Bizarre Cellphone Incident

[mistermike 2]

This evening me, my girlfriend and two of her friends went to dinner.

If I hadn't seen this as it unfolded I would have doubted the sequence of events I witnessed.

One of her friends Elliot, noticed a call coming in on his Samsung Galaxy (Verizon). It was from my girlfriends iPhone 5s (ATT). At first the suspicion was she was accidentally dialing him somehow, so she takes her phone out of her purse and to our shock the iPhone isn't even making a call. Elliot shows me the incoming call on the phone-definitely her number. Immediately, the other friend Tim's iPhone 4s (Verizon) starts ringing. It's a call from Elliot. However his phone is still showing my GF's incoming call.

It gets stranger still.

Tim's friend Scott (not present) texts him to say he got a phone call from another friend Donny (not present) and when he answered... he heard Tim's voice mail greeting!

Both Elliot and my GF's phone log do not show the outgoing calls.

So to break it down:

Phone A gets incoming call from phone B

Phone B shows no dialing activity.

Simultaneously,Phone C receives a call from Phone B.

Phone B shows no dialing activity.

Phone D texts Phone C to inform he received a call from Phone E that when answered, played the voice mail greeting from Phone C.

Phones A and B show no record of the outgoing calls.

This all happened within 5 minutes at most.

Only way it could have got any weirder is if they answered those calls!

Any reasonable explanations?

[DeWitz 1,330]

I knew that the airwaves would one day become overcrowded and various individual phone signals would inevitably intersect with others, causing havoc, chaos and confusion in the cellular phone world. Now it appears this has happened, just as I prophesied.

I fear that the next step in this nefarious process will be that the phones will actually turn their interconnected signals into a form of mass cognition. From that point, world domination by cell phones is simply a matter of time.

Or maybe you all had a party line?

Now that I got all that off my chest, let me suggest that the precision with which we expect our technology to function is not equivalent to the ability of the microcircuits in question to do their job as asked. That probably sounds as crazy and ridiculous as my first three paragraphs above, but it has been my experience of every piece of electronic technology I have ever handled. The potential of these miniature computers (that's what these phones are) far outstrips the constraints we think we have put on them.

All this having been said, I've got to go now because the people with the gurney are here with their big, noisy van with flashing lights.

Oh, and, by the way---welcome to UM!

[Skep B 4,404]

Honestly networks jsut glitch up like that sometimes, it's nothing sinister or paranormal. Just an annoying thing tech does sometimes.

If it keeps happening then just swap em out.

[sophSPOOK 6]

That is weird. I wouldnt say its a glitch at all. How the hell can phones call all by themselves? Interesting i say.

[mistermike 2]

Thanks szentgyorgy for the welcome! Interesting theory indeed. Kelevra, your take makes sense, just baffled as to how different phones on different networks would all glitch simultaneously and within only the circle of friends mentioned. I'm sure the tech underlying it all is beyond my ken, of course.

[sophSPOOK 6]

I have heard of stories where a deceased loved one has called a living relative before. Their caller ID (name and number) came up on the phone screen and when the person answered they heard the deceased voice. Things are weird. We live in a weird and strange world. Some things can't be explained and i like it. Keeps us thinking and wondering.

[Frank Merton 17,401]

I knew that the airwaves would one day become overcrowded and various individual phone signals would inevitably intersect with others, causing havoc, chaos and confusion in the cellular phone world. Now it appears this has happened, just as I prophesied.

I fear that the next step in this nefarious process will be that the phones will actually turn their interconnected signals into a form of mass cognition. From that point, world domination by cell phones is simply a matter of time.

Or maybe you all had a party line?

Now that I got all that off my chest, let me suggest that the precision with which we expect our technology to function is not equivalent to the ability of the microcircuits in question to do their job as asked. That probably sounds as crazy and ridiculous as my first three paragraphs above, but it has been my experience of every piece of electronic technology I have ever handled. The potential of these miniature computers (that's what these phones are) far outstrips the constraints we think we have put on them.

All this having been said, I've got to go now because the people with the gurney are here with their big, noisy van with flashing lights.

Oh, and, by the way---welcome to UM!

The mass cognition is already here. We call it public opinion, and with chat rooms and message boards and instant news and so on it is steadily getting more efficient. The one thing it seems to lack so far in order to become a sentient being is a mechanism of forming single thoughts.

[DeWitz 1,330]

I have heard of stories where a deceased loved one has called a living relative before. Their caller ID (name and number) came up on the phone screen and when the person answered they heard the deceased voice. Things are weird. We live in a weird and strange world. Some things can't be explained and i like it. Keeps us thinking and wondering.

Of course it was TV, but one of the better Twilight Zone episodes from the 1960's was about a woman who kept getting brief, plaintive phone calls from her recently deceased husband. Of course she freaks out, it's during a thunderstorm, etc. etc. She calls the cops and they trace her phone line to the cemetery where he's buried, and discover that the line is down because of the storm, and is draped across his gravestone. . .

It is a weird and strange world. I also think there are too many radio signals crisscrossing in the air--something's bound to 'happen'.

Welcome to the UM forums.

[Simbi Laveau 4,430]

Sounds like the NSA got all their wires crossed tonight.

Ring them up and tell them to keep your lines straight. You all don't appreciate their screw ups in their monitoring you all in their unconstitutional endeavors

THANKS OBAMA!

[Frank Merton 17,401]

Yea we can use some NSA monitoring of what the spirits are up to.

[libstaK 6,399]

I'm thinking it was a proximity issue together with the phones memory of previous made calls between the various numbers - it may have automatically connected the networks in anticipation of a group setup and some code identified this background "connectivity" as an incoming call - definitely a glitch in the coding.

