History Main / IntangibleTimeTravel

* "Pawley's Peepholes" by Creator/JohnWyndham has a town invaded by people of the future using it as an AmusementPark. They cannot be banished due to this trope, but ultimately, the narrator figures out how a solution. Some people do speculate they are now using upgraded devices not allowing the past to see them either, but who cares?

* In Elizabeth C. Mock's ''Literature/TheChildrenOfMan'' series, this is known as "stepping" and is one of the abilities granted by purple magic.
** [[spoiler:At one point, the hero tries to use his magic to save the Love Interest's baby boy while in the past. The backlash nearly kills him, and ends up briefly stripping his magic of its colors, causing him to transform into one of the bizarre [[NonElemental colorless]] mages known as Grays.]]

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': During Bran's visions of the past with (and later without) the Three-Eyed Raven, he experiences past events this way: he feels as if he were physically present, no-one takes notice. No-one but the Night King, that is. Subverted in that he ''can'' interact with the past -- his young father briefly heard his voice at the Tower of Joy after killing Ser Arthur Dayne, and it's revealed that Hodor is the way he is because of a StableTimeLoop that had Bran warg in him while he [Bran] was watching young Hodor, who then convulsed and lost most of his mental capabilities, and a mangled "Hold the door!" he heard through Bran's warging became his name.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': During Bran's visions of the past with (and later without) the Three-Eyed Raven, he experiences past events this way: he feels as if he were physically present, no-one takes notice. No-one but the Night King, that is. Subverted in that he ''can'' interact with the past -- his young father briefly heard his voice at the Tower of Joy after killing Ser Arthur Dayne, and it's revealed that Hodor is the way he is because of a StableTimeLoop that had Bran warg in him while he was watching young Hodor, who then convulsed and lost most of his mental capabilities, and a mangled "Hold the door!" he heard through Bran's warging became his name.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': During Bran's visions of the past with (and later without) the Three-Eyed Raven, he experiences events this way: he feels as if he were physically present, but other than the Raven, no one else takes notice. [[spoiler:No one but [[EvilOverlord the Night King]], that is.]]

* This happens in the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' franchise by using [[GeneticMemory the Animus to relive the protagonist's ancestors' memories]]. This is also played with as [[AbusivePrecursors Those Who Came Before]] ''were counting on this'' and used it to led the protagonist to [[spoiler:sacrifice himself to save the planet from a devastating solar eruption]].

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': During Bran's visions of the past with (and later without) the Three-Eyed Raven, he experiences events this way: he feels as if he were physically present, but other than the Raven, no one else takes notice.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "The Space Museum", the TARDIS arrives near a vast Space Museum on the planet Xeros, but has jumped a time-track. The Doctor and his companions can see but cannot be seen by the militaristic Moroks who run the museum, and the servile indigenous Xerons who work for them. The four travellers discover that they and the TARDIS are on display. A few moments later, the time track slips back and the exhibit with themselves and the TARDIS vanish, but the travellers are still inside the Museum.

[[caption-width-right:350:''He awoke to find himself in the past, suffering from partial amnesia, and facing a mirror image that was not his own. Fortunately, contact with his own time was maintained through brainwave transmissions with Al, the project observer, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Dr. Beckett can see or hear.'']]

* Fans of sci-fi and/or UsefulNotes/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.\\
\\
A likely candidate is the unfinished ''Lost Road'' by Creator/JRRTolkien, which he began and abandoned in the late 1930s, re-started as ''The Notion Club Papers'' in 1945, and [[AttentionDeficitCreatorDisorder abandoned in 1946]] so the author could finish [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings something or other about hobbits]]. As the story originated from an agreement between Tolkien and Lewis to write companion [[Literature/TheSpaceTrilogy space-travel]] and time-travel stories, and JRRT had read bits of his to Lewis, the latter started referring to them in print on the assumption they'd soon be published... What exists of both stories is already as "published" as they're going to get, in ''Literature/TheHistoryOfMiddleEarth'' vols. V and IX.\\
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Both stories involve a father-son pair in England who experience repeated intangible Time-Travel dreams/visions, taking them back to past father-son pairs with the same names, who experience the same dreams/visions, recursively going back until reaching the original pair in Númenor, and witnessing the destruction of the Atlantean island kingdom. It was going to involve around half-dozen pairs of Englishmen witnessing mythical events or seeing from others' points of view, and much speaking in tongues.
* In Elizabeth C. Mock's Literature/TheChildrenOfMan series, this is known as "stepping" and is one of the abilities granted by purple magic.
** [[spoiler:At one point, the hero tries to use his magic to save the Love Interest's baby boy while in the past. The backlash nearly kills him, and ends up briefly stripping his magic of its colors, causing him to transform into one of the bizarre [[NonElemental colorless]] mages known as Grays.]]
* The Star Trek EU trilogy ''Literature/TheQContinuum'' has Q take Picard on a trip through Q's past to show him why he has to abort his current mission. Throughout the trip they remain in "observer mode".

