A Brief History

Coincidence is a phenomenon which most people experience in their lives. Some people experience very striking coincidences, but many people dismiss such experiences as pure chance. Others seek meaning in the coincidence.

The earliest recorded example of significant coincidence appears to be in the story written by Horace Walpole 'The Princes of Serendip'. This is a story of three Princes of Ceylon who enjoy fortuitous coincidences.

Alice Johnson wrote a book length paper on the subject of Coincidence. This was partly presented by Frederick Myers at a meeting of the Society of Psychical Research in London in 1899.The first study requesting details of experiences was carried out by Camille Flammarion in 1899 and the results of his survey were produced in his book 'L'Inconnu' ('The Unknown') in 1900. This was, in essence, a study of coincidences surrounding deaths.

More work was done on coincidence in the 1920s by Kammerer, who introduced his concept of 'Seriality', and by Karl Jung who coined the term 'Synchronicity' for the phenomenon of meaningful coincidence. Arthur Koestler, the novelist and thinker, became interested in the study of Coincidence. He wrote a letter to New Scientist in 1972 requesting accounts of coincidences. This was following publication of his book 'The Roots of Coincidence'. More coincidence accounts came in Koestler co-wrote another book with Alister Hardy and Robert Harvie in 1973 entitled 'The Challenge of Chance' In 1974 he persuaded 'The Sunday Times' to hold a competition for the best Coincidence account. 2000 entries were received. The paper screened these to fifty and Koestler chose a winner from these. Little has been done with the other accounts as coincidence is an almost impossible area to which attempt to apply statistics in order to draw general correlations or conclusions from such a large database

In the last twenty years, a considerable number of books have been published on 'Coincidence'. Many repeat the same earlier accounts. some are less precise than others at giving full details, seeking more to sensationalise the phenomenon. Some books are listed below.

Brian Inglis updated Koestler's accounts via an article in 'The Observer' on Christmas Eve 1989. Again he asked for accounts of coincidence and included a questionnaire. The results were published in his 1990 book 'Coincidence - A matter of Chance or Synchronicity'.

Arthur Koestler died in March 1983 and he was so convinced of the value of research into the paranormal that in his will he left the major portion of his estate to establish the Koestler Foundation . The intention was to found a University chair to further its study. Few universities would even consider the possibility. Even Prince Charles berated them for their temerity It is still a subject that the academic world shuns. One should remember that the Society of Psychical Research was founded by three Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge in 1882. What a pity that few universities today are equally open-minded.

Eventually, Edinburgh University accepted the Chair, but only by creating it as a Chair of Parapsychology in the Department of Psychology . That is the very limited extent of its respectability.

In 1973 Arthur Koestler had collaborated with Alister Hardy and Robert Harvie in a book on coincidence and probability. It was entitled 'The Challenge of Chance'. In the first part of the book, Alister Hardy described the results of experiments on extra-sensory perception (ESP) over seven consecutive Monday evening in Caxton Hall, Westminster in 1967 with a participating audience of 200 people. In the second part of the book Robert Harvie discussed 'Probability and Serendipity'. In part three, Arthur Koestler gave accounts of many cases of strange coincidences, some quite thought provoking, others which rather incredibly were to be re-echoed in my own experiences. It seems to be very much in the manner of a composer choosing to repeat a theme in a piece of music in a manner which is subtly altered but very clearly recognisable. But who or what could be behind this re-orchestration? The two most notable examples which fall into this latter category were the 1944 D-Day Crossword codes, which in January 1991 were linked to the Gulf War and in April 1991 the case of Hotel room 307. Incidentally that occurred in Wakefield, Yorkshire.

Alister Hardy was a Professor of Biology at Oxford and a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. He founded the Research Centre for the Scientific Study of Religious Experience. Initially it was loosely attached to Manchester College, Oxford. In 1989, I had several meetings with the acting director of the centre, Gordon Wakefield, discussing coincidence and religious experience, among other things. Some time in 1990, I discovered that a new director had been appointed so I went along to hear him speak at his first London meeting. Afterwards, over tea, I was able to have a discussion with him. His academic background was in the Psychology of Religious Experience. One question came into my mind. I asked him whether, as a result of his many years of study in this field, he could say whether the phenomenon of religious belief in man arose from some innate need within man to have a belief in some Higher Power or whether it arose from a real interaction with an outside entity. His answer was that he didn't know. I suggested that my research could give some pointers to help answer this question. A few days later I sent him a copy of a paper. Subsequently he wrote and told me he did not feel he could support my research in terms of academic funding. No doubt many would concur with his decision.

