Extraordinary coincidences

I think it might be a good idea to post some, as they make very entertaining reading.

And to kick it off, I'll (re)post one of my own experiences.
(Originally published in this thread.)


Years ago, I was working my way through a very, very difficult book (by an author who is very famous but only in extremely "literate" circles; most people outside of his country wouldn't know about him. EDIT: I know how this sounds, but it's not like it sounds... )

In the book, which has around 600 or 700 pages (each one being less intelligible than the previous one), there is a relatively brief (a page or so) description of an historic event, a minor revolution that involved the toppling of a statue.

While that event is very famous in the author's country, I had never heard of it before - or since, by the way.

I read the pages describing this event on an early afternoon.
Later that night, I decided I would take a break and surf the TV channels, to see if there was anything distracting (it was a HEAVY book). A few channels into my channel-flipping, a black-and-white American film attracted my attention (B/W films always do that to me...), so I watched it for a few seconds.

A few seconds... That's all it took for me to start having an eerie feeling of deja vu. I knew I hadn't seen the film before; I am a film buff, and I also have a very, very good memory, even if I say so myself.

And yet, the scene I was watching looked strangely familiar... A few more seconds passed until I grasped that the unimaginable was really happening: the scene where I started watching the film was depicting the very same historic event that I had been reading about a few hours earlier: an event I had never heard about before (and I am also a history buff, mind you) - or since. Furthermore, the film itself is not at all well known (although it does feature some important Hollywood actors from the 1940-1950s) - and I haven't seen it ever since.

I was so baffled by the odds of something like that happening I went and tried to find some information about the film (as if that would clarify anything!). It was then, reading about the plot, that I noticed another coincidence: the date - when I was reading/watching - was actually the exact anniversary of the said event.

Now, the said historic event had nothing whatsoever to do with the European country where I was at the time, so an "anniversary" airing of the film would have been totally meaningless. But let's assume, for the sake of the argument (as I did), that for some reason the TV station did decide to air that American film to "commemorate" an obscure historic event that happened 60+ years before, in a country far away. That still leaves me with a set of puzzling synchronicities:

a) from among the 600/700 pages I happened to read the page or two that describe that event on the very date that it had happened, more than 60 years before;

b) on the same day I read about it, I happened to stumble upon a channel that was airing a relatively obscure film about that same event, a film that I had not seen before or since;

c) I happened to turn on the TV at the exact moment - or a few seconds (not minutes) earlier - when the film was about to show that scene that I had read about.


In the original thread, BuckDivision was kind enough to calculate the odds of that happening...










[edit on 23-4-2008 by Vanitas]

My, my... No takers?
Am I to understand that people here have not experienced extraordinary coincidences - or synchronicities, if you prefer?

OK, then I'll keep this thread alive - for your benefit - by adding a story now and then.

Obviously, I cannot vouch for the veracity of any of them - but hey, considering the odds involved in my own story (above), I have no serious reason to doubt them either.

My personal favourite has always been the one about Monsieur de Fontgibu and the plum pudding.
And frankly, when I relate it, it is really much more entertaining than the versions that are around on the internet.
But since there is a real risk that I am here basically talking to myself (and I am already familiar with everything I have to say...) I'll just insert a link that will get you to a page including several such "synchronicities", including a short account about M. de Fontgibu and le plum pudding...

Curious coincidences

One of my favourite synchronicity stories comes from Anthony Hopkins himself.

Wilmer (1987, p. 171) gives an example of synchronicity as related by Arthur Koestler of the London Times in 1974: After landing the leading role in the movie The Girl from Petrovka, English actor Anthony Hopkins tried without success to find a copy of the book in London. Then one day as he was passing through Leicester Square he noticed a book lying discarded on a bench. It was The Girl from Petrovka. During the movie's filming Hopkins met the book's author, George Feifer, who mentioned in passing that he no longer had a copy of his own novel. Feifer said he had loaned his last copy to a friend who had lost it in London. Hopkins showed Feifer the book he had found. Feifer looked inside and discovered notes in his own handwriting. It was the same book.

Taken from here.


And here's another forum thread about it.









[edit on 3-5-2008 by Vanitas]

You're a good story teller

I personally believe that deja vu's are from dreams we have had. I remember having an enormous deja vu about this really queer insignificant thing but i distincitvely remember dreaming it because afterwards i woke up and thought exactly how weird that dream was...

