Strange Coincidences

Probably most of us have experienced coincidences that make us stop and say, "How did that happen?" These coincidences usually give us an eerie feeling and make us think that something mysterious is occurring. Well, in one sense this is true – something mysterious is occurring.

A typical example of a strange coincidence is thinking about an old friend for a few days and then receiving an unexpected letter, email or phone call from that friend. Another typical strange coincidence is dreaming about an object, situation or person and in some way, within a day or two, the dream image appears in your life. Have you ever had a conversation with a friend about a mutual friend and the next day bump into your mutual friend? When that happens, our response is to say to the person, "I was just talking about you!"

These unexplainable coincidences seem to defy everyday causal experiences, coming to us from "out of the blue," or "from the unknown." Most people register the strangeness of the experiences, talk a bit about it and then let it go. After all, what can a person do with these coincidences?

Psychology has a term for these strange coincidences, which is synchronicity. (I always wondered if the song by the musical group the Police, entitled "Synchronicity," was about these strange coincidences.) From a psychological perspective, synchronicities are part of the personal or collective myths that were discussed in the last few articles.

Recall, that personal myths express the meanings of our lives, and by understanding our myths, we move through our lives with more meaning and direction. Just as dreams and dream symbols can help us understand our myths, serving as sign posts that point us in the direction of our meanings, synchronicities serve as sign posts!

So, synchronicity, or a strange coincidence, provides meaning that is part of a personal myth. If we are not aware of our myths, and we're living outside of our myths, synchronicities can help us discover our misdirection. Our task, then, is to discover our synchronistic meanings.

For the sake of providing a simple example, let's assume you experience one of the typical synchronicities – thinking about a friend and receiving an email or phone call. The meaning that might come to you is that many years ago, your friend decided to start a business. This could mean that changing jobs could be more in-line with your personal myth.

Finding the meaning is never this simple but the example helps us to see the point. So, the next time you experience a strange coincidence, try to find the meaning rather than just letting it go.