The river of time flows tirelessly and inexorably, counting down minutes, hours, days. It cannot be stopped or reversed. Is it possible to suspend or slow down its course? To live seconds as minutes or, if extraordinary circumstances require it, even fractions of seconds as seconds? It turns out that, although very rare, such cases do occur.
Once something similar happened to an old friend of mine. I will give the story as I heard it - in the first person.
“During perestroika, I worked as an engineer in a chemical laboratory. Various research institutes and universities were still living relatively well at that time, in any case, experiments were going on at full speed. We were engaged in the chemical processing of parts in molten alkali salts. I will not bore you with details, I will only say that sodium chloride was one of the main components of the melt - in everyday life, table salt, which, under the Extra brand, we bought in a nearby store due to the outages with chemical purity reagents.
The procedure was relatively straightforward. A metal glass filled with a dry mixture was installed in a cylindrical furnace open on top, the furnace was heated to a temperature of several hundred degrees, the powder melted, first the holder in the form of a tube on a support was lowered into the melt, then the parts, then holding for several hours. That, in fact, is all. From time to time, the melt had to be changed, the parts and the holder should be washed after removal … Everything was washed with water.
However, it was water that was the most terrible enemy of the melt and the person who worked with all this. A completely harmless-looking, transparent, but hot liquid was rapidly transformed, as soon as a drop of water hit its surface. The water boiled with lightning speed, and with an explosion, in clouds of steam, the melt was scattered in all directions. At the same time, drops of melt instantly adhered to everything that was possible, from the walls and leather seats of the nearest chairs to the skin of the face, and instantly froze. It was impossible to quickly throw off these adhering drops. The burned man instinctively rushed to the tap with water and received a burn in the second circle, now by steam. There were several sad cases, so the security measures were strict - a robe, a protective mask, glasses, gloves, tongs. Before loading, the tube holder and parts were thoroughly dried with hot air from a hair dryer, but even in this case they quietly, like a snake hiss, plunging into the melt.
As often happens, after acquiring a certain skill, I became impudent, neglected some safety measures, and in the end, of course, was punished for my carelessness. For what reason I was in such a hurry, I no longer remember, but there was not enough time, it was getting dark outside the windows. Everything was almost ready, all that remained was to rinse and dry the parts and the holder.
I dried the parts, but forgot to dry the holder in a hurry, and water remained inside the hollow pipe, invisible from the outside. There was no time to put on gloves, I took the pipe with my hand by the upper end, brought the lower platform into the mouth of the heated glass and let go of the pipe. Before my eyes, the holder began to quickly plunge into the melt, and that's when it all happened.
First, a loud hissing sound appeared and disappeared, only a dull, dull rumble remained. The stove somehow approached and was covered with an indistinct and faint veil of fog. The fog was very unusual. It consisted of the smallest, tiny grains, vaguely resembling flat snowflakes. The grains hung in the air and chaotically and slowly moved in the field of view, some of them rotated, giving out at the same time a metallic reflection - a faint glare. It seemed that someone was scattering dust in the air from the smallest metal mirrors, while they sparkled not like real mirrors, but like grains of slightly matte metal.
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The fog was heterogeneous, thick along the periphery of vision, it significantly thinned towards the center, where there were only a few "snowflakes". It turned out that you were looking through a very wide and at the same time "furry" window.
Through this "porthole" I clearly saw the upper edge of the furnace, the edge of the metal glass, and the upper edge of the holder tube sticking out of the melt.
Suddenly, a kind of life began in the pipe, some kind of stirring, then a stream of, as I thought, water began to rise very slowly and almost solemnly from it. All together it reminded the launch of the central fountain in Petrodvorets - "Samson tearing apart the mouth of a lion", only if you look not from the side, but as if somewhat from above. Against the background of sparkling fog and almost absolute silence, this unhurried action was stunningly beautiful.
Slowly and steadily, the jet rose up, then began to thicken a little from above. It is clear that the forces of gravity began to work, part of the "water" went down a little, and the upper part of the "fountain" became thicker than the jet itself, in order to then turn into a drop.
Suddenly, between the wall of the tube, which was only three centimeters in diameter, another stream literally squeezed, a little thinner than the first, and started after it, then another thin stream appeared. All together they persistently moved upward.
Over time, the top of the first jet began to turn white gradually, as did the top of the second jet. Replaying this moment later in my memory, I realized that this was the beginning of crystallization. The melt ejected from the tube, and it was he, not water, began to cool in air and gradually turned into the original salt.
For a while I watched what was happening, but nothing interesting happened anymore, only a monotonous and steady rise. In the end, I decided to look where it all went. How and what he looked - this is a separate question, but nevertheless he pulled back a little, looked and saw - a dark bird spread over the fountain.
So it seemed to me at the first moment, then I realized that it was just a hand, and after another moment I recognized this hand and realized that it was my own hand, which at one time let go of the pipe that had fallen into the melt. At the same time, it turned out that all these "Peterhof fountains", naturally, mark exactly in the center of the palm.
