History Main / IntangibleTimeTravel

Sometimes, this isn't time travel at all; the "traveler" is having a vision or visiting someone's memory. Other times, the line gets blurred.

See also PensieveFlashback. Compare MentalTimeTravel and CantTakeAnythingWithYou.

* In the short Creator/PhilipKDick story ''Paycheck'' a "timescope" exists which gives people the ability to see into the future.

* Azmuth did this once in [[Recap/Ben10UltimateAlienS3E11SolitaryAlignment an episode]] of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'' in which he showed how he created [[CoolSword Ascalon]].

See also: PensieveFlashback.

Unfortunately, that also means ''none'' of your senses work, since all of them operate via the interaction of molecules: no light particles strike your retinas, no sound waves jiggle your ear drums, no flavors reach your taste buds, no odors waft up your nostrils, and nothing on your skin or in your body could react to the surrounding environment. Also, depending on how space-time worked, your own personal time may also have to be frozen in order for the ''no disturbance'' rule to be obeyed.\\

Thus, the trope would be inverted: you could be there, but not be able to witness anything.

[[folder:Real Life]]

Unfortunately, that means you wouldn't be able to ''see'' anything, because light wouldn't interact with your retinas. Or hear anything, because the sound waves wouldn't be able to vibrate against your inner ear. Thus, the trope would be inverted: you could be there but not be able to witness anything.

Unfortunately, that means you wouldn't be able to ''see'' anything, because light wouldn't interact with your retinas. Or hear anything, because the sound waves wouldn't be able to vibrate against your inner ear.

* Jacen Solo has this ability, called "flow-walking", in the StarWarsExpandedUniverse books, in a universe which only [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Time_travel rarely]] features "regular" time travel.

* In ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' and its derivatives, the protagonist is usually taken backwards and forwards in time to see the errors he has committed how they will leave him unmourned. He is completely invisible, inaudible and intangible through these scenes.

** Winked at again in WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'s send-up of the story. Prunella is in the role of "Scrooge." Her ghostly guide tells her that she can't be seen or heard by anybody while in the past. She's then bonked in the head by a rogue soccer-ball...

* The novel ''The Light of Other Days'', by ArthurCClarke and StephenBaxter, is about the invention of a kind of wormhole technology that allows it's user to view any location, in real-time. Due to it being relatively easy to replicate, the technology soon gets out of the hands of the government and is available to the general public, which immediately has drastic social consequences (since, essentially, the concept of "privacy" no longer has any meaning). Then, it's discovered that the wormholes can also be projected into the ''past''...

* Fans of sci-fi and/or TheInklings have been [[MissingEpisode looking for a long time for the]] TimeTravel story Creator/CSLewis alluded to in the prologue to ''Literature/TheGreatDivorce'' (1945), wherein a guy goes into the past, but its immutability means he cannot even eat a sandwich, or keep a raindrop from piercing him clear through.\\

* Azmuth did this once in [[Recap/Ben10UltimateAlienS3E11SolitaryAlignment an episode]] of ''Ben10UltimateAlien'' in which he showed how he created [[CoolSword Ascalon]].

* At first, in ''{{Pastwatch}}: the Redemption of Christopher Columbus'', a machine called the Tempoview allows researchers to view and record history, supposedly unnoticed. (Turns out this isn't the case, and the technology is developed to allow standard TimeTravel.)
** The concept of the technology was used for the ''Film/DejaVu'' film.

* The time travel based [[RealTimeStrategy RTS]] game ''{{Achron}}'' has this in the gameplay. The player is able to freely look at any point on the timeline, but if the time you are looking at is too far in the past you will be unable to make any changes to it.

* The manga version of ''ChronoCrusade'' has Rosette taking a JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind in Chrono's soul, allowing her to walk through his memories and see them first-hand.

