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Unexplained distance traveled


satellite12

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Hello everyone,

Just joined this group to tell my story. Maybe someone else has had a similar experience or can give me some answers. I was working in the prairies, which are known for straight roads and flat ground. Every morning I had to drive to the workyard one town over. Usually takes me 20-25 minutes.

The morning meeting finished and I was told where to drive my work truck. Back towards the town I came from just a few minutes down the road then take a right at a certain rangeroad. After quickly grabbing something I forgot, I thought to myself "Urgh Im going to be late what time is it." I noticed the time. I was driving into the sun and couldnt see well. The work trucks are GPS'd so that workers don't speed. Given the visability i wouldn't anyway, and I put the truck on cruise.

After 2 minutes Im looking right for the range road signs. I see one sign and say "wait a minute did I pass it? No the numbers must go up." I go over a very slight hill and see the overpass for the town I originally left from. I hit the overpass in 3 minutes. I was freaked out. Important to note that.

  • Serious radio was playing the same song the entire time.
  • Ive driven this road a million times.
  • Coming back the whole trip should have been. straight, slight right, slight left, straight, over slight hill, and straight. I only remember the last 3 steps.
  • I was soo freaked out I took back roads back and still managed to arrive just before my coworkers. They drive a slower truck but by no way could I have made it back.
  • I told my sister and she said it was eqinox that morning

What do you think happened? What if I kept going?

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If you're deep in thought during something you memory might not register things (landmarks) around you but rather that you were thinking about something. I've "missed" sections of road while deep in thought myself, and been freaked out because I then can't remember what color the last light was when I went through it or whether I had stopped at the stop sign. For me this is especially true on a road I've traveled hundreds of times, because I know where everything is and go into a sort of mental auto pilot.

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Welcome! :) It may not be what you are looking for but I have to go with the more mundane rather than time travel, etc...

Your usual 20-25 minute trip took only 2-3 minutes and you know this because you checked the time before you left? and are not only going on your assumption that the same 2-3 minute song played once on the radio lasting the entire trip?

Did your co-workers also go to the same destination and arrive 15-20 minutes later?

I'd still say it could be a combination of what has already been said by posters GreenmansGod and karmakazi above.

Combined with you freaking yourself out about it and thus remembering your starting time incorrectly and also being incorrect about the same song playing the entire trip (although some songs can be a lot longer than 2-3 minutes).

If you drive a faster speed to work (20-25) than you did going back in the truck, I have no way to know how little or big the difference would be, although it still wouldn't effect my possible answer.

Edited by QuiteContrary
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Highway Hypnosis hits this right on the nose. Nothing supernatural, just our brains tricking us like the filthy little buggers that they are.

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Hello everyone,

Just joined this group to tell my story. Maybe someone else has had a similar experience or can give me some answers. I was working in the prairies, which are known for straight roads and flat ground. Every morning I had to drive to the workyard one town over. Usually takes me 20-25 minutes.

The morning meeting finished and I was told where to drive my work truck. Back towards the town I came from just a few minutes down the road then take a right at a certain rangeroad. After quickly grabbing something I forgot, I thought to myself "Urgh Im going to be late what time is it." I noticed the time. I was driving into the sun and couldnt see well. The work trucks are GPS'd so that workers don't speed. Given the visability i wouldn't anyway, and I put the truck on cruise.

After 2 minutes Im looking right for the range road signs. I see one sign and say "wait a minute did I pass it? No the numbers must go up." I go over a very slight hill and see the overpass for the town I originally left from. I hit the overpass in 3 minutes. I was freaked out. Important to note that.

  • Serious radio was playing the same song the entire time.
  • Ive driven this road a million times.
  • Coming back the whole trip should have been. straight, slight right, slight left, straight, over slight hill, and straight. I only remember the last 3 steps.
  • I was soo freaked out I took back roads back and still managed to arrive just before my coworkers. They drive a slower truck but by no way could I have made it back.
  • I told my sister and she said it was eqinox that morning

What do you think happened? What if I kept going?

Same thing happened to me and two other people. http://www.unexplain...opic=252668&hl= We all experienced the same thing so it rules out "highway hypnosis". It wasn't on a highway anyway. The road we were on was narrow, off road, hairpin turns constantly and perched on the side of a precipice where if you became hypnotized driving,...well...I wouldn't be here typing this now for sure.

Edited by SSilhouette
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I recommend you chcek out www.theparanomalist.com and read about missing time (includes gaining time).

I was missing 4 hours of time and found this site to be helpful.

I was also introduced to a Guardian angel in a truck when this occurred.

Good luck!

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I recommend you chcek out www.theparanomalist.com and read about missing time (includes gaining time).

I was missing 4 hours of time and found this site to be helpful.

I was also introduced to a Guardian angel in a truck when this occurred.

Good luck!

