Have you had experiences of synchronous events which seemed to "speak" to you in some way? As if these events were a subtle message to you? Feel free to describe.

But....I asked you first.

Alright then.

These are just a few oddities which occurred over a couple of days.

1) I was having an email conversation with a family member, who mentioned how he had had hot dogs for dinner the night before. Along with apple pie. Mmmm. Pie. Warm pie. I mentioned that I had some veggie "dogs" in the fridge, and that they were tasty with the right condiments. Later, I was heading home on my tiny scooter, which I ride everywhere, on the streets, in the bike lanes, on the sidewalk. I passed a young woman talking into her cellphone and distinctly heard her say, "We're going to have hot dogs," and that was all, as I whizzed by. It was amusing. I proceeded to go buy some sauerkraut, which is delicious on a veggie dog.

2)  I recently posted a John Denver song on the forum, over in the spiritual healing section of this forum. He's a memory of mine, not someone to whom I actively listen. I rarely listen to the radio. It is just a song that occurred to me in that moment. I looked on Netflix last night and saw a John Denver documentary prominently displayed in the titles page and watched it. I learned a lot about him, but mainly enjoyed the loving descriptions of him by those who knew him. I've never seen that listing there on Netflix before.

These are just tiny little things that could mean nothing.

But, on the "hot dog" day I was feeling particularly vulnerable after a recent loss. I had been looking at a few photographs of a loved one who recently passed away, and realized it was too soon for that. Additionally, I had picked up a photograph at home that morning and had seen a lot of very small dots on the photograph that looked like orbs surrounding her peaceful, sleeping face as she took a nap with her dog.  I wondered, where did these dots come from and why do they look exactly like orbs? The photograph is usually on a bulletin board away from any action.

Later that day, I received a beautiful card from a relative far away, a card that meant a great deal to me. All these things worked together to lift my spirits in a way I could not have anticipated.

These are not easy things to describe to others. They are not easy things to believe are some kind of subtle signs. But, go ahead and give it a try, if you like.

Some people might say there is no such thing as coincidences, but how about this event?

Years ago (I've been at my current job for more than 22 years) I drove into San Francisco one day for a job interview. Rather than pay for downtown parking I parked my car in the Southern part of the city, and rode BART (San Francisco's subway) to downtown.

As I walked from my car to the BART station a young lady walked in front of me and noticed me. We both got on the same BART car. We got off at the same stop. We walked into the same building and got on the same elevator (there are a lot of buildings in downtown SF). We got off on the same floor.

I didn't want her to be concerned and told her, "Look, I have an interview here," and showed her the piece of paper I had with the firm's address. She smiled.

As far as I know I never saw this lady again. So I guess there was no synchronicity with how events played out.

I believe coincidences are possible just as free will is possible. The Universe wouldn't have free will if coincidences weren't allowed to take place. Related to this, not every bad event that takes place in this World is needed. Sometimes it is a matter of people not using their free will in a way that benefits others.

I also believe that synchronicities take place. For example, Bruce Moen started this forum so I can post on it.  Just kidding, but if you look at the count, you'll see that I've posted here quite a bit.

Here is one for romantics. When young and while travelling about, I read a poem in a local paper by an anonymous author about conflicting values and dilemmas of life. I decided to write an anonymous response addressing the issues and it came out in the next edition. Later I met the lady I would marry. I was surprised one day when she told me she had written the poem in the paper.      

We should not get carried away by coincidences though. Just as correlation does not prove causation, and seeming contradiction does not prove falsity, so too, coincidence does not prove connection. There can be other facts at play that account for the occurrence. 

Emotions are essentially likes & dislikes, wants & not-wants, desires for and against, so emotions naturally gain a sense of confirmation from suggestive occurrences. That sense of confirmation can be false though.   

Good points, 1796, regarding the wisdom of not making assumptions that certain events have a particular meaning, as we obviously look for these kinds of relationships in our lives on many fronts in order to understand our world.

However, your story is very romantic. In a sense, your spirits met on the written page before you met physically on this earth.

I do think that certain frames of mind help us to notice synchronous events. It helps to pay attention, which one more easily does when in a thoughtful, quieter mood.

Meditation, however one does it, clears out the clutter in the mind so that a person can hear, see and speak more clearly.

Additionally, changes in one's life naturally cause meditative reflection to occur. One must look inside oneself to open the door to new attitudes and behaviors.

Still........I must admit that it is a thrill when it happens that a coincidence causes me to feel more connected to others. For instance, at my job, at a very large organization, I might be working on something for someone else and that person walks into the office at the exact same time. It happens frequently, frequently enough that it is funny. Many times I just let something sit if I am confused about whatever -- and "the universe" causes that person to walk in and answer my question. Or so it seems. It could very well be that it is simply well known that I am a confused kind of person....no, no, that could never be it..... 

I don't think you are confused, seagull. A little emotional thinking comes across at times and that is fine. We all have emotions. The emotional nature is a learning ground, just like the physical nature.   

