COINCIDENCES from 1998 to date

[Carlos Allende]

Really, Unexplained-mysteries.com -- no dedicated section especially for coincidences? They're easily my favourite aspect of the paranormal. I dote on Jung's synchronicity writings, and any podcasts on the subject, I _devour._ The only trouble is, the actual case reports always seem tame to me. The other day, I listened the Paul and Ben Eno's show (which is usually excellent), but the bloke they had on to talk about coincidences just told _two_ stories about 1) meeting an old friend in a distant city and 2) finding the right amount of change for a bus on a pavement. Very unsatisfying. Similarly, in Arthur Koestler's book, there's page after page of case files, but they always seem underwhelming compared to the things I myself have experienced (or what Philip K Dick describes in 'Valis', which I consider the gold standard). I know nit-pickers will always decry coincidences as non-supernatural because, as improbable an event might be, it's still _more_ probable than the fact that the universe exists in the first place. I'm not a numberwangy maths prof --I can't calculate the odds,-- but I still think they're crazily profound somehow. For one thing, in a lot of the incidents I list below, there's not just an incredible coincidence, but also a direct reference to the paranormal ('Sounds of the Universe', etc). I think it helps that I finally got around to keeping a strict record: there's an eerily similar vibe to the way you can train yourself to notice coincidences (and then more coincidences happen in turn), with the way you can train yourself to lucid dream (and then more lucid dreams happen in turn).

Anyway, here they are. I originally kept this record on my works computer.

1998 – On holiday in Scotland, we leave our black Fiat Panda in a back street car park in Edinburgh.  On the stereo we’ve had a compilation cassette playing ‘Step on’ by the Happy Mondays. We start to walk away –at about 50 metres, _a black Fiat Panda_ drives by pumping out _‘Step on’ by the Happy Mondays,_ prompting me to run back to the car park to check we haven’t had the car stolen. We hadn’t.

2005 – An Ex-girlfriend and I have simultaneous dreams of being in Yoda’s swamp. Neither of us had watched Empire Strikes Back for a few years, or talked about Star Wars beforehand.

2013 – In December, I write the draft of a short story in which Virgin Galactic’s test spaceship crashes during an experimental flight. Ten months later, the _real_ Virgin Galactic’s test spaceship crashes during an experimental flight.

2014 – At my company, I temporarily work at a new desk in a new room; to make myself feel at home, I put on my Blondie CD, and select ‘Hanging on the Telephone’. On opening the nearby fire door just to have a look outside, I see that someone has thrown an old-style cord telephone into the nearby powerlines, in such a way that it’s hanging down.

2014 – On holiday in the Lake District, I’m in the Keswick Oxfam shop umming-and-ahhing about whether to buy a hardback first edition of Black Hole by Charles Burns for £10. It seems expensive for a secondhand book, but I really want it. In the end, I buy it. The next day, I travel ten miles along to the next little town, Cockermouth. Around the back of another charity shop is a pile of books out for the rubbish (which presumably they can’t sell). One of them is a duplicate hardback  1^st edition of Black Hole by Charles Burns. I’m so impressed by this, I resolve to keep a log of all the coincidences in my life from here on, no matter how small.

2016 – While watching the first teaser-trailer for Zoolander 2, featuring  Justin Beiber, I remark flippantly to a friend, “I bet Malala Yousafzai will be in it as well”, simply because it’s the most unlikely person I can imagine. On watching the film, Malala Yousafzai does indeed feature.

10/08/16 – I randomly buy the Depeche Mode album ‘Sounds of the Universe’; it sits on top of my DVD player for a few days while I get around to listening to it. The day after I listen to it, I’m at work, opening a vacuum-sealed pack of keyboard-cleaning rags. Among the scraps of African football shirts and children’s Disney tops –there’s a significant section of a Depeche Mode ‘Sounds of the Universe’ tour T-shirt. ***This is my favourite coincidence thus far***

17/08/16 – I absent-mindedly doodle a picture of Cindi Lauper on the notepad on my desk. Three minutes later ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ is played on Radio Wiltshire.