It cannot be said that at that moment I acutely felt the danger, somehow I simply did not like that something was flying into my hand, and I decided to remove it, that is, to pull it back. I decided to make a decision and began to remove my hand, but it began to leave almost as slowly as the fountain itself rose slowly. With difficulty overcoming my bewilderment, I continued to “slowly” withdraw my hand, and at some point I clearly understood that if the very first stream could be missed, then the last one would be gone. The extreme stream and the edge of the palm were inexorably approaching, at the very last moment either I closed my eyes, or it simply darkened in my eyes … and that was all.
I woke up from a sharp pain in my hand and the roar of a transformer. The fact is that our oven was electric and powered by a rather powerful transformer, which emitted a characteristic hum; the ventilation motor was working, the recorder in the control cabinet was buzzing, in general, there was enough noise, but here, while this fountain extravaganza was developing, there was almost complete silence.
Nevertheless, the hand burned mercilessly. Literally, like a stung, I, cursing, jumped away from the stove, somehow realized everything at once, caught a glimpse of two salt spits on the outer edge of my palm, put my hand under the stream of water, the salt was immediately washed away, but the pain remained, if not intensified.
Anyway, I got home after midnight with my hand wrapped in a handkerchief. On the way, remembering what I had seen, for some reason I thought with longing - is it my roof that has left me for good or will it come back?
Indeed, in fact, I simply could not see anything special. At one time the tube went into the melt, the water boiled for two and with an explosion the melt began to scatter in all directions, for three - spitting on the hand and that's it, and … no fountains for you in a split second. However, I saw them …"
That was the story with my friend.
After some time, leafing through a treatise on oriental martial arts, I myself came across a chapter on monastic karate. It said that the masters of martial arts of the highest class, in particular those who know the secrets of monastic karate, can enter a special state of "silver fog" when the sense of time slows down. Moreover, it slows down only for the master himself. The enemy continues to act and feel himself in real time, but for the master all the enemy's actions are decomposed, “as in slow motion filming,” into a series of smooth and slow movements, which, of course, creates undeniable advantages for him. How many accurate blows will a master have time to deliver in a state of silver fog in response to a blow from an almost helpless opponent? Two? Three?
True, these advantages can be fully realized only if you move much faster than the enemy, otherwise slow motion photography will not help. As for special training, nothing was said about them. It was only indicated that at the initial stages they teach not only to enter the "silver fog", but also not to get lost in it, that is. do not be stunned by the unusualness and beauty of what you saw.
In the aforementioned note, a very poetic name for the phenomenon was striking - a silver fog. This is how one can describe the "fog" in which my friend found himself. Everything else is also very similar, the same slow motion filming.
Marveling with my friend at the almost complete coincidence of the sensations and his impressions described in the book, we agreed, if possible, to collect stories of this type, and then meet and discuss them.
It turned out that there are not so few such episodes, and everywhere the same time stretching.
Classic in this sense is the often cited story that happened to a soldier during the Great Patriotic War. Even his last name was called - Filatov. Hearing the howl of a falling projectile, he fell to the ground. Then, just a few moments before the explosion of a shell that pierced the ground nearby, the soldier, as if in a dream, watched as, before his eyes, cracks slowly began to spread along the shell of the shell, then fire burst out of the cracks, and the torn body began to slowly swell in all directions. Here, just as in our case, there is an explosive process unfolding in time.
Let's make a reservation right away that the soldier, despite the terrible concussion, still had a scanty chance to survive. He fell into a blind spot free of flying debris. Being in this zone, he saw how time was slowing down.
The phenomenon of time dilation was met in extraordinary circumstances by the well-known test pilot Mark Gallay, as well as the paratrooper who had time to correctly group and escape, who fell from a height of 35 meters.
Two more similar stories
In the first, the passenger of the car, being in the seat next to the driver, managed to see how the car in front brakes sharply. Then, with absolutely clear consciousness, as in a slow motion movie, the ditch of the road began to approach and slowly leave to the right. In sharp contrast to this very slowly developing picture, only the hands of the driver, which turned the steering wheel at a frantic speed. As a result, after just a few seconds, which seemed to an eyewitness for tens of minutes, the car that turned across the highway froze. Fortunately, no one was hurt.
Second story. During the repair of the harvester, an engine weighing about a ton, raised to a height of several meters, fell off and flew down onto a person standing directly under it. As the participant in the events describes, at this moment everything almost stopped for him. As in a dream, the ill-fated engine slowly began to flow over him, and the man also slowly began to move away, letting in the valve covers, the exhaust manifold and other parts of the engine that were smoothly floating around him. The man managed to clearly see them, and not one of them that sailed past did him harm. Only then, by a miracle, the rescued tried to "fold" in those fractions of a second that were allotted to him in an extreme situation, but did not have time - there was not enough time.
It is the short-term time dilation as a physical constant that for some reason it is customary to explain such phenomena. Apparently, such a version cannot be completely ruled out, but it seems unlikely to us. Man, of course, is the crown of nature, but it is doubtful to be so dashing, with wide-open eyes, to slow down the world constant in a local area.
Time is hardly slowing down. Most likely, in moments of acute danger, the perception of the surrounding reality is extremely aggravated and sharply accelerated, which, in particular, is perceived as time dilation.