Emotionalism though, if not realised, understood and managed can impinge upon clear thinking. Down the track it can unhinge us and separate us from sanity, while deceiving us that the emotion is justified, even right, and that we are sane. Listen to criminals talk about their crimes and notice that most are quite convinced they were justified to commit them. And those crimes are mostly driven by and committed in emotional states. Emotions/feelings do not make good decisions, they cloud judgement, commit crimes and fill jails, ruin marriages and spoil lives, so a disciplined student of truth who intends to advance in their own self governance must learn how to manage emotion. The key is in the mind, for it is via thought that emotion is controlled. The ability to objectively observe, to reason, and to exercise best judgement and decisions, and to learn as we go, is good practice. And of course, practicing genuine consideration for others will help nullify our being controlled by emotion, for despite who they may seem, emotions are self centred, and that is part of their deception. As emotionalism is relevant to the subject of this thread, this paragraph refers to the general issue of emotional management, certainly not to your self or any person/s in particular.   

Meditation can be practiced poorly or harmfully, or well and beneficially, as can prayer. There are right and wrong, and better and worse ways of doing everything. And beneficial and detrimental sides to everything, and the greater the inherent benefit, the greater the inherent detriment if practiced or use incorrectly. Nothing has just one side. Our psychiatric units are well populated by those who have practiced incorrect meditation.

Meditation practice must have a foundation of awareness of self and surroundings, and be focused on reality, not fantasy, must advance cautiously and deliberately, with all the best intent and most sensible judgement we possess. Then if it is true that God is within our self, that high on a level of self in man lies God, (as I can attest it is true, but we each must verify it our self) then if meditation is practiced rightly and towards truth, then meditation (the exercising of consciousness)and prayer (the communion of self with God) must ultimately coincide, must at a certain level of attainment become the same function.

But I have waffled on enough.

Oh, before I go, back on the matter on coincidences or synchronised events. Things really do often come in threes. The Regulators of Consequence (or the Lords of Karma as the Hindus say) will spread our lessons out when it is suitable to do so, to make it less traumatic and the lessons within the experience easier to extract, and often dividing the experience and its lesson into three is beneficial: A few days ago a neighbour's pipe sprang a leak and I fixed that, then the next day one of my own pipes split and I fixed that, then today another one of my pipes broke and I spent most of the day fixing that. It reminded me of an occasion when a car knocked me off my pushbike on the way to work when I worked in a city. For a moment I hung on the car roof and through the car's window had eye contact with a terrified Chinaman who then accelerated, throwing me from the car. Fortunately I was not injured too badly and neither was the bike so I continued on. Then a hundred yards further I was knocked off again, and injured a little more. It was a twenty mile ride to work but I wobbled on and arrived on time. Then when riding home I was coming down a hill at a reasonable speed - right opposite the place where the first motorist had knocked me off, when a car pulled in front of me and immediately stopped. I hit the roof injuring a shoulder then over the roof and head first into the road in front of the car. I was concussed and faded in and out while people gathered around to help me and an elderly man and woman picked me up and put me in the car that I had just flown over. They told other people that they were taking me to the hospital which was only a mile away. Instead they took me to their home and washed the blood and gravel from my wounds while I drifted about in semi-consciousness. I could hear them worrying about getting into trouble and debating what to do with me. Being mildly concussed I kept trying to stand up and repeating that I felt fine. Then they supported me to walk back to their car, drove me to a railway station and put me out and drove quickly away. By then the adrenalin subsided and I felt awful. Such is concussion. I was pleased that learning experience was spread out over three incidents; I would not have wanted them all rolled into one.          

 

Great story! And waffles. Love it.

Perhaps my higher self arranged for me to have the experience I described so I would understand that coincidences are a possibility.

Here's another possibility. Say the lady I spoke of has a coworker who has a similar commute and arrives at work at about the same time. Just by chance they might run into each other as they commute. Sometimes I'll see one of my coworkers on the freeway as we commute. So perhaps a similar probability took place between the lady and myself. We just happened to be going to the same place at the same time.

Here's another BART example. I was riding it one day and two people who were playing phone tag (before cell phones) ran into each other.  I thought it was interesting they met up this way. Then I thought of a man I hadn't thought of in over a year. At my stop I took one step off of the BART train and I heard a voice say, "Albert." It was the man I thought of. Perhaps my higher self knew I was going to run into him and therefore had me think of him ahead of time.

Here's another work related coincidence. One day a friend and I were driving to SF, we started speaking of a coworker, we looked to our left and there she was in another car.

Another work related coincidence. A subject came up while I was at work and it caused me to think of a lady I hadn't thought of in years. That afternoon I was surprised to see her and found that she was a new employee in my department.

Another example, a coworker told me that he saw a local celebrity in the Safeway line and said that she looks better in person. Within a week I was at a restaurant with a friend, my friend said this celebrity's name, it was her, it turns out that my friend and this lady were childhood friends.

A few years later I was speaking to a coworker about a billboard on highway 101 that had a picture of this lady (the celebrity I mention above). This is the first time I spoke to a coworker about her. A little later in the day I went to lunch at Wholefoods, and there she was right in front of me in the salad bar line.

Something else comes to mind. I was having my haircut by a lady who recently lost a daughter to brain cancer.  She said she had a dream with her deceased daughter and her daughter told her she would receive an angel in six months.

The next day her daughter's husband called her and said he ordered her (my barber) an angel, and she will receive it in six months.  It is an angel statue that she can put in her garden. An ADC through a dream.

seagull wrote on Oct 10^th, 2015 at 6:11pm: