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Crazy Coincidences

theprestige said:
Call me morbid and cynical, but I figure that once you graduate from "Uncle" to "Great-Uncle", you're pretty much on the "could pop off at any time" list. I've got a few family members on that list myself. They cross my mind periodically, probably at least weekly. One of these days, one of them is going to go just after I thought about them.
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I was a great uncle at the grand old age of 33.

Marrying into a Catholic family will do that - there were five generations of in-laws at the wedding.

I’m not about to pop off any time soon - barring walking in front of a bus
 
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There is absolutely nothing crazy about coincidences, they are inevitable. If coincidences didn't happen, that would require explanation, and make me think there might be something paranormal going on. Perfectly normal coincidences, happening about as often as the laws of probability predict, not so much.

It's certainly true, though, that you can suddenly notice a particularly startling coincidence and, thus primed, start to notice many more than you usually do. But that's just your unconscious mind obediently bringing them to the attention of your conscious awareness as signal after years of (correctly) filtering them out as noise.
 
I was just then reading through an old thread about the worst accents in movies, and when I finished I returned to my Control Panel to see that the English - American/British/Australian thread had a new post in it.

Coincidence? Well, yeah.
 
This is becoming like a version of that thread about ghosts, in which the OP kept going on about ghosts for little reason and ignoring everything which might explain things...

It's not like there isn't an extensive literature about probability, randomness, selective memories, problems with eye witness accounts and all the rest, which one can track down quite eassily these days, compared with when I was nobbut a nobbut...
 
Yeah, also op is pretty young so it might simply be the first time he’s really sat down and concentrated on noticing coincidences. If you never thought much about it, and especially if you’re feeling a little stressed out and paranoid, it could be easy to assume that a lot of coincidences is the ‘wrong’ amount.

Other posters here understand that ‘a lot of coincidence’ is well within normal parameters. Someone mentioning the death of a slightly famous person to you a little while after it happened and just as you were finding out from another source, for example, is an absolutely bog-standard coincidence. Even if the exact timing seems amazing from where you are standing.

Things happen, a lot. Coincidences, ********* of coincidences, are normal and expected. Try not to let them make you feel generally suspicious or whatever weird feeling they are giving you. It’s cool, I promise.
 
Things like items in the news don't count as coincidences. Like, I've recently seen a lot of articles about a famous football (soccer) player, a person I'd never heard of before. Well, I probably did in his heyday, but the name never registered since I don't follow the sport. Coincidence? No, he died.

Similar with any mention of Covid-19. Why, a year ago you never heard anything about it!

(eta) I swear the previous post was not up yet when I started typing mine. COINCIDENCE!!!
 
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Also, we are pattern seeking animals. It's how our ancestors learned that when we saw lion tracks by the waterhole it might be related to people not coming back when they went for a drink. It's how many optical illusions we work: our brains seek patterns.

And we tend not to notice things if they're not significant to us. You probably won't notice how many car charging points there are around until you think of buying an electric car.I will never notice what colour this season's handbags are.
 
Slightly more sympathetically (FFS, I'm a retired nurse - we don't do sympathy) than my previous post, given the OP's age, they should still be at school: they might like to talk to their science teacher about the supposed phenomenon and also how to frame a question such that it is capable of a meaningful answer. At the moment there is a load of floundering around in circles without much clarity as to what is being asked.
 
DebunkThisPls said:
My parents are in their 40s and both have exceptional memories. I don't think so
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I'm 61 and have a kind of reverse dementia: I panic about something then realize I've already taken care of it.

I've had times in my life when a series of coincidences seemed to be pushing me in a certain direction. I later realized that in retrospect, everything looks like destiny. One day in Panama with a student news team I took a long out-of-the way walk with some women and when it came time to hook up for dinner with the other co-instructor we talked by phone about where to meet up, then we rounded a corner and ran smack into each other. We had started our walks going in completely opposite directions. But we both ended up in a pedestrian-friendly area where people naturally promenade, especially at that hour. It wasn't that weird.

I don't believe in anything paranormal but certainly many coincidences have turned my head. I might ruminate on why something in my consciousness seems to set up an echo in which I'm primed to see a certain message reflected back at me. I think it's OK to notice this stuff, even instructive, but think it through and ask yourself, what is most likely - that I'm primed to notice certain things, then notice more things? Or that news networks, tweets are real life are sending me curated messages in order to get my attention?

It seemed like the whole country of Panama was herding me in a certain direction. That trip was full of other coincidences. It was very weird, and funny, but if it's freaking you out talk to somebody trustworthy about it IRL.

