The following stories are from a reader who wishes to remain anonymous:
1) I returned from a two day trip out of town to find all the lights in my house were off. This was unusual because I normally leave a light on for myself, but thinking I must have forgotten this time, I proceeded to unlock the door and enter my house. I did not notice the door had been pried open, because the porch light was off and the door was shut completely. When I got inside and flipped on the light, I found that my ex-boyfriend from two years prior had broken into my house. His eyes were glassy and his pupils were tiny where he hid by the door waiting for me in the dark. He lept up from where he had crouched by the door when I turned on the light, and nose to nose with me demanded, "Give me the money that you owe me." It was clear to me that he was on drugs. I replied, "I don't owe you any money! You owe me money!" He attacked me, first punching me in the mouth, then tackling me to the ground he began strangling me. He said, "Do you realize that I could kill you right here and no one would hear your screams?" I was crying and pleading with him to let me up, I would give him some money. Suddenly, as I struggled to breath, a feeling of deja vu swept over me. I could clearly see another reality where he kept me by the throat and shook me, banging my head into the floor as my body went limp. I could see that reality as if from above. I was also presented with the way to prevent it - to fight him. So, I grabbed his testicles in my fist and twisted them, and bit his thigh hard enough to pull the skin and draw blood. He begged me to let go of him and fled out the back door, after which I ran to the neighbor's house and they called the police. My strategy in mind up until the deja vu feeling was to plead with him and appeal to him. In that moment it was shown to me he was drug-crazed and it did not matter how much money I would have given him. I mention this incident because, especially due to the strangulation, the psychological explanation for time slips surely carries a lot of water for this one. I consider this one a "sideways" time slip. However, I have several more, two more of which I will describe.
2) I was driving down a steep, mountainous stretch of interstate. I was happily jamming to my favorite music, the sky was blue and cloudless, the road stretched long and winding ahead of me. I saw an older model grey pickup truck speed past me and tear into the guard rail, hitting it to bounce off and spin back into the road. There was nothing I could do. I slammed my brakes, but my car t-boned the pickup truck, and I looked down after the car came to a stop at the deployed airbag and my seatbelt. I could see blood covering my chest, but I wasn't sure where it came from. I wondered if the driver of the pickup truck was ok, and looked up. I could see through blood in my eyelashes. I couldn't see the driver, but I could see the crushed pickup truck and a small child in a carseat in the extended cab. The child made direct eye contact with me, and I began to panic that the child's parent was seriously hurt, and trying to move out of my seat. Both vehicles were still in the middle of the road, and I was panicking and struggling to get to the child because I was afraid someone would come along and hit us. I never made it out of the car, though. Suddenly, I was driving down the same stretch of interstate, on the gorgeous cloudless day, and the song that was playing was one that had been playing several minutes before the accident. I clearly remembered what had happened (or would happen?) and I knew that if I switched to the far left lane, when the truck zipped past me on the right and spun, I would not hit it. I moved to the far left lane and a few minutes passed without anything happening, so I chalked it up to me being crazy. Suddenly, the older model grey truck zipped past and hit the guard rail, spinning out into the road. In the far left lane, I went past where the truck spun into the road. I slammed my brakes as I passed and pulled onto the shoulder. The truck, which had been sideways in the road, pulled onto the shoulder. The driver was fine, but he was calling the police since he hit the guardrail. He was on the shoulder, and he and the child were out of danger, so I continued down the road. Unlike the first incident I wrote about, when this incident happened there was no psychological trigger explanation because I was in no immediate danger, just enjoying a drive on a sunny day. I consider it a forward time slip and subsequent backwards time slip. However, sometimes the time slips happen when there is no danger at all, such as my third story.
3) It was another beautiful day and I was on my front porch playing Canasta on my phone. I was curled up in a wicker chair and pretty happy to be wasting a little bit of time doing something quick and fun on my day off. A hand of cards was dealt, and I was playing the hand when the deja vu feeling came over me. I had already planned how to meld and which cards to discard when suddenly the cards before me were a completely different hand. I checked the score and it was much higher, in my team's favor. I checked the time on my phone, and it was several minutes past the time when I was playing the hand I had planned out. I looked at the chat messages for the game, and there were no chat messages for that missing time, which was unusual because all the players had been chatting with each other. I consider it a forward slip, and thought about asking the other players if they were also missing several minutes. I decided not to say anything, though, just in case they might think I was crazy. Our in-game chat conversation continued as normal with just that unexplained several minute break in the conversation. Excluding the fact that there were multiple people involved, this time slip would fit the dementia explanation of losing time. However, it seems to me that all four of us lost several minutes as evidenced by the several minute break in conversation in the chat log, with chat resuming as if no time had been lost.
