I was driving home one day with my mom - it was late afternoon on a mild spring day. We were driving along the same stretch of highway we had driven on a million times before. Our exit was next, just around the bend. It was a typical day with typical traffic - That is, until we reached the bend. The highway (at that point) was a total of six lanes - three on each side with a concrete divider in the centre. We were in the furthest lane to the right, as just after the bend a fourth lane opened (exit lane), which we were to take. There was a transport truck driving in front of us, a few car lengths ahead. There were no cars beside us, but there were several in front of the transport truck.

As we all entered the bend, a red car came zipping by - at least 30 km/h over the speed limit... at least. The red car was in the lane furthest to the left as it flew past us and then flew past the transport truck. I lost sight of it as it passed the transport truck. Suddenly, in the middle of the bend, the transport truck slammed on its breaks... then I caught sight of the red car again, but only for a split second. It had cut across two lanes of highway traffic to make it to the exit lane at its excessive speed. It had cut off one car, which, in turn, swerved and hit another car - this happened in front of the transport truck. As the transport truck slammed on its breaks to avoid the accident in front of it, it began to jackknife... but it was too late... it was too close to the cars ahead of it and it too joined the accident.

A split second decision by my mother to try to avoid the accident unfolding ahead led us on to the the shoulder. If we could ride the shoulder for the final few metres of the bend, we could make it to the exit lane and avoid the accident. Unfortunately, the accident made its way onto the shoulder, directly in front of us. We couldn't avoid it. We hit another car head on, which, in turn, shot us into the centre lane. As we reached the centre lane, another car coming from behind (trying to avoid the accident on the shoulder) slammed into us and once again shot us from our spot. We ended up coming to rest by the hand of the concrete divider in the centre of the highway.

I woke up after an unknown amount of time. My whole body ached - Stinging, crushing, excruciating pain. I could barely see though the blood pouring down my face. I looked over at my mom. Her head was resting on the steering wheel, her eyes closed. I tried to call for her, but I couldn't catch my breath. I tried to reach for her, but I could barely life my arm - through all of this, though, I knew she was dead. As I struggled to stay conscious, I could hear all of the commotion going on outside of the car - the sound of a continuous car horn (maybe another person's head had come to rest on their steering wheel), people screaming, people crying, people calling for help. I thought about how I didn't want to die. I don't want to die.

Through all of the commotion, no one had noticed that our car had caught fire... I couldn't escape the car and I couldn't scream, nor move. I was stuck. In what felt like seconds, the car erupted into flames. I felt everything. I felt myself burn. I felt my consciousness slipping away. My field of vision narrowed and narrowed and narrowed, until there was nothing. I died. I felt myself die - And then I woke up in my bed. I could smell something burning. Panicked, I jumped out of bed and checked to see if anything was, in fact, burning, but nothing was. It had all been a horrible and extremely vivid dream. Or had it?

I couldn't shake the dream. I couldn't shake this 'feeling' I had that something was different. Not anything noticeable... not one thing in particular... just... everything. A couple of months later, I was hanging around the internet before a lecture at school. I happened upon an experience a person felt like sharing - he started off his story with,"I think I died yesterday..." intrigued, I read on. His experience was eerily similar to mine - it involved a car accident, as well. Only, he did not wake up in his bed, instead, a split second after getting into an accident at an intersection, he found himself safely driving several metres ahead of the accident. Snap. Just like that.

Shocked by this, I decided to search for any other stories like ours... and I found a lot. Not all involved car accidents, or accidents in general. Not all were traumatic events. Some people described simply going to bed and waking up to a different life than the one they had before they went to sleep. Sometimes even tangible things were different - Bed clothes, furniture, and even jobs. There are those who experienced simple 'slips,' such as the looping, slowing, or quickening time. There are those who adamantly claim that certain countries are 'out of place' on world maps. There are even those who claim to have woken up in a different time altogether. Of course, there is really no way to prove any of this... all of these experiences are subjective. My mother has no memory of being in a car accident, just as the majority of the world agrees that all of the countries are in the right place on the world map. So what is really going on here?

In quantum mechanics, there exist several theories that include the existence of parallel universes...

The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics states that an object exists in all of its possible states at once (coherent superposition). It is only when we observe the object that it chooses a single state (the one that we observe). This is demonstrated by the famous thought experiment, 'Schrödinger's cat,' as well as the Double-Slit experiment (amongst others). The Copenhagen interpretation is dependent on the observer (you).

The Many-Worlds interpretation states that, for every single possible outcome to an action, the world will literally split into another copy of itself (decohesion). By doing this, each possible outcome will exist in its own world, where, you guessed it, each possible outcome will occur. However, unlike the Copenhagen interpretation, which is dependent on the observer, the Many-Worlds interpretation is independent of the observer. For example, if I was shot in the head and survived in one world, I would die in the other (of the same gun shot wound) - but I would forever remain unaware of my parallel self, the one who died (much like the thought experiment, Quantum Suicide). The Many-Worlds interpretation goes against Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which states that we are able to influence the outcome of an event, simply by observing it. Even more interesting, in the Many-Worlds interpretation, time is not linear - it does not exist in a coherent motion. Instead, time can be thought of as 'branching' in every possible direction (due to every possible outcome).

The Many-Minds interpretation builds on the Many-Worlds interpretation to bring just that, the mind of the observer, into the equation.

Of course, these are only a few examples, explained in very, very brief detail - Discussing each and every one in proper detail in a single post on an internet forum would not do any of them justice. But how do they tie into 'reality slips?' They propose the existence of parallel universes. Now, 'reality slips' are called all kinds of things - 'time skips,' 'timeline shifts,' 'time jumps,' and so on. I just stick with 'reality shifts' for the sake of simplicity. Regardless, each is unique; each is similar - but all involve a person being 'thrown' into an alternate reality, an alternate timeline, whether intentional or not. Now, there are obvious problems with relating 'reality slips' to the above examples, mainly due to the observer. However, none are fact (yet) so anything is possible.

These experiences could also be a construct of the mind. I posted this in another thread, but I'll use it again as an example,

Snap your fingers... but watch your fingers as they snap.


I bet you heard the snap at the exact same moment you saw the snap... yes?


In reality, your auditory system processes information faster than your visual system. You actually heard the snap before you saw it... Your brain, in this case, has 'edited' the events to make them appear simultaneous. Your brain does this all of the time... it edits/synchronizes incoming signals which are processed at different speeds.

It's all a matter of perception.
Or,
construct.

Your mind constructs/fills in gaps all of the time. The world as it is and the world as you perceive it are two very different things. It is possible that when we experience such things as 'reality slips,' that they are simply another trick of the mind - And this is only scratching the surface of (what we currently know about) the human mind.

Did I die in a car crash, only to wake up in another timeline? It was more than likely just a dream - but I can't say for certain and therefore I must consider all possibilities. Whatever it was, it certainly stuck with me - and it has stuck with me enough to lead me on a quest to find answers. It has also stuck with me enough to feel extremely uneasy every single time I drive that same stretch of highway. I also can't discount other people's experiences with the subject at hand. One only has to google to find numerous stories of people's personal experiences.

Have any of you ever experienced a 'reality shift?'