Classic Mysteries—Alternate Perceptions Magazine, July 2021
A Glitch in Reality?
by: Rick Hilberg
As a UFO writer, investigator, editor and publisher, I have indeed had some unusual experiences over the years since I got my start in this whole crazy field since 1962. I've also written a wee bit on fortean matters as well, and also have read various books and articles on other "strange but true" type mysteries for just as many years. What I'm about to write is something that recently happened to me that sounds very similar to accounts cited in many of these books and magazine articles. As a matter of fact, I'm even somewhat hesitant to share this, as I don't want my long-earned reputation as a serious writer and historian to be somehow tarnished by telling such a tale.
Anyway, in those strange mysteries books I've mentioned above, there are numerous witness accounts (some with multiple witnesses as well) of somehow leaving our accepted reality and entering into something entirely strange and different. Like visiting a place and suddenly seeing it as it was many years before, sometimes even with people and objects of that other time there doing whatever it was that they were doing back then. There are even accounts of people traveling in their cars and suddenly finding themselves miles and miles away from where they should be almost instantly. So, with that said I'm going to relate what happened to me. Maybe you or someone that you know has had a similar thing happen, and if so, I would certainly like to hear from you. Friday. June 11th of this year, was a very ordinary day. I had been grocery shopping with my adult autistic grandson at the local supermarket, and we were driving home to put things away and scare up some lunch as it was just about 10:45 a.m. It was a sunny and pleasant late spring day, and we were on our street just east of where we live, not more than twenty or so seconds away from our driveway. At a cross street where there was some paving going on we were forced to stop and wait while a large truck with paving material was slowly going by. Once that obstacle was clear it was a quick shot home for us. Now here is where things got suddenly strange. As I think back and try to reconstruct what happened when, I come up with somehow remembering things being a little "different" than they should be, kind of like the "Oz Factor" that British UFO and fortean writer Jenny Randles coined to indicate this strange state of reality. For one thing, the sun was no longer shining brightly. It was somehow cloudy and "dark". Also, I seemed to be driving for more time than I should have to reach my destination, and things seemed to be somewhat blurry, almost like I was in a dream state or something. Time was also somehow wrong in some way. I began to feel distinctly uneasy.
Then suddenly, although it's still dark and murky, I realize that I'm no longer on my street, but in a place that looks like a way I've taken before on my way home from a different direction that is about three blocks south of my street. And at that point I'm thinking to myself as to why I took such an out of the way choice home, only to realize that couldn't have been the case, as I was just driving on my very own street just seconds away from home. In other words, I was getting confused by this decidedly eerie tun of events.
And then, that rationalization somehow falls short as now things look strange to me again. I'm apparently not three blocks south of where I should be, but now at a cross street that looks like my general neighborhood, but exactly where I don't know.
I stop my car. I look at the way ahead. Do I take the cross street to the left, or do I go straight ahead in the hopes of finding a street that I can clearly recognize? Also, for some reason or other I can't for the life of me see any street sign to give me a clue. I remember saying something to Jeremie about this, but he is very non-verbal so I realize that I'm really talking to myself.
I decide to drive on ahead, but then things change again. The sunshine is back. I see something familiar once again. I'm now one block west of home still on my street, but even that fact has to sink into my brain, for I am still really confused and a little frightened.
I turn around in a driveway and head back east, just seconds from home. But something also registers in my brain somehow: I'm seeing other cars on the street and people out walking or working in their yards on this fine day. I didn't before, as if Jeremie and I were the only living things traversing that somehow out-of-whack landscape. Kind of like something Rod Serling would have written into a "Twilight Zone" script. Anyway, we pull into the driveway and go about our business, literally safe at home.
So that's it. So just where was I? And more importantly, how did I get back?
I'm open to any and all explanations, but I do know one thing. I don't want to go there again anytime soon...
