Phantom Presses?

 In my 2018 post "It's Like Some Invisible Presence Is Pressing My TV Remotes," which you can read here, I documented quite a few cases in which my TV remote seemed to act as if some invisible presence had pressed a button on it. I have occasionally seemed to get such an effect during the years since 2018. 

In the past two days I seem to have got three new examples of such an effect.  Yesterday I was watching Netflix, in the middle of an episode, when suddenly Netflix disappeared, and my TV screen switched to a startup screen that I get when starting up my television, before choosing to watch Netflix. At the time I was alone in a room, with the TV remote inches away from my body. The exact same thing happened twenty minutes ago, with the TV remote an arm's length from my body. While watching Netflix, Netflix suddenly vanished, and my TV went back to its startup screen.  Then the exact same thing happened again for the second time today when I was writing this post. While watching Netflix, with the remote an arm's length away, Netflix suddenly vanished, and my TV went back to its startup screen.

This is the first time I can recall a spooky type of event happen when I was in the very process of writing a post about that type of spooky event. 

By experimenting, I figured out exactly which button on my TV remote can be pressed to produce this effect. It is the Home button, which has a little "House" icon on it. 

There is some possible metaphysical symbolism here. In near-death experiences people who report out-of-body experiences may have what seems like brief trips to some otherworldly realm. During such a sojourn a person will often report feeling that the visited realm is his or her "real home" or "true home." According to one theory, we all come from some nonearthly place that is our true home, and we lived in such a place before coming to Earth. 

So if some spirit from such a realm of existence were trying to signal someone on Earth, that spirit might choose some type of symbolism involving a Home symbol. 

Spooky Serenity

 Today while New York City is baking in temperatures of about 100 degrees, I am making a rare use of my air conditioner. New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani has recently been ridiculed for asking people to set their air conditioners at 78 degrees, to save energy and reduce the chance of a blackout from excessive energy use by the public. Such ridicule makes no sense. If you wear shorts, a room is comfortable enough if you set the air conditioner to 78 degrees.

As I typically do in the morning and afternoon, I was enjoying the "Stingray Naturescape" channels on my LG Channels TV facility. It's a group of three contiguous channels (IP-757, IP-756 and IP-755)  that provide the most soothing visual and auditory content. You get visual footage such as scenes filmed by drones flying high over beaches and forests and mountains and natural parks and fields of flowers, and footage taken at vacant beaches or near waterfalls or in the middle of fields of flowers.  The background music is instrumental music designed to soothe, such as gentle piano music, gentle acoustic guitar music, gentle pan pipe music, or organ music with slow, long-lasting chords.  The effect is extremely soothing. These channels are great to play on your TV when you have work to do on your computer. The channels won't distract you from your work.

There are occasional commercial interruptions, which I evade by changing from one of the three contiguous channels to another, or by pressing the Mute button on my remote control. 

Today my remote control was an arm's length away, when suddenly I lose the channel I was on, and my TV goes to a startup screen showing lots of little squares representing viewing options. How did that happen? The only way for that to happen on my TV is for someone to press the Home button on my TV remote, which has a little House icon on it. But the button was untouched, and the TV remote was an arm's length away, with nothing else touching it.  

This was yet another example of what I have observed (and documented in posts at this site) innumerable times, at occasional intervals -- some result resembling what would occur if some invisible hand had pressed a button or flipped a switch. Today's anomaly may have had some possible metaphysical symbolism, related to the topic discussed in my post here. The "Home" motif is one that strongly occurs in near-death experiences.

Postscript: The next day I saw yet another example of an anomaly I have seen more 34 times. At 6:30 PM I noticed a rubber band on my floor, about 18 inches from the TV set, in a room I had been in alone for hours without noticing such an object on the floor. Such observations are baffling, given my long-standing policy to always pick up small objects I see on the floor of my living quarters, as soon as I see them, and given that no one else had been in the room that day. 

Post-postscript: On July 11, 2026 I saw yet another example of the type of anomaly mentioned in the previous paragraph. At 2:40 PM I was surprised to suddenly see a rubber band in the middle of the floor of the living room that I had occupied alone for most of the previous five hours. I have now seen this type of anomaly more than 35 times. 

