#meaningful coincidence

[thebardostate]

The Philosophy of Coincidence

When coincidences happen to others, we tend to shrug them off; but when they happen to us, that's a different story. Several forms of coincidence have been identified.

Serendipity (Horace Walpole) is a form of coincidence that is based on an active search for something (out of need or curiosity), a chance occurrence, an informed observation, and a valued outcome. So serendipity isn't finding something without looking for it: you were searching for something, during which you found something else by happy accident. Serendipity is not passive, it occurs while taking action.  

Seriality (Paul Kammerer) is a recurring pattern of similar or identical events or things in space or time, such as the number 6 in the picture below. It was the basis for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Cause and Effect."

Synchronicity (C.G. Jung) is a meaningful coincidence in that it furthers self-realization, personal and spiritual growth, and/or a deeper experience of human connectedness. Statistics doesn't know what to do with personal meaning, so it just ignores it; but a freakishly improbable coincidence paired with a psychologically important event is what makes a synchronicity. Its psychic import can't be understood solely as a matter of statistics without losing information due to reductionism. When a synchronicity strikes, the feeling is that the cosmos is sending you an unmistakable message with the psychic force of a thunderbolt.

Simulpathity (Bernard Beitman) occurs when one person spontaneously and simultaneously experiences the distress of another without conscious awareness of their distress and usually from some distance away. The phenomena is most pronounced between twins, but it is also reported between other closely bonded persons. A review of 160 cases found about 33% involved a parent or child, 28% friends and acquaintances, 14% husband and wife, and 15% siblings. As an example of the phenomena, the inventor of the EEG, Hans Berger, was motivated to study electrical brain waves in part because of a simulpathity experience he shared with his sister. Berger was almost run over by a horse pulling a cannon, and when he got home, he received a concerned telegram from his father sent at the request of his sister (who lived miles away), inquiring about Berger's health. His family had never previously sent him a telegram. "It was a case of spontaneous telepathy in which at a time of mortal danger, and as I contemplated certain death, I transmitted my thoughts, while my sister, who was particularly close to me, acted as the receiver" (J. Berger, 1940, p. 6).

Coincidences like these are another line of empirical evidence that materialism cannot easily account for. I once experienced a synchronicity event in which I asked the cosmos to send me a sign to confirm whether a major epiphany that I had just experienced was real. I then sat down to play a game of Risk on my computer, and won 26 battles in a row. I didn't even lose any armies until the very end, when I freaked out and experienced a moment of disbelief and self-doubt that this was actually happening, at which point I lost two armies - but I still won every single attack in the game. I find it especially interesting that the moment of self-doubt appears to have weakened the phenomenon I was observing. There were no witnesses, but no matter - the cosmos sent me an unmistakable message.

[conscious-pisces]

Genuine appreciation/contentment can lead to many synchronicities.

Just give thanks.

For all that already is.

Right here. Right now.

“Synchronicity is an ever present reality for those who have eyes to see.” —Carl G. Jung

[thebardostate]

@aturinfortheworse As the linked article from the Smithsonian Magazine made clear, Anaxagoras was exiled for political reasons due to his association with Pericles, not because of his philosophical beliefs. That was just the pretext that his opponents gave (ostracism/forced exile being commonly practiced in Ancient Athens.)

@raginrayguns We can have a scientific explanation of what causes (e.g.) a total eclipse, but in all such cases it's ambiguous whether the evidence supports theism or atheism. A total eclipse involves several remarkable coincidences: the relative size and distance of the Earth, Sun and Moon; the unusual characteristics of the Earth-Moon binary system; and the fact that, in the long history of the Earth-Moon system, the window when totality is visible at the Earth's surface coincidentally overlaps with the rise of human civilization.

C.G. Jung defined synchronicity as a coincidence paired with deep psychological meaning. It's that hair-standing-on-end feeling you get that a self-aware cosmos is winking at you. The necessary size/distance ratio is just a matter of ordinary probability and statistics; totality has been observed in the Jovian system, for instance. But a synchronicity is more than just coincidence. It a meaningful coincidence - one that reinforces a psychological message. Statistics can't address meaning, so it just ignores it; this reductionist stance loses critical data and biases our conclusions. To truly understand synchronicity requires a rough sense of the odds that a total eclipse can happen at all as well as the psychological context that only witnessing an eclipse can provide.

That's why theism isn't so easily dismissed - in the ancient world, or the present day. It is entirely possible that the cosmos is self-aware and is using synchronicities to communicate with us. As Heisenberg said -

Being an atheist in the ancient world must have been so funny because it's not like you have any alternative explanation for why the sun rises or sea storms or why there are phases of the moon. You're just kind of like, "fuck those guys." Professional haters since before they made copper. And I think that's pretty great.

[slayerdurge]

so like... the Qun being reveled to be pro-trans in DAI makes zero sense... considering both sten & the arishok are shown to believe strongly in gender roles... and that sten even goes as far as to say that a person can never be anything other than what they're born and that a fisherman who tries to become a merchant will never be a real merchant and will only ever be a fisherman pretending to be a merchant... like... ?????

I mean i get wanting iron bull to be pro-trans himself but wouldn't it make way more sense for that to be something he actually dislikes about the Qun... and then it would actually create tension in his storyline between his own viewpoints & agency and the messages he's learned from the qun and partially actually believes and has partially been forced to believe through literal indoctrination and abuse... and therefore whether he becomes tal-vashoth or not could actually be something that matters instead of just a meaningless pseudo-choice...

