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Disappearing Santa Hat

DebunkThisPls

Thinker
D
Joined
Jul 10, 2020
Messages
161
I really need an answer from a skeptic. This just happened about 20 minutes ago. I had a Santa hat that I left on the couch. It was there for maybe 2 hours, at least I know for a fact it was, and walked in and out of the living room several times between 8-10. But at around 10, i started watching a movie with my sister. I was on the couch the whole time, didn't move once. I am 99.999% sure the Santa hat was beside me. I have a memory of looking at it, in the dark with the TV on. The room was only dark during the movie, when I didn't move, and I haven't had the hat since the first when I put it in the closet by mistake and just never felt like getting it. Ok, but the big part is that I walked into my bedroom at around 11 when the movie was over (it was a TV special but same thing) I saw it sitting on my bed. Now, between 8-10 I walked into my room at least 5-10 times. I don't have a memory of moving it, and my sister nor my mom saw me do so, but it is possible I moved it and forgot about it, which I've doing a lot recently. Yet that doesn't explain why I remember seeing it. It's really, really, scaring me. I'm kinda freaking out right now, and I know I can't get a definitive answer, I just could really use some speculation about this

Edit: Now that I think about it, between 8-10, the last time that I know for a fact that I saw it, I only got up once, and I did go in that area, but I don't remember walking over far enough to grab rhe hat, as I wouldve had to walk over at least another 5-10 feet

Edit 2: Just had the Hat in my room, right next to a shirt on my bed. I was laying down. I got up once but I can't remember if it was before or after I had placed it here. It's not there. Found it in the same place I thought saw it the other time. I'm scared out of my mind. No one's playing a prank on me, I was with the whole family the whole time, except for my dad but he was in my parents room and never got up once. We only have two hats and one has a much bigger pom pom, so it's very easy to tell the difference between the two. My mom and sister remember seeing the Hat before the movie started so I couldn't have hallucinated the whole thing, it's still possible I hallucinated or misremebered one part, but it was there at one point in time. And for the second one I know for a fact I had it there because I even took a picture, as i was so scared what happened the first time might happen again and i wanted to be skeptical and sure I had it. Now, I don't know when I went in the other room, I just know that i walked to around that area of the couch , talked to my mom, and said told her I was going to bed. I don't remember, at least 100% if I saw the Hat when I went into my room, as my memory there is a bit foggy since I cut the lights off and i tend to forget when i can't see well. But look, I'm really, really scared right now. I don't think this is real anymore, I think this may be a simulation. I know I've had lots of these issues over the last couple months as a result of my depression and anxiety, but those times I had possible explanations, this time I have people who saw it with me and I can't wrap my head around either one
 
My parents are in bed now. Not sure if this is the same person I just replied to, if it is, I hope my other comment answered this question, if it isn't, please tell me and I'll be happy to answer it
 
DebunkThisPls said:
My parents are in bed now. Not sure if this is the same person I just replied to, if it is, I hope my other comment answered this question, if it isn't, please tell me and I'll be happy to answer it
Click to expand...

So you are 14 and typing on forums at midnight?
 
Matthew Ellard said:
You said you are Eastern time in the USA.

What time did you make this post?

Where are your parents?
Click to expand...

Matthew Ellard said:
So you are 14 and typing on forums at midnight?
Click to expand...

Normally I wouldnt but there are two reasons why I am

1. We have a snow day at school so I can stay up later

And 2. This whole thing has been so scary I just couldn't put it off and wait to ask for possible explanations
 
From the other thread.

DebunkThisPls said:
I'll be sure to do this. But before it's been times when I know I was right next to the object and couldve picked it up, here I wouldve had to go out of my way, forget about it, and have a hallucination/ false memory and for the second one I wouldve had to move stuff, climb on my bed and pick it up and move it, then forget about it without two adults noticing. Plus I wouldve had to have a maybe fake memory of me seeing it before cutting off my lights (since I was in bed the whole time after that, although I do think that, even if it was in my room, is a fake memory, because I wouldve only seen it out of the corner of my eye and i probably wouldn't have acknowleged it).
Click to expand...
No-one suggested that the placticity of memory is responsible for 100% of such incidents. Just that there are mundane explanations that no-one has thought of yet. For example - and I'm not suggesting that this is a true explanation and in fact I'm almost certain that it isn't - someone in your family may be pranking you.

