Synchronicity - What's your experience of it?

[GM4AJK]

Btw, I just remembered that I too only recently heard the word "exegesis" for the first time myself (several weeks ago), so does that add to the synchronicity at all? So that tells me that one video probably used the word, and multiple response videos picked up on it and used it too. That seems to happen a lot in the land of YouTube as content creators scramble for fresh content. I'd be interested to find out what the publication dates for your two videos are?

 

[Ann K]

Btw, I just remembered that I too only recently heard the word "exegesis" for the first time myself (several weeks ago), so does that add to the synchronicity at all? So that tells me that one video probably used the word, and multiple response videos picked up on it and used it too. That seems to happen a lot in the land of YouTube as content creators scramble for fresh content. I'd be interested to find out what the publication dates for your two videos are?

All of a sudden, the word "paradigm" was used throughout our building, when it had never been part of general conversation before. It turned out that our boss and several other top managers had attended a seminar where the speaker discussed "new paradigms", and it became the buzzword of the season.

 

[GM4AJK]

and it became the buzzword of the season

Before each quarterly company Town Hall, we create buzzword bingo cards with the words collected from various social media sites (especially LinkedIn) and all us employee plebs get to pay attention to what the upper echelons of the company might utter next!

 

[JMartJr]

All of a sudden, the word "paradigm" was used throughout our building, when it had never been part of general conversation before. It turned out that our boss and several other top managers had attended a seminar where the speaker discussed "new paradigms", and it became the buzzword of the season.

I've had this happen with "lean yet robust."

 

[Todd Feinman]

Ok, this is going to be a bit convoluted, but then so are most synchronicities. And just ever so slightly adult.

Our son introduced us to a somewhat confusing online word puzzle called Minute Cryptic back at Christmas and my wife, with some assistance from me, will try them in the evenings.

On Friday last, we didn't do the puzzle as we went to a performance with some friends. Afterwards, somehow the subject of swingers and open marriage came up while enjoying a nightcap. Our friends had other friends for whom that was a thing.

The following Saturday evening, the wife and I were enjoying a quiet cocktail at home and we were recapping the previous night's swinger discussion. Something like, "I guess as boring old married people for 37 years we're…well… boring". But it did remind me of a book called Sex Before Dawn that I brought up. The authors tried to make the argument that monogamy is a purely cultural construction and goes against our true human nature. I shared, that as evidence they cited the sexual proclivities of our close relatives the chimps and even more so the chimp's less well-known cousin, the Bonobo. Basically, Bonobo's are very polyamours and are constantly engaging in sex acts, thus making them very peaceful and conflict free. One can read it for themselves to see if any of these arguments hold up.

As we finished the discussion, my wife opened up the Minute Cryptic puzzle from Friday, as we had been out and didn't work on it. Normally hard and confusing to solve, it only took a few minutes to realize the answer was of course…Bonobo.

Not sure what the universe is trying to say here.

Nice... "Honey.. I've decided I'm a bonobo, and must be free..."
But, you should go to the party, Dave. Just pick up a mask and cape, and remember the password.

 

[Todd Feinman]

I learn new things practically every day, as I read or watch so much.

But here's the thing. Yesterday I discovered the word 'exegesis' in a video on religion. I had to look up what it means. Just half an hour later I heard the word again in a completely different video. Whilst both videos were on religion, you could watch many many religion videos and never hear the word. And the other critical thing is that having heard the word twice in the space of half an hour, I could now easily go 10 years and not hear the word again.

It's a lousy word, and not really part of the vernacular, happily.

 

[Scaramanga]

Well, that's the exact point of my comment. Had you not heard it in the second video, then it would have just been one of those one-time things you just learnt. And by your own admission, one of many one-time things. It's you who added the significance when the second occurrence came along, not something strange or bizarre.

But that's the point. It's not a 'one time thing' if it happens again 30 minutes later.

Another example. Back in 1990 I applied for a job in the 'actuarial' department of a pensions company. I'd never heard the word before in over 30 years ( back then ) of being alive. That very same evening there was a BBC news report that referenced 'government actuaries....'

Another example from last year...

On a post on Facebook on FEB 24th, a friend refers to a physics idea by someone called Koopman. A quite unusual name. The very same day, the Daily Mail had an article about the coronavirus, in which a Dr Marion Koopmans from the WHO comments on the virus.

And it's worth pointing out...I'd never heard the name Koopman before that date and have never heard it since. Similar to 'exegesis', which suddenly pops into my life after 60 years....twice in a very short period....and hasn't appeared since.

