COINCIDENCE

Are “coincidences” really that? Or are they something else? How does the concept “coincidence” fit in the wider scheme of things? All our understanding of the world at large- both at macro and micro levels indicate how intricate and interdependent the universe is. The level of organisation, the pattern of complex interrelationships, continues to stupefy our scientists. Everything points to a world so organised that every event affects and is affected by all other events.

To suggest that within this organisation we have random events, or “coincidences”, defies logic. To my mind, it ranks alongside terms such as “iatrogenic conditions”- that is, a condition without a cause, in its ilogicality. A “coincidence” surely is only termed that because we don’t understand the reason behind the event. If a mechanism were discovered and elaborated upon, which explained how “coincidences” happen, they would no longer be “coincidences”.

I suggest that there is no such thing as a “coincidence”. By all means lets admit that such events seem strange and hard to explain. But why then consider them just random accidents? Instead, such occurrences should be viewed as specially meaningful- even if the meaning cannot at first be recognised. Arthur Koestler, in “The Roots of Coincidence” argues that there is probably a natural law which explains the mechanism behind “coincidences”. With the old scientific objections to such phenomena as ESP increasingly being removed, he suggests that a similar development will clarify how “coincidences” take place.

On another level, human beings seem to have a need for occurrences which are out of the ordinary or “extraordinary”. Whilst we have a hunger to explain how things work, our place in the grand scheme of things, we also seem to require mystery and surprise.
In Carlos Castaneda’s (2) and later Florinda Donner’s books (3) the notion of “coincidences” is put to practical application through the discipline developed by the sorcerers of old Mexico. In these books, Castaneda and Donner relate how “dreamers” and “stalkers” are able to access other realities by a relentless self-discipline which relegates the ego or “self” to a subordinate state. Implicit in these tales is the significance given to what one might otherwise consider as “coincidences”.




1.  Arthur Koestler: The Roots of Coincidence Picador 0330 24167 2
2.  Carlos Castaneda: A Separate Reality. Penguin ISBN 0-141-01702-3 ( and others)
3.  Florinda Donner: Being-in-Dreaming. Harper Odysseys isbn 0-06-250192-5