Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Time Expansion Experiences
In 2014, I had a car crash. I was driving in the middle lane of a busy motorway, with my wife in the passenger seat. A lorry pulled out from the inside lane and hit the side of our car, spinning us around, and then hitting us again. Everything went into slow motion. I looked behind, and the other cars seemed to be moving incredibly slowly, almost as if they were frozen. I felt as though I had a lot of time to observe the whole scene and to try to regain control of the car. I was surprised by how much detail I could perceive. I could see the long rows of cars stretching back through the lanes behind us, and the shocked faces of the drivers right behind.
I was also surprised at my calmness. Rather than panicking, I thought clearly and methodically about the situation, as I tried to regain control of the car. Fortunately, the car spun towards the hard shoulder, where we crashed into a barrier, and came to a standstill. At that point, time seemed to return to its normal speed. With an incredible sense of relief, I looked at my wife and then at my own body and realised that neither of us were injured (although the car was so badly damaged that it had to be scrapped).
Time Expansion Experiences
This experience was the origin of my new book Time Expansion Experiences. In my role as a psychologist, I began to collect reports of other people’s ‘time expansion experiences’ (or TEEs) and to examine their contexts and characteristics. In an initial study published in The Journal of Humanistic Psychology, I analysed 96 reports, finding that 54 per cent happened in accidents, such as car crashes and falls. Others happened while playing sports, in meditation or after taking psychedelics. I found that, in TEEs, time typically appears to expand by many orders of magnitude – usually from 10 to 40 times. A period of three seconds may seem to stretch for half a minute, or even up to two minutes.
I found that, in TEEs, people usually feel strangely calm and relaxed, even though their lives might be in danger. For example, a woman who had a TEE when she fell off a horse told me, “The whole experience seemed to last for minutes. I was ultra-calm, unconcerned that the horse still hadn't recovered its balance and quite possibly could fall on top of me?’
People also often describe how time expansion allowed more time to think and act, allowing to take action that saved them from their serious injury, or even saved their lives. For example, a woman who reported a TEE in which she avoided a metal barrier falling on to her car told me, “The slowing down of the moment made me escape and decide how to escape the falling metal on us.”
After spending the last few years studying TEEs, and publishing a book on the topic, I can now say that I’m glad that I was involved in that car crash ten years ago. It's difficult to grasp the full significance of a phenomenon until you experience it yourself. Without the experience, I doubt I would have devoted so much time and attention to TEEs.
Having said that, I sincerely hope that I don’t go through such an experience again.
Time Expansion Experiences: The Psychology of Time Perception and the Illusion of Linear Time is published by Watkins Books.
Dr Steve Taylor
Dr. Steve Taylor teaches on the Social Psychology BA and Interdisciplinary Psychology MA. His interests include Consciousness Studies, Spirituality, Positive Psychology and Transpersonal Psychology. He is the author of many best-selling books on psychology and spirituality.