 

[Scaramanga]

Ok, this is going to be a bit convoluted, but then so are most synchronicities. And just ever so slightly adult.

One of the best examples I haven't mentioned is a bit rude...so I'll un-rude it...

A few years back, my corp in Eve Online had a mission where we destroyed a station whose name was a rather rude slang for a part of anatomy. I'd never heard the term before....just thought the name seemed a bit odd and left it at that, without even knowing it was rude slang. Just 2 days later, in a completely different setting and context, someone referenced the exact same term and even explained what it referred to.

It's not until one starts writing down these odd 'coincidences' that one realises just how often they happen.

 

[GM4AJK]

But that's the point. It's not a 'one time thing' if it happens again 30 minutes later.

I disagree. You are watching videos of a certain theme, in this case, religion. And since I watch many videos, I often see one begets another, where someone puts out an "original" and a fair few similar channels come out with content based on it.

Imagine a friend joined you to watch the second video and said, "Exegesis, what's that mean?" and gleefully, you know the answer. Now ask yourself: what are the chances the next video they watch will include that word? (and if you watch with them, that would be a hat-trick, three in a row!)

Another example from last year...

One more examples follow. Yet you already said you learn something new every day. I would find it remarkable if you went 30 years without having an occasional coincidence like that.

pops into my life after 60 years....twice in a very short period....and hasn't appeared since.

Possibly because 60 more years have not yet elapsed?

 

[Todd Feinman]

I remember one now, though it's really a nothing new under the sun kind of thing. I had done a drawing for a sculpture head. It was surreal, in that all of the features were extended all around the head, 360 degrees. I ordered the art books for the library (and other subjects), and I was flipping through a book on an open shelf, just browsing, and I ran across a finished sculpture of my drawing by another artist; I think it was Giacometti or Brancusi or something.. I've forgotten now. Looked exactly like it.

Precognition events might be a good thread.

 

[GM4AJK]

It's not until one starts writing down these odd 'coincidences' that one realises just how often they happen.

Please also write down when they don't happen

 

[Todd Feinman]

I've twice ran into old friends from high school in Eugene at museums in New York. Hadn't seen them in years.
<edit> just now as I typed in the words "old friends from high school" the same words were spoken by the narrator on the episode "Disturbing college paranormal encounters " from Zoanfly on YouTube. Didn't even blink.

 

[Scaramanga]

I disagree. You are watching videos of a certain theme, in this case, religion. And since I watch many videos, I often see one begets another, where someone puts out an "original" and a fair few similar channels come out with content based on it.

No....one was a recent video by Louis Scott ( who is often on my Facebook feed regaling how salvation is by faith alone ) and another was a rather older video with Sam Harris debating Jordan Peterson. Of course, certain words are only used by philosophers or textual analysis people ( which often includes religious text ). But the point is not that one 'can' discover and hear the same new word twice. Of course one can...and one is bound to eventually. My point is the absurdly short time interval that can occur between the first and second such occurrence. It would be trivial if it was weeks or months....but half an hour is odd.

 

[deirdre]

Please also write down when they don't happen

they always happen, you just arent in the receptive zone.

Try to think of and say something that would never ever happen.. like when mom and i were testing.. i picked "[my Godfather] went to the ballet" and "we'll be attacked by killer bees".

Spoiler

He visited her the next day and she was telling him and he said "OMG i went to a ballet last month!". (it was some Billy Joel thing and he wasnt expecting ballet dancers)

They werent literally killer bees but about 20 mins later i look in my review mirror (we were on highway) and there was a fleet of around 12 black and yellow 18 wheelers that came up, surrounded us then passed on.

You may not be impressed, but we were laughing.

State the thing here and see if it happens in real life. (not digital life because i do think the google weirdos [bots] are "listening" to us)

 

[Todd Feinman]

I had a strange experience once. Not sure what to think about it. I think I was in my late thirties or forties, forget now.
I was at Ellis Parker Elementary School in Eugene when I must have been in 3rd grade. I was there for a very short time before going to a school called Edgewood. Anyway, I met a kid named Brian, and I liked him a lot, but only met him for a day or two, and had to leave. I only have one blurry image of his face in my mind, and that's all I've ever had.
So 38 or 40 something, I wax having a cigarette ( bad), outside the west front entrance of the Knight Library at the U of O.
Folks kept walking past, and a blond-haired slumping guy walked past and started to enter the building; I didn't even see a full profile or frontal view of his face. Something in me made me call out his name. "Brian" I called, and I could hear him stop walking in the vestibule. "Todd?" He called out. I could hear the weird surprise in his voice. I asked "how have things been going?"
And he paused, pretty shocked, and said "fine" after a pause, and I said "good" and I could hear him walking on.
I can't imagine how I could have known it was him, unless one were to claim some kind of visual imprinting at that age that could be account for the changes of aging, but I never really got a good look at him.

