Synchronicity - What's your experience of it?

[Giddierone]

The notion of Synchronicity seems anecdotally true. Like telepathy we've all experienced moments that defy explanation for how they could have come about, just as we've all had that sense of knowing, and then hearing, what someone is about to say.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines Synchronicity as the happening by chance of two or more related or similar events at the same time. (Which doesn't really capture the very personal nature the experience).

Or, in Jung's own words:

... a peculiar principle active in the world so that things happen together somehow and behave as if they were the same, and yet for us they are not

Synchronicity therefore means the simultaneous occurrence
of a certain psychic state with one or more external events
which appear as meaningful parallels to the momentary sub-
jective state—and, in certain cases, vice versa.

and

Synchronistic events rest on the simultaneous occurrence of
two different psychic states. One of them is the normal, probable
state (i.e., the one that is causally explicable), and the other, the
critical experience, is the one that cannot be derived causally
from the first.

and

The problem of synchronicity has puzzled me for a long
time, ever since the middle twenties, when I was investigating
the phenomena of the collective unconscious and kept on com-
ing across connections which I simply could not explain as
chance groupings or "runs." What I found were "coincidences"
which were connected so meaningfully that their "chance"
concurrence would represent a degree of improbability that
would have to be expressed by an astronomical figure.

But the best sense of the definition can be gotten by hearing the examples. The famous anecdote about Monsieur de Fortgibu and the plum pudding:

A certain M. Deschamps, when a boy in Orleans, was once given a
piece of plum-pudding by a M. de Fortgibu. Ten years later he discovered another
plum-pudding in a Paris restaurant, and asked if he could have a piece. It turned
out, however, that the plum-pudding was already ordered—by M. de Fortgibu.
Many years afterwards M. Deschamps was invited to partake of a plum-pudding
as a special rarity. While he was eating it he remarked that the only thing lacking
was M. de Fortgibu. At that moment the door opened and an old, old man in the
last stages of disorientation walked in: M. de Fortgibu, who had got hold of the
wrong address and burst in on the party by mistake.

and Jung's own Golden Scarab story:

A young woman I was treating had, at a critical moment,
a dream in which she was given a golden scarab. While she was
telling me this dream I sat with my back to the closed window.
Suddenly I heard a noise behind me, like a gentle tapping. I
turned round and saw a flying insect knocking against the
window-pane from outside. I opened the window and caught
the creature in the air as it flew in. It was the nearest analogy
to a golden scarab that one finds in our latitudes, a scarabaeid
beetle, the common rose-chafer (Cetonia auratd), which contrary
to its usual habits had evidently felt an urge to get into a dark
room at this particular moment. I must admit that nothing like
it ever happened to me before or since, and that the dream of
the patient has remained unique in my experience.

Jung describes what he thinks is happening in these examples:

Synchronicity therefore consists of
two factors: a) An unconscious image comes into consciousness
either directly (i.e., literally) or indirectly (symbolized or sug-
gested) in the form of a dream, idea, or premonition, b) An
objective situation coincides with this content.

So, what's your experience with this odd phenomenon, if any?

---

As an aside I'm also reminded of how so much of cinema is driven by our acceptance of synchronicity as a common occurrence. How often does this magical thing drive the plot or allow for a hero to prevail?

---

Of course C. G. Jung's book Synchronicity (1960) [ISBN: 978-0-691-15050-5] is a recommended read before diving into this one, and is the source of the quoted text above.

 

[Todd Feinman]

I've had a lot of experiences with synchronicities, some pretty bizarre. I've come to believe that some people are kind of woven into the universe in a different way by the Norns, than others are.

 

[Ann K]

Jung describes what he thinks is happening in these examples:
So, what's your experience with this odd phenomenon, if any?

(Edit to add: I think what you describe is just coincidence. It happens.)

I'm aware of a different kind of synchronicity, which is devoid of woo although it often appears superficially that it might be. It is stimulus-driven, but the participants are not aware of the stimulus.