02/09/16 – Listening to the Howard Hughes ‘Unexplained’ podcast in my car. His interviewee relates how he saw the ghosts of a man and his dog walking in front of him. No sooner has he said these words than a man and a dog walk  across the motorway bridge  directly above my car.

11/09/16 – While he should have been working, a mischievous co-worker spends hours in the fire escape crafting an intricate cardboard model of the ‘Facehugger’ from Alien. Ten years previously, long before he'd joined the company (or anyone else then working with us), I hid a model Facehugger in the same spot to scare a friend (who by that time had left the company five years previously).

13/09/16 – I’m listening to the adverts on LBC. A character says, “And don’t forget the Scotch Egg sandwiches” –this at the exact moment  I’m unwrapping Scotch Egg sandwhiches.

20/09/16 – While on a late-year holiday near Caernarfon, Wales, I’m driving, listening to a podcast about the ‘Slenderman’ phenomenon. The subject momentarily shifts to the ‘Grinning Man’, with the interviewee saying, ‘He generally appears in inaccessible spots, and has an unnaturally large smile’. These words spoken as I drive alongside an inaccessible railway bridge on which there is an ancient, faded piece of graffiti: a smiley face with a mouth out of all proportions.

25/09/16 – On Sunday, I find a twenty pound note on a grass track in Chippenham. The next Sunday, I find another twenty pound note on another grass track (the Avebury-Devizes footpath).

14/10/16 – I correctly predict ‘Fields of Gold’ by Sting will be the next song played on Radio Two.

09/02/17 -- I absent-mindedly doodle a picture of Jamiroquai on the notepad on my desk. Minutes later, Ken Bruce announces that, later on in the show, he’ll have the first radio play of the new Jamiroquai single.

14/10/17 – I ordered Season Three of The Leftovers from HMV.  It arrived five days overdue after having been unaccountably lost in transit – on October 14 (the date The Rapture takes place in the show).

19/10/2017 --  I absent-mindedly doodle a picture of one of the prisoners in Alien 3 on the notepad on my desk. Radio Two then plays ‘In the year 2525’ (an obscure song that features in the film, while one of the prisoners is cleaning a ceiling vent prior to being killed).

13/02/18 – I’m sitting at my desk daydreaming about a chicken farmer. On the radio, Ken Bruce reads out a humourous message from a chicken farmer.

13/03/2018 – 8.50 – For reasons unknown, I write David Miscavige’s name in my notebook. 9.00 – national news announces Scientology to start new TV channel.

21/05/18 – I’m able to conduct a conversation with the radio (Ken Bruce, while he’s reading out the ‘love song’ requests). KB: “I love her to bits”. Me: “Is she Humpty Dumpty?” KB: “Yes, she’s an all-round good egg”.

30/05/2018 – On the phone to a pal, we’re having a conversation about being able to wear whatever we want at work. I ask, “Is it OK if I wear a Boba Fett helmet?” Half an hour previously, he’d put up a framed poster of Boba Fett in his living room.

29/08/2018 – I randomly try to guess the next song to be played on the radio, and am correct – ‘Sweet Harmony’ by the Beloved.

21-09-2018 --  I awoke in the dead of night with my heart racing. Outside my bedroom window is the uppermost branches of a large, dense tree. I look out and see what can only be described as a glowing whirlpool distorting reality itself through the leaves. The shape and colour of the trees can just about be discerned even as the whirlpool spins away to a vanishing point. At no point does reality 'right itself' by spinning in the opposite direction; it just becomes less distinct. Throughout the thirty or forty seconds this is happening, I analyse the beating of my heart, my angle in the bed. I convince myself I’m not dreaming. Afterwards, I stay in the same upright position simply saying, ‘What the?’ The next day, a DVD boxset I’ve ordered arrives through the post, Twin Peaks: The Event Series. I note with interest that several of the characters observe this exact same effect while undergoing their own transcendental experiences.

 

   

 

[Stiff]

Happens to me and mrs Stiff quite a lot too. Only last night she was messing about brushing her long blond hair over her face and pretending to be Cousin It. I remarked that I thought it had dark her but she claimed blond. Within 5 minutes, up pops Cousin It on her FB timeline that someone had literally just posted. She was right - it was blond.

