Increasing Coincidences

I've been having an unusual increase in meaningless coincidences. I learn a new term in a book and later watch a movie or TV show that uses the term liberally. I see an unusal and obscure graphic on a billboard, and come across the same image in something completely unrelated. I'm certain I'm not subconsciously seeking out of these things, I'm just randomly running across them. I understand during situations such as a breakup, you seem to run into things allover the place that reminds you of your relationship, but these things I'm finding hold no significance to me...

Let me give you a more specific example: I was watching Rob Roy last night, and they say "No quarter is asked and none shall be given." Today, I was browsing through this site, and find someone has this exact quote on their signature... www.abovetopsecret.com...
I'm just saying this is very unlikely to run into something like this within 24 hours of each other... and this sort of improbable occurrence seems to be happening to me more and more often.

Does this happen to anyone else? Are there any theories on the psychology of mundane coincidences?

For the record, I'm a ardent skeptic of the paranormal and an atheist if that makes a difference.

I love coincidences, synchronicities, whatever you want to call them. For me and my family, for some reason, they always seem to increase when i am reading about paranormal stuff. We've had some excellent ones happen to us. A couple of the best ones;

I got up and opened up my home page and misread a Yahoo news heading. It actually said..."Blast kills 50" but i, at first, thought it read "BLAIR kills 50". Anyway, so this got me wondering, where was Blair?
Since he left office, i hadn't heard about him. So on a whim, i typed in "Where is Tony Blair?"
The first result was a Daily Mail news article entitled..."Where is Tony Blair?"
Turns out it was from that day too.

Another one....me and the kids were talking about Adam And Eve. And then we watched Ghost Whisperer. Me and my sons don't like it, but my daughter loves the programme.
There were two guest actors. The first was a woman i had only ever seen once before...in an episode of the X-Files called "Eve", and she had played the part of Eve.
The other guest star was called Adam.

I have many more like this and they are rather brilliant when they happen.
Some people will tell you that they are only coincidences. But sometimes i wonder.
Sometimes they do seem to hold significance too. I was going through a period of slight depression and total boredom. I had been reading about spirituality and was about to order some more books on the subject.
I decided however, to leave the spiritual side and ordered a book on the occult.
When i got it....the first two chapters dealt with people who become "bored with life"
Brilliant

I get strange periods of time where it seems exactly as you described, obscure words and phrases pop up exactly as you described. Which only furthers my theory on fate, but that's saved for a different time and place.

While giving my mother a ride to the grocery store today I spoke about this very subect and then the first thing I see when I enter this forum is this!

This happens to me quite a bit and it's usually odd things that I wouldn't expect to see multiple times in a short period of time.

If you ever find an explanation feel free to let me know.

Originally posted by Soboro

If you ever find an explanation feel free to let me know.

The only thing I can think of to possibly explain it would be...

When viewing something, or seeing a certain word, for the first time, or even in a certain context we make a mental note of sorts. Perhaps it's something that is used or said around us daily but until the mind actually makes a note of it we aren't as keen to pick up on it. So that's why it feels so strange and coincidental when that word, pops back up.

Just throwing this out there, I looked all over for some detailed information but alas nothing.

*shrugs*

I think on somethings it means pay attention to where/what you see those exact same words in if they stick in your mind.

A couple of days ago while driving down the road the strangest thing popped into my mind. It was a questioning thought about something. I thought about it for a few minutes and went on. Never did come up with an answer. The other night I was checking out something that had caught my eye in a thread on the site. After clicking on few links I ended up reading something with the exact same thought that had popped into my head.

It was like okay I see the answer I don't like the out come of what I'm reading though.

I always figure there is a reason somethings stand out in your mind and some things don't. Think about how much we see on a daily basis and let it go without a second thought yet one thing seems to stick then we see it again some times more than once. It's something telling us to make the connection to get an answer or maybe a warning on something.

Thanks for all your great thoughts.

I had another occurrence this morning. I just downloaded a torrent of a Frank Sinatra album last night. The last song I listened to on that album was New York, New York. My colleague that sits next to me was randomly whistling a few measures from that tune.

I don't think I've ever heard him whistle that specific song.

Originally posted by Avarus

I've been having an unusual increase in meaningless coincidences. I learn a new term in a book and later watch a movie or TV show that uses the term liberally.