As an example, on long car trips my sister and I used occasionally to break into song, starting at exactly the same place in the tune. It took a moment of thought to realize that we had seen a word on a sign that was part of the song, and we both just took it from there, without any signaling to the other. The same thing would sometimes happen at work, but there was a squeaky door to my lab that played the first two words of a popular TV show theme song as it opened, and the next two notes as it closed.

I think the same thing must happen when a flock of birds or school of fish move all together, such as a sound or a current of air/water at a different temperature or direction.

 

[deirdre]

The same thing would sometimes happen at work,

two people in your lab would break into song? or just you?

I've had a lot of experiences with synchronicities, some pretty bizarre. I've come to believe that some people are kind of woven into the universe in a different way by the Norns, than others are.

i think it happens to everyone, but like contrails.. until someone points them out or something makes you specifically notice them you dont even notice they are there because you are simply not paying attention to them.

 

[Mick West]

https://skepticalinquirer.org/2021/12/jeopardy-and-ideas-of-reference/

So, what causes these seemingly reasonable and highly intelligent people to reject the obvious explanation of "just a coincidence" and instead leap to some mystical phenomenon where the universe serves up synchronicities perfectly tailored to their individual situations? It boils down to a misapplication of probability. The coincidences seem so improbable, so personal and specific, that it seems impossible that they are just coincidences.

When we ask "what are the odds," we generally understand the question in terms of very simple examples. The odds of rolling a four on a standard die are one in six. The odds of winning the Mega Millions lottery after buying one ticket are one in 302.5 million. But what are the odds that "chicken and rice" will show up on tonight's Jeopardy!?

 

[Mendel]

Synchronicity is also a function of observation. The more you sit back to observe, rather than focus on some immediate goal, the more you see that you can connect.

New Age and esoteric practice is actually not too bad at teaching mindfulness, so this demographic actually may experience more synchronicity.

 

[Todd Feinman]

two people in your lab would break into song? or just you?


i think it happens to everyone, but like contrails.. until someone points them out or something makes you specifically notice them you dont even notice they are there because you are simply not paying attention to them.

That certainly happens too

 

[Todd Feinman]

I think there is a pareidolic phenomenon wherein one finds meaningful coincidences through attention and observation; years ago when I sorted books at the library, books would magically appear with titles that would directly pertain to the live conversations between sorters, to the point of even finishing our sentences! Became farcical sometimes. But I think there can also be intrusive bizarre coincidences sometimes with uncertain causes.

I always thought this was fun:
I used to work at Lake Oswego Library in Oregon at Street Address: 706 Fourth St.

There is the Oswego, Kansas library at Street Address: 704 Fourth St.

The logos look very similar too!

 

[deirdre]

I always thought this was fun:

my funnest one (not sure it was synchronicity per se): i was getting a new roof so they spent the day ripping everything off. an old house so they were wood planks not plywood under the shingles. Yard covered in a mangled pile of old wood pieces with nails sticking out everywhere.
I'm very non confrontational generally with workmen, but they were gonna "clean it up tomorrow", and there were little kids all over the neighborhood who trapsed through the yard all the time so i gave him the classic Karen-like spiel of how dangerous it was yadayada. He argued back. And i wasnt backing down. I wanted at least a path cleared as the kids would try to climb over it.

he was tired and PISSED.

he said "Fine". he stepped forward on a piece and another piece sprang up at like 100 mph and the nail attached to it (i swear to God) stopped less than a centimeter from directly between his legs, if you get my drift. He just froze. His whole body.

He was facing me head on about 3 feet away. In classic NY style i didnt miss a beat and calmly said "see?". the look he gave me (more shock than mad) was priceless. They cleared a really nice path through the yard.

add: should say they were nice guys...he wasn't mad about clearing after that. once he recovered from his shock he was very pleasant.

 

[Z.W. Wolf]

The idea of synchronicity is fun... but so are ghost stories.

If you want to talk about coincidence...

The most outrageous coincidence I've ever experienced involved an analog watch with a dead battery that I'd put away and hadn't looked at for some time. I got a notion that perhaps I should get it fixed.

It hadn't run for a quite awhile, and yet when I pulled that watch out of a drawer, the time on this watch was exactly correct to the minute.