Telling her it really suited her didn't go down too well though.

[Helen of Annoy]

My latest crazy coincidence was with one of my cats. He was still just a kitten, not year old yet, but since it was summer every door and window were kept open day and night so we didn't even notice he's missing. Rewinding how it all went in my head, I realize we did notice he didn't show up for breakfast, but it wasn't that uncommon.

I had that gloomy feeling something awful will happen, but I didn't think it will be about any of our cats. Just something unpleasant coming our way. (Screw that type of premonition, all I get from that is few more days of horror, without knowing exactly what it is going to be. Except sometimes, when I know exactly and still, since I can't stop it... ) 

Husband and I went to do some shopping and on our way home husband decides, for no particular reason at all, to take road different than our usual one that makes our trip the shortest. We live in a small village in the woods, on a steep mountain side, so there are many little, curvy roads leading everywhere and some of them nowhere. And in the middle of that road, a cat sits, obviously not feeling well. 

I got out, thinking it was some cat from the lower part of the village, got hit by car, certainly needs help, came closer, realized it's our kitten. I couldn't believe how far (for a kitten) from home he wandered. I called it by his name and he hissed at me, saliva dripping on the asphalt. I nearly had a heart-attack, because it looked like he displays symptoms of rabies. 

Long story short, it wasn't rabies, the area is still free from it, it was poison. Poor kitty was poisoned and because of that completely disoriented. We got to the vet on time and she saved his life. 

But the recovery was tough and only two days later, while kitten was still half-blind and totally lost in space, we let him outside to breathe and rest in the grass. We didn't think he can go anywhere, weak and half-dead as he was. And he disappeared, in less than two minutes he was left unsupervised. It broke my heart. It was impossible to find him, I turned the village upside-down. Nothing. 

The next morning, we went to do some shopping we didn't really need to do, because with age both my husband and I learned that crazy things are often the wisest choice. So we drove home, superstitiously expecting our cat in the middle of the road again. He wasn't in middle, he was in the bushes and we'd of course drive past him if two dogs weren't walking by, coincidentally, noticing him and literally marking him for us.

I didn't thank the dogs, I mentioned their stupid mothers instead because they were barking at my poor cat who spent two of his lives in two days. 

 

Finding a disoriented cat two times in a village that has no clear boundary with a forest cannot be coincidental. 

Little **** was sent to us for a reason. Maybe to manage to give me a heart-attack in his third attempt    

  

Edited October 23, 2018 by Helen of Annoy
I'm eating letters sometimes.

[spartan max2]

Carlos you must be a big music fan lol, I find it interesting that a lot of your moments are music related.

[Imaginarynumber1]

oct 23, 1998 - saw a bee

oct 23, 2018 - saw a bee

Coincidence, or something more sinister?

[Carlos Allende]

23 hours ago, spartan max2 said:

Carlos you must be a big music fan lol, I find it interesting that a lot of your moments are music related.

Mmm. Well, I should probably be relieved that I wasn't just a mental case drawing pictures of Cindi Lauper and Jamiroquai _for no reason._

[Carlos Allende]

-------------UPDATE-----------------

29-10-18 Today? I had TWO coincidences. The second one, I consider a biggie. 

Firstly, walking down the track to work, I was listening to my MP3 player, a recording of Iain Lee's show on Talk Radio. At 10.25, a pal asked, "What were you listening to this morning?" Aiming for a laugh, I tried to think of the most unlikely, outdated thing I could possibly be listening to, and shouted into his face, "ENYA: SAIL AWAY, SAIL AWAY, SAIL AWAY". 10:30. I turn on the radio, which promptly begins playing --Enya, Sail Away, Sail Away, Sail Away. 

And then.

At 12.50, just aimlessly walking around trying to kill time in my lunch break, I resume listening to the MP3. Talk Radio plays that pensions advert which has various characters saying, 'I understand such-and-such, but I don't understand my pensions options'. It gets to the guy who says, 'I understand what a flux capacitor does...', just as I'm emerging through a tight little alleyway into a cul-de-sac...