 

[GM4AJK]

My point is the absurdly short time interval that can occur between the first and second such occurrence

Well, a reasonable definition for sure. I know I have experienced similar occurrences, but while they make me go "hey!" for a moment, I can't give you details because I'm not going to write down a coincidence in a little black book, because that's just how randomness works. It just makes me smile, nod and move on. Coincidences can and do happen. As I said previously, a truly remarkable result would be someone who reaches their 60s without ever having experienced at least one coincidence. And randomness is a weird thing, you can have several experiences in a short period of time, too and then nothing for months/years. That's just randomness.

 

[GM4AJK]

I had a strange experience once. Not sure what to think about it. I think I was in my late thirties or forties, forget now.
I was at Ellis Parker Elementary School in Eugene when I must have been in 3rd grade. I was there for a very short time before going to a school called Edgewood. Anyway, I met a kid named Brian, and I liked him a lot, but only met him for a day or two, and had to leave. I only have one blurry image of his face in my mind, and that's all I've ever had.
So 38 or 40 something, I wax having a cigarette ( bad), outside the west front entrance of the Knight Library at the U of O.
Folks kept walking past, and a blond-haired slumping guy walked past and started to enter the building; I didn't even see a full profile or frontal view of his face. Something in me made me call out his name. "Brian" I called, and I could hear him stop walking in the vestibule. "Todd?" He called out. I could hear the weird surprise in his voice. I asked "how have things been going?"
And he paused, pretty shocked, and said "fine" after a pause, and I said "good" and I could hear him walking on.
I can't imagine how I could have known it was him, unless one were to claim some kind of visual imprinting at that age that could be account for the changes of aging, but I never really got a good look at him.

Nice telling there, but when you said "I could hear him walking on" I can only assume when you're in the 60s/70s your going to stand around Knight Library having a cigarette in the hopes Brian turns up again, going back the other way

 

[Todd Feinman]

Nice telling there, but when you said "I could hear him walking on" I can only assume when you're in the 60s/70s your going to stand around Knight Library having a cigarette in the hopes Todd Brian turns up again, going back the other way

I just might. Wish I knew the kid / adult's last name. So long ago.. Before Internet for public around.

 

[GM4AJK]

@Scaramanga, in the interests of research, I'll now start taking notes on the coincidences I experience and post them here. If everyone on MB does too, we can collect some nice data and draw some pretty graphs... in a few years anyway

 

[Scaramanga]

Please also write down when they don't happen

The average 50 year old might know 40,000 words. Google AI says the average adult learns a new word once every 2 days or so....or 180 or so a year

There are potentially 170,000 words to learn....so that leaves 130,000 unknown. So it would take 722 years, on average, for all of them to come up.

Of course, some words are more frequent than others, but surely what we have is a pot of 130,000 balls with words on them and we want to know is when we hear a new word, what are the chances of putting our hand in that bag and pulling out a ball with that word on it.

Even if we do that every 2 days over the course of a year...we still only have a 1 in 722 chance of getting the 'correct' ball in the course of that entire year....let alone the same day.

 

[GM4AJK]

what are the chances of putting our hand in that bag and pulling out a ball with that word on it.

No idea, but I do know the chances of winning our National Lottery are vanishingly tiny yet, oddly, someone somewhere seems to win it. Or perhaps all National Lotteries are a scam, and no one wins except the organisers who pocket the money and announce a fake winner. Have I just invented a new conspiracy theory?

 

[Scaramanga]

in the interests of research, I'll now start taking notes on the coincidences I experience and post them here. If everyone on MB does too, we can collect some nice data and draw some pretty graphs... in a few years anyway

Good idea. The thing is.....of course some such coincidences are inevitable purely by chance. So one would need to establish whether it is happening more often than one would expect by chance. Quite how one establishes that is hard. I had a rough go at it ( above ) with new words....but that is only very rough and does not take into account how frequently each individual word is actually used. One would also need to statisticise ( I just invented a new word ) the time parameter...just how 'soon' after the first event does a second one matter.

