When Time Stands Still

[LadynStFreknBed]

Did anyone ever experience that phenomenon when things happen in slow motion? People who were in car accidents probably know what I'm talking about. Has anyone ever experienced this in any situation other than a car accident?

-Sheila

 

[rgraham666]

Yes. It's happened to me several times. It's a phenomena that's saved me from injury or death because it gave me react in a way to prevent the worst of the accident.

Every incident was my fault.

 

[mrboom]

Yes, it happened to me once. A girl that was friends with one of my friends girlfriend, if you are following me, but who I had never met, walked into the bar we were in and time stopped. She had the most amazing legs I have ever seen. It still plays in slow motion in my memory.

The ironic thing is, I had a car accident last year and it was not in slow motion at all. What dose that say about me?

 

[Guest]

Deleted

 

[neonlyte]

The bits I want to stand still, pass all too quickly, the rest is a drag like Sunday in childhood when there was absolutely nothing to do and you were too small to hold a newspaper.

 

[Guest]

We almost had a nasty car accident about a month ago due to snow and ice and stupidity.

Hubby was driving, we were skidding but he had it managed, and then a very stupid person in front of us overcorrected or slammed on their brakes and went completely out of control. They wound up in the ditch, and missed slamming into us by mere inches.

After, hubby asked if the whole thing had seemed in slow motion for me.

It didn't for me. But it did for him.

Bless that for his reaction time.

 

[Lady_Guenivere]

It happened to me during the birth of my second child...right after she was pushed out. She was not breathing for about 30 seconds...time stood still and everything seemed in slow motion. It was surreal.

 

[Noor]

Dehydration slows everything down, actually seems slower than car accidents. I don't recommend either however.

 

[Fag-Ash_Lil]

Time stands still for me when Og forgets to use me.

Sometimes it stands still for months.

Anyone got any ciggies?

Fag-Ash

 

[TxRad]

From thirteen until I semi retired at fifty, I raced all types of cars on dirt and asphalt ovals and some road courses. 15 second laps on a quarter mile track is only 60 MPH. Sounds slow and may even look slow from the stands but is just as fast or faster feeling for the driver than running 200 MPH laps at Daytona or even Indy.

On dirt especially through the turns you get that time compressing feeling when you're in the zone with a great handling car. You float the car in, feel the rear going out to the right, the car is going slideways. that's sliding sideways and going forward at the same time. The front wheels are turned right but you're going left in a perfect arc.

Time slows until you can feel every bump, dip and rut in the tracks surface and you work the steering wheel to compensate. The same goes for feeling the forward bite on the rear wheels. it is an awesome feeling.

Then some idiot spins out, you have a yellow, and spend the rest of the race trying to get back in the zone.

 

[LadynStFreknBed]

Thank you guys for responding to my late night musing. You gave some great examples of the "adrenaline rush." As a psychology student, I tend to think "epinephrine" and so I couldn't remember the term "adrenaline rush" late last night when I posted.

I would agree that the times I wish would slow down move all too quickly. But, the adrenaline rush is a natural fight-or-flight reaction. I had just only heard of instances involving car accidents. The situation with the gun that GnomeDePlume mentioned is a good example of another.

mrboom, your response was very interesting indeed.

Do certain sports induce the same reaction?

ETA:

Well, I guess TxRad already answered that question. If anyone has other examples though, that would be cool.

 

[unregistered]

 

[BOSTONFICTIONWRITER]

I nearly drowned once. I'm a non-swimmer. I'm afraid of the water.

A bunch of friends thought it'd be funny if they threw me in the pool. They all could swim, but they didn't know that I couldn't swim. I remember the fear I felt when they picked me up and tossed me in the air. The first thing that went through my mind was that I was going to die.

As soon as I thought that, time slowed. On the way down before hitting the water, I could see their faces laughing at my horror. I could feel the cold water biting at my skin. Then, I submerged. Down, down, and down, I went to the very bottom and stayed there.

I saw my life flash before me. I saw my Mom telling me to stay close to home. I saw the Virgin Mary shaking her head and making the sign of the cross. Life, as I knew it, in my young life was over.

I was so frightened. What seemed like an hour was only a few seconds. The panic was real. I didn't know what to do. Then, self-preservation kicked in and I kicked my legs and waved my arms as hard and as fast as I could, but to no avail. Even though I didn't know how, I thought that I could swim by doing that. I thought that I could float to the surface and grab on to something, anything to save myself. Only, I was just getting tired, exhausted really.

"Help! Help!" I yelled but all I did was to swallow water and to speed the process of drowning.

I was doomed. I was drowning. I was dying. And there was no one moving to save me. I could see them through the water pointing and laughing. They thought I was clowning around.

Then, in a moment of clarity, I knew what to do. It was as if a voice from above or beyond told me how to save myself.

I stood up in the three feet of water. Yeah, I was one of the lucky ones alright. Go ahead, you can laugh if you want, but it felt real enough for me.

Now, the closest I get to water is the ice in my bourbon glass (lol).

Cheers.

 

[hellebore]

Yes.

