50 Strange And Unbelievable Events That Felt Like We Are Living In A Simulation

The origins of the universe are still one of life’s greatest unsolved puzzles. Some say it started with science, others believe in something divine—but every so often, reality glitches just enough to make you think we’re all part of a simulation.

Because how else do you explain the Matrix-level weirdness these people went through? We’ve got no good answers. Scroll down and see if you do.

More info: TikTok | X

Image credits: hindsight_travel #1

Developed a rapidly growing mass in my left eye socket. Multiple doctors said it was an infection and would go away on its own. Left my last doctor’s appointment to get dinner and happened to sit next to a retired orbital surgeon visiting from another country who told me I would need surgery ASAP. She connected me with the best surgeon in my country and I’m recovering now ❤️

#2

I was in an airport once and I had this book in my bag and as I was going through security I realized that the lady in front of me was the author and then she signed the book for me 🙂

#3

I found my mom’s library card in a cave when I went on a spelunking tour in Australia last year (I’m from Sweden btw smh).

#4

The night I met my BF we were talking and figured out we lived in TWO of the same childhood homes, and had the same rooms. My family moved in right after he moved out each time.

#5

Met a guy at a bar in a different state than I lived in. Started talking & realized not only were we from the same state, we lived at the same apartment, same floor, and in fact were next door neighbors. We are now in a relationship lol.

#6

You know how when you’re little, your parents take you to a park where you make a friend and never see them again after that? My husband is that friend I made all those years ago.

#7

I travelled to Italy in 2017. I ordered a cab to get from my airport to my hotel. The driver was really nice. We had a great convo the whole way there. I got laid off in 2023, so I signed up to drive uber. My friends told me to go to the airport for guaranteed money. My first customer was that cab driver from Italy.

#8

I’m from America. I had a pen pal from the UK. Went on a class trip to Spain and just randomly ran into her.

#9

I used to run a comedy show in San Francisco with a few friends. One of them did a 10 min bit about how bad Third Eye Blind was. Then she was like “ok I feel mean. But it’s not like Stephen Jenkins is here.” From the audience a man goes “yes he is.” And it’s Stephen Jenkins.

#10

I checked out a book at my high school library, the old library card fell out of it with my mom’s signature on it. She had checked it out in the 80’s.

#11

I had this childhood bestie Leslie, we lived in the same apartment complex, she moved & I was so sad, my fam also moved a week later, we unexpectedly moved across the street from Leslie.

#12

I ran into someone from my school at a gas station in New Jersey. We grew up in a New Zealand town of 31,000 people.

#13

My girlfriend and I, 12 years before we met each other on hinge, were in the same tap dancing class and performed on stage together less than a metre apart.

It’s on tape and everything.

And the song were performing to is
“It’s a small world”.

#14

In high school, my great—uncle passed away…told my classmates. A friend said hers had died too. Turns out, we were talking about the same funeral — we found out we were cousins after that.

#15

My neighbor bought a used car and found a picture of me as a child in the glovebox.

#16

I moved into the same apartment as my mom’s first apartment without knowing that she ever lived there.

#17

My mom had decided on my name (Phoebe) before she gave birth and the nurses who helped deliver me were Monica and Rachel.

#18

When I was a kid I used to sell earings and they were little flowers i made with my signature on it (I live in Quebec). Ten years later I was in Croatia and the lady sit next to me on the bus was wearing the earings I made.

#19

I traveled several states away, went to a flea market and found a one of a kind post card OF MY GRANDPARENT’s HOUSE from 1911.

#20

One day I was walking through the city when I saw my doppelgänger across the street. That’s not the weird part. Although seeing one’s doppelgänger is uncommon, it does happen sometimes. Where it got into “glitch in the matrix” territory was that she was wearing the exact same dress that I was and her hair was styled in the exact same way.

#21

It’s not that juicy but I ended up at a new friends house and three out of four of us had the exact same birthday. October 31st, 1995.

#22

My mom died when I was 8 and the exact same day she died three years later I saw her doppelgänger and she said I looked familiar.

#23

My mom’s first love was the dad of my first love.

#24

My dad ran into his boss on vacation in a random small town in France.

#25

My friend found her cat on the side of the road in Washington. She moved to Spain and met a girl from New York who found her cat on the side of the road in Washington. Their cats are siblings.