 

[GM4AJK]

So one would need to establish whether it is happening more often than one would expect by chance.

That's why I think collecting examples here on MB would be useful because we could get together and come up with ways to analyse that dataset, and it would be an interesting exercise for pretty much everyone who partakes in MB, whether it's just reading or reading and posting. The folk here are diverse (often sceptical, but not all are) bunch of people.

I see an opportunity and hope many MB members choose to take part, even if they post, "it's been 3 months since I read your post, and nothing happened".

 

[Scaramanga]

No idea, but I do know the chances of winning our National Lottery are vanishingly tiny yet, oddly, someone somewhere seems to win it. Or perhaps all National Lotteries are a scam, and no one wins except the organisers who pocket the money and announce a fake winner. Have I just invented a new conspiracy theory?

I think with something like new words its more a case of frequency than odds. Your chances of hearing a new word twice on the same day are way better than the lottery. So the issue is not that it happens...it is bound to...but how often it does. In all these and other such synchronicities it is the frequency that is the issue, not the raw odds for each event.

 

[GM4AJK]

are way better than the lottery

I agree, but I used the National Lottery as an extreme example. Given you agree the chances of winning the lottery are much lower than the chances of getting something by chance, I still don't understand why you then find something by chance a surprise? What I see is that your perception of "by chance" is being breached by your life experiences[1]. This is interesting, as I don't see it that way in my life. Yes, I have weird coincidences like everyone, but I don't see them as exceeding my understanding beyond "by chance".

[1] And my apologies here because I seem to be putting my thoughts into your mouth, that's not what I mean, I'm just trying to understand better.

 

[Scaramanga]

I agree, but I used the National Lottery as an extreme example. Given you agree the chances of winning the lottery are much lower than the chances of getting something by chance, I still don't understand why you then find something by chance a surprise? What I see is that your perception of "by chance" is being breached by your life experiences[1]. This is interesting, as I don't see it that way in my life. Yes, I have weird coincidences like everyone, but I don't see them as exceeding my understanding beyond "by chance".

[1] And my apologies here because I seem to be putting my thoughts into your mouth, that's not what I mean, I'm just trying to understand better.

To me its more akin to those scratch cards where the odds are 1,000 to one....rather than the massive single odds for a jackpot win.

You have a much higher chance of winning on a scratch card. It's great if you do, but nothing statistics defying. But what if you win this week, and then again next week, and then again the week after that, and so on. So really its the accumulation and frequency of low chance but more probable events that to me is odd...rather than some huge one off event.

 

[deirdre]

I see an opportunity and hope many MB members choose to take part,

I don't. Synchronicity almost drove my friend J literally insane. It's basically more intense the higher your stress levels, or if one trains themself to be hyper-alert (like flight or fight mode) all the time. It's not good for your physical body. And we all tend to be older folk.

I wasn't kidding about the old folk who start to think the tv is talking to them and their lightbulbs are bugged. Not saying that would happen to anyone here, but we do have some rather intense brains who focus in on certain subjects that interest them, more than the average person does.

 

[GM4AJK]

much higher chance of winning on a scratch card.

 

[GM4AJK]

I don't

Fair enough. Does make you wonder how academic studies are done if certain people have to be excluded, which must skew the results.

 

[NorCal Dave]

But, you should go to the party, Dave. Just pick up a mask and cape, and remember the password.

A bit OT, but I saw Eyes Wide Shut once, maybe twice, years ago. What I did find though was the sound track and I used to freak my high school aged kids out playing the music that accompanies the famous party scene., especially on a dark ride home from the mountains. It was supposedly a Catholic Latin mass of some sort, played backwards over some synth music. Very creepy.

 

[deirdre]

Fair enough. Does make you wonder how academic studies are done if certain people have to be excluded, which must skew the results.

i doubt academics care much about mental well being of their subjects if they are writing a paper.

Source: https://youtu.be/NUeNzCBqhu8?t=13

 

[Todd Feinman]

A bit OT, but I saw Eyes Wide Shut once, maybe twice, years ago. What I did find though was the sound track and I used to freak my high school aged kids out playing the music that accompanies the famous party scene., especially on a dark ride home from the mountains. It was supposedly a Catholic Latin mass of some sort, played backwards over some synth music. Very creepy.

Yeah I love that, too. Funny scaring your kids with it!

