QUOTE
The Power of Coincidence
David G. Myers
E-SKEPTIC FOR SEPTEMBER 23, 2002 (Also appeared in Skeptic magazine)
People around me have been both amused and aghast at the news that on 9-11 the New York State Lottery's evening number game popped up the numbers 9-1-1. Is this a paranormal happening? A wink from God? Is there a message here?
It's hardly the first improbable lottery event. "We print winning numbers in advance!" headlined Oregon's Columbian on July 3, 2000. State lottery officials were incredulous when the newspaper announced their 6-8-5-5 winning Pick 4 numbers for June 28 in advance. Actually, the Columbian's computers had crashed. In the scramble to re-create a news page, a copyeditor accidently included Virginia's Pick 4 numbers, which were the exact numbers that Oregon was about to draw.
We've all marveled at such coincidences in our own lives. Checking out a photocopy counter from the Hope College library desk, I confused the clerk when giving my six-digit department charge number—which just happened at that moment to be identical to the counter's six-digit number on which the last user had finished. Shortly after my daughter, Laura Myers, bought two pairs of shoes, we were astounded to discover that the two brand names on the boxes were "Laura" and "Myers."
And then there are those remarkable coincidences that, with added digging, have been embellished into really fun stories, such as the familiar Lincoln-Kennedy coincidences (both with seven letters in their last names, elected 100 years apart, assassinated on a Friday while beside their wives, one in Ford's theater, the other in a Ford Motor Co. car, and so forth). We also have enjoyed newspaper accounts of astonishing happenings, such as when twins Lorraine and Levinia Christmas, driving to deliver Christmas presents to each other near Flitcham, England, collided.
My favorite is this little known fact: In Psalm 46 of the King James Bible, published in the year that Shakespeare turned 46, the 46th word is "shake" and the 46th word from the end is "spear." (More remarkable than this coincidence is that someone should have noted this!)
What shall we make of these weird coincidences? Was James Redfield right to suppose, in The Celestine Prophecy, that we should attend closely to "strange occurrences that feel like they were meant to happen"? Is he right to suppose that "They are actually synchronistic events, and following them will start you on your path to spiritual truth"? Without wanting to rob us of our delight in these serendipities, much less of our spirituality, statisticians assure us that the coincidences tell us nothing of spiritual significance.
"In reality," says mathematician John Allen Paulos, "the most astonishingly incredible coincidence imaginable would be the complete absence of all coincidences." When Evelyn Marie Adams won the New Jersey lottery twice, newspapers reported the odds of her feat as 1 in 17 trillion-the odds that a given person buying a single ticket for two New Jersey lotteries would win both. But statisticians Stephen Samuels and George McCabe report that, given the millions of people who buy U.S. state lottery tickets, it was "practically a sure thing" that someday, somewhere, someone would hit a state jackpot twice. Consider: An event that happens to but one in a billion people in a day happens 2000 times a year. A day when nothing weird happened would actually be the weirdest day of all.
Our intuition, as I explain in Intuition: Its Powers and Perils, fails to appreciate the streaky nature of random data. Batting slumps, hot hand shooters, and stock market patterns may behave like streak-prone random data, but our pattern-seeking minds demand explanations. Yet even the random digits of pi, which form what many mathematicians believe is a true random sequence, have some odd streaks that likely include your birth date. Mine, 9-20-42, appears beginning at the 131,564th decimal place. (To find yours, visit www.angio.net/pi/piquery).
The moral: That a particular specified event or coincidence will occur is very unlikely. That some astonishing unspecified events will occur is certain. That is why remarkable coincidences are noted in hindsight, not predicted with foresight. And that is why even those of us who believe in God don't need God's special intervention, or psychic powers, to expect, yet also delight in, improbable happenings.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adapted from Intuition: Its Powers and Perils by David G. Myers, Yale University Press, 2002.
Copyright 2002 Michael Shermer, Skeptics Society, Skeptic magazine, e-Skeptic magazine (www.skeptic.com and skepticmag@aol.com). Permission to print, distribute, and post with proper citation and acknowledgement.
