1201
hours. I just found an interesting article on coincidence.
For what use, boy? – Amorella
I
have no idea but it is interesting.
It appears to be rattling in your heart
rather than your mind; do you care to explain? – Amorella
1203
hours. It is? I would not have thought this, but it doesn’t take much to see it
as I now recollect that I wrote a poem on a similar subject.
**
**
The Science of Coincidences
By Tara Macisaac, Epoch Times |
March 25, 2014
A woman who was about to allow
her abusive husband to move back in with her answered her ringing phone before
leaving to meet up with him. On the other end was a woman who had dialed the
wrong number. The two ended up speaking for a little while and it turns out the
woman who dialed the wrong number had a boyfriend who was abusing her.
“The fear in the
stranger’s voice made me understand that staying with my husband was a mistake.
When I met him at the airport, I told him my thinking had changed and he could
not live with me,” the woman told Dr. Bernard D. Beitman, a professor of
psychiatry at the University of Virginia. Beitman has called for the
establishment of a new transdisciplinary field—“Coincidence Studies.”
In a 2011 paper,
he looked at the different explanations various scientists or lay people would
give for this woman’s coincidence. Some would say it’s statistically probable
that among all the mis-dialed phone numbers in the world some such occurrence
would happen eventually. Some would say the woman created this situation in
some way or added meaning to it—she was dealing with a hardship in her life and
maybe she is the type of person who tends to look for signs in her surroundings
to advise her. Some would say she was being guided by a divine force. Some
would admit that all of these possibilities could be true at once, that they
are not mutually exclusive.
Beitman said that
dismissing coincidence as a matter of chance “assumes that coincidences are
inherently meaningless or insignificant. Without supporting evidence, this
assumption is hardly scientific.” He recognized the difficulty in scientifically
proving coincidences are anything more than chance.
Frederick Mosteller
(1916-2006), founding chairman of Harvard’s statistics department, said in a
1980s study on coincidences:
“We find it refreshing to be reminded that things that ‘we all know must be
true’ can be very hard to prove.”
A look at probabilities makes
some coincidences seem less surprising—such as winning the lottery twice or
finding someone with the same birthday as you—but that does not necessarily
prove coincidences are simply chance.
Mosteller and co-author Persi
Diaconis summarize the probabilities of multiple people having the same
birthday: Among 18 people, there’s a 50-50 chance that three people will have
the same birthday; among 88 people, it is more likely than not that two people
will have the same birthday; among 187 people, it is more likely than not that
four people will have the same birthday.
As for winning the lottery
twice, it may not be as improbable as you would think. Odds were better than 1
in 30 for a New Jersey woman who won the lottery twice within a four-month
period, said Mosteller, citing a study by Stephen Samuels and George McCabe of
the Department of Statistics at Purdue University.
But what about the
coincidences in which multiple factors seem to stack up?
Epoch Times looked at
multiple cases of people who won
the lottery twice. Mary Wollens of Toronto, Canada, won twice in
September 2006 with numbers that came to her in a dream. Diane and Kerry
Carmichael of Arizona won the lottery in September 2013 just as their 1995 win
was set to expire.
Another example, one of many
accounts found by Epoch Times in which multiple factors all line up to create
bizarre coincidences, involves a set of twins who were separated at birth
and adopted by different families. Both families independently decided to name
the boys James. Both boys entered law enforcement—one as a security guard, the
other as a deputy sheriff. Both married women named Linda. Both got divorced
and remarried. Both remarried women named Betty. One named his son James Alan.
The other named his son James Allan. When they eventually met, they discovered
the eerie similarities in their separate lives. Their story is recounted in a People
magazine article.
He concluded that,
although Shakespeare may have intentionally employed alliteration, it is
possible for it to have happened by chance. One could also say then, that
although coincidences could happen by chance, that does not mean intelligent
design or some other force is not at play.
Psychology
of Coincidences
Coincidences
have much to do with recall and recognition, said Beitman. Ruma Falk showed in
a 1982 study that even how a story of coincidence is told can influence how
surprising it is. Humans tend to seek patterns.
Beitman
acknowledges this subjective aspect of studying coincidence, but he argues it
does not have to be at odds with a scientific investigation.
“To
notice a coincidence requires paying attention to one’s own thoughts, mental
images, and feelings while also monitoring surrounding events. Some people seem
coincidence-prone: that is, they possess a penchant for noticing coincidences
that is not shared equally by other people,” he wrote.
He
continued: “One of the biggest challenges in the development of the new
discipline of Coincidence Studies is providing a systematic place in scientific
research for subjectivity and for human consciousness. Meaningful coincidences
depend upon the mind of the observer. The question of how to develop methods
and an accompanying technical language that includes and respects the
subjective element built into the fabric of coincidence needs to be answered.”
He
noted the ways in which both Einstein’s theory of relativity and quantum
physics take individual perspective into account. The theory of relativity
shows that the position and speed of the observer affects measurement outcomes.
Quantum physics has shown the act of observation can physically affect the
object being observed.
When Epoch Times asked him
whether any universities had picked up on his suggestion of a Coincidence
Studies discipline, Beitman answered via email: “I am not aware of any data
based coincidence research going on right now, although there is plenty of
theorizing and story collection. It will be years before this new field
becomes part of a university course of study. Universities are notoriously
conservative in including new ideas.”
From Epoch Times, 25 March 2014
** **
1225
hours. How do you make a differentiation between heart and mind when choosing
where this interest is coming from?
This is a good question, my man. The heart
is emotional responding; the mind is rational responding. - Amorella
Which
is deeper?
The heart. – Amorella
So,
human beings are more emotional than reasonable.
You are more emotional than reasonable. –
Amorella
This
is not what I wanted to hear.
It is true nevertheless. – Amorella
Can
I change this?
Not
and remain honest. – Amorella
1238
hours. I suddenly see this as a problem for one who is recently dead in the
books.
Yes, following the rationale set forth for
the Dead in the Merlyn books this may pose a problem. – Amorella
This
could be depressing.
Dusk
on going. You just returned from supper at the Brazenhead Pub, during which you
discussed the car and both of you decided it wasn’t worth pursuing a new car
until the 2005 Accord has a lot more miles on it. You are happy this is settled
and are looking forward to cleaning and touching up the car to give it a
classic appearance. You even mentioned again about having only one car but
there is really no reason for this, besides the miles you put on the Honda are
not miles on the Avalon, even miles to Florida if you decide to take a summer
jaunt down to Linda and Bill’s. Kim is in charge of setting up the November
trip with Chris and Larry and Carol was talking about the trip to Toronto in
mid-September. – Amorella
1926
hours. While Carol is online I’m beginning chapter nine on the keyboard.
No comments:
Post a Comment