18 Time Travel Stories That Will Make You Question Reality

18 Time Travel Stories That Will Make You Question Reality

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most mind-blowing tales about bending time.

#18: Mike Marcum

The year was 1995. Art Bell was on the radio, talking all things strange and unexplained on “Coast to Coast AM”, when a strange call left listeners stunned. A man named Mike Marcum claimed he had cracked time travel with the help of a Jacob's ladder. He reportedly stole six power transformers to build his time machine, which got him arrested. In 1996, he called into the radio show again, this time to let everyone know that he would soon be traveling through time himself. Shockingly, the man apparently vanished the following year. Although he wasn’t officially considered a missing person, Marcum later alleged his experiment flung him two years into the future with no recollection of his past.

#17: Paul Amadeus Dienach

Per reports, he was a 20th-century Swiss-Austrian teacher who suffered from encephalitis lethargica, which put him in a year-long coma. After regaining consciousness, he apparently moved to Greece in 1922, where he grew close to George Papahatzis, to whom he taught French and German. Before passing away, he supposedly left George his diary, tasking him with translating it from German into Greek. He had written about the year 3906, which he allegedly experienced during his coma through the eyes of one Andreas Northam, who lived in the future. It documented a fascinating version of humanity’s evolution, which included space colonization. The information was published as a book called “Chronicles From The Future”, but the Freemasons allegedly restricted access to it.

#16: A Smartphone in 1943

This story became so popular, it made headlines all over the world. It all started with a harmless tweet. Stuart Humphryes, an English artist, shared a photograph from 1943, showing wartime workers enjoying a day out at Cornwall’s Towan Beach. Internet sleuths quickly noticed that one person seemed to be looking down at a mobile phone. That was all it took for the photograph to go viral as conspiracy theorists jumped in, claiming the person must have been a time traveler. Humphryes didn’t seem to agree, though, suggesting instead that the man may have been rolling up a cigarette. However, the fact that he was wearing a jacket and trousers on the beach didn’t help his case.

#15: Chaplin's Time Traveler

This is another alleged chrononaut spotting that will blow your mind. This time, it was Irish film director George Clarke who discovered the apparent anomaly while going through a DVD of Charlie Chaplin’s 1928 film “The Circus”. Among other bonus footage, he zeroed in on a clip of the film’s L.A. premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theater. There, he spotted a woman who seemed to be talking while holding what appeared to be a mobile device up to her ear. He immediately jumped to the conclusion that she must be a time traveler. However, experts suggested the device may have been a hearing aid or an ear trumpet. Clearly, those explanations weren’t convincing enough, because to this day, some people believe it was a phone.

#14: The Chronovisor

The idea of a time machine is hardly novel, but what if we told you there was a device that allowed you to see through time? You could witness the greatest historical events through your own eyes or get a glimpse thousands of years into the future. This is what the chronovisor was supposedly for. Interestingly, it was an Italian priest, Pellegrino Ernetti, who claimed to have invented it – not a scientist. Ernetti further alleged that he not only watched the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ through the chronovisor, but he also took a photograph of the scene. Near the end of his life, he admitted the photo was fake. It is said that the machine still exists today, but is closely guarded by the Vatican.

#13: A Time Portal in England

Over the years, multiple people have alleged that strange things happen on Bold Street in Liverpool. Many people claim they were plucked from the present and dropped into the past, albeit just for a few moments on Bold Street. One of the most famous stories of these purported time slips comes from 1996. A police officer identified as Frank was allegedly out shopping on Bold Street with his wife when he suddenly found himself in the 1950s – a temporal shift he noticed when his surroundings changed. He was supposedly back in the 90s after a while, but the experience rattled him. The truth remains uncertain, but for believers, Bold Street is endlessly fascinating.

#12: Sergei Ponomarenko

This is one of those mysteries that can keep you up at night. In 2006, a man reportedly named Sergei Ponomarenko emerged in Kyiv, Ukraine, asking for directions to a nonexistent street. He seemingly looked like he had walked right out of the 1950s with his outdated attire. He was said to be carrying a Soviet passport and a vintage camera. Upon investigation, authorities reportedly found pictures from both the past and the future in his camera. Sergei alleged he had time-traveled from 1958, and a missing person report from that year seemed to strengthen his claim. Even more baffling was his supposed fiancée’s statement that he had sent her a photograph from the year 2050. Before experts could crack the case, Sergei reportedly vanished.

#11: Rudolph Fentz

In 1950s New York, an alleged fatal car accident turned into a time travel mystery. Other than the name, Rudolph Fentz, authorities could supposedly find little information about the victim. Moreover, his appearance seemingly screamed 19th century. A little more digging revealed that a man of the same name, attire, and address as the victim had apparently gone missing in 1876. At that point, time travel seemed to be a convincing explanation. The story became an urban legend until Chris Aubeck, a folklore expert, claimed it was never a real incident. Instead, it came from American author Jack Finney’s 1951 short story “I'm Scared”. Although this supposedly debunked the tale, conspiracy theorists continue to believe it may not have been completely fake.

#10: John Titor

In the early 2000s, online posts from this alleged time traveller took the internet by storm. John Titor claimed to be a US soldier from the year 2036 in a parallel timeline. He shared grainy photos of his time machine, as well as cryptic warnings about the future. A subsequent investigation concluded that Titor was probably entertainment lawyer Larry Haber, but there are still some believers out there. If he was real though, our timeline must have diverged significantly, because his prediction of a second American Civil War in 2004 did NOT come to pass.