* Negi uses this in ''{{Mahou Sensei Negima}}'' to show Asuna, and accidentally all his other students (Nadoka used her book to see what they were talking about and ended up showing everyone else the visions), in order to show her what happened to his village and the reason he became a mage so that he could look for the Thousand Master. It was meant to show how them the kind of world they would end up in if they continued to help him as his contractors, and the very real possibility that any or all of them could end up killed (or some equal fate) by demons, or other mages, or what the hell ever else you could think of, the idea being that if he could scare them away they would be safe. And it does scare them... for all of about six seconds, until the realization of the things hes been through (his village being destroyed and the path hes been pushed into as such a young child, having to basically give up his childhood to find out the truth about himself and his family, and find a way to save the villagers who got turned to stone) makes them all so FURIOUS that they basically vow to be his personal army to help him.

* The [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] and [[TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] ''Comicbook/{{Superman}}'' comics had instances where Superman went intangible whenever he time-traveled under his own power. Of course, this was only in some issues; the writers [[TimeyWimeyBall changed the rules whenever it was convenient]]. This eventually calcified into a hard rule of time travel in TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks--travelers heading to a time they already existed in would be reduced to intangibility, but would remain solid and able to interact with others if there was no other copy of themselves around (the idea being that by making it impossible to physically be in two places at once, the universe was preventing [[TimeParadox paradoxes]]).
** Used to heartbreaking effect in ''ComicBook/WhateverHappenedToTheManOfTomorrow'' by Creator/AlanMoore, the last [[TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]] {{Superman}} story--the Legion of Superheroes comes to bid Superman farewell, and Supergirl, being a member, comes with them. The story takes place after Supergirl's death, and Supergirl wonders why she didn't turn intangible and asks Superman what she's like when she grows up. Superman tells her that "Supergirl is in the past", assures her that she grows up to be beautiful... and breaks down sobbing when they leave.

* The [[DreamLand dreamscape]] in ''{{Candorville}}'' connects to all places and times, so those who are asleep can view the past and the future (though they forget it when they wake.) They can interact with other dreamers in other times and places, but attempts to change the past [[YouCantFightFate never seem to work]].

* In ''QuantumLeap'', Al is able to project himself into the past, but he is visible only to Sam and a selected few other characters (e.g. young children, animals, mentally ill). Sam has to do the hard physical work of [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong putting right what once went wrong]], and has to partially take the bodyspace of someone already in that time, he can't just appear via a portal.

* ''Manga/MiraiNikki'' had this when Murumuru showed Yuki the "true" behind Yuno´s secret [[spoiler:...killing her current timeline version in the past and proceeding to impersonating her. However, Yuki´s desire to save this alternative Yuno in this vision was strong enough to defy the trope and make the second world Yuno hear (or at least sense) him in some way and even (in a very sad scene) call him for help by writing with her blood in a wall, but all in vain...]]

* In the first collection of ''ComicBook/TheBooksOfMagic'' by NeilGaiman, young Tim Hunter, a potentially very powerful human magician, gets taken back in time in this manner by ComicBook/ThePhantomStranger as part of his education on magic. Later, unusually, he physically travels into one possible future (which people generally tend to see as spirits rather than physical beings) with Mister E.

* In ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'', after the Senior Angel assigns Clarence to go to Earth and talk George Bailey out of committing suicide, the two travel to various key moments in George's life so Clarence can observe what kind of man he is and how he has come to be in his current situation. For all intents and purposes, they appear to be literally watching the movie along with the viewers at home, MST3K-style, and the Senior Angel can even pause the "footage" to explain certain events in more detail.

* In ''IncarnationsOfImmortality'', this happens if one time travels to a time period where they never existed.

* In HowToLiveSafelyInAScienceFictionalUniverse, the physics of the universe prevents you from going back to an event you weren't at and changing that event by throwing you into another timeline. A heartbreaking example is of a young woman who uses time travel to get back to the moment when her grandmother died, because she wasn't there the first time. The grandmother can neither see nor hear her; even though they're in the same room, they're actually separated by a universe.
* Fans of sci-fi and/or TheInklings have been [[MissingEpisode looking for a long time for the]] TimeTravel story Creator/CSLewis alluded to in the prologue to ''TheGreatDivorce'' (1945), wherein a guy goes into the past, but its immutability means he cannot even eat a sandwich, or keep a raindrop from piercing him clear through.\\