My life is one big coincidence. I absolutely know what you are talking about, Derek, because this type of thing happens to me all the time. Once I was taking a walk and thinking about 3 people I hadn't seen in a long time. Within minutes, I saw two of them. I love my life!!
Barb

Things have the meaning we attach to them. I love how people interpret coincidences in different ways!

So glad you're posting more again! :D

Glad you're back to writing Derek! If you're in Budapest please think about Monika, I'd love to run into you - by 'coincidence' ;)

"tendrel" is a Tibetan word that is sometimes translated as "auspicious coincidence." They often mark beginnings or have ways of clarifying intentions

"What are the odds the gods would put us all in one spot"
- Hamilton (My Shot)

I was wandering in a park in Israel with a work colleague (we were visiting from the UK) and I was telling her that I had family in the country, and one of the my favourites was called David. And then I looked up and he was 20 feet away from me. He came up and we gave each other a hug.

With coincidences like that, who needs social media? lol AWESOME!!!

This is just toooo cool! I have no fancy words to say - just that this is so uplifting to read and just sooo cool. Thank you for sharing Derek. Legend!!!

If considering the odds amazes people, how about uniqueness? Every person is unique, even identical twins. The human mind must not be wired for uniqueness, because we seem to insist on classifying people, splitting them into types, grading them on a curve, or placing them on a color wheel.

Yeah, sure -- but have you ever calculated the odds of these things NOT happening?

And the odds of these things happening, but you don't notice?

ps maybe if I think about bumping into Thom Yorke or Derek Sivers it will happen one day :)

Thanks for this post and reminded no us all of
the "Practical Magic" that surrounds us.😎

I love the stories, but I think my takeaway is a little different.

The idea of things happening for a reason is great. I think it's possibly even more empowering to think about why these types of things happen though. For Derek, he's touched the lives of so many people, that it would be crazy for him not to have a few stories like this throughout his life. He could probably go to most cities in the world, and have a chance of running into someone that he has impacted.

So yeah, these stories are great. But keep in mind that the extraordinary becomes expected when you're out there making a difference in the world.

I like moments like these What are the odds and they happen enjoyed reading yours

I've been listening to the Tim Ferriss podcast with Ryan Holiday over the last couple of days. What a coincidence!

Here is a great book that discusses the real probabilities of rare events happening and explains why these things are way more common than one might think: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374175349

Life is hilarious and I love it because of this! You just have to believe in "a bit more than just thinking "it is like this". ☺ Thank you Derek. You are great. Best regards from Switzerland. anna

Coincidence is when one tries to attach value (mathematical or otherwise) to chance occurrences. To me, everything to totally random, so meeting anyone you used to know at any given time is equally as possible as never seeing them again. It still feels pretty great, though!

"everything is energy, and everything is connected"

I love it when these kind of things happen!

My husband and I love it when things like this happen, and the more we remark on it, with happy amazement, the more these serendipitous things happen for us. I must say, Derek, that the Universe really does seem to have particular fun with YOU. :)))

The odds of a friend walking by are about the same as any other people in that place at that time.

Each one of them is special too. Serendipity is what we notice in the randomness of the universes that is constantly providing us with extraordinary possibilities.

"Everything happens for a reason" . . . . . "coincidence" IS a reason!

People say phrases such as "it's a one in a million chance"; There are billions of people on our planet so therefore one in a million means those things will happen around the globe regularly!

Also, the sub-conscious is so immensely powerful and so little is known about it. Could it be that when people "coincidentally" appear just after we thought about them, that our sub-conscious was already aware of them being nearby which is the reason we thought about them in the first place?!

Earlier today, I was thinking, "I wonder what Derek is up to?"

Then I saw this pop up on my Facebook feed. ;)

Love it! Deepak calls it SynchroDestiny... when the whole universe is conspiring to guide and support you on your highest path!

Hi Derek. I practice Zen and TM meditation every day. The Roshi Sunryu Suzuki and all Zen wisdom including Quantum entanglement declared that everything in the universe is interconnected. No mystery to me then. Somebody will win.

In 1985, when I was 15 I had a crush on a girl and barely knew her. I would see her at the public pool. My family went on vacation in Colorado Springs (1500 miles from home). I was out by the pool and saw a girl at the pool one hotel over... turned out to be her.

fucking awesome

So true, Derek...We've all had those moments. I've experienced thinking about someone I haven't seen or thought of in years. All at once the phone rings and it's that person...Crazy!

A good way of increasing your odds is to just show up!

Enjoyed reading about your chance encounters.

Best regards,
Bob

"My grandfather used to say: Life is astoundingly short. To me, looking back over it, life seems so foreshortened that I scarcely understand, for instance, how a young man can decide to ride over to the next village without being afraid that -not to mention accidents- even the span of a normal happy life may fall far short of the time needed for such a journey.”
― Franz Kafka

Amazing stories... and even better photo!

You're posting couldn't have come at a better time. What were the odds of that?

Those are some intriguing examples (and a great photo) and I appreciate this window into your thoughts as well. The fact that you travel so widely and currently opens up the possibilities but doesn't explain away the oddness of the experience. Einstein called the entanglement of particles "spooky" so we are in good company. Ambrose Bierce is an American Civil War era author delved into these sorts of unexplained entanglements... his work was used a the basis of some of the Twilight Zone stories and to me the timelessness of his writing is a confirmation the "it’s all an amazing coincidence that everything is the way it is, and all of us exist"

Thomas Diong has good Elvis Hair.

I was raised one mile from Graceland in Memphis. I grew up with Elvis' step-brothers and knew Elvis' family.

May The King Be With Us!
http://billslater.com/elvis

We are wired to find connection;-)

Dr. Manhattan's thermodynamic miracle in Watchmen=a deep realization.

These are great. Love this kind of thing and the feeling it provokes, I think we all agree with that.

I do however sense a twist in the "no meaning" enthusiasm. Of course these don't "have" meaning, they "are" meaning. The tiny speck egoic secularist in all of us likes to declare certain things "yes this, no that" because there can never be "proof"--I think we have all had enough inexplicable experiences, unexpected joys and revelations to let us simply drop this either/or approach.

Like Sly said, everything is everything.
The question is: how deeply do we really understand and know this truth?

Over the last week I've had a couple of instances where I knew someone was going to do something well before they did it. It was as if someone whispered in my ear and told me. I think being receptive allows this type of pre-cognition to occur.

Every where and all the time.
Thanks for sharing.
B

Thanks for teaching me the word for believing life or events have a meaning. I am more of a skeptic and buy the statistics approach. I always say that, whenever a plane goes down, there is probably somebody who missed or rescheduled that flight and probably thinks that he / she was saved for a reason. We are not that important; shit (or great stuff) just happens!

The Surrender Experiment by Mickey Singer is what got me there. Then everything by Robert A Johnson. Next: Ego is the Enemy. Thank you!

We create the "what are the odds" that we want to see. Its really a matter of putting it out into the universe.

The odds of these sorts of things happening are a mathematical certainty. At any given moment, amongst many billions of people, something like this is happening to someone somewhere. It's mathematically inevitable that these sorts of things will happen regularly. Most of us will have something like this happen at some point in our lives. If you've had several you're either lucky or you travel a lot, which obviously raises the odds considerably :) But isn't it wonderful when it does happen? I love it!

Synchronicity, the wheels of the universe orchestrating our intention and desire, this is the most complex mechenisim in creation. I would venture to say you have a unique pipeline into that. Is it chance or a manifested intention coming into being, the same way we came into being? I thing these are the kinetic knee jerks of an infinately complicated system that is in play everywhere. You have a big extra dose of something that makes it work :).

Life has meaning even if we cannot see it.

I often say "There are no coincidences" It's ALL probability isn't it? Even the "coincidences"? You had a reason to be there then. He had a reason to be there then. It wasn't totally random. Like any extremely low probability occurrence, sooner or later it's gonna happen, no? The meeting was totally understandable. I just can't comprehend why he emailed you three days prior. Coincidence I guess. That's a joke, Derek.

Glad to hear it coincidents happen with you too, Derek!!

This reminds of a This American Life story (#134, Act Three: Same Time Next Year).

It's a great story, definitely recommend listening to it but you can also read the transcript here:
https://m.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/134/transcript

TDLR; the girl meets a guy in a really cute way. They hit it off but it turns weird because of a massive age difference. Twelve years later they meet again by coincidence in another cute RomCom-esque fashion. And it seems like fate!

Spoiler Alert: there is a great quote by Ira Glass that sums up the story.

"That's interesting because when there's that kind of coincidence of running into somebody again, we think automatically that it should turn out to be romantic. But it could be that you just meet some people again, just have exactly the same experience over again."

Great article, I love Thomas' reply to you hah.

