Synchronicity... [meaningful coincidences] who has experienced it?

[LuckyBenski]

One day when I was a kid, I was brushing my teeth and the name Yuri Gagarin came in to my head. I shouted down to my Dad, asking him who he was, and he hesitated before asking me to go downstairs. When I went down, he had the TV on, playing the Teletext game "Bamboozle". The question on the screen was "Who was the first man in space?". I'm still a bit alarmed by the synchronicity of that.

I reckon this is the closest thing in this thread to what we're talking about

 

[SexyGreyFox]

I reckon this is the closest thing in this thread to what we're talking about

Got one.
About 4 years ago in Cyprus we were discussing one of my best mates and how he had found a new woman on t'internet.
We were talking about the age difference of them when my Sister in Law asked "How old is Kevin?"
At that point I said "You can ask him" as he walked past in front of us with his new woman.
100% true.

 

[Vexr]

Just thought of the best 'coincidence' that saved somebody's life and he is/was a member on here called Silent Bob or similar.

He was in KFC in Hanley when a thug started to pick on him, Nige told the thug that he wasn't a fighter, never had a fight and asked nicely if he would leave him alone.
Unknown to him KFC rang the Cops and when he walked out with his KFC the tug hit him hard fracturing his face and Cops who were on the way witnessed it.
He was taken to A&E where a Radiologist spotted something, he'd got a tumour behind his eye and they had to operate immediately or else he could die.
The quandry was should he prosecute the thug for his broken face even though the thug saved his life?
Yes, he got sentenced.

I still feel like this is mostly a "happy coincidences" thread, but have a story regardless:

Back in 2006 I got pretty badly beaten up in Vietnam. Ended up going back to Bangkok, and after leaving hospital, went to go change my flight home to bail out. The travel agent was closed that day though, so I ended up just drinking some beers on a rug on the street with some random people. That evening, I got an email from my ex girlfriend, who was in China, so ended up booking a flight there instead once the office opened again, and got back together for several more years. Thought that was a sign of some sort, as any other day, I'd already have been heading home.

After breaking up from that relationship 5 years later, I ended up going to Taiwan, and sent a message to one of the guys I was drinking on that rug in Thailand with, who had a bar there. Went to visit him, and and ended up with one of his staff, who is now my wife. She still to this day is thankful that I got beaten up in Vietnam so we met in a very roundabout way

Both of these examples rate highly on my synchronicometer

I'm surprised Breaking Bad didn't attract more talk regarding synchronicity, especially as it used it as major plot driver a few times and even had Walter openly ponder about it in a moment or two of vulnerability (minus labelling it synchronicity).

I suppose history teaches us some unfortunate effects of synchronicity / perceived synchronicity, i.e. with Adolf Hitler's chance assignment to spy on a certain German workers party, and the multiple improbable lucky breaks he had that convinced him of his infallibility and destiny. That didn't turn out so well for him (or the world).

One day when I was a kid, I was brushing my teeth and the name Yuri Gagarin came in to my head. I shouted down to my Dad, asking him who he was, and he hesitated before asking me to go downstairs. When I went down, he had the TV on, playing the Teletext game "Bamboozle". The question on the screen was "Who was the first man in space?". I'm still a bit alarmed by the synchronicity of that.

Very interesting, though sounds more like it'd fall in to some sort of psychic phenomena category than synchronicity to me (lol even I'm recoiling slightly at writing such a sentence).

I remember once I was walking home thinking that a relative who I hadn't spoke to in a few years might ring me and later that very day they did, there was no reason at all for me to think that my relative would ring me let alone on that day. I'd love to go back and see what made me think about it at all.

Or maybe it's something like the Mandela Effect where you have some kind of false memory, so perhaps I only thought that I had been thinking about my relative ringing me after they actually rang me. I still swear blind that Dolly had braces in that James Bond film with Jaws but all of the evidence says she doesn't and never did.

'Thinking about some random obscure person, then they call you out of the blue' is regularly listed as a common example of synchronicity on certain sites that discuss it.

Heard of the Mandela Effect and previously wracked my brain thinking of a possible example of my own. The only one I can think of is that I was fairly certain Phoebe Buffet / Lisa Kudrow wasn't in the original cast of Friends, and only joined the show much later. As I wasn't exactly a die hard fan of that show and I believe she was always the 'odd one out' throughout the series, I doubt that's much of a Mandela Effect.

 

[garnett]

I think it's strange that you think these events revolve around you. They don't even seam particularly unlikely. You were having a bad day and you saw your ex and wondered what your life would have been like if you had stayed with her? It's hardly final destination level stuff tbh.