TO SEE A PARKED-UP DELOREAN.

I mean, just...

Full disclosure: I knew there was a Delorean _somewhere_ in Chippenham because I'd frequently seen it driving along the dual carriageway to Malmesbury, so in that respect it's not the _most_ 10-to-the-power-of-a-gazillion improbability, but...

Wow. 

What next? Bagsies Swindon Town fights it out of League Two and wins the Premiership in 2020.  

 

[+ouija ouija]

Hi Carlos. With regard to your original post I have a few thoughts. Firstly, your first experience in 1998 is mind-blowing! I can understand why that would lead you to an interest in coincidences, however .... I'm not too sure about training yourself to notice them. I'm of the mind that once you start pushing things, however gently, you are more likely to observe links that are contrived and not authentic.

Your experience of simultaneously dreaming the same dream as your ex is a phenomenon that I have come across before. Two couples I knew experienced this. I wouldn't describe it as a coincidence but rather mind reading. Occasionally, two people are so close they can sometimes tap into each other's thoughts. I have experienced tapping into the thoughts of others(very, very rarely, I should add!).

The story that you wrote a draft of: again, I would call this a premonition. A similar thing happened to a friend of mine who wrote a song that was almost word for word '2525'(what is it with that song?!), 12mths before it was heard on the radio. And the Zoolander 2 thing is also a premonition in my opinion, as is predicting a song on the radio just before it is played. I think this is accounted for by sensitive people connecting with information that is 'in the ether'(for want of a better description), and their sensitivity to this extends into the future.

When I was in my mid-20s, the thing of predicting a song immediately before it was played or perhaps singing a song, switching on the radio and the song that is playing was the one I was singing, used to happen to me several times a day almost every day. Then it suddenly stopped(except for one notable incident years later).

The Scotch egg sarnie ...... who eats Scotch egg sarnies!  Now that's a real coincidence!

21/5/18: talking to Ken Bruce! I think I would have totally flipped out if that had happened to me!

Do you see any purpose in coincidences and this type of premonition? Whilst they are exciting to experience, they're not really useful are they?

(Have to go now but will write a little more later)

[ChrLzs]

Carlos, why not just do the maths?

 

Here's a coupla hints on how to do it properly.  First, you need to start documenting things.  Anecdotes are about as valuable as an analogy about a left-handed screwdriver..

Second, you need to start thinking about all the times when things don't coincide.

Third, you need to think about your criteria for being a coincidence, and whether you .. er... might be widening that criteria as necessary, because you *want* them...

Fourth, you need to consider what 'patterns' of behavior and other issues are involved and how synchronicities and expectations affect the events and also your judgements.

Fifth.. well let's just say I could go on, but I doubt if trying to quantise it, is your desire...  So I'll leave it there and wish you luck in getting sufficient re-inforcement and 'me-too' posts.

[Amanda Evans]

I too have had a lot of specifically radio related coincidences in my life.

Thinking of a subject, and they are discussing it on the radio.

Think of a song - and hey presto it'a on next.

I wonder if there is something subliminal going on. I know they do have a very slight time delay on radio especially if its live amsi are we getti g radio signals from the radio??

[Helen of Annoy]

Speaking of radio, it reminded me of my TV 'curse'. 

I remember that one X-Files (well, of course it was X-Files related )  coincidence - or was it premonition. I think it's stuck in my memory because it was sort of annoyingly funny. 

One day, back in the 1990's, I thought, again for no particular reason at all, because always I often think about completely irrelevant things, that I'd like to watch next X-Files episode, and how they never had anything Slavic-related. And the next episode was about something Slavic-related, it surprised me a little, because I often experience 'coincidences'/premonitions, but this was rarely specific while completely unimportant. But all I saw were first 5 minutes because there was something going on that prevented me from watching TV and admiring the 'coincidence'. I keep remembering this every few years, with intention to look for that episode and finally see it.     

