Ever experienced a temporal discontinuity?

[brujaja]

Okay, I know I'm going to get a lot of trolling with this one, but I figure this is still the best place to ask because Dopers as a whole seem to be paying attention more than others.

Have you ever noticed some small fact or detail of your life, that has suddenly changed, with the implication that it has always been that way; and yet you are certain that you remember it differently?

For example, a friend's birthday is on a certain day which you know very well, but then one day you find it's a different day. Or a common item you use frequently is a different color. Or a passage in a book does not say what you remember it saying.

Obviously, much of the time when this happens there is a reasonable explanation. But sometimes not. I'm especially interested in the ones you can't explain.

Thanks!

[Smeghead]

Nope.

[RealityChuck]

Well, I did experience once -- lost about a half hour of my life.

I was driving into the supermarket parking lot. The next thing I knew I was sitting at the table eating dinner, feeling a little bit dizzy. I could find things in the cupboard that I had to have bought and even spent time deciding on. But I couldn't remember anything about the shopping trip.

I had an MRI. I seemed to have suffered a mini-stroke. It hasn't recurred, but it scared the shit out of me.

[janeslogin]

Several times. Similar to RealityChuck above but more brief. Mine were diagnosed as an ''idiopathic seizure disorder".

[kenobi 65]

I've occasionally woken up from a nap, and been disoriented, thinking that I'd just woken up from a night's sleep. The fact that the sun was in the western sky in the "morning" caused tremendous cognitive dissonance for a minute or two, until I realized what was going on.

[jharvey963]

Many years ago I was on scopalomine for dizziness. Every once in a while I'd feel like I had just come back from ... somewhere else. They felt like time discontinuities to me, but on a smaller scale, like I was somewhere else for a second or two, but now I'm back. I'm sure this was a drug side effect.

J.

[tdn]

Originally Posted by RealityChuck

I was driving into the supermarket parking lot. The next thing I knew I was sitting at the table eating dinner, feeling a little bit dizzy. I could find things in the cupboard that I had to have bought and even spent time deciding on. But I couldn't remember anything about the shopping trip.

I think that that happens to people a lot. Some call it Driver's Amnesia.

I've experienced what the OP mentioned, but I can't think of any specifics. I have often misremembered someone's hair color. I don't mean the difference between red and auburn, I mean the difference between light blonde and black.

[Lobsang]

Nope, but my mum recently implicitly accused me of replacing a 2011 calendar with an identical 2010 calendar as a joke, convinced that the calendar was a 2011 calendar.

[Skald the Rhymer]

About two months ago I left work at 4 o'clock. I sat in the car almost exactly on the hour, which I recall because All Things Considered on NPR had just begun. The drive home is 20-30 minutes depending on traffic, was was typical that day. Once at home I went into the bathroom -- well, nobody wants detail -- and that, too, was unremarkable. But somehow, when I glanced at the clock immediately afterwards, it was 6:30.

I don't know where the missing hour went. Per policy I blame the people of Wales.

[jjimm]

I had a brain fart once that really freaked me out. I was at my sister's house. She'd just given birth to my nephew - my godson. We were chatting, and I thought it would be funny to pretend to be a misogynist, so I began berating her for not having had a son.

See, even though I was messing about, at that point I was absolutely convinced, for about two minutes, that she'd had a baby daughter. My parents and my sister were looking at me funny, and I then had a really weird feeling of disconnection and dissonance, like I was passing through a barrier back into reality, before coming back to my senses. Nothing like that has ever happened since.

[Rachellelogram]

Last Wednesday, I was thoroughly convinced all day that it was surely Thursday.

[pulykamell]

Originally Posted by kenobi 65

I've occasionally woken up from a nap, and been disoriented, thinking that I'd just woken up from a night's sleep. The fact that the sun was in the western sky in the "morning" caused tremendous cognitive dissonance for a minute or two, until I realized what was going on.

Ah, yes, this has happened to me many a time, that late afternoon nap where you wake up a 7 p.m., in the summer, and it's still light outside, but you think it's 7 a.m., and confusion results for about a minute before you sort things out. Also, waking up thinking you're in one place, but actually in another (this sort of disorientation only lasts a brief few seconds for me.)

[olivesmarch4th]

When I was a teen I was home alone at the computer working on a (very bad) novel. After what seemed like about twenty minutes, I looked at the clock and discovered that ten hours had passed.

[Chimera]

The only temporal discontinuities I experience are, on very rare occasion upon hearing of the death of a celebrity, to be going "Holy Shit. I SWEAR that guy died five years ago. I remember the news articles about it. I remember that guy dying!"

