I'm interested - do any of you have interesting examples from your life?

I was reminded of one recently:

Shortly after I moved to my current home, I got a Christmas card addressed to "Amie ______". The surname was semi-illegible, but could almost have looked like my maiden name, if you were generous with the letters you couldn't make out. Since my maiden name is very strange (I don't think anyone has it other than people related to me), and people always mispelled it - and since "Amie" is not an extremely common spelling of my first name, I thought somehow, someone from my distant past had got my new address but didn't know my married name. Also, as far as I am aware, no one named "Amie" has ever lived at this address before me. The last woman who lived here was named "Penny". It's a modern house, and any version of "Amy" is pretty uncommon in the over 20s in the U.K.

Also, the address wasn't quite right - it wasn't actually my address, and it wasn't even in the same town, but it was so sketchy I could see how the postman and/or sorting office had got it wrong.

Anyway, I opened the card, wondering who it could be, and why they were using my maiden name.

Inside was a longish letter, talking about all sorts of personal matters - and I quickly realised I didn't know this person. They included a phone number, so I phoned them to let them know they'd got the wrong address. We ended up having a reasonably long conversation. They'd moved to New Zealand and had been trying to find "Amie" with the very long complicated surname that looked a bit like mine for over 20 years - they'd got a bum steer and thought they'd finally found her. But, even weirder, it turned out that we had a mutual acquaintance (someone who lives in a village about 15 miles from me). I confirmed with this third person first, before exchanging any details, and it turned out to be correct - so, although they did not find "Amie", by erroneously and randomly contacting "Amie", they connected with another long lost friend.

Come on dudes, tell me your weird true stories :)

Doesn't the maths say that the spookiest thing would be to live a life with no spooky coincidences?

I remember once (while totally pissed) picking up a pack of cards and saying: I'll cut the ace of spades. I then cut the pack at the ace of spades. It was the early hours and not a good time to seek an agent, so instead, I had another go. I said: I'll cut the cards at the ace of hearts. I then cut the cards at some random irrelevant card, which to be honest, was quite comforting. 

Quote from: Mark Hoffmann on December 14, 2018, 11:01:03 PM
Doesn't the maths say that the spookiest thing would be to live a life with no spooky coincidences?

More likely unobservant than spooky.

One of my top ones: nearly 20 years ago, I was having an email debate with a religious friend. I can't remember the substance any more, but I think he may have been pulling the God card to excuse someone's terrible behaviour. I started to type, "Man invented God so that he could excuse himself from compassion", but as I was typing, two chips spontaneously ejected from my hard drive (as the IT guy later explained - at that point all I knew was I heard a clattering) and the computer froze after the word "God"

Never had such a thing happen before or since. I can't even imagine the mechanics of it, because surely those chip doodads have to be secure in their boards for the computer to function? Vibration from my angry typing combined with heat from being in use for several hours? When the IT guy came, he did say those were new chips he'd put in the day before, but if I'd been a more religious person, I might have taken it as a rebuke.

That was definitely GOD. The IT guy was covering for him. Bloody typical.

I believe that some people have something about them that forks with IT equipment. I thought it might be something to do with static electricity but could never find any evidence to support the theory.  For the poor sods with the issue, it is more annoying than spooky I suppose.

This is probably why memory cards have clips to lock them in place.  Sometimes they still manage to beat the restraints.  And look at the clamp which holds the CPU in place.  We all know there are strange forces afoot, but like the rabbits on Watership Down who refuse to discuss 'the wire' we prefer not to think about it ;-)

Quote from: Mark Hoffmann on December 15, 2018, 09:50:25 AM
That was definitely GOD. The IT guy was covering for him. Bloody typical.

:D  :D  :D


I had just gone to bed and was about to fall asleep when I was jerked back into full wakefulness by a clattering noise. I stumbled out of the bed, muttering curses under my breath and blaming the cats for whatever the fuck it was they'd been up to now.

As I enter the living room, all three of them are sitting in front of the closed kitchen door, staring at it. So I enter the kitchen and lo and behold! Several of my spice bottles have mysteriously fallen off their ledge and are scattered throughout the kitchen. One of them must have hit a cereal bowl in its fall and broken it. Funny enough, all of my spice bottles were still in perfect condition.

There's no windows in my kitchen, no draughts, and basically nothing that could have caused these bottles to fall. I still haven't a clue as to what happened, but I guess I'll never know.

Mystery night noises and spills.  I'm sure most have a logical explanation, but there's room in my mind for a few unexplainable things as they don't seem hostile to me.

My previously almost silent bungalow - compared to the house - has acquired a few mystery night noises, including what sounds like someone knocking in the small hours.  After checking it out a few times and finding no explanation I now just roll over, matter "Oh do be quiet, whatever you are." Going back to sleep is no problem.

My ex used to see ghostly figures in our hallway and they disturbed her.  So I sat there quietly one night, invited them in for a chat, and politely asked them to stop showing themselves to her.  It seemed to me they meant no harm, and they never revealed themselves again.

It seems perfectly reasonable to me that sometimes there is an inadvertent 'thinning' between worlds, and we probably unsettle 'them' as much as they frighten us.  Whether these are ghosties or just normal folks from a parallel universe doesn't seem to bother me.

Quote from: Mark Hoffmann on December 15, 2018, 09:50:25 AM
I believe that some people have something about them that forks with IT equipment.

That was me. Back in the 80s and 90s, computery things would freeze and enter endless loops in my presence. Kind of a bummer, given that my first job after graduating was programming and designing electrical doodads.

C'mon, Danziger and I can't be the only ones who notice spooky coincidences!

Here's another one from me:
I used to be the secretary of a very specific scientific committee - let's call it the Cavorting Interstellar Stoats committee. Shortly after I took over as Secretary, the Chair (let's call him Matt Smith) took a secondment in Australia. We continued to correspond by email and phone, but I had only seen him once before he left. Two years later, he came back, and there was a big conference on Interstellar Cavorting Stoats (and my man was still Chair of the U.K. cavorting stoats cttee)..

One of my colleagues asked me if I could introduce him to the Chair. I said, "I think so - I haven't seen him for two years, but hopefully I would still recognise him".

Just then, Matt Smith walks through the door. I stride confidently towards him.

"Matt! Good to see you". Matt looks baffled.

I say, "Sorry, you are Matt Smith, aren't you?".

He says, "yes, but I have no idea who you are".

I say, "I'm Amie - you know, the secretary of the cavorting stoats society. it's been a couple of years".

He says, "I've never seen you before in my life"

I say, "You are the Chair of the cavorting stoats society, aren't you?"

He says, "Yes, but you aren't the secretary"

Me: "Yes I am. I have been for a few years now"

Him: "No you aren't, I would have met you before."

Me: "You HAVE met me before"

Just then, the real Matt Smith walked through the door. Turned out both were called Matt Smith, and one was Chair of the Cavorting Interstellar Stoats society, while the other was the Chair of the Stoats who Cavort Interstellarly. True, Matt Smith 2 was about 20 years older than Matt Smith 1, but given that I was in my 20s then, they both looked the same age to me ("old")

Matt Smith 1 seemed extremely indignant (I guess that I'd mistaken him for someone 20 years older), but he obviously knew of the existence of Matt Smith 2., and someone must have pointed out the similarity of appearance before.... (regardless of age gap)

I have never seen either of them again however, since that day.