I have heard the word “synchronicity” defined as a “meaningful coincidence”.
My experience with this phenomenon has been less narrowly constrained. Most of the “synchronizations” I experience have had no apparent meaning to me. For instance, during a road-trip a few years ago, I saw three different vanity license plates in one day that each had a variation of the word “killers” on it. That really got my attention. Thinking that this might have been some kind of message or warning, I spent the next week or so on the lookout for further developments. As far as I could see, there were none. On another more recent occasion, I crossed paths with three different strangers on the same day who each made reference to the small, obscure town where my mother was born and raised. A tiny New Jersey hamlet of about 2500 people (c. 1936) that was famous for nothing at all. These encounters took place in Minnesota around 2014. The connection? Only myself as far as I could tell. Aside from the incorporation of the number three, there were no messages or lessons to be taken from these events. Coincidence? Yes. Meaningful? Not so far. Not to me.
The vast, heady vistas of mathematical statistics suggest that there is nothing unusual here. How many non-related facts cross paths in our lives every day without notice? Are the very few that do seem to be related really pushing beyond the realm of random chance? Could this be some pareidolia we apply to the data-stream that we call experience in order to comfort ourselves in the face of our ultimately meaningless existence?
Sure, that could be it. (Bummer for you though, if that’s the road you need to take!)
Psychology and anthropology have a term that you may have come across; “Magical Thinking”. It is used in a sarcastic and condescending manner to dismiss the fools who believe that reality can be changed in unapproved ways by uncertified people.
If you’ve read much of what I have written, you will know that I enjoy magical thinking the way a cat enjoys mice. It is both my sustenance and my play-thing. You experience everything through your mind. Whether you are a modern doctor shaking your head at the poor, ignorant shaman or the anorexic teenager crying over the fat girl in the mirror, only you can decide how you want to view the world.
There is meaning in your occasional glimpse behind the curtain. Deep and enduring wisdom can be seen through the cracks in the facade that reveal the secret machinery underneath. The unexpected synchronicity is a wake-up call to pay close attention to what is going on right now and to learn from it.
Or not. Entirely up to you.