I had a really good friend in high school who moved back to his birthplace, Brazil. On my very first trip to visit NYC, which I chose randomly to visit, with thousands of people in the street and too many stores to count, I run into him in a little coffeeshop a few blocks from times square. I couldn't believe it! We ended up doing a bar crawl that night then each went out separate ways. Life is too complex for us to make sense of it.

So then. My corporeal preference is to embrace it all as random so that I don't have to spend my 'now time' trying to put together the puzzle of a 'grand design'. But my non-corporeal instinct tells me there is a 'master map' and we're all mapmakers filling in coordinates with choices.

So then - I embrace both sides of your posit; seeing it a waste of precious, non-refundable now moments if one tries to figure out an elusive that will all become instantly apparent when there is no time chasing us.

:)

Hi Derek!

Less than 24 hours ago, I was talking to my brother . He is not a fan of finding meaning in coincidences, and always makes fun of the "what are the odds" expression, and of me using it all the time.

Yesterday, however, he was telling me how surprised he was that he had recently experienced three episodes like the ones you describe here. We laughed and he said, sarcastically, "what are the odds" situations do not ocurr to people like me, a "what-are-the-odds-non-believer".

Now... what are the odds of me getting an email with this title and content today?

Anyone?

Great stories, Derek. I recently made a related but "opposite side of the coin" comment to my son. We were at the Hollywood Bowl on Father's Day (The Specials and Ziggy Marley were great!) and as we were rushing back to our seats he ran into a college friend. Not a big deal except they went to college 1,000 miles away.

I commented how he would not have seen his friend if we were walking just 10 seconds ahead or behind of where we were, so I pondered how many times we must just barely miss even more potential encounters like that. Wise son says "oh, I'm sure that happens all the time."

Definitely a good reason for us to keep our eyes open and aware of those around us. We never know how many more coincidences we'll enjoy.

God took His smallest planet to make His biggest world. I guess it was easier to manage that way. It's a Small World After All because God is so big. It doesn't take God very long to connect all of us together. This is a song I wrote: " Ordinary People/ Angels in disguise"
Ordinary People with ordinary lives we help each other make it through this life Ordinary People living ordinary lives Ordinary People angels in disguise first verse Jesus came from heaven and dwelt Among Us to show the world what God wants us to do God gives us work to do that he can do himself but he wants to share it with me and you. Chorus: 2nd verse: have you ever wondered when you need something there's always someone who will come through for you it's not a mystery God loves you and me he gives us what we need every day of Our Lives through ordinary people with ordinary lives we help each other make it through this life ordinary people living ordinary lives Ordinary People angels in disguise Hal Gullick c2010

Thanks for this. It reminds me of a chapter in my book that goes:

Big changes are almost always built one little change at a time. The
Chrysler building is a good example of that. It’s one of New York’s
biggest skyscrapers. And it’s mostly built of bricks. A bunch of guys
just put one little brick on top of another little brick until they got
quite a view. Even man-mountain Shaq O’Neil is the result of one
little microscopic egg sharing kind of a hot-tub experience with a
heavy-breathing little sperm who managed to wriggle out of his
Speedo for the occasion. And think of the big effect of the little clicks
on your TV remote. They change the channels you’re watching from
PBS to Saturday Night Live.
It was an amazing parade of tiny clicks that changed my personal
channel to the one that features the lady in my life. I call her my
Lady Wonder Wench.
Here’s what happened: Santa brought me a portable radio when
I was about seven. (Click.) I immediately became a disc jockey in
training. I listened to William B. Williams on WNEW and Big
Wilson on WNBC in New York, and I loved it. WNEW and WNBC
are big league stations. The radio business is like baseball—you start
in the minors and work your way up. I worked my way up to WIBC
in Indianapolis, which is a top-level triple-A kind of station. (Click)
And then, for some reason, Al Heacock, the Program Director at
WBZ in Boston, fished around in a big box of audition tapes and
came up with mine. He liked it. (Click.) I was in the majors. And I
was just a few clicks away from meeting my Lady.
She wanted to be a veterinarian when she was seven. But her family
didn’t have the money to send her to school for that. (Click.) So she
became a secretary—a very good one. (Click.) She got a good job after
high school as a secretary in a law office. A good job, but no tingle.
(Click.) Her mother listened to WBZ all the time. (Click.) They aired a
commercial for a job opening one morning. (Click.) Her mom heard it
and challenged my Lady to try for it. (Click.) She did. And she won.
But WBZ was a big station. My Lady worked during regular
business hours. I was the all-night disc jockey. We never saw each
other. Two more tiny clicks had to happen to make it work.
Nobody at a radio station pays much attention to the all-night
disc jockey. Everybody is asleep when he’s on the air. But one
evening, all the WBZ deejays played a charity basketball game, and
the station’s secretaries went to the game to be our cheerleaders.
Almost all of them cheered for the daytime guys. But on the few
occasions that I did anything right, I heard one lovely, lusty cheer
coming from a beautiful blue-eyed secretary with dangerous curves
and such an amazing smile. (Click.)
I’ve worked at bigger stations: WNEW and WNBC in New
York, which were the stations I listened to on my little transistor radio
when I was a kid. But WBZ is one of the most powerful stations in
the country. I was getting sacks full of mail every night and I wanted
to try to answer it. So I asked the head secretary if any of her staff
would like to earn a few extra bucks helping me out with the mail.
Guess who showed up for the gig? (Click.)

"Nothing is 'mere'." — Richard Feynman

Derek, you might know and enjoy Feynman? The happy life without a secret agenda has been a theme for me, too. Here's an exciting rabbit hole if you ever wanted one, http://lesswrong.com/lw/or/joy_in_the_merely_real/ It's great to read from you!

Ahh, this was a great read i have had these type of occasions. More than a coincidence i believe.


Take care and thanks for sharing

what big eyes u have !
Thanks for sharing , much of life cannot be explained only witnessed .

This reminds me of the little book I just finished "The Richest Man In Babylon". Where he talks about how luck and opportunity come to those that have been working and preparing for opportunity. Had you not gotten yourself to London for a few days, managed to get your band to Oslo, and spent so much time cultivating connections all around the world and inspired even that man in Singapore....none of these coincidences would have happened. Kind of a fun and empowering way to look at things!

What great "stories"! You are really touching a lot of people around the world and, I believe, you have done a lot of good for folks. You have for me. Thank you.
I took a moment to scan your blog, The Meaning of Life, Derek. Somehow I had missed it. You mention the Buddhists and the Chinese but you do not mention the Western Christian belief that life is a gift from an Almighty, Loving God, and that to make this gift meaningful, we must live in a way that brings Him glory.
Relative to this blog and in the context of an Almighty, Loving God, there is no such thing as coincidence as life is all part of a greater plan to help us find that God and ultimately to live in eternal bliss with Him.
Good hunting!

Our Spirit is ever present and knows when we are thought of or spoken about and if the Physical is in the right state and place great things do manifest. Thank you for the reminder Derek. Blessings

Ezeadi P Onukwulu

I can't remember enough to quote with sufficient clarity, but there's a wonderful bit in Watchmen about how unlikely it is that any specific person exists at all. Lovely to think about how lucky it is.

Great post!

There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.

- Einstein

The act of serendipity used to be considered a skill. That you could hone it and practice it. Just another fun thing to think about on your day. I love this kind of stuff. What weird paths our lives take because we turned left instead of right one day.

This morning I looked back at your email about ego, thinking I would buy the book to read today.

Now you just send this. What are the odds?
☺ — Derek

cool !

Thanks. I will drive to our local Chinese food restaurant here in Fallbrook California. The takeout order should include a fortune cookie that includes a set of lottery numbers on the reverse side of the fortune. I will play the numbers in today's lottery draw and let you know how that works out. Love your posts and musings. Happy Fourth of July.

Oddly enough these things do happen and I've experienced similar things. People pop up in the least likely places sometimes. I ran into an old friend in Australia in the late 1980's. The world gets smaller and bigger at the same time. Bruce

Small world indeed! I like to think that some coincidences are intentional, like crossing paths with someone remarkable, who impacts you but whom you lose track of, only later in life to cross paths again. I don't know what accounts for these crisscrossing comets and star tails in the vastness but it always causes me to pause in awe and appreciation for all that I don't understand. Nice post!

Hey Derek!! Love this post man. The same thing happened to me in 1993. I was in San Diego for a competition and was sitting at a restaurant with my group when the waitress walked up and started talking to us about Winthrop (the university I attended in Rock Hill, SC). At first I didn't recognize her, as she started talking and looking directly at me, I realized it was someone I had dated briefly my freshman year. I knew she had moved to California years ago, but didn't know what part. Yeah, she was still smoking hot too...dangit.

So glad to see your picture, derek. Keep posting more. Feel more connected. Great post again. I think that Coincidences are more of like Selective attention. I NOTICE more of what's going on in my mind.
It's seems like my mind is looking for such things.

