Quote:
Originally Posted by kirklancaster
Perhaps I should not have used the word 'spooky' but rather 'weird', but please educate me as to the true meaning of the word 'coincidence'? What is it? and I don't mean the 'label'.
Carl Jung - the discoverer of 'synchronicity' relates how a patient of his had an 'impressive' dream the night before, in which someone offered her a golden scarab – a valuable piece of jewellery. At the precise moment she was relating the dream to Jung, there was a tap on the office window. Jung opened up the window and a scarabaeid beetle, whose gold-green colour closely resembles that of a golden scarab, flew into the room. Jung caught the beetle in his hand and said; “Here is your scarab.”
Is this something than can be categorised as a 'bog standard' normal part of life?
From a scientific point of view; what are the mathematical odds of that particular beetle appearing at Jung's window at the precise moment his patient was relating a dream about such a random subject?
There are well documented examples of synchronicity which transcend 'coincidence'; two complete strangers meeting on a train who lapse into conversation, only to discover that they have the same names, same date of birth, are married to women who have the same Christian name, have the same number of children etc.
We often explain the scientifically inexplicable by trotting out a 'label' which becomes 'accepted' but actually explains nothing. Scientists cannot always provide answers to life's questions, and even when they do, advances in science itself, often teaches us that those scientists got it wrong.
As for the 'Paranormal', what is it? What does it mean? The word simply means; "events that can not readily be explained by "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation.". It is, however, a term which has suffered due to its abuse and misuse by all the charlatans and hoaxers out there, as well as by the slanted, dishonest documentaries and articles by - supposedly impartial, but sceptical authors.
There are millions of ordinary, sane Elvis Presley fans, but one could be forgiven - when watching the average documentary on Elvis - that all his fans are eccentrics, cranks or just plain mentally impaired, because those are mainly the type of fans these programs feature, and it's basically the same with - so called 'documentaries' on the 'paranormal'.
I know how much BS and fakery there is on supposedly 'paranormal' matters, but I am an intelligent, educated man, and I do not accept without question and research, and I know this; that when all the trickery, hoaxing and lies are stripped away, there remains real, hard-core mysteries in life which 'science' cannot explain - some of which I know from personal experience. Thus, I will go on questioning and believing and not being satisfied by words such as 'coincidence'- a word which is meaningless really, and does not address the mystery behind my own personal experiences, even if it wasn't.
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Its just coincidence, you are failing to understand the countless possibilities for coincidence to happen in every aspect of our day and the fact (as GG stated) that humans end to recall only things they wish to and put importance on (hence the reason vile mediums and the like flourish)
All you are really doing is creating aspects of your life and attaching special meaning to make yourself appear more desirable to feed the basic human instinct to be liked. We all do this.
Statistically coincidences are inevitable and often less remarkable than they may appear intuitively. Take the birthday problem, where the probability of two individuals sharing a birthday already exceeds 50% with a group of only 23 people.