Kate Hackett
Have you ever experienced something that had you wondering if reality was, uh, real? I honestly cannot say that this has ever happened to me, but it’s not a terribly uncommon situation. In fact, it’s so common that there is an entire subreddit dedicated to tales of a Glitch in the Matrix and they boast some seriously twisty stories.
Today, I rounded up some of the best of the best glitches for you to read through. Enjoy!
1. I died last night
“I got a phone call from my next-door neighbor late in the evening asking if I can help him move a mattress into his upstairs. His mom is ill and has a big heavy Sleep Number bed. I ran over to help because they’re great neighbors.
I get over there and his friend, who is also a priest, was there to help. I helped them figure out how to separate the mattress from the bed so we could fit it upstairs. We get it all moved up and back in place when my neighbor asks if I can help them move an armoire upstairs too. I think nothing of it and we pull it out of his travel trailer and start bringing it up the front stairs of his house.
This is where I died. The front stairs are 11 steps. I was on the lower end of the armoire about six steps up when my neighbor and his friend lose a handle on the armoire and it comes crashing down on me and I fall backwards towards the pavement…
I then wake up in my dining room to my phone ringing and my wife asking me if I’m going to answer the phone. It’s my neighbor asking me if I can help move a bed upstairs for his mom.
I go over there and meet his priest friend again, as this has been the first time I met him. I say I can help with the bed but I cannot help with the armoire. My neighbor was like ‘how’d you know about the armoire?’ I then proceeded to tell them I’m pretty sure I just died.
I spent the next hour talking with the priest. He had so many questions. My neighbor didn’t believe it until I described the upstairs bedroom in perfect detail down to the metal mattress frame on the floor and the intricate headboard leaning against the wall and I had never been upstairs in their house before.
The priest asked me what I saw after I died. I told him I never actually died. Before it happened I woke up at my dining room table.”
2. Five year old
“My 5 year old son was pretty typical for his age; always goofing around, never serious, always working some angle to negotiate treats or buying whatever thing was at the top of his list this week. So when my son asked me to go for a walk just the two of us, I immediately laughed and thought, OK, what’s he going to ask for?
We start walking and I ask, ‘What’s on your mind buddy?’ He said, ‘Nothing really, I just want to have some time to be with you and be peaceful and be out in nature.’ Wow, OK, this is progress, I thought. Then he said, ‘I want you to know you’re the best dad I’ve ever had. You really do help me and my sister a lot and you’re really very nice, even though we don’t usually tell you. So I just wanted to say thank you for everything and that I want to be near you always.’ By this point, the only reason I wasn’t completely crying my eyes out is that I thought it was some kind of a joke or lead up to ask for something, this was totally out of character, especially at this age. I managed to croak out something like ‘I’m really glad to hear that and I love you very much.’ Then we just enjoyed the rest of the walk.
It really felt like for a moment I was speaking to a soul who has had several lives (‘you’re the best dad I’ve ever had’) and wanted to speak directly to me instead of play the role of a child. I’m so glad it happened and it’s something I will never forget. Later he went right back to being the same old goofy kid that I love.”
3. The soda
“I was grinding stumps today at work. In the middle of a 60-year-old stump was a Vanilla Coke can from 2020. Literally in the middle of the stump. Not sure how.”
4. Shivers
“So to put into perspective, my (20m) girlfriend of two years (19f) lost her mother unexpectedly six months before she and I met. She and her mother were very close, they were practically best friends. Now, it’s New Year’s Eve and we’re headed to her best friend’s house for a party. My girlfriend decides to wear one of the last things her mother gave to her before passing away: a pair of gold earrings. At some point during the night she loses an earring. Devastated, we retrace our every step and we do manage to find the backing to it, but no earring.
It’s now 24 hours later, I’m lying in her bed, by myself, with no clothes on while she’s in the shower. I’m reading a book when all of a sudden… the fucking earring gets dropped onto my bare chest out of nowhere. I look around, nobody else in the room, nobody else in the house, just my girlfriend showering in the room beside me.
I do not have long hair, and I was not wearing a hat. Absolutely zero chance it was stuck to me.”
5. Kids are so creepy
“I don’t really know if this belongs here. But it’s such a weird but insignificant event that I need to share it.
I was at a family event today. There were a few relatives I knew but hadn’t spent a lot of time with. While sat away from the main celebrations with my partner and one of the kids (she was nine and took a shine to us), I thought I could smell smoke. Didn’t vocalise it, didn’t even look up from my phone. Just thought it.