* In ''Literature/TheTuningStation'', Ted and his AlternateUniverse self Chris are given the ability to observe their pasts to find out the moment their lives diverged. They witness the events of their lives as invisible, intangible ghosts, and can even walk through walls with effort.
* "Pawley's Peepholes" by Creator/JohnWyndham has a town invaded by people of the future using it as an AmusementPark. They cannot be banished due to this trope, but ultimately, the narrator figures out how a solution. Some people do speculate they are now using upgraded devices not allowing the past to see them either, but who cares?
* In ''Literature/AlwaysComingHome'', a vision of some strange people is described by the narrator of "The Visionary". A footnote explains these were likely native Californian tribes which were forcibly relocated in the mid-nineteenth century.
* ''Literature/Moon1985'': Jonathan Childes recalls a suppressed boyhood memory of a bedroom encounter with his week-dead mother - observed from across the room by an unknown adult figure. He realises this to have been his adult self, psychically projected across time.

* In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', Peter sort of does this, but not intentionally as he couldn't control his abilities. He travels back in time but turns invisible, only one character knows he's there and his past self isn't aware of him.
* In the ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' episode [[Recap/SupernaturalS02E21AllHellBreaksLoosePartOne "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One" (S02, Ep21)]], the Yellow-Eyed Demon takes Sam back to see what happened on the night of Sam's 6 month birthday in a dream where no one can hear or see them.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': During Bran's visions of the past with (and later without) the Three-Eyed Raven, he experiences events this way: he feels as if he were physically present, but other than the Raven, no one else takes notice.

* In ''VideoGame/TombRaiderAnniversary'', a few cutscenes show Lara doing this through a magical artifact. Since ''Anniversary'' is a remake of the [[VideoGame/TombRaiderI original game]], it was probably in there, too.

* Played with in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance.'' According to the rules of time travel, to successfully do so, the user must leave their body behind, there must be a version of oneself at the intended destination, and one cannot change the events that are meant to happen. By exploiting these rules, Master Xehanort's EvilPlan has been put in place.
* This happens in the ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'' franchise by using [[GeneticMemory the Animus to relive the protagonist's ancestors' memories]]. This is also played with as [[AbusivePrecursors Those Who Came Before]] ''were counting on this'' and used it to led the protagonist to [[spoiler:sacrifice himself to save the planet from a devastating solar eruption]].
* Zig-zagged in ''VideoGame/GhostTrickPhantomDetective''. One of the protagonist's ghost tricks is to travel back in time, to four minutes before a person's death. Despite being a ghost, he averts this trope; he can still interact with the world through the objects he possesses. However, other ghosts that don't have ghost tricks can tag along with him; they play this trope straight by only being able to speak with the protagonist.
* Though Regular Time Travel is theoretically possible in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': Endwalker, this is how the [[spoiler: The player ends up sent back to the days before the sundering to investigate Elpis Flower, allowing them to safely investigate without changing history. Then Emet-Selch and Hythlodaeus come across the ghostly player and are uniquely able to see the Warrior of Light, and make them physical and increasing them to scale with the Ancients' larger size, forcing the Warrior of Light to take a more hands on approach]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* In ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' Rue is able to relive her early memories this way when [[spoiler:Uzura turns the gears of the Story backward.]] It's as weird as it sounds.

* In ''Manga/PrincessResurrection'' [[spoiler:Hiro]] traveled back in time as a spirit [[spoiler:thanks to a ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' car]]
* ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'': Negi uses this 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 he's been through (his village being destroyed and the path he's 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.

