The Matrix movies are cult classics of the sci-fi genre, but they also posed thought-provoking and provocative questions about the nature of reality and our ability to recognise a phenomenon referred to as a ‘matrix glitch‘.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s a quick run-down of the basic premise:

Humans are living in a post-apocalyptic universe where their reality is in actual fact a computer simulation, designed by the machines which took over the world.

Humans lie dormant in womb-like pods connected to this computer programme, known as the Matrix, but small groups have been able to break away from this simulated reality and are struggling to bring down the Matrix and wake humanity up.

In the Matrix cinematic universe, small glitches in the programme, often when the designers introduce new code, result in experiences such as déjà vu, errors in perception and supernatural phenomena. This has trickled into popular culture, with people frequently referring to these happenings as glitches in the Matrix.

This might include the strong feeling that you’ve encountered a specific situation before or experiencing something that breaks the laws of nature.

To those who experience them, matrix glitches can be so affecting that they might begin questioning the nature of their reality. Is it possible that we really live in a simulated reality? Are our senses being manipulated by an all-encompassing programme? Unsure?

The following glitch in the Matrix stories from Reddit users might just sway you.

Note: stories have been edited for flow and correctness.

1. Hotel of Horrors

This user experienced a glitch in the matrix that his family remained completely unaware of.

“I was on a road trip with my family once. We stayed at a hotel for the night. Our room was nothing more than 2 beds, and a restroom, with a bigass mirror on the wall opposite the beds. Everyone went to sleep but me. I stayed up playing a mobile game I was addicted to at the time. At about 2 AM, I went to sleep.

When I woke up, I noticed something was just ever so slightly off: The mirror was gone, the room had 2 separate bedrooms, and there were 3 beds. Apparently, I was the only one who noticed it because my family called me crazy. Still confused as f*ck to this day as to what happened.”

Story by u/maplz03

2. Playing Musical Cars

No need to go to the cinema when matrix glitches keep you entertained all morning.

“Today is a weird day. I was eating lunch and my kitchen table is near the road. Within the span of three minutes, I saw the same Jeep pull into a driveaway across the road 4 times. I never saw it leave. Also, the school bus drops off some kids every day around 2:30 and I’ve seen the same bus drop off the same kids twice already.

This morning, a car parked next to me vanished when I went to the store. When I came back, the car was there but facing the other way, and blocked in by 3 other cars that had been there since last night. The car couldn’t have gotten out without asking them to move.”

Story by u/GMT_Tech101

3. Caller ID

This glitch in the matrix was actually a little helpful.

“I was sitting in my office one day, when my desk phone rings, and it is my undersheriff asking me to bring him all the reports/dispatch logs/any documentation ref to a specific so I get it all together, and start towards his office. I meet him in the hallway and hand him the paperwork. He asked what it was. I told him, ‘It’s the XXXXX documentation you asked for.’

He then swears he never asked me for it. That he had just arrived and had not called my office. He was on his way down the hall to ask me to get it together.”

Story by u/JohnDeereWife

4. Unique Identifier

It’s scarier when matrix glitches happen on your own body

“I spilt chocolate ice cream on my leg. I wiped it off and there was still a pale brown stain in the shape of the ice cream splotch. I told my mother who said it was a birthmark. I will swear under oath that never before that moment did I have a birthmark there.”

Story by u/Rivkariver

5. Have I Met You Before?

matrix glitch

The dramatic glitch in the matrix story left a whole room of people confused.

“I was performing massage after massage from morning till night in the winter of 2018. One day, I worked with this client named Jerry, a lovely and polite 75-year-old man. I noticed his name immediately because Jerry is not a common name where I live, and he was also stood out because he was the only client I had ever had who wanted to talk through the whole session.

He told me about his wife and their kids. He told me that his son just graduated from University and that he already had his own business running. He told me he was proud because his son had been severely injured in the Army and worked hard to build himself back up. Then he told me he himself was a retired soldier.