So i've dreamt the future - even if it was small and a little insignificant in terms of making a difference to other peoples lives but it said something to ME.
Everything happens for a reason and so one day you WILL realise why u had this experience. It will hold significance in YOUR life.

And just for fun, some more eerie, eerie # - extraordinary coincidences between JFK and Abraham Lincoln...


www.meilach.com...

reply to post by pretty_vacant


Oh come, come...
Haven't we been through that one before? :-)


P.S. Some of them are almost eerie, that is true.
I just hope the infamous "Marilyn Monroe" bit isn't in it...
(I am afraid to look. :-))








[edit on 3-5-2008 by Vanitas]

reply to post by pretty_vacant


Why, thank you very much.
(Why isn't there a "taking a bow" smiley...? :-)

Actually, I can be a good story teller - but these stories were not told by me, of course.
Just hyperlinked.


P.S. Oh... by story-telling, you meant my own story?
(See what happens when people don't get enough sleep...? )





[edit on 3-5-2008 by Vanitas]

Personally the only way i can think of in order to explain it is that either the fabric of this dimension is falling apart, was never truly cohesive in the first place, or that there is a dimension not too dissimilar to ours (in physical terms) operating under an inter-dimensionary protocol.

I'm still more inclined to say it's a random coincidence, as the kind of reasoning i'm capable of makes me think that the walls really are alive.

[edit on 3-5-2008 by Anti-Tyrant]

reply to post by Anti-Tyrant



"Coincidence" and/or the notion of "random" are actually just theoretical concepts, too. :-)

But I think it would be good to just post (genuine) stories of "synchronicities" - or "coincidences", whatever - here, to get a feel of their scope and array and so on...

Not there's anything wrong with trying to interpret them, of course.
It's just that most of what we're doing here on ATS is just THAT.




[edit on 3-5-2008 by Vanitas]

This looks like an entertaining book:

Phil Cousineau: "Coincidence or Destiny?"

Originally posted by Vanitas

"Coincidence" and/or the notion of "random" are actually just theoretical concepts, too. :-)
[edit on 3-5-2008 by Vanitas]

I'm aware of that, and i provided a possible explanation that doesn't involve fairies and goblins.

I'll make one up that does if you like.

p.s; i was merely pointing out the fact that i hope it's coincidence instead of some sort of multi-dimensional demonic over-mind that is controlling every single little thing we see or do.

Which would you prefer?

[edit on 3-5-2008 by Anti-Tyrant]

p.s; i was merely pointing out the fact that i hope it's coincidence instead of some sort of multi-dimensional demonic over-mind that is controlling every single little thing we see or do.

Which would you prefer?

I was perfectly aware of your intention, no problem there.

WHICH would I prefer...?
Oh, I think there are probably quite a few additional choices between those two extremes...

reply to post by Vanitas



Some of you may have heard of the story about Umberto, the king of Italy, and his alleged "double". If you haven't, here's a short account, copied below for convenience:

“In 1900 King Umberto of Italy came face to face with a man who looked just like him. The king and his aide-de-camp Gen. Emilio Ponzio-Vaglia arrived in the town of Monza, a few miles outside Milan. The next day the king was to present the prizes at an athletic meet. The night of their arrival he and his aide went to a small restaurant for dinner. As the owner was taking their order, the king noticed that he and the patron were virtually doubles, in both face and build. He remarked on this, and as the two men talked an extraordinary series of parallels emerged which caused both of them to marvel:

* Both were born on the same day, year, same town, and had the same name.
* They were both married on April 22, 1868.
* Both wives were named Margarita,
* Both had a son named Vittorio.
* They had been decorated for bravery together on two occasions, the first time in 1866, when Umberto had been a private and the king a colonel, and the second time in 1870, when each had been promoted to sergeant and corps commander.

With this final revelation the patron returned to his duties, and the king, turning to his aide, said, ‘I intend to make that man a Cavaliere of the Crown of Italy tomorrow. Be sure he comes to the meet.’”

“The following day, true to his word, the king asked for his double only to be told that the man had died that day in a shooting accident. Shocked, the king asked his aide to find out when the funeral was to take place so that he might attend. At that very moment three shots rang out, fired by an assassin. The first of them missed the king, but the second two pierced his heart and killed him instantly.”


