There are maybe 2 or 3 incidents that come to mind...

Each of the incidents have the commonality that time slowed down dramatically... to a crawl.

2 were life and death events with adrenaline involved- I will start with the one that didn't happen in a crisis, because that one seems the oddest to me- no panic, nothing serious on the line- just having a conversation and suddenly in an out of body experience with exceptional clarity

The incident happened when I was a grad student- I was sent to work with one of my group's French collaborators at Saclay (By the way, they hate being referred to as 'French collaborators' :) )...

This was right around the new millenium- I went there just before and just after Jan 1st 2000.

We were having a problem with the experiment - I can't remember what, exactly... The French professor thought that a hint as to how to resolve the problem we were having might be found in a certain obscure book- he sent his grad student to find a copy of the book- after a couple of days of searching numerous libraries the grad student found it. The grad student caught up to us in when we (myself and a few of the other French professors working the project) were at the cafe in the Saclay cafeteria drinking coffee and talking. As the student approached our table I could tell by his expression that the book did not contain the information we hoped it did. He came up to our table and started to move to toss the book onto our table in disgust as I was discussing the experiment with the professor- and suddenly time slowed down by an order of magnitude.

In an instant I realized that:
1) given the angle he was preparing to toss the book, it would not simply land on the table with a thud- it would hit the puddle of water on the table and hydroplane. It would rapidly slide across the table and smash into the professor's cup of espresso making a terrible mess.
2) I could prevent this by simply catching or stopping the book before it caused any of this coffee carnage.
3)BUT it would be far cooler if I instead grabbed the coffee cup, and let the book hit the saucer- which would fly across the table and the cafe counter-top and land in a tub of soapy water sitting on the other side of the bar.
4) It would be even cooler if I did all this without pausing my discussion with the professor.

I _SAW_ all this happening in the split second he was moving to toss the book. So as he tossed it, as it was in the air, I quickly darted my hand up and over to grab the professors cup and raised it a few inches- sure enough the book hit the table and hydroplaned - rapidly sliding to collide with the now empty saucer- sending it skittering across the table and the cafe bar to land safely in the tub of soapy water. I brought my hand down, stopped the book's motion and set the cup on top of it without spilling a drop, without pausing my sentence I was speaking to the professor... It caused a serious double, and triple, take from everyone that was at the table.

For years I wondered WHY I had such clarity for such a pointless little stunt- was it just the right amount of caffeine in my system? Was there any way I could turn it on and off at will? Was it just a random confluence of situation and brain chemistry? I don't know, but it still creeps me out. Is this a capability we always have within us? Unlike the other events there was no adrenaline involved, no life or death... why did it happen for such a trivial event?

Another example was about a year later at my first job out of grad school at Sandia National Lab- I was riding my bike home after work - without a helmet that particular day... I was going at quite high speed in the bike lane- suddenly a truck made an illegal turn across the bike lane in front of me- I slammed on my brakes but had no distance to really decelerate- I smashed into the trailer of the truck just behind the cab and went under the truck. Again time slowed to a crawl- and I KNEW the truck would not stop, and that the rear wheels were about to go over me- perhaps killing me, certainly at least crippling me terribly... I remember thinking it was critical that I escape. My memory cuts out then- I remember nothing of the next second or so. My next memory is standing beside the truck watching it crush my bike as it continued to drive without slowing. It drove on another 50 feet or so before the lady driving it stopped.

Witnesses had stopped their cars and run over to me as I dumbly stared at my crushed bike- I remember a man and a woman both saying they thought for sure I was going to die. I remember asking in a daze 'How did I get out of there?' The woman said 'I saw you do a 'levitating back-flip' (I may not have great recollection of all she said, but 'levitating back-flip' were the exact words she used) and land standing up!' which was surreal, because I was in lousy shape at that time- very overweight... the idea that I could do a back-flip was ridiculous. I remember looking at the concrete security barrier alongside the road and driveway the accident occurred at and thinking that there would have been maybe a couple of feet between the truck and the barrier when this supposed back-flip happened... I remember thinking 'That is just not possible'... Then the witnesses started screaming and cursing at the woman driving the truck... She had come to a stop ~50 feet away, sat in the truck- in panic I guess and then gotten out to see what she had done, she was clearly falling apart from panic and the witnesses verbally attacking her for making an illegal turn and not stopping were about to make her lose it completely-

I ended up calming everyone down as we waited for the police and EMS... Reassuring the driver of the truck that I was fine... joking with the paramedics as they asked me questions to determine if I had a concussion...

I thought I only had some bad scrapes and bruises, but realized that night I had fractured my arm from the initial collision- nothing serious considering what could have happened.

I still do not really understand how I got out of that given the space I had between the truck and the concrete barrier, or how I avoided damaging my head without a helmet...