Slow motion filming is based on a similar principle. At the first stage, filming is carried out at a very high speed, it is also called shooting at "rapid", and then scrolled through the projector at normal speed. In this case, the recorded image is perceived as slow in time. Apparently, the "silver fog" effect is based on a similar principle. However, two versions are equally probable.
According to the first, at dangerous moments, driven by the instinct of self-preservation, perception is rapidly accelerating. Everything that happens in the field of view is perceived (that is, "recorded") at a breakneck speed (several hundred, and perhaps even thousands of "frames" per second). With the same sharply increased speed, the incoming information is analyzed by the brain. The increased number of "frames" allows for a more thorough analysis, break into phases of the ongoing action. In general, this leads to the fact that the “recorded” and analyzed in a fraction of a second the evolution of the image looks like a slow action and is subjectively perceived as a process lasting several seconds or minutes.
According to the second version, a huge amount of information is initially "recorded" continuously and at high speed, but "read" in different ways. In this regard, it must be said that, for example, the eagle's eye "records" what is happening at a speed of several thousand frames per second, hence the "eagle" vision. It is it that helps the eagle to distinguish the smallest movements of the victim from a great height and not miss when diving.
In normal mode, the human brain has enough information from various sensors to successfully function and make decisions. Periodically, only certain frames from the general picture of being are read, and, for example, "25th frame" is recorded, but is not recognized by consciousness, it goes into the subconscious. Several systems of teaching foreign languages are based on the principle of the “25th” frame (one additional frame for every 24 main frames). Also, this principle, until it fell under the ban, was used in advertising. Still, it is tempting to inject the necessary information directly into the brain, bypassing consciousness, by mounting several frames into the film that skip in a split second.
Another thing is when the body, in moments of danger, switches to an emergency, high-speed, critical mode. Here all the "recorded shots" that are there are already used. This allows the brain to provide more information for the brain after the appropriate high-speed recognition. At the same time, subjectively perceived time also slows down.
According to both versions, the subjective slowing down of time is associated with an increased speed of recognition and analysis of an ongoing action, and the difference lies in whether the speed of perception ("recording") also increases, or all the necessary information in full exists initially, but for the time being not used.
It should be noted that, in all likelihood, high-speed analysis requires a huge expenditure of brain resources, so, probably, the periphery of the visual field in the state of "silver fog" is seen so indistinctly. There is no need to analyze the periphery. It is not of much interest, what is important is what happens in the central part of the visual field, it is there that the main action develops.
With high-speed perception, part of the information from the outside world is actually lost, or rather, significantly altered. This applies primarily to the sound, it drops sharply in timbre. Imagine that a certain sounding string vibrates at the speed of forty thousand vibrations per unit of time. Now let us reduce this "unit of time" forty times. During this new period of time, the string will make only one thousand vibrations. That is, during this period of time we would hear the same sound, but forty times lower in frequency.
Every young researcher faced a similar effect, having a gramophone record, a small forty-five disc and a turntable that can spin discs at 33, 45 and 78 rpm. A normal-sounding song from this disc at 45 revolutions instantly turned into a children's choir, performing this song along with sawing sounds at 78 revolutions. And the same record, launched at a speed of 33 turns, turned into a chorus of bass, singing along with something reminiscent of a mournful funeral march.
Due to the high-speed perception, something similar seems to occur in the state of "silver fog". The sound should not disappear for good, and "listening more slowly" can decrease in frequency so much that it practically ceases to be audible. Hence, probably, there is a feeling of "silence".
An open and intriguing question is the location of the "emergency vision" center responsible for the "silver fog". At the same time, "normal" and "emergency" vision cannot exist. Let me remind you that my acquaintance, who experienced the "silver fog", spoke of a very strange perspective in which he saw what was happening to him. He got the impression that he “saw” everything as if not with his eyes, but from the center of his chest. Maybe it was some famous chakra. However, this requires careful research and verification. This is already a version, so to speak, out of competition, experimental material is too small and rare.
One can only wonder and admire how the patriarchs of the monastic karate managed to study a person so deeply that they could single out the "emergency" state of the human body in the form of a "silver fog" without any instruments and computers. At the same time, they not only studied it, but also developed, trained this ability and learned to enter the “silver fog” at will.
Judging by the numerous testimonies, the state of the “silver fog” is also available for an ordinary person, but it turns on spontaneously and independently of his will. In particular, when an object approaches a person with great speed, or, conversely, a person rapidly approaches the object.
If suddenly, at some responsible and dangerous, critical moment in your life, the sound suddenly disappeared and a picture almost froze and smoothly flowed in front of your eyes in a light veil of faded fog, then this may mean that you are lucky. This is not a momentary clouding of consciousness. The emergency super-high-speed perception of the "silver fog" just turned on.
If we are right, then at this moment your body stretches, as it can, fractions of a second per second, and seconds - in minutes, so that you have time to do something: dodge, move away, dodge and your soul would remain in its rightful place, and you were safe and sound and well. Actually, for the sake of this, these lines were written. "He who is forewarned is armed."
Nikolay BALAKIREV