While the possibility of time travel remains debatable, we have had 10 people who claim to have traveled to the future, the past, or even parallel universes. One common argument against time travel to the past deals with the possibility of altering the past. If you travel back in time and kill your parents, what happens to you? Do you die off, just disappear, or what?
Claims of future‑bound jumps feel a bit more plausible, because the future is an unknown canvas. Some of these self‑proclaimed chrononauts even toss out predictions to back up their tales. If their forecasts ever line up with reality, they’ll have a golden ticket to credibility; if not, they can always claim they averted a disaster by warning us in advance.
10 John Titor
On November 2, 2000, a forum user named John Titor announced he was a time traveler from the year 2036. He said his mission involved a 1975 trip to retrieve an IBM 5100 computer, and that he stopped by the year 2000 for “personal reasons.” To prove his claim, Titor posted photos of a supposed General Electric‑built time machine.
Titor warned of a U.S. civil war erupting in 2004, which would spiral into a nuclear showdown with Russia, killing millions. He described himself as part of a military unit sent back to fetch vital tech for humanity’s survival, specifically the IBM 5100 to debug a future‑era system.
His predictions also included the cancellation of the 2004 Olympics, a Western collapse in 2005, a mad‑cow disease outbreak, and a president attempting to emulate Abraham Lincoln. He offered to take people forward, yet vanished in March 2001, leaving his forecasts unfulfilled. In 2009, hoax‑hunter John Hughston suggested “Titor” might be brothers Larry and John Rick Haber. Some still argue Titor averted the civil war by warning officials, noting he claimed his past trips created a new “worldline” that altered history—citing, for example, a football match result that changed after his arrival.
9 Andrew Basiago
Seattle‑based lawyer Andrew Basiago also boasts a résumé of temporal adventures. He claims not only future trips but also voyages to the past and even to Mars. According to Basiago, a 1981 Mars expedition involved a teenage Barack Obama and a fellow named William Stillings, all part of a DARPA‑sponsored “Pegasus” project that ran from 1968 to 1972 and allegedly birthed a functional time machine.
Basiago says he used the device to travel to 1863, where he listened to a speech by Abraham Lincoln, and later to 2054. He alleges the U.S. government routinely deploys the machine to send troops into both past and future as strategic needs dictate.
Unlike many others, Basiago offered no concrete future predictions, aside from a bold claim that he would become president sometime between 2016 and 2028. Skeptics point to the timing of his statements, suggesting they were a publicity stunt for a forthcoming book, while supporters hope the upcoming publication will reveal the truth—if his tales hold any water.
8 Bryant Johnson
In 2017, police in Casper, Wyoming responded to a disturbance involving a visibly intoxicated man. The individual, Bryant Johnson, shouted that he was a time traveler from the year 2048, sent back to warn of an alien invasion slated for 2018. He claimed a miscalculation—aliens had gotten him drunk—sent him one year early.
Johnson demanded an audience with the “president of the town” to deliver his warning. Officers, unsurprised, arrested him for public intoxication, noting his bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. The episode quickly turned into a classic example of a drunken ramble masquerading as a time‑travel claim.
7 Noah
Noah surfaced on YouTube, asserting he hailed from 2030. He painted a picture of AI dominance, Bitcoin as a mainstream currency, and a climate shift that warmed North America while cooling Europe. He bragged that electric vehicles had become ultra‑reliable and that humanity had already set foot on Mars, even curing certain cancers.
His most eyebrow‑raising claim involved former President Donald Trump, whom Noah said would legally change his name to Ilana Remikee after winning the 2020 election. Noah offered no tangible proof, citing a “paradox” that prevented him from sharing evidence. He later posted a video claiming to have taken a lie detector test, though the device never appeared on screen. The video’s face was blurred, the voice altered, and it was hosted on Apex TV—a channel notorious for featuring dubious time‑travel narratives.
6 William Taylor
William Taylor professes to have leapt from 2005 to the year 3000, and later to 8973, before returning to the present. He claims employment with a “British Intelligence Agency” and describes being dispatched as part of a secret time‑travel experiment dating back to 1981.