Pretty good. But the day of the week on the little dial off to the side was also correct.

Now we get to the eerie part. The day of month was also correct.

I knew that battery was long dead, but I was compelled to check. Yeah. It was just not merely dead, it was really most sincerely dead.

That watch wasn't moving and I couldn't get it to move. The world moved on away from that briefly perfectly correct dead watch. That was eerie, I confess.

I'm sure someone here could calculate how often a dead watch shows the right time, the right day of the week and the right day of the month.

But that fourth factor... what are the odds that I would pull it out of a drawer at that exact moment when all three were briefly correct?

 

[NoParty]

I immediately thought "Every Breath You Take" was cringe & creepy...
but I also realized that it superficially sounded enough like a standard love song,
that people would hilariously use it at their weddings...

 

[Dave51c]

Growing up, my mother was always saying "I had a funny feeling X" where X = "someone would call" | "you would say that" | "that would happen" | "the doorbell was going to ring" etc. I remember my first "funny feeling" when I 'sensed' that not only that the telephone would ring, but who it was ringing. It was a bit of a shock when I linked the two events in this and future "funny feelings". My overly deterministic mind was at a loss to understand what was happening. As I grew up many other people would share similar experiences with me - who were not at all aligned with any particular religion/philosophy/ideology from all walks of life - engineers, scientists, musicians, filmmakers, artists, programmers etc.

I suffered episodic mental traumas (a late adult autistic diagnosis provides the most likely reason) and was advised to take therapeutic study of eastern philosophy - mainly Buddhism and Taoism - which revealed a whole new approach to mind and the idea of a universal connection (I understand Taoist though on this influenced Jung).

Could there really be 'something' that connected our inner experiences to the external world? My duel scientific/artistic personality was simultaneously open and closed to this! I had a number of New Age friends at the time who rejected my scientific reductionism whilst I felt uncomfortable accepting wholesale some of the absolutist beliefs they had. But the discussions were fun. A Buddhist mentor answered questions with a very sincere "of course" spoken with the conviction of thousands of years of understanding.

As others have pointed out in this thread, becoming more aware of synchronicity seems to make such events more normal I want to say - or at least that's my experience. I find the whole subject area incredibly interesting, worthy of critical study. I suppose that given billions of minds having billions of thoughts and billions of people taking billions of actions, the Venn intersection might be that a large body of anecdotal evidence exists. It can all get a bit above my pay grade TBH.

 

[purpleivan]

What tends to be forgotten are the huge number of actions that people take, or a "feelings" had, that have no corresponding event to tie them to, so are not remembered for having any specific importance. These are of course what make up almost the entirety of everyone's lives, so big random coincidences (e.g. the dog barked just before an important phone call) carry a lot less weight when that's taken into account.

Wierd coincidences happening infrequently should be expected (if they didn't, that really would be wierd), rather than being a sign of anything more profound.

 

[Ann K]

Synchronicity is also a function of observation. The more you sit back to observe, rather than focus on some immediate goal, the more you see that you can connect.

One phenomenon that some people place a lot of stock in is numerology. They find meaning in such things as two people having the same birthday, for example, or the same number of letters in their names. Or things like "bible codes", etc; "If you take every eighteenth word it gives you a message..." or something like that.

People who adhere to the supposed mysticism of numerology have to go out and search for such patterns, but once they're found, they think they've discovered something profound.

 

[JMartJr]

On the topic of coincidence, I wish I could recall where I read words to the effect that a pattern of frost on a window might happen to look a bit like "Jim," which will not be particularly interesting to people named Zedekiah who might not even notice it, and if they did notice it would not find it significant nor memorable -- but for those of us named Jim it might seem a personal message from the universe, a very memorable moment. But it's the same pattern of ice crystals.

I'd add that where I might see Jim, my friend Tim might see his name, as might Jan, John, Joan, Tom... how personal the message seems might be more a function of the receiver than the purported sender.

