Extraordinary coincidences

I'm a fairly critical thinker. Synchronicity doesn't have evidence to support it. It also depends on some multi-connected consciousness or program working towards an end...I don't buy that idea. A couple of psychology studies have suggested that people can be predisposed to seeing patterns in life. They've also indicated that it can run in families...like sleeping disorders. I accept all this because I'm a critical thinker and the studies are repeatable. Simple!

Not so simple. I often see coincidences and notice patterns. Minor incidents sometimes appear linked. Those funny little innocuous moments...a random dream about someone you haven't seen for a long time...next day you see them. Trying to remember an old song that turns up on the radio. These are bad examples in a way, because they mostly tend to be really minor moments that don't get a second thought. A lot of people will get this. Hard to explain because they don't come with a bugle section

So...we should be careful and cautious. I've had quite a few experiences that some would call paranormal (ghosts) and others psychological (imagination). A few remain unexplained. I err on the side of psychology, but both are describing real experiences in different ways. It's an interesting puzzle all the same....

reply to post by Kandinsky


Oh, I understand where you're coming from, fear not. I suffer (and I mean it) from the same affliction myself...

But in my opinion there is a critical flaw in the premise of repeatable experiments when the human psyche - and everything it connects with - is concerned: in reality, the circumstances, visible and invisible, change all the time. They are fluid, non-repeatable; therefore, any semblance of "sameness" is just that: a semblance (and a highly deceptive one at that).

Anyway, this particular case tickles people because of the low probability of such coincidences. And, as I said earlier in this thread to my good friend Dave... if science relies so heavily on the calculus of probabilities - why shouldn't we be entitled to do the same? ;-)

reply to post by Vanitas
Good. I favor the scientific explanations, but they don't always have explanations. I haven't spent a night at my folks' house (where I grew up) in 3 years. Voices, bumps, breathing, footsteps and doors slamming! I remain skeptical, doesn't have to mean ghosts, but the 'rational incidents' sure are freaky.

reply to post by Kandinsky



Even if it is slightly OT, I'd love to learn more about those incidents.
But, no pressure - whenever you're ready.

reply to post by Vanitas
I'll tell you about an incident that happened about 3-4 years ago in the summer. My folks had gone on holiday so I'd pop down and check the house...lights, locks, curtains etc. Then I'd go home. The Friday they'd left, I did the same. I decided to stay the night. Locking the front and back doors, I settled down to watch TV and listen to music. I cracked a bottle of their wine, opened the patio door and lit a cigarette.

Bang. The front door slammed closed and the chimes on the back jingled. I assumed the holiday had been canceled and they'd be tired and p***ed off. I looked at the cigarette (they hate smoking) and figured, they won't be impressed with this scene! There was nothing I could do, so I sat there and waited to see why they were back early. There was silence.

I went to the front door. It was still locked and the security chain was still on.

The reason I write about this incident is because it's hard to explain. I was wide awake. The door was locked, chained. I heard it slam shut. I'm not given to waking hallucinations. I hadn't been watching horror movies. I didn't think anything 'weird' had happened until I checked the door. It gave me the creeps.

I grew up in the house. Over the years friends, girlfriends and family have experienced voices, bumps, bangs, footsteps and voices etc. Me more than others. A few have happened on sunny afternoons. Like I say, I'm skeptical, but we look for rational explanations...not 'any' explanations. I've no plans to write about them, because they or I would seem ridiculous. Dinner parties and barbecues are when the tales come out

The last time I stayed, something happened that gave me the creeps and annoyed the heck out of me. The last straw. I don't 'believe' in ghosts, I'm skeptical, but I'll never sleep in the house again.

reply to post by Kandinsky


That is extraordinary - thank you so much.

Personally, I have no problem believing that all sorts of things are possible. But, honestly, the all-too-quick attribution of any such occurrence to "ghosts" - and, more specifically, to "ghosts" being the spirits of dead people - does irritate the bejesus out of me. Not for any a priori aversion to the idea of "ghosts" - it's just that it seems too facile; and there is nothing, really, to indicate without a doubt that "ghosts", eve if they do exist, ARE indeed the spirits of the departed.

Having said that... what do I know?


P.S. It's always worthwhile to examine all possible sources of electromagnetic activity, both natural and artificial. For one thing, I suspect they may affect the perception of dimensions (for lack of a better word).





[edit on 11-8-2009 by Vanitas]

reply to post by Vanitas
Yup. Ghosts and aliens are not and should not be a default explanation for anything that falls outside of our daily understanding. A lot of unexplained weirdness in this world and it's likely gonna stay that way for a while.

Another story, very well-known - but definitely worth including here - is the one about the church explosion (possibly a planted bomb) on Wednesday, March 1st, 1950, at 7:25 p.m., in Beatrice, Nebraska.