Post-post-postscript: On July 15, 2026  I saw yet another example of the type of anomaly mentioned above. At about 5:00 PM I saw two feet to my left (very plainly visible in the middle of a blue sofa pillow) a pink rubber band I had failed to observe previously in the day, although I sat on that couch for most of the day.  I have now seen this type of anomaly more than 36 times.

Post-post-post-postscript: On July 19, 2026  I saw yet another example of the type of anomaly mentioned above. At about 4:15 PM I saw on the floor a few inches from the TV stand (in a very noticeable position) a pink rubber band. About 90 minutes earlier I had swept the floor with a broom to clean up little bits of dust, without seeing any such rubber band; and I hadn't done anything in the meantime involving any rubber band. No one else was in the room that day. I have now seen this type of anomaly more than 37 times.

Post-post-post-post-postscript: On August 29, 2026  I saw yet another example of the type of anomaly mentioned above. At about 3:20 PM I saw on the floor a few inches from the TV stand (in a very noticeable position) a blue rubber band. I had spent most of the day in the same room, without noticing any such rubber band.  I have now seen this type of anomaly more than 38 times.

Post-post-post-post-post-postscript: On September 5, 2026 I saw yet another example of the type of anomaly mentioned above. In the afternoon I suddenly saw 2 rubber bands on the floor of a room only I had occupied that day. I had been in the room for more than five hours, and had not knowingly touched any rubber bands.  The two rubber bands are shown below.   I have now seen this type of anomaly more than 39 times.

Post-post-post-post-post-post-postscript: The next day something basically identical happened, except that it involved only 1 rubber band.  I have now seen this type of anomaly more than 40 times.

A Strange Event

 I just saw something very odd. A few minutes ago I was alone in a room, with the TV showing a Netflix series.  There were 5 minutes left in one of the episodes, and I was cleaning my sink, more than a meter away from the TV remote. Suddenly my TV freezes on an image of someone pulling out a book from a shelf. Then, very oddly, Netflix simply vanishes, and my TV changes to showing an "LG Channels" screen I get in the morning before I ever choose to watch Netflix. This "LG Channels" is a variety of channels a little like cable TV.

This is not how Netflix behaves.  There could be some button on the TV remote that might produce such a change in what I see on my TV, but no one was touching the TV remote, which was on the sofa away from me, securely resting in a particular spot. 

I can imagine how this hard-to-explain event might have a strange symbolic meaning. The spooky event happening when there were five minutes left in the show might symbolize a "five left" motif, referring to time left in my mortal life,  which could mean five days left or five weeks left or five months left or five years left.  The selection of a book on the TV screen when the TV show froze could symbolize an appointment, such as an appointment with death. In English "book" has a double meaning, meaning both a printed volume, and "to schedule something," as in the phrase "he booked a hotel for April 3." The switching from the world of Netflix to the very different world of LG Channels might symbolize going from one world to a very different world, as a soul might do when departing from this  earthly realm. 

Enigmatic Electricity

Over the past few years I have seen well over 60 cases of electrical or electronic devices mysteriously changing their state. This has included 18 cases of the flashlight at the back of my Samsung tablet turning on mysteriously when the tablet was turned off, 15 cases of an electric toothbrush turning on by itself,  10 cases of a sound machine turning off by itself or changing its channel,  9 cases of a Samsung tablet turning off by itself,  three cases of lamps turning on by themselves, and more than 10 cases of a TV mysteriously changing its state (such as switching to a new channel when I hadn't touched the remote).   Today I saw three more examples in the same vein.

I was at a laundromat, and chose "Hot" as my setting for 3 dryers, as I always do. I sat down about 15 feet from the dryers, just staring into space as I thought. Ten minutes later I double-checked the dryers to make sure they were all on "Hot." I found that two of the three dryers I was using had now switched to the "Delicates" setting, one I never have chosen in my life.  While one of these two dryers was out of my sight (blocked by a pillar), the other dryer that had switched to "Delicates" was in my sight for the whole 10 minutes, and I saw no one changing the setting.  The dryer control panel is below.  If you don't choose a heat setting, this type of dryer will always use "Medium."

