Meaningful Coincidences by Bernard Beitman

Author:Bernard Beitman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spirituality/Self-Help/Memoir
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2022-06-11T00:00:00+00:00

PART 3

Incorporating Coincidence into Your Life

11

“There Are No Coincidences”

The statement—“There are no coincidences”—reveals a paradox at the core of the subject of coincidences. Embedded in the definition of a coincidence—as two or more events coming together in a surprising, unexpected way without an obvious causal explanation—is a suggestion that there might be an explanation. But the possibility of an explanation creates the opportunity for saying “there are no coincidences.” Because if a cause can be defined, then it’s not a coincidence. Or “it’s too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence.”

If, as some people believe, God is the cause behind a coincidence, it’s no longer a coincidence. When God is called in to explain coincidences, you are the recipient of divine grace. If you think you had something to do with it, you are deluding yourself. “Coincidences are God’s way of remaining anonymous,” they say. Or, “It was meant to be.”

Experiences involving human GPS and other forms of psychic ability appear to be coincidences. But because psi is not recognized by mainstream science, psi events, which clearly do happen, are regarded as just a coincidence. But once conventional science recognizes psi as real, these events will no longer be regarded as coincidences. Except, that is, for the vexing problem of explaining psi events. Labeling them as psi events is a start.

So what remains after all possible explanations for a coincidence are exhausted? Randomness. But in this case, even the word coincidence would no longer apply, as they would just be random events, not coincidences.

Since coincidence research is, in part, an attempt to understand the underlying causes of coincidences, once they are understood, they are no longer coincidences!

Even as God, statistics, psychic abilities, and other means of personal agency are considered as explanation for coincidences, some remain unexplained—without a cause. It is in this residue of cases that some researchers seek an understanding of the nature of reality. Serial coincidences, for example, many of which appear to have no personal meaning, suggest to some that there is an underlying pattern to reality that is being hinted at.

Paul Kammerer, the Viennese biologist mentioned earlier, attempted to systematize his observations of these series and to develop explanations for how they occur within the limits of current scientific knowledge. He proposed that information could not be destroyed. The longer a system stays together, every part within and surrounding it gains the stamp of the system. When the system does break apart, the broken pieces carry with them the marks of the original system. One way to create coincidences comes from their constant motion; the parts can run into each other. Using the idea that like attracts like, similar parts of the same system come together to create a coincidence series. Kammerer believed that our environment holds limitless amounts of information that is in constant motion and mostly outside of our ability to perceive it.1

Jung discounted this theory but was able to use Kammerer’s suggestion of a yet-to-be defined cause as support for his acausal synchronicity principle.

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