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| Posted By: rofmao Posted On: Feb 7, 2009 Views: 978 | time and the human experience All this theory of time is just that....THEORY (as in seems to be!) I had an experience of time once that was pretty cool. I was about to get into a fight. The interesting thing was that even though I have poor eyesight I could suddenly see everything with exquisite clarity. I saw clearly this other persons pupils contract and the muscles in the face and body shift, this all appeared to be in very slow motion. The persons arm came up so very slowly. I was holding a drink that I threw aside and could see the drops arcing into the air like a plume individual drops falling and sparkling in the sunlight and I could see the other persons hair move in slow motion so individual strands appeared to fan out.It seemed like there was total silence. It was really weird but very cool too. Now I'm not much of a fighter but was easily able to grab this persons arm and deflect the punch and to land all my own punches because things were happening in such slow motion that it was easy to see where each blow should go. Anyway there wasn't any real damage done and when others stepped in to break it up, time again sped up and I was suprised that it was such a short timespan because of all the detail like everything was a separate picture and I had the time to register such clear details. I wish I could experience this again...not the fighting, lol just the experience of time slowing down. I'd like to hear if anyone has had similar experience. |
| Posted By: Keith Mayes Posted On: Feb 8, 2009 Views: 975 | RE: time and the human experience Hi rofmao, What you have described would appear to be a fairly common experience that sometimes happens when we are in situation that is causing a high stress level and a large adrenalin boost. Typically this can happen moments before a car crash and time seems to slow down just as you described it. Your later perception of exactly what you experienced will of course depend on your memory of these events, and the memory can reinforce what you think you saw, in other words it can exaggerate the details of what you actually saw and experienced. This is why witnesses to a violent crime, say a bank hold up where guns were fired, will generally all relate a different story! I have no doubt that events happened more or less as you described regarding your fight, but I am also pretty certain your memory has embellished many of the details. This a well known psychological effect, I think its called memory reinforcement but can't be bothered to look it up lol. I am sure others will have something to add on the subject.... |
| Posted By: Kevin Posted On: Feb 12, 2009 Views: 965 | RE: time and the human experience I agree with Keith in that our minds can make up certain parts of our memory, implanting something that really didnt happen or happened differently into one's memory. But regarding the slowing-time effect, I remember reading something about it a while ago. As Keith said, the fight was a very high stress situation and your mind was in a state of emergency. It has been theorized that in these states we actually think faster and percieve things more quickly; we have quicker reactions and are much more aware. Take any high stress situation that occurs to someone and 9 times out of 10 they will say "it seemed like time was slowing down. everything was just in slow-motion." These statements are constantly made by people in highly stressful situations. The mind kicks into overdrive in these situations causing ones sense of time to slow. Birds, for example, are in a state similar to this all of the time. They percieve movements and time itself as occuring more slowly than we do; this is why they have such quick reactions. They are able to fly through branches and land in the middle of a tree without colliding with it. They are able to do this becuase time is advancing more slowly for them and they are able to navigate through trees and bulidings and such because of this. So I guess what I'm saying is that, this is a typical process that occurs throughout all forms of life. For some reason, we can only unlock this ability when we are in an emergency situation and are under threat. |