“Just been sitting here listening to “Green man” by Roy Harper. Not a singer I am particularly familiar with but working with a partner who is somewhat of a music anorak, I am subject to all sorts of oddities on a daily basis. I now know many Gong lyrics, “My Knees they argue, they debate” and have recently been subjected to ‘The Hare who lost his Spectacles’ by Jethro Tull. “You Kangaroo, you can?” Completely eccentric. Anyway, that wasn’t what I wanted to discuss….
Whilst checking on a networking website, I noticed that there was an ad for a store called greenmangifts.com (which sells hippi / new age outfits) next to a guy’s profile picture. May sound daft but I find this kinda strange, that this occured at exactly the same moment as we were listening to the Green Man track. Being somewhat of an open-minded / spiritual person, I can’t help but wonder if this coincidence is a sign that myself and this person have some information or advice to exchange?
The power of coincidences and how we should pay attention to everyday occurances of such phenomena is discussed in ‘The Celestine Prophecy’ by James Redfield. Here is an extract from my notes:
“Have you ever had a hunch or intuition concerning a heart’s desire? Wondered how it might happen, then after forgetting, the opportunity suddenly presents itself through an unexpected meeting or from reading an article. These reoccurring coincidences seem more than mere chance, as if they are destined; as if we are guided by an unexplained force. Hence, nothing happens by chance, if you meet someone, it means you have unfinished business, some information to exchange. We are sensing again as in childhood, there is another side to life that we have yet to discover.
The manuscript predicts that once we reach a critical mass, the entire culture will begin to take coincidental experiences seriously and question in mass what mysterious process underlies life and then we will begin to seriously find out. Humans are now in a position to understand this phenomenon and understand the purpose behind life itself.”
Anyone experienced any weird coincidences, that made them question whether there is something operating behind the scenes?”
“A friend of mine – Sebastian Morgan, says “There are no coincidences”. I have to agree.
In May this year, I met a man from Cusco, Peru, in London – who inspired me to spend the following three months travelling through Peru. (You can read about my journeys on http://farhaninperu.blogspot.com).
Before leaving for Peru, I had also met some healers from Mexico, and I couldn’t decide which country to go to – I asked for a ‘sign’, switched the TV on, and right there, I saw a group of celebrities going into the jungle, in Peru, on Extreme Celebrity Detox (http://www.ginger.tv/content/default.asp?page=s2_3_22). Watching that show, I thought – ok, that’s a clear sign, I should go to Peru.
When I got to Peru, I ended up being given the contact details of a man in the jungle, whilst travelling, and to cut a long story short – I ended up meeting the very man that I had seen on tv. Not just that, I was led to the exact same spot in the jungle, and ended up working with the exact same shaman, and the exact same medicine plant that I’d seen the celebrities working with on the TV show.
My whole journey through Peru was testimony to me, of how, when we let go of our ‘preconceived’ ideas of how things should be, and just work with what we have, here and now, then amazing things can happen…”
Farhan Rehman
“I took my 2 young twins to a book shop. I picked up a book, intrigued by the title, but my 2 youngest started playing havoc, and wanted their 2 books purchased and paid for.
I picked up the book I was reading, but no, i decided to put it back and pay for the twins’ books. I got my receipt and noted the price and the time on the receipt – 12.25pm.
I returned home to do a bit of work, and my wife returned from Inverness, about 5pm
(60 miles + away from the bookshop I was in, in Buckie) and said she had a present for me.
She gave me the bag, with what appeared to be a book… I opened it – The Celestine Prophecy, the same book I had in my hand 60 miles away, but the real freaky bit – the receipt was still in the bag too – 12.25 – was when Wendy bought it, in Inverness.
The only book Ive read from cover to cover in one sitting..and one of the inspirational factors behind my Pocket Mentor too.”
Fraser Hay
“Hhave long come to the conclusion that there are no coincidences. What happens I believe is that there is a kind of low level ‘psychic’ internet. If we tune into it we can see all kinds of patterns which can give us useful information and guidance. Most people in our culture are not tuned in and don’t notice these incidents unless they are overwhelmingly obvious.
Jung, the psychoanalyst and student of Freud, broke away form Freud’s rationalistic beliefs because he suspected there was a spiritual element to life. Jung called ‘coincidences’ synchronicity.
I see patterns all the time in my work. For example, I tend to get mostly clients with certain issues at any one time. I also have a high proportion of male clients which is apparently unusual – not everyone can work successfully cross gender but I have a lot of Yang, or male energy so perhaps they feel safe with me!
Nearly once a week I’ll be humming a tune, put the radio on and it will be playing, that used to REALLY freak me out!
I also go through periods where I meet several new people with the same name within a short period of time, and I have actually discovered that people with certain names are not right for me.
I know people thing this is all hocus pocus but you have to study it for yourself to begin to realise just how exquisite these patterns are and how useful.”