I also recall a bit from Michael Crichton's book "Travels," where he is at a new age retreat and spends some time out in the desert alone at night, hoping for A Sign. At one point,it seems to him that the stars spell out HI in big letters, and he enjoys a moment of receiving an acknowledgement from the Universe. But it occurs to him that if he was laying with his head the other way, it would be IH... what kind of message is THAT?

We do often tend to misapply probability. Like the Benny Hill(?) bit where a guy realizes that there is sometimes a bomb on a plane, but you never hear of there being TWO bombs on the same plane, so he takes one himself to be safe.

Finally, a million different things pass by our eyes every day, a million different things happen. So "million to one" long shots happen all the time, if we happen to notice them. Or, as stated by Terry Pratchet, "million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten." (Which leads to a comedic bit where Our Heroes try desperately to adjust the odds against them to exactly a million to one, as who ever heard of 1,000,001 to one odds hitting -- that NEVER happens.)

 

[Giddierone]

Synchronicity is also a function of observation. The more you sit back to observe, rather than focus on some immediate goal, the more you see that you can connect.

New Age and esoteric practice is actually not too bad at teaching mindfulness, so this demographic actually may experience more synchronicity.

Yeah, I think this and the misapplication of probability mentioned by @Mick West seem to cover it. We're constantly told how feeble our senses are and how we only experience a tiny portion of the visible light spectrum. Yet even this seems vast if we consider individual attention spans as an additional limited window. Imagine all the things we're missing because we don't have the equivalent of a 360 degree multispectrum sky view.
Also, I knew someone once whose particular skill in life was "coincidence coordinator," and he was very good at it, leaving people wondering how or why magical seeming things would happen to them. With someone like that around the plum pudding story goes from eerie to almost expected.

 

[Mick West]

he said "Fine". he stepped forward on a piece and another piece sprang up at like 100 mph and the nail attached to it (i swear to God) stopped less than a centimeter from directly between his legs, if you get my drift. He just froze. His whole body.

He was facing me head on about 3 feet away. In classic NY style i didnt miss a beat and calmly said "see?".

That's the type of coincidence that would have got you burnt as a witch 333 years ago.

(333 being both how long ago the 1693 Salem witch trials were, AND half of 666. What are the odds!)

 

[Mauro]

Not sure if this qualifies, but a few days ago I read on skeptoid the article The Bell that Tolls for the K-129 , about the partial recovery of the sunken Soviet K-129 submarine by the US. I was aware of that story since it surfaced in the late 70s, but I had never heard before the name of the operation: Project Azorian. When I finished with skeptoid I opened Metabunk and I found this post by @NorCal Dave, and guess what... it referenced Project Azorian too.

 

[deirdre]

That's the type of coincidence that would have got you burnt as a witch 333 years ago.

(333 being both how long ago the 1693 Salem witch trials were, AND half of 666. What are the odds!)

Umm...you realize we are in a thread about Synchronicity. You should probably ignore the odds and knock-on-wood just to be safe.

That's not really the "fun-synchronicity" story you want to have to tell!

 

[Gary C]

Yesterday, Monday, January 19th was the Martin Luther King federal holiday in the US.
A buddy and I were in an email exchange complaining about the weather. He said he'd spare me his "black ice" story.
On MLK day, Monday Jan, 19, 2009 my wife and I emerged largely unscathed from a 45 vehicle pile up on I-70 caused by <0.1" of black ice.
I related the story of that back to him and next logged into Metabunk and opened ^ this thread.

The only cosmic message I got from that was to stay home in bad weather but my mother had already told me that decades ago so I told the universe to get back to me when it had something better like the winning number in this week's lotto drawing.

Crickets ...

 

[NorCal Dave]

Not sure if this qualifies, but a few days ago I read on skeptoid the article The Bell that Tolls for the K-129 , about the partial recovery of the sunken Soviet K-129 submarine by the US. I was aware of that story since it surfaced in the late 70s, but I had never heard before the name of the operation: Project Azorian. When I finished with skeptoid I opened Metabunk and I found this post by @NorCal Dave, and guess what... it referenced Project Azorian too.