[WotNot]

Originally Posted by Skald the Rhymer

About two months ago I left work at 4 o'clock. I sat in the car almost exactly on the hour, which I recall because All Things Considered on NPR had just begun. The drive home is 20-30 minutes depending on traffic, was was typical that day. Once at home I went into the bathroom -- well, nobody wants detail -- and that, too, was unremarkable. But somehow, when I glanced at the clock immediately afterwards, it was 6:30.

I don't know where the missing hour went. Per policy I blame the people of Wales.

This is interesting. Periods of missing time are quite common in Fortean literature, often following or during a car journey, for some reason. They're usually associated with:

• Encounters with deities, angelic beings, spirits, elves, genii loci etc. Have you experienced any revelations, or any sense of being particularly blessed or enlightened? (Beyond the usual, that is).
• Alien abduction. Did you feel any sensation of having recently been probed?
• Time slips, timequakes or other temporal anomalies. Never mind the time: did you check the date?
• Dimensional slippage. Appearance/disappearance of a goatee would be the classic giveaway – swastikas are also a good thing to keep a look out for.
• Mind control. Have you felt an urge to assassinate any prominent public figures (again, beyond the usual)?
• Ball lightning. Do you recall any bright lights, tingling in the extremities, or the smell of burning?

I don't recall the Welsh being implicated in other cases, but this may be an indication of their skill at misdirection. They are subtle people.

[DocCathode]

I am somewhat unstuck in time.

I will post about it two days ago.

[aruvqan]

My friend Matthew and I were driving down 15/W Cross Parkway from Hartford to Orange about 10 years ago. On that route is a tunnel. We both swear that we did not go through the tunnel. It is the landmark for the exit where a bank I used to have an account with is at, and we were going to stop at that bank and deposit a check on our way to Orange. We drove from Meriden all the way to Orange without going through the tunnel, and the time it took was around 10 minutes less than the trip normally took us.

We joke with each other than at some point in the future when we are running late for something, the tunnel will appear and make us 10 minutes late getting somewhere.

No idea, but we were actively looking for the tunnel, and honestly we did not remember going through the tunnel, and we were ahead of schedule by 10 minutes. No freaking clue what happened.

[Attack from the 3rd dimension]

There will be one in Samoa next December.

Cite.

[panache45]

Originally Posted by Chimera

The only temporal discontinuities I experience are, on very rare occasion upon hearing of the death of a celebrity, to be going "Holy Shit. I SWEAR that guy died five years ago. I remember the news articles about it. I remember that guy dying!"

Yes, that has happened to me several times, including Kurt Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury (who is still alive).

But even more inexplicable is this:

One morning, about 15 years ago, I awoke to find that some of the peripheral vision in one eye was being distorted. I was able to see my ophthalmologist that day. He examined my eye and told me I have diabetic retinopathy. I told him that, as far as I knew, I wasn’t diabetic. He told me that I should see my primary physician right away. The primary physician confirmed that I was indeed diabetic, and said that it was a good thing the problem with my eye caused me to be diagnosed, so that I could get treatment.

I have definitely been diabetic ever since.

Last year I was told about a study for people who have diabetic retinopathy. I volunteered for the study, and they gave me quite a few high-tech tests. Then they told me that I didn’t qualify for the study, since my retinopathy had nothing to do with my diabetes. I pointed out to them that it was the retinopathy itself that had led to my diagnosis, and they insisted my retinopathy was not diabetes-related.

I contacted my former ophthalmologist, who looked back into his records and told me that I’d had an “event,” unrelated to diabetes. In fact he said that my records didn’t even mention that I was diabetic.

[jabiru]

No, unless you include a disagreement I had with my mother which lasted for years. She swears I wore a particular dress to my grandmother's funeral but I remember wearing a different one - blue, because that was Nana's favourite colour.

One (or possibly even both) of us was mis-remembering, I think.

[classyladyhp]

I never take naps but once I fell asleep during the day. When I woke up I didn't know what day it was, what year it was or what time it was. It was really really scary. Many people in my family have had this happen to them as well.

[Qadgop the Mercotan]

As a kid I had complex partial seizures, aka "temporal lobe" seizures. Fortunately they resolved after a few years, but temporal discontinuity was a big part of the symptoms. It was most jarring to suddenly perceive that I'm 6 and having breakfast with my grandfather, only to bounce back to my 8th grade classroom and realize grandpa's been dead for 3 years.