The girl looked at me and said, ‘You’re right, they’re having a fire next door. You can see the smoke.’ She then proceeded to point above the trees, where there was smoke.
My partner asked what she was on about and she didn’t reply. I later asked my partner if I’d spoken aloud about fires and she said no.
(I also thought-shouted her name for like 10 mins after and got no response. So less psychic and more glitch. Was also sober and don’t believe in the paranormal.)”
6. They just know things
“A few years ago, when my daughter was 3, I decided to go back to school & become a nurse. My husband and I were in no way trying for a baby whatsoever, I was on birth control and we were very careful.
I walk into her preschool one day to find the director and her teachers telling me congratulations with big smiles on their faces. I used to work as a preschool teacher here so a lot of these people were close friends of mine. I ask them what they’re congratulating me for and they tell me that my daughter announced to everyone that mommy has a little sister in her tummy.
I laughed it off and told them all I was sorry to disappoint them but that just wasn’t true. My daughter and I went home and talked about it. I told her mommy didn’t have a baby in her tummy and she just kept pointing at my belly and saying YES YOU DO! (As if I were lying to her.)
She told me that her sister looks different than us and has blonde hair and blue eyes with ‘little holes in her cheeks’ aka dimples. My daughter, husband and I all have very dark hair, chocolate brown eyes, and no dimples.
I talk to her about wanting a sibling and tell her that when I finish school we will try to give her a little brother or sister. Again, she’s frustrated & yelling ‘I ALREADY HAVE A SISTER.’
I was expecting my period to start within the next week like clockwork. It didn’t. I took a pregnancy test and just stared at that faint positive result for what felt like forever. I was completely in shock. I was on birth control, so immediately called my OBGYN and they saw me the next day. It was estimated that I was 4 weeks and 6 days pregnant.
I gave birth to a blonde hair, blue-eyed little girl with the sweetest dimples.
This experience has always blown my mind.”
7. Did I die?
“It’s been about a week and I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I might’ve died in another timeline and just jumped to this one. Background, I was driving down PCH (a very long highway up the coast of California) at 8:15 p.m. exactly, and I know this because I called my mom to let her know I was stopping to watch the sun as it was setting because it was breathtaking. As I’m watching the sunset, I hear a car’s horn blaring, and I mean it was loud and sounded like it was coming right at me. I turn around and see a car coming straight toward my car and myself and then suddenly, I’m sitting on the ground. Very confused, a headache is starting to come on but I wasn’t hit. My car wasn’t hit, and I’m still breathing. Obviously freaked out, I get back up and check my phone to call my mom because this is just crazy, and then I noticed it’s 8:13 p.m. I checked my phone to see if I actually did call her but there’s no history of it. I shake the nerves off and decide to just get home quickly, thinking maybe that was foreshadowing an event I did not want to relive. Once I’m home, my mom asked me why I called her and just hung up. I asked what time I called, she said 8:15 p.m. There is still no history of me calling her on my phone. Am I crazy or did I just jump timelines?”
8. NPC
“I’m quite a skeptical person but this always has me at a loss. My girlfriend’s family lives a little ways away and so often I’ll drive us over to visit with them. Without fail — and I mean every time — when we drive back home (and for some reason only when we leave the town to head back home) this man is out walking his dog at the exact same position. Now, sure, it could of course just be his routine and I’m just having a timing coincidence, right? Nah, we’re talking about it could be 3 p.m. or it could be 11 p.m. and he’s still always cutting the corner exactly when we pass as if he’s spawning in. It’s so odd, it’s like seeing it replayed over and over and always so consistent. We always mention it on the way back and check and without fail he’s there. I play a lot of games and I swear to you if this was happening in a game I’d be complaining about the lack of NPC variety.”
9. Just a moment
“So when this happened I was still living at home with my parents and we lived in my childhood home. This home was pretty much all I ever knew, as we moved there when I was three years old. I had a habit of going on daily walks in the nearby park, something I did nearly every single day since I was 14 or 15 years of age up until I moved out. It was the summer, and I went to leave the house for one of my walks. I slipped my shoes on and went to open the door as usual, but when I stepped out of the house and looked up, my neighborhood felt completely wrong.
