Do you ever experience Synchronicity ?

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pluto
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13 Nov 2009, 6:37 pm

By Synchronicity I mean coincidences that are so extraordinary that they almost seem to
suggest a higher force is at work.
For example,this summer when I was watching Wimbledon on tv the commentator said 'Oh look there's Kelly Rowland from the group Destiny's Child.Just at that moment I turned the page in my newspaper and there was a headline 'Predestiny's Child' - an unrelated article about the religious reformer John Knox.
A couple of days ago I was reading an article 'Bitter Secrets Of The Sugar Trade' while
simultaneously the tv announcer was reading out a quiz question about sugar.
I've got a whole book of such experiences over a number of years.
I'd be interested to hear if anyone else has similar stories.


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Wombat
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14 Nov 2009, 6:43 am

I knew you were going to say that.

But seriously, how many times have you come across a word that you have never seen before and then have that same word turn up several times in the next week?



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14 Nov 2009, 4:57 pm

Once, I was driving and listening to the radio. They were talking about Greta Garbo and a few seconds later I passed a car that had vanity plates that read Garbo.


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TallyMan
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14 Nov 2009, 5:26 pm

I once read a scientific article about this sort of thing. Apparently the odds are surprisingly high of two unrelated events occurring that both reference the same thing. This is one of the causes of people believing in supernatural forces where they don't exist. A typical example given was someone having a dream about an elderly relative only to discover they died during the same night. People put 2 + 2 and come up with 5.


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elderwanda
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14 Nov 2009, 8:03 pm

Well, I don't know if this can be called synchronicity, but it's kind of interesting, I think, and perhaps related. In all of my life, I never actually saw a woman breastfeeding a baby. Then I had my baby (12 years ago), and all of a sudden, everywhere I went, women were nursing babies. Literally, every day, I would see a woman on a park bench or something, nursing a baby. As soon as my children were both done with that phase of their lives, and I was no longer a breastfeeding mother, I stopped seeing nursing mothers everywhere. It's like they are only visible to each other.


There is a principle in certain shamanic traditions that says, "Energy flows where attention goes." I think it's basically the same principle that can make prayer effective.



Asmodeus
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14 Nov 2009, 9:11 pm

This interrelates to the phenomenon of people dreaming something, then finding it happens.
Or thinking of a scenario, then finding that it comes about.
The mind picks out things that are relevant to what is happening.
At any given moment, hundreds of things are being processed by the mind, later, you might experience things that relate to them. You can think it's a coincidence, or you can think something greater is going on, because something correlates.
Whether you think it is simply your own mind making connections or something greater is up to you.



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15 Nov 2009, 7:07 am

I experience deja vu alot....



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15 Nov 2009, 8:28 am

Radl: "Are you familiar with the works of Jung?"
Hofer: "I am... aware ...of the works of Jung, Herr Oberst."


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TallyMan
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15 Nov 2009, 5:26 pm

elderwanda wrote:
Well, I don't know if this can be called synchronicity, but it's kind of interesting, I think, and perhaps related. In all of my life, I never actually saw a woman breastfeeding a baby. Then I had my baby (12 years ago), and all of a sudden, everywhere I went, women were nursing babies. Literally, every day, I would see a woman on a park bench or something, nursing a baby. As soon as my children were both done with that phase of their lives, and I was no longer a breastfeeding mother, I stopped seeing nursing mothers everywhere. It's like they are only visible to each other.


There is a term in psychology, something like the "reticular activating system". It works like this: The brain is constantly bombarded with vast amounts of information about the surroundings. There is way to much information to bring to consciousness to actively think about it; so the brain has evolved to create temporary shopping lists of things are are relevant and important now. So if you buy a new car of a particular make and model you suddenly start seeing it everywhere else; similar with other consumer goods. It also applies to life situations such as yours. Only information about the things that are relevant now reaches your conscious thoughts, the rest is just filtered out.


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pluto
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16 Nov 2009, 6:10 pm

TallyMan wrote:
elderwanda wrote:
Well, I don't know if this can be called synchronicity, but it's kind of interesting, I think, and perhaps related. In all of my life, I never actually saw a woman breastfeeding a baby. Then I had my baby (12 years ago), and all of a sudden, everywhere I went, women were nursing babies. Literally, every day, I would see a woman on a park bench or something, nursing a baby. As soon as my children were both done with that phase of their lives, and I was no longer a breastfeeding mother, I stopped seeing nursing mothers everywhere. It's like they are only visible to each other.


There is a term in psychology, something like the "reticular activating system". It works like this: The brain is constantly bombarded with vast amounts of information about the surroundings. There is way to much information to bring to consciousness to actively think about it; so the brain has evolved to create temporary shopping lists of things are are relevant and important now. So if you buy a new car of a particular make and model you suddenly start seeing it everywhere else; similar with other consumer goods. It also applies to life situations such as yours. Only information about the things that are relevant now reaches your conscious thoughts, the rest is just filtered out.


That certainly makes sense,although when I think about the examples I quoted,the odds
against such as the 'Destiny's Child/Predestiny's Child coincidence happening must be in the odds of millions if not billions to one. Same with the Greta Garbo and 'Garbo' numberplate that Aimless quoted.


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