We still own a TV but rarely use it. Back then when it was in use there was rarely anything worth watching and when such miracle would occur, something would prevent me from watching it, of course. I remember joking that I'm cursed to never see anything good on TV: either there isn't anything, either I can't see it. 

I also still often joke about that coincidence/premonition thing of mine, how wonderfully it works with completely useless things. On the other hand, who can tell what's useful and why. 

[+ouija ouija]

6 minutes ago, Helen of Annoy said:

 On the other hand, who can tell what's useful and why. 

For me, the usefulness(or purpose), of these incidents which are too spectacular to ignore, has been to make me think long and hard as to what exactly is going on ..... how do they work? They have convinced me that there is something in the old idea of ether: ' Ether, or æther, was the mysterious substance once thought to suffuse the universe and be the medium that propagated light (and radio waves once they were discovered). Before that, it was the material that suffused the realm of the Gods'. I believe we are all connected through the medium of ether, some connections being clearer/stronger than others. This is how we 'know' a loved one is in distress even though we haven't had contact with them; how a dream can slip along a strong connection so that another person simultaneously has that dream; how we pick up radio programmes etc. etc..

To me, ether is (almost) interchangeable with the Spirit(with a capital 'S'!), that all us little spirits are part of.

[Carlos Allende]

21 hours ago, ouija ouija said:

Do you see any purpose in coincidences and this type of premonition? Whilst they are exciting to experience, they're not really useful are they?

Well, I should first that I don't expect anyone to be impressed too much by the radio stuff. But the 'Black Hole' incident, the 'Sounds of the Universe' incident, and now the DeLorean thing ...they seem not only to be massive leaps in probability (I _CAN'T_ do the maths, I tried calling up Hawkings' ghost to do the calculations, but he's not even bothered), but they also suggest things happening on a massive, post-human scale, the universe itself, time-travel, civilization and society being bunkum (if you haven't read 'Black Hole' by Charles Burns, I recommend it: it's the ultimate 'loner' novel on a par with Catcher in the Rye, Hangover Square and Nausea).

Therefore the purpose of these coincidences are one thing and one thing only, to prove once and for all

THAT I AM GOD.

I'm joking*

My opinion is that there's a correlation between the microcosmic and the macrocosmic in the 'spooky action at a distance' of quantum physics, the firing of our synapses, etc. I wouldn't be so flashy as to suggest there's a solipsistic element to the emerging idea of quantum holography and the nature of reality, but ...yeah. Weighed in the balance as all things must be, it's summit to think about innit.

*(or am I?)

[Robotic Jew]

On 10/23/2018 at 3:28 PM, Stiff said:

Happens to me and mrs Stiff quite a lot too. Only last night she was messing about brushing her long blond hair over her face and pretending to be Cousin It. I remarked that I thought it had dark her but she claimed blond. Within 5 minutes, up pops Cousin It on her FB timeline that someone had literally just posted. She was right - it was blond.

Telling her it really suited her didn't go down too well though.

That's not coincidence. That's the FB spies listening in to your conversations.

[Stiff]

1 hour ago, Robotic Jew said:

That's not coincidence. That's the FB spies listening in to your conversations.

I'm not overly sure that her hairdresser friend down the street who posted it works for FB though? 

[Essan]

The most interesting thing about coincidences is that they happen less often than the could.

For example, meeting someone at a party with the same birthday as you?  Surely a 1 in 365 chance?  No ....  If there are 23 people there there's a 1 in 2 chance.  With 75 people it's almost certain ....

https://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/~

Simply, people don't understand probability

[Robotic Jew]

14 hours ago, Stiff said:

I'm not overly sure that her hairdresser friend down the street who posted it works for FB though? 

They don't have to. FB spies hear you talk about something, then put a meme on your FRIENDS wall, they see it and share it and then YOU feel more connected to it. It's what they do!

[Stiff]

6 hours ago, Robotic Jew said:

They don't have to. FB spies hear you talk about something, then put a meme on your FRIENDS wall, they see it and share it and then YOU feel more connected to it. It's what they do!