In autumn, several years ago, I was standing with a group of friends on a "floating" dock (the kind that isn't attached to anything solid. It was on pontoons, and roped to the pier) on a lake in Upper Michigan. The wake from a passing boat slammed our boat into the dock and two of us were knocked into the water. We fell about 8 feet into some fracking cold water. I had heard my wrist snap when my friend fell into my arm, (I'd had my hand resting on one of the uprights) and as I fell, I knew that it was going to hurt quite badly in a few moments and the water was going to be cold. But it was dark brown and glossy. I could see the rocks, pebbles and waterweed swaying below the water. It was gorgeous! I could also see the shoreline off to one side and the sugar maples were absolutely stunning. They were scarlet and deep orange and topaz, glowing in the afternoon sunlight. The fall seemed to take a thousand years, or at least long enough for me to enjoy the aspect of the fall colors and the silken water and the bitter sweet scent of woodsmoke in the air.

 

[unregistered]

Just once...

 

[glynndah]

We drove over a hill coming off a blind curve on a drizzly, dreary spring afternoon and saw what looked like a tornado coming straight at us. As it turned out, we'd found the only the only 5 car collision in the entire state and it landed right on top of us.

Time slowed down and we watched the whole thing unfold in front of us. We were hit by two cars and debris from another. The impact spun us around and into the path of oncoming traffic where we crashed into the final car in the chain.

Miraculously everyone involved was wearing seat belts and no one was seriously hurt. There was a couple of ambulances called, but the most seriously injured person they took to the hospital had a broken nose. They didn't even come over to our car. I guess the officer investigating said we were fine. I was four months pregnant at the time. That emergency room was the first place I heard my son's heartbeat.

 

[sadangel]

It happened to me the last time about a year ago.
I was walking into a store and somehow, tripped over nothing.
Because of having had several strokes, sometimes my legs don't work JUST the way they should and I can't pick them up at just the right moment to avoid or step up a small curb and such.

I felt myself falling face forward and knew it was going to be BAD. I could feel it. Then suddenly, it was like I had the split second to put my hands out, turn my head. There were several people who saw it happen and JUST KNEW I was going to end up busting my face wide open. They wondered how I had time to turn my head and all. I still don't undersand it. I ended up with a bruised chin and busted lip, where my teeth went through my lip. I was ok a few days later. No scars even!

Have had it happen several times in cars. I was never the driver though.

Like everyone else said, it's that moment of "slow motion" that somehow happens. Don't understand it, but I'm glad I'm still alive from some of the accidents it happened during.

 

[mrboom]

I wonder if you could train yourself to slow down time? Maybe it has already been done by some sect somewhere.

 

[wafflemtl]

In a fight. And I also saw red (don't know if the expression exist in English).

 

[wafflemtl]

I wonder if you could train yourself to slow down time? Maybe it has already been done by some sect somewhere.

I don't know if you slow time but with a high level of concentration, during a game (any sport) the time seems to be longer for the person in the action than for the person looking at it. (I'm not sure I'm clear but ... well... that's how it feels for me)

 

[unregistered]

 

[LadynStFreknBed]

I wonder if you could train yourself to slow down time? Maybe it has already been done by some sect somewhere.

hmmm... that's an interesting concept. I wonder that too. I mean, it is a physiological response to danger. I'm not sure someone can consciously invoke it. Though, before biofeedback, I would have said the same about heart rate.

 

[Techomancer]

Warning not for the squeamish - please skip if you are not OK with dental pain.

Sorry, this takes a sec to set up but bear with me.

One of my upper canines grew outside the socket and was basically sitting in the center of my mouth, still un-erupted. I was sent to an "old school" dentist to evaluate options.

Unbeknown to me, the root had fused to my upper pallet in a massive bone knot. This made the end of the tooth wider that the blade.

Dr Pain shot me up and then refused to listen as I told him that he'd missed and the roof was still very much live. He grabbed a tool that could be best described as a plug cutter and proceeded to shave off two strips of tissue the size of my pinkey nail. He moved so fast and I was blinded/frozen by the pain. Tools were jammed into the flesh to gain access to the tooth again and again. At some point his nurse came in and held me to the chair. Finally he managed to force the plug cutter to the tip of the tooth and broke the bone holding the end of the tooth with a tearing snap.

This is the time slowdown. As the tooth cleared my mouth and I could see it for the first time it just hung there. Blood glistening in the light and tissue hanging from the pliers. To this day I can recall the perfect image of it. What seemed like minutes passed as I stared at it.

I have never wanted to pass out so bad in my life.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

When hunting Cape Buffalo.

 

[DeeZire]

In the late 60s, time stood still quite often, depending on how pure the LSD was.

Riding a Honda 150 up Highway One south of Big Sur, banked into a turn, a turquoise 55 chevy came around the corner heading straight towards me, also hugging the white line. It was too late to slow down so I held my line and he held his. I can still hear the creak of the metal and the scrape of the tires on the asphalt as he tried to keep his car on his side of the line. My face came within an inch of his rear view mirror. Of course it only took a couple of seconds, but it seemed like forever.

Needless to say, I slowed down after that.

There's a really cool song on the first Fountains of Wayne CD called "All Kinds of Time". It's about a quarterback in a football game. The song takes three and a half minutes to chronicle the three seconds between when he catches the snap and when he makes the throw.