David G. Myers
E-SKEPTIC FOR SEPTEMBER 23, 2002 (Also appeared in Skeptic magazine)
People around me have been both amused and aghast at the news that on 9-11 the New York State Lottery's evening number game popped up the numbers 9-1-1. Is this a paranormal happening? A wink from God? Is there a message here?
It's hardly the first improbable lottery event. "We print winning numbers in advance!" headlined Oregon's Columbian on July 3, 2000. State lottery officials were incredulous when the newspaper announced their 6-8-5-5 winning Pick 4 numbers for June 28 in advance. Actually, the Columbian's computers had crashed. In the scramble to re-create a news page, a copyeditor accidently included Virginia's Pick 4 numbers, which were the exact numbers that Oregon was about to draw.
We've all marveled at such coincidences in our own lives. Checking out a photocopy counter from the Hope College library desk, I confused the clerk when giving my six-digit department charge number—which just happened at that moment to be identical to the counter's six-digit number on which the last user had finished. Shortly after my daughter, Laura Myers, bought two pairs of shoes, we were astounded to discover that the two brand names on the boxes were "Laura" and "Myers."
And then there are those remarkable coincidences that, with added digging, have been embellished into really fun stories, such as the familiar Lincoln-Kennedy coincidences (both with seven letters in their last names, elected 100 years apart, assassinated on a Friday while beside their wives, one in Ford's theater, the other in a Ford Motor Co. car, and so forth). We also have enjoyed newspaper accounts of astonishing happenings, such as when twins Lorraine and Levinia Christmas, driving to deliver Christmas presents to each other near Flitcham, England, collided.
My favorite is this little known fact: In Psalm 46 of the King James Bible, published in the year that Shakespeare turned 46, the 46th word is "shake" and the 46th word from the end is "spear." (More remarkable than this coincidence is that someone should have noted this!)
What shall we make of these weird coincidences? Was James Redfield right to suppose, in The Celestine Prophecy, that we should attend closely to "strange occurrences that feel like they were meant to happen"? Is he right to suppose that "They are actually synchronistic events, and following them will start you on your path to spiritual truth"? Without wanting to rob us of our delight in these serendipities, much less of our spirituality, statisticians assure us that the coincidences tell us nothing of spiritual significance.
"In reality," says mathematician John Allen Paulos, "the most astonishingly incredible coincidence imaginable would be the complete absence of all coincidences." When Evelyn Marie Adams won the New Jersey lottery twice, newspapers reported the odds of her feat as 1 in 17 trillion-the odds that a given person buying a single ticket for two New Jersey lotteries would win both. But statisticians Stephen Samuels and George McCabe report that, given the millions of people who buy U.S. state lottery tickets, it was "practically a sure thing" that someday, somewhere, someone would hit a state jackpot twice. Consider: An event that happens to but one in a billion people in a day happens 2000 times a year. A day when nothing weird happened would actually be the weirdest day of all.
Our intuition, as I explain in Intuition: Its Powers and Perils, fails to appreciate the streaky nature of random data. Batting slumps, hot hand shooters, and stock market patterns may behave like streak-prone random data, but our pattern-seeking minds demand explanations. Yet even the random digits of pi, which form what many mathematicians believe is a true random sequence, have some odd streaks that likely include your birth date. Mine, 9-20-42, appears beginning at the 131,564th decimal place. (To find yours, visit www.angio.net/pi/piquery).
The moral: That a particular specified event or coincidence will occur is very unlikely. That some astonishing unspecified events will occur is certain. That is why remarkable coincidences are noted in hindsight, not predicted with foresight. And that is why even those of us who believe in God don't need God's special intervention, or psychic powers, to expect, yet also delight in, improbable happenings.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adapted from Intuition: Its Powers and Perils by David G. Myers, Yale University Press, 2002.
Copyright 2002 Michael Shermer, Skeptics Society, Skeptic magazine, e-Skeptic magazine (www.skeptic.com and skepticmag@aol.com). Permission to print, distribute, and post with proper citation and acknowledgement.