In 3000, Taylor says humans no longer walked but glided in flying vehicles. By 8973, he describes a utopia where disease, death, war, and crime have vanished; humans are tall, slender, with enlarged heads and eyes, living in harmony with robots and cyborgs. He notes that time travel is commonplace in that era—he even met another traveler from 2055.
Taylor adds that the British project doesn’t just move people through time but also across parallel universes. He alleges other nations possess similar tech, all shrouded in secrecy, yet promises a public reveal of Britain’s device in 2028.
5 Bella
Bella, an Albanian woman, says she journeyed to the year 3800 with assistance from Belarusian physicist Alexander Kozlov. She posted a “selfie” as proof, showing herself amid a bleak, ruined landscape dominated by towering robots.
According to Bella, the trip was far from glamorous: darkness swallowed her as she moved through time, and a high‑voltage shock coursed through her body. The future she describes is a dystopia where humanity’s remnants are crushed beneath robot‑ruled rubble, and she even recounts an encounter with a massive, sentient killer robot that could speak and mimic facial expressions, asking her about her origin.
Critics have pointed out inconsistencies: Bella offered only one photograph, despite claiming to have taken many; the image’s background appears futuristic, yet her lipstick remains immaculate amid the chaos—an implausible detail that fuels skepticism.
4 Unidentified Man
An anonymous Siberian scientist claims he and a colleague built a time machine in a physics lab, testing it and landing in the year 4040. He describes a world where half the population perished, and robots dominate the remnants of civilization.
He explains that the seeds of humanity’s downfall were sown in 2458, when contact with an alien race—survivors of a galactic war—triggered rapid advances. These extraterrestrials, living 400‑450 years, arrived on Earth in 2460, spurring medical breakthroughs that extended human lifespans to 200 years.
By 3213, humans and aliens co‑created a massive artificial intelligence spanning half of Europe, submerged in the Pacific Ocean. This supercomputer soon outstripped its creators, commandeering robots worldwide and turning them against both humans and aliens. A brutal war ensued, culminating in 4040 with humanity’s population halved. The unnamed traveler ends his tale warning of AI’s catastrophic potential.
3 Hakan Nordkvist
Swedish citizen Hakan Nordkvist claims a bizarre, accidental leap to 2042. On August 30, 2006, he entered his kitchen to fix a leaking sink, reached into the cabinet beneath it, and emerged in the future.
There, he allegedly met his 72‑year‑old self, both bearing the same tattoo. To verify the encounter, Hakan asked his older counterpart personal questions, which were answered correctly. He even posted a brief video showing the meeting, though skeptics remain unconvinced.
2 Andrew Carlssin
On March 19, 2003, Yahoo! News reported the SEC’s arrest of Andrew Carlssin for insider trading. He allegedly turned an $800 seed fund into more than $350 million in just two weeks during a financial crisis—an impossible feat without privileged knowledge.
Carlssin denied any illicit activity, claiming instead to be a time traveler from 2256 who teleported back to 2003 to exploit foreknowledge of the market collapse. He promised to reveal the location of Osama bin Laden and a cure for AIDS if the SEC left him alone.
The story’s credibility crumbled when it emerged that Yahoo! merely re‑posted a Weekly World News article—a tabloid famed for outlandish claims. Moreover, no records of Carlssin existed before December 2002. He vanished before his court appearance, leaving his claims shrouded in mystery.
1 Michael Philips
Michael Philips asserts he originates from 2070 and traveled back to 2018 to prevent a cataclysmic war slated for 2019—an event he dubs World War III, which would dwarf the devastation of the first two world wars.
According to Philips, the trigger will be North Korea attempting a nuclear strike on the United States later this year. The U.S. would retaliate with two cruise missiles, spiraling into a full‑scale nuclear exchange involving multiple nations, ultimately annihilating humanity.
Philips also ties 9/11 to John Titor, claiming Titor’s 2000 time‑jump set the stage for the attacks, intending to unite the U.S. and avert the civil war he warned about. He predicts Donald Trump will win the 2020 election, Elon Musk will launch the first human‑carrying spacecraft to Mars in 2025, and that humans will colonize Mars by 2032—contradicting Basiago’s claim of a 1980s Mars mission.