I have always been amazed by soldiers, so I was listening to him like a little girl. And he finally told me about his cancer of the lungs. He didn’t want to have any treatment. He had been told he would die soon, 5 years ago, but mysteriously survived without chemo. So we talked about many, very specific details of his life.

As he turned on his chest, I also saw a big scar on the back of his shoulder, which he had received during his time in the Army. After we were done, he waved at me and left, but my colleague told me there was something weird going on with the way he looked at me. It was like he already knew me.

I didn’t think too much of it, but I talked about him to my sister.

Two weeks later, I went to go get my next client and it was Jerry! I started to ask him about some of the things we had spoken about, but he thought it was odd that I knew so much about him. When I asked about his health, and his cancer, he was shocked. The more we talked and talked, I realised we were having the exact same conversation as last time. And he was convinced he had not been here for many many years.

I remembered his scars on the back of his shoulder so when he turned over, I checked to see if I was going crazy. But they were there, of course.

When he came out of my cabin, one of my old colleague (she had worked here for over 20 years) was shocked to see him. She told me he hadn’t come to our institute in the last five years. So he was like “YOU SEE! I told you!! ” I ran to check the client’s data and there was no Jerry recorded for the past five years.

I was shaking, and I remembered I had told my sister about him last time. So I texted her to see if she remembered or if I was going crazy. She did! My other colleague came out from the back and told me the exact same thing as last time: “It’s weird, the way he looked and waved at you. It’s like he knew you from somewhere, or that you were dear to his heart“. I told her she’d said the exact same thing two weeks ago! But she didn’t remember.”

Story by u/tanipaq

6. Déjà-déjà vu

exit the matrix

For this user, life is one long matrix glitch.

“There’s no easy way to describe this, but there are times when I experience a phenomenon that makes me question reality. I could be sitting down and all of a sudden experience what we all know as déjà vu, but it passes.

What happens when, during the day, I experience it non-stop, with maybe 30-minute breaks in between episodes? It’s not very frequent, but when it happens, I feel like I’ve already experienced almost everything I hear or see happening in front of me.”

Story by u/mitsospg10

7. Garage Band

This glitch in the matrix left the user shaken and terrified, as you will see from the below story:

“My parents were planning to visit a relative who lives half an hour away from us, leaving me home alone. This wasn’t an issue since I’m always home alone. I started watching an episode of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ just after my parents left, but halfway through the show, I heard some voices chattering in the garage. This worried me enough to go an investigate.

As soon as I opened the garage door, I saw 4 different cars with their lights on, and I noticed everyone was in their car except for my dad and his mate. I thought this was strange since they had just left 10 minutes ago, but I didn’t overthink it and asked him if they were coming inside. He replied yes and asked me to grab some drinks for his mates.

As I was on my way to grab the drinks, I realised that I had forgotten to ask if I should grab soft drinks or water. So I walked back to the garage, but when I opened the door again, it was empty. There were no people and no cars.

I was so confused that I called up my parents asking where they’d gone. They told me that they were still on their way to see my relatives and that they had never come back to the house. After hearing that, I immediately told my parents my story and they drove back to pick me up because I was so scared and confused about what had just happened.”

Story by u/zyrxn

8. Scripted

This matrix glitch would be handy for your exams.

“To this day, I can not explain what happened. I was watching TV with friends and we landed on some old 80s movie I used to watch over and over but hadn’t seen in a long time. I had the dialogue memorized and it all instantly came back and I knew what was going to be said next.

Here’s the freaky part we changed channels and kept trying to find something to watch. I noticed that everything we watched was the same—I knew every line of dialogue as if I was remembering it from having memorized it. These were all things I had never watched before!

Here’s the really freaky part—it started happening even when my friends were talking. An instant before they said anything, I knew word for word what they were saying. The effect only last an hour or so, but it was bizarre!!”