#26

My finance’s mom was one of the nurses who took care of my mom after she gave birth to me.

#27

My parents (Ray and Karen), bought my childhood home from a couple named Ray and Karen…. Then sold our house to a Ray and Karen.

#28

I moved to the Detroit from Congo at 8yrs old in 3rd grade. We briefly moved to NC in 8th grade and the boy who used to bully me IN AFRICA was in one of my classes in Cary, North Carolina!!!

#29

I took a trip to Ireland and met a wonderful local couple at a pub.

Completely different trip, this time to the UK, stopped somewhere for some dinner in London and was sat down at a table right next to the same exact couple.

#30

One of my students moved half way through her 8th grade year and moved across the state. I moved over the summer and she walked into my classroom for the first day of her 9th grade year.

#31

Me and a classmate of mine were born on the same day, my mom said she remembers congratulating my classmate’s mom cuz she was born before me. We later found out our moms have the same bday as well.

#32

My family went on vacation in PuntaCana this year and ran into a group of girls we met 5 years prior on another family vacation in Mexico.

#33

Turned down a spelunking date in 9th grade. 15 years later the rejected boy was my tour guide. On an 8 hour spelunking tour. My husband and I were the only 2 that signed up.

#34

Classmate dies in 5th grade, I attended visitation, saw him in his casket. Later on 2 summers later, I swim to the bottom of the pool to find a necklace…same necklace he wore in his casket, he drowned.

#35

Once went to a museum in Ottawa when I was 7, met a kid there from Toronto and played with him for a few hours. Went back to the same museum 2 years later and met the same kid. Was wild.

#36

Lost my contact lense in my friend’s swimming pool one summer. The next summer after coming to the surface, my friend found it stuck to my cheek!

#37

Lived in an apartment building for 2 years. One night at work (hospital) met a handsome guy. Realized we live a few doors down from each other. Never ran into each other before then! Now married 🙂

#38

I was guiding a whale watching tour in Juneau AK & a couple came up to me & showed me a video of a whale watch they went on on Maui. I was the tour guide in the Maui video.

#39

My ex and i broke up and two weeks later I took a day trip to a beach three hours away and ran into him & his whole family + a new girl within 15 mins of getting out of the vehicle.

#40

From MA. SMALL college in CT. worked on the newspaper. moved to TX. worked at a Panera. I trained a guy there who went to the same college as me. he got arrested in college. I reported on his arrest.

#41

On the first day of college a girl sitting next to me said she saw me in Paris at a restaurant. I was confused but apparently her and her family sat behind us. There’s even a picture to prove it.

#42

My name is Kimberley and once upon a time my car broke down on Kimberley road and when I called for someone to tow my car the person who picked up was named Kimberley.

#43

One time as a kid I was talking about an animated movie that had just came out with a neighbour in his courtyard and the producer of the film came out of his apartment, overheard us and gave us tickets to the movie out of the blue.

#44

Met someone on Omegle when I was 14 he was 15. I was living in CA he was living in FL. Moved to NYC at 21 and matched him on tinder he lived 1 mile away!

#45

Deployed to Africa in 2021, got letters from kids who mailed letters to mil members, got out of the military in 2024. Came to college. Talked ab it in class, turns out I got a letter from my profs kid.

#46

A nice lady prayed with my dad over my adoption process in 2003. Fast forward 13 years and that lady was my 8th grade choir teacher. We had no idea until my dad came to our Christmas concert.

#47

Ran into a random girl at a bar who said I looked like the girl on her “one year ago today”. She showed me and it WAS me. Apparently we were at the same house party exactly one year prior.

#48

I was standing on Omaha Beach in Normandy France when a couple asked me to take a picture of them. Turns out they were from the small town in Texas I’m from. On a random Tuesday in June.

#49

In middle school I played video games over Xbox with this dude, Destiny and the Crew mostly. Turns out, after playing for 8 months, we found out we went to the same school, and lived 200 yards apart.

#50

My parents were traveling route 66 in the early 90s. they hadn’t seen a gas station in hours, and stopped at a place in rural Nevada. the only two customers there were people they knew FROM ALABAMA.

#51

My mom always kept me outa the big cities school because she was scared I would meet my biological brother. Ended up going to school with him anyways in a completely different city and didn’t know!

