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Weird IHTM Tales From Reddit & Other Sites

The family were driving at night and lost. Mos likely they thought they'd gone back exactly the same way when they hadn't. It would only take one wrong turn to send them to a different crossroads.
 
You know how I just said I'd been feeling glitchy? Well, today it got a bit stranger. In my opinion, anyway.
I'll try to be brief.

At Christmas time I often struggle with disturbing childhood memories. One that's been most intrusive lately is about a place called Liberty Hill.

I've been trying to beat this back by focusing on happier memories instead. This time, I'd been recalling an adventurous holiday spent with someone who carried their money in a gold clip. (A big part of this adventure was that they kept losing their money and finding it again at random.) This person is the only one I've ever known who used a money clip instead of a wallet, btw.

This being the case - and considering that odd things have been happening all week - I was very startled when I woke up from a nap and saw a gold money clip on the nightstand.

I went to hunt down the source, which turned out to be my 15 year-old son. He said he'd been messing around in the back yard rockpile when he'd found an old jewelry case. The clip was inside. The box was stained and battered, but the clip itself was mostly unharmed. No one had ever seen it before.

I admit that I was feeling this was a good sign, that a symbol of my pleasant memory had appeared instead of the bad one. Then he brought me the box, which had the brand name inside. No prizes for guessing what it was. Of course, it was Liberty Hill - the very thing I'd been trying to avoid.

But wait, the cosmic joker isn't done yet!

I lifted the lining of the box and there was a certificate from the store where it was bought. It was from a place called Things Remembered.
:cry:

It's been nearly 3 years, but I finally got around to taking a picture of the money clip, box and paper that appeared so portentously back at the time of the quoted post..

The clip is a little worn now as it's been banging around in my purse ever since - it's turned out to be quite a good luck charm. I still haven't the foggiest idea how it got into our rockpile.
.
libertyhillmoneyclip (2).jpg
 
Yes I should probably make it clearer - the book is called 'Jott' (short for 'just one of those things') and it's by Mary Rose Barrington. It's entirely about things that disappear, appear, or disappear and reappear. So can include things 'taken by the good people' (and sometimes returned), or random stuff that just turns up in places where it surely shouldn't be. There aren't many 'windfall' cases in the book. The best one is probably from someone who was riding a clapped out moped - he had to stop because the spark plug kept becoming full of oil and stopping the engine. He looked down in the gutter and there was the exact type of spark plug he needed. I guess you could call that a massive coincidence as it could have been more about him stopping in the right place, rather than the spark plug 'appearing'. But if it happens at home, there are surely connections between 'windfalls' and poltergeist apports (poltergeists being a favourite of mine) which Barrington does touch on later in the book. I'm just getting to the final chapter in which she is suggesting an explanatory 'framework' (so I need to read faster! But I often read just before falling asleep, and now it's requiring more concentration to understand what she's putting forward, it's not the best time of day to get through much in one go). Anyway, I do recommend, although with some of the examples you can think of alternative explanations... but I guess that's forteana and anecdotes for you.
 
I've been reading this book, it's rather fun and interesting:
https://www.spr.ac.uk/book-review/j...-relocate-and-why-it-really-happens-mary-rose
Yours must come into the 'windfall' category and is especially interesting because of its apparent connections with your own experience (sadly that review doesn't detail any windfall examples).

I've read this, actually! It's very intriguing, isn't it! The story of my lost retainer (mentioned somewhere else on this board, I'll have to dig it up) is a classic "trade in" I think.
 
a classic "trade in"
"Someone" was trying to help - they found you a retainer didn't they? What more do you mortals want! That is a very peculiar story, excellent. And I like that you actually showed it to the dentist and they denied it was the original one (I mean I'm sure you'd know yourself, as it wouldn't fit in your mouth - but a sceptic could argue that you might have sat on it :) )
 