[brujaja]

Originally Posted by Qadgop the Mercotan

As a kid I had complex partial seizures, aka "temporal lobe" seizures. Fortunately they resolved after a few years, but temporal discontinuity was a big part of the symptoms. It was most jarring to suddenly perceive that I'm 6 and having breakfast with my grandfather, only to bounce back to my 8th grade classroom and realize grandpa's been dead for 3 years.

Whoa, no shit, Qadgop? That must've been SOOO weird! Could you tell the difference between an already-passed-through spot on the timeline, and the present? (at the time.) (if you know what I mean.)

I don't mean to pry, but how did actually living a postmodern science fiction type of scenario affect your perception of those kind of topics later? Do you think it left you with more of a sense of anything-is-possible?

The reason I didn't say in the OP why I was asking is because the reason is even more tinfoil-hat than the question, if you all can believe that.

This morning, I was on a respected astrology site, looking at my little niece's natal chart. On a whim, I called up my own... and discovered that my Neptune is now in Scorpio. No, it's not. My Neptune is in Pisces, it has always been in Pisces, I have very specific memories connected to my Neptune being in Pisces. BUT not only is my Neptune now in Scorpio --- apparently Neptune was in Scorpio for thirteen years, with my birth year being right in the middle of that time. So it's impossible there was any mistake.

But I know my Neptune is in Pisces like I know my middle name. Weird.

[Taomist]

Originally Posted by Skald the Rhymer

About two months ago I left work at 4 o'clock. I sat in the car almost exactly on the hour, which I recall because All Things Considered on NPR had just begun. The drive home is 20-30 minutes depending on traffic, was was typical that day. Once at home I went into the bathroom -- well, nobody wants detail -- and that, too, was unremarkable. But somehow, when I glanced at the clock immediately afterwards, it was 6:30.

I don't know where the missing hour went. Per policy I blame the people of Wales.

Two months ago was the March time change for the U.S. ...

Just a thought!

I've had a dream so real that I knew for a fact we were out of mustard when we weren't; lots of stuff like that, but that's not really temporal. I just have dreams so damn boring that they're indistinguishable from reality.

Blacked out 3 times: once due to alcohol, twice to poorly-timed plasma 'donations'.
But nothing's ever happened where I couldn't have at least GUESSED what happened during the ensuing minutes/hours.

The closest I can say I've come <that I remember...> is when plugged into one of those old newfangled electronic keyboards, with headphones on. I can lose time like nobody's business, getting lost in music only I can hear. (And thank goodness for that; I suck!) But to me, that's kind of a no-brainer. I haven't lost time; I've let it go.

[needscoffee]

Originally Posted by brujaja

... a respected astrology site...

Isn't that an oxymoron?

[Absolute]

I occasionally will get ready for bed, turn out the lights, lay down, blink, and find that it's light out.

Hasn't happened in a while. It's sort of cool, but a little bit annoying. I like laying in a bed for a few minutes before falling asleep!

[Mangetout]

I have somehow acquired the annoying habit of only looking at the minute hand of the clock, and assuming that I know what hour it is. So I sometimes turn up for things an hour, or two hours early (hardly ever happens to make me late).

But as a result of this, anything slightly out of the ordinary jabs me with a little sting of paranoid panic. Fewer people than usual in town (Yikes! I haven't clocked out for lunch an hour early, have I?). Unusually light in the morning* (Yikes! I haven't got up an hour early, have I?)

*(For example in spring, when the daylight is getting earlier each day, but this may be obscured by a week of cloudy mornings - and when this eventually breaks, it suddenly seems unusually light for the time of day)

[Disposable Hero]

I once had a dream so long, detailed and realistic that when I woke up I had a few genuine moments of panic before realising I was lying safely in my bed and was not in fact a partisan in some vaguely Eastern European country who had been betrayed while attempting to assassinate the local collaborating mayor and hunted across the countryside by very irrate occupying troops and helicopters!

That may have been my sleeping conciousness accessing an alternate reality rather than a temporal discontinuity though...

[Koxinga]

Originally Posted by Qadgop the Mercotan

As a kid I had complex partial seizures, aka "temporal lobe" seizures. Fortunately they resolved after a few years, but temporal discontinuity was a big part of the symptoms. It was most jarring to suddenly perceive that I'm 6 and having breakfast with my grandfather, only to bounce back to my 8th grade classroom and realize grandpa's been dead for 3 years.

