Question inspired by Andrew’s post : Do coincidences occur as events that we become startingly aware of, or do we subconciously manifest them ourselves ? And is there indeed any difference in the two statements? For if our Universe is an interconnected matrix of all time,space and existence, then it is difficult to seperate an event from an observation, or awareness.
If everything in the Universe is so interconnected, then we should find coincidence wherever we look for it. So if I keep coming accross the same number or the same person again and again, is it possible that the number or the person is omnipresent for all time and space. As am I, and indeed there is no separation between that number and myself. There never was and never will be.
So will in that case, find coincidence wherever we look for it.
Interestingly, all structures of dramatic story telling and myth are all built on coincidences. Without ironic coincidence, there would be no story telling.
Shekhar
Shekhar,
Since years i m finding ans of tht question? tht why wen v meet some stranger & something clicks in our heart. Wat is tht click? coincidence! Or v view same place not in dream but wen v try 2 visulize our surrounding it suddenly appears as blink afterwards circumstances put us near by tht place.
Is it 6th Sense?
Life is a story.
Isn’t it?
Yes, few coincidences, I would say something off-hand and it would be related to something that has occured or would occur in future. Thankfully there have been only a few and one cannot be consciously be looking out for ‘it’ it just happens.
Andrew mentioned about the presence, I don’t know in what context, but I believe coincidences are probably super-spirit.. jesting, hopefully. Just for the record I’m not superstitious at all.
Hey I have something interesting to share here.
I couldn;t share with many as I thought people will find me crazy but this is the right place to speak about it. so here it is…
I was born on 9th and thus 9, 18, 27 play some role in my life.
I joined this company on 27th June 2005.
transferred to one deptt on 27th Feb 2006.
Was shared with another deptt from 27th Mar 2006.
I joined Procurement Deptt and within days my manager moved(resigned and moved abroad).
I was transferred to Admin and within days (months actually)my manager moved(was trasferred to another deptt).
I was then transferred to Project Controls, and within days again, my manager was moved (transferred and gone aborad).
The thing is – till the time I kept quiet and kept observing this, this was happening. The moment I spoke about it to few people, it has stopped happening.
I would like to add here that I would not like to see me as unlucky for anybody/my bosses as they are all very happy in their new profiles. So what I say in fact is that anyone who wants to push his luck, shud call me!
Cheers !
“Dont mistake Coincidence for Fate”
-Quote from Lost
Shekhar,
I want 2 go for film direction. Have experience of copywriting-visulization.I want ur guidance.
Its bit personal favor but may i have ur online chat address?
Waiting…….
I hate numbers too…always have…in fact, they scare me..
When I met my wife she had an annoying (Indian) habit of quoting the significance of numbers since she was into numerology in a big way – she told me that I was an “Eight” – an inauspicious number but one linked to “Fate” in a big way – think of the Greek symbol for eternity sideways, according to the great numerologist, Cheiro.
Anyway, when I looked at the street numbers of 90% the studios I have worked for to date – a spooky thing came up…they all, to a man, added up to…Eight…
This, I deduced was because the business I am in is one in which fate and chance are major factors in success – this had little to do with whether the company itself was successful (some have since gone to the wall…) – or, was I simply attracted to these “Eight” combinations since I am an “Eight” ??
Shekhar sir,
Response.
Regards,
HI dude…
This time i felt, there is absolute clarity and Affirmative stance in your self questioning and then in your own realisation, views and analysis about the subject.
Now it harldy matters whether it is right or wrong or is that what is the TRUTH or not…it hardly matters…what matters is the CLARITY!!!
I feel, in this state of mind, you would have given a smiling face to the Astronaut in the last scene in 2001-Space Odessy!!!
In this blog your IF and THEN are not at all ‘if and then’ of a person who wants answer…But these if and then are of a person who keeps on walking!!! ACCEPTANCE is a beautiful phase to be in!