Keeping a diary of events will help you in a number of ways. First, if you continue to discuss the issue with a doctor, you now have a record from which patterns may emerge. Also, once you start writing down what's been happening, the immediately scary edge of the incidents will be blunted. And occurrences like this can be genuinely scary.

My next suggestion to you right now is to grab a trashy fiction novel, prepare yourself a hot chocolate or your favourite bedtime beverage, go to bed and read until you fall asleep. If you wake up during the night, try and right down what you remember of your dreams. Not because dreams have any special significance, but because again, writing down details of dreams can render them less scary.
 
Matthew Ellard said:
Sooooooo you are 14 years old, typing on a forum at midnight, while your parents are in bed, on a week night.

Has it occurred to you you may be sleep deprived?
Click to expand...

Um, all this went down an hour and a half ago now, some even earlier. Sure, I may be a bit deprived but that still wouldn't explain why two people saw the hat and no one saw me move it or move at all. I mean for the first one it wouldve been around 9:30, I wouldnt have been tired then and it's possible I moved it, it's just that I have no memory of it and I wouldve had to go out of my way by 5-10 feet to grab it. And for the second one, I took a picture to make sure I wasn't crazy if something weird happened again, and even though it is still technically possible I grabbed it, I still wouldve had to grabbed it and completely forgotten about it, plus go out of my way to get it.
 
I'm tired now so I am going to go to sleep, hopefully I can think straight in the morning and I'll interact with y'all then
 
DebunkThisPls said:
Um, all this went down an hour and a half ago now, some even earlier. Sure, I may be a bit deprived but that still wouldn't explain why two people saw the hat and no one saw me move it or move at all.
Click to expand...

Skeptics, like detectives, log times, to methodically check basic facts first.

A 14 year old posting on a forum at half past midnight, on a week night, about a Christmas hat that may or may not have been moved by the three other people in your house, does raise a skeptic eyebrow.

DebunkThisPls said:
I took a picture to make sure ...
Click to expand...
Post the photo.
 
Matthew Ellard said:
A 14 year old posting on a forum at half past midnight, on a week night, about a Christmas hat that may or may not have been moved by the three other people in your house, does raise a skeptic eyebrow.
Click to expand...
Give the kid a break. When I was 14 I definiitely stayed up well past midnight on weeknights.
 
Last week, my wife and my daughter had a two-day argument about which of them had a pair of trousers that my daughter had ordered, to give to my wife to wrap up and give to my daughter for Christmas. My daughter clearly remembered my wife showing them to her, then taking them into our bedroom to wrap them, but hadn't seen them since. My wife equally clearly remembered my daughter showing them to her, then taking them into her bedroom to try them on. We spent two days searching the house before deciding that they were just lost, and maybe they'd turn up somewhere bizarre, and giving up.

The next day, the postman delivered them.

Memory is not a video recorder. We can convince ourselves we witnessed something that never happened, and memory does an amazing job of filling in the blanks, to the point where we can recollect the sights and sounds of a nonexistent event. If memory and external reality don't tally, quite often it's memory that's at fault.

Dave
 
There's also the fact that generating your conscious mind is only the 'tip of the iceberg' of what your brain does. Most of its processing happens at the unconscious level, and sometimes that can result in your body doing things your conscious mind didn't direct, or expect, it to. This is why you can end up driving to work when you intended to drive to visit your mum; your conscious mind was distracted so your unconscious mind took over and just repeated what you most often do when you're sitting at the wheel of your car.

I imagine the OP doesn't usually have a santa hat lying around, so their unconscious mind is not pre-programmed, as it were, to know what they want to do with it. Picking it up when they leave the room and putting it down somewhere else might well be it doing what it can to help. ;)
 
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