I have received two reports from Australia of strange experiences involving a disappearing/reappearing object, and an apparent time slip. The experiencer, Les, lives in South Australia.
The first experience refers to “jotts,” an acronym for “just one of those things,” applied to objects that go missing inexplicably and, just as inexplicably, sometimes reappear in the same or different places. Here is Les’s account:
“I’ve just read your blog about jotts and here’s one of mine. I’m in a folk band and we had a practice at Doug’s house a few days ago. I took my electronic bagpipe and played a couple of tunes then put it back in its case. When I got home and unpacked my bag the pipe wasn’t there. I rang Doug and he turned over his house but couldn’t find it. I emptied out my backpack, searched my car, it was nowhere. Over the following days I kept checking my backpack and it definitely wasn’t in there.
“You know what’s coming, don’t you! Yes, today I took my backpack to go shopping, checked that it was empty and put my raincoat and some music in it. After I arrived I took the raincoat out and went for a walk. When I got back I took the music out and had a short practice then put the music back. There was no sign at all of the pipe in the bag. When I got home this evening I went to get the music out of the pack and there was the pipe at the bottom of the bag! Impossible but true. I’m not stupid or forgetful – I have two Masters degrees and have practised mindfulness for decades. I can only surmise my pipes went Walkabout in another dimension or a parallel universe and my attention to them attracted them back. Who knows?
Time Slip
“Another doozy happened to me last year. I was in Adelaide (South Australia, where I live) and went for a walk down a long street filled with shops. I got to the bottom end, a distance of over a kilometre, and noticed a yoga shop and went in to see if they had an exercise ball that my physio had suggested I get. I walked out of the shop, crossed the road and suddenly found myself back at the top end of the street, a distance which had taken me about 15 minutes to walk from! It was as if I’d stepped into a worm hole or time warp or who knows what? I was shocked. Next day I searched for the yoga shop and found it down a side street at the top of the main street. I went in and asked the owner when they had moved from the location at the bottom end of the street. She said “two years ago”!! I have no explanation at all. But isn’t life amazing and wonderful!”
Commentary
Jotts such as the one experienced by Les are called “walkabouts.” Does a mischievous spirit take them, dematerialize them, and then bring them back? In some cases, the objects disappear and are never returned. Sometimes jotts are one-offs. There are people, however, who are frequent jott experiencers. For more about jotts, click here to see the article “Have You Been Jottled?” on my site.
The time slip is similar to other reported experiences. In one variation, a person sees or visits a place that no longer exists. One possible explanation is that the location sits in a portal area where bizarre experiences are frequently reported. Another is that the experiencer is in the right state of conscious (usually mildly distracted and pleasant) and in the right energized place for a time slip to occur. Often the environment shifts and feels “weird;” sometimes it does not.