Rhiannon Hill
“I have a belief in the Law of Attraction and am never surprised any more by coincidences, just delighted. My first biggie, was many years ago when I was 10 and my family moved unexpectedly from Liverpool to Wirral, shortly before I said goodbye to my classmates another girl announced that she was moving too. Wouldn’t it be funny we said, if we were both moving to the same place. Being painfully shy, I thought it would be wonderful so when I started my new school the following September and she was there . . .
In school in Wirral, I met my now husband. After a few years he left to work in Southampton. When his company transferred him back ‘oop north’, his office was at the top of the road in Liverpool where I had once lived and moved from sadly at 10 years old, next to the pub which had become the ‘local’ of my old classmates. It seems that we would have met, even if I had never moved.”
Maureen Prowse
http://www.newbeginnings-org.co.uk
“it is’ is used often when people experience a coincidence yet we do not utter ‘What a big world it is’ everytime nothing remotely coincidental happens. Maybe we should all turn to the people on either side of us in tubes and buses and say ‘I don’t know you do I? It’s a big world isn’t it.’
I do believe that nothing happens for no reason but we are actually the ones to determine useful coincidence by use of our own inate radar. ‘When you are ready the learn a teacher will appear etc.’
Michael Trup
http://www.interactiveideas.com/
“After I posted earlier today this happened.
My friend who lived 80 miles away died this week last year.
Today was her memorial service, but I was barred from going because I had been made executor of her will and her elder daughter was determined to vary the will for her own benefit and it all got ugly so she doesn’t want me around now.
Anyway, the memorial service was held this afternoon at about 3pm at the Bhaktivedanta Temple near Watford, run by the Hare Krishnas.
This afternoon, completely at random, we were driving through Brighton and we saw a notice say there was a Mind Body and Spirit event at Brighton Racecourse.
We just went there spontaneously, we don’t usually even like these things and avoid them, but I felt it would be fun, it was a nice day and I was out of Nag Champa incense.
We didn’t even baulk at the entrance fee.
Inside, almost the first stall I saw was from the Temple, being run by two Hare Krishna guys. I spoke to one and we recognised one another.
He remembered my friend and the memorial service which was taking place as we spoke.
He was a guy who my friend asked to take her ashes and scatter them in the Ganges.
Now, I know it was a MBS festival, and there is a Hare Krishna presence in Brighton, but at 3pm, on a unplanned visit, out of all the Krishnas, that particular one?
What do people think?
Talking of Redfield’s soul groups, get this.
I grew up with two best friends, one at school, one outside school. I was also married in my twenties to a man who ran a pub for twenty years.
My two friends now live 60km apart in Australia, near Melbourne. One was a secretary, one was a teacher. All three of these people and I are now, wait for it, psychotherapists! My teacher friend even attended a Hakomi therapy workshop in Melbourne the same year I began my training as a Hakomi therapist in London. I hadn’t seen her for twenty years.”
Rhiannon Hill
http://www.hi5.info
I have had coincidence experiences throughout my life and have always thought they must have a meaning. I am, however, not a particularly spiritual person in the sense of being able to practise various techniques as I am having some troubles following sets of rules (not sure if I really explained this right). Some 10 years ago, my friends had read the “Celestine Prophecy” and wanted me to read it too, and they even wanted me to participate in some group exercise of some sort, but group activities were always something that I found rather scary and though I am a very open person, I do not seem to function well in group-therapeutic settings. I never read the book and have just come accross it lately and started reading it last night. A number of coincidences were noticed by me: First of all, for a year now, I have wanted to go to Peru and teach English there. Second, I have lately felt restless, as if I am in a search for new meaning. I have also been trying to define my life in terms of different stages. I have also started to develop a higher sense of beauty and I found all these indicators in this book. I am still reading but so far, I find it to be a great coincidence, that I should have started reading this book exactly at this point in my life, whereas if I had read it some 10 years ago, I most probably would have discarded it. The past two years were years of my great personal development.
In a random/chaotic world, coincidences are inevitable – not predictable so much as inevitable. Also, with confirmation bias and individual perspective factored in there is certainly a compelling case for the chaotic.
It doesn’t matter ultimately either way because while we may not know the truth, it seems to follow that there would be a truth underlying all existence (be it the universal equation or whatever) and to believe that one should give up exploring simply because of chaos is self-defeating. I’m not suggesting people should be closed minded.
There is a compelling case for jumping opportunistically at coincidental opportunities to help you achieve your goals, and if more people were awakened to the opportunities in front of them they would achieve greater success. It strikes me that most people just don’t usually see them, and self-limit with arbitrary rules that are usually based on avoiding failure/self-consciousness/parental influence and that far from magic or something of a transcendental nature subverting your own restrictions plus opening your eyes is what really creates success.
I think it might be necessary for many people (particularly those who have had the most difficult journeys) to believe in something beyond themselves in order to override their own psychological restrictions but that still seems to me to be what is actually happening.