John Titor was an alleged time traveler from the year 2036, who shared detailed information about his time machine, mission, and original timeline with forum users in the years 2000 and 2001.
A Brief History Of John Titor
In 1998, late night paranormal talk show host Art Bell received two faxes from an individual claiming to have pertinent information on the nature of time travel.
In the first fax, the sender (at that time, unnamed) detailed the discovery of time travel (involving the particle accelerator at CERN) in the year 2034. He also claimed that a “brick wall” existed in the timeline, and that no traveler could breach the year 2564.
The second fax, while less detailed, promised photographic evidence, as well as scans of the traveler’s time machine operations manual.
On November 2, 2000, an individual using the forum username TimeTravel_0 posted at the Time Travel Institute (TTI), in a thread titled Time-travel Paradoxes!:
“Wow! Paul is right on the money. I was just about to give up hope on anyone knowing who Tipler or Kerr was on this worldline.
By the way, #2 is the correct answer and the basics for time travel start at CERN in about a year and end in 2034 with the first “time machine” built by GE. Too bad we can’t post pictures or I’de show it to you.”
On January 27, 2001, this same user appeared on Art Bell’s Post to Post BBS, creating a new thread titled I am from 2036:
“Greetings. I am a time traveler from the year 2036. I am on my way home after getting an IBM 5100 computer system from the year 1975.
My “time” machine is a stationary mass, temporal displacement unit manufactured by General Electric. The unit is powered by two, top-spin, dual-positive singularities that produce a standard, off-set Tipler sinusoid.
I will be happy to post pictures of the unit.”
The individual posting as John Titor went on to answer questions, detail the function and design of his time machine, and provide alleged photographs of the time machine and its operations manual.
On March 24, 2001 John Titor shared his final message. “I will be leaving this worldline shortly and this will be my final post,” he wrote. True to his word, he never posted again.
To this day, no one knows John Titor’s true identity. His true name, his appearance, his location — all of it remains a mystery. If he was an actual time traveler, as he claimed, that version of John Titor no longer exists on this worldline. If he was a hoax, an individual playing a character, that person has yet to officially come forward to reveal the truth with evidence.
Other John Titor Resources
- John Titor Predictions – A recent look at some of Titor’s more infamous quotes and comments about the potential future of our worldline.
- What Is Alter-Vu? – Entry on a curious phenomenon related to John Titor, in which many of the individuals who interacted with him experienced strange dreams and alleged alterations to their reality.
- The Cyberworld Connection – Over the years, some have noted a connection between John Titor’s story and the fictional world of GURPs Cyberworld, particularly his description of life and conflicts in the future. Is it possible that the real John Titor had simply based part of his time travel tale on a popular roleplaying game?
- The Secret Song – John Titor allegedly told Time Travel Institute forum user Pamela the title of a song, which he would use to identify himself if he ever visited this worldline (or one close enough to it) again.
