From: Sam 10/04/00 10:44:21 Subject: Strange occurences/coincidences post id: 55404 Dear Karl, I really enjoy your program on triple j. I wonder if you would be able to provide some insight/scientific explanation for a few bizarre experiences I have had recently; other people were witness to these in all cases . . . 1) I received a mobile phone call at 6am on a Sunday morning from a friend. She wondered 'what was up', as according to her mobile phone I had just rung her (ie my name had come up on her phone), and woke her and her partner up. Actually, I was sound asleep at the time (!) My mobile was beside my bed with the keypad locked, which meant no-one could dial out. 2) I was watching tv with my partner, and the channel changed of it's own accord. The funny thing was, I initially got accused of changing it, as it switched to the channel that I had wanted to watch, and we were arguing over what was being discussed on the current program (I wanted to watch the Simpsons, and my partner 60 minutes!) I was soon absolved from the crime as the tv remote control was actually on the side of my partner (not near myself), and there was nothing leaning on it at all. 3) The 3rd is more coincidental. I received a call from someone who had the wrong phone number on my mobile (not uncommon, but my second ever). But the person had asked for "Stephen Williams" and I had recently been thinking a lot about my deceased grandfather, whose given names were Stephen William, as I was preparing to have his Honor Roll from WW1 framed. I think there might be some rational explanation for the first two experiences, and the third could be merely coincidental, but I'm inclined to think more of some of the many 'coincidences' I've had. However, I studied cognitive psychology, so I know about schemas and reading into things. Do you think 'coincidences' that are popular in new age literature can simply be explained by such things as schema/scripts that our brain develops? Sam From: Lucky 10/04/00 11:19:24 Subject: re: Strange occurences/coincidences post id: 55411 re: question 2 A few years ago now (I'm getting old) in a share house there were three of us sitting watching TV quite stoned when the TV started changing channels every so often - we initially were suspicious of each other as we searched for the remote control - after checking if someone outside was playing a joke on us and about 15 minutes of searching the remote control was found under the pizza box (still with half a pizza in it). We figured the weight and heat from the pizza was somehow changing the channels. Not an answer to your question but your question brought a smile to my face when I remembered it! Lucky From: Alanē 10/04/00 16:45:37 Subject: re: Strange occurences/coincidences post id: 55527 I've had some similarly weird experiences. A few times I've gone to call a friend on the phone, only to pick up the handle and hear no dial tone. Then my friend says "Hello?". It turns out we've dialled each other at exactly the same time. From: AstRoboY 10/04/00 17:26:41 Subject: re: Strange occurences/coincidences post id: 55545 It is called synchronicity. A termed coined by CJ Jung. A meaningful coincidence of a causal events. Often it is associated with an activation of an archetype. Jung thought of this with the collaboration of Wolfgang Pauli. We all tend to have these experiences and the energy released by the archetype can be very powerfull indeed. From: Alanē 10/04/00 17:29:36 Subject: re: Strange occurences/coincidences post id: 55550 Synchronicity - sounds like an album title. And here I was thinking it was magic. I was thinking of having my iris aura read to determine my feng shui placement of the phone so it never happens again. From: Marc 10/04/00 20:14:20 Subject: re: Strange occurences/coincidences post id: 55605 There may be more to why certain events in life CO-INCIDE. Considering the Universe at large operates mechanically and in somewhat of a formulated manner it would be fair to say that these type of events have reason or some particular meaning. Often in life it is not till some time after the event where significance can be drawn. De ja Vu can also be considered some type of co-incidence but this thought leads more to pre-cognitive committment. I suppose in this universe of infinite possibilities all existing simultaneously, co-incidence to have an amount of rational behind them. Even if in restrospect. a matter of fact is still a fact of matter. marc www.futurescience.net/center.htm From: sue 11/04/00 10:23:30 Subject: re: Strange occurences/coincidences post id: 55823 This sort of thing happens to me quite regularly, particulary between my Mum & I, I'll pick up the phone to ring & either she will already be there or just about to ring me. On a stanger note about 10 years ago I was asleep and dreaming. Suddenly my dream changed to involve a family friend, he was across the otherside of a hallway & I could not get across to him. He kept saying goodbye, while I kept trying to say hello. The next afternoon I found out he had had a heart attack and died that night!! I dreamed of and descrided to my Nan & Mum a house my Nan would 3 yrs later buy (at the time of the dream she was not planning to move) and even knew that there were bulbs planted in the garden & where they were from seeing the flowers in bloom in my dream. It was winter when my Nan moved in so there were no bulbs visable & we had to wait til spring to find out that I was right. I dont know why, these things happen they just do, my husband gets peeved because I always know what he is buying me for a pressy at Xmas & birthdays no matter how hard he trys to keep it a secret. From: Daryn Voss (Avatar) 11/04/00 10:30:24 Subject: re: Strange occurences/coincidences post id: 55828 Hi there, sue. May I rudely make a suggestion? Keep a notepad with you at home. Whenever you think your mum is going to call, write it sown immediately, including the day and time. Whenever she calls, write it down immediately, including the day and time. After a couple of months, check for correlations, allowing for the fact that you know the times of day and week when your mum is likely to call. I would love it if you were to do this, and to post the results here. It may be that there is a psychic connection between your mother and you. On the other hand, it may be that you don't make note of the fact of all of the times when you think of your mum but she doesn't call, or vice versa. Only by looking at the stats can we work out which is the case. BTW if your mother calls, and you realise that you thought of her ten minutes before hand but didn't write it down, you shouldn't record the fact that your thought of here: the fact that this happens tells you that there are some times that you think of her and don't record it even when she doesn't call, so it will give unbiased results only if you record the thoughts as and when they occur. Can you do this experiment for us? From: AstRoboY 11/04/00 18:51:15 Subject: re: Strange occurences/coincidences post id: 56029 I would suggest that some of the experiences listed here, although noteworthy, are probably just coincidental. Real synchronistic events involve quite remarkable coincidences. eg: Say you arrive home one day to see a large flock of pigeons on your roof. Remarkable in itself as you've hardly ever seen any birds gather there at all. Later that night someone informs you that a relative, who you've not seen in years, passed away at exactlty the time the birds gathered on the roof. just so happens the relative was an avid Pigeon breeder. Synchronicity was viewed scientifically by Pauli and Jung as the fourth element of the tetrad Space/ Time / causality / and Synchronicity being the polar opposite of causality. Pauli believed this process to be "metaphysical" operating at a more fundemental level than the laws of physical causality. If this is all bunkem then why did Wolfgang Pauli (famous for predicting the exsistence of the neutrino (1930)and the exclusion principle, believe it! This forum is un-moderated. The views and opinions expressed are those of the individual poster and not the ABC. The ABC reserves the right to remove offensive or inappropriate messages.