What To Do With A Coincidence
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Everybody experiences coincidences. Some say we experience coincidences every day; it’s just that we don’t recognize them or give them any attention so they pass us by without any notice. If we do notice them, we delight in their serendipities, unless they present a message of foreboding. Nevertheless, few of us do anything with our coincidences. Should we do anything about a coincidence? Is it a call to action, should we give it meaning, or is it merely a random, weird event? This article attempts to answers those questions.
Coincidences are really interesting if you study them and you may be surprised at the many definitions of the word “coincidence”.
The Popular definition of “coincidence” is - when something uncanny, accidental and unexpected happens.
The Latin definition of “coincidence” is – the occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but seem to have some connection. [from the Latin co - ("in", "with", "together") and incidere ("to fall on")]
The Scientific explanation is – when two objects or elements (such as two rays of light) hit a surface at the same time. This explanation is just factual, and there is no underlying implication that anything supernatural or even surprising has occurred.
Then there’s the Mathematical definition, which deals with the mathematical index of probability and relatedness. The analysis of the event is devoid of any consideration of anything remotely divine. The reason for the occurrence (if any) is determined purely by analyzing the number of times the coincidence has happened in the past. Mathematicians and cryptologists use coincidence-counting indexes to compare texts or to decipher codes.
Similarly, statisticians like to add up numbers and compare the odds of things happening. Everything is boiled down to being either probable or not probable. There isn’t any room for speculation or unexplained cause.
A rather statistical approach to coincidences. The best visual is at the very end.
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With humor and warm disinterestedness, Myers, professor of psychology at Michigan's Hope College, marshals cognitive research on intuition, or "our capacity for direct knowledge, for immediate insight without observation or reason" or what is sometimes called ESP. He finds that the mind operates on two levels, "deliberate" and "automatic." Amazon Price: $11.35 List Price: $26.00 |
Statisticians have a way of cheating us out of our delight when we muse over an astonishing coincidence. They're the bubble-bursters that claim such serendipities are devoid of spiritual significance.
David Marks author of "The Psychology of the Psychic" believes that most people are prone to accept the reality of psychic phenomena including meaningful coincidences but Marks, a true statistician calls them unremarkable “odd matches”.
Research psychologist David G. Meyers, known for his practical views on intuition, is a bit more open-minded and he writes with good-natured interest. Meyers acknowledges that our minds constantly demand explanation of weird or “streaky” events, but statistics have shown such events to be basically random and meaningless, unless of course, we choose to give them spiritual meaning.
There is a Physical definition of “coincidence” that I find the most liberating. Physics offers us an interesting “nonlocal” theory. By nonlocal, I refer to the direct influence of one object to another distant object. On the Quantum level, nonlocal events appear as the “entanglement” theory which is a real brain-twister. Simply put, it’s where a system of two or more objects (even thought waves) are linked together and behave exactly alike even though they may be light years apart. It is this theory that places coincidental phenomena beyond speculation and beyond old fashioned mathematics. It suggests that coincidences are in fact, causal events, meaning there is an underlying reason why the event happened.
It's interesting to note that modern theories such as "entangelment" support the agreement between today's science and ancient spiritual teachings.
The Confluence of Spirituality and Science
Deepak Chopra and other champions of ancient Vedic spiritual teachings believe that there is absolutely no such thing as coincidence. Everything that occurs can be related to a prior cause or association; It doesn’t matter how vast or how trivial it may seem. Many scientists and theologians worldwide suggest that science, in particular mathematics, is rapidly moving towards this conclusion as well.
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What To Do When You Experience a Coincidence
Spiritual teachings suggest we should act on coincidences. If you choose to equate these teachings with modern Quantum Physics you may wish to experiment.
Spiritual teachers say if you follow synchronistic events they will lead you on your path to success and/or spiritual truth. For example if the synchronistic event, item or word is "butter", a future event surrounding the word “butter” or a “butter filled” experience can lead you to an influential person or a successful idea.
Although is sounds a bit "out there", I find it just as intriguing and clearly no more mysterious than the entanglement theory.
It certainly can't hurt to become more aware of the coincidences happening in your life. Doing something with the message does take a bit more effort, but it can prove to be an interesting personal experiment.
We all know we don't know everything, but most of us can acknowledge that science and nature reveal secrets to us exponentially, every day; so why not listen more closely?
"Two passengers leaned against the ship’s rail and stared at the sea. 'There sure is a lot of water in the ocean', said one. 'Yes', answered his friend, 'And we’ve only seen the top of it.' ”
- Attributed to cognitive psychologist George Miller
© Copyright Green Lotus, 2011. All rights reserved.