I've been reading this book, it's rather fun and interesting:
https://www.spr.ac.uk/book-review/j...-relocate-and-why-it-really-happens-mary-rose
Yours must come into the 'windfall' category and is especially interesting because of its apparent connections with your own experience (sadly that review doesn't detail any windfall examples).
Interesting concept! I think that this idea is definitely on to something for sure. Whilst reading, I was reminded of when I was about 8 (ish) years old and had been given a simple gold ring for my birthday (it was my very first grown up girl gift) and I loved it. One day when sat on the loo I was messing with the bloody thing till it ended up falling off my finger onto the floor. Now, as this was the late 70's our bathroom and toilet were separate and the loo was roughly the same size as a typical cubicle, so there wasn't much room to swing a cat but no matter how much I'd searched, the ring never turned up. I recall feeling extremely puzzled because even at such a young age I knew that it couldn't just vanish and despite spending ages hunting for it, it was never seen again. (And I got into serious trouble for losing it!)
 
Now, as this was the late 70's our bathroom and toilet were separate and the loo was roughly the same size as a typical cubicle, so there wasn't much room to swing a cat
The late 70s aren't required. You've just described my current lavatorial arrangements.

You can read quite a few pages of JOTT in the "look inside" feature on the book's Amazon page. The essay at the beginning countering the dismissive use of the word "anecdote" is well worth reading. One of the visible stories is particularly interesting - involving a letter addressed to someone else appearing on the lap of a sleeping lady in her own garden and the correspondence her husband had with the library which had sent the letter. It brings to mind one of my earliest "what just happened?" experiences.

Around 2 years - but not precisely so - after I had left school, a casual reference on TV made me consider the fact I had never actually collected my A level certificate. I'd had the slip of paper giving the results at the time, but the procedure for getting the actual official certificate was...well..i wasn't sure what it was. I'd never gone to the school to pick it up, and seem to recall i half thought it would be in the possession of the local education authority itself. Well it might be needed one day (as you all will know, it wasn't) so I better write to someone and ask for it. It was a Friday lunchtime and I composed a simple one paragraph letter address the school secretary, identifying myself and asking for said A level certificate or advice on how to go about getting my hands on it.

Come Monday and a large brown envelope arrives with said certificate enclosed. Wow that was quick. Great service.

But....hold on....

A thought slowly dawned on me. I went up to my bedroom, looked on the shelf, and there, as suspected, was the letter I had written requesting the item. I hadn't yet sent it.

To add an extra note of paranormal suspicion to the "coincidence", the envelope (which was post marked Friday afternoon..ie a couple of hours after I wrote the letter) contained no note or cover letter of any kind. Just the certificate in splendid isolation.
 
Last Christmas I bought my son a woolen viking helmet complete with detachable beard from Amazon.
It finally arrived from the Far East, I opened the packet and tried it on then put it away in a wardrobe draw to be wrapped later on.
Come wrapping day I couldn't find it despite triple checking everywhere.
The first post after Christmas a package arrived containing a woolen viking helmet complete with detachable beard.
 
The late 70s aren't required. You've just described my current lavatorial arrangements.

You can read quite a few pages of JOTT in the "look inside" feature on the book's Amazon page. The essay at the beginning countering the dismissive use of the word "anecdote" is well worth reading. One of the visible stories is particularly interesting - involving a letter addressed to someone else appearing on the lap of a sleeping lady in her own garden and the correspondence her husband had with the library which had sent the letter. It brings to mind one of my earliest "what just happened?" experiences.

Around 2 years - but not precisely so - after I had left school, a casual reference on TV made me consider the fact I had never actually collected my A level certificate. I'd had the slip of paper giving the results at the time, but the procedure for getting the actual official certificate was...well..i wasn't sure what it was. I'd never gone to the school to pick it up, and seem to recall i half thought it would be in the possession of the local education authority itself. Well it might be needed one day (as you all will know, it wasn't) so I better write to someone and ask for it. It was a Friday lunchtime and I composed a simple one paragraph letter address the school secretary, identifying myself and asking for said A level certificate or advice on how to go about getting my hands on it.