Sounds like something out of Slaughterhouse Five. Bathroom plungers and geodesic domes don't happen to have any particular significance for you, do they?

[aruvqan]

Originally Posted by needscoffee

Isn't that an oxymoron?

Some are less woo than others, they just report data [planetary locations, stuff like that, they don't interpret]

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by Disposable Hero

I once had a dream so long, detailed and realistic that when I woke up I had a few genuine moments of panic before realising I was lying safely in my bed and was not in fact a partisan in some vaguely Eastern European country who had been betrayed while attempting to assassinate the local collaborating mayor and hunted across the countryside by very irrate occupying troops and helicopters!

That may have been my sleeping conciousness accessing an alternate reality rather than a temporal discontinuity though...

I had one like that. I nearly off my flower in surprise.

[Polerius]

Originally Posted by brujaja

Okay, I know I'm going to get a lot of trolling with this one, but I figure this is still the best place to ask because Dopers as a whole seem to be paying attention more than others.

Have you ever noticed some small fact or detail of your life, that has suddenly changed, with the implication that it has always been that way; and yet you are certain that you remember it differently?

For example, a friend's birthday is on a certain day which you know very well, but then one day you find it's a different day. Or a common item you use frequently is a different color. Or a passage in a book does not say what you remember it saying.

Obviously, much of the time when this happens there is a reasonable explanation. But sometimes not. I'm especially interested in the ones you can't explain.

Thanks!

I think the examples in this thread are addressing the title of the OP ("temporal discontinuity") and not the main point of the OP.

An example more akin to what the OP is asking is that one day, I found out that one of my uncles, who is overweight and I never saw him move much, was actually quite athletic, exercised frequently, and was very good at tennis. This was not too surprising by itself, but when I asked my relatives about this, they were all "Of course he's very athletic and plays tennis very well. Everyone in the family knows this. It's common knowledge". How I went ~20 years without ever hearing about it, I don't know.

At times like these I like to pretend that "God" is playing a modified 20-questions game, where you are allowed to change the object you are thinking of, as long as the new object is consistent with the previous answers you have given so far. That is, God can change reality ("Uncle Bob is now good at tennis"), as long it doesn't contradict any irrefutable evidence you may have. [Note that I don't believe this is actually happening, just that it's a fun possibility]

[Crowbar of Irony +3]

There was once I overdosed on Xanax. I couldn't remember an entire day of my life. I eventually recall a bit of details, but it's very sketchy and people told me I did stuff which I couldn't recall at all.

I only started suspecting when some details didn't match up right. For example, my spectacles was bent and I couldn't remember what the heck did I do with it.

[Double Foolscap]

Originally Posted by rachelellogram

Last Wednesday, I was thoroughly convinced all day that it was surely Thursday.

That happened to me quite a lot last month, because of all the bank holidays close together. Tuesdays felt like Mondays, Wednesdays felt like Thursdays, and the holidays all merged all over the place.

[Balthisar]

I've had vague feelings of such, and it worries me, because I have a history of sleep walking, and so they may be related. The last time was a hotel in Mexico, and the bellhop told me (as I came down in the morning) that he'd paid for my cab. I'm not sure if he was wrong, or I really used a cab. Usually when I sleep walk, it's just to go for a pee.

[aruvqan]

Fugue state? That is something I have had before, and take steps to not do again.

Back when computers didn't go online all the time [for me this happened in about 1992-93] my husband was on sea duty, and out for a 6 month northern run. I can remember seeing him off on a Monday morning at 5am, driving home and sitting down at my amiga 1000 [heh] to play eye of the beholder 1. Next thing I know, a friend calls me to see if he can come over for a visit as his newest batch of mead was ready to drink and he wanted to get my opinion on it. It was thursday.

I am certain I slept, showered, changed clothing and made and ate food. I was wearing different clothing, not hungry or tired ... but I honestly do not remember any of the time between monday morning and thursday noonish. Occasional times over the next month where I did the fugue thing upset me enough that for the next few years if mrAru was deployed we got roommates for me so I would have some interaction with actual humans, and I would also set my alarm and only play for 4 hour chunks of time.

It isn't as much of a problem now in MMORPGs because I am talking with live humans, and having to interact makes me more aware of what is going on around me.

[tdn]

Originally Posted by olivesmarch4th

When I was a teen I was home alone at the computer working on a (very bad) novel. After what seemed like about twenty minutes, I looked at the clock and discovered that ten hours had passed.

I've had this happen a few times. A lot of artistic types actually seek out this experience.