There are no coincidences in the Universe - there are no Odds in God, because at that level we are all
ONE - even!

Love it! I call these small world stories...
We are amazing creators walking and waking
the world in multiple timelines. Thank you
Serenely all you do and keeping the magic
of life alive while reminding others.

As you reach higher levels of consciousness you start to see with more intensity the manifestation of synchronicity and harmony of your Universe.

I love it. This sort of thing happens a lot. I often wonder if...

(A) we create the future by thinking about it
(B) we are able to predict the future
(C) we already lived each moment so are recalling events

Same goes for sports announcers who jinx a fiekd goal kicker in American football.

Mike

Maybe our thoughts can touch others. Just like our eyes, our hands, our words... Just because we don't see it, doesn't mean it's not happening. The thoughts running though the mind of a person you know, somehow touch you - and you feel it, and voila! The person enters your horizon. It happens to me often. I don't believe in coincidence and I don't believe in chance. I believe in cause and effect behind the obvious and the mysterious. That makes my universe both logical and magical - an oxymoron - just like it ought to be ;-)

Here's an interesting thought.

What if you first peripherally detected these people (or the book) without yet becoming aware in your conscious mind/attention?

You may have noticed them in your extreme peripheral vision, some weak sense of smell (pheromones), or some other human-human detection we're not fully aware of.

Then the situation actually becomes the reverse - they popped into your head because of the subconscious detection (hmm, I wonder whatever happened to so and so).

Taken in this light, suddenly seeing this person in front of you isn't coincidental to "randomly" thinking about them. Instead it is the conscious mind simply tuning its narrow awareness on some data the subconscious already detected previously.

I love these little coincidences

Just comforting.

I love this - thanks for sharing Derek!

Always amazing how people come in and out and back into our lives.

More travel, openness to connect and random acts of kindness = more "coincidences"

For the most part, it is necessary to go after what you want in life. However, love can be so different. Love is most complex; because there so many elements and each one is fluid, which adds inconsistent variables, which creates dynamics and often disastrous results. Life? I know less rather than more as I gain wisdom.

Thanks for your stories and thoughts, Derek. One of my favorite subjects, coincidences. Do they mean anything? Some of my more profound coincidental experiences have felt that way. A few have had great lessons tied into them, or so it seemed to me. And, it's also wonderful just to enjoy the mystery.

Great stories, reminds me of the story of JEFFERSON and ADAMS, two amazing presidents who created the Declaration of Independence. Then 50 years later they both die on the same day within minutes of each other JULY 4th 1826. This is the way history should be taught. Cool stories.

This happens to all of us to some extent. There have to be other levels of communication transpiring that we cannot interpret on our physical plane. Maybe in the "Three-sided Universe" Einstein tried to share with us? We could arrive on the other side (after death) and it becomes very clear. "Oh that's what I was trying to interpret or get in touch with?" // Who knows, if my head was larger would my nose look smaller on planet Dunbar in the 800th galaxy? "Is that a Retrofit on your face?"

In 1992 James Redfield publish a very interesting novel called The Celestine Prophesy, he associates synchronicity with the religion of the Incas and how it was in conflict with the beliefs of the Church. It was the first time for me to learn to interpret coincidences as synchronicity. Once you start doing that, you never go back.
If you read the book keep in mind that it is a novel, a relative of mine that was an actual explorer in Peru told me that for example there is no way to get to certain locations by Jeep like it says in the book.
Thanks again, Derek, you are always spot on <3

'When you walk with purpose you collide with destiny.'

I believe there are no coincidences. We keep going around on the earth with the same set of people just meeting them now and then. Love your stories. Got some of my own.

For a moment I thought you would say that there are no coincidences but then you remind me that you are the most sensible person ever :D. This world needs more people like you. Cloning doesn't seem to work. Have you considered becoming a regular sperm donor :D?

I can believe it! U r at yr best. Muaaaaah my bro.

The more open you are to these types of things happening, the more often they happen. Life is beautiful.

I went to the store to buy the Disney movie 101 Dalmations for my grandchild and when I got home there stood in my driveway two Dalmations. True story.

Loved reading your stories.

Arlene Faith
Still on CD Baby

Synchronicity...............that's the uber miracle, that it all is tissued together, jewels of Indra, web of bits of bigger Dada

Synchronicities.

What are the odds that some of us just have a better sixth sense for doing or thinking things?

Love the anecdotes! So many wonderful coincidences in life to remind us that the universe is listening.

How I love your mind and heart, Derek - Thank you for being-here-now. What a blessing.

That was a f#@$ing awesome story and a f#@%ing awesome photo. Thank you!

Last week I invited a couple fellow musicians to perform with me at a camp for sick kids. We coincidentally all met up wearing red as if it were our band uniform. When we arrived at the camp all the counselors were dressed in red as well. As we magically fit right in it became obvious to me that we were where we belonged

RE: Coincidence... We were in London in a place like Oxford Circle { very crowded } and London being a huge city with a lot of people...we were getting in a cab to go to ...who knows where and I see "Jimmy's" son
Michael in the crowd...I stopped the cabby before he could take off and like the ugly American who cares not
about making a scene in a "Foreign" country...I yelled out "Michael" really really loud...

He turned and said "Chipper" we met up and not at "The Barroness's house"...:"On the Thames"...ha...

Imagine this...Gotta love her though...A house with her backyard quite literally "On The Thames" as in she needed a dock...and the inside of the house very much resembled The Adams Family...and so does my lovely friend Squirrel who lives in Mortlake...somewhere in the twisted winding roads of London...

As far a s coincidences...if it were NOT for coincidences I think Billy Preston and I should never have met
much less my having the immediate budget for a studio and Jimmy to run the helm {Mr. Jimmy to most Rock historians}...Miami is and was chocked full of coincidences that make things happen for beyond ones
{ mine anyway!!!} own imagination of anything Santa Claus and his Reindeert could deliver...especially since none of the houses in Miami have chimneys !!!

Chang Dow for Now.

China West
PS ~ Derek...if I run into you in a studio in Estes Park, Colorado with an antique 9 foot Steinway made out of Rosewood...then it'll be meant to happen...
Chang Dow again...

I have a better word than coincidence - Serendipity. When you think coincid-ence - it's that two things happened together - but you know, tons of things happen at the same time in physical proximity - so what?

But serendipity - "the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for" (Merriam-Webster) - that's when really cool things happen together. That's when you run into exactly who you need to meet. That's when Opportunity+Preparedness = Luck

That's when you can believe that the Universe really is tilted in your favor (pronoia). And that's a belief that can light up the dark times and keep you going when it's really hard.

Hi Derek, I've been following a lot of your writing since hearing seeing more of your video work (YouTube) and a lot from Tim Ferriss. Love all the content you put out (thank you) and also read "Ego is the Enemy" per your recommendation, it's a great read!

Cant be a coincidence. It's energy. Doesn't mean it was your life's destiny. It was more so energy lining up. From my experience that's the way I see it. Coincidence, to me, is more like chance or out of nowhere. The trees need the oxygen and the water and the plants feed off the water and on and on and on. That can't be a coincidence. Everything in nature perfectly lines up and works in harmony. Can't be a coincidence. In my opinion

Dude.. When you're in Dubai next.. In sha Allah I'll bump into you and we will remark "What are the odds of that!" ☺

Love it.

Love this Derek. These things seem to happen all the time. At least to some of us lucky ones. A few weeks ago I was at a book launch. The author described in detail a near death experience he had. The next day I was on Facebook and I saw a photo that perfectly depicted the scene that my author friend had described the day before. It had been posted the same day as the launch. I wrote to each of them and told them of the coincidence. The author was amazed at the photo, a very true depiction which gave him chills. The photographer had an interesting story too. She did not know the author but said that on that very same day, her daughter was in a serious car accident but escaped totally unharmed.

It's an amazing life. Sometimes it just makes you wonder.

Best,
Johnny

Beautiful!

Derek, your posts are great and all the positive comments just make it even better to read them. Many serendipitous moments in my life and as has been said even more amazing that they can happen in an exact time frame.

That's really cool!

Just to echo Alex, so glad you're posting again Derek.

One day I passed you on the Wellington waterfront Derek. I would have loved to stop you for a chat, but you had headphones on and were talking (I assumed you were already in a conversation). Maybe I'll bump into you some other time!

Derek, your stories are always so refreshingly awesome. I htink something that you do that not many others take the time to do, is acknowledge and share. I appreciate that, and I appreciate you.

Here's to being different.

I wonder if Thomas was born in 1994? If so, what new adventure will 1995 bring?!

Nice one Derek. I have had similar thing happen to me over the years and I have often wondered afterwards if the thought of catching up with a friend or some incident has actually happened because the transmission of the thought is so powerful that it makes the incident happen?

Bill.