Come Monday and a large brown envelope arrives with said certificate enclosed. Wow that was quick. Great service.

But....hold on....

A thought slowly dawned on me. I went up to my bedroom, looked on the shelf, and there, as suspected, was the letter I had written requesting the item. I hadn't yet sent it.

To add an extra note of paranormal suspicion to the "coincidence", the envelope (which was post marked Friday afternoon..ie a couple of hours after I wrote the letter) contained no note or cover letter of any kind. Just the certificate in splendid isolation.
Yet another thing that proves we are living in The Matrix! Wow.
 
The late 70s aren't required. You've just described my current lavatorial arrangements.

You can read quite a few pages of JOTT in the "look inside" feature on the book's Amazon page. The essay at the beginning countering the dismissive use of the word "anecdote" is well worth reading. One of the visible stories is particularly interesting - involving a letter addressed to someone else appearing on the lap of a sleeping lady in her own garden and the correspondence her husband had with the library which had sent the letter. It brings to mind one of my earliest "what just happened?" experiences.

Around 2 years - but not precisely so - after I had left school, a casual reference on TV made me consider the fact I had never actually collected my A level certificate. I'd had the slip of paper giving the results at the time, but the procedure for getting the actual official certificate was...well..i wasn't sure what it was. I'd never gone to the school to pick it up, and seem to recall i half thought it would be in the possession of the local education authority itself. Well it might be needed one day (as you all will know, it wasn't) so I better write to someone and ask for it. It was a Friday lunchtime and I composed a simple one paragraph letter address the school secretary, identifying myself and asking for said A level certificate or advice on how to go about getting my hands on it.

Come Monday and a large brown envelope arrives with said certificate enclosed. Wow that was quick. Great service.

But....hold on....

A thought slowly dawned on me. I went up to my bedroom, looked on the shelf, and there, as suspected, was the letter I had written requesting the item. I hadn't yet sent it.

To add an extra note of paranormal suspicion to the "coincidence", the envelope (which was post marked Friday afternoon..ie a couple of hours after I wrote the letter) contained no note or cover letter of any kind. Just the certificate in splendid isolation.
How odd! It's almost as though there is a "psychic" postal service which would save people a small fortune on stamps! I wonder if you'd somehow tuned into the cosmic waveband and somehow requested your A Level certificate! I think perhaps things like this happen to a lot of people quite often but these "coincidences" (if you can actually call them that) frequently get instantly ignored. It's as though the human brain cannot deal with such an amazing occurrence and chooses instead to overlook the magnitude of what has happened. (I hope that makes some kind of sense?).
 
Well there are a number of other ways - besides of course pure chance - that one could connect my letter writing with the item being sent out. Eg - precogniton: I thought about the subject of getting the certificate precisely because some unconscious part of my mind picked up on my near future experience of receiving it. OR - telepathy: the sender's thoughts about me as they looked up and wrote down my name and address etc somehow reached my mind and, again, caused me to wander on to the idea of getting hold of the certificate OR - Clairvoyance: harder to define, but somehow some kind of distant knowing about it being sent rather than causing it to be sent.
 
Well there are a number of other ways - besides of course pure chance - that one could connect my letter writing with the item being sent out. Eg - precogniton: I thought about the subject of getting the certificate precisely because some unconscious part of my mind picked up on my near future experience of receiving it. OR - telepathy: the sender's thoughts about me as they looked up and wrote down my name and address etc somehow reached my mind and, again, caused me to wander on to the idea of getting hold of the certificate OR - Clairvoyance: harder to define, but somehow some kind of distant knowing about it being sent rather than causing it to be sent.

There might've also been something in the air about A Level certificates that you didn't know about. Like, if part of the system was being shaken up, someone in an office had already decided to clear the backlog of certificates lying around before their boss got on their backs.

My father used to take the family on camping holidays in the '60s and would invent little gadgets to make life easier, and then see identical ones demonstrated in the 'Under Canvas' or whatever magazine within weeks. Lots of people were camping, it was in the air.
 