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Hi timorous - My feelings are that coincidences are meaningful, especially if we choose to put meaning into them! Thoughts are more powerful than we think :) As for Deja Vu, I suppose you could say that's coincidence's sister phenomenon and one might apply the same theories.
I don't know the history behind the 'crane' photo, or any of the others really, but they do make for nice eye candy.
Thank you tim as always for stopping by to comment.
Coincidentally, I was just thinking about coincidences! Hey, good hub. I don't know if quantum entanglement has anything to do with it, but I generally feel happy when coincidences happen. They just feel right. Rated up and useful (in the absence of a 'meaningful' tag).
Want to know my favourite coincidence? Okay, you know I'm committed to lowering the tone of your articles, GL, so here goes. This involves one of the 'pretty poems for dirty minds' I wrote in the hub of that title. One of them is secretly about an act involving a certain set of beads. While writing the poem, I gave absolutely no thought at all to the letters beginning each line. Yet, it spelled out an acrostic that perfectly reflects the secret content of the poem. I don't see statistics explaining that. Either I have an amazing subconscious or the Universe really wanted me to write that dirty, dirty poem. hehehe
It is by chance that I hub hopped and found my way here. Wow interesting take on coincidences. Next time something happens I will observe carefully for a pattern.
Really interesting. Thank you very much. I have found that it works better not to resist seredipidous events, but just go along with them.
You've just given me an inspiration for next year's writing curriculum........... this is a fascinating topic to address with the students! Thank you...........
Kaie
Hello Arthur - Thanks for stopping by. I don't you "lowered the tone",on the contrary, you offered some excellent notes.(no pun intended). I do like your example and I suspect a few folks will check it out.
Greatlife - So good to meet you and by coincidence to boot! I'm must follow up and check out your hubs too. Much thanks.
Paradise - I'm happy to see you agree, but then knowing you I wouldn't expect any other comment. Have a serendipitous day!
Kaie - Just caught your post. What an exciting curriculum you have planned. It's always nice to know I've been an inspiration to readers. I do wish I had you as a teacher way back when :)
What an interesting and well-researched hub! I am fascinated by this topic.
Actually, I have had long discussions with a friend about coincidences and we have come to the conclusion that "coincidences" are actually meant to happen, so they are not really coincidences. Redfield also talked about this in "Celestine Prophecy".
Ah, I think they're a spiritual phenomenum, absolutely! (In fact I've just finished reading 'autobiography of a Yogi' and I'm sure Yogananda would confirm it...actually, maybe he did.) I have to admit that the two passengers on the ship extract sent my brain in a knot - were they dolphin spotting? I have to give up because I'm actually useless at noticing coincidences and usually just assign them to luck of the draw (which basically means I haven't got a clue about them).
Ah, I just noticed the picture of the rabbit! How lovely! Now that is a coincidence! Or maybe the rabbit paid the cameraman beforehand. Hmmm.
Green Lotus, as you know by now, the De Greeks cannot think without getting a headache, so this is too deep for me :-)))
I think coincidences are signposts to where we should be going and what we should be learning on our journey through life. I embrace all things learning and if 'coincidence' beckons its finger, I follow, knowing that there is a pathway to enlightenment.
Thanks for writing this hub, Green!
Hi jill - I really enjoyed "Celestine Prophecy" especially the part about meaningful coincidences. It always makes for an interesting discussion whether or not they were "meant to happen". I'm far from a statistician so I lean to "yes" :)
Hi apricot - I've never read Yogananda and I applaud you for taking him on. I did once try to read the autobiography but I don't think I was ready for it. Maybe I'll give it a try again. Glad you noticed the bunny photo. It's just for you. Could be the bunny did pay off the photographer but most likely it was the other way 'round. Cheers!
De Greek - Thanks for stopping by for the read, always good to see you my friend. I've been getting myself into deep stuff a lot lately. Maybe I'll give the old brain a rest.
Shaz you are welcome!- Life's journey is always enhanced when we can "play" these little games, toying and experimenting with what just may be, following the beckoning finger. I find following a coincidence to be just that. It's even paid off as have many of my other experiments in positive awareness.
I like the multiple explanations of conincidences -- statistics, quantum entanglement, and synchronicity. That gives that chance for the reader to choose their own explanation of conincidences. Personally, I favor the statistical explanation as mentioned in the excellent video. But do not rule out entanglement and synchronicity. As for Deja Vu, I believe that to be a "memory error" -- we thought we remembered being here before, but we remembered wrong.
pp - great comment. I like your view on Deja Vu :) In this hub I did want to be less "preachy" to offer the reader some other viewpoints and options from which to make a more educated opinion. As for statisticians, I wonder how they treat those truly bizarre coincidences where one would be hard pressed to find even one other example of it every happening before?