Just after posting the first version of this post, I looked up at my TV and saw that my TV program had gone, and that the TV had mysteriously changed to the 2 channel, which produces the look below:

When this switch occurred, I wasn't touching any TV remote. The remotes were both half a meter to my left (below is a photo I took of the state the remotes were in at this time).  You can only get the screen above if you press the "2" button on the black remote.

Postscript: Something similar happened on April 6, 2019. I was watching a movie on TV, and suddenly I am surprised to see the  blank "Video 2 Game" screen on my TV. The only controller I can use to switch the TV to this "Video 2 Game" was the black controller, which was an arm's length away from me when this switch occurred. For me to switch the TV to "Video 2 Game" requires a press of two different buttons on the remote: (1) a press of the Input button; (2) a press of the + button underneath the Favorites button.

On two separate trips to the laundromat I mentioned above, I confirmed there was no machine issue causing the dryers to switch settings from "High" to "Delicate."  They showed no sign of malfunction on those trips.

It's Like Some Invisible Presence Is Pressing My TV Remotes

I get many types of inexplicable occurrences other than mysterious orbs that show up in my photos. My series of 18 posts here lists some of these strange events. One of the types of strange things I see happening involves my television set. I will repeatedly get the television acting as if one or more buttons on a TV remote was pressed, even though no such button was pressed by me. Here are some examples. I may note that I have two remotes, a black remote and a gray remote. The examples below all occurred while I was alone in my living room. 

April  9, 2018: On this day there occurred the very inexplicable event described in this post, in which a screen came up on my TV that required 14 different presses on my black remote, a remote I wasn't even touching at the time.  

April 21, 2018: I was watching TV with the black remote about a foot from my leg, and suddenly the TV picture is lost – it's just how the screen would look if someone pressed the button 2 on the black remote.

May 26, 2018: I was holding the black remote, and my finger was on the volume decrease button. At this instant the TV switches so the picture is lost. The TV now shows just what I would have seen if I had pressed the 8 button. That button is several buttons away on the control from the volume decrease button.

May 31, 2018: I see the “Scene Select” menu come up on my TV, just as it would if I had pressed the “Scene” button on my black remote. I had not pressed the button, and the remote was not in my hand.

June 26, 2018: When I came back from going to the bathroom, I found the TV was on the “Light Classical” station, channel 1950. I never switch to that station. The last channel I had chosen was  channel 1943, “Soundscapes.” An accidental switch to this station would have required an accidental 7 pushes of the Next button on the remote (or a pushing of the 1, 9, 5, and 0 buttons).

July 6, 2018: The channel changed from 80 to 1 while I was not touching any remote.

August 16, 2018: The “Settings” menu comes up on the TV. I was not holding the remote that has a button that can bring up this menu.

August 20, 2018: I turn to channel 1943 on the TV, the instrumental “Soundscapes” channel, so I can finish a blog post with minimal distraction. After spending about an hour on the post, without touching any remote, I look up at the TV, and it is now on channel 1947 “Singers and Swing.” 

August 31, 2018: I was holding the gray remote, with the TV on channel 83, and suddenly the channel changes to channel 1. My finger wasn't next to any of the buttons that could have been used to make such a change.

September 5, 2018: I pick up the black remote but did not press any of its buttons. I then look at the TV, and see that it has changed from channel 82 to channel 1000. I can only change channels with the gray remote.

September 14, 2018: I was standing while pointing the gray remote at the TV with my finger on the volume button. Suddenly the TV changes so that there is a blank screen with 1 in the right corner. This is what I will get only if I press the 1 button on the black remote. But the black remote was three feet behind me, on the sofa. 

Postscript: I read online various cases of people who experienced TV channels switching when they didn't press the remote. The explanations suggested seem to be all just speculations.  One explanation is an infrared signal from a passing truck. I live on the seventh floor, so that doesn't work as an explanation here. Another explanation is a remote signal from some other apartment passing through the wall. But it seems the signals from remotes cannot pass through thick walls. The diagram below shows a test I tried. When I was in the position marked by the green circle, the remote would change the channel. But when I was in the position marked by the red circle, the remote would not change the channel, regardless of which direction I pressed the remote. 