What it is is that you developed into a highly developed person who kind of magnatizes these certain instantaces.

My mantra is, Chances are...not involved...

I'm running out and buying a lottery ticket right now. 💰

Hey, Derek- This may not quite fit into the framework of meeting someone you were previously in contact with, but it's pretty freaky anyway... I grew up in the tiny hamlet of Liberty, NY, once famous for Catskill Mountain hotels, but now there's pretty much nothing there. I moved out decades ago. So, one day my girlfriend at the time and I were white water rafting down the Colorado River on one of those tours, and we came to a calm spot, so the guide calls out, Where's everybody from? The guy behind me says, " I'm from a place nobody's ever heard of called Liberty NY." I almost fell out of the boat. I said, "you're from Liberty? I'm from Liberty!" Turned out he was the younger brother of a guy I was in Boy Scouts with.

Thanks once again Derek, what a positive thought to take into Tuesday - be open and look out for all those little connections that happen in each and every day!

What's beautiful about that as well is that it encourages us to "put ourselves out there" more often. I guess that's one way to increase the odds; to be open to meeting new people, to share of your experiences through a blog or social media and thus increase your chances of serendipity, coincidence, and "luck".

Thanks for your lovely way of bringing this back to my attention.

Hi, Thanks for the story. Let me add one of mine.

At a New York street fair I accidentally ran into someone from Los Angeles who I had met only one time at a party of a mutual friend in LA two or three years ago. Now he was visiting New York. It's a miracle that we even recognized each other.

The lesson here: Keep your eyes and your mind open.

Coincidence that coincidences seem to happen more when I wake up wanting them?

I'm of the opinion that the universe is built of mathematical probabilities and there is an equation for everything. Those who are best able to recognise these probabilities and patterns are best at navigating them. They may not view the world like everyone else and may even appear eccentric, but these are special individuals whose lives are more than pedestrian. I wonder what the word is for the ability to manipulate the probability of an event happening by speaking it into existence? Do we all manipulate the probability of events by creating our own reality? Ah the ebb and flow of life existence!

I feel like I've tied down coincidence to more of that damn "second chance". Something feels missing or out of place by it just being a coincidence.... but it's just there! Or is it? I'll take coincidence as lottery... I choose to believe...you have to be in it to win it.

"Hey, you never know" - New York Lottery Motto

absolutely no coincidences. and being open to life is huge. sometimes i am not and i am clear that i miss whats showing up in my life. i have to remind myself to be in the moment and open. my first grandchild was almost 2 weeks late and was born may 1st at 12.15am, no coincidence, his grandfather past on same day 7 years prior. even the skeptics said wow. love your emails

That is amazing of how many times you've bumped into your old friends... wow! Nearly gave me chills. How fun!

Thanks for sharing. :D

Don't count the days.......
Make the days count.

Oh yeah. That's what gives me the hope that there is something to this world which we don't understand, and which is much better than what we do understand. I see small examples of this like the 11:11 thing a lot, and some times I see things which just make me say "Wow!". Yes, there is something to it. Love that picture of both of you guys.

The chance, luck, sense and intuition, symbiotic symphonies, sensing the direction in which to turn, walk, climb, drive - all these and more "antenna-up but not yet tuned to only one station" states are the magic of life. This combined with awareness - knowing whether an out of control fashionista Roman with skirt flying is heading towards you on a Piaggio moped while smoking a cigarette and taking on her phone - and enjoying that rhythmic metronome swaying between calmness and nerve-tingling aliveness as it counts the beat......that's a fine way to live!

Oh! To those happy meetings and magic reunions!

And yes, to saying "Yes!" to the opportunities that become nerve-tingling head-hurting moments before they become brilliant experiences!

AWESOME!

Thanks for sharing, Derek. Great post, made my day.

Meaning in life , I feel, is far beyond what we can imagine. Far more going on in dimensions we haven't even discovered yet..wars, forces. If time is limited to earth and God sees everything at once..He can know what to expect, and how to help a journey..If there is no meaning to life than I have total say..perhaps it makes me feel free, but perhaps it becomes an empty endeavor. To make life a better existance and help others and then what? and why? And if so, why have any restraints? The more science I see, the more I see an order to things and a beauty about it all. Of course we love the mystery and for some truths only faith can unlock the door of understanding.

spot on bro

Thanks, Derek. Very cool and uplifting.

That was a Fun little Post to read.

Reminds me of the book,"Tricks of the Mind" by Derren Brown.

Derren Brown has an entire chapter about Probability and how bad humans are at assessing it!

It is a well written and humorous book.

Thanks for the reminder Derek,

-Peter
YES!!! I LOVE THAT CHAPTER! (Chapter 6. Changed my life a bit.) I wish that book was easier to find. I keep buying it, re-reading it, then gifting it. — Derek

When the world and all that is in it becomes empty and meaningless to me... then the clearing of the stage for the ballet of miracles can commence.
Ah it is all so lovely!

Maybe you are more likely to bump into ppl you have things in common with precisely because you are likeminded and are likely to gravitate to the same external places and their cues.

Keep vibing!

This happens all the time. I wonder if there is some kind of confirmation bias going on. For example, literally every single time when I think about a person that I have not have any contact with for a long time, they will message me out of the blue just a few days later. This has happened so many times, it's uncanny.

But maybe, I'm simply thinking about other people all the time, and 99% of the time nothing happens, but that 1% of the time when that random person also thought about me and reached out, it feels so damn special, this 1% of the time is the only time that sticks in my memory :)

Your stories are awesome, though! How long will you stay in Singapore?

Appreciate it, love and contribute. That's it!!!

"If there is one thing the Bible clearly teaches, it is that there are NO coincidences with God. There are so many outside elements that you have no control over in your life, starting with your birth, ending with your death, and including everything that transpires in between those two events. The reason I want to bring up this issue today, is to give you the confidence and assurance that everything that is happening in your life today is part of His Divine plan for your life."
Taken from http://liveprayer.com/ddarchive3.cfm?id=4759
Read the rest of the article there.

Thanks for that Derek. So many good things have happened to me in my life I have to remember to be grateful. Coincide? I think not!

Thanks for the post Derek.

It's inspiring that after a 14 year absence, a former pen-pal would recognize you and vice versa. Or after 16 years, you still remember an ex-girlfriend well enough to recognize her on a London street.

Other than the impressive odds, to me it spoke to the importance of truly investing in these relationships and making positive connections. Thanks again.

Heartwarming as always! Always inspired by you and love getting your occasional messages,
hugs
t

In Woody Allen's film CAFE SOCIETY, one of the characters says, "Socrates said, 'The unexamined life is not worth living.' But the examined one is no bargain." The notion of this life being one meaningless coincidence after another does not fill me with amazement. Even a brief examination of this life and the history of this world shows over and over again that a belief in life without meaning eventually leads to societies, governments, and people with power who eventually decide that certain individuals and groups have even less meaning than everybody else. This is why there are gas ovens in Germany, killing fields in Cambodia, mass graves in Poland, crucified children in the Middle East, macheted amputees in the Sudan, plug pullers in Oregon hospitals, a market for fetal tissue, two huge holes in the ground in Manhattan, Venezuela falling apart...and on and on. If life has no meaning, why do we keep pursuing it? Why do we keep reading your articles, Derek? You make us think. The very things you blog about defy your claim that a meaningless life is amazing. If there is no meaning behind any of this, why do we even get out of bed in the morning? If life has no meaning, than nothing you write means anything. I'm no philospher, but this article really depressed me, my friend. And it depresses me even more to see that this idea of a meaningless life resonates with so many people.

Nice Derek!

In 1971 after 4 years flying all around the world in the US Navy I returned to continue college at Millersville University in PA. I noticed a man in the galley ( oops -cafeteria )who looked familiar but I couldn't place him. It bothered me for a few days and I finally talked to him. Where did I know him from ? Millersville four years earlier, in the military , elsewhere ? We both served , me USN ,he USAF and we started relating duty stations. We both were in Kadena Okinawa in May 1968. I found out he gave our squadron crew a weather review there. I saw the man for about 5 minutes but remembered his face. In March while in Tucson a man yelled to me from across the street " Hey,you been back at Millersville lately ?" Same guy ! Small world !

My friends sons lover played lotto every week for 20 yrs buying his ticket from the same liquor store in the castro in san francisco.
after moving to santa barbara, one month later he Won the 67 MILLION DOLLAR LOTTO in 2005! he was santa barbaras 1st super lotto winner.

your amazing blog derek reminds me past, present an future are all one happening in multi universes..and when we let go an merge fearlessly with the divine mind ..miracles unfold..

tks so much for reminding me!

Must be a cosmic thing. These things were meant to happen for some reason......or not.....who knows?

