Originally posted by zorn:
Unusual things do happen to me, usually I will just think "hey, that's a neat coincidence"... it doesn't happen that often. I mean like I said, there's a TON of strange things that can happen; and it's been shown that people's memory isn't all that good -- eg they will consistently overestimate the proportion of unusual events, and the number of events that correspond to a belief of theirs.
So all those things that happen are unlikely, sure, but think of all the reasonably possible weird coincidence that COULD happen to you... there are a TON! I bet that if you pick any objective criteria for some sort of coincidence now, like picking up a phone with someone else there -- and work out how often it's likely to happen, you'll find that in the future it won't happen much more than that. You only think there are too many weird coincidences because there are so many weird things that can happen!
I mean, think about the phone call example I gave above... would you really expect it to happen that often? I wouldn't without working it out. Guess the whole point of this is that you should EXPECT a lot of weird coincidences to occur... they don't have to mean anything.
Probably I do just notice this stuff less than you guys.... there seems to be a lot of variance in between people in this "making connections" with events in the world and yourself. Have you ever met anyone with / read anything about paranoid schizophrenia? One of the hallmarks of this disease is making WAY too many connections... these people will think everything in the world relates to them: that words in TV shows are coded messages they need to receive... or that the license plate in front of them having three sixes in it means God is telling them the world is about to end... you get the idea. Delusions of grandeur, etc. We can see that they're disturbed, and obviously what's on TV has absolutely nothing to do with their ideas, but it's still just an extension of putting meaning in coincidences.
See what I mean? We probably all have a certain level of making connections, eg deciding that some event in the external world has something to do with us. In extreme cases, it becomes schizophrenia; in normal people, it makes some more likely to notice weird things and find meaning in daily events than others.
Hi =) Are you implying that Goavibe is skitzophrenic? Perhaps you simply are not taking the time to look more deeply into his post. A couple years ago I too may have found what Goavibe said to all be nothing but reality thrown out of of proportion, but I now realize that everything he is saying is very real. So real, that it tends to scare people off, particulary close minded people. Over time I've learned to open my mind, & look more deeply into things before jumping to conclusions such as you implying (or at least I think you were implying) that Goavibe might be skitzophrenic. If he was simply crazy, than there wouldn't be so many replies from other people whom feel just as he does, & have had the same experiences. And I can definitely say that I am one of those people. I could of simply jumped to the conclusion that you are just a shallow guy, but instead I chose to question your post...and read up on what you might have to say.