A small function that allows finding all references to the object. Written in 3 minutes and may be buggy (for ex pass object as reference in some places?)
<?php
function find_ref_obj($object, $obj, $path) {
    if (in_array($obj,$GLOBALS['__REF_CHECKED'],true))
        return false;
    $GLOBALS['__REF_CHECKED'][]=$obj;
    $r = array();
    foreach ((array)$obj as $k => $v) {
        if ($v === $object)
            $r[] = $path . "->$k";
        if (is_object($v)) {
            $t = find_ref_obj($object,$v,$path . "->$k");
            if ($t!==false) 
                $r=array_merge($r,$t);
        }
        else if (is_array($v)) {
            $t = find_ref_arr($object,$v,$path . "->$k");
            if ($t!==false) 
                $r=array_merge($r,$t);
        }
    }
    if (empty($r))
        return false;
    else
        return $r;
}
function find_ref_arr($object, $arr, $path) {
    if (in_array($arr,$GLOBALS['__REF_CHECKED'],true))
        return false;    
    $GLOBALS['__REF_CHECKED'][]=$arr;
    $r = array();
    foreach ($arr as $k => $v) {
        if ($v === $object)
            $r[] = $path . "['$k']";
        if (is_object($v)) {
            $t = find_ref_obj($object,$v,$path . "['$k']");
            if ($t!==false) 
                $r=array_merge($r,$t);
        }
        else if (is_array($v)) {
            $t = find_ref_arr($object,$v,$path . "['$k']");
            if ($t!==false) 
                $r=array_merge($r,$t);
        }
    }
    if (empty($r))
        return false;
    else
        return $r;
}
function find_references($object) {
    $r = array();
    $GLOBALS['__REF_CHECKED']=array();
    foreach ($GLOBALS as $n => $v) 
    if ($n!='__REF_CHECKED')
    if ($n!='GLOBALS') {
        if ($v === $object)
            $r[]=$n;
        if (is_object($v)) {
            $t = find_ref_obj($object,$v,$n);
            if ($t!==false) 
                $r=array_merge($r,$t);
        }
        else if (is_array($v)) {
            $t = find_ref_arr($object,$v,$n);
            if ($t!==false) 
                $r=array_merge($r,$t);
        }
    }    
    unset($GLOBALS['__REF_CHECKED']);
    return $r;
}
function find_refs($object) {
    return implode(', ',find_references($object));
}
?>