It's not strange.

It's a well documented and extremely common human trait to attach undue significance and importance to the events in one's life and to ascribe some divine/higher protection/special treatment/affirmation that that person is unique.

It's protection of the ego, or bolstering or something.

Much of religion is exactly the same. This is no different, and stems from exactly the same wide-spread human needs.

 

[Vexr]

It's not strange.

It's a well documented and extremely common human trait to attach undue significance and importance to the events in one's life and to ascribe some divine/higher protection/special treatment/affirmation that that person is unique.

It's protection of the ego, or bolstering or something.

Much of religion is exactly the same. This is no different, and stems from exactly the same wide-spread human needs.

I see your point, though that particular example I shared definitely had no ego-bolstering effect. There was no pleasure or validation of my life choices in that synchronicity, mostly the sensation of regret that would at best pan out to a humbling.

I think even the more positive 'my ass got saved from a certain bad outcome' coincidences are generally humbling for most, in that it took some event outside your power to get you out of a tight spot.

I suppose there's the big win 'synchronicities' that can do what you describe to people. The person who strikes a fortune or is elevated to some unusually high position or status seemingly by fortitude is particularly likely to consider it an affirmation of their special place in the universe and attribute it to the divine order of things, as evidenced by the aristocratic classes of history and the attitude of those born into money.

 

[garnett]

I see your point, though that particular example I shared definitely had no ego-bolstering effect. There was no pleasure or validation of my life choices in that synchronicity, mostly the sensation of regret that would at best pan out to a humbling.

I think even the more positive 'my ass got saved from a certain bad outcome' coincidences are generally humbling for most, in that it took some event outside your power to get you out of a tight spot.

I suppose there's the big win 'synchronicities' that can do what you describe to people. The person who strikes a fortune or is elevated to some unusually high position or status seemingly by fortitude is particularly likely to consider it an affirmation of their special place in the universe and attribute it to the divine order of things, as evidenced by the aristocratic classes of history and the attitude of those born into money.

No. It doesn't have to be big. It just needs to feed the human need to find reason and pattern in things, and that other common human need to feel they are special and unique.

 

[dirtychinchilla]

...Also yesterday I went out for a walk and for some reason had a few tracks from "Tommy" in my head. No idea why, haven't watched it for years. Wound up at a bar half an hour later where one friend was telling another (in a creepy-but-it's-ok-if-you-know-the-people kind of way) that he could be Uncle Ernie. Sang a few bars of it too.

Wtf. There's nothing positive about Uncle Ernie!

Whenever I hear someone say, it's a boy, I always go straight into the song in my head. I tend not to sing it out loud because no one would know what I was singing about...

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

Just LOL if your first post on a computer forum is to necro an almost two year old thread.

Noobs.

e:

Have not read any of the posts ...no need to

Brilliant.

e2:

Is WebTV still around?
The company flourished from 1995 until it was bought out by Microsoft in 1997. The original WebTV email service soon became MSN TV. All traces of WebTV disappeared. However, almost 20 years later, it is still possible to access your WebTV email.

Welp.

 

[UTmaniac]

I thought it was an album by The Police.

"We have to shout above the din of our Rice Krispies!"

Great tune, mad video.

 

[LeMson]

Greetings
I'n in the US. Thought I'd drop a bombshell into the discussion . Take it as you will.
Have not read any of the posts ...no need to, I don't read or think Coincidence ( I've read Jung's and his followers' works on the subject of acausal events and did not get anything out of it )... I live it.
Posted on a Yahoo group twenty years ago , had exchanges with a member who seemed to have an odd history with metaphysical events but he was more the pseudo would be leader than source of insight.
I've read the popular books , corresponded .conversed with people who made their living from the area and had meaningful interactions with psychics...truth is I'm well beyond the province of the psychic.
My experiences started with a phone call forty years ago from a person from my past. The next day my understanding of the underlying reality of existence haas grown year by year.
Meaningful " Coincidences " have amounted to over two thousand events, the lesser events are many times that number.
They take the form of events that come soon after previous events that create a bridge from past to present ( TV is a frequent conduit for these occurances ( a word or eventfrom the screen a half second after a thoughtthat mirrors thatthought ), my ability to read absolutely accurate Tarot ( useless tho fate is set in stone ) and the reality that I have had hair breath escapes from death ( usually cars involved but not always ) at least twenty times in the past forty years.
I believe I know the basis of reality, drawn from my knowledge of the world and myself. I've looked for people with similar experiences to mine for decades and have not found any...I seem to be unique.
I will not reveal all of my thoughts but could share insight with curious readers who may contact me at [email protected]. Forget everything you've read or discussed about Coincidence. My experiences dwarf the lot Stephen

Hardly a bombshell, more like incomprehensible drivel

 

[alchal]

We drove up to Newcastle to scatter my grandad's ashes up there, the vehicle we traveled in broke down outside a kwick fit, literally outside the place ,smoke bellowing out, turns out the place used to be the exact place his parents house that he was born in and lived in was.
I don't believe in most stuff and it still baffles me, to drive from Sheffield to Newcastle and break down there.