AS IT IS!…
take care…tata…kedar…
PS: I love this concept of post script…hahaha…
co-incidences are in one way the manifestation of a pre-disposed mind looking for patterns….sometimes when this happens at a conscious level we call it co-incidence, when it happens subliminally we look for other explanations. ravi saw the number ‘eight’ repeatedly and andrew encountered another set of numbers. likewise i had my own set of co-incidences – some months back i tore a cartilage around my knee – during the course of that month i met absolute strangers – a man with a torn cartilage / another who i happened to offer a ride to in an auto – she was a physiotherapist treating such problems / another fellow traveller who had suffered the same problem a couple of years ago / and yet another’s mom who’d broken another joint and was facing the same situation as mine. my knee condition was overt, anybody could easily see it – therefore it was an obvious point for conversations around the subject. the number eight or 3.16 may not be such obvious triggers – confined only to the inner world of our own thoughts. obviously the number of people i met during the time who did not have knee problems did not register in my mind – nothing out of the ordinary, i meet people everyday. so also all the other numbers one comes across do not necessarily register. perhaps what adds to this pattern seeking somewhere is an innate belief or a want to believe – that there is a ‘force’ in the universe that drives things to happen. if it is not faith, perhaps it is a desire for faith. else why would people see idols drinking milk or such like.
interesting point about story telling and co-incidences. the more i think about movies i’ve enjoyed the more the point becomes obvious – green mile / shawshank redemption or even the original umrao jaan – all come to mind…all around characters who were wronged because of these quirks of fate, we empathise with them so much more because of that. as a researcher i always look for stories to explain and understand behaviour. i will remember this and look for co-incidences in my work. thanks!
…point being – and I’ve made this point here before…that the human / animal mind is predisposed to “pattern making” to make sense of the world – indeed, it may be a survival mechanism – this is, as Shekhar points out…the root of storytelling – making “sense” – of giving life a “meaning” & shape – eg beginning, middle, end.
People read all sorts of significance into things – referring to “2001” from kedars post – there’s the famous “Stargate” sequence which is, if anything, a visual metaphor for chaos and randomness – but it assumes various meanings to whoever the viewer is and what the viewer might “read” into it – which invests it with meaning, intended by Kubrick or not..
I dont think anything happens by chance or co-incidence . co-incidence never existed. Everything ..well most of it is already pre-determined,… like a movie running , until we reach its end. We think we are doing it all , but actually we are the ‘watcher’ the audience. DO YOU remember that feeling ..it used to happen when we were very young mostly,( maybe the innocence had to do something with it, we are too skeptical too rational now ) , the deja vu …it could be as insignificant as eating a ‘samosa’ with someone or having a coffee , but we remember and exclaim to ourselves …oh i have seen it before. Now if even something as insignificant as that had been pre determined , what about the rest of it!! Does it really exist …this matrix ? Am i the audience or the “do” er?? Its all pre determined , its just our anxiousness which makes it live. I am not claiming here that if you lock yourself in the room its still going to happen…you are here to play your role, but detach and free your mind .Because incidences or co-incidences dont exist at all.
I can’t pretend to explain deja vu, but what I do know is that in moments of stress I do tend to enter the world of my imagination and play out scenarios…or stories, usually with happy endings, sometimes not…
I think stories are a strategy for dealing with uncertainty – we make comparisons between film & life, or books & life, but these are all just strategies – tomorrow it may be a different media, but the essence is the same…reality is like outer space – a harsh environment where we need oxygen (stories / films / ideas ??) and a space suit – similarly we clothe ourselves in these stories in order to survive…
The actual form is like comparing haute couture to high street fashion – one is a flight of fancy, the other practical, but the basic needs being met are the same – when we put a price on these readily available resources then the problems start – who controls air or water ??
Stories are full of coincidences and – Hindi cinema is dependant on them – they are like the stitching which holds together the suit…
There are no coincidences in this world. We can manifest anything into our lives by simply desiring it. We are all mini-creators a la “God”. But not many of us know & believe this secret. I can vouch for this from personal experience. I am where I am because I once desired to be here. We can create our own reality. All we need to do is BELIEVE IT. And be careful what you wish for, for it will come true.
Cheers!
Navin
but navin, if we can manifest anything our heart desires then why is the basic strugle of life the conflict between desire and non acievement of that desire ? Do u have any personal experiences f being able to manifest anything u desire ? shekhar
Yes, the dichotomy is there because our desires have to compete against the desires of millions of others. That is why the struggle. If the desires of all the people in the world are in unison, then there would be absolute harmony and no struggle.
There comes the concept of survival of the fittest. The persons who are the strongest (not physically, but on the level of the soul) are able to create their own reality in this world. We can create our own reality if we are able to convince a sufficient number of people into believing into that reality.