Very interesting and informative article on coincidences. I love all the different points of view you added to this. Great read!
GL,
Lovely hub. I haven't had the time lately to do much reading but I stopped at yours. I wrote on coincidence in the past so its kind of a pet topic of mine. Do I believe that coincidence can do all sorts of magic? Nope. Is it interesting? Can there be more to it than meets the eye? Yep. I'll read more of your hubs later on. thanks.
Hi Mary - thanks for the read and for your kind words :)
WE5 - I'm glad to were able to check this one out - I will swing on over to yours too. Examining our coincidences can be an interesting project. Can't wait for my next one :)
Hi, Green Lotus, well my coincidence is that I have just been having a discussion on entanglement! seriously! the hubber who I had a full blown argument with recently, and I have come to a meeting of the minds! lol discussion about just this sort of thing. we are writing pages and pages about atoms and conciousness and entanglement! so yes I do believe that atoms do react to each other, and when a coincidence occurs, it is probably because on a deep atomic level, by thinking for example about someone you haven't seen for ages, somehow influences that person to appear at your door next day. some call this precognition, but that is if you are influencing it towards them. but if it happens around you, it is something that has started of somewhere else. thanks this was fascinating to read. cheers nell
You, and only you, could get me looking up 'heliopause' at 6:55 in the a.m., Green Lotus. You amaze me. Serendipity is such a fantastic reality, and thanks for this multi-faceted hub!
Now about that guy with the ticker tape coming out of his ears...:)
Hey Nell - love hearing about your coincidence and I'm glad you have come to a meeting of minds with that other hubber. I'm dying to know who it was.
lorlie - heliopause? Now you've got me looking that one up! Cheers.
It was one of the words in the first video...Oh, God, now I've got to watch it again! :)
I'll be back...
Hi, GL - This is a great topic. Very mystical but also practical. As you say, how many coincidences do we fail to notice every day? It does seem to me that when we notice them, there is probably a reason. Some preconception or awareness we have at the time. Maybe we are just following the interests, and path, we were meant to follow. What's wrong with that? I think it leads us to where we were meant to be. And what a luxury to be able to follow our paths! So many can't do it. Thanks for your inspirational ideas.
Hey, GreenLotus-Okay, I found it-in your first video, the narrator mentions the "...words you've used." That's where I saw heliopause and hence fell in love with a new word.
Thanks again!
embee - You're so welcome and thank you for commenting. We're all faced with so many choices every day. Whatever we choose determines our future; no mystery there, but it's nice to think we're given subtle signposts in the form of coincidences. As long as they don't go against your gut feelings, no reason why not to follow them. Cheers.
lorlie - That first video is so numerical I hardly noticed that word! Cool space.
Wow G.L. This was a great Hub. I truly enjoyed reading it. I know Scientists believe that we are all made up of energy and exist within energy sort of like a bubble, yet not, kind of thing. So naturally this energy interacts. That is why when I bump into a friend at Starbucks and say "Wow, I was just thinking about you" it is not a coincidence. It is something we "pick Up" on the energy and If you are someone like me and tuned into it, this stuff happens ALL THE TIME!! You are correect that if we pay attention we will absolutely notice them more often and if we remember them, or write them down, we will notice that they in someway connect to another event or like my friend and I say "are stepping stones along lifes path". They almost always lead to some event or tid bit of information or person.
An enthusiastic thumbs up!!!
Wow great comment Moon. I agree, if we notice the energy and pick up the meaningful bits, well not only step on those stones, well follow the right stones. Thanks for the thumbs!
Great hub, very informative and thought provoking.
hello dave - Hello! and thanks for stopping by to comment. Much appreciated.
coincidences? I enjoy them! Great job with this.......... Kaie
Thanks Kaie, much appreciated!
Lovely, Green Lotus. I enjoyed this hub.
Indeed there are no coincidences in the extensive view of things that happen.
Humans tend to ignore them and attribute them to chance..this is what a conditioned/programmed mind tells us.
Hi Melinda and much thanks. It's funny since writing this hub I have noticed no less than 3 coincidences! Now I have to practice what I preach and follow through.
Rated up, beautiful and stumbled. Very interesting and well detailed Green Lotus, I always dig your style. :) And agree with what you say.
Thanks hypno - I always appreciated your comments and ratings. Diddo, I always look forward to your hubs as well :)
I love the things you make me think about. You want to talk about synchronous, I have had a ton of things in the last week that seem to sychronize with just the reading of this hub. My wife and I were discussing how it is odd that, you know how you can be thinking about a person you haven't seen or heard from in a while, and the, just as you are thinking, "Wow, I haven't heard from my pal, Green Lotus"... RING goes the phone.
