Woman Records “Glitch in the Matrix” When Niece’s Ball Vanishes Into Thin Air

I'm a paranormal investigator — I was on A&E's Ghost Hunters and also produce and host Haunted Discoveries along with one of my closest friends, Brandon Alvis, who I met during the casting process of GH.

While I know this is going to cue a lot of eye-rolls from people, the reason why Brandon and I got along so well, and why he welcomed me into the American Paranormal Research Association is that we always believed in legitimately documenting bizarre phenomena.

While there are lots of reality TV show personalities out there who settle for being just that — personalities, we, along with a lot of other folks in the field, earnestly believe there's a quantifiable way we can record strange phenomena that people all over the world see on a daily basis.

So it's no wonder that 64 percent of Americans believe they've encountered a truly supernatural event at least once in their lives. And 41 percent fully believe that paranormal phenomena is the norm.

And if this TikTok from Katie Victoria (@katiievictoriax) is legitimate, it is in line with a specific phenomena we've heard from inhabitants and visitors off purportedly haunted locations all across the United States.

In fact, after seeing this clip, it may rekindle some memories you've had of losing something seemingly out of nowhere, that maybe reappeared months later, out of the blue.

In her video, Katie shows her young niece wearing pajamas happily playing. She's gently hitting a round, plastic black ball around the living room.

Then, the little sphere travels between the child's feet and simply ... vanishes.

It doesn't get kicked underneath the couch. It doesn't roll quickly into another part of the room. It's just gone.

The TikToker speculates that the phenomenon is a "glitch in the matrix," which references a hypothesis that our reality is actually a simulation and the vast majority of us have no idea we're living in it.

According to Built In, this is called Simulation Theory, which the outline defines as such: "Simulation theory is a hypothesis proposing that our perceived reality is a powerful computer simulation, possibly created by a higher being. The theory assumes that either everything we know and that exists is simulated, or that the world we know of is simulated."

The outlet states that the theory was first proposed by Nick Bostrom, a philosopher who published the paper "Are You Living in a Computer Simulation?" in 2003.

Bostrom speculates that there's a 1/3 chance our reality is actually a simulation.

Australian Philosopher David Chalmers echoes similar a similar probability in his own book, Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy.

From my experience investigating bizarre phenomena, the video, again, if it's legit, seems to document an example of the "lost item" phenomenon.

Oftentimes in purportedly haunted locations, a common claim from witnesses APRA has interviewed is that items will go missing, only to show up weeks, sometimes months later. These items will usually be left in places that are in plain view, and their disappearance will have claimants questioning their own mental faculties.

Then, the item will re-appear and in many instances, its re-introduction into the haunted environment will be in the same exact place claimants said they've checked several times before, or where they originally kept it.

While we haven't documented a vanishing phenomenon akin to what appears to be occurring in Katie's video, there have been instances where inanimate objects have physically moved seemingly on their own.

While investigating the Conrad Caldwell Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, a piece of furniture where one of our environmental data loggers was placed, seems to have moved by itself. Docents of the Museum claim past residents were particular about the arrangement of its furniture and have cited similar phenomena when they've rearranged articles in the building.

At the Speed Mansion, also located in Old Louisville, I was narrating about the progress of our investigation, when I noticed the door knob in one of the historic location's rooms turn by itself.

After watching Katie's video several times, I'm still fascinated with how the ball seems to just vanish.

The comments section of Katie's video were filled with anecdotes from others who've purportedly lost items out of nowhere. One user on the app wrote: "I lost a lipstick one time. Looked everywhere for it. Six months later it dropped from the ceiling and hit me in the head. Still freaks me out thinking about it."

Someone else relayed a tale that sounds like something out of Moana: "Lost a precious ring of mine in the OCEAN in another COUNTRY… When I came back, it was under my pillow."

And then there was this tale: "I dropped an earring at the mall, looked back and saw it on the floor and decided not to go for it bc it was crowded. found it in my drawer with the other three months later. Still don’t know how."

Some folks believed that there was an entirely practical explanation for what happened in the video, however. "I think she kicked it with her heel and was just lined so perfectly her legs completely blocked the view of it rolling to under the tree?"

But a lot were convinced Katie was right, like this user who said: "The only actual glitch in the matrix I completely believe cuz it’s clear as day it disappears."