Some months later, my wife Jenny received a letter from her mother in New Zealand giving news of her mother's cousin, Dorothy Brown. It transpired that Dorothy's husband was now a professor at Oxford and Lawrence Brown had been given a copy of a paper by somebody with the same name as mine. When Jenny told me this, I laughed in amazement.

I had written many papers on waste water treatment between 1973 and 1983 , but in fact what Dorothy Brown was referring to was a copy of the first paper I had ever written on Coincidence. This was what I had sent to the new director of the Alister Hardy Research Centre, the very same Professor Lawrence Brown after our meeting in London. That paper was entitled '557 - Beyond Space and Time'. It was a paper I had written early in 1990.

That seemed a astonishing link between coincidence and religious experience, but I still could not convince Lawrence Brown of the validity of my Coincidence studies. The next time I saw him was in Auckland, on 27th August 1995. We had both been invited, with our wives, to dinner at Jenny's parents' house. Is it just chance that I had just given the only public paper I have ever given on my work on Coincidence? I had given the paper 'Problems with Probability' at an Aviation Safety Symposium at Auckland University that very afternoon at 1.30 pm. The initial part of the paper was concerned with the enigma of 557,and this had been part of that first paper which I had given Lawrence Brown back in 1990. It is difficult to escape the conclusion that there is some element of orchestration in all of this - and it certainly wasn't by Jenny's mother!

It is notable that our research has led us to a study of coincidence, psychic phenomena and religious experience. The fields appear to be inextricably interconnected.   We refer to the intricate interconnections between meaningful coincidence, prophecy, destiny and psychic information as The Enigma Codes Of Destiny. Sometimes incoming information may be less obviously psychic. It could then be termed inspired. A significant number of novels fit into this category, as well as the works of various artists and composers. But meaningful coincidences both within and surrounding these various works embed them firmly in the Codes of Destiny

Here is a well known example of curious coincidence. Is it significant?  Certainly many people are fascinated by it. It is one of our most visited pages. What is it that makes people wonder? The skeptics scoff. Yet the uncanny parallels appear to defy the laws of chance, especially given the very small number of assassinated US presidents. Is it meaningful?  If so, what is the meaning? Should we wonder about destiny. Or is Something trying to tell us we have missed something vital?

Lincoln and Kennedy
 

For some examples of how meaningful coincidence can give guidance in your life see

God's Way
557 and the Internet
Nearer my God to thee
A Conclusion

For examples of how meaningful coincidence can provide a knowledge of things to come, ie how it links to prophecy see

Meaningful Coincidence and Prophecy

Examples in that category are

Lockerbie and 557
558, 559 and.....600
A King Warns of Death
WOV 557
Things to come

Another good example of this phenomenon will be found at

A Columbia Disaster Prophecy

For examples  of how meaningful coincidence is suggestive of destiny see

Meaningful Coincidence and Destiny

Examples in that category are

A Tale of Two Kings
Destiny and N739PA
The Death of Princess Diana
All in an April Evening

To understand how meaningful coincidence can give cross-correlating evidence for life after death and how it can authenticate psychic communication, see

Life After Death

Examples in this category are

Ankhsoun pa Aten
Mary Magdalen
The Duke of Windsor
Diana, The Princess of Wales

For examples of meaningful coincidence and inspiration see

Meaningful Coincidence and Inspiration

Examples in this category are

The Titan & the Titanic
The Seventh Sign
John Martin - Visionary Artist
The Dorset Disaster

Perhaps meaningful coincidence is the missing key.  It can guide us. Frederick Myers and Henry Sidgewick were very close to the truth that night in the Fellows Garden at Trinity College , Cambridge, in 1869.  Psychical research is indeed the way to a certainty of  the existence of God. Victorian science had destroyed the old certainties of the Bible. For good or ill, almost certainly now the latter, it is science that has since given us the world we know today. But the wheel comes now full circle. For meaningful coincidence allied to psychic information destroys the certainties of science. There must be more to the universe than the physical world of space and time.

Conventional science cannot account for the kinds of experiences which I discuss on this site, without falling back on the trusted standbys of chance or fraud.  I know that it is not fraud. My research is fully recorded and documented. But what  is most astonishing is that any thinking logical person, anyone with any kind of open, enquiring mind can accept  that it is just chance.