QUOTE
A Remarkable Coincidence!!
· Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
· John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
· Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
· John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
· The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.
· Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
· Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.
· Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
· Both were shot in the head.
· Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
· Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln.
· Both were assassinated by Southerners.
· Both were succeeded by Southerners.
· Both successors were named Johnson.
· Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
· Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.
· John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln was born in 1839.
· Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy was born in 1939.
· Both assassins were known by their three names.
· Both names are made of fifteen letters.
· Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
· Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.
· Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.
· And last but not least,
· Before Lincoln was shot he was in Monroe, Maryland.
· Before Kennedy was shot he was in Marilyn Monroe.
· Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
· John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.
· Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
· John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.
· The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.
· Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.
· Both wives lost their children while living in the White House.
· Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.
· Both were shot in the head.
· Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.
· Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln.
· Both were assassinated by Southerners.
· Both were succeeded by Southerners.
· Both successors were named Johnson.
· Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
· Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.
· John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln was born in 1839.
· Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy was born in 1939.
· Both assassins were known by their three names.
· Both names are made of fifteen letters.
· Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse.
· Oswald ran from a warehouse and was caught in a theater.
· Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.
· And last but not least,
· Before Lincoln was shot he was in Monroe, Maryland.
· Before Kennedy was shot he was in Marilyn Monroe.
QUOTE
Excerpts from "As Chance would Have it - Study in Coincidences" - by Hans C. Moolenburgh - The C.W. Daniel Company Ltd.
Coincidences are always suprising, revealing relationships between events, human beings, and natural phenomena that we could never have found out by ourselves.
Coincidences do not seem to differentiate between the living and the non-living, connecting people as easily with each other as with things, or even with forces of nature like lightning
Coincidences often speak in symbols and appear in clusters.
Coincidences are fun-loving animal friendly, and seem to be at home with numbers and names
Coincidences crowd in as soon as people become creative
Coincidences love romance
Coincidence can definitely be prophetic
Coincidences like to help in minor, everyday affairs.
Coincidences are usually beneficial: but the phenomenon in itself is not tame and when one treats it lightly, it can become quite alarming
Coincidences try to evade regimentation (astrology, Tarot) and become elusive when one tries to force them to obey. The phenomenon can become an obsession with some people
This is quite a bewildering list. It looks as if we have returned to the beginning and found the mystery. Have we found life itself?
Why are we no closer to answering our question: "What is coincidence?"
From time to time people ask me during a consultation, "Why is it that men or women say that the Lord has told them something? I never hear His voice."
Of course there are people who hear God's voice and act upon it (and they are wise to do so) but as far as I can evaluate the situation, they belong to the small minority. Most people indeed hear nothing and many people who say that they hear something are caught in an illusion bred by their own desires.
The "small, still voice"; Elijah heard so clearly on Horeb (I Kings 19:12) is silent. Perhaps in our 20th century there is too much noise to hear it.
For those people who long for the small still voice and yet do not hear anything, the voice of coincidence often speaks loud and clear.
By observing coincidence conscientiously they become aware of the fact of life, though seeming chaotic at first sight, is not such a haphazard business after all. Through the chaos or drabness or silence one can catch glimpses of beautiful structures. At one point it is only vague, dream-like, at another it is so intense that it translates itself into a feeling of "I am being cared for."
One can often rely on coincidence.
In my profession one patient gives me a piece of information which can be applied directly to the next one. The coincidence is a message in disguise.
A chance meeting, as we have seen, can trigger a whole series of events. This makes every moment precious because at all times, especially at unexpected times, adventure is just around the corner.
Sometimes one ponders a problem, takes rather absent-mindedly a book from the bookcase, opens it and there on the page lying open is the solution to the problem.
I have also observed that when I clearly formulate a question in my morning prayer, I can so to speak, wait for a coincidence to give me the right answer.
I learned from that wonderful old evangelist, Corrie ten Boom, an important lesson: "If you need ten pounds, four shillings and sixpence, do not ask for money or for eleven pounds, but ask for the exact amount you need."