Story by u/JMCrown

9. Enigmatic Elevators

We Live in a Matrix and Reality Is a Computer Program

A glitch in the matrix, or a ghost?

“As my colleague and I were walking towards the elevator door, I saw a glimpse of a woman with a red shirt and long white skirt getting in. The doors closed before we could enter. Because of the funny conversation my coworker and I were having, I didn’t think much of it, and my co-worker pressed the button seconds after the elevator door closed. We expected another elevator door to open. What happened next shocked us.

The same elevator door opened a few seconds after it had closed. My coworker and I entered, apologizing to the lady, only to find the elevator empty. We both looked at each other perplexed. We had definitely both seen the woman in the red shirt and white skirt get into the lift a few seconds ago.

Another co-worker experienced the same thing in the same building. She too was walking towards the elevator, while talking on the phone, and saw a man in a hurry enter the elevator. As the doors closed, she pushed the button for another elevator only for the same one to open, with no one inside. My incident happened in early 2018 and hers happened about 2 weeks ago.”

Story by u/LTEstyles

Maybe you have your own glitch in the matrix story? If you do, please share it with us in the comments below!

Featured image by u/StartSelect


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This Post Has 8 Comments

  1. Jean-Paul Halsberghe

    For about 20 years, i was dreaming frequently of the house, i once would call my final homestead. I traveled the world, and back in 2007, as I strolled through an ordinary orchard. I halted and observed the freshly planted young plumb-trees. Suddenly emotions started surging in and accumulated, and all of a sudden, I felt that I am in my future home walking through my very own orchard , watch my own young fruit trees and sensed totally immersed in an extraordinary pride, happiness and joy in seeing them carrying loads of my…very own fruits.

    Years go by and i forget completely of that event, and finally I buy an very isolated and rough spot in Central Spain. Pioneering, the place is slowly brought to life again.My pride is my garden and about 80 young planted fruit trees are doing relatively well. one day, I remember that very strong connection I felt back in 2007. It surprised me because when walking though my orchard in 2019, I felt a certain pride for having planted trees and plants but did not feel any surge in emotional elation nor other stimulated mental states.

    This winter, a Moroccan man, grown up in rural Morocco, visits me and tells me I have to prune my trees. I reply i didn’t know how. ”Give me a saw” he replied, an soon enough , he started pruning my trees by first removing the main branches and stem I never dared touching.But, as he was knowledgeable, I let him do his stuff.

    When he left, my orchard looked like other more professional orchards; my fruit trees having los a lot of body, but radiated more the outlooks of ”real fruit trees”.

    Then summer followed spring and one particular day, i stroll through my orchard, actually meditating a few problems I had at hand, till all of a sudden, I paused and put my attention shifts to my green apple trees that started to bulge from the plentiful developing apples. I watch the nearby tree, then the others all similar promising heavy loads of harvest.

    Gradually, i slip back in time and remember all the hard work, stumbles, the obstacles I had to overcome till reaching this point. Emotions start flowing in and filling gradually increasing belly, heart and mind. I enter a weird state of weird gratefulness towards life while connecting for the first time in life with the beating heart and soul of those young trees surrounding me. An enormous sense of pride, happiness, pure joy plus gratefulness to the heavens for allowing me such privileged site and home, And then, all of these powerful emotions double in density -and almost explode-when i start fully realizing that all of that beauty is …indeed ,, mine…

    And when, the elation was nearing its zenith, only then, the realization slowly dawned that the extraordinary unique living experience overflowing me, was an exact duplication of that 2007 celestial once-in-a-lifetime that fo a couple of seconds had uplifted me into the heart of creation.

    My 2019 Question:

    Is this story somehow fitting into above (excellent) contribution?

    Sincerly

    Jean-Paul halsberghe

  2. Fred Carpenter

    Two of the books my transpersonal psychology teacher required us to read were The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot and The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune. One of the movies he suggest I watch was The Matrix.