I’ll cite a few personal experiences. I am in Mumbai because years ago I *desired* to be here. I am making money because I *desired* to make money. But the desires won’t manifest themselves overnight, depending upon the nature of the desire. We have to plant the desire in the cosmos and it will take its own sweet time in fructifying. Saying them out aloud helps because sound has a very powerful creative energy. I had a desire years ago to hang out with the creative & famous people of India and today I’m rubbing shoulders with some of them. You already know that I have a desire to be famous and one day I will be. I’m already getting famous, at least on the internet! LOL. So, I’m on my way. 😉
But there is a catch here. I told you all this because you asked me about my personal experiences in manifesting my desires, and not to brag. “God” doesn’t like pride. If one becomes too proud of having the power to fulfil one’s desires, then one is sure to have a fall. It works in a very subtle way. When one becomes too proud then the people around us don’t like it and one is subconsciously setting oneself up for conflict with others. So Pride is a big NO NO because it will create obstacles in manifesting one’s desires.
As you will be able to make out, what I’ve just expounded is nothing but the concept of Free Will. But then there is another concept, the concept of Divine Grace (or Divine Will) which is also operational in the world we live in. According to my understanding, our lives on this planet function on the basis of these two concepts.
Cheers!
Navin
To sum up, our desires won’t fructify IF:
1) We are too lazy to ACT upon the desires – One can’t just dream of desiring something and then not do anything about it. One has to act upon one’s desires.
2) We act upon our desires in an unsystematic manner – This will depend upon the intelligence of the individual. The sharper the person, the easier it is for that person to manifest his/her desires in a *systematic* way.
3) Our desires are in conflict with the desires of others – The greater the conflict, the more difficult and time-consuming it will be for the desires to manifest into reality.
The theme of this blog is Coincidences. Once we have desired a particular event to happen and start acting upon it, the universe sets into motion a series of events that will lead upto your desired final event. These are minor events leading upto the main event which we had desired. And these minor chain of events is what we call Coincidences.
Do you think that it is a coincidence that you are a world famous movie director? Nope, you must have desired to be here many years ago. And you must have worked to get here in a systematic way. Do you think it was a coincidence that we met almost a year back, not once but twice, at JWM? I don’t think so.
Cheers!
Navin
Hi Shekhar: U r right! Just anything happening around cant b mere incidence or coincidence but existence of the situation in the dimension of time and space. There is a third dimension too, which many of us feel it but cant see, hear or smell or touch. It exists and is truth wherein all the matter is converted to energy and energy fields existing in every molecule around us either positive or negative, which we claim to be coincidence. see ya soon
any one interested in Maths and Films…go for Daren Arfonasky’s film ‘PI’…its about NUMBERS!!!
Cool film…!!!
PS: i am waiting for the DVD of Arfonasky’s film the FOUNTAIN…but i guess now i will have to GET it from OTHER sources… ( referring to NEXT BLOG- PIRACY>>>>he ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!! dhishkyavvvvvvv)
Adding another point to my comment #16, as to why ordinarily we face a struggle in manifesting our desires. Our desires won’t also fructify IF:
4) Our desires are in conflict with OUR OWN other desires – When I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that this is the biggest hinderance in manifesting our desires. Even bigger than our desires being in conflict with the desires of others. We can be our own worst enemies. We don’t have just one desire but multiple desires. And more often than not, they are in conflict with each other. And if they are in conflict with each other, then none of them will realize.
We are desirous of being on the top of our career and at the same time, we also want to have a loving family life. We have desire to be loved and then we have the desire to indulge our lust. So our own desires are a bundle of contradictions. That is the reason it seems unlikely to most people that we have the power to manifest our desires.
To me, the more important question is not *whether* my desires will be realised, but *what* should I desire in the first place. That’s why I said we should be careful what we wish for.
Cheers & good night,
Navin
Hi Shekhar, I think that in God’s eyes every “incident” in the universe (and beyond) is a co-incident. In this matrix of interconnectedness every breath we take is a co-incidence.
Our minds may separate a few incidents and accord them the special status of coincidents but the special status is colored by our conditioning and our thought and behavior patterns and is not absolute. An advanced mind will not judge events because to him/her everything just IS.
However, since we aren’t that advanced yet (How boring would it be if everything just IS and we have nothing to pontificate or argue 🙂 bring em on!