My mom called me asking me how I knew a boy named Ray told her I went to school with him. She told me that it was my brother she went snooping on his family’s Facebook seen him & I were fb friends.

#52

I saw my grade 9 gym teacher in a tiny restaurant in Bali (we’re from an island in Canada).

#53

My mom ran into her childhood best friend from Minnesota in Las Vegas (we live in Washington).

#54

Lived across the world only to come back to the US and be in the same exact class with someone I went to school with in Saudi Arabia. Honestly it kinda freaked me out and still does.

#55

A girl at my office was born the same exact day as me , same hospital, grew up in a town apart , lived in the same building one apartment apart – didn’t meet until we were 27.

#56

my dad was born with the cord around his neck and the doctors thought he was going to die, so they did a baptism for him. the nurse that held him during the baptism was my mom’s mom🥹🫶🏼

#57

Met a group of Australians in front on the Eiffel Tower. Two weeks later, my friend and I are out clubbing in Barcelona, we turn around and there they are next to us on the dance floor.

#58

Went out w/ a guy and we found out we were going to Seattle at the same time.. on the same day.. at the same time.. on the same airplane.. then our seats were assigned and we were sat next to each other.

#59

One time I checked out at TJ Maxx then went directly to Whole Foods down the street and checked out there and realized it was the same woman at the cash register. When I said “omg” she said “I know.”

#60

Grew up an air force brat. The neighbors my parents currently have were their neighbors in a completely different state 10 years prior, hadn’t seen or spoke since then. It was a crazy reunion.

#61

After four years of total and complete silence, ex best friend and i decided to message each other on the same RANDOM day, in different social medias.

#62

I was at a bar the other night and a guy came up to me like “did you sneak up to the pit of a korn concert 3 years ago in (city 1hr away from bar)?” I did. I stood next to him to get past security lol

#63

My mother (from Indiana) went to Shanghai Pearl Market and literally ran into the only person she knew in China, who did not live in Shanghai, and didn’t know my mom was visiting.

#64

Saw this gorgeous man in the Denver airport going idk where. for the next two weeks i regretted not speaking to him. i was at the /morgan Wallen concert in charlotte (not my hometown) and SAW HIM.

#65

I was substitute teaching after college and had a job in my old middle school. I was helping a kid with measurement and grabbed a ruler out of a basket of rulers and it was mine! From 10 years before.

#66

My boyfriend’s name (first and middle) is what my name was gonna be had I been a boy. My dad calls it destiny.

#67

Was at a bar in Rome and told some guys i was from Wyo. they go “do you know …?” I didn’t even say what town. It’s a girl I’ve gone to school with since the fourth grade.

#68

Brother lives in CA. Our dad was in KY at a hotel, when he said to a guy in the lot w/CA plates, my son is in the Navy in CA & has a truck just like yours. It was my brother’s truck that he had sold.

#69

My brother named Christ was born on December 25th. The nurse that delivered him was named Mary. They met a guy named Joseph in the hospital and a priest that baptized him before leaving the hospital.

#70

Crashed a random wedding in Cape Town, South Africa in 2014. one year later I ran into the couple at a house party in Boulder, Colorado.

#71

I was in Bermuda at a beach and went to the bathroom at the exact moment a lady was walking out, it was my coworker. We both took time off and had no idea we were going to the same place lol.

#72

I (dutch, small town) had an online friend from the usa who was studying in brazil, she told me she met another dutch person. So i asked where he was from. He lived 6 houses away from me.

#73

My bf and I had attended the same prom 2 years before we met. Neither of us went to this school nor did we live in the same city or even the same city the prom was in. We had both gone with a friend.

#74

Saw my history teacher in a cafe in NEW YORK (i live in England).

#75

Had a crush on a guy, found out his mom was my middle school therapist, we no longer speak.

#76

Was in a Nova Scotia gift shop and a girl complimented my eras tour bag. Turns out she lives on the same street as me in Texas, 2.5k miles away, and I’d just never met her. It felt so insane.

#77

My mom worked at the hospital as a nurse when she was pregnant with me. I worked with one of her coworkers 24 years later, same hospital, pregnant with my first baby.

#78

I grew up like 45 minutes away from where I was born and I went to school with someone who shared a bday with me. He was born in the same hospital, in the room next door to me, 4 minutes before me.