Journal Entries
Coincidence
Posted Jul 10, 2007
Bit of a gap since my last entry - couldn't be helped.
Like most people, I have experienced countless examples of 'low level' coincidence that are, from a practical point of view, not significant enough to list. These examples include someone ringing you, or knocking at your door at the precise moment you mention their name; two or more people buying the same card/gift for the same person etc.
Example 1 - In the early Seventies a close friend was leaving to work overseas. He gave me all his record albums before going, but the one I wanted most of all, "Music For Zen Meditation", he refused to part with.
He had bought it on a holiday in the US and since it had not been issued in the UK or Europe, it would be hard to replace. In fact, he had already tried once after getting a scratch on one track.
A few weeks passed. There was, of course, no internet then and I knew I faced a long trawl thru catalogues of American releases for the album (which had actually been recorded in Japan).
After a hectic morning's work at the Royal Free Hospital's Renal Unit, I decided to go for a lunchtime stroll instead of having the usual meal with hospital colleagues. Walking down a back street, I found a small bank of shops - a chippie, newsagents and a little record store. On the spur of the moment I decided to go inside, reasoning that a small, less busy shop might be more patient in a catalogue search. As I opened the door my mouth dropped open. The counter clerk was literally in the act of handing a record album over to the only customer in the shop, a young woman. The cover was facing me and I could clearly see it was the album I wanted, "Music For Zen Meditation".
I told the woman and the counterclerk my story. The woman was as astonished as I was. She had been waiting for over a month for the album to arrive. She should have collected it the previous day. The clerk was more practical, beaming, "That's great - all the paperwork's done, I only need to do a repeat order!"
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Latest reply: Jul 10, 2007
Coincidence
Posted Apr 26, 2007
I've been giving this subject a lot of thought because I have quite a few personal examples.
What do we mean by "coincidence"? Do we all share the same definition? Or is it simply a 'dustbin term' for events we cannot satisfactorily explain?
Well, one thing is certain, it does force us to ask questions. Unfortunately, the answer science gives us is "It's simply a coincidence." That maybe a reply, but it is not an answer. It is just another way of saying "I don't know.".
So, labelling a particular event coincidence, explains nothing, and means nothing. As a label,it does not 'define' or clarify. The term clumsily lumps a wide variety of events/experiences together that have nothing in common except their resistance to rational explanation.
I don't know what the answers are, but at least that puts me, and the rest of us, on a par with scientists because, here, in the odd world of coincidence, our guesses are every bit as good as theirs.
Science, for good reasons of it's own, gave up on the subject a long time ago. Such random, unpredictable events cannot be reproduced in the controlled environments of scientific research - precisely why they are inexplicable to scientists.
Clearly, no government or organisation is going to fund research on the subject because there is no discernably useful end-product. So, I guess it's up to the rest of us, as indivduals, to examine the examples of coincidence that litter our own lives. I intend to list a couple of examples of my own later.
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Latest reply: Apr 26, 2007
paracelsus
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