Astonishing Tales of Synchronicity

[orz]

Before feeling certain about coincidences/syncronicity, either for or against, ask youself this:

If you were to buy a lottery ticket, would you ever pick the same exact numbers which won last week? If not why not?

[Joe Hillshoist]

Personally I probably would cos I'd try to pick em each time, don't buy lottery tickets tho, but I know the stories about changing your numbers.

[brainpanhandler]

I had one of those today.

Yesterday, for some bizarre reason that I can't even remember, the theme music from the movie "Chariots of Fire" got into my head. I haven't heard that music, or thought of it, in probably 15 years.

It stuck with me most of the evening yesterday.

So today I'm on this job, with a director I haven't seen since a week ago today, and we're waiting for something and all of a sudden this guy starts humming the theme from Chariots of Fire. I barely know this guy, but I looked up and said "that's so weird!" and I explained to him why. I asked him how he got the music in his head and he said he didn't know.

It was just very odd. Or is some commercial on TV playing that and perhaps we both heard it and it got into our heads subliminally?

Not anything like YOUR story, but it kind of freaked me out.

And I lived in Austin for a while, it can certainly be "that way".

Very mild synchronicity happened yesterday. First up searcher08 posted a couple of avalanches vids, songs I hadn't seen or heard for at least 3 or 4 years.

Then last night there was a reply of an old 90s music show - recovery, and guess who the first band playing were - the Avalanches playing their song El Producto, which as far as I know doesn't have an official vid.

Just a very minor synchronicity, or whatever you want to call it. But those minor ones happen all the time. So often most people don't notice them.

I had recently loaned my 4 cd boxed set of The Carpenters to a coworker. I remember thinking to myself as he listened to it during the day at work that they would lend themselves to some interesting covers. I had never heard of any. Then Compared2What posted a link to a video of a Sonic Youth cover of The Carpenters Superstar in the vacant lounge music thread.

[AlicetheKurious]

Synchronicities like that happen to me all the time. I suspect that they happen to EVERYONE all the time, but that only a few people are alert enough to take notice of them. Most people probably are jolted for a second or two, and then promptly forget it, so that when it happens again, it seems like a mildly interesting, but isolated phenomenon.

A few decades ago, I realized that if I really, really wanted to know the answer to a question, all I had to do was ask, and then patiently wait for the answer to come to me.

It all started with a stupid discussion I was having with some friends, about the 7 dwarves from Disney's "Snow White"; we could remember the names of six of them, but not the seventh.

The next morning, as I got on the bus to go to work, the bus driver had a morning radio show on: the announcer was handing out prizes to the first caller who could name all seven dwarves. Someone did, and I got my answer.

I thought about this all the way to work, and decided to notice similar coincidences. Once I started to pay attention, it became clear to me that this was a genuine phenomenon: I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it before.

Several years later, I was explaining this to my cousins, and begged them to experiment for themselves.

I went home that night, and on the news, I saw Israeli tanks rumbling through Ramallah, in Occupied Palestine.

I remembered a very nice lady whose house I'd visited in Ramallah many years ago; she was rather elderly, but very active in a number of Palestinian women's organizations. Her husband was a distinguished surgeon and a charming man. Both had been very hospitable with me, and I had fond memories of sitting and talking in their lovely garden with them.

As I watched the scenes of destruction, I wondered about how this elderly couple was doing. It was frustrating not knowing who to ask. Then I remembered what I'd just been telling my cousins: ask and it shall be answered.

So I asked, and waited for the answer.

The very next day, I was having tea at the house of a Western ambassador, along with a small group of women. As we were going inside, a funny little mutt came running towards us. "This is 'Yalla' (Arabic slang for 'hurry up!')," the ambassador told us. "I picked him up on a beach in Gaza."

I asked him if he'd been the ambassador to Israel, and he said yes.

Feeling like I had stepped into the Twilight Zone, I heard myself asking him if he knew this couple. "Yes! I know them very well," he said. He told me their latest news, that the man had passed away, but that his wife was doing ok, and still very active. Her house had been searched several times, and she'd been forced to stand outside in her nightgown in the cold and rain, but she was alright. He got me up to date about their family, their children, etc., and said he was still in touch with them.

This is just one of many, many similar experiences with this phenomenon, some even more dramatic, but more personal, as well. Despite their frequency, my awe and joy remain undiminished with each reminder that God not only exists, but offers us a vast treasure trove of knowledge, strength and love, limited only by our willingness to ask.

This may not count as "proof of the existence of God" for many people, but for me it does. I remember Jesus saying:

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

It reminds me of when I was very little, swimming in the turbulent waves of the Mediterranean. Sometimes a particularly violent wave would knock me down; if I fought it, it hurled me around, choking and nearly drowning me.

I learned that if I calmed down and allowed myself to float, the wave would carry me up and then pass harmlessly away, leaving me safe and sound.

Of course I define "me" as my eternal soul, because, as Jesus also said during the Sermon on the Mount:

Ye are the salt of the earth. But if the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it again be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot by men.

Again, all this may not constitute "proof" of God's existence for other people. My personal experience is that this phenomenon was the key that opened my heart to faith in God, and that this faith has brought many blessings into my life. Possibly the biggest blessing of all, is the ability to recognize and appreciate the other blessings, to know that they are gifts from God and proof of His love.

This also reminds me of a funny story. A friend of mine has a precocious daughter, around 4 years old. One day, the girl said to her mother, "Is it true what you say, that I'm a gift from God?" Her mother said yes, of course. "In that case," the girl said, "how come you get to yell at a GIFT FROM GOD?"