#9: Noah

Imagine if you could go back in time and meet your younger self. What would you say? Well, in 2017, a man calling himself Noah claimed to be from 2030, and passed a lie detector test. He subsequently appeared in a video with a Noah from 2070. They provided vague descriptions of the future, like “cars are very fast - they get pushed by the road.” (So ... looks like in the future, no one understands how technology works either!) It’s a shame that 2018 Noah wasn’t there too, but maybe three Noahs would have collapsed reality. Noah’s predictions included advanced AI, a manned mission to Mars, and cures for cancer. Alas, a man named Jason later claimed HE was Noah, and it was all a hoax. Who knew!

#8: Year 5000 Photo

What kind of evidence would we accept from a REAL time-traveller? Well, in 2018 a man named Edward claimed to have traveled to the year 5,000 and returned with photographic proof. Edward asserts that in 2004 he was selected for a secret project which sent him into the future. According to him, the photo he shared of an underwater city is actually Los Angeles 3,000 years in the future. By that time, the world will have been flooded by global warming and mankind will survive by living in floating cities, such as the one from which he took the photo. Whether it’s true or not, we just hope the future isn’t like “Waterworld.”

#7: The Montauk Project

Was “Stranger Things” inspired by real life time travel experiments? Uh…sort of? The hit Netflix show was influenced by the book The Montauk Project: Experiments in Time, by Preston B. Nichols and Peter Moon. In the book, Nichols shares his alleged experiences at Camp Hero in Montauk, where experiments on children with psychic powers supposedly opened portals to other dimensions and times. The book also describes the tale of Al Bielek, who claims to have been part of the famous Philadelphia Experiment in the 1940s, which supposedly teleported the battleship USS Eldridge through time.

#6: Vanishing 1940 Car

Originally shared in a 1988 magazine article, this story follows two men who, on an early afternoon in Louisiana during 1969, encountered a vehicle from the past. While driving on a highway, the duo glimpsed an older vehicle. Upon drawing closer, they saw the slow-moving car’s license plate, which had the year 1940 on it. Inside, they saw a woman in ‘40s attire and a child who appeared scared and confused. After gesturing to her to pull over to see if she needed help, the two were astonished to see that the car had vanished. Another driver who witnessed the event also supported their claim. Whether it’s true or not, we’ll never know.

#5: The Moberly-Jourdain Incident

In 1901, two British teachers, Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain, were visiting the Palace of Versailles, when they allegedly had a most unusual experience. While exploring the Petit Trianon, a small chateau on the grounds, the duo reportedly began seeing people in clothing from the 1700s, as well as buildings that hadn’t existed since the same time period. One of the women claims to have seen Marie Antoinette in person, sketching on the grass. They published a book about their experiences in 1911, titled “An Adventure”. Skeptics have argued that they suffered a shared delusion, or witnessed a fancy dress party. Regardless, their story is still enjoyed today.

#4: Taured Man

Going through customs can be troublesome for any traveler abroad. But one man visiting Japan in 1954 had more difficulty than most. Arriving in Haneda Airport in Tokyo, this unknown man was detained – because his country didn’t exist. The man purported to be from a European country between Spain and France, which in our time is the microstate Andorra, but the man insisted that his country, Taured, had occupied the same location. Perhaps even more mysterious is the fact that he vanished from the hotel room he was given to stay in, despite guards posted outside his door. Even his Taured passport was gone. Maybe he returned to whatever time or parallel world he came from.

#3: Hutton & Brandt

In 1932, a German reporter, J. Bernard Hutton, and photographer, Joachim Brandt were assigned a story on the Hamburg shipyard. Once there, however, the two men panicked when bombs began falling around them. After snapping a few pictures, they left in a hurry. No one at the paper believed their story and their photographs showed nothing out of the ordinary. 11 years later in 1943, Hutton was shocked when he read a story in an English paper about an Allied air raid on Hamburg, with pictures showing him scenery he was very familiar with. Did Hutton and Brandt leap forward in time somehow?

#2: South Fork Bridge Hipster

In 1941, the South Fork Bridge in British Columbia, Canada reopened and someone snapped a photo. Contained within the crowd of pedestrians is a possible anomaly – a man wearing sunglasses with what looks like a logo t-shirt under his sweater. While he might pass for a modern hipster today, next to the others in the photo, he looks incredibly out of place. While sceptics have have pointed out that all of his clothing was available for purchase at the time, his choice in wardrobe still feels anachronistic. Was this man a time traveler, or just ahead of his time?

Before we get to our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions:

Jophar VorinThis Man Claimed to Be From a Country Called Laxaria

W. D. DavisA Time Traveler From 2200?

William TaylorHas British Intelligence Been Sending Agents to the Future?

Hotel of the PastEarly 20th Century Uniforms & a Hotel That Completely Vanished

#1: Victor Goddard’s Flight

In 1935, Air Marshal Sir Robert Victor Goddard was flying towards a disused airfield in Scotland. He flew into a strange storm with yellow clouds, before descending back into view of the airfield. Somehow, the abandoned airstrip was now in use, with mechanics in blue overalls servicing yellow trainer planes. The storm came back however and Goddard returned home. Four years later, what he saw came true. RAF mechanic uniforms changed from brown to blue; trainer planes were painted yellow; and the airfield was reactivated, complete with a new kind of plane he’d seen from the air: the Magister, first flown in 1937. Did he have a vision of the future or did his plane somehow travel through time?

If you could travel through time, which year would you go to? Tell us in the comments!