I had a very similar experience to Gattino's with my own A Level certificate, although in a shorter timespan. I'd received my results slip in the August, and at the end of September moved 250 miles north to university. I didn't return to my hometown until the Christmas break. Early in the new year, certainly before the new school term began, I was passing my old secondary school and decided on impulse to check if the secretarial staff were in and could tell me when my actual certificate would be available.

The school secretary came to answer the doorbell, took one look at me and exclaimed, "Hallo, Queenie - I was just about to put your A Level certificate in the post to your mother's address!" and led me along to her office. There, on the top of a stack of board-backed A4 envelopes, was my certificate. My surname at the time began with an L, so if she'd been stuffing and addressing them alphabetically, my envelope should have been in the middle of the stack.
 
Yes I should probably make it clearer - the book is called 'Jott' (short for 'just one of those things') and it's by Mary Rose Barrington. It's entirely about things that disappear, appear, or disappear and reappear. So can include things 'taken by the good people' (and sometimes returned), or random stuff that just turns up in places where it surely shouldn't be. There aren't many 'windfall' cases in the book. The best one is probably from someone who was riding a clapped out moped - he had to stop because the spark plug kept becoming full of oil and stopping the engine. He looked down in the gutter and there was the exact type of spark plug he needed. I guess you could call that a massive coincidence as it could have been more about him stopping in the right place, rather than the spark plug 'appearing'. But if it happens at home, there are surely connections between 'windfalls' and poltergeist apports (poltergeists being a favourite of mine) which Barrington does touch on later in the book. I'm just getting to the final chapter in which she is suggesting an explanatory 'framework' (so I need to read faster! But I often read just before falling asleep, and now it's requiring more concentration to understand what she's putting forward, it's not the best time of day to get through much in one go). Anyway, I do recommend, although with some of the examples you can think of alternative explanations... but I guess that's forteana and anecdotes for you.
I've had quite an interesting conversation with my son (8 years old) today and strangely it appears that even kids experience things disappearing! Basically, my son had a magician set for his birthday in October (it has about 50 so called magic tricks which in reality are just cheap bits of brightly coloured plastic and instructions that you need a doctorate to understand!). Today, he was showing me a disappearing penny trick that he'd been practicing but instead of a penny, he was using round penny sized pieces of thin card. Now to explain the trick (please forgive me magic circle), there are two rectangular pieces of plastic, one has a round penny sized space in it which then slides into the other one and a raised edge inside triggers the penny to slide up so when you take it out again it appears as though the coin has vanished. I offered to get him a penny to use but he said that he didn't want to use one because the last time he'd performed the trick the penny never came back!! I asked him if it had fallen out but he insisted that it had simply vanished and he never saw the coin again. Now, he said it definitely didn't fall on the floor because there's nowhere for it to fall out, the plastic bits are sealed. Nor is it stuck inside because I double checked! What struck me is how easily he just "accepted" it had vanished and it made me think that perhaps things like this happen to us from a young age and being children we just accept it? It was just weird how he's told me about it today and when I enquired why he'd not told me before, he just shrugged and said (and I quote) "I dunno".
 
I'll mention an odd "appearance" of mine here that seems to fit with this thread.
Late 70's I had a fairly large collection of Matchbox, Dinky etc cars. I had an uncle who worked in the Lesney factory and would often send me some of the rare ones as a gift - these would be kept in a special collectors case that had trays that were just the right size for the matchbox cars to fit into.
Anyway, one day I open the case to find in amongst the cars the plastic molded figures of the two adults from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. This was annoying as they were quite scuffed and I always looked after my stuff. Also there is no way the much larger Corgi model would ever have fitted into that case. Anway, I go to my (boxed) model of Chitty, to find it in pristine nick with all the figures present and correct.
None of my friends had that model and it would have been rare (possibly never) that I would have let anyone into the case with the Matchbox collectibles. So I now had one spare set of figures which then remained on my bookshelf for several years until the entire lot were stolen a few years later (House was damaged in a storm and after we were forced to evacuate - the place was ransacked and pretty much looted bare in the space of a week).
 