[lucky]

I suppose most are aware of the strange properties of this number and how it crops up in peoples lives.Welll I was reading about Genesis p orridge (PTV)- i use to play keyboards for them- and his relationship with this number- releasing 23 albums in 23 months for example. Later that day i was pondering the "23" enigma while i got on a tube there was no room so i stood up and was looking over the shoulder of those sitting down there was a woman reading a book written in spanish and next to her was a man reading a book called "a month in Madrid" thats weird I thought then noticed he was on page 23 as was she then looking at my watch I saw it was 2.23pm....

[John E. Nemo]

I'm glad to see that people have used this thread to post tales of their own synchronicities.
I'll post more, when I'm not so busy (i.e. back to the 13 hour days for this guy).

The metaphysics can be debated. This is not necessarily proof of "God." It could be proof of any number of things.

Like annie (?) pointed out on another thread, stuff like this could be proof of quantum entanglement. And I will add: non-local mind.

Ah, but I believe and stuff like this happens periodically in my life.
People who don't believe don't get cool stuff like this happening in their lives.

There are plenty of people on this site, (perhaps even you, kultie), that would credit an experience like this to "good karma" one receives for helping the less fortunate, as they are comfortable with an un-personal "force" (such as the Tao, quantum entanglement or whatever) helping them.

But, the second someone says that "good karma" is a reward from God, these same people will vehemently deny said personal "force's" existence.

That is a metaphysical "double-standard" (and delusion of ego, in my book).

Again, I find the timing of this interesting.
To me, it's a reward for "daring" to make a thread that dares to cite scientific facts to back a religious viewpoint and a reward for helping the less fortunate.

Plus, you have to factor in that, just like me, ...

[professorpan]

Many years ago....

I was heading to a nearby college bar with a friend, talking about synchronicity (he had never heard of the word). We had a long, interesting conversation and we swapped examples.

After we arrived at the bar, we had to wait in a line to get in. A young woman walked past me, holding a book in her hands -- one of those Time/Life "Mysteries of the Unknown"-type books. I knew as she walked by that she was carrying MY copy of the book. The wear-and-tear along the spine, the ripped dust-jacket -- there was no mistaking it. It was my book.

I introduced myself and told her that I didn't know her, but that she was carrying my book. "Oh, Laura loaned it to me."

We deduced the identity of Laura, and I dimly recalled loaning the book to her many months before.

"Here," the woman said. "Take it -- it's yours."

I thanked her for believing me. After all, many people would have just kept the book. She smiled and left.

My friend had been watching. "Now THAT was a synchronicity," he said.

I laughed and opened the book at random. There, staring at us, was a photo of Carl Jung. Beneath his photo, the caption mentioned that he had coined the word "synchronicity."

I've had lots of powerful synchronicities in my life, but that one remains iconic, and it's the example I always trot out when the subject comes up.

[theeKultleeder]

Hey Mr. Nemo - "God is good" as long as the habit of anthropomorphizing is resisted.

From another comment I've made recently: understanding God is incomplete without understanding Self and understanding Self is incomplete without understanding Selflessness.

Also, God as "King of X belief system" just sticks in my craw like you wouldn't believe!

[cc]

there was a discussion on another board i post on regarding punk and hard-core bands that have lyrics refering to conspiracies.

we came up with a pretty good list, although i feel a lot would be too recent to note here...

[John E. Nemo]

Hey Mr. Nemo - "God is good" as long as the habit of anthropomorphizing is resisted.

From another comment I've made recently: understanding God is incomplete without understanding Self and understanding Self is incomplete without understanding Selflessness.

First mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers,
then mountains are not mountains and rivers are not rivers,
then mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers.

When you truly understand that, you'll be enlightened or "realize the kingdom of God within you".

Also, God as "King of X belief system" just sticks in my craw like you wouldn't believe!

Of course it does.
That's a societally-conditioned response, coupled with delusion of ego.

You haven't needed God, so there's no need to search for, or believe in, God.
A Buddhist would say that you haven't experienced suffering, so you don't realize that all is suffering, and your need to be saved from it.

Anne Rice, the queen of Goth, got saved in 1998.
You are, like, so behind the times, dude.

[John E. Nemo]

there was a discussion on another board i post on regarding punk and hard-core bands that have lyrics refering to conspiracies.

we came up with a pretty good list, although i feel a lot would be too recent to note here...

Link?

I was referring to 77 era punk bands, BTW.

I don't really count too bands that formed after 1980.

[theeKultleeder]

You haven't needed God, so there's no need to search for, or believe in, God.
A Buddhist would say that you haven't experienced suffering, so you don't realize that all is suffering, and your need to be saved from it.

Typical.

[Joe Hillshoist]

there was a discussion on another board i post on regarding punk and hard-core bands that have lyrics refering to conspiracies.

we came up with a pretty good list, although i feel a lot would be too recent to note here...

Link?

I was referring to 77 era punk bands, BTW.

I don't really count too bands that formed after 1980.

Yowist snob

[Joe Hillshoist]

Pan I might have a similar story.

I was at my bro's GFs place back in 04, and she had a copy of a book that an old girlfriend brought me, but that I'd lost or given away or something. I immediately recognised it as mine (funny how you know exactly whch creases on the spine and cover are which, when its your book.)

I pulled it off the bookshelf, checked, yes it was, so I said:

"Where did you get this."

"At a second hand book shop."

"Bullshit, its mine isn't it."

"No I brought it."

"Then why has it got a message to me in it?"

"Oh"

So I snarfed it for old times sake.



My bro's GF swears to this day she brought it in a second hand bookshop, and that could be true cos I remember getting rid of a whole bunch of books years ago.


But it could have found its way to her place from my parents, where my old shit is stored, by typical family osmosis.

[Joe Hillshoist]

Finally, on the subject of synchronicities.

How many times have you thought about a board member who you haven't seen a post from in ages and they post that day?

Its happened at least 3 times to me.