The conclusion I was hoping for...in one Siversian way or another. I couldn't fathom you suddenly siding with fate and grand design. I often think how there are billions of interactions each day and that every once in a while in our own egocentric minds the wheel stops on the jackpot number, more or less. Imagine if we took note of all the unremarkable interactions that might not enrapture us as anything synergistic, yet, exist and remain and wondrous and still our own.

If you walk into a crowded bar (whether one imbibes or not) and asked everyone their birthday, chances are that one or even two people would have the same month/day as your own.

When our attention is focused in a certain direction, we're more likely to notice what we want to see. Once I was driving on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and thought of guy who lived there. Moments later, I saw a guy on the street and thought, oh, there's Frank. Well, it wasn't Frank, but another minute later, the Frank I did know came walking past.

I have a penpal in Oslo now. Sometimes the palling around never becomes in person but that's okay.

Derek, I have followed your posts for some time, but never, ever entered a comment. Until today that is. By entering a comment today about your "what are the odds" post, I will now count myself much more likely to meet you in person. Having now typed in my own universe-nudging words, I'd say the odds are now pretty darned good. Tomorrow, perhaps…

''Instead of denying coincidence, I love to look around and realize that it’s all an amazing coincidence that everything is the way it is, and all of us exist''. Reminded me of the chorus in this song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm2zPmA1PhI

Serendipity, law of attraction, Jung's Collective Unconscious, Astral plane, soul connection, telepathic communication, etc.

Lack of awareness, skepticism or submission to society peer pressure are most often the factors that make people lock out their special intuitive abilities.

You gave three examples here for the sake of brevity in making your point yet I think the biggest cosmic communication in your case was knowing when to allow your baby to be adopted by an other family ...

I've always found that expression "What are the odds" rather amusing. Odds is the plural of odd... as in deviating from what is ordinary, usual, or expected; strange or peculiar...

So what are the odds? I don't care as long as they're nice and don't try to impose their eccentricities on me!!

Derek
Fantastic post! It's a small world.

Derek,

What's your view on fate/destiny vs. free will? I think truth can be found in apparent paradoxes; but still haven't found a good explanation that makes any sense for this one...

I was just telling my wife today morn as we were dropping our younger to school - I dreamt last night that we moved to Singapore. And hey presto, you wrote in from Singapore. What a co-incidence. I love it. I love them.

Super cool Derek, I just love your posts

Hi Derek,

All the best to you.

(share article on ifudofhumanrights facebook timeline)

best regards
Jan

Thank you Derek!

Hey Derek!

I was working as the piano player at an open mic. I saw a beautiful woman walk in with some friends. A band starts to play and this woman and her two friends start dancing. It had been many months since I saw people I didn't know spontaneously dance to a band they'd never seen before. I'd always been shy but I decided that I needed to talk to this woman before any of my friends got the idea to do so. I did, offered to buy her a drink, and gave her my number.

She never returned to the open mic.

More than a month later, I was sitting in a coffee shop in a different part of town and she walks in. She was helping someone who lived in an apartment above the coffee shop move in with her. I had to get ready to go to a gig (I was and still am a musician) but I decided that it was of the utmost importance for me to help in whatever way I could. Long story short, she and I are married with a child (and another on the way) and the friend she was helping move is one of our best friends (and the way her friend met her husband is a weird, coincidental story, too, where we're involved!).

All of this is to say that yes, life is weird. I'm grateful that we're here to experience it for the time we've been allotted!

Absolutely love it. Hope we coincidently run into each other some day, Derek!

Love it...!

In 1976 I was in Bali with my Australian girlfriend Sally. We were in Ubud and met a Balinese woman named Oka Kartini. She invited us to her Lossman and showed us a book Tarquin Olivier wrote about his travels through Southeast Asia. She had had a love affaire with him 15 years earlier. Sally wanted to be an actress so was enthralled by reading a book by Sir Laurence Olivier's son.
We were sitting on the porch when guess who walked up??? Tarquin Olivier!!! He decided to surprise Oka and just at that moment we were looking at his book,, he showed up!! I thought it was planned somehow but it wasn't.. We spent a wonderful week end with Oka and Tarquin.. Truly magical and he still remembers this weekend years later.. He lives in London now.. Sally past away very young, accident. Was a moment in my life I will always cherish.. True story!!! Hard to believe but the whole Bali trip was magic like this!!!

Hiya Derek

Great post - thank you.

I heard yesterday, Oprah Winfrey quote: 'your legacy is the number of people's lives you touch' That quote was with me all day!

You have touched many lives Derek :))

Avrilx

It's called synchronicity. I was just reading about it before I opened your message.
You made me feel so Jung !

I love this! Thanks for sharing.

Synchronicity at its very best! :)

I'm a Singaporean. But more importantly a big fan of yours! Emailed you at the start of the year to see if you'd be available for an interview. You declined me politely by sending me to an article you wrote.

What are the odds of you agreeing to meet for a chat at the same Singapore Library anytime this week Sir? :)

Would love to get your booked autographed by as well as do a quick 7mins interview with ya!

Derek
I love these stories especially because I work with clients and designers aka decision makers in building and construction on the tricky subject of health and safety.
Thinking at present that construction is better identified as a "complex adaptive system" rather than the linear programme that most management models use. Ed McCann, Chair of the Useful Simple Trust and VP of the Institution of Civil Engineers, is bouncing some great ideas around. He suggests our sector is more akin to evolution or nature. Much of life is like this. Small nudges can effect huge changes. Eventually.
Loving some of the comments posted in response. Thanks Derek and your community.
In the meantime I have milk in my hair from feeding calves before work!

Amazing... I've never had a "coincidence" like that. As for lottery, always trying TOTO (I'm not a fan of 4D). Encouraging to know there is always a winner every week (twice a week, indeed) in this little red dot. :)

Hi Derek,
Funny thing coincidence. Years ago one Friday night I met a beautiful girl Monique (South Vietnamese) in a night club that was close in my residential area in South Norwood (UK) We danced, we chatted. I asked her for a date. She said she couldn't as she had a boyfriend and she believed in Kismet. The next day i'm up in Oxford street London. I came out of the Tube, and who do you think I saw at a bus stop? Yes you've guessed it "Monique" We said hello and I carried on with my mates. I looked back, she still hadn't taken her eyes of me. I wondered what she was thinking then? I never saw her again.

I really enjoyed the thought behind this post. It really is so much more meaningful if everything is just a coincidence. Coincidence leads us all on some very interesting journeys!

Ha ha!

I love it!
I had a similar experience. Rush hour in New York. It felt unreal!

Have a wonderful day Derek!

The small planet syndrome.

In 2007 I'm in a new relationship with a New Zealand lady living in Portsmouth in the UK. Her mum has a small flat in Honfleur in Normandy which she uses some of the year. It's an easy ferry journey fromPortsmouth, so we go to visit and stay. We meet an English woman living downstairs. It turns out she worked on the bar of my favourite pub when I lived in South London, so I must have spoken to her often.

Eventually we connect on Facebook. She's a professional violinist who's done lots of tours and sessions and she's friends with some of the same people as me. I had no idea.

As Andy Hunt says in Pragmatic Thinking Learning (one of my favorite books) “Astronomically unlikely coincidences happen daily.”

this reminds me of the concept of "rhyming events," a term author Paul Auster uses for those spooky coincidences that seem more than ordinary mathematical flukes.
You can hear that first hand about in a episode of radiolab about fate:
http://www.radiolab.org/story/91731-fate-and-fortune/

Lovely! When I was a kid I stayed in France with my penfriends family. We went into the local village and I popped into a shop to buy a postcard. as I looked on the rack I saw my friend Kevin behind the rack. We were so surprised I just said hello and walked off!
I lived in Japan in a remote mountain region and my neighbours have a daughter who lives in the UK. It turns out she lives 100 yards up the road from my best friend !
Love these coincidences and accept them them as part of lifes rich panoplay of mystery!

I dated a guy named Max back in 2009 when I was living in BK. I ended up moving to fl for uni, he stayed in ny, we lost touch. Fast forward to 2013 and I'm back in BK waiting to meet up with some friends. I'm sitting in a bar, drinking a beer staring out of the window when I think, "I wonder if I'll see Max."
Five seconds later, he walks past the window I'm looking out of.

"Max!"

"Dre?!"


This doesn't end with any special rekindling. Just mere coincidence.

The universe is listening

It's not hard to believe if you understand the science of creation that we are all connected and came from the same matter. You are having precognition thoughts. Your cellular history meshes with the cellular history of another just before you see them. I can't tell you Derek the number of times I've just told someone about you or something I read by you and within 24-48 hours there will be another email from you. It has happened so much I just expect it now. You might enjoy reading David Van Koevering stuff. He calls what you experience as coincidence elsewhen.

Enjoyed that, and like what Brandon said (to paraphrase)" when you are out there and touch people", these things will happen. Be 'out there', and life will continue to surprise!

