"I was at home and my friend left his jacket hanging on the back of my bedroom door," reports George. "A few days went by and my friend phoned and said, 'I'm near your house now. I'm coming to get my jacket.' So I went to get it from the back of my bedroom door... and it wasn't there. I looked everywhere. I thought I was going mad. (I was the only one in my house at the time.) I just told my friend that if it turned up, I'd phone him.
"I then went to take my dogs out. When I got back, one of the dogs ran into my bedroom. I went after him because it was dirty -- and there was the jacket hanging on the back of the door! Other things have happened, like the TV changing channels on its own. Can someone tell me what is going on?"
Thanks for that report, George. Strangely, this is a relatively common phenomenon. It's been called the "borrower" phenomenon or DOP (for disappearing object phenomenon), when things suddenly go missing and cannot be found despite a thorough search, then mysteriously reappear, often in a spot that was carefully searched.
Usually the objects in question are relatively small -- like keys, jewelry, a hairbrush, or pen -- and psychologists have rationalized the "mystery" as cases of temporary, object-specific blindness. The object is really there, but for some reason, psychological or otherwise, the brain chooses not to register it.
The explanation becomes harder to accept (but not impossible) with bigger objects, such as your friend's jacket, which would be really hard to miss, and especially since you knew it had been there for a few days and you specifically went to get it. The phenomenon is even more puzzling when two or more people are involved in the search and they don't see it either.
One paranormal explanation would be poltergeist phenomena, which might also account for the TV switching channels on its own, but we would probably have to have more evidence for that. So, for your case I think we'll just have to file it as "unexplained."
Comments
As to that TV channel changing on it’s own, it may seem spooky at first until you find out that someone nearby has a remote that also can tune your set inadvertantly. Are you sure no one through a window from the house next door or across the street has a clear view of your set and whose chair is facing your set while they’re watching their own TV?
We’ve had it happen where our DVR from the Sattelite Dish Provider would start being programmed to record TV Programs we never watch. So customer service had us re-set our remote to a different frequency as someone else in the neighborhood also had their service. This happened twice. There are 15 different frequencies the remotes use. So keep in contact with your customer service about the problem.
My ex apparently brought a spirit with him when he moved in with me. Things would go missing, usually his things, then reappear in a very obvious place, such as the middle of the living room floor, after we went crazy searching.
Then, for a while, my left shoes would go missing. We are set up with a shoe shelves by the door, and we would take our shoes off, then put them in pairs in the shelves. I would go to the shelves to put on my shoes to find the right shoe still on the shelf or on the ground in front of the shelf and the left one gone. We would go crazy looking around, and when it finally got to the point where we’d be screaming about being late, it would suddenly reappear, usually, again, somewhere obvious, like the middle of the room or on the coffee table.
It seems to have stopped since he moved out.
This happened to me and was one of the most profound experiences of my life (and I have had quite a number of paranormal occurrences).
As I was packing in Austin, Texas, for a trip to England, I could not find one of my favorite sport coats. I searched EVERYWHERE and even called the dry cleaners to see if it was with them. Nada.
So I flew to London and set out in the countryside by car. In Brighton I unpacked to get wrinkles out of the clothes. And was there two nights.
In Salisbury, I just lived out of my suitcase for the night.
Upon arrival in Bath, I opened my suitcase to find the missing sport coat lying on top of everything!
Many years ago when my daughters was in puberty, I lived with my boyfriend Tim and in a span of a week things would constantly go missing. Then after we both looked everywhere they would reappear just where they should be. At that very time my daughter had a friend spend the night and the friend slept in my daughter’s bed and my daughter slept on the couch. During the night the girl became terrifed because she said the bed was shaking and she her children laughing. I looked at my daughter the next day and said, “Call off your dogs…tell it to stop” (she was a bit of a wild child at the time). She told it to stop and it did. The disappearances ended.
As far as the televison changing channels…I didnt have that but I had a cat named Scooby who loved sitting on my bed with the tv on. After he died, sometimes I would come home from work and find the tv on. Thinking I had left it on from the morning or the dog had acidentally rubbed it’s hip passed the on button I dismissed it. On day, several months after I had to have Scooby euthanized, I was laying out on my deck and began thinking about him. I became very upset and walked back into the bedroom to look out the window. Suddenly I heard a voice behind me and when I looked the television had come on by itself. Nothing else was in the room and the remote was no where site. I left it on and returned to the porch feeling a lot better about things.
something strange happend whilst doing diy.I was upstairs painting so i took the bathroom door handles off as i wanted to gloss paint each side of the door.I placed them on the landing next to the skirting board along with the retaining screws.My wife was downstairs all the while.When i finished painting i went to put the handles and screws in the bathroom to be replaced when the paint had dried but they were gone.I shouted down the stairs to ask my wife if she moved them, even knowing i would have seen her but she replied she has not been upstairs.Puzzled i could not find them anywhere.About two weeks later they appeared just where i placed them, my wife and i are puzzled to this day.This really did happen and i have no explanation.
Could time slips be a possible explanation for these disappearances & later reappearances? Especially considering the missing objects were in same places last seen.