I believe its called The Baader - Meinhof Phenomenon

The man who coined the term for the phenomenon also experienced a perceived increased in frequency with which he encountered the term Baader Meinhof Gang (West German militant group)
His serendipitous encounter gave its name to the phenomenon.
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These words and images were always around us , we were just unaware of them .

i know exactly what you mean. it happens to me all the time. you will think of a song then it will play on the radio or you will think about someone you havent seen for ages and then you will see them or someonelse will mention them.

Whatever it is................

And I think some good examples were shared in this thread...

It makes me feel like there is "something" *out there* that knows me and knows how to show me it knows me! That doesn't make a lot of sense, but easier than pulling out Carl Jungs book on the subject!.

reply to post by Avarus


All of the time. Mostly weird when I'm typing something and the same word is mentioned at the same time on tv, or speaking and the same thing is said. Playing computer games and the item I'm controlling is mentioned. All completely coincidental and unrelated, even unremarkable except that it happens.

I read an OP and then the replies and someone has already given an exact phrase that I was considering for a response. Or I skip my first inclination of a response and later another posts it as a comment--verbatim.

More often than not it's very similar to your experience. I'll be musing about the vagaries of this life and within 48 hours will come upon the subject in some form or fashion. I like to call it attracting coincidences.

I experience them all the time. I call them Incredible Coincidences. When I was manic, they were happening so often that I was truly out of my mind, and was in effect subject to them.

Here's a string of Incredible Coincidences from one day last week, that I observed without losing my mind:

I was sitting in the airport waiting for a flight, at a table at a Starbucks. I randomly chose to sit at a table facing the concourse. As I was drinking my coffee, an older stewardess, seemingly too old, like in her 70s, came up to me and said "I'll have what he's having" and gave me a wink. It was very surreal, and I had a quick thought that maybe she was a ghost, because no one else was seeming to notice her.

Anyway, my next thought was -- I kid you not -- completely random, about the name of Tiger Woods' baby son. I don't even know if he has a son, but that was my next thought, a pondering thought about the baby's name. I heard/thought the name "Ray" as the answer to my question, his baby's name is Ray, after the golfer Ray Floyd. But then I thought, that that would be inappropriate, because Ray Floyd made a racist comment about Tiger Woods at the Masters, after he won in 1997. That was my thought process at the time. Then I drank more coffee, and within about 10 seconds a lady made an urgent announcement over the intercom system: "Ray [so and so] please come to the information booth." I don't remember the last name, but it really startled me when I heard Ray, about ten seconds after the random thoughts about Ray.

The coincidences make me nervous, because I flash back to the manic times, so I just chuckled to myself and looked across the concourse. The clock on the Gate said the time was 11:17. I had an Incredible Coincidence involving 17 on another trip, so when I saw the time as 11:17, right after the Ray experience, I said to myself, be ready for a manic day, don't let things get out of control.

I looked out the window, and saw a small commuter plane with twin engines. I thought I was glad not to be flying on it, because it did not look safe. And the synchronicities continued. That night at dinner at an Italian restaurant, the bill with tip, rounded up, came to $171.00. When I got back to the hotel, the news story was that 17 had died in a small plane crash in Montana. The next morning, the newspaper had the number 17 dead as a headline, and the breakfast bill was $71.00.

The actual number who died turned out to be 14, but the number 17 was still all over the place for me those two days. It was Fuzzy Zoeller, not Ray Floyd who made the racist comment about Tiger. The random thought of the name Ray, right before the announcement over the loudspeakers for Ray, along with the 17 connection, puts this experience into a special category of Incredible Coincidences.

I have researched 17 in light of my previous experiences with the number and synchronicity/Incredible Coincidences, and learned that to the Italians, 17 means death, to wit:

In Italian culture, the number 17 is considered unlucky. When viewed as the Roman numeral, XVII, it is then changed anagramtically to VIXI, which in the Latin language it translates to "I have lived", the perfect tense implying "My life is over." (c.f. "Vixerunt", Cicero's famous announcement of an execution.) The Italian airline carrier, Alitalia, does not have a seat 17. Renault sold its "R17" model in Italy as "R177." See Cesana Pariol in the sport section about the name of curve 17.

wikipedia.org...

I once reached out to God when experiencing such Incredible Coincidences, also while very manic, and asked for something very specific, as an existence proof. It took several months, but God delivered. The organized religion stuff can be a little corrupt, but God and his angels are real. Ask, and you shall receive.



[edit on 29-3-2009 by greenorbs]