Frankly, I find this story more eerie than "fascinating", in the usual titillating sense of the word... Because if it's true, my first thought would be:

The two Umbertos were twin brothers. Twins being a major problem in royal lineages, for obvious reasons, one of the boys was given away immediately after birth, but was also called Umberto, either by chance (by the family who adopted him) - or even on purpose, to secure a credible "spare".

That would explain everything, even the subsequent "coincidences".
(Many studies of the lives of identical twins show that their spouses are often very similar in appearance, share the same name etc. - and the twins often also die on the same day.)

But my question is: WAS it true at all?
Does anyone have a reputable source for this story?









[edit on 6-5-2008 by Vanitas]

Wow, happens to me all time time.

I would hear about something new, then see someone on the news or ATS talking about it. (Even if it is old news).

I would learn a new word, then see people using it a few hours later.

For example, my math teacher showed us how one might be able to disprove God by using logic.
1. State that God can do ANYTHING.
2. Joe comes along and asks God if he can make a boulder that's too heavy for him.
3. God makes it, but how can the boulder be too heavy if he can do anything?

Then, I come home, go on ATS, and see some Atheist vs Theist debate going on. One of them says "Remember God' boulder? " to the theist.

If I had not heard of the God&boulder story a few hours earlier, I would've never known what that ATS member was talking about.

Originally posted by Vanitas

Wilmer (1987, p. 171) gives an example of synchronicity as related by Arthur Koestler of the London Times in 1974: After landing the leading role in the movie The Girl from Petrovka, English actor Anthony Hopkins tried without success to find a copy of the book in London. Then one day as he was passing through Leicester Square he noticed a book lying discarded on a bench. It was The Girl from Petrovka. During the movie's filming Hopkins met the book's author, George Feifer, who mentioned in passing that he no longer had a copy of his own novel. Feifer said he had loaned his last copy to a friend who had lost it in London. Hopkins showed Feifer the book he had found. Feifer looked inside and discovered notes in his own handwriting. It was the same book.

Interesting.

I wonder how accurate it is thou, because first of all Anthony Hopkins is welsh not english. But interesting if true.

[edit on 6-5-2008 by _Phoenix_]

reply to post by _Phoenix_



Ah, many people, even in English-speaking countries, fail to realise the difference between English and Welsh...

But I doubt very much that a story like this would be circulating for so long - and it is rather well-known - without any of the famous people involved denying it.




[edit on 7-5-2008 by Vanitas]

I can't even begin to list the coincidences I'm dealing with day by day.

Years ago I would freak out when an astonishing coincidence would happen. Perhaps once or twice a year, tops...

They're happening about once an hour now...


Maybe I'll try and keep track of a day and post it sometime.

Originally posted by ianr5741
I can't even begin to list the coincidences I'm dealing with day by day.

Years ago I would freak out when an astonishing coincidence would happen. Perhaps once or twice a year, tops...

They're happening about once an hour now...


Maybe I'll try and keep track of a day and post it sometime.

I confess to experiencing multi-daily coincidences. I know a lot of people who feel the same way. For example, about 10 mins before this thread started, I was reading an old file from 1999, titled "Coincidences" with a list of historical and morbid examples.
Duncan

I have had synchronocities since I was a child. My favorite book as a 14 y/o was

Incredible Coincidence: The Baffling World of Synchronicity by Alan Vaughan.

In an extraordianary feat of coincidence, just last year I found this book, at my local goodwill. My 17 year old is reading it now! *so proud

I had a synchronous event Sunday. I lay down to meditate, and happen to glance out my window. What do I see? A huge hot air balloon, with met life written on it.

I go to tell my sister about it, and what is she doing?

Working on her disability papers....from Met Life.

reply to post by Vanitas


It's not as weird as you think. How many historical events have you read about in your life? How many films based on historical events have you watched in your life? How many historical events are depicted in popular media (both books and movies)? If you look at it from the viewpoint of the person who had it happen to them (ie you), then yes, it looks staggering. But if you look at it from the perspective of the universe, it was bound to happen to someone. Heck, it might happen to one person around the world every day.

So, to sum up, it's not that big of a coincidence, it just seems like it to you