This also seems like a good example of how interrelated things can cause the appearance of synchronicity. Project Azorian was a multi facet secret program involving the CIA, our old UFO-reverse-engineering pals at Lockheed, the eccentric Howard Hughes, dozens of contractors, Seymour Hersh, the NYT, George Bush and a silly sounding plan to secretly lift a submarine 3 miles up from the ocean floor into a ship that could then hide it in a secret compartment all in broad daylight. Tom Clancy could not have written this.

As such, the entire story is full of cover-ups, leaks, crazy engineering, nefarious defense contractors and all kinds of fodder for conspiratorial myth making. Things that come up in skeptical and conspiracy circles. I've used it before as a real life example of what UFOlogist describe as a secret UFO recovery program. And it's still creating conspiracies 50 years later, hence the Skeptoid episode about the ships bell. @Mauro went from a skeptical podcast to a skeptical forum where something like Project Azorian showed up because it has a lot of elements that are relevant in skeptical discussions.

Now imagine New Age circles where synchronistic events are expected and there are numerous New Age subjects similar to Project Azorian's relevance to skeptical circles.

Briefly, the ship's bell is part of a conspiratorial theory that Project Azorian was far more successful than was reported. The official story is that the grappling mechanism, known as Clementine by the Lockheed engineers that built it, had a catastrophic failure (so much for all that UFO reverse engineering) resulting in most of the partially lifted sub to sink back down and only a small section of the forward hull was recovered. This section contained a couple of torpedoes and the bodies of some Soviet sailors. The sailors were giving a burial at sea which was filmed and the film was later turned over to the Soviets. In addition, the ship's ceremonial bell was also returned at a later date.

As some of the film/video of Clementine's failure is still classified by the CIA, some have speculated that it didn't fail and most of K-129 was in fact recovered and the returned bell is evidence of this. The argument is that the bell would have been kept near the control area and the conning tower, not far forward near the torpedo room, thus the main body of the sub must have been recovered which included the bell. Of course, if the bell is evidence that the official story is bogus, why give it back? The Skeptoid episode makes the argument that Soviet sub crews may have stored the bell in any number of places while underway, including near the bow.

 

[deirdre]

Crickets ...

what state? there are alot of good numbers in your post. How fun would that be?

looks like youd have to play mega millions to use the 70.

 

[Edward Current]

Even as a skeptic who sees argument from incredulity and magical thinking everywhere, there is one recurring coincidence in my life that has been going on for decades, which I consider utterly uncanny. I know it has to be just selection bias, and yet....

I call it the "obligatory neighbor encounter." I don't like seeing people when I leave the house or come back. However, I frequently cross paths with neighbors coming or going at the precise times that I am coming or going. I will leave the front door and hear (not see) my neighbor beginning to come down his driveway, as if he were waiting for me to emerge before starting to drive. Or he'll be coming out of our shared entrance to the road just as I'm coming home. In the most ridiculous O.N.E., I leaving, he leaving, and his wife returning home all happened at once; in terms of the timing of the three of us converging on a point, it could not have been more perfect. (This is all the more more maddening and awkward since we got in a fight a couple years ago and haven't acknowledged each other's existence since then.)

At my previous residence, which was a fairly tight suburban neighborhood, someone would be leaving their porch or arriving home when I would open the front door, seemingly every time.

Each time it happens, I just shake my head. Another O.N.E. Like, WTF.

 

[Trailblazer]

Does the Bader-Meinhof phenomenon count as synchronicity? I get that a lot. I first posted about it here over 11 years ago. But I can never remember any good examples. I need to keep a Bader-Meinhof file on my phone (although then the advertising algorithms will get to it and serve me up even more!)

One example from me from 2016.

 

[JMartJr]

I call it the "obligatory neighbor encounter." I don't like seeing people when I leave the house or come back. However, I frequently cross paths with neighbors coming or going at the precise times that I am coming or going.

That's an interesting flip side to the "you never have seen your neighbors bringing in groceries" silliness:

which I guess relies on the fact that most people park in their garage or close as possible to a door when bringing in a load of groceries, so the time they are visible is limited. And it is not an interesting thing to watch, so even those who have seen it probably don't have a lot of memories of it. (I'd guess this but of tinfoilery is not going to catch on as much in cities where people walk home with their groceries, and may be more likely to have common hallways where they'll see each other bringing them in?)