Not sure if it's relevant but there you go.

 

[SexyGreyFox]

Greetings
I'n in the US. Thought I'd drop a bombshell into the discussion . Take it as you will.
Have not read any of the posts ...no need to, I don't read or think Coincidence ( I've read Jung's and his followers' works on the subject of acausal events and did not get anything out of it )... I live it.
Posted on a Yahoo group twenty years ago , had exchanges with a member who seemed to have an odd history with metaphysical events but he was more the pseudo would be leader than source of insight.
I've read the popular books , corresponded .conversed with people who made their living from the area and had meaningful interactions with psychics...truth is I'm well beyond the province of the psychic.
My experiences started with a phone call forty years ago from a person from my past. The next day my understanding of the underlying reality of existence haas grown year by year.
Meaningful " Coincidences " have amounted to over two thousand events, the lesser events are many times that number.
They take the form of events that come soon after previous events that create a bridge from past to present ( TV is a frequent conduit for these occurances ( a word or eventfrom the screen a half second after a thoughtthat mirrors thatthought ), my ability to read absolutely accurate Tarot ( useless tho fate is set in stone ) and the reality that I have had hair breath escapes from death ( usually cars involved but not always ) at least twenty times in the past forty years.
I believe I know the basis of reality, drawn from my knowledge of the world and myself. I've looked for people with similar experiences to mine for decades and have not found any...I seem to be unique.
I will not reveal all of my thoughts but could share insight with curious readers who may contact me at [email protected]. Forget everything you've read or discussed about Coincidence. My experiences dwarf the lot Stephen

I've read some crap on here but that's the best, does anybody know what they are on about?
I also want to know why you came here after all this time!

 

[Akagi]

Seems they think they are some kind of God of coincidence and its absolutely positively nothing to do with anything they have read.

 

[Haggisman]

1 scenario that stands out to me.

Many years ago, I used to play WoW; I had a hunter and wanted to tame a rare black lion ("Humar the Pridelord" for anyone who knows it), and decided on the name "Anubis" (yes, I know he's a jackal, but just go with it, I was 18 at the time!). I must have spent the best part of 2 weeks on and off trying to find it, and after hours of waiting, he finally spawned and I managed to tame him. Wahey, all good.

Later that evening, my girlfriend was reading the local newspaper and happened to look at the local cats and dogs home's "animal of the week" section... a black cat called "Anubis" looking for a new home! Since we had been looking for a cat anyway, needless to say we went to see him, and he was really affectionate towards us, even though the staff at the home said he was generally quite distant, so we ended up adopting him

Yes probably just a massive coincidence, but what are the chances?

 

[Akagi]

1 scenario that stands out to me.

Many years ago, I used to play WoW; I had a hunter and wanted to tame a rare black lion ("Humar the Pridelord" for anyone who knows it), and decided on the name "Anubis" (yes, I know he's a jackal, but just go with it, I was 18 at the time!). I must have spent the best part of 2 weeks on and off trying to find it, and after hours of waiting, he finally spawned and I managed to tame him. Wahey, all good.

Later that evening, my girlfriend was reading the local newspaper and happened to look at the local cats and dogs home's "animal of the week" section... a black cat called "Anubis" looking for a new home! Since we had been looking for a cat anyway, needless to say we went to see him, and he was really affectionate towards us, even though the staff at the home said he was generally quite distant, so we ended up adopting him

Yes probably just a massive coincidence, but what are the chances?

I like this one best.

 

[touch]

truth is I'm well beyond the province of the psychic.

So how come you're 2 years late replying?

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

So how come you're 2 years late replying?

The one good thing about bots is that they are thorough and run a tight ship :heart:

 

[Will Gill]

Move along now, nothing to see here

 

[[FnG]magnolia]

Good Will Hunting.

 

[MookJong]

There are probably billions of connections made every year in your life, it is obvious that sometuimes dots will connect and create a pattern you recognise in the chaos.

Imagine how many millions you don't spot over your lifeltime...