Shekhar,
Life is boring without coincidence.
coincidences are supposedly synchronous events according to many so called new age mystics…i personally experienced a time, years ago, when I suddenly had a so called spiritual experience in the midst of a harrowing personal experience…it was strange irony but a sudden shift happened and i has learned or experienced what it meant to truly be in the moment. alongwith that, i started meeting people and saying things at the most unlikely time (say in a bus) that would have someone turn around and bond with me… and then people around me started to be so fluid and appearing at the right time when I thought of them, and so on and so forth…it was strange and beautiful…however, it went away quickly, as i was seized again by analysis and doubt…and i have struggled ever since to get a glimpse back into that time…but thats ironic too..coz where’s my appreciation of and being in my “now” time in that case?
coincidences are hardly random in the sense of being mechanical and probable mathematically, or only just that…i think if everyone is energy of different vibrations ultimately, then one is defintiely responsbile for what he or she attracts to himself or herself, and that also includes miracles and coincidences, or the mundaneness…
the state of being is responsible…
a key factor that some say is absolutely needed for fruitful coincendences to occur (so the story moves forward so to speak) is an elevated degree of mental openness and ironically expectation of an event…which turns into knowingness…its different from contriving up the desire to have the magic happen…difficult to describe…the opennesss that pairs itself to the expectation (of a unique kind) that brings to your mileu, the miracle meet with people who are just like you, or situations, institutions that you’ve always been looking for, and you hear a conversation in the loo about one such…whatever…
In the US i had allowed myself this openness, and hence met a some strangers who i was kind of goaded to speak with, and culturally it was ok there…but in India, its bery hard, as we have so many of these cultural rigid interpretations to eye-contact and speaking suddenly to strngers etc etc…and so many a what would have been fruitful encounter and a synchronous event presents itself but never gets utilised…i am frustrated with this perception and feel real bad that we dont allow more intermingling…is it because we are such an old culture that we have too many fears of this freedom being misused? whatever it might be, we need to transcend this and become more open…in my opinion
Well, what exactly defines coincidence?
An event which recurs
or
the thought process where one feels as if an ongoing event has already ocurred in the past
or
Is it a coincidence that one comes across people of relevance from one’s past out of the blue in a completely new place
– adding to yet another significant learning/experience in this stage called life
– and then moving on… giving closure or completing the incomplete circle?
Does ‘state of mind’ have something to do with this.
We smile when we discover a happy coincidence, or we feel a special connection with a stranger when he/she shares a coincidence with us. If the coincidence is sad we attribute it to fate, and we then accept it better.
Maybe coincidences are meant to bring some magic into our life, or some consolation.
Numbers may also have magic power–at least the ancient believed in them. And if we find happiness and pleasure in certain recurring numbers, so what? It may all be an illusion, but it is an illusion that helps us realize our dreams or simply make us more content.
As a teenager I experienced an event that scared me–had I simply accepted it as normal, my life would have been much happier at the time. Instead, I went through months of deep anxiety, thinking that everything in life was pre-ordained by a god, and that I was not free to choose. Then I decided that brooding was not very useful and that I should pretend it never happened. Well, now, years later I think that if my life was decided by the gods it does not matter–on the contrary, I will have something to talk about when I meet them.
…I BELIEVE IT … but even if i say i dont beleive it … IT’LL be the same …
Beacuse to judge the system one has to be outside the system … and i, u, w are all in it … So, whatever we judge is constrained … So a coicidence can not be a Coincidence … What u think is all wrong … it may be correct also … THIS STATEMENT IS NONSENSE … or it may be the only valid statment … I mean its hllarious at times … or DANGEROUS….
I think we read too much into coincidences. They are made possible due to this bio-synaptic ‘memory’ we possess.
There is of course the power of association , which follows a Normal statistical distribution – clustering of data is the most natural thing to Ordered Universe.
All the chaos we see is managed chaos really – true chaos will not have anyone to record it in the first place.
I think its subjective. some people experience coincidences more than others. in some people , it happens but they are not bothered. personally , i am more concerned with being a good friend , boyfriend and son to my near ones than worry about concidences.
Being good is the most scientific thing we can do ! – what say , Shekhar?
Cheers,
Rudra.
Like Paulo Coelho says in The Alchemist, when you truly desire something with all of your heart the entire universe conspires to bring it to you. Thus what you may think to be a coincidence may actually be an omen. Yes its true…its happened to me so many times that i just cannot believe that coincidents just happen without any purpose or reason..although the reason may take time to become clear but it does make sense in the end like a chain of linked events planned by the cosmos.
natasha , coincidence then is an act of faith. when you say cosmos plans things – chains of linked events , i guess you mean environmental chance – it is certainly not as scientific as some would like to hear.
the faith that coincidences are the plannings of this abstract ‘cosmos’ sounds good as long as the coincidences are positive , what about the negative coincidences – inevitable downfalls and their signs?
Sorry, but can you explain further.