I'd Like Some Explanations Please

[Johnny Pneumatic]

#1) This happened about nine months ago. I was watching a show on the National Geographic channel about Birds of Prey. The word "kite" popped into my head about 2sec. before the show started talking about Kites. I wasn't thinking about kites.

#2) This happened yesterday at church(I'm an atheist/skeptic see this thread)
I was being bored out of my mind so I started looking at the bible book tabs(those black things at the edge of the pages. I was figuring out what abbreviations went with what book;Phillipians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon. Philemon?!
I can't remember ever learning that. I don't remember ever hearing that word spoken. Ever. Nor do I remember ever seeing the word before. I have a really good memory. How? I was weirded-out after it happened.

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

#1) They mentioned kites earlier, but you didn't remember.

#2) Hey, look, Titus. I don't remember having seen Titus before. Titus and Philemon must be pretty obscure.

~~ Paul

 

[Darat]

Nothing to do with your points but a quick word about your signature.

Now I think ceo_esq has posted some of the best posts on this forum. His prose is normally of the highest standards however even he aint Shakespeare!

"If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? "

 

[Ed]

#1) This happened about nine months ago. I was watching a show on the National Geographic channel about Birds of Prey. The word "kite" popped into my head about 2sec. before the show started talking about Kites. I wasn't thinking about kites.

#2) This happened yesterday at church(I'm an atheist/skeptic see this thread)
I was being bored out of my mind so I started looking at the bible book tabs(those black things at the edge of the pages. I was figuring out what abbreviations went with what book;Phillipians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon. Philemon?!
I can't remember ever learning that. I don't remember ever hearing that word spoken. Ever. Nor do I remember ever seeing the word before. I have a really good memory. How? I was weirded-out after it happened.

A kite is a bird of prey. So? Natural association.

Any reasonably educated person has heard the books of the bible mentioned. Ever see Inherit the Wind? The Fredric March character, at one point, recites the books of the bible in order. It might have stuck with you. Somewhere, somehow, you heard or read the names. Not terribly surprising.

 

[Peter Jenkins]

So, birds of prey were already in your mind as you were watching a program about them, and I am sure you must have heard of a kite before this program.
It s a small and not very significant coincidence that you thought of the name a few seconds before it was mentioned......it may not have even been a coincidence, if they had been giving 'clues' (even if not deliberate - ie a Bird hanging in the air like a ...........?)

Similarly, If you have grown up with the bible as a part of the 'noise background' in your life - even if you are an arch atheist - you probably have seen the book of philemon.
It's amazing what information we do retain unconciously. Amazing, but not miraculous.
P

 

[steenkh]

To Ed and Peter Jenkins,

As I read bewareofdogmas' post, she wonders why she has not heard about Philemon before. even though she has a perfectly good memory!

My comment to bewareofdogmas will be that even people with good memories will experience that their memory sometimes slips. I do not know your age, but you may also find that these slips will occur more often ... there is nothing spooky about it. It is only scary if it happens too often.

 

[Lucianarchy]

#1) This happened about nine months ago. I was watching a show on the National Geographic channel about Birds of Prey. The word "kite" popped into my head about 2sec. before the show started talking about Kites. I wasn't thinking about kites.

Poss you saw a trailer, or read about the prog in the paper.

Either that or precognition.

 

[bluess]

#1) This happened about nine months ago. I was watching a show on the National Geographic channel about Birds of Prey. The word "kite" popped into my head about 2sec. before the show started talking about Kites. I wasn't thinking about kites.

You may not have been consciously thinking about kites, but if you were watching a show about birds of prey, you probably had a laundry list of birds that should be mentioned. How long had the program lasted, how many birds had already been mentioned?

 

[Michael Redman]

Your memory may be playing a trick on you. You may not have actually thought of kites before, but had that memory placed there after the fact. Deja vu all over again.

 

[alfaniner]

Re: Re: I'd Like Some Explanations Please

Poss you saw a trailer, or read about the prog in the paper.

Either that or precognition.

I am amazed that Luci even proposed the first possibility...

Nevertheless, a local paper has an area called Bulletin Board, where one of the oft-submitted categories is termed "The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon". People submit their encounters with what seem to be a very unusual coincidences. The basic rules are, you encounter a word or phrase you have never heard before, and within 24 hours, encounter the word or phrase again. A Sub-rule is: It can't be topical or seasonal -- it just has to come out of the blue. There is also a Comics page corollary -- a couple times a year, two comics will have nearly the same punchline. Again, topical or seasonal themes are disqualified. It is a classic case of remembering the hits and forgetting the misses.

 

[Irish Murdoch]

I was weirded-out after it happened.

That "weirding out" could be your OCD rearing its head (might not be, of course). Do something about the OCD is my recommendation, instead of getting caught up in its "content".