Angels aren't real, so I'm curious to hear what you saw. Were you in an accident and have memories of a figure, perhaps?

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  • 4 weeks later...

definatly the road hypnosis, your mind plays tricks on you, especially if you are tired or thinking about things or if its the same route you travel all the time your brain sort of switch's off. The other night i drove through birmingham on the m6, whe i got to my delivery point i could'nt remember seeing the usual landmarks, fort dunlop, jag factory. nothing weird was happening because my fellow workmate followed me to the same place. I travel the same route every night.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Angels aren't real, so I'm curious to hear what you saw. Were you in an accident and have memories of a figure, perhaps?

I have always found it interesting how those who are quick to point out how misleading and incorrect the brain and five senses can be are the same individuals who place all their faith in human reason and empirical observable data.

That being said, this does sound like a case of highway hypnosis. My job requires me to travel a lot and I have had similar experiences. I have become so lost in thought I become oblivious to the world around me but still function and react to it.

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Shades of Betty and Barney Hill!

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I have always found it interesting how those who are quick to point out how misleading and incorrect the brain and five senses can be are the same individuals who place all their faith in human reason and empirical observable data.

That being said, this does sound like a case of highway hypnosis. My job requires me to travel a lot and I have had similar experiences. I have become so lost in thought I become oblivious to the world around me but still function and react to it.

There is a difference between doubting perceptions in relation to data collected during a study or in a lab to perceptions during an accident, or in times of high stress. Our perceptions are usually pretty good when we're measuring dials or taking details in a calm environment, but the moment adrenaline starts pumping we tend to get a little loopy.

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There is a difference between doubting perceptions in relation to data collected during a study or in a lab to perceptions during an accident, or in times of high stress. Our perceptions are usually pretty good when we're measuring dials or taking details in a calm environment, but the moment adrenaline starts pumping we tend to get a little loopy.

I agree to an extent but the argument is still self defeating. If the mind is so fickle then how do we trust anything we observe? The ancients observed the world to be flat and so they surmised the world was linear. All science at its core, no matter how complex, is simply observation. It tells us nothing of the internal mechanisms of reality. We may observe, for instance, that the universe began with a bang but we are at a loss to answer "why"? To rule out a creator is beyond pretentious. If God transcends the created natural order, as I as a Christian believe He does, then why do so many presume to believe that His existence should be provable in a laboratory where only the natural order may be observed? God is the creator and not the created. (I know nothing of your religious affiliation, I use this only as an example of my biggest complaint against the pretenions of science)

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I agree to an extent but the argument is still self defeating. If the mind is so fickle then how do we trust anything we observe? The ancients observed the world to be flat and so they surmised the world was linear. All science at its core, no matter how complex, is simply observation. It tells us nothing of the internal mechanisms of reality. We may observe, for instance, that the universe began with a bang but we are at a loss to answer "why"? To rule out a creator is beyond pretentious. If God transcends the created natural order, as I as a Christian believe He does, then why do so many presume to believe that His existence should be provable in a laboratory where only the natural order may be observed? God is the creator and not the created. (I know nothing of your religious affiliation, I use this only as an example of my biggest complaint against the pretenions of science)

That is the problem with the entire concept of the christian god, though. If it's real, then we can't understand it and there is no reason to try. If it's not, then it doesn't matter. The reality is that there is no evidence to support its existence, so there's no reason to believe in it. If someone wants to, fine, but there's still no reason to. Science is perceptions, this is true, but those perceptions are of things that are observably repeatable, measurable, and quantifiable. They are things that can happen over and over. The more we observe something happening, the less chance there is of it being wrong. Practice makes perfect, after all. I still maintain that there is a world of difference between a scientist growing a type of mould in a lab and declaring it a new species, and someone claiming to have seen an angel. Both are perceptions, but the mould-guy can repeat his experience, and the angel guy likely can't. My money will be on the mould-guy every time. Now, if angel-guy can somehow repeat his experience, then that changes things.

However! I think comparing someone's supposed encounter with an "angel" with the christian god isn't really fair. The god-debate is a whole can of worms and a different conversation, while someone seeing something odd during a car accident or high-adrenaline situation is a lot more mundane. Seeing an "angel" is more akin to saying that you've seen a shadow-person or a sasquatch; it's weird, and probably explainable, but a lot less complex of a conversation than the existence of a god or gods.

My religious affiliation is "religion is bad", mostly. I wouldn't say atheist because I can't empirically prove that no gods exist, but in the absence of any evidence of their existence then I have to conclude that currently there is no logical reason to believe any are real. I'm willing to be swayed if evidence appears, however.