It didn’t LOOK different. Everything looked exactly the same as it usually did. The small ravine next to our house, the tree in the front yard, the steep driveway and our neighbours’ houses. All of it looked completely normal but I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something really wrong and different with it all. It felt as if reality was warped or something. I stood on the front porch for a minute or so trying to figure out what felt so incredibly wrong with my neighbourhood. After a while though, I figured I was just being silly and made my way down the driveway. When I was about halfway down, my neighbour who was tending to his garden across the street looked up towards me, and stared at me as if he saw a ghost, his face going completely pale and opened his mouth to speak.
Before I could even stare at him in confusion, before he had gotten a single word out, I was back inside my house at my front door about to leave. I was completely shaken. I had no idea how I had ended up back at my front door, I had no idea what I just experienced and when I pulled the door open it was completely normal. Nothing felt wrong anymore. The only difference was when I opened my door again my neighbour was not out front gardening. I decided not to go for a walk that day.
Years later I have no idea what I experienced and as weird as it sounds, the part that freaks me out the most is how WRONG my neighbourhood felt despite looking exactly the same. So between the weird teleportation back indoors and my neighbour acting as if he was staring at a ghost, the feeling of wrongness is the thing that bothers me the most. I don’t know how to explain it. I didn’t feel unsafe, it didn’t feel like dread, it just felt like I was looking at a completely different version of my neighborhood at that moment, and I don’t think I will ever forget it.”
10. He’s right there
“A couple of years ago, my mother and her boyfriend were sitting at the table talking over coffee and cigarettes, just like any other day. Her phone rings, and she’s shocked to see it displaying her BF’s face. They look at each other with a bewildered expression, and she answers it.
‘Hello?’ ‘Hi.’ ‘Who is this?’ ‘It’s me, Joe!’
‘How can that be? I’m looking at you sitting right beside me!?’The phone call ended (caller hung up) and there was an uncomfortable pause.
We were shocked, and she swears up and down that it was his distinct voice. We checked the call history and sure enough, it was his number that called. ‘Creepy’ just doesn’t quite cut it.
Joe’s phone was sitting on the table in front of him. It had no record of calling out, and he hadn’t yet used it that day. You could pick his voice out of a crowd, it’s unmistakable.
We called the number back, and Joe’s phone rang on the table.”
11. Empty Hotel
This happened a few years ago but my husband and I still talk about it. If he hadn’t been there – I would have sworn it was a dream.
My husband and I were walking around on a beautiful, Saturday afternoon. We decide to stop for a drink at the Lowe’s hotel and soak in the ocean view. We walk up to the hotel and didn’t notice much until we walk inside. When we walked into the hotel, the entire hotel was empty. Nobody was there. No one behind the counters, no one in the lobby, not a soul. But it also had a weird buzz as those people had just been there. For example, there was papers on the counters, cups on the tables. We walked inside, through the restaurant, outside by the pool. No one. We walked back inside, through the lobby. We probably spent about 5-10 mins there and didn’t see a person. We then left because it was so creepy. Back on the street, everything was normal – people walking by, traffic, etc.
No idea what that was that caused no one to be there…. ? It was like the Truman show where you go off the script and they don’t have the actors ready. Would love any thoughts on what you thought happened.
A few notes – we were totally sober (didn’t get that drink!). Perhaps people could have been evacuated but the likely spot would have been for at least some of the people to be on the street in front of the hotel.
12. Leg is gone
I was coming downstairs at home, and as I reached the bottom, I turned and went through the door to step into the room, and my left leg seemed to disappear.
I went forward to put my weight on it, but it didn’t touch the floor and instead I kind of dropped forward.
Not like, I felt my foot touch the floor and then my leg gave out. I didn’t feel any contact with the floor.
Seems like if my leg had just given way, I still would have felt some kind of contact, but it literally felt like there was nothing there and my body just kind of sank through the floor? It’s hard to explain!
So whether the glitch was with my leg or the floor, I don’t know. But it’s the strangest experience I’ve had and I can’t understand what could have happened.
13. I’m the glitch
I went out, parked infront of a store, bought a 6pack of water and went to register nr2, paid with change.
Half an hour later, I remembered I wouldn’t be going out anytime soon again so I decided to buy more water, and everything happened in the exact same order, I parked at the same spot, entered, bought a 6pack, register 2 is free, same girl working there, I even paid with same ammount of change coins. She looked at me with a bit of horror and confusion but couldnt see me smiling under my mask.
14. Girlfriend
Me (M26) and my girlfriend (F25) have been living together in an appartment for two and a half years. Everything has been normal until quarantine started (around 4 weeks ago), when I started noticing some odd things.