I have already said that forcing coincidence to appear in any other way, such as astrology, Tarot or I Ching, is in my view not relevant any more. It is as if we had thrown out watches away and reverted to sundials.
I am not downgrading the historical value of these methods but I encourage people not to use them, just to pray in a trusting manner. Magic can be fun but we should leave it to the great entertainers like Paul Daniels. Nowadays we have a direct approach to God. We had better use that instead of trying the indirect way.
Let us try and answer that difficult question: "What is coincidence?"
It now becomes clear that the question cannot be answered because it is wrong.
What I mean is this:-
Imagine that someone asks "Why don't elephants' sings have feathers?"
The question itself cannot be answered because the question itself is wrong.
So is the question: "What is coincidence?" It can be no more answered than one about the feathers on elephant's wings. The question should have been:
"WHO IS COINCIDENCE?"
The the answer stares you in the face straightaway. Coincidence is one of the subtle and modest ways in which God talks to His children. He wishes for our love, not our fear, and by means of coincidence. He gives us little hints of His presence.
Coincidence is God's Voice.
What about bad coincidences happening? Are they His voice too? On the whole I have found that coincidences are usually benevolent.
Yet sometimes, one seems to stand in the wrong place. A sliding glass door hits your face, or you jump from your bicycle onto an uneven piece of road and sprain your ankle, or - far worse - you say the wrong word in the wrong company.
If the usual benevolent coincidences are the hints God drops to those who are beginning to wonder about Him, the occasional bad coincidences need not be negative in their effects for those who know Him slightly better. Afterwards they can often see that it is a blessing in disguise, confirming what Paul said to the Romans:
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that Love God" (Romans 8:28)
The accident may slow you down at the right moment; saying the wrong thing can teach you the power hidden in words. But I do not want to dwell on the occasional slightly darker side of coincidence. ......
...there is a very old piece of wisdom which says that in our life we should proceed from the initial question, "What is this?" (posed by all children when they begin to talk) to. "Who is this?"
Our whole path of life should be a walk from What to Who. A voyage from an encounter with the world around us towards a meeting with Him who created the world.
Coincidences can be signposts along that road.
.....As a conclusion to all these adventures let us end with a poem. It can be considered as an "Ode to coincidence". It was the favourite poem of Corrie ten Boom.
"My life is but a weaving, between my God and me.
I do not choose the colours, He worketh steadily.
Offtimes he weaves sorrow, and I in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.
Not till the loom is silent and shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful in the skilful weaver's hand
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned."
God bless you.
Above abridged excerpts from "As Chance would Have it - Study in Coincidences" - by Hans C. Moolenburgh - The C.W. Daniel Company Ltd.
Coincidences are always suprising, revealing relationships between events, human beings, and natural phenomena that we could never have found out by ourselves.
Coincidences do not seem to differentiate between the living and the non-living, connecting people as easily with each other as with things, or even with forces of nature like lightning
Coincidences often speak in symbols and appear in clusters.
Coincidences are fun-loving animal friendly, and seem to be at home with numbers and names
Coincidences crowd in as soon as people become creative
Coincidences love romance
Coincidence can definitely be prophetic
Coincidences like to help in minor, everyday affairs.
Coincidences are usually beneficial: but the phenomenon in itself is not tame and when one treats it lightly, it can become quite alarming
Coincidences try to evade regimentation (astrology, Tarot) and become elusive when one tries to force them to obey. The phenomenon can become an obsession with some people
This is quite a bewildering list. It looks as if we have returned to the beginning and found the mystery. Have we found life itself?
Why are we no closer to answering our question: "What is coincidence?"
From time to time people ask me during a consultation, "Why is it that men or women say that the Lord has told them something? I never hear His voice."
Of course there are people who hear God's voice and act upon it (and they are wise to do so) but as far as I can evaluate the situation, they belong to the small minority. Most people indeed hear nothing and many people who say that they hear something are caught in an illusion bred by their own desires.