Delightful!

I recently read "Fooled by Randomness" by Nassim Taleb. There was a study quoted that the chance of someone winning the New Jersey lottery TWICE is 17 trillion to one. Beyond anything probable

But the odds of someone, somewhere, at one point, winning it twice is just 30:1.

Seems much more probable this way :)

Derek, dear friend, as I follow you.
I hope the odds to find you some day anywhere.

Holy crap this odds thing is so wild. An hour after I read your article, I was doing my weekly long distance bike ride and decided to take a road I rarely take. Right where the road passes by a running path was one of my yoga buddies doing a distance run!!!I never knew he ran this trail and we have never seen each other outside of yoga class.

We have all these thoughts and words to try to explain these actions and experiences. Well they are given by God, who made us spiritual as well as physical. Just accept and enjoy the (alas!) short ride.

Thanks for the opportunity to share Derek! Peace

Love this post b/c it shows that you will find whatever it is you are actively pursuing. However, most of the time the thing we want will take a lot of time and effort, and won't appear instantly (So best appreciate the moments that do!)

What are the odds? 100% if you are persistent enough to not leave anything in your control up to chance. Due to Derek's advice, I asked myself what is it I want in life, and through persistence, I have a new trajectory in life. Thanks.

Hello Derek,

Great stories. Thank you for reminding us about the magic of existence. It all seems so obvious (every day life) that we forget what an incredible coincidence it all is.

Pedro

"What are the odds?!" comes from an egocentric perspective.

In a perspective focused on you, a million-to-one occurrence seems amazing.

But when viewed from space (a metaphor for a more objective viewpoint) you realise there are billions of people on earth, each engaged in many activities each day. Of course such occurrences are going to occur.

One step removed from egocentric is human-race-centric. "What are the odds that our planet or the fundamentals of the universe are suited to our existence?? What are the odds that our hands and the rest of our bodies are so finely tuned to existing in and manipulating our environment??"
Yes! Great point, and well-put! Thanks James. — Derek

My family and I lost a contact with my sister once. 23 years past. Im coming back to Tajikistan from China. And decided to check my old email box. I saw an email from my sister who found me through Internet.
Before that in China,when I was 18 I've met a girl from Australia. We were togerther for 3 mounth and she left back home. After 10 year in China I've moved to Pland. And after 13 years we found each other firt on FB and then she came to see me :)

....reminds me of when I meet you, Derek, for the first time. Had by coincidence seen your TED talk (how to start a movement) just a week or two before and had of course showed it to everyone at work...And on the plane to Island, you had the seat beside me. My first conclusion then was...Can't be him...but In the end we had a great discussion during the flight. When reading this post I wonder how many times you had people pass you by and your first response is "can't be...", may we should instead think "of course it is..."

And Derek if you pass by Stockholm the invitation still stands

Yea its fab aye. Had some incredible things happen too. Yea the universe is mysterious and extremely special. I believe in angels and guides and past friends and rels walking with us. Plus we make our life's path in advance before we leave up there to come down. Souls and sol connection is awesome. I get it all the time I say a word on the phone or type it just as the same word comes on the radio. I feel it is them letting us know we are not alone.

Hi Derek, sometimes stories are best delivered short. Loved every one of them. Hope your Esperanto study is going well!! Take care

Now is such a delightful experience. Thank you for sharing, and continuing to share your experience, Derek! You're such an insightful and lovely dude. You are super el mucho appreciated.

You should know, this reminds me of when I have songs go through my head and I start whistling or singing them, and then turn on the radio, or go into a coffee shop and the song is playing where I left off singing the lyrics. It always makes me, and those I'm with brains' explode. Haha.

Stay excellent my friend. Glad to see you're posting more (fistbump)

Speaking of odds, I actually saw a funny coincidence in the picture you posted. I had never seen a picture of you before, yet there are two things that strongly resemble recent pictures of me:

1) You appear to also shave your head, as I do.

2) You weren't looking directly at the camera, but instead looking to the side at the other subject in the photo--I also do the exact same thing in my pictures as of late.

Example: http://imgur.com/a/daQH1 (pay no attention to the cheetah in that picture)

-- Doug

There are no coincidences, just God, He is in control.

Humans need to think there is some powerful force somewhere that causes these things to happen. Lotto winers will tell stories about that "feeling they got" right before buying that ticket. But there are a lot more stories that go "well, theres another 5 bucks shot to hell". I'm not saying you are wrong Derek, just chose not to believe in things I can't explain.

I think you're spot on, Derek......great read. Thanks. Oh, and have a great 4th.
Blessings
Barry

My two bits.....I like to think that we have a God who so delights in giving us these wonderful coincidences....so that they aren't really coincidences at all...just evidence that we are loved and enjoyed.

Great article. I don't believe in coincidences at all, but it's because of my practice. To me, they're God instances.

Third Eye Spiritual Connection

Thank you Derek Silvers for your experiences of coincidence. Doesn't mean that we have some sort of power of thought, could it be Deja vu (I've been here before) or should we just say it was a 'Coincidence?

I'd say the latter. You met these same people in the same city or country or even place where you last saw them.

All 3 of these people never left the country from where you first met them. 'Coincidence" You just so happen to meet up with each one of them in that same particular country, on a particular day.

Thanks Derek for sharing!!! Have a blessed week!

great stories some say to read a book called the celestial prophecies I haven't myself stay rocking jim

One theory is that when you are in tune with the Universe, your thoughts can make things happen. So in calculating the odds you will first have to take into account your state of mind...

A friend of mine did her masters with 2 people called Sierra and René. I never got to know them super-well, but Sierra once cooked me dinner. After graduating we lost touch.

10 years later I spontaneously decided to write to Sierra saying I remembered that dinner. She unexpectedly sent me a long reply, mentioning that she was just about to graduate as a psychiatrist in Tel Aviv and start a practice in New York. I wrote back saying that I should introduce her to a psychiatrist couple I knew in London. *As I was writing the email* one of the psychiatrists emailed me saying he'd just met a guy called René in a sauna who apparently knew me. We're now all back in touch.

I liked that lottery bit at the end. Chance of you winning lottery: 0.0000005%. Chance of someone winning lottery: 100%. These random coincidences seem uncoincidental but there is a 100% chance that SOMETHING random will happen. Or looked at another way...how many hundreds of people have you thought about who then DID NOT walk by?

Strange, I had a very similar story to your first one, Derek. Dated an exchange student from Japan in college in 1988. She moved home and we lost touch. I wonder if Sayumi Iida will walk by one of these days. You never know...

Coincidence is random chance but to some extent we also create our own reality.

I was talking to a friend in church about a brave priest who risked his life transporting the sacraments for mass in to Saudi Arabia. I said his name. I looked up, and he was standing at the alter about to begin mass. I had not seen him in 20 years and had no idea he was there. I choose to believe there is no such thing as a coincidence.

Derek- awesome and inspiringinsights, as usual ;). Your emails always make my day.

Suz

It's a small, small world...

Regarding # 133, and the coincidence of re-encountering a book, the more I increase my faith in such things, the easier it is to de-clutter my book collection. I'm still working on it...

I love the way life unfolds 😜🎶🌈

Derek - I sense another book "brewing" with you as author... hope it happens soon.

Some of the comments here are amazing. Often equally as inspiring as the Derek's posts. I'm confident that there is enough combined brain power here to form a think tank for the ages. This is no coincidence.

Great to hear from you, Derek! As a Christian, I don't look at it as either/or, but as a matter of perspective: God's vs. ours. While I use the term from time to time for simplicity's sake, I don't fundamentally believe in coincidence if we're talking about actually random occurrences. But doesn't so much revolve around our definition of random? :)

That said, apophenia tends to apply to "random data" and therefore begs the question. People whom one might label with the term don't actually believe the data is random, so... :)

Another interesting thing to note is that, even from a purely naturalistic position, chemistry is anything but truly random and there are no coincidences but only cause and effect interactions that necessarily take place. Either way, coincidence is really only helpful as a word to help us identify rare occurrences we don't understand or that otherwise surprise us.

It's so interesting how little observations like yours ultimately begin to get at the heart of our world views and who we take as our ultimate authority. Lose reading how different folks here interpret this stuff. Keep it up!

Beautiful!
@William Favre Slater III, hv fwd'd your msg to one of Elvis' step-brothers ;)
Cheers! & keep shining!
/am

Thank you for the extra smile today! ☺

I'm sure you've unleashed a torrent of everone's unique stories by now. So here's mine, actually my son's,

When he was in his second year of college he did a 6-week study abroad in Germany (Liepseig). One weekend the group had gone to Berlin and were visiting a museum. Who did he run into but his high school German teacher, who at that moment was leading a tour of his high school students.

Thanks for letting us know the word apophenia. I'll remember that when I run into you some day. It's bound to happen.

