I was wondering if anyone here has had a similar experience or could give an explanation.
About 15 years ago I was a passenger in a car accident. I had allowed a friend of mine to take my new to me car out for a road test. And we set out on a back country road and were traveling at high speeds. I might add that it was not the brightest thing to do, and I am very lucky to be alive.
It was after midnight and raining we were traveling at around 120 mph. That is what the speedometer read after the accident. The road forked suddenly and my friend Mike was unable to make the turn left or right instead we went straight into the ditch the car flew for a bit landed nose first then flipped end over end a couple of times and than began to role sideways five times before stopping on its roof.
I mentioned the flipping and rolling because that was the odd thing I actually counted the roles as if it was happening in slow motion. Even today when I remember the accident it seemed to take place over a long period of time. I remember every little detail from leaving the road to climbing out the back window as if it were an hour in my life. The fact is it all probably happened in a split second. My friend could recall very little of the accident even a few days after.
Time, for me seemed to slow down during the role over I remember using my arm to block his head from the front window, I remember the windows breaking and wet grass and soil being tossed around with us inside. On the third role my seat back broke and I was thrown backward into the rear window frame were I was stuck for the final two roles It almost felt that I was being cushioned for safety by an invisible force.
After the car came to a stop we managed to climb out safely and stood in the farmer’s field amazed that we were still alive from the condition of the car. I got away with few stitches in my back from going trough the rear window and Mike came away with a few bruises and an imprint of my watch on his forehead.

All the Best
Irish

My immedite thought is: thank "Who/Whatever" you both got out of
it alive.
I don't have exactly the same experience and can't offer any
explanations but....
When I was about 12 I was in a boat which
capsized and I got trapped under it (I was tangled in some stuff
at the bottom of the lake) .Now the thing is like with you
EVERYTHING seemed to occur in slow motion and it felt like
I was watching it all happen to someone else. Infact whereas
I should have been freaking out I just kind of let whatever was
going to happen happen. I was eventually dragged back to the
surface. Bizarrely I made NO real attempt to try to save myself
and no I wasn't suicidal at the time.
That's my twopence worth anyway.
Best Wishes Meri

Thanks for sharing your story Meri I can relate to the experience in that you feel like it was happening to someone else.
It was kinda funny walking back to town after the accident Mike and I saw the Northern Lights (Aurora borealis) for the first time that night and joked with each other that maybe we were dead and din't know it.
all the best
Irish

Perhaps you are but you've just not met that kid from
"The Sixth Sense" yet....

When i was 15 i was punched in the mouth and i was sorta knocked out but as i was falling it seemed like a dream everything was in slow mo type of thing.

Maybe it has something to do with being hit in the head our perception of time is skewed byt the trauma?

I wasn't hit on the head though (see post) good idea though !!

yes I think that your perception does slow down at certain traumatic moments in order for you to react quicker.

Is there any way we can harness it to faster reactions all the time?

Thoughts?

- Dark

Perhaps it is the same reason some people have been known to have super human abilitys during times of emergency crisis.

You know i was really thinking about this also, i was in a bad accident in september, a van ran a red light and hit my friends car going 60 mph , and what i remember was the car sliding in slow motion as if time just slowed down. I wasnt hit on the head by the way i broke my arm in 4 places and had surgery was pretty lucky to be alive from a accident like that, the car was destroyed the engine shifted on the right tire and dashboard cracked in half including the stereo. Was a brand new car though probably thats what kept me alive.

Fight or Flight, you brain goes into overload. It cannot process everything that is happening, as fast as it is happening. Causing a sort of "slow-motion" or "laggy" feeling.

Fight or Flight is correct, your body releases adrenalin, adrenalin causes all of your nerves to fire faster, that means that your brain is reacting faster than your eyes receives the pictures, so in effect you see things in slow motion.
And yes, it is possible to manual induce adrenalin release, although it's dangerous, since it's only supposed to be released turing times of stress, and those occasional sudden instances like when you see a vase slowly fall of the bench
So yeah, don't really try to do it, your body isn't made to handle adrenalin constantly, seeing as how you would normal have adrenalin pumped through your system for maybe 10 seconds at the most.

If our mind can slow down time though rendering us more able to quickly react then what about speeding up? As if time were going by faster than we could react. Is this how people described as slow and retarded experience reality? It is a mental deficiancey but I'm wondering if this is the difference in realities.