By Dr. Elara Quinn
A Spherita.com Science & Innovation Deep Dive
The concept of journeying through time—to witness history or glimpse the future—has captivated human imagination for millennia. For all our theoretical advances, the practicalities of chrononautics remain firmly in the realm of science fiction. However, three remarkable, unsolved events—one a philosophical experiment initiated by a titan of physics and two others experienced by ordinary individuals—force us to reconsider what we currently dismiss as impossible.
The Curious Case of the Time Traveller’s Banquet
In 2009, a peculiar experiment took place at the University of Cambridge, England, initiated by none other than the great cosmologist, Professor Stephen Hawking. On June 28th, precisely at 12:00 PM, Hawking, along with his students, prepared a sumptuous luncheon. This was no ordinary gathering; it was a dinner party organized specifically for an exclusive guest list: Time Travellers.
The remarkable twist in this story is the timing and method of the invitation. Hawking and his colleagues first hosted the banquet, enjoying the champagne, wine, and exquisite meal themselves. It was described as an excellent meal. Only after the food was consumed and the party was officially over did Hawking dispatch the invitations.
The Logic of the Reverse Invitation
Hawking’s unique protocol stemmed from a profound understanding of the paradoxes inherent in time travel, particularly to avoid the possibility of a fraudulent visitor.
- If he had sent the invitation before the event, someone from the present, knowing the details, could simply show up and falsely claim to be a time traveller.
- By issuing the invitation after the fact, the only individuals who could possibly attend would be genuine time travellers capable of reversing time’s arrow, moving from the future back to the past (the event’s date). The invitation was addressed to “all time travellers“. Hawking told them to come to Cambridge University on June 28, 2009, at 12:00 PM, where he would have a meal ready for them.
Professor Hawking waited for over an hour at the venue. Despite his global stature and the profound nature of the experiment, no one arrived. He later stated that he had at least hoped for one person to show up.
Hawking offered several hypotheses for the failure of his experiment, suggesting that perhaps the time travellers did not receive the message, or that the mechanism for travelling backward in time—the “Time Slip” or “Time Gateway”—might not yet be fully understood or found.
Hawking, a great physicist and esteemed physical scientist who introduced the world to theories concerning black holes, often addressed grand philosophical questions. He has a lovely book titled, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, where he provides answers to many questions, including his thoughts on whether the world was created by God or controlled by an external force. This playful yet serious experiment was, in essence, an empirical test of his own theories on the fundamental structure of the cosmos.
The Mystery of the ‘Time Slip’
While Hawking’s planned experiment ended in silence, several historical accounts suggest that, occasionally, time itself might warp—phenomena commonly referred to as Time Slips. A Time Slip suggests that the continuous, correct flow of time is briefly subject to a “glitch” or a “turn,” momentarily displacing an individual into a different temporal period. This is described as time getting caught in a whirlpool and spinning around. The person then returns to the normal flow of the time mechanism.
These events cannot be easily dismissed as mere psychological tricks because they were sometimes witnessed by more than one person.
1. The Moberly-Jourdain Incident (1901)
This incident took place in France on August 10, 1901. Two British teachers, Charlotte Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain, were visiting France on a private tour. While walking through the gardens of the royal palace, the Palace of Versailles, they attempted to find a smaller palace belonging to a Queen who ruled before the French Revolution.
As they walked from the Versailles Palace garden toward the Queen’s palace, they noticed a sudden, strange shift in the atmosphere. They encountered people wearing peculiar, old-fashioned attire, including men in triangular hats and women in strange gowns that tightly wrapped around the neck and covered the whole body. The buildings themselves seemed completely different. The women felt they had suddenly traveled back to the 1700s, experiencing a strange sense of unease and an unnatural feeling that took over their minds.
This profound displacement lasted only for one or two minutes. They asked a man for directions to the Queen’s garden, and the man showed them the way. After only two or three minutes, as they entered the garden, they claimed to have returned to the present society. The two teachers did not tell anyone about the event right away. They published a book about the story ten years later, which is how the incident became public. It is believed they briefly went back to the 1700s, possibly near the time of the French Revolution in 1789, an event of unique upheaval.
2. The Victor Goddard Incident (1935)
This event occurred in 1935. Victor Goddard, a fighter pilot from England, was flying from Scotland to England. Along his route, he flew over an abandoned airfield which was overgrown with weeds and where cattle were grazing.
While flying, he encountered a large storm. He described seeing a large yellow-coloured dark cloud ahead of him. He decided to fly through the cloud, which caused the environment to become completely dark due to lightning. To escape this feeling, he flew his plane below the yellow cloud.
He recalled that moments earlier, he had been flying above the abandoned airfield. As he came out below the cloud, he looked down at the airfield. Instead of the abandoned strip, he saw a very active airbase. He saw planes painted yellow and mechanics wearing blue overalls. It was a busy airfield, training pilots for war. A few minutes before, it had been completely abandoned. Goddard immediately climbed back up into the cloud and continued to his destination, avoiding the storm.
At the time (1935), neither yellow planes nor blue overalls for mechanics were in use; they had different official colours and uniforms. However, the Second World War began in 1939, and the previously abandoned airfield in Scotland was reactivated. The scenario Goddard witnessed in 1935—the yellow planes and blue uniforms—became a reality in 1939.
The pilot did not speak of the incident until much later. He eventually retired after achieving the rank of Air Marshal and even received a knighthood. Such a highly respected figure is unlikely to have fabricated the story. It is widely believed that Goddard was caught in a time storm or Time Slip, briefly traveling forward in time.
These stories—from a brilliant scientific query to inexplicable personal accounts—underscore the persistent, unresolved question of time travel. Whether through a theoretical black hole or a momentary tear in the fabric of reality, the possibility remains a captivating mystery. Some theories even suggest that history happens in a cycle and that the past will happen again in the future, meaning events are constantly repeating themselves.