Edited November 16, 2013 by libstaK

[mistermike 2]

libstaK- thanks your theory seems very plausible even without knowing the technical details. In fact, I asked my GF if Elliot was the last person she called, she said yes. And possibly Tim was the last person Elliot called. Tim's voicemail greeting playing on someone else's phone as it called a fourth person...still can't conceive of how that glitch would happen.

Szentgyorgy- Good point. I suppose even with different phone models and carriers they are all using the same radio signal range so who knows!

sophSpook- these mysteries whether explained or not are always a source of wonder for sure.

Simbi Laveau- We all joked that it was NSA screwing up as well lol

[3.0 38]

Obviously, ... your phones were talking to themselves!

[spud the mackem 4,590]

Well Cell phone radio waves are bounced off satellites,which send and receive thousands of calls a second,the calls are queued up and sent back but some times high atmospherics interfere and so does the suns bursts of energy hitting us so the poor old satellite gets a bit confused and sends messages to the wrong destinations or delays calls.I've had calls which were sent early morning which I had not received until 3 or 4 hours later,due to atmospherics,nothing weird about that its what the reception is like in your immediate area.I would start wondering if you receive a call or voice mail from your mate,which he didn't send.....Why is a wrong number never engaged ?

[mistermike 2]

spud- exactly what has me scratching my head: I checked both phones that made the outgoing calls minutes after and they had no record of making them. The prior calls however were in the log and were answered properly hours earlier. I've experienced the phenomenon you mentioned of delayed texts and voicemails before as well, makes sense about network congestion.

Closer to solving this mystery hopefully thanks everyone for your input!

[Hugh 877]

The mass cognition is already here. We call it public opinion, and with chat rooms and message boards and instant news and so on it is steadily getting more efficient. The one thing it seems to lack so far in order to become a sentient being is a mechanism of forming single thoughts.

We are just the individual cells within that larger being. It may "seem to lack" a mechanism of forming single thoughts but how could we say it isn't sentient if it is on a much higher level than we are individually? Look at the difference in awareness between one of our individual brain cells and our individual human brain. I suspect there is a similar leap in awareness between our individual brains and our World Wide Web brain. Similarly the WWW just a cell in the biosphere of the Earth, which is just a cell in the Milky Way being, which is just a cell in the Universal brain, which may be just a cell in the Multiverse brain... each step upwards opening up comprehension and awareness on very much higher levels than we think is even possible.

[SSilhouette 436]

I'd suspect hackers first before the paranormal. As much as I do believe the paranormal accounts of some people, I still filter them through "if you hear hoofbeats think "horse" first, not "zebra".

[Gamrat 17]

Well Cell phone radio waves are bounced off satellites,which send and receive thousands of calls a second,the calls are queued up and sent back but some times high atmospherics interfere and so does the suns bursts of energy hitting us so the poor old satellite gets a bit confused and sends messages to the wrong destinations or delays calls.I've had calls which were sent early morning which I had not received until 3 or 4 hours later,due to atmospherics,nothing weird about that its what the reception is like in your immediate area.I would start wondering if you receive a call or voice mail from your mate,which he didn't send.....Why is a wrong number never engaged ?

Cell phones DO NOT work off of satellites. They use cell towers... sorry to ruin your theory...

[DeWitz 1,330]

Cell phones DO NOT work off of satellites. They use cell towers... sorry to ruin your theory...

I do believe that international (trans-Atlantic/Pacific) calls rely on satellites, which function in such circumstances as relay stations, like cell towers do.

My theory, half-baked and quasi-paranoid as it may sound, is that the ether is filled constantly with intersecting messages these days. It would not surprise me to phone my son in Sweden some day and get an answer from a hotel concierge in Pago-Pago. Perhaps some EVP are delayed phone calls from a few years ago, having circled the globe countless times before landing somewhere? Or these voices in my head---are they really radio signals received from the Alpha Centaurii neighborhood?

My other theory, not that anybody's asking by now, is that our technology has far outstripped our ability to understand--much less control--it. This is the "Frankenstein: or, Prometheus Unbound" idea. It is not original.

[scowl 3,083]

Only way it could have got any weirder is if they answered those calls!

And why didn't they? Because it would have explained what was happening?

[SSilhouette 436]

I'm like 100% sure that if cellphones first digitalize your voice and then "regurgitate/convert" them back to sound at the receiving end, that between those two points, hackers can have some fun.

[The Slunk 11]

I personally work (tech support) for a very large cell phone company. Ever hear of caller ID spoofing? Very easy to do, just find an app. I love calling my religous friends from the number 666. But really, I think one of your friends was pranking you.

[Skep B 4,404]

well.....i know what app im downloading next

[ChameleonCircuit 0]

Could be interference on the satellite responsible for your phone company/ies which could be caused by the sun's rays during solar max of the sun's natural sunspot cycles. This happens every 11 years roughly, and has been known to effect sattellites in orbit responsible for providing phone, internet and television services. We'd never find out, it'd cause a ruckus among the customers, and simply be put down to antenna problems or the like by the phone provider.

Glitches in the phone's coding and OS can also cause the phones to malfunction, make stupid static calls, really only one phone needs to have the issue and set the other phones off.

This isn't paranormal, it's a side effect of living in the technological age.

[mystic_chill 8]

I had an unusual incident recently involving my cell phone as well. I was sitting at my table when I felt a vibrating sensation in my thigh as if my phone had been in my pocket. The phone was not in my pocket at the time and when I looked up on top of the table the phone which was on some magazines had been going off at the same time. I didn't hear/notice it because I was playing the radio at high volume but the vibration made me realize that my phone was going off.