Synchronicity... ??

Synchronicity... an concept by Carl Jung says that things are not just coincidence but are interweaved through some sort of pattern.
Everything is connected.

The other night, I was surfing the new and came across the film Chopper and ended up reading the synopsis etc on Wiki.

Turns out, the real Chopper Read died 3 weeks ago. Probably coincidence but this has happened to me a number of times.


A massive example is when I lived in Scotland and I knew a guy called Keith... he was head chef at the club my parents frequented.

I moved back to England when I left school and started working in a factory.
After about a year had passed, one morning I was going in to work and there was this guy who stopped me and asked where **factory name omitted** was... it was Keith... and he had now started working at the same place as I was.

We worked together for about 2 years, then I changed jobs. My new job was working with Keith's flatmate. Weird.

Anyway, after another 2 years, I moved home and ended up in a new part of town working as a head barman in a pub.
I'd been there for 6 months and one morning, I went in to work and low-and-behold... Keith was in the pub. I asked what he was there for so early in the morning. Turns out he was now working in our kitchen.

About a year back, me, now living in yet another part of town right by the town centre... I saw Keith again at the town centre bus stop. It's a big place. Keith now lives just down the road from me and works at the bus stop so yet again, I see him every day.

15 years and 700 miles and we still keep running in to each other.


I have 3 other friends from Scotland who live nearby too. Only found this out a few months back. Went to school with them then suddenly we're back together again with no idea that we were all going to end up seeing each other again.


Synchronicity? Or just plain coincidence.

Anyone else got any examples similar?

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Cool story, bro. I like your anecdotes. Especially the illegal immigrants one. You owned them back then! This one may be seen as a (chain of?) coincidence(s). You see, they say "the world is a small place" and it turns out to be true.

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San Franciscan lesbian dwarves and their tomato orgies.

I've spoken about this issue before on MoFo over the years, but I couldn't say exactly where at.

I do have some examples of this in my own life, although I'm not feeling too keen on sharing them. Maybe I'll PM you about it, Rodent. A lot of them are kinda laughable (or at least it feels that way to me) because a lot of people will say, "Oh, that's just a coincidence" ... but I have experienced a lot of this in my life and I think it's real. I understand how you can think it's just nothing, but I suspect it's a real fact of life.

I spoke about this over in the "Atheism Automatically Disqualifies Free Will" thread when I learned about how there's no free will. I think that our lives are fated. I think that synchronicity is something built into the universe that is a sign of this. Years ago, I believed that synchronicity was like signs from God giving us clues and directions about our lives... but now, I'm not convinced of that. That WAS important for me to know and think and believe all of that then... NOW, though, I believe we have no free will. Since we have no free will... and since I still see synchronicities and believe that's real... I think it means our lives are fated. That what I'm writing to you right now, and what you're reading, was meant to happen and was gonna happen.

Synchronicities have never failed to stop showing up, so to me it just means... this is how the universe works. These are the patterns of the universe and of your life. THINGS HAPPEN FOR A REASON. Everything happens for a reason.

I believe that. And there doesn't even have to really be anything spiritual about it -- I just think it's a fact of life and that it's something strange and eerie about the universe. Skeptics are dismissive of it, but I'm not. Not YET anyway. It's one of the last "silly" things I still can't totally shake off, because I know that I have witnessed things that seem really bizarre. I think that there's no free will and that our lives are fated and that we're basically playing out nature's gameplan, whatever that is. Synchronicities are evidence of this, I believe. You might have to be spiritual -- or start off spiritual -- to really believe in it. Or maybe not. I'm not even going to claim that it means there's a God -- I'm just saying it's a funny thing life/existence/the universe has about it. A quirk, I guess. Coincidences are meaningful. They were meant to happen for some reason. It could be that just experiencing it changes something about you -- your mind -- that propels you to go in a direction you wouldn't have if your mind hadn't been played with by the coincidence, by the synchronicity.

I also think they can happen in dreams. When people have a weird dream and it comes true... I think that's another way synchronicity can come through. So, I encourage everyone -- pay attention to your dreams. I really don't think dreams are just unimportant mush of the mind we experience at night. I think there's a reason and a purpose for them, and this is one of those reasons.

He's right.

"A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o' everything. Give you an example, show you what I mean: suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, "plate," or "shrimp," or "plate o' shrimp" out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconsciousness." - Repo Man

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So you and Keith were meant to "be together", is that what your getting at......

I actually see a synchronicity in this thread right now.

And I'm wondering if I should watch Chopper because I own it but I've never watched it.

I was gonna post about Chopper Read dying when I read it in the paper the other week. Sad to see the passing of such a legend.

You should watch Chopper because it's great and one of my all time favourite films.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

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FML...

Was up town earlier and was looking at the Horror section in the DVD shop.

Nearly bought a film called Dark Water, even though I've got no idea if it's any good or not.
My real name is Gaelic, and "Dark Water" is the meaning behind my name. So I thought simply that this was why my eye was drawn to the film.

Just been on Facebook and my Sister has posted about a girl who died a few years back in suspicious circumstances and was found dead inside a water tank on the roof of a hotel. For some reason, I clicked the link just now and started reading the story, which is something I rarely do when I see these silly things on FB.

Turns out, Dark Water is a film that strongly resembles the story of this woman.
Here's the story... http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantr...ase-elisa-lam/

The story also talks about Synchronicity.


How.

Weird.

Is.

That?

Are you upset that you didn't get the movie? 'Cause if everything happens for a reason, it just wasn't the time to buy it.

Not really, but I'm considering going out to get it now.

Am up town again on Thursday so will have a look at the price.

Another one you might like is I Heart Huckabees if you haven't seen that one, yet. It deals with this subject, too.

I saw that a few years ago but can't remember much about it.

In fact, I consider myself an existential detective.

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Don't forget about Jeff, Who Lives At Home. That's another one.

I love that... completely disparate things linked through something you do, say or think. Like with me and Dark Water.

Awesome.

Actually, I just thought of another.

The past few Questions on MoFo were answered and they were on TV within a day or two.

The last one was the other day when someone asked about Lost And Delirious and Mark and I both answered at the same time.
That night it was on TV in Britain.

So that makes 3 or 4 now over the past few weeks that have done that.