Top 10 Most Convincing Real-Life Time Travel Stories

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.

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!

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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 Vorin
This Man Claimed to Be From a Country Called Laxaria

Father Ernetti’s Chronovisor
This Italian Priest & Scientist Allegedly Built a Time Viewer

W. D. Davis
A Time Traveler From 2200?

William Taylor
Has British Intelligence Been Sending Agents to the Future?

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

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?