Additional incident:  On September 26, 2018 when I was playing a video game, using the TV as the video display screen, I held the video game controller in my hands, and the black remote was on the sofa six inches to the right of me. Suddenly the TV turned off. I hadn't touched the remote. There's no way of turning off the TV using the video game controller. When I play a game using the TV there's no reliance on cable TV, and the cable TV box didn't look like it does when there's a cable TV outage.

Pressing Poltergeist?

Besides endless astonishing cases of orb activity that I've photographically documented on this blog, I also documented non-photographically an interesting set of events that range from the strange to the inexplicable. As posted in this series of posts, these events have included:

(1) Eleven cases of the flashlight on the back of my Samsung tablet device turning on even though the tablet was turned off (I know of no way to turn on the flashlight at the back of the tablet when the tablet is turned off).
(2) Fifteen cases of an electric toothbrush turning on mysteriously when I was far away from it, and no one else was touching it.
(3) Four cases of a toilet flushing by itself, twice on October 31, 2016, and twice on October 21, 2017 (the toilet is a type with no tank and no float, the two things needed for naturally occurring "ghost flushing," and the toilet requires a very firm hand movement to flush).
(4) One case of a lamp turning on by itself  many months ago (the lamp is a very sturdy type of lamp that was directly plugged into the wall, and the lamp requires a firm press of a switch to turn on).  The lamp and socket have worked flawlessly since then.
(5) One case of a bathroom light turning off as I approached the small bathroom. I saw no one exit the bathroom or inside the bathroom, and checked whether the bulb had burned out, finding that the light could still be turned on.

Yesterday I lay on my couch, and for some reason said aloud something like, "It would be nice to get another one of those spooky signs like the light turning on by itself."  About 10 or 20 seconds later I heard a loud thud coming from what seemed to be the building roof above me. But that could have been just one of those "contraction noises" that old buildings sometimes make by themselves.

Later in the day something inexplicable happened. I was sitting on my couch, alone in my apartment, using my computer, while the television was on. Suddenly I look up from my computer and see on the TV some control screen I had never seen before, a screen for modifying the sharpness of the TV image. I had no idea that such a screen could be brought up on my TV.  Below is the screen, which I'll call the Sharpness Control Screen.

I later found that this Sharpness Control Screen could be brought up using a black remote that was 3 feet away from me when I first saw the Sharpness Control Screen, lying face up on the same sofa I sat on, looking just like this:

But this Sharpness Control Screen was what is called a deeply nested screen. That means you can't get the screen by merely pressing a single button on the remote. You have to press a long series of buttons.

Here is the sequence of button presses needed for someone to bring up the Sharpness Control Screen:

(1) First you have to press a Menu button on the remote to bring up this screen.

(2) Then you have to press a "Down" button three different times to move from "Photo" on this menu to "Settings" on this menu.

(3) Then you have to press the "Enter" button on the remote to get the screen shown below

(4) Then you have to press the "Enter" button  again so the screen looks like this:

(5) Then you have to press the "Down" button 7 times so the screen looks like this:

(6) Then you have to press the "Enter" button to get the Sharpness Control Screen that I saw:

I certainly did not press any of these buttons to bring up the Sharpness Control Screen that I first saw. I simply noticed this Sharpness Control Screen up on the TV when I looked up after doing some work on the computer. The remote that can you can use to bring up this screen was three feet away from me. There's no other way to bring up this screen, except by using the remote.

We can't explain that Sharpness Control Screen popping up by assuming that there was some freak reason why a single button on the remote got pressed while it was three feet away from me. To get this Sharpness Control Screen using the remote you have to press different parts of the remote 14 different times.

The unexpected appearance of this Sharpness Control Screen is therefore a strange mystery I can't explain.  I've been using the TV for 8 years, and never had one of the TV control screens pop up when I wasn't touching the remote.  The TV has no Internet capability, so we can't explain  this by assuming hacker mischief.

As a case of possible paranormal activity, I find this much more impressive than a light turning on by itself. A light turning on by itself requires a single press of a light switch, but in this case 14 different presses of the remote were required to bring up this Sharpness Control Screen.