For the last two years that's how I've been living my life, and it has been great. No meaning to anything. Life is empty and meaningless. When there's nothing, you can do anything!

Heya DS --
Always good to get a little Derek in my inbox.
Life is great: cancer a thing of the past, doing streaming webcasts of my "homo-pop" tunes with a quartet, last two summers went to AZ & observed kachina ceremonies, at the invitation a Hopi pal, on the reservation north of Winslow, and am letting a strapping young Rhode Islander into my life in the boyfriend department.
I feel pretty happy.
Cheers, bro!
Jay

"Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous."
— (source unknown)

Martin Case, a dear friend and my producer forward this to me since I was in Paris recently and I ran into an old friend I had lost contact with for almost 30 years! Isn't the universe Interesting? These recontres occur for me from time to time and I gain much from these encounters. My life is certainly enriched.

Perhaps we should not think about these things as just a duality: either pure coincidence (statistics) or some divine meaning. I think Tony Winyard (post #24) has the right idea. Maybe there is another sense or sub-concsiousness that we have that we don't fully understand. Yet when we are in the proximity to another person, energy, place and time, it invokes those relevant memories.

I really appreciated reading this! It brightened my day, and made me think about some of the coincidences in my life. And I totally agree, that life is an amazing coincidence, and everything about each day is amazing.

I LOVE STORIES LIKE THOSE DEREK. I'VE HAD SIMILARS EXPERIENCES AND OFTEN ONDER IF THEY'RE ACCIDENTS OR WE CREATE THEM THRU OUR THOUGHTS.

tAKE CARE.

Refreshing and positive Derek. Thanks for taking the time to share.

Some people call it serendipity. My friend Jeff Barry who I met completely randomly at a Marilyn Monroe book launch in L.A. calls it Kismet. When I met Jeff, I had no idea he and his wife Ellie Greenwich had written some of my favorite songs that I heard on the radio when I was young.

When I was a teenager, I was introduced to a magazine called "Playboy". When I saw Miss December, I thought "Wow, I'd like to meet her someday". That day ended up being 40 years later and happened by complete chance (involving a longer and more remarkable story). We've become good friends since and Susan was the one who wrote the Marilyn Monroe book and invited me to the launch. It's pretty marvelous how all this stuff works!

I had just landed in Torino, Italy on business and outside the airport I was trying to phone some people who were meeting me. My cellphone wasn't working. I looked to my right and there was my brother, Mike (whom I didn't even know was going to Italy for his company)--- I said, "Hey Mike-- can I use your phone?"

It makes sense to me that once we connect with someone they stay with us, heightening that person on our inner radar. Perhaps even pulling them closer over time.

The odds against one certain unlikely thing are high. The odds against one of many possible unlikely things? That's a different story! If you add up all the small possibilities I believe you will find the following. Some unlikely thing is bound to happen. We just can't say which one in advance. So we shouldn't be amazed at unlikely events! Or maybe we should, but only because it's fun to be amazed!

Excellent Inspiration and Deja Vu!

A friend of mine couldn't make it to my wedding (in our home city of London) as she was working in Singapore. We bumped into her by complete chance in a zoo in Borneo during our honeymoon. She just happened to be on a weekend trip with her friends. When I walked up and said her name she howled with joy, eyes streaming as me and my wife gave her a big hug. For some reason the only words I could find were, "Agnes, please, the bears!" (To be fair, the bears were sleeping).

Yep, those are great stories alright and I believe them! In my life there have been a few, and I think they are good luck events. You are living right if this happens to you. Nice to see what you look like, too.

How to identify parallel world interface points and how to profit from and improve your life as a results.

"Just a sample"

Chapter 1
Status quo:
In normal decision making a positive thinking person is continually choosing their best outcome. Most of the time this will have no influence over outcome. It is only during a "twist" event that actual changes can be enacted, but since a positive thinking person is always positive they benefit from every anomaly in the universe membrane. Obviously this is also true of a negative thinking person and their mostly negative outcomes.
So I could just tell you to be a positive thinking person and that is just what numerous motivational speakers and authors attempt to do everyday. I go another step and explain the process by which this operates, and how it can be focused.
Along the conscious path we take, our reality is continuously split into alternate or parallel universes. Every choice we make no matter how small results in the creation of a parallel universe. As you can imagine this results in a large but not infinite number of no parallel universes. In order to understand how this works picture a horizontal line with the center point representing your current universe, or present moment. For explanation purposes we will identify the present as where your consciousness stream is linked to the current universe. Each parallel universe branches off the line as time flows and decisions are made. It is impossible to currently measure this shift because normally it is so small of a shift that there will be no observable change in reality. The more extreme options get pushed father away from the center line, and are impossible to ever access. The smaller choice variations are key to getting a positive outcome in this process. These alternate universes stay close to the conscious line and this is the one's we are most interested in accessing through my theory. This theory looks at the power of thought and the ability to recognize when a shift to a different universe is becoming possible.
The only way to determine if a shift is successful is to observe if the actual outcome matches the expected outcome. There appears to be a variation in the effort needed to penetrate the alternative universe. This cycling window of opportunity in the parallel membrane is the times when nearby universes with different outcomes can be accessed.

Chapter 2
The Twist
In order to recognize the optimal time for this action you must recognize the sign of a weak point in the membrane. The word twist is used to describe a grouping of coincidences that identify a likely time span where it is possible to shift yourself to the universe matching your choice of outcomes.

Sorry so long in answering this.
First there is the power of the mind. Positive thoughts, feeling it, seeing it, smelling it all have a lot to do with what is and what happens.
I do believe there is a plan ahead of us but we can also turn the corners of the plan making changes to the path. Does it make it wrong or right? I do not think so even if this turn taken has a ending. All about choices and desires, needs and wants. How bad do you want it? Already own it and have all the human experience of it. It will be yours! This is how I got my home for I knew of know way I could get it but did not think of that part. I only new I had a house out there that was mine and it would be. Got the exact home in 3 months!

Sitting on a train packed full of people going to U2's '30 Years of Joshua Tree' opener in London this weekend, I sat across a middle age couple and recognized the fact that I'm just as middle-aged as they are. But at the point when Joshua Tree was released, we were just fun-loving teenagers. I gazed at them with much intensity and curiosity. The look was reciprocated, followed by a smile, as if they were pondering exactly the same thought as I. I then looked around the train, it was full of grey-haired middle-aged men and women on their way to reminiscing their youth long gone. We got off the train, I lost track of the couple as we entered into Twickenham Stadium where 80,000 people were about to be sharing this magic moment together.
The concert was magical. However, we decided to dash slightly early to beat the human traffic(again, a middle-age thing to do). As we got close to the train station, part singing, part running, there they were - the same couple I was eyeing up and down on our way in was right there next to us, about to board the train together for the second time...

I love this! everything happened for a reason!

Gorgeous- serendipity is life's messages to you of magic moment s that kind of reflects alignment/reaching into your soul.

in Queenstown this week, so stunning- but in shock too with a death too - car crash last week (head on collision on a poor visibility day) 2 dead. One a friends husband. No hubby or daddy coming home. Kind of crippled me. So my breakthrough trip to reflect and recharge bookended by tragedy - reading about compassion and loss and stoicism more than I ever have. It's helped. Thank you for your thoughts. Always. Lizzie

Serendipity! I love when that happens, the stars sometimes align just as they should in this big universe. Reading 'Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself' by Dr. Joe Dispenza now and the chapter on quantum physics is fascinating. He states "Everything in our physical reality exists as pure potential." Good stuff!

And that is why I love "Serendipity" as a word and the rom-com movie.

The way I chanced upon your site, and in turn discovered you, was serendipitous to me as well!

Thank you for being you. I look forward to meeting you in the near future and creating something awesome together. Coming to NYC anytime soon?

I love serendipity.

i always liked odd numbers and people just a bit more. i think we have more energy than we think and can call in the coincidences. those serendipitous meetings used to happen to me all.the.time when i lived in NYC. In a city that size with that many people, yet it happened often. thanks for sharing.

Frequently we really cann't explain these odds scientically. But I would like to believe that everything is under control by some force. There is a saying of ancient China "生死有命，富贵由天“ which means everything of life including death,whealth is written already.

Thank you for the article, Derek. It resonated.

I was pretty baffled at this type of events in my life.

As Nassim Taleb would say, random events are not evenly distributed, so this kind of stuff happens, and it it still random, although our brains are trying to fool us and make some sense out of it.

Then I found books like Extraordinary Knowing: Science, Skepticism and the Inexplicable Powers of the Human Mind, by Elizabeth Lloyd.

Is there stuff going on in our brains that we don't know? I think this is also the case...

And I have to speculate
That God himself did make
Us into corresponding shapes
Like puzzle pieces from the clay

My problem is that I try to find the meaning in everything. Life is so much more enjoyable when we can just let things be the way they are, enjoying them in their pure form. Not everything needs to be analyzed, just experienced.