One night a few years back I was creating an orchestration for a piece of piano music. I really enjoyed the music and it drew me right in. After not too long it felt like I was outside of myself, looking at this brilliant musical genius who was far better than me, and who was creating a thing of immense beauty. And in a way it was like God Himself (or maybe Mozart) was working through me, and my hands were just doing the work. All I could really do was sit back and witness this miracle.

When I finally looked up at the clock, it was 3 am.

[Polerius]

Did you guys even read the OP?

[Yorikke]

I swear, when I was younger, red = Democrats, and Blue = Republicans. Now, all of a sudden, after one of the Bush elections, it's completely opposite. I even remember watching the news, and having a double take when they were talking about "Red States," meaning Republican states. I KNOW it's a fucking conspiracy against me...

Joe

[jjimm]

Originally Posted by Balthisar

the bellhop told me (as I came down in the morning) that he'd paid for my cab.

Did he say "cab" with a nudge and a wink? When you reimbursed him, did you find it excessively expensive? Have you had any painful discharge recently?

[Anne Neville]

Originally Posted by tdn

I've had this happen a few times. A lot of artistic types actually seek out this experience.
...
When I finally looked up at the clock, it was 3 am.

This happens sooner or later to everybody who plays any of the Civilization series of games.

Originally Posted by Skald the Rhymer

About two months ago I left work at 4 o'clock. I sat in the car almost exactly on the hour, which I recall because All Things Considered on NPR had just begun. The drive home is 20-30 minutes depending on traffic, was was typical that day. Once at home I went into the bathroom -- well, nobody wants detail -- and that, too, was unremarkable. But somehow, when I glanced at the clock immediately afterwards, it was 6:30.

I don't know where the missing hour went. Per policy I blame the people of Wales.

Something very like this happened to me yesterday. I got in my car after going to the supermarket, and somehow it was 7 o'clock. Damn Welsh.

[brujaja]

Originally Posted by needscoffee

Isn't that an oxymoron?

Ha! I almost put that in parenthesis when I wrote it, (an oxymoron to some) but then I decided I was being cynical.

[brujaja]

Originally Posted by wheresgeorge04

I swear, when I was younger, red = Democrats, and Blue = Republicans. Now, all of a sudden, after one of the Bush elections, it's completely opposite. I even remember watching the news, and having a double take when they were talking about "Red States," meaning Republican states. I KNOW it's a fucking conspiracy against me...

Joe

OK, now that's weird, I remember that too.

[Koxinga]

I think the colors became fixed in people's minds during the controversy over the 2000 election, with Florida and all that.

[Yorikke]

Originally Posted by Koxinga

I think the colors became fixed in people's minds during the controversy over the 2000 election, with Florida and all that.

Yabbut, it's DIFFERENT than before...

Joe

[Koxinga]

Before 2000 they might have been interchangable or alternating from election to election, who knows. I don't remember that anyone cared before 2000.

[RealityChuck]

Originally Posted by tdn

I think that that happens to people a lot. Some call it Driver's Amnesia.

Not quite. In my case, I pulled into the parking lot and (probably) parked, went into the supermarket and purchased items (including some I would have had to have made a decision and thought about before buying). Then I went home, looked at the mail, probably helped with the cooking and started eating. Yet I didn't remember any of this.

Driver's Amnesia is just that you don't remember all the moments of a drive; it's very normal.

Re: red states/blue states. Prior to 2000, the colors were arbitrary. I think the incumbent party was blue and the challenger red, but there was no standard and the networks would make their own choices and did not coordinate with each other.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

By 1996, color schemes were relatively mixed, as CNN, CBS, ABC, and The New York Times referred to Democratic states with the color blue and Republican ones as red, while TIME and The Washington Post used an opposite scheme.[10][11][12]

[Yorikke]

Originally Posted by RealityChuck

Re: red states/blue states. Prior to 2000, the colors were arbitrary. I think the incumbent party was blue and the challenger red, but there was no standard and the networks would make their own choices and did not coordinate with each other.

Well I'll be dipped. Thanks...

Joe

[brujaja]

Well, that clears THAT up. I'm relieved.

[brujaja]

Originally Posted by Polerius

I think the examples in this thread are addressing the title of the OP ("temporal discontinuity") and not the main point of the OP.

I think you're right, Polerius, although I don't really mind; the two topics are related and both very interesting. But, I didn't know what else to call it.

This is a device you run across not infrequently in science fiction (especially reading Philip K. Dick, heh!) but I don't recall ever seeing a good descriptive term for the specific situation.