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That is the problem with the entire concept of the christian god, though. If it's real, then we can't understand it and there is no reason to try. If it's not, then it doesn't matter. The reality is that there is no evidence to support its existence, so there's no reason to believe in it. If someone wants to, fine, but there's still no reason to. Science is perceptions, this is true, but those perceptions are of things that are observably repeatable, measurable, and quantifiable. They are things that can happen over and over. The more we observe something happening, the less chance there is of it being wrong. Practice makes perfect, after all. I still maintain that there is a world of difference between a scientist growing a type of mould in a lab and declaring it a new species, and someone claiming to have seen an angel. Both are perceptions, but the mould-guy can repeat his experience, and the angel guy likely can't. My money will be on the mould-guy every time. Now, if angel-guy can somehow repeat his experience, then that changes things.

However! I think comparing someone's supposed encounter with an "angel" with the christian god isn't really fair. The god-debate is a whole can of worms and a different conversation, while someone seeing something odd during a car accident or high-adrenaline situation is a lot more mundane. Seeing an "angel" is more akin to saying that you've seen a shadow-person or a sasquatch; it's weird, and probably explainable, but a lot less complex of a conversation than the existence of a god or gods.

My religious affiliation is "religion is bad", mostly. I wouldn't say atheist because I can't empirically prove that no gods exist, but in the absence of any evidence of their existence then I have to conclude that currently there is no logical reason to believe any are real. I'm willing to be swayed if evidence appears, however.

First of all I fundamentally disagree with you that there is no logical reason to believe in God. In contrast, I will maintain that there is every reason to believe in God. The natural order itself is reason enough to justify belief in a creator. I don't have time to go into all the logical reasons for faith, nor is this the proper forum to attempt such an endeavor, however I will point to intelligent design, the fact that science does not allow for an uncaused "cause" to explain creation and perhaps most significantly, evidence of a moral demension existing in all humanity (even Immanuel Kant struggled greatly with the moral argument). I am a student of theology and a pastor. Logic is a primary tool of theology and any argument that states the Christian system of belief (I am speaking of the traditional system and not the more fringe beliefs) is logically inconsistent cannot be maintained. You may not believe the Christian worldview to be correct but you cannot prove it to be logically inconsistent.

I will stand by my statement that God exists beyond the natural order, and therefore is beyond natural proof. This is true of any perception of God, Christian or otherwise.

Discounting belief in God because you cannot see Him is short sighted to say the least. It is like standing upon the Great Plains of the American Mid West and stating that the world must end at the horizon because I cannot see over it. in addition, believers such as myself believe they have experienced God and this serves as empirical proof for the individual.

Thanks and God Bless

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First of all I fundamentally disagree with you that there is no logical reason to believe in God. In contrast, I will maintain that there is every reason to believe in God. The natural order itself is reason enough to justify belief in a creator. I don't have time to go into all the logical reasons for faith, nor is this the proper forum to attempt such an endeavor, however I will point to intelligent design, the fact that science does not allow for an uncaused "cause" to explain creation and perhaps most significantly, evidence of a moral demension existing in all humanity (even Immanuel Kant struggled greatly with the moral argument). I am a student of theology and a pastor. Logic is a primary tool of theology and any argument that states the Christian system of belief (I am speaking of the traditional system and not the more fringe beliefs) is logically inconsistent cannot be maintained. You may not believe the Christian worldview to be correct but you cannot prove it to be logically inconsistent.

I will stand by my statement that God exists beyond the natural order, and therefore is beyond natural proof. This is true of any perception of God, Christian or otherwise.

Discounting belief in God because you cannot see Him is short sighted to say the least. It is like standing upon the Great Plains of the American Mid West and stating that the world must end at the horizon because I cannot see over it. in addition, believers such as myself believe they have experienced God and this serves as empirical proof for the individual.

Thanks and God Bless

There can be no empirical proof for the individual. Proof is either personal, and therefore subjective, or it is empirical, and objective. It cannot be both. Natural order in no way implies or proves the existence of any creator in an objective sense. Subjectively? Sure, go for it. But there is no and has never been objective proof of a deity or deities of any kind. Personally, I doubt there ever will be. If objective proof appears, I'll change my tune, but until then it's not going to happen.

Intelligent design also has no real proof supporting it. You are correct in your assessment that science doesn't allow reaction-without-action, but just because we don't yet know the cause of certain things (such as the Big Bang), it does not mean that we should wing it and make a wild guess. "I don't know, therefore a creator must have done it" really doesn't make sense; we may as well say "I don't know, therefore Vishnu/Kappa/Sasquatch did it, because we can't prove it doesn't exist". Additionaly, while we currently don't know what caused it, there are many theories with supporting evidence, so we'll probably figure it out in our lifetimes.

If your thought is that your deity stand beyond the natural order, then its existence is basically meaningless. We can't understand it, never will be able to, so anything that its followers THINK they understand is likewise meaningless. And if there is no deity, which seems more likely, there's no reason to care about it. So, either way, I can't think of a compelling reason to adhere to any religion or their culturally-appropriate version of unprovable, unperceivable creator.