* ''ComicBook/TheBooksOfMagic'': 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 ''ComicBook/LockeAndKey'', the Timeshift key allows the user to visit the day set on the clock as an invisible observer. It seems to be more like an action replay, as users can't see other people who have visited the same point in time using the key, and presumably certain events in the narrative (!) would draw quite a crowd.
* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': In one TearJerker of an issue, a young boy douses himself with fuel and sets himself on fire because he wants to be like the Human Torch. It doesn't help that an adult friend of his warns him to stay away from the fuel, jokingly saying that "it could turn you into another Human Torch". Johnny Storm himself is wracked with guilt over the incident, and then the Beyonder appears out of nowhere, intrigued by his grief. He takes them both back in time in intangible form to show Johnny how much the boy adored him. It doesn't help much.
* ''ComicBook/{{Savage}}'' introduced the Thousand Year Stare, a technique developed by Volgan scientists [[spoiler:in collaboration with Ro-Busters]] that forces its victims to view millennia over the course of three days. This is used to develop war robots based on the ABC Warriors they see in the future - robots which will eventually develop into those same ABC Warriors.
* In "Body Work", a graphic novel spinoff of the ''Literature/RiversOfLondon'' series, people riding in one of the haunted cars are likely to find themselves suddenly viewing the street they're driving down ''as it existed in 1929'' when they look through the windshield or other glass windows. Looking out an ''open'' window shows the street as it exists in the present, so it's a '''very''' good idea to drive the rest of the way with your head out the window to avoid collisions.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/{{Click}}'': The rewind button on the main character's remote allows him to intangibly review earlier parts of his life.

* 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, [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 MST3K]]-style, and the Senior Angel can even pause the "footage" to explain certain events in more detail.
* ''Film/TheGhostGoesWest'': Murdoch Glourie ghosts around for 200 years into the future (1935 being the future for him, and the present for the other characters), because he has some UnfinishedBusiness.

* Jacen Solo has this ability, called "flow-walking", in the ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' books, in a universe which only [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Time_travel rarely]] features "regular" time travel.
* ''Literature/PastwatchTheRedemptionOfChristopherColumbus'': At first, 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 Men Who Murdered Muhammed", by Alfred Bester, has a [[MindScrew very confusing]] variant on this. Time travelers can interact normally with the past or future... at first. However, if they cause a TimeParadox, then the universe responds by erasing ''them'' from existence. From the time traveler's perspective, they don't literally cease existing -- rather, everyone around them spontaneously stops acknowledging their presence (except for other time travelers who've been similarly erased).

* ''Literature/OddThomas'': The titular character has come to the hypothesis that the insubstantial wraiths that gather when some really bad shit is going to go down are actually dicks from the future who enjoy watching human suffering. They aren't totally intangible, though, as upon knowing your knowing about them, they will rectify the situation by making sure you are no longer around to know.
* Creator/PeterFHamilton's short story ''If At First...'' takes Einstein's theory of not moving one single atom back. Somebody moves his mind back to his childhood years, overwriting the previous personality, and using his knowledge of future events, alters time. One guy uses it to advance the technological level of society, and the other guy uses it to become a rock star, plagiarizing songs not written yet.

* Used in ''Literature/GoingPostal'' when Moist sees the past of the Post Office. However, he's still moving around in the present. The place had fallen apart quite a bit between the two time periods, as two of his deceased predecessors found out when one stepped onto a balcony that wasn't there anymore, and one fell down a flight of stairs that wasn't there in the past.
%%* Used as the "inspiration for the story" in ''Literature/LastAndFirstMen'', as shown by the introduction to the book.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov wrote a number of short stories that involved this concept, most notably "The Dead Past", where it turns out that [[spoiler:the government has been suppressing {{chronoscope}} technology because the ability to look at the recent past anywhere in the world would completely destroy the idea of privacy]].
** Another one features a company that traces genealogy using their device, usually telling customers that they're related to someone famous. The inventor goes crazy when he realizes that he is the first person in his family, back to the beginning of the human race, who has ever done anything of note.
* In the book ''Literature/JumpMan'', the titular time-travel devices can only travel to certain points in history and leave their users a tiny bit out of sync with their timelines, leaving them invisible and (from what I recall) intangible, in accordance with the First Rule of Time Travel ("Don't Touch Anything"). The plot arises when a contest winner is accidentally given an illegal prototype [=JumpMan=] which DOESN'T do this...

* In ''Literature/IncarnationsOfImmortality'', this happens if one time travels to a time period where they never existed.
* ''Literature/{{Dinoverse}}'' seems to set this up, as traveling characters become invisible beings of 'pure thought-energy brainwaves', but they're never like this for long - said characters end up possessing the bodies of dinosaurs, acting through them.
* Daphne du Maurier's novel ''Literature/HouseOnTheStrand'', which involves several travels from 20th century Cornwall to its counterpart version during TheHighMiddleAges.
* In ''Literature/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.