Obviously, though, THIS MEANS SOMETHING!!!!!!

 

[FatPhil]

I noticed a Scot checking in local beers at local pubs on a website where people record/rate/review beers, and from his comments it looked like his plans would intersect with mine. Indeed, he, being easily recognisable, was propping up the bar at my local when we arrived. I introduced myself, and his first response was "oh, when I was in a bar in Franconia a couple of weeks back" - a region I've never been to - "the barman there told me to look out for Phil when in Tallinn". What are the chances of that!?!?

Actually quite high, very high, as similar has happened with several other countries/regions before, as I have kinda made a name for myself in the scene. (E.g. you can substitute "Scot" with "Australians" and "Franconia" with "Bratislava" and you get the same anecdote from three years back.)

 

[kotare]

I have a neighbour who is predisposed towards numerology, one day while walking their dog at the beach (usually, weather permitting, done just before lunch, say 11ish) they lost their house keys, subsequently they would look for the keys every time they went for the same walk, eleven days later, at 11am on the 11th of december (that was close!) they found the keys!
this is apparently proof of nearly anything.
the same person has not noticed the phenomena whereby younger fitter neighbours who were previously happy to volunteer to help pensioners with heavy work in their garden coincidently become unavailable for assistance the moment they (them, not me!) start telling racist jokes.

 

[deirdre]

Does the Bader-Meinhof phenomenon count as synchronicity?

yes.

 

[deirdre]

Like, WTF.

lol that happens to me too. my mom also always calls as soon as i settle into the bath. Ive tried switching up bath times. she has tried waiting an hour when she feels like calling me. and she always calls when im in the bath. (well 80% of the time..if i know she has company or if she has already called ill immediately jump in the bath!)

i think that's a variation of Murphy's Law.

 

[Giddierone]

I think for it to be a synchronicity rather than just a coincidence it has to be personally meaningful, and by that I think we have to assume that it feels good in some way, not just eerie.

Here's one that happened to me:
Reading through old science fiction stories I saw this image:

It immediately made me remember a picture in a kids book (from 1973) which I loved (it was my favorite page in double page spread in the whole book):

When I looked at them side by side I saw more and more similarities. (Edit: what I like about it is that the SF image appears to be a blend of the two different train carriages in the kids illustration).

What's interesting about the coincidence is that the kids book illustration is based on a real train wagon called a vert-a-pac but which wasn't made until the 1970s.

The SF illustration is from a story published in 1931 which just happens to resemble a machine—and the composition of the photos of it—that didn't exist yet.

To top it off the story is about time travellers from the future Earth who facing the death of the sun and our planet come back to our time to abduct current humans who are taken in these huge wagon-like machines into the future to take the place of highly evolved humans who get to come back to our time and enjoy a younger Earth.

 

[deirdre]

and by that I think we have to assume that it feels good in some way,

imo, all those poor people who are paranoid and think they are being followed and their lightbulbs are bugged or the tv is talking to them... get to that point because of synchronicity events. (obviously some have hallucination issues.. that's a separate problem)

 

[NorCal Dave]

What's interesting about the coincidence is that the kids book illustration is based on a real train wagon called a vert-a-pac but which wasn't made until the 1970s.

Which I believe, was specifically made for the Chevy Vega, one of GM's early attempts at a "compact" car in the '70s. I only know that because a month or so back, I just happened to have watched a YouTube video on the history of....the Chevy Vega. Which is odd, as I, nor my family, ever owned one. I don't think I've ever been in one. It was just something to watch in the background while out in the shop.

Obviously in anticipation of your post.

 

[Ann K]

two people in your lab would break into song? or just you?

There were several people in the lab, plus others that came in and out all day, but it was mostly whistling the theme song of "Get Smart".

