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THIS IS GETTING TOO WEIRD: the nearly-impossible coincidences are rolling in en masse now.

6/10/2016

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There is just no way this can be what it seems to be. Yet when it happens over and over, and now back-to-back, you have to wonder what's going on.

This happened a couple days ago: It was a down day for me. I hadn't had a good sleep, and then some negative incidents happened. For a while, I tried to dig myself out of it. Finally, Linda noticed, asked me about it, and plied me with positive things. That helped, but not enough, so I finally phoned my sister in Calgary.

Well, to get across the extent of weirdness here, you need to know that she and I had not been communicating for a few years until one day some months ago I finally got myself to sit down and write her a letter. Just as I got the blank page up on my computer, the phone rang. It was her. She had had exactly the same feeling and idea at exactly the same time, after that years-long interval.

Well, two days ago it happened again. With the addition that this time she expected it. She had just written me an email, and, as she paused before putting in the salutation, for some reason she felt I would call her right then, during that pause. And I did! She couldn't have known I had the phone in my hand. And I couldn't have known she was about to punch send.

Okay, that's coincidence #1. I was calling about my emotional pain. After we got calmed down from our excitement about that coincidence (which also seemed like telepathy), and I told her why I was calling, she sent me the email.

Here it is:
"Hi Stan, Here is a little coincidence. You wrote a blog about giving thanks for help unknown, (I had met Roy MacDonald at a bus stop where he recited to me his now-favourite "poem") a few days ago, and today I read the same thing! A friend brought me a book called “Healing Trauma”, by Peter Levine. Today, I read in the book, “I’d like to share with you an affirmation from the Native American tradition: ‘I give thanks for help unknown, already on its way.’ Whenever you begin to feel lost or frightened, this affirmation can have a beneficial effect.”
             " Levine went to Berkley, and taught at the Hopi Guidance Center and at trauma centres."

That isn't the whole of my sister's story. Amazed by it all, she tried to put it together in words in an email to me: "And look at this. That quote was given to you by Roy MacDonald, out of the blue, on the sidewalk, I think you said. Then days later, when things were bad, the same quote was given to you in a book lent, just at that time, to your sister. (By a friend who drove all the way out here to bring me the book, because she “felt” I should have it, though we haven’t seen each other in person for years.)"

Okay, so far we have me phoning her exactly when she thought I would. Then the content of her email had to do with the healing of trauma, which was what I was hoping to get from her when I called, and her quote was exactly the same quote that Roy had just told me on the street, but which I had not applied myself to at the time. (I posted it here on my Facebook page anyway--just scroll down and you'll see it.) But now that it had been given to me a second time, I really got into it and all its implications. So the second time was necessary. And for my sister to read the quote right when she did, so that she would write the email right then, her friend had to "feel" she should give the book to my sister exactly the right number of days beforehand. And drive a long way to get it to her, something she hadn't done for years.

And here's another thing about it, not quite as shocking a coincidence, but which maybe falls in the same general area of weirdness. My sister's email told me that the saying was Native American. And the previous month I had featured indigenous poetry and history at London Open Mic. I had been looking forward to that event all season, and because of it, and since then, I've been getting more into indigenous culture and wisdom. And right now I'm in the process of planning to do a lengthy interview about it with Charmaine E. Elijah, one of the indigenous poets.

And one more thing. Earlier in my life, I had gone on some very long, very risky adventures, during which the most astonishing seemingly-impossible coincidences saved my life so often that I began to lose my fear when I found myself in extremely dangerous situations. I began to assume that something would happen at the last minute to rescue me. And it always did.

Anyway, another interesting thing about all this is that now that so many formerly-separate events in my life and memories and ideas seem to be coalescing around that major coincidence of me phoning just when my sister thought I would, then others are also entering the circle, attached to them, and so on. The whole swirling mass contains so much now that there is no point in trying to mention it all.