 

[Mendel]

It was supposedly a Catholic Latin mass of some sort, played backwards over some synth music

Source: https://youtu.be/fHRLoVmPeLU


Composed by Jocelyn Pook.

 

[Dave51c]

And randomness is a weird thing, you can have several experiences in a short period of time, too and then nothing for months/years. That's just randomness.

Only thinking out aloud, but what if synchronicity isn't random and can only occur when there is premeditation between two or more actors who perceive only independence of thought during a specific timeframe. Example, Joe: 'I wonder if John is ok - I will text him', John: 'Hi Joe, just texting to say I'm ok', Joe: 'Crazy, was just think about you...'. As opposed to the Universal Law of Attraction types who operate on the basis that if they think about something it will come true. Often very materialistic things like 'I will be rich one day' when they were 8 years old. Those that do (by opportunity and motivation) grow up to be rich shout about it in evangelical terms as 'proof' of something profound.

I have no idea what, if any, underlying mechanisms are at play and how one would test for predicting synchronistic events that would provide statistical data.

Does make you wonder how academic studies are done if certain people have to be excluded, which must skew the results.

Research design. Get the design wrong and years of work can go down the drain. It's a whole field in itself.

A research design typically outlines the theories and models underlying a project; the research question(s) of a project; a strategy for gathering data and information; and a strategy for producing answers from the data.[1]​ A strong research design yields valid answers to research questions while weak designs yield unreliable, imprecise or irrelevant answers.[1]​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_design

i doubt academics care much about mental well being of their subjects if they are writing a paper.

From experience they do. Your film example reminded me of this frightening experiment;

In the early 1960s, a series of social psychology experiments were conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, who intended to measure the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience. Participants were led to believe that they were assisting in a fictitious experiment, in which they had to administer electric shocks to a "learner". These fake electric shocks gradually increased to levels that would have been fatal had they been real.[2]​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

 

[Todd Feinman]

;

In the early 1960s, a series of social psychology experiments were conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, who intended to measure the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience. Participants were led to believe that they were assisting in a fictitious experiment, in which they had to administer electric shocks to a "learner". These fake electric shocks gradually increased to levels that would have been fatal had they been real.[2]​

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

Yep. Just following orders.

 

[Todd Feinman]

It's a lousy word, and not really part of the vernacular, happily.

I should clarify that exegesis is very important. It just is a herky-jerky word to pronounce.
Pepto -Bismol commercial

 

[Ann K]

Here's a speculation: perhaps someone heard the word "exegesis" but ignored it as "just another term I don't understand. I'll look it up some day", and only became aware of its use AFTER having looked up the definition. Then it's not a rare thing that turned up again shortly afterwards, but a common thing, and the only difference is that the person is now tuned in to it.

Where I worked, we had a number of acres of woods around the building, and some of us would go out for lunchtime walks. I'd always thought of wildflowers in my non-botanical mind as simply "those little white (yellow, pink, purple) things", but then several of us bought field guides and decided to learn what they all were. All of a sudden I saw and identified things everywhere, things by the side of the road that would not have registered in my conscious mind at all until after I started to study the subject.

(I attribute that interest to an older man in the company, who knew the names of things in Latin and his native Estonian, but not in English!)

 

[FatPhil]

It's a lousy word, and not really part of the vernacular, happily.

And the last time I saw it used, it was used as a gramatical plural, but rendered in its singular - so it might just be a word perceived to be scholarly that people who don't have the linguistic capabilities they would like to pretend they have use to further that pretence? (It could have been worse, he could have pluralised it -ises.)

 

[GM4AJK]

To me its more akin to those scratch cards where the odds are 1,000 to one....rather than the massive single odds for a jackpot win.

You have a much higher chance of winning on a scratch card. It's great if you do, but nothing statistics defying. But what if you win this week, and then again next week, and then again the week after that, and so on. So really its the accumulation and frequency of low chance but more probable events that to me is odd...rather than some huge one off event.

The discussion in this thread did reminded me of the Global Consciousness Project, so I thought I'd have a quick search here on MB to see if there were any interesting discussions that already existed, and oddly, the best hit I got was from @Scaramanga post here. Does that count as a synchronicity event in and of itself?

 

[FatPhil]

The discussion in this thread did reminded me of the Global Consciousness Project, so I thought I'd have a quick search here on MB to see if there were any interesting discussions that already existed, and oddly, the best hit I got was from @Scaramanga post here. Does that count as a synchronicity event in and of itself?

It's lacking the "syn" in its "chron" aspects.