I've been reading this book, it's rather fun and interesting:
https://www.spr.ac.uk/book-review/j...-relocate-and-why-it-really-happens-mary-rose
Yours must come into the 'windfall' category and is especially interesting because of its apparent connections with your own experience (sadly that review doesn't detail any windfall examples).
Thanks for that info -- I ordered one from Abe immediately. These things seem to happen to my wife and I with increasing frequency, not sure what that implies! Good that someone has at last studied the phenomenon seriously.
Here is the latest case from Reddit:

 
The passport phased out of this dimension and into another one, then back again?
 
Around 2 years - but not precisely so - after I had left school, a casual reference on TV made me consider the fact I had never actually collected my A level certificate. I'd had the slip of paper giving the results at the time, but the procedure for getting the actual official certificate was...well..i wasn't sure what it was. I'd never gone to the school to pick it up, and seem to recall i half thought it would be in the possession of the local education authority itself. Well it might be needed one day (as you all will know, it wasn't) so I better write to someone and ask for it. It was a Friday lunchtime and I composed a simple one paragraph letter address the school secretary, identifying myself and asking for said A level certificate or advice on how to go about getting my hands on it.

Come Monday and a large brown envelope arrives with said certificate enclosed. Wow that was quick. Great service.

But....hold on....

A thought slowly dawned on me. I went up to my bedroom, looked on the shelf, and there, as suspected, was the letter I had written requesting the item. I hadn't yet sent it.

To add an extra note of paranormal suspicion to the "coincidence", the envelope (which was post marked Friday afternoon..ie a couple of hours after I wrote the letter) contained no note or cover letter of any kind. Just the certificate in splendid isolation.
This makes me think of a technique known as "psychic letters", where you write to thank someone for a result you want to get in the future, as if it has already happened. You psychically "write" and "sign" the letter on plain paper, put it in a blank envelope, and then put it in the post box, asking who/whatever you would like to assist you to send it to your intended recipient.
 
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We may have a thread on objects that relocate.

The passport story reminds me of when my neighbour rang me in tears, saying she'd put a wad of money away and couldn't find it. She'd ransacked her whole house looking for it, even though she KNEW she'd placed it in the left side of a kitchen drawer which she'd since tipped out and searched...

I went over, asked where she'd last seen it, put my hand in the drawer and pulled the money out. It was standing on edge against the left side of the drawer, which is where I'd've placed it, being left-handed. Neighbour was right-handed.

She said that if she hadn't been alone with the money to start with she'd've sworn I'd hidden it as a prank.
 
I'll mention an odd "appearance" of mine here that seems to fit with this thread.
Late 70's I had a fairly large collection of Matchbox, Dinky etc cars. I had an uncle who worked in the Lesney factory and would often send me some of the rare ones as a gift - these would be kept in a special collectors case that had trays that were just the right size for the matchbox cars to fit into.
Anyway, one day I open the case to find in amongst the cars the plastic molded figures of the two adults from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. This was annoying as they were quite scuffed and I always looked after my stuff. Also there is no way the much larger Corgi model would ever have fitted into that case. Anway, I go to my (boxed) model of Chitty, to find it in pristine nick with all the figures present and correct.
None of my friends had that model and it would have been rare (possibly never) that I would have let anyone into the case with the Matchbox collectibles. So I now had one spare set of figures which then remained on my bookshelf for several years until the entire lot were stolen a few years later (House was damaged in a storm and after we were forced to evacuate - the place was ransacked and pretty much looted bare in the space of a week).
How weird and, ultimately, what a sad loss. We adore 60's and 70's Lesney's, Dinky's, Corgi's and non-stupid Hot Wheels.
 
One of my friends often mislays her glasses.
One day she was sure she had put them in her handbag but couldn't find them although she went through every part and even turned the bag upside down and shook it.
I reached into her bag and the glasses were sitting there although the bag had been shaken upside down just before.
 
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