You came to a party - and you met a person who was born on the same day as you. Or ran into on the street with an acquaintance of whom they had just thought. Or they heard a song on the radio that they were just humming to themselves. There are many such coincidences in our life, and sometimes they are truly amazing … And what do scientists say about this?
Contrary to probability theory
One of the few who has ventured to research the nature of coincidence from a scientific point of view is Dr. Bernard D. Bateman, a professor at the University of Virginia, who previously headed the department of psychiatry at the University of Missouri.
In fact, they tried to study the phenomenon of coincidences even before Bateman. For example, the founder of the statistics department at Harvard University Frederick Mosteller and his colleague Percy Diaconis tried to calculate the probability that several strangers gathered together will have birthdays on the same day. As you know, there are 365 or 366 days in a year. That is, in theory, in order for the company to have at least two birthday people, the number of those present should exceed 366 …
Nevertheless, scientists found that in a company of 18 people, the chances that at least three of them were born on the same day are 50/50. In a company of 88 people, at least two will have the same date of birth. And in a company of 187 people, the dates of birth must be the same for at least four members.
Scientific varieties
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Bateman categorizes matches into several categories. The first is synchronous coincidences. Literally the term "synchronicity" means "joint simultaneous movement." The professor describes the reaction to such a coincidence as "a surprise that arose when an external event reflected a thought that had arisen in the head, although there is no direct investigative connection between them." Let's say you suddenly remembered an elementary school teacher you hadn't seen for 20 years, and on the same day you ran into her in a store.
A serendipitous effective match leads to the fact that you find exactly what you were looking for, and you do not understand how it happened. You find a wallet with money when you need funds, or some thing that you urgently need. Or you come across an advertisement for a service that is just required …
Serial matches are a series of similar matches. For example, people win the lottery much more often than one might think. So, Mary Vollens from Toronto (Canada) in September 2006 twice became the winner, having entered the numbers she saw in a dream on the lottery ticket. In September 2013, Diana and Kerry Carmichael from Arizona won a big lottery win for the second time: they hit the jackpot for the first time in 1995. The new win came in handy, since the money from the previous one was just running out.
“The phenomenon of seriality differs from serendipity and synchronicity in that this series of coincidences occurs in the real world, and a person notes and remembers it,” states Bateman. - Unlike synchronicity, there is no element of subjectivity here. This series of coincidences can theoretically be verified by anyone.
Synchropathic coincidences are a phenomenon when we sense at a distance what is happening to another person, we catch his physical and emotional experiences or even thoughts. Most often this happens between people who are blood relatives.
Such a story happened to Bateman himself. When his father was dying, Bateman, who at that time was thousands of kilometers from him and did not know anything, suddenly began to choke for no apparent reason. Subsequently, he was told that literally in the same minutes, a similar thing happened to his father.
This relationship is especially common between identical twins. Even if they are not in contact with each other, they often have similar fates.
Thus, there is a known case when twin brothers were separated in childhood. They were adopted by different families who did not know each other. Interestingly, in both cases, the adoptive parents named the boys James. When both James grew up, they went to work in law enforcement. Both had two marriages, each with the first wife named Linda, the second - Betty. Both gave their sons the name James Alan.
Sarah Sanaghan, a 29-year-old Illinois resident, recently died in an accident at the same site where her twin sister had died 18 years earlier. On the night of May 26, 1996, 11-year-old Carey ran away from home with her friends. On the road, a group of children was hit by a passing pickup. Only one boy survived and was seriously injured.
In March 2014, Carey's growing sister Sarah's car collided with a truck. She suffered a head injury that caused her death. The truck driver escaped with minor injuries. It happened only a few hundred meters from the place where Carey died.
Another category is actionable useful matches, which Dr. Bateman divides into two types. The first of them includes coincidences that lead to psychological changes in a person. For example, one woman was constantly abused by her husband.
Once she was going to another meeting with her husband, who every time asked his wife for forgiveness, because of which the lady could not part with him. She got a call from a stranger who had the wrong number. The women got into conversation, and it turned out that the one who called also suffered from the aggression of her roommate … The first lady took this as a sign that she should no longer forgive her husband. After meeting with her husband, the woman informed him of the separation.
The second kind of useful coincidence is associated with cases where people, for example, find what they have lost without making special efforts for this.
So, in childhood, Bateman lost his beloved dog Snapper. For several hours, young Bernard could not find the dog. He even went to the police, but they could not help him there. Crying, the boy got on his bike and dashed off aimlessly. And suddenly he saw Snapper running down the road to meet him!
Was it a coincidence or a pattern?
Bateman argues that declaring coincidences to be nothing more than an accident “is to acknowledge that they are initially irrelevant or of great importance. Without adequate evidence, such claims can hardly be considered scientific."
- A large number of coincidences arise from hidden causes that cannot be found, says Bateman. - Accident is not an explanation, but simply a statement of what happened.
Perhaps genetics or astrological prerequisites are pushing us to one or another model of behavior. Therefore, in this situation, one can speak not about coincidences, but about some factors unknown to science that affect fate. So, Bateman puts forward the hypothesis that in the brain of every person there is a built-in "global positioning system" that allows you to perform the necessary actions and find the necessary objects. The professor cites such a case as an example. A certain student dreamed of a position as a scientific assistant in the field of research in cultural anthropology, but for a long time could not find anything suitable.
Once he had to participate in a marathon. The competition was attended by the young man's mother, who accidentally spoke to a man standing next to him, who was also watching the marathon. It turned out that this is an anthropologist and he just needs an assistant! In the end, the scientist hired the woman's son to work.
“I think my mother used her innate GPS to find this person,” Bateman said.
By the way, during laboratory experiments on rats, grid-neurons in the brain of rodents, located next to the hippocampus, were activated depending on where the subjects were placed.
“These cells marked the location of the rat,” says Professor Bateman.
According to the researcher, if we understand the patterns associated with coincidences, then we will learn to control the process of events, turning them in our favor. For example, it will be easier for us to find the information, objects and people we need.
And for a snack this fact: the next day after starting work on this article, I went to a cellular salon to purchase a new SIM card for a tablet. Opening my passport for registration and looking into it, the employee girl exclaimed:
- Wow, we were born on the same day!
Irina SHLIONSKAYA