Fifteen people, the members of the church choir who met every Wednesday at 7:20 p.m. for practice, should have been severely injured or killed - but they weren't, because none of them was there at the time of the explosion.

What are the odds of 15 people who were NEVER late to be late all on the same day, for very individual (and hardly compelling) reasons?

If you thought, like I did, it was probably a nice urban legend... think again.
I checked it on Snopes - and it turned out to be true.

See for yourself, in fascinating detail.

The 1950 explosion in Beatrice, Nebraska




[edit on 12-8-2009 by Vanitas]

Considering that the last post seemed to be of very little interest, I doubt these two instances will be either. But I'll post them anyway because I think it's a good idea to have them "grouped" in one place.

They are both Dick Cavett's experiences, as told in his NYT blog:

Strange, Dear but True, Dear.

and an earlier one:


Seriously, what are the odds?

(Seriously, where is BuckDivision, to tell us what ARE they...? )




[edit on 14-11-2009 by Vanitas]

Talk about coincidences in another thread coincided rather nicely with a minor point of interest of mine today (related to totally off-topic research), an interesting historical coincidence:

The House of Romanov acceded to the throne of Russia (in the 17th century) through their ancestor who was living in the Ipatiev monastery, at Kostroma.
In 1918, the entire imperial family was wiped out in the Ipatiev house (at Yekaterinburg).

Now, in both cases the name refers to Saint Hypatius (Ypatiy, in Russian), but that's beside the point.
I would like to know how frequent this name is.
To my ears... not very frequent. But then, I am not Russian, nor have I ever lived in Russia.
So, any help from a Russian - or an expert on Russian onomastics - would be appreciated.

This happened to me this morning as a matter of fact. So we have this boat and RV(Trailer, winnebago) dealer across 301 and the road I was coming off of. There in the yard was a trailer/camper that said MAtrix on the back(that's the way it was facing, back to the highway) anyway, it looked like the trailer they might have used while filming(it was identical writing as the films). Anyway I looked to my right and saw a truck with Galaxy, that was the name of the company, I was like wow how cool is that, Matrix and Galaxy...like the holographic Universe, you know? Yes it said Galaxy, but it would've only been creepier if it said Universe!

And tonight the three Matrix movies are on TV and one of the recently posted to threads is about the movie's sybolisms....OK now this is getting reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyy weird!!!!

Originally posted by ldyserenity
And tonight the three Matrix movies are on TV and one of the recently posted to threads is about the movie's sybolisms....OK now this is getting reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyy weird!!!!

2 cars out of 600 million

3 movies in one day out of 25550 days in a 70 year life span. (not counting reruns, I don't know how to figure that out.) roughly 1 in 2,555,000,000,000 Probability. I don't know how accurate that is, it is a very rough estimate. These kinds of things are very tricky to figure out because of all of the variables. Most likely the chance of that happening would be more likely because of reruns.

1 out of 7177 posts a day on ATS added to that is.....
1 out of
18,337,235,000,000,000 probability


[edit on 25-11-2009 by Phlynx]

reply to post by Vanitas


Hey, neat thread.

Yeah, freaky coincidences and synchronicities like this happen to me constantly now. I've learned not to question it anymore but just accept it as some sort of bizarre metaphysical property or function of the universe.

Originally posted by Phlynx

Originally posted by ldyserenity
And tonight the three Matrix movies are on TV and one of the recently posted to threads is about the movie's sybolisms....OK now this is getting reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyy weird!!!!

2 cars out of 600 million

3 movies in one day out of 25550 days in a 70 year life span. (not counting reruns, I don't know how to figure that out.) roughly 1 in 2,555,000,000,000 Probability. I don't know how accurate that is, it is a very rough estimate. These kinds of things are very tricky to figure out because of all of the variables. Most likely the chance of that happening would be more likely because of reruns.

1 out of 7177 posts a day on ATS added to that is.....
1 out of
18,337,235,000,000,000 probability


[edit on 25-11-2009 by Phlynx]

Those are staggering numbers I mean WOW! This all happenes consecutively which is really strange!!!! I feel like I should be looking out for Agent Smith!

A few years a go me and a friend were making a small road trip to ontario. We had picked up a hitch hiker some where in manitoba and we pulled over just outside of winnipeg to sleep for the night. We parked the van into a little church parking lot and pulled the back seats out and put them on the ground so we could sleep in the back of the van. Anyway as we were sitting around outside on the seats talking and drinking The priest from the church came outside to ask what we were doing. We said we were just on the road and were pulling over for the night. He joined us for a little while for a talk and he asked us where we were coming from. When we told him what ltown we were traveling from in he was surprised and said that he had relatives there. A cousin of his lived there with his family. Out of curiosity I asked what their names where, and it turns out that they were neighbours of mine! I knew them quite well as I used to date the exchange student that lived at their house!
I guess it is a "small world" story haha.