ETA: You know what, Debunk? The fact that you are even on this forum is evidence that you are a curious person looking for explanations of eerie phenomena, which puts you ahead of people (cognitively) who never think to question it and grow up thinking they're clairvoyant. I think maybe you do see things other people don't, because you are unusually observant.
 
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Myriad said:
DebunkThis, what it sounds like to me is that you're experiencing more coincidences because for some reason you're paying more attention to what's happening around you. Most people can watch TV all day and never notice that many different episodes of many different shows involve people leaving or quitting or threatening to do so or refusing to do so, because it's a common plot element and viewers aren't paying attention much anyhow. Many people spend most of their lives in a mental state barely more than an inattentive stupor. But if you start actually paying attention for some reason, things like that can suddenly stand out.
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They're really hammering this one on that show "The News" at the moment, I wish they'd get some better writers, they don't seem to have any sense of reality the last few years.
 
Minoosh said:
I'm 61 and have a kind of reverse dementia: I panic about something then realize I've already taken care of it.

I've had times in my life when a series of coincidences seemed to be pushing me in a certain direction. I later realized that in retrospect, everything looks like destiny. One day in Panama with a student news team I took a long out-of-the way walk with some women and when it came time to hook up for dinner with the other co-instructor we talked by phone about where to meet up, then we rounded a corner and ran smack into each other. We had started our walks going in completely opposite directions. But we both ended up in a pedestrian-friendly area where people naturally promenade, especially at that hour. It wasn't that weird.

I don't believe in anything paranormal but certainly many coincidences have turned my head. I might ruminate on why something in my consciousness seems to set up an echo in which I'm primed to see a certain message reflected back at me. I think it's OK to notice this stuff, even instructive, but think it through and ask yourself, what is most likely - that I'm primed to notice certain things, then notice more things? Or that news networks, tweets are real life are sending me curated messages in order to get my attention?

It seemed like the whole country of Panama was herding me in a certain direction. That trip was full of other coincidences. It was very weird, and funny, but if it's freaking you out talk to somebody trustworthy about it IRL.

ETA: You know what, Debunk? The fact that you are even on this forum is evidence that you are a curious person looking for explanations of eerie phenomena, which puts you ahead of people (cognitively) who never think to question it and grow up thinking they're clairvoyant. I think maybe you do see things other people don't, because you are unusually observant.
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I do believe that it was a memory thing, as of course they can make mistakes, my comment here was mostly just correcting the possibility they might have dementia. Thanks for your comment here though, it helps!
 
DebunkThisPls said:
Ive told you it's clearly set up, my question is how they might've accidently set it up
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Your parents didn't accidentally set up an automatic payment to their phone account. They had to concentrate and enter their account details.

They can simply check this by asking the phone company.
 
alfaniner said:
Things like items in the news don't count as coincidences. Like, I've recently seen a lot of articles about a famous football (soccer) player, a person I'd never heard of before. Well, I probably did in his heyday, but the name never registered since I don't follow the sport. Coincidence? No, he died.

Similar with any mention of Covid-19. Why, a year ago you never heard anything about it!

(eta) I swear the previous post was not up yet when I started typing mine. COINCIDENCE!!!
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That's so weird. I've been hearing about him too. Then I went on a subreddit about funny videos, and coincidentally one of the videos had some comments on it from Argentinians. And then they started talking about this soccer player, because Argentina. And then I came here to a thread that had nothing to do with Argentina, and here you are talking about this same Argentinian soccer player! How crazy is that?
 
Ok I get your point, obviously not crazy at all since he's one of the most famous soccer players ever and his death is so recent its been talked about on lots of sources.
 
DebunkThisPls said:
I do believe that it was a memory thing, as of course they can make mistakes, my comment here was mostly just correcting the possibility they might have dementia. Thanks for your comment here though, it helps!
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I was sort of joking, riffing on other comments. But at the risk of offering up another pointless anecdote: A few weeks ago I picked up a prescription, and lost it; I had refills, so the pharmacy filled it again - AND I LOST IT. I *still* had refills, but then the doc said maybe I shouldn't be on this medication - he was worried about my absentmindedness; he didn't want to miss anything if I was having bad side effects. Well, a couple of days later one of the bottles turned up, but the date made no sense and five pills were gone which should have been impossible.

To cut the anecdote short it was a complete mystery. The fill date does not match my memory of either of the lost refills, and the pill count is off. If I were one to assign cosmic meaning I might wonder if the "universe" wanted me to get off this drug. But if so, why did it throw the bottle back at me :confused:?

I'm not automatically hostile to the idea that the universe is sending me messages, and I know people who talk this way all the time. But ultimately I don't have the kind of brain that can really believe it, either. When I talk like that, I'm speaking ironically. :)
 
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