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Cambridge Coincidences Collection

As of the 23rd May 2022 this website is archived and will receive no further updates.

understandinguncertainty.org was produced by the Winton programme for the public understanding of risk based in the Statistical Laboratory in the University of Cambridge. The aim was to help improve the way that uncertainty and risk are discussed in society, and show how probability and statistics can be both useful and entertaining.

Many of the animations were produced using Flash and will no longer work.

Well I Never!

Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University wants to know about your coincidences!

mr

I have frequent occasions when i think of friends or relatives that i haven't seen for a long time and the next thing they are on the phone.This happens too often to mention.It no longer surprises me.

saints

my daughterinlaws brother aged 21 and his best pal aged 17 were pilots and both lived for flying they were members of Warwick aero club based at Birmingham airport,they had a cesna light aircraft,on a flight to Ireland the plane crashed and they were both killed.the parents of the two boys got together and decided to have them buried as near to the airport as possible, and found that Elmdon village cemetery was the nearest,i attended the funeral,and when the coffins were wheeled in and placed side by side beneath a stained glass window depicting two saints.the boys names were Nicholas and Stephen.i could hardly believe my eyes when i read the names of the two saints,st Nicholas and st Stephen Mr John M

A date

Today I thought of an old friend and former colleague who died many years ago - he was an inspiring man so I googled his name (Marc Karlin) and quickly found the obituary that was in the Independent at the time. Today is January 19; he died on January 19 (1999).

It's a small world

My name is Elliot Bullock and I live in Dover, UK. I am currently travelling around Australia and 3 months into the trip I travelled to Melbourne where I stayed in one of many hostels there called Urban Central. One morning whilst eating my breakfast in the kitchen I saw a man that looked familiar but couldn't place him. At first I thought I recognised him from a previous hostel we had stayed in (as it's common for me to bump into people we have met from other hostels). Then I told myself I shouldn't think any more of it, as it was probably a stranger and I guess you see strangers that look like people you know all the time. But then he wandered through again with a friend that also looked very familiar. It then clicked, the second man to enter (the friend) was Matt Wraight. I used to live on the same hill as (Priory Hill) and who I went to the same school as although being 4 school years ahead of me, back in little old Dover, Kent, England. When I told my girlfriend that I knew this random man stood in the kitchen from home she at first thought I was mistaken but after a quick facebook search, it was confirmed Matt and his friend were in Melbourne.

Cruising coincidence

In September 2008 with two other couples my wife and I embarked on a cruise from Southampton to the Baltic. We were amazed during the cruise to see our next-door neighbours on board. We had no idea the that they were onboard and had not even really spoken, except to say hello, in the previous 12 months. We live in a small community some 6000 people on an island south of Colchester (Mersea Island). With our neighbour's party of three plus us two this made a total of 5 people from one small island on the same cruise. Without any prior knowledge.

A Coincidence, or Psychic Message?

In the spring of 1975, my husband and I (just days into our marriage) went for a walk in the Arboretum in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was a lovely spring morning, and we were enjoying our walk immensely. Suddenly, I fell to the ground, shaking so much that I could hardly speak. I am not an epileptic, nor was I sick that day. I continued to shake, and my husband Paul had to pick me up and carry me back to the car. He took me home, and laid me in bed, where I continued to shake for hours. There was no known physical cause. The next day, we got the phone call that my Mother and Grandmother had been killed in a car wreck around Austin, TX. They died instantly, at just the time that I fell to the ground shaking, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I felt my Mom and Grandma leave this earth from 1500 miles away. The lesson I took from this was that we are all connected in ways we are not aware of consciously. But there must have been some communication, either body or spirit, that existed long enough to show me what happened, even if I could not put words to it. My Aunt Frances, now deceased, was driving at the time the wreck happened.

London taxi

Some colleagues from France and Holland and I were attending a meeting in London [normally held in Manchester/Paris/ Helmond[Holland]] with half held one afternoon and the other half the following morning. On completing the afternoon session we hailed two taxis to return to our hotel. On completing the following mornings session we again hailed two taxis to return to the hotel. Three of my colleagues and I got into the same taxi with the same driver who remembered where we wished to be taken! I have more

Consecutuve Family Birthdays

My brothers birthday: March 4th, 1987 My birthday: March 5th, 1988 My mother's birthday: March 6th, 1957 My Aunt also happens to be born on March 5th (not sure what year though) What if it was just a year before or after my mother's birthyear!?

Rugby World Cup Australia 2008

My wife, daughter and I were touring Australia in 2008, which coincided with The Rugby World Cup. I am not a rugby fan, but my daughter is. When we arrived at our hotel in Perth, we unpacked, and went to the bar for drinks, before dinner. In the hotel bar were familiar sounding voices, we went in to find Group of rugby fans, from our Spotrs/Social club....in England! We had a few drinks and all the guys signed my daughters Warrington Wolves jersey that she was wearing at the time and that was that. A couple of weeks later, we were in Brisbane, and the hotel in which we were staying, was also being used by the Fiji national rugby team as they were competing in The World Cup. I asked their Captain(who was pointed out to me by the receptionist) if the team could also sign my daughters Wolves jersey, which they did, after some treasured photos were taken. We decided to go and watch Fiji play Ireland, as we were all now rugby fans! We bought a programme at the game, but decided against bothering the team again at the hotel, as they had already signed the jersey.

reading event

Yesterday morning I read about the funeral of Anthony Chuzzelwit in "Martin Chuzzelwit" by Charles Dickens over breakfast and in the afternoon I was going into Edinburgh by bus and saw a funeral procession with the black funeral carriage pulled by two black horses with plumes,the coffin behind the glass covered in flowers, and the undertakers walking behind with top hats, just like it was described in the book (except there are 4 horses in the book) I'd never ever seen this sort of funeral procession before.

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