And why bother? Coincidences are only coincidences. To be more than that, everyone's unconscious mind would have to be connected with everyone else's. Which just isn't possible in the real world (although it's fun to fantasise about). And those unconscious minds would have to be able to see into the future, another impossibility since the future hasn't happened. And based on their view into the future they would all have to decide to force innumerable things to happen just so some extremely insignificant coming together would amaze two tiny little critters amongst billions.
I don't think so. But tossed all together like this, it does seem pretty weird. At least to the people it happened to.

Like: 5 Jenny Getsinger, Yvonne Maggs and 3 others
Comments

Paulette C Turcotte Jung would say that are highly significant and should be held as sacred messages. What is taking place is highly relevant and should be taken very seriously in one's journey. If that had been happening to me, I would have called my favourite Jungian analyst for a session... just to make sure I wasn't missing any cues..... my opinion for what it's worth... xx
Like · Reply · 1 · 7 June at 20:18

Stan Burfield Thanks, Paulette. My sister and I are working on it. Since it makes no sense starting at the point of view where none of this can mean anything, my normal point of view, I'm working back towards my point of view from the other end, just assuming things, like telepathy, like everyone's unconscious mind is in constant contact with everyone else's, like the unconscious mind can hold an infinite amount of data, and so on. And see where I end up.
Like · Reply · 7 June at 20:23
​
Stan Burfield One assumption I pretty much have to make for any of these other assumptions to work in terms of coincidences is a very difficult one to make, even compared to those three. It is that those unconscious minds can see into the future. No matter what physicists say, the future does not exist.
Like · Reply · 7 June at 20:26
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Margary Robinson Coincidenses do make us wonder if someone or something does have controls that we are not aware of and how they are arranged in the atoms that fly around us. It's true it's weird!l
Unlike · Reply · 1 · 8 June at 23:37
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What is going on with these incredible coincidences I keep having?

5/28/2016

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Recently I attended an evening event downtown. Linda wasn't interested, so I went alone. I took the bus down as it was such a hot day, but planned to walk home in the cool of the evening, and was looking forward to that pleasant hour.


At the event, I met some of my young poetry friends. Which was nice, but before it was over, they wandered off together, leaving me behind, which reminded me of my own youth back in those hippie years and my similar reactions then to people of my parents' generation. Anyway, afterwards I wandered around downtown alone, a bit lonely in that beautiful evening air, and more so by the minute. Me there and Linda at home. I guess I did a loop of about eight blocks, finally arriving back where I had started, more or less, where the buses stop. So then I had to decide whether I to walk or not. I thought what a waste of a heavenly walk if I were emotionally down the whole way. Yet, what a waste too to take the bus. In the end, I decided to get home with Linda as soon as possible. My mood would change quickly.

My bus came in about ten minutes and I got on. It was surprisingly full. The long front benches were filled. I glanced back and could see the occasional single empty aisle seat. The first one had the guy's bag in it. What a selfish guy, I thought. The next one was beside a very wide person, so I climbed the steps up into the back. There were two isle seats, the first one wouldn't work and then I came to the last space, in one of the last rows. The woman had her purse on her lap. As I was beginning to sit down, I looked up at her face. It was Charmaine E. Elijah! She's the indigenous poet who acted as the organiser of our last open mic, which featured indigenous poetry and history. As we talked, the unlikelihood of us sitting there together began to sink in. The chances against it are astronomical! There had to be some person there. A random person. But somebody I know? And, most especially, Charmaine?

Charmaine is one of my favourite people. She is truly one of the wisest people I've ever met, someone who has lived a life of wisdom; she hasn't just thought it. Her wisdom is all the more interesting because some of it originated from her indigenous background, some from contemporary society, and some simply from her own struggle with life. An even more odd thing about running into her like this was that that very day I had thought I should contact her again soon. We're planning a lengthy interview with her, a live one, taped. At the open mic, I had asked her if she would be interested and she had said she could do it. But because of some other stressful things that happened at the open mic, I had been wondering if she might have changed her mind. So, on the bus, amongst a lot of other things we talked about, which cheered me up enormously, I asked her about the interview, and she said she was still interested in doing it. (We're doing an extended interview with the indigenous historian David D. Plain first, and in the process learning, hopefully, something about indigenous history and culture, which should be helpful in the interview with Charmaine.)