So, the debate was, on her part, there is something to that, that the universe aligns or something. I'll even go as far as to say, it ain't the universe, but some sort of bio-social mechanism that helps us keep track of valuable social ties, maybe even tied to the initiating chemical/physical reaction event... Etc.
But, because I like to amuse myself and pretend I'm open minded and truly curious, I was forced into the role of Devil's Advocate. So, I said, "Yes, she called while you were thinking of her... and it was a profound moment. Very memorable. The universe lining up or whatever."
However, there is an argument to be made that, all the times that we are thinking of people and they DON'T call us don't register.
I think about hundreds of people who don't call me when I think of them. My life is made up of huge quantities of people. I think of them constantly. They don't call. I don't make an active memory of that fact. I don't say, "Well, I was thinking of Green Lotus today, and yet, despite having never conversed with her over the phone, she did not call me." That's not how it works. I would only make a cognitive imprint if, for whatever reason, I was thinking of her and then, in some sort of proximal relationship, she called. THEN, and ONLY then, would it register as a "meaningful event."
Yes, so the ones that matter happen and the rest slip by. But still, that's the place I was just in two days ago, so, coincidence or random, this hub is delightfully in keeping with an idea I have been playing with.
I LOVE your hubs.
Fascinating, Green Lotus - and all those stats! I'm not a big Deepak Chopra fan but his 'synchro-destiny' sounds remarkably like a coincidence! I don't believe that the Vedic scholars didn't believe in coincidences - rather, like the Mayans, they saw it as manifestations of their own vibrations - rather like the Law of Attraction :)
Hi there shades. I do love the devil in you! It's true when you compare all events to the few that click, the statisticians win the game and foster the popular notion that life is really "meaningless". When you think of coincidences as those rare signposts (and they are rare), life becomes more adventurous. I often choose adventure (and delight) over complacency. Thanks for stopping by..always honored by your comments.
Hello Shalini - I've often pondered about that too. Manifesting one's own vibrations is like the notion of creating one's own reality or world. Why did I, just this week start reading a book that contained chapters about people and places I personally had just visited? Did I create something here? Am I moving along the right path? Am I just going nuts?
Hey GL, hot and humid greetings to you. Very interesting as always and something I have thought about often. As you know I believe there is a spiritual connection to most things, but I agree with Shadesbreath that we are all wired with more options than we understand yet--one of them being able to tune in when someone is going to call. I think we are thinking about them because our subconscious is picking up the electrical waves enough to trigger the image of the person.
I always thought it a most unfair coincidence when my mom would walk into the kitchen just as I was reaching for cake that was supposed to be saved for dinner. =:)
Winsome..Hee Hee...love that cake story. In my house feeding oneself was encouraged; you know, "eat, eat"! It's a wonder I wasn't a tub. As for coincidence, I agree that the mind is subconsciously at work bringing events together and just sometimes they show up as a coincidence. It's up to us to determine if they are meaningful. Thanks Winsome for always leaving a cool comment!
This is a lovely, lovely piece, GL. Your work is so finely crafted and progresses at such a relaxing pace, always a pleasure to read. And the pictures are priceless.
Coincidence. Agree with Deepak on this one. I see the whole 'event' as one where there certainly is a build up in energy. There are signs of things to come - in a real sense- before the apparent coincidence happens. Most people ignore the world around them, or do not know how to decipher real symbols (another form of language and information) which can and does give them insights into events to come. I take the analogy of a heart attack victim. There are signs the body gives before the actual heart attack takes place.
Great hub!
XO
Thanks for adding some wonderful examples here. Much thanks for the compliment too. XO
interesting hub :-)
Thank you lahoriamplifier!
Great hub Green Lotus. I experience events that would be considered coincidence quite often. I always try to act upon these events. Do I understand them? No - but that is what makes life so interesting!
Hello Shawn! You are a lucky one to have so many experiences on which to "act". Have fun and Thanks!
timorous Level 4 Commenter 23 months ago
Very interesting G.L. Coincidences are indeed a curious phenomenon. On the other hand, it's entirely possible that everything is related in some way, but only occasionally do the things we are aware of, converge in such a way. There are no accidents..everything has a cause and effect.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the phenomenon of Deja Vu, which is somewhat related. It's interesting as well, and something most people have experienced.
btw..I think the crane photo could easily have been accomplished by any competent photographer who was able to position himself and his camera appropriately, and wait for the right moment. Sorry to spoil the coincidence. :(