For instance, for the last three weeks or so, my GF has been putting sugar in her morning coffee, while throughout our entire relationship she’s always been very much against it. It may seem like a small detail, but she’s always been complaining about how I don’t know what real coffee is since I put quite a lot of sugar. On the first day that I saw her drinking coffee with sugar I asked her why would she do that, and she looked at me weirded out and said something like “What are you talking about? I’ve always been putting sugar in my coffee”. I felt a bit confused for a moment but then we started talking about some other things, so I didn’t think anymore about it until the morning after, when she did the exactly same thing, and had once again the same reaction.
Fastforward a few days and another odd thing happened. We were having sex and she suddenly suggested a sex pose that we had already tried once, but it had gone wrong and it hurt her a lot so we had simply decided not to try it anymore. Naturally, I was very surprised with her suggestion, and reminded her about the time when it went wrong, and she just completely dismissed it, saying that i probably mixed her up with some ex-girlfriend or that I was just tripping. We then did the pose and we actually enjoyed it.
Today, the weirdest thing happened, which is the reason I’m writing this post. In the afternoon, I was working at home (I’m employed as a PhD student at the computer science department of a university), when my gf asked me what’s up with a guy who I’ve never heard of before. I asked her who is she referring to and she said “Well, it’s that collegue of yours who you always talk about, the one from the company where you are employed at”. I froze, and asked her to repeat, and she said the exactly same thing all over again. Then I told her that I don’t work at any company nor have I ever worked at any company, since I started a PhD straight after my Master degree. At this point, she also completely froze and we were just staring at each other completely confused and shocked for a few moments. She then asked me wtf is going on and I reminded her about the coffee thing and about the sex pose and that I don’t know anymore what is going on. At this point, she started crying too and asked what is wrong with us.
Nor she, nor me nor anyone in both families have ever had any mental problems in the past. We don’t know what to do about this.
Can anyone explain what’s wrong with us?
15. Mom’s dead
My mom died 13 years ago. About four years ago my dad was on vacation in Arizona with his girlfriend. He said he was up watching tv and the hotel phone rang. He answered it and said it was my moms voice saying “I’m ok” he said he said “Cass?” And he said the phone was crackly and said tell HEATHER (me) I am ok” he said his girlfriend was confused why the phone ring. He immediately called me even though it was late and he was crying. My dad doesn’t believe in the supernatural but still to this day can’t explain that call.
16. Dog
About 30 seconds ago I was sitting on the couch, as my dog walked by to go sit on her bed we have behind the “L” part of the sectional. She had something small caught in her throat last night, I think a popcorn shell, so I was paying attention to her breathing just to make sure she got it out.
For a few minutes she was breathing fine, and then what sounded like a light snore started happening. This is semi-normal for her depending on what position she’s laying in, so I didn’t bother to go over and check on her. That went on for about 5 minutes, until the most disgusting(and to my now realization, terrifying) snore/cough/wheezing sound started happening. I go over to her to make sure she’s okay, and the exact moment I looked at her bed the sound stoped ‘mid-breath’ and she wasn’t there.
She was outside with my parents, had been for around 30minuets. There’s no way to get out of the room without walking right past me. I don’t know who’s fucking dog I saw, and what was making that creepy ass sound 5 feet away from me, but I’m going to be staying outside for the rest of the day and hiring an exorcist
17. I didn’t exist
I stumbled across this sub today and I immediately thought of a story that my family and friends still talk about.
This happened in 2009, when I was 16 years old. It was the first weekend of summer, and nobody was home when I woke up at around 11am. I grabbed a snack and went down to the basement to watch TV. I had plans to hang out with a friend at 3pm that day. Like I said before, I started watching TV at around 11, knowing I had 4 hours before I was supposed to head over to my friends house.
I had only been watching TV for about 30 minutes when my mom came down the stairs asking me where I’d been all day. I said what are you talking about, I’ve been awake for less than an hour? I look at my watch and see that it’s well past 5 in the afternoon. I run upstairs and check my phone to see that I have several missed calls from my friend and my mom.
My mom’s side of the story is what makes me nauseous when I think about this, even to this day. She was with my little brother at his baseball game from 1-3 that day. She and my brother WERE home when I “supposedly” woke up and went down to the basement, but neither of them have any memory of even seeing me that morning. When my mom got home at around 3, she checked the entire house for me, including the basement where I had been sitting on the couch watching TV.
It’s been 10 years and I still have no idea what happened on that day. It is by far the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me, and although I talk about it with my family like it’s a funny little thing that happened, it genuinely chills me to my bones thinking about it.