Anyway, I told Linda about this chance meeting when I got home, also my sister by phone, and they were both as astonished as I was. It was as if the whole evening had been set up just so I would end up taking that bus and have to sit in that seat! But of course, that's nuts. I'm not the centre of the universe. Life doesn't revolve around me. And anyway things just don't happen that way. Everything has its immediate cause and effect. Period.

But still, this kind of thing happens so often in my life that I've practically come to expect it. For instance, back in my youth when I was trying to backpack across Canada I got so used to being rescued from situations that would otherwise have killed me or at least have totally derailed my trip, rescued by very last-minute occurrences, out-of-the-blue situations, that I actually began to lose my fear. I began to assume that something would come up in the final seconds. And yes it always did. And these things have happened all my life ever since. (My cynical but realistic self says that the only people who exult in all the rescuing coincidences in their lives are the few survivors, those who happened to have the dice falling their way so far. So far. The other risk takers were all eliminated along the way. They're not talking.)

Anyway, for me, sitting with Charmaine on the bus was my latest example. If we hadn't met there, I don't think I would have died, or even have been derailed. But it was Charmaine! Who knows what that could mean for the future?

Like
Comments

Paula Dawn Lietz believe it - it was indeed to happen 
everything about it - set you there 
wonderful

Unlike · Reply · 2 · 15 mins

Donna Allard we forget one IMP rule of the universe... let life happen, we must stop controling it or beautiful moments will occur less or maybe not at all.. wink emoticon
Unlike · Reply · 1 · 10 mins

Stan Burfield
 That's what I've found for sure. Well, more a combination. Make things happen, but at the same time be open to what IS happening.

Meredith Moeckel
 Really a lovely story Stan? Wasn't it you who recently wrote on the topic of synchronicity? I have had similar things happen to me quite often, and have taken to simply smiling to myself..... Anyways, I'm sharing a couple of quotes regarding synchronicity smile emoticon (well it won't allow me to share two at once, so I'll attach one after this!)
Like · Reply · 41 mins

Meredith Moeckel
Like · Reply · 1 · 41 mins

Scott Alderson Calvin's theory of Predestination. Whatever, it's all good as they say.
Unlike · Reply · 1 · 35 mins

Stan Burfield It's very difficult for me to believe this, and yet, how to explain it. Yes, the previous one of these that I wrote about here was about April 20th, a month ago.
Like · Reply · 35 mins

Donald Brackett A nice story. A basic example of Jung's theory of Synchronicity. Not hard to believe at all really, upon investigation.
Like · Reply · 28 mins

Stan Burfield Well, I have pretty much of a scientific view of reality. Jung's ideas were more religious than scientific. Science just doesn't allow for this kind of thing. So I have to try to explain it all in terms of simple cause and effect in a complex world. The problem is that when it happens too often it definitely starts to become a bit weird.
Like · Reply · 18 mins

Stan Burfield And anyway I know there are things happening that science doesn't explain. Like telepathy. However, seeing something like the world organised (by who or what?) so that Charmaine and I would be sitting together is a whole different level of impossibility to what telepathy requires.
Like · Reply · Just now

Stan Burfield
 Here's what I believe: We have to look beyond our beliefs and favoured ideas and opinions to find out how the world works. If we don't, we don't see anything except our feelings. And there's only one method humanity has ever devised for seeing beyond our feelings into objective reality. That's science. Science doesn't know everything yet. But what it does know, and has thoroughly tested, is true. Anything we believe that contradicts those findings simply isn't true.
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