The "small, still voice"; Elijah heard so clearly on Horeb (I Kings 19:12) is silent. Perhaps in our 20th century there is too much noise to hear it.
For those people who long for the small still voice and yet do not hear anything, the voice of coincidence often speaks loud and clear.
By observing coincidence conscientiously they become aware of the fact of life, though seeming chaotic at first sight, is not such a haphazard business after all. Through the chaos or drabness or silence one can catch glimpses of beautiful structures. At one point it is only vague, dream-like, at another it is so intense that it translates itself into a feeling of "I am being cared for."
One can often rely on coincidence.
In my profession one patient gives me a piece of information which can be applied directly to the next one. The coincidence is a message in disguise.
A chance meeting, as we have seen, can trigger a whole series of events. This makes every moment precious because at all times, especially at unexpected times, adventure is just around the corner.
Sometimes one ponders a problem, takes rather absent-mindedly a book from the bookcase, opens it and there on the page lying open is the solution to the problem.
I have also observed that when I clearly formulate a question in my morning prayer, I can so to speak, wait for a coincidence to give me the right answer.
I learned from that wonderful old evangelist, Corrie ten Boom, an important lesson: "If you need ten pounds, four shillings and sixpence, do not ask for money or for eleven pounds, but ask for the exact amount you need."
I have already said that forcing coincidence to appear in any other way, such as astrology, Tarot or I Ching, is in my view not relevant any more. It is as if we had thrown out watches away and reverted to sundials.
I am not downgrading the historical value of these methods but I encourage people not to use them, just to pray in a trusting manner. Magic can be fun but we should leave it to the great entertainers like Paul Daniels. Nowadays we have a direct approach to God. We had better use that instead of trying the indirect way.
Let us try and answer that difficult question: "What is coincidence?"
It now becomes clear that the question cannot be answered because it is wrong.
What I mean is this:-
Imagine that someone asks "Why don't elephants' sings have feathers?"
The question itself cannot be answered because the question itself is wrong.
So is the question: "What is coincidence?" It can be no more answered than one about the feathers on elephant's wings. The question should have been:
"WHO IS COINCIDENCE?"
The the answer stares you in the face straightaway. Coincidence is one of the subtle and modest ways in which God talks to His children. He wishes for our love, not our fear, and by means of coincidence. He gives us little hints of His presence.
Coincidence is God's Voice.
What about bad coincidences happening? Are they His voice too? On the whole I have found that coincidences are usually benevolent.
Yet sometimes, one seems to stand in the wrong place. A sliding glass door hits your face, or you jump from your bicycle onto an uneven piece of road and sprain your ankle, or - far worse - you say the wrong word in the wrong company.
If the usual benevolent coincidences are the hints God drops to those who are beginning to wonder about Him, the occasional bad coincidences need not be negative in their effects for those who know Him slightly better. Afterwards they can often see that it is a blessing in disguise, confirming what Paul said to the Romans:
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that Love God" (Romans 8:28)
The accident may slow you down at the right moment; saying the wrong thing can teach you the power hidden in words. But I do not want to dwell on the occasional slightly darker side of coincidence. ......
...there is a very old piece of wisdom which says that in our life we should proceed from the initial question, "What is this?" (posed by all children when they begin to talk) to. "Who is this?"
Our whole path of life should be a walk from What to Who. A voyage from an encounter with the world around us towards a meeting with Him who created the world.
Coincidences can be signposts along that road.
.....As a conclusion to all these adventures let us end with a poem. It can be considered as an "Ode to coincidence". It was the favourite poem of Corrie ten Boom.
"My life is but a weaving, between my God and me.
I do not choose the colours, He worketh steadily.
Offtimes he weaves sorrow, and I in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.
Not till the loom is silent and shuttles cease to fly
Will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful in the skilful weaver's hand
As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned."
God bless you.
Above abridged excerpts from "As Chance would Have it - Study in Coincidences" - by Hans C. Moolenburgh - The C.W. Daniel Company Ltd.