    I typically don’t get along with those who work in the mental health field. They think I’m crazy and I think they’re close-minded robots who have no cognitive ability of their own and simply filter everything a client says through their “education.” I’m not sure they even realize what I mean by “collective hubris” or that they tend to project when I accidentally rub their ego the wrong way. College degrees are like belts in martial arts – there’s a reason Bruce Lee didn’t believe in them.

  3. deepak

    You are close but not close enough

  4. rodia acsa

    When I was 12 years old I woke up finding the bedroom door on a different side of the wall. Still sleepy and very shocked I went outside in the garden to realise that the house looked similar but it wasn’t the same one. I spot my mom outside doing some work in the garden and I asked her where is my sister and also I was trying to tell her that something was wrong with the house that it wasn’t the same. She then looked confused at me and asked which sister am I talking about and then she wouldn’t listen to me, asking me to go back to bed as it was to early. Frightened I went bad to bed and felt asleep and everything was back to normal when I woke up few hours later. When explaining to my mom what happened she said it was just a dream as she doesn’t remember anything but I know it wasn’t a dream at all.

    1. deepak

      I have dreamt of a door in the wall(anywhere in the house) that just appears and I walk through it and sometimes I walk through the walls and transcend, but I am Hindu Brahmin and know this could just be astral projection, however I like reading what you’re blogging , so please be encouraged and be confident that you’re path is right……….

  5. damien

    circa 1993 I had been 13 and on vacation with family staying at a hotel in baltimore. I remember the whole event cleary as if it were yesterday. We get back to the hotel from a family gathering earlier in the day and it’s still early so i decide to look for something to watch on tv. Being a hotel in the 90s they didnt really have full channels like they do now, just hbo, some local channels, and early version of pay per view but with some movies that hadnt even released to theaters yet, them using vod as a way to market test genre movies of the time, and I notice “The Crow” listed which was a movie i was looking forward to that wasnt due to come out for months. So i cue it up and watch it with my dad, mom, and older sister who all remember this as well. The version of “The Crow” i watched though, unlike the one that would eventually release contained a lot bigger story, including 2 characters, the Skull Cowboy, and a chinese man named Zaio who top dollar actually reported to who knew more about the mythology of the crow and was the cause of Eric getting depowered towards the end of the movie. When it finally released and those characters and the extra story details werent included i wasnt initially bothered in the least, because i figured cuts like that happen in movies…. but then i find out, those scenes were never filmed, other than a handful of very bad scenes shot with a crappy cg/puppet mix like skull cowboy. They were in the original script but they never made it into the movie. No record exists of the Zaio scenes ever being filmed but i remember him and the story clearly as does my other family members who were there that day. So either 4 people hallucinated a whole movie getting 90% of it right 6-8 months before it was released, or our tv signal came from an alternate universe that day.

  6. Jerry

    One morning I woke up to go to school (this was 40+ years ago), and as I entered my father’s car, I was thrilled to see that he had installed a radio – he never had one on that car.
    Spent all day in school, returned home by foot and happily told my mom about it. She said that she didn’t know about a new radio. When my father came at night he also said that he never installed a radio on the car. I had to check with my own eyes, and sure enough, there was no radio.
    Never understood what happened between the morning and the evening that day…

  7. Liz zenor

    When i was a freshman in high school my teacher Mr.Griffin announced to us that he would be gone the next day because his mother had passed, everyone said okay and we all went on with our day. The next day i was excited for math because i knew we would have a substitute. I walk into the class and everyone is acting weird because Mr.Griffin is not in his desk, everyone’s goofing off and acting out and then a substitute walks in and everyone is confused except me, everyone is wondering where he is and why we have a sub and i say aloud he told us yesterday he would be gone and no one remembers it, and the people around it who hears me gives me weird looks. Hes gone for about 4 days and when he comes back he says “Sorry i was out for awhile my mother passed away” and i was so confused because i was the only one who remembered him telling us or maybe i dreamt it or i glitched into a different universe.

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