His first solo...
) attends the wedding of a childhood friend while filled with regret for never having confessed his feelings. While at the reception, Ken is given the opportunity to slip back in time to make her his girlfriend.
- After Benjamin Linus moves the island at the conclusion of LostLost (TV series)Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
s fourth seasonLost (season 4)The fourth season of the American serial drama television series Lost commenced airing on the American Broadcasting Company Network in the United States, and on CTV in Canada on January 31, 2008 and concluded on May 29, 2008...
, the island's inhabitants begin slipping through various times in the island's history while remaining in the same physical location. However, it is unclear whether they are the ones moving in time, or if the island itself is sliding in time "under" them.
- The Prince of Persia: The Sands of TimePrince of Persia: The Sands of TimePrince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a third-person action-adventure computer and video game published by Ubisoft. It was released on November 21, 2003 and is a reboot of the landmark video game series Prince of Persia, created by Jordan Mechner in 1989.The Sands of Time, developed internally at...
video game series by UbisoftUbisoftUbisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
and the 2010 movie of the same title use time slip and more broadly the time travelTime travelTime travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
element as their major plot devicePlot deviceA plot device is an object or character in a story whose sole purpose is to advance the plot of the story, or alternatively to overcome some difficulty in the plot....
and gameplay mechanism.
- In JessamyJessamyJessamy by Barbara Sleigh is a children's book that sheds light on English life during World War I through a time slip narrative.-The setting:...
(1967), a novel by Barbara Sleigh, a little girl staying in an old house falls asleep in a cupboard and wakes up in 1914.
- 2011 Woody AllenWoody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
film Midnight in ParisMidnight in ParisMidnight in Paris is a 2011 romantic comedy-fantasy film written and directed by Woody Allen. The plot centers on a small group of Americans visiting the French capital for business and pleasure...
hints towards a recurring time slip from it's main protagonist.
See also
- Déjà vuDéjà vuDéjà vu is the experience of feeling sure that one has already witnessed or experienced a current situation, even though the exact circumstances of the prior encounter are uncertain and were perhaps imagined...
- Time loopTime loopA time loop or temporal loop is a common plot device in science fiction in which time runs normally for a set period but then skips back like a broken record. When the time loop "resets", the memories of most characters are reset...
- Time travelTime travelTime travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
- Time warp (science fiction)
- Unexplained disappearancesUnexplained disappearancesUnexplained disappearance is the physical disappearance of people or other objects without apparent cause or reason.-Notable disappearances:-Benjamin Bathurst:...
External links
Moberly and Jourdain experience- Moberly and Jourdain papers at Oxford University
- www.museumofhoaxes.com/versailles.html
- www.trivia-library.com/time-traveling-adventures/index.htm
- An extensive account including excerpts from original papers
- The full text of "An Adventure" in PDF Format
Liverpool, Bold Street incidents