The Japanese and Argentina ladies where situations are interesting because you're thinking about them and then, despite incredible odds you connect.

I've had several 'OMFG is that you?' moments also.

II'm a nature skeptic with very few woo-woo beliefs aside from the possible mind blowing possibilities arising from quantum physics.

Let's think about this - in these moments we had elevated our awareness of some individuals, in locations with high probabilities the could be, likely similar interests, age, and styles acting like magnets in large cities. Put this over the length of time since your last contact then factor in, all the other times you visited somewhere, thought of somebody but did not connect.

Well I can kinda of see it happening. I recall that probability bet where math teachers take action on 2 people having the identical birthday in a class of 50% (forget but I think its over 98% probable)

Or it's that cosmic destined to meet thing which chic's dig.

Now the guy reading Ryan's book - Don't sell yourself short, you're and interesting guy with a long reach. Keep doing good with it.

I came here today for your book reviews and fell down the rabbit hole with my reply. I met an old friend from Cali sitting on the MRT in Bangkok yesterday. Good stuff.

Cheers,
Robert

I agree situations like the above have happened to me.

Interesting book as well

As for despair at the lack of meaning in the world, as noted by commenter #142, Joss Whedon sometimes despaired that we were all on the road to death, but at other times he felt some kinship and charity from that.

Joss had an Immortal character, Angel, who dealt with life by saying, at the series finale, "If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do."
And from that belief, in the last scene, when action is objectively hopeless, he acts.

What are the odds that you start your own podcast? Or go back for another episode on Tim Tim Talk? Listening to you is like having a much needed conversation with a very good friend. Much love from Reaksmey & Amoeba The Cat.
Thanks! For now please go to sive.rs/i, where you can hear/download 43 hours of podcast interviews with me. — Derek

I have never given it much thought. But, suddenly I am 100% convinced that something amazing will happen to a lot of people today and the possibility that I could be one of them is quite likely. Thanks for that!

Your email had been sitting in my inbox, unread until today...over a month after you posted it. For miraculous reasons that go far beyond what I can explain here, today was the day I needed to see this, Derek. Thank you.

I know you Derek. I am going to write you with the rest.
For this I believe Atoms find their way back. DNA research
See Russian research has some non locality studies
I was on nightline for being psychic. I do believe
Magic happens and syncronicity is very real when you are open like you. The trouble is. With more and more stress and gadgets
Less time for the magic, the atoms the random
Wonders to be noticed. [email protected]
Leesa Sklover

Wow, I love your article! I absolutely agree and who knows if people stopped dwelling about the odds of something happening, and we might just run into more of what we consider coincidences. I have been told many times that the odds of winning a lottery is incredibly rare, but I never once stopped to think about what the odds of someone else winning. I've been truly inspired to share your story!

Love you, Derek.

Its very interesting the way we vibrate to certain people and how our paths cross. Its meant to be sometimes I think to turn us around on the" spur of the moment" so that we don't get caught up in a rut. Sometimes I think this happens so that it triggers off the more creative side of the brain as well. Whatever and whenever we run into these people we think of, or vibrate to it is meant to be,(I call it Karma).

Derek, thanks for spreading so much information and joy. I love the book recommendations and really admire your outlook on life. Keep up the great work.

And I thought Mike Murdock was full of sh!t

Among all the people that you think about and don't suddenly encounter, the times that you do stand out. It's not so much that coincidences occur--it's the importance we attach to them when they do. That said, it's still a little freaky when it happens. And yeah, it does happen often enough to send the odds-makers back to their spreadsheets.

Amazing stories. The cool thing is that you were aware of your surroundings and noticed these coincidences. What if you had been looking the other way or distracted in any of these circumstances. The coincidence could literally have walked by without you ever knowing. Makes me think that opportunity is frequently around us, but unfortunately we don't always notice.

Hi Derek,

I enjoy those stories. Life is more beautiful because of them.

Gong Qian

Beautifully random. I love that. I’m frequently taken aback by life’s surprises. Bet if I focus on that sense of surprise, I’ll experience it even more often. Shanks!

What's the odd of me running into a huge pile of cash... What's the odd of me dying on my bed tonight?

Too many questions but like you already stated

"I Feel it's amazing when things happen coincidentally"

Take for instance you knew for sure Lucia was in Oslo? You won't even have her in mind cause you might just call and say 'hey lucia am in Oslo...'

But no I tell people in my little seminars here in Nigeria...

The best things happen coincidentally....

Thank you for this piece.... It came to me coincidentally without me knowing the odds of what i am about to read but still it's mind changing..

This is liberating reading this post, Ok so I'm not insane or unique that I often experience the exact same thing, I love how this works. One time I had just finished reading Tim Ferris 4hr Work Week on a flight from LA to Sydney and thought I wonder if Tim is on this flight, after literally eyeballing every passenger I realised that he wasn't on board (go figure) and went back to finishing the book. After landing in Sydney I went to the Virgin Lounge to wait for connecting flight to Gold Coast and noticed a guy in a Hootsuite T-Shirt. My heart skipped a beat and I said to my wife "I think that guy is Tim Ferris" and after googling his picture and doing a couple of walk bys to get a closer look I finally plucked up the courage to say "G'day Mate you're names not Tim is it?" And he said "Sure is" we proceeded to have a great chat and caught up again a couple weeks later. Derek, Tim was the catalyst for me discovering your work and now ultimately reading this post and writing this comment - what a connected universe we are a small part of.
Ha! Cool! — Derek

This is a great thread. I especially like the idea of "auspicious coincidence" that someone already mentioned.

i think, mind and the way of we thinking make our enviroment

Delighting in coincidences (“remarkable concurrences of events”) is the enjoyable side of the spectrum of selective awareness, with Murphy’s Law describing the negative end.

The odds of something happening like you’ve reported tip in your favor because of the brain’s amazing powers of making connections. We’re awash in a sea of experience where everyone knows everyone else through six stages of separation, it’s happening all around us, we’re just not usually aware of the connections because we’re not paying attention. We can’t be tuned into all the signals buzzing around us or we’d never be able to get anything done. Once in a while we’re confronted with two things coinciding, after having missed countless near alignments in the days and weeks leading up to it.

http://willshare.com/lovelythinking/murphy-was-wrong

I’ve had a few of these coincidences too! They are marvelous stories because it’s so unlikely. I see now they are gifts from our Holy God. He wants you to know that all things are possible through Him, the Son of God. He wants you to know how much He knows and loves you. He is the giver of life and His Spirit lives in you. We live in a broken world, but with faith in Him, you will see Him in your life: Active and authentic and showing up in ways that can only be Him!! He’s wonderful and life changing. You will never be the same. ❤️
Thank you for sharing your life through your blog!!
All the best and respectfully,
Stephanie

I wish every image at the end of these magnificent blog posts included an amazing image of illustrious author, Sir Derek Sivers. If you’re with me, say “I”.

Derek and friends,
The comments here are good for a dark shut-in wintery day—unless I start to think I don't get out enough!

While I was reading, three such experiences popped in from my memory. Note to self: Sit by the window.

For those doing your computer by-topic journal, "blessed coincidence" might be a good page.

Both the original novel MASH and the comic series made a point of having people coincidentally meeting up in remote places. Which added to the "warm fuzzy" aspect.

My best such story: A mall clothing store manager who appreciated me

(the manager across the hall had seen us talking and crossed over later to ask, "Do you know Sean? Isn't he a hoot?")

was in a greasy spoon cafe for the first time—a cafe miles away that I had never mentioned to her. She heard a man ask the waitress, "Has Sean been in yet?" and guessed it was me. When I entered they were engaged in a nice conversation.

Hi Derek, I would love to hear more about your fascinating yet paradoxical view of coincidences. Paradoxical because you say you think everything IS a coincidence ("co" - "incidence" :) but in the same line say it's random.

You may have guessed my take on the phenomenon by my spelling above, because I believe it is the convergence of some kind.

Like recently I was walking with a woman I never met who's dog I was getting to know that I would board some days later. She tells me her husband has become a playwright in his retirement from law enforcement. That he had a play produced in Homer, NY called DragonFly. My dear neighbors of 14 years moved away this past Spring, to Homer. I am an actor, but mostly spending my quiet upstate NY life as a songwriter. I have had a sheet of paper on one of my keyboards to write a song about... a dragonfly. It's the only paper on that keyboard. She wouldn't have known this. We were walking this woman's Jack Russell. My friend Abbie recently got another Jack Russell and we just had a discussion that she wanted to name it Dragonfly.

I don't put much more meaning into these times except to appreciate them as an acknowledgement that I am on a good path and enjoying every step. Reading your words are another part of the joy. Nice work, Derek.