How many FB spies do you think there are? I'm not saying there aren't any, but do you realise how many people use FB? And how many spies they would need to monitor all those people? 

[+ouija ouija]

20 hours ago, Essan said:

The most interesting thing about coincidences is that they happen less often than the could.

For example, meeting someone at a party with the same birthday as you?  Surely a 1 in 365 chance?  No ....  If there are 23 people there there's a 1 in 2 chance.  With 75 people it's almost certain ....

https://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/~

Simply, people don't understand probability

Forgive me, but what you say is irrelevant to the one experiencing the coincidence!  It is not of practical relevance; it is only theoretical interest.

[Carlos Allende]

20 hours ago, Essan said:

Surely a 1 in 365 chance?  No ....  If there are 23 people there there's a 1 in 2 chance.  With 75 people it's almost certain ....

Cool maths. Can you do the odds on my 'Sounds of the Universe' anecdote, too?

[Robotic Jew]

39 minutes ago, Stiff said:

How many FB spies do you think there are? I'm not saying there aren't any, but do you realise how many people use FB? And how many spies they would need to monitor all those people? 

Just 1. And. It's. A. Robot.

[Meridian O]

Re coincidences…I have many but I’ll just bore you all with the one…

 

My Nan died on a September 11^th date (UK 11 / 9)

29 years later! My Mum died (on my partners birthdate) November 9^th (UK 9 / 11)

[ChrLzs]

It seems some here aren't aware that given any 23 or more randomly chosen people, there is a better than even chance of two of them having the same birthday.

https://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/

Probability is *not* linear, and sometimes what you think might be a rare occurrence, really isn't.  And, for other more subtle coincidences, you need to consider the entire scenario and look at all factors that might be involved.  If you don't, you'll be very easily impressed by the sort of stuff reported in the OP. 

THEN you have to realise that obviously those who see such coincidences will be motivated to report it / and especially post it here, if motivated by mysteriousness...  Thus there will be a strong bias, especially on sites like this.

But does anyone honestly think this makes them special?  Or that there are more coincident birthdates in families than there should be, by random chance? (there aren't, by the way).

People love to feel special, and that's fine and nice and do go ahead.  But don't try to tell us that this is an unexplained / unexplainable phenomenon, when it is simply reported a few times as an anecdote.  It's quite common, and it has to be according to the laws of probability / chance.

More to the point - you'll note that above I started to list the reasons and explanations for synchronicities.  And to that ..  the OP responded by completely ignoring what I posted...  C'est la vie.

 

[Davros of Skaro]

1 hour ago, ChrLzs said:

It seems some here aren't aware that given any 23 or more randomly chosen people, there is a better than even chance of two of them having the same birthday.

https://betterexplained.com/articles/understanding-the-birthday-paradox/

Probability is *not* linear, and sometimes what you think might be a rare occurrence, really isn't.  And, for other more subtle coincidences, you need to consider the entire scenario and look at all factors that might be involved.  If you don't, you'll be very easily impressed by the sort of stuff reported in the OP. 

THEN you have to realise that obviously those who see such coincidences will be motivated to report it / and especially post it here, if motivated by mysteriousness...  Thus there will be a strong bias, especially on sites like this.

But does anyone honestly think this makes them special?  Or that there are more coincident birthdates in families than there should be, by random chance? (there aren't, by the way).

People love to feel special, and that's fine and nice and do go ahead.  But don't try to tell us that this is an unexplained / unexplainable phenomenon, when it is simply reported a few times as an anecdote.  It's quite common, and it has to be according to the laws of probability / chance.

More to the point - you'll note that above I started to list the reasons and explanations for synchronicities.  And to that ..  the OP responded by completely ignoring what I posted...  C'est la vie.

 

1) We evolved to recognise patterns.

 2) Thoughts of feeling special gets us high.

 3) Continue to see patterns, and think something special is going on.

 

[ChrLzs]

1 hour ago, Hello Davros Kitty said:

1) We evolved to recognise patterns.

 2) Thoughts of feeling special gets us high.

 3) Continue to see patterns, and think something special is going on.

Exactly what I said, but a tad shorter, I admit...