[conscious-pisces]

“Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.”

—Albert Einstein

[thebardostate]

more than a wink sometimes

[finelythreadedsky]

oh my god. all those inaccurate jokes about archaeologists and ancient historians chalking anything they don't understand down to "ritual purposes"? that's literally what herodotus does.

[confinesofmy]

has negative feelings about someone's actions towards me > does not attempt to communicate these feelings > realises that's infantile and maladaptive > attempts to communicate negative feelings to person in question with the expressed purpose of maintaining the relationship > they overreact and say they didn't do anything wrong and i took things the wrong way and i need to adjust my attitude and they indicate they will never change how they interact with me because they're right and i'm wrong > i now understand why my first instinct was to smile and nod

[bredforloyalty]

totally slipped my mind that what she hides in her sleeve is a box cutter

[thebardostate]

Irks me when paranormal settings portray demons as irrational for hating God as if he didn’t unleash plagues, floods, and knocked up a married woman. God: I will make mortals desire food but sometimes the food will hurt them Angel, seconds from rebellion: what the fuck is wrong with you

[harrywelsh]

bringing home a little kitten from a guy in my calculus 1 class tomorrow evening...i didn't really realize it till now but tomorrow will be 3 years to the day since my cat died

[quercussp]

so here's my question to you:

in this new era of dapg what are we going to freak out about and overanalyze?

we need a new thing

[journey-to-the-attic]

Happy to hear you liked it :0))! More thoughts aha

Ik is fully aware there's something up with these animals which is why she doesn't immediately call up like the RSPCA or something but she still isn't expecting some of this. She swears she sees the snake watching the TV so she puts it on for him while she goes to school, and when she gets back Levi's managed to change the channel and is now watching an old Pokemon rerun.

Ik listening to some Mozart and then the peacock comes in and sits down next to her. He is very purposefully not looking at her but she can tell hes enjoying the music. He lets her give him pats after this.

Asmo will sulk for hours on end if either Ik or Zhao doesn't take some time to brush him every day.

Cat Satan seems pissed off a lot of the time but he's always very sweet to Ik and her dad, it's mainly his brothers that he keeps hissing at. He makes friends with Hyde and sits with Ik whenever she's reading. He starts butting her with his head so that she'll read to him. Eventually he figures out how to hold books open himself.

Ik's dad is so confused. Belphie likes him because they're both very tired all the time so he can nap in his lap without being disturbed by fidgeting like Ik likes to do.

Also imagine Lucifer getting a crush on Zhao and whenever he sees him he involuntarily starts displaying his tail lol

aw the idea that satan is the sweet one kinda hits :'( he's a lovely boy but his wrath and repressed family issues just isolated him so he's more open with those who aren't his brothers.... ik reads her textbooks to him because he's eager to learn about everything and he purrs to cheer her up when she's sad

zhao comes home from work and collapses on the couch and belphie sees him and is immediately like "it's free real estate" and is napping on him within five MINUTES (also the zhaolu thing is really cutee)

ik lets snake levi surf around on her phone attempting to play temple run. it doesn't really work but he appreciates the thought. not every day you meet a friend who's willing to buy you frozen mice to eat!

[alice-chan-chan]

"I'm left behind…always. I wanted you to live longer than we did. That was my wish. Goodbye".

[mistfallengw2]

I have a love-hate relationship with the on-the-nose coincidences with my GW2 OCs.

Main and worst one is that Aurelia and Aurene share the first part of their names, but it was never intentional. I created Aurelia after a couple of months of playing and she was practically a joke character (meanest biggest snarliest fem charr I could make), and back then I was far back in the story so I had no concept of Aurene (I started playing right before A Crack In The Ice, and somehow I avoided spoilers until I got to that part myself). I picked her name because of a street somewhat important in my childhood memories, one that happens to be loud and scary at times, which fit enough for me to pick it. She also used to be Goredragon, because duh, she's the pact commander and her job is to slay dragons (now she actually changed the cringy name way before any of that happened, even before ending up in the Mists)! And then Aurelia, who was commander in her own AU, started getting more and more serious backstory just as the whole "champion of Aurene" thing started to matter, and I went on with it even if it was on the nose af.

Runner up position for the worst one is that Aurelia's warband used to be called Dragon (later after a certain event they changed their name to Wing), while Adamas's warband was Crystal. His warband wasn't supposed to be Crystal initially since that was his own part of the name (his name is derived from "diamond" and that was the nickname given by a friend), but his in-game name was hitting the characters limit and Crystalsoul was the nicest option I had, so I switched them up. I have long discarded the old backstory for them picking that name once other characters came into the picture, and I'm really happy with the new and improved version.

And then, when they were both already "protagonists" of my AU (things were different and simpler back then, but still had a lot of lore written down), the story started throwing around "crystal dragon" a whole lot. You can imagine my face when it dawned on me ò_ò

[conscious-pisces]

“If life is a checker game, someone else is moving the pieces. It isn't us. Don't be surprised by amazing coincidences. There are no accidents. Consider, as I learned to do, the incredible interconnectedness of all of life.”

—Wayne Dyer