 

[Ann K]

For a spell I once had a problem with BPV (Benign Positional Vertigo), which I had never heard of before. I came home from the clinic after the diagnosis, picked up the newspaper, glanced at the sports section (in itself, a very rare occurrence), and saw that one of the Cleveland Indians baseball team was sidelined with BPV, which they had to explain in the paper because few people had heard of it.

 

[NorCal Dave]

For a spell I once had a problem with BPV (Benign Positional Vertigo), which I had never heard of before. I came home from the clinic after the diagnosis, picked up the newspaper, glanced at the sports section (in itself, a very rare occurrence), and saw that one of the Cleveland Indians baseball team was sidelined with BPV, which they had to explain in the paper because few people had heard of it.

That is the worst! I mean not really worst than cancer, heart disease or other life threatening situations, but it's very uncomfortable. As someone who got horribly sea sick in my youth and into adulthood, suddenly feeling like the normal world is on a rocking ship at sea was horrific. I will say though, after that bout of BPV, I was at least less susceptible to getting sea sick.

 

[Ann K]

That is the worst! I mean not really worst than cancer, heart disease or other life threatening situations, but it's very uncomfortable. As someone who got horribly sea sick in my youth and into adulthood, suddenly feeling like the normal world is on a rocking ship at sea was horrific. I will say though, after that bout of BPV, I was at least less susceptible to getting sea sick.

As they did all sorts of tests at Cleveland Clinic, all I learned was that I should never go in for astronaut training!

 

[Scaramanga]

Along with my dream diary.....I actually keep a record of any strange synchronicities. Here's a few examples in the space of a few months...


MAY 05 2025........On May 4th I was discussing getting a 'Cobalt Blue' dress for my wife. On May 5th, just a day later, I was in Eve Online...and there was a character in chat whose NAME was 'Cobalt Blue'.

JUL 10 2025 On an MMO website , someone points out that to get a list of all people in local chat range type '@'. I'd never heard of that before...that's the thing here. Less than 24 hours later, someone on a totally different website says the exact same thing...type '@' to get a list of everyone in chat.

JUL 29 2025 On Facebook there was a formula to do with Euler's theory on primes, with the function 'F5' in it...to which I comment "It looks harder than it actually is. For starters, one of the factors has to be less than the square root of F5 ". Just 11 hours later, the following appears in my corp chat room in EVE Online...in relation to a completely different matter..."I can only press F5 so fast" I mean...how often does anyone EVER mention F5, either as a mathematical function or as a key to press ??


These sort of events are often striking because of the short time between events. It could be argued that the short time interval is by definition required or you'd have forgotten the initial event...and that coincidences happen all the time at longer time intervals but we've forgotten them. However, some of these events are sufficiently rare to question that, or are things that never entered one's experience before yet there is a remarkably short interval between the first time one hears of something and the second time.

 

[Hevach]

The @ thing is a pretty common feature, but also rarely documented despite being so useful. It works here, too, sort of. While composing a message type @ and at least one letter and you'll get a little pop up with the first few user name matches in alphabetical order.

 

[Scaramanga]

The @ thing is a pretty common feature, but also rarely documented. It works here, too, sort of. While composing a message type @ and at least one letter and you'll get a little pop up with the first few user name matches in alphabetical order.

It's possible to go 20-30 years and never hear of some common thing. I only discovered yesterday what the different colours of USB ports actually mean. To me the 'synchronicity' lies in the fact that when you do finally hear of or become aware of something....all of a sudden it is everywhere and your second instance of it may be just hours later.

 

[GM4AJK]

I only discovered yesterday what the different colours of USB ports actually mean

And how many more times since this USB epiphany yesterday have you heard about those colours?

MAY 05 2025........On May 4th I was discussing getting a 'Cobalt Blue' dress for my wife. On May 5th, just a day later, I was in Eve Online...and there was a character in chat whose NAME was 'Cobalt Blue'.

JUL 10 2025 On an MMO website , someone points out that to get a list of all people in local chat range type '@'. I'd never heard of that before...that's the thing here. Less than 24 hours later, someone on a totally different website says the exact same thing...type '@' to get a list of everyone in chat.

How many new things did you learn about between May 5th and July 10th that only occurred one time? Are these also in your diary?