Your Great Plains analogy doesn't hold up. I could stand on the great plains, and think "hey, I wonder what's past the horizon" and then walk there. I would quickly discover that the land didn't end. You've already stated that you don't think your god is within the natural order, so it's not possible to go find out whether it is real. The great plains can empirically be proven to not be the end of the world, while there is no way to disprove that your deity exists. Hence, it's a bad example.

We're both derailing this thread super hard, though. If you want to continue, I'd say make a thread on the Spirituality vs Skepticism board, or send me a PM!

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Podo,

We do need to move this conversation to its own thread as I fear we have hijacked this thread and done the original poster an injustice. I would like to clarify and correct a couple of things first. Firstly, when I said personal, empirical experience the word I should have used was experiential instead of empirical. The two are closely tied but have different connotations. I would suggest however that because data is derived empirically does not necessarily make it "objective". There will always be a subjective component to any argument or data regardless of the effort to remain objective. This is true of science as well as theology. Furthermore data that is experiential does not have to be completely subjective.

Secondly, you must explain your statement that a deity that exists beyond the natural order is meaningless. Just because the creator is beyond the natural order does not imply that the creator does not interact with and through the natural order. The fact that he is the creator implies a close relationship with His creation. Also, a creator beyond the natural order should be anything but "meaningless" as this creator would be the key to all scientific understanding of the natural order.

With that being said, I feel that the major flaw in your worldview stems from a flaw shared by many Christians. You seem to believe that science and Christianity are incompatible. The truth is, is that the two are not mutually exclusive but should serve to compliment one another. Some of the greatest scientists and theologians certainly thought so (Issac Newton and Thomas Aquinas to name only two).

Thanks and God Bless ( I am enjoying our conversation and will start a thread so we may continue and get input from others)

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  • 1 month later...

This also happened to a friend and I traveling from Idaho to Wyoming. Normally a 10 hour trip, 3 hours were cut off with no explanation. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, we didn't feel any different. We were used to the trip, so we knew the route and landmarks. In Idaho, we rounded a corner and were suddenly coming into a town in Wyoming. That should have been 3 hours away, yet. We both looked at each other confused and then we looked at our GPS. We KNOW we weren't speeding at all, because there are always many state troopers on that route. The GPS indicated that our top speed was 192. We had to pull over and sit a minute to try to figure out what happened. We didn't believe it, obviously, but had no explanation, either. We turned off the GPS and rebooted it and when it came back on, the top speed still indicated 192. We were definitely NOT where we were supposed to be in geographic terms and we still have no explanation of how we ended up 3 hours ahead of schedule. It was NOT a case of road hypnosis because we were actively carrying on a conversation and laughing and snacking... like we do on road trips. The fact of 192 on the GPS is absolutely not explainable but it does coincide with the time difference we experienced.

Edited by Little Lizard
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Same thing happened to me and two other people. http://www.unexplain...opic=252668&hl= We all experienced the same thing so it rules out "highway hypnosis". It wasn't on a highway anyway. The road we were on was narrow, off road, hairpin turns constantly and perched on the side of a precipice where if you became hypnotized driving,...well...I wouldn't be here typing this now for sure.

A non sequitur.

Experiencing the same thing supports highway hypnosis. Happens tome all of the time as I often drive long distances on the same road. Has surprised me a few times when I realize I hear the low on gas tone. I realize where I am and that it is a long way to a gas station along the highway. All of the ones I am using involve turns and drops and even heavy traffic.

Despite the lack of attention to the fuel gauge, my location, the time, and other issues I am still maintaining control of the vehicle as my mind also wanders about thinking about the plants along the road, the vulture and hawks above, trying to decipher the meaning of a vanity plate, thinking about what I'll be cooking for dinner, trying to review a presentation I am doing for management, and any of a huge number of other topics that are removed from driving.

Highway hypnosis describes what happens to me.

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Here is an excellent logical explanation for what happened to you.

Highway hypnosis

Highway hypnosis' date=' also known as [/font']white line fever, is a mental state in which a person can drive a truck orautomobile great distances, responding to external events in the expected manner with no recollection of having consciously done so.[1] In this state, the driver's conscious mind is apparently fully focused elsewhere, with seemingly direct processing of the masses of information needed to drive safely. Highway hypnosis is a manifestation of the common process of automaticity, where the conscious and unconscious minds are able to concentrate on different things.

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Here is an excellent logical explanation for what happened to you.

[/font][/color]

Maybe with the OP. But in my experience, THREE of us experienced the time/distance anomaly at the same time and all remarked how it was clearly impossible to have travelled the distance we did on a very treacherous one lane high mountain road where you had to pay close attention to every square foot or you'd meet your death.

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