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!

strange happenings in Barcelona

I was fifteen ( now 47 ) and staying in Barcelona with my sister and father at his friends house in Barcelona. Pepe had been telling me that about a year previously his motor-bike had been stolen by thieves. He had reported it to the Police but said he had given up hope of it being found. I don't know to this day why I said this but I immediately looked him straight in the eye and said with great certainty ( which I felt ) that he would get it back 'very soon'. The following day I went to visit La Sagrada Familia and when we returned Pepe was very excited. He shouted that The Police had called while we were out to say his motor bike had been found and that he could come and identify it but that it had the correct numbers etc. He went off to collect it and it was indeed his! He was very grateful but after that he admitted he was afraid of me as he thought I might be a witch. He even bought me a small crystal ball before we left! Since that time I have had a few other strange coincidences but they have not remained as strong as in my teens and early 20's!

Meeting a neighbour abroard

I collect fire wood and was in the local woods one day when a man approached me and questioned what I was doing. I assured him I was just collecting dead wood. He actually lived in the same road as myself but some distance away. Some months later we were staying at out flat in the small Spanish town of Santa Pola and having a drink, in a favourire beachside cafe. Four people walked in and sat at the next table. I realised that the nearest man was the man from the woods and asked if he had a brother living in Redditch. We have now become friends.

Thinking about a famous author - and there he is!

Shortly after it was published, I bought a copy of Laurens van Der Post's 'About Blaby'. A couple of days later I had to go to my bank in the King's Road, Chelsea. As I walked on the pavement I was thinking about Sir Laurens, his book and his interest in coincidence which had been sparked by his friendship with Jung. Just outside the bank I looked across the road and to my astonishment saw Sir Laurens talking to a man. For no reason at all and as if by magic the traffic stopped and I thought, 'why not?,' crossed the road and approached the great man himself. I introduced myself and explained the circumstances of what had happened pointing out the coincidence, which subject he had often written about especially in his reminiscensces of Jung. 'There you are, it does happen and you have experienced it yourself. How far have you got with the book?' 'About 40 pages.' 'Promise you'll finish it, Its very important you do'. With that I bade my goodbyes, crossed the road and entered the bank.

Bulgarian coincidence

We (Karon and Chris) travelled to Bulgaria to buy a property by arrangement with an estate agent in Bulgaria. On the day we travelled there another couple (Karen and Chris) walked into the same estate agent on spec. looking to buy a property. The estate agent had thought this a strange occurance and told us about it. Two days later we met each other briefly at the estate agents and then waved our goodbyes as we set off on our separate ways to view properties. After 3 days of viewings we bought a house in a quiet little village and went back to the estate agents office to deal with the paperwork. Whilst there we met the other couple who were also sorting out paperwork for the house they were buying. The four of us went for a coffee and to tell each other about our exciting purchases. As we looked at the area map to see where we had each bought houses we found that we had chosen to buy in villages next to each other, our houses were about two miles from each other. As we chatted further we found that we had all come from the West Country, Devon and Cornwall. Our homes in the UK were 45 minutes distant from each other.

David B

Back in November 2011 I was in my favourite armchair one Sunday afternoon reading the book 'Vulcan 607' - the story of the Vulcan bombing raid on the runway at Port Stanley during the Falklands war in 1982. Part of the way through I read the name of an AEO (Air Electronics Officer) Terry Anning. I wonder...I thought. Back in 1962 I joined the RAF and did my basic training at RAF Bridgnorth. I met a Terry Anning there and we became friends at the time, teaming up, going out for a beer etc. When our basic training was up we went our separate ways into different trades, he a radar tech and me a photographer. Our paths never crossed again and we did not stay in touch, although I very occasionally wondered what had happened to him. On the Monday morning after I had read his name the afternoon before I fired up my computer and checked my emails. There was a Facebook Friend Request from...Terry Anning! I couldn't believe my eyes but followed it up and yes, it was the Terry I knew mentioned in the book. After 49 years we have had a lot of catching up to do.

Edwina Currie gives me a death stare

About ten years ago I was in the queue in The Windmill Pub on Clapham Common, waiting to order lunch, when my brother-in-law, who was also queuing asked me what I was going to have. I replied by saying that I really fancied a curry. At that moment Edwina Currie, who was immediately ahead of me in the queue, turned around a gave me the most withering of looks

holiday and postcard coincidence

My daughter-in-law's parents met my best friend and her husband for the first time at my mother's funeral in Surrey in October 2006. In January 2007 my daughter-in-law's mother was in New Zealand, sitting on some driftwood on a very remote beach which could only be reached by boat. She was gazing out to sea when, you've guessed it, my best friend went and sat down beside her. Just to enhance the coincidence, the two couples chatted for a while until their relevant water taxis picked them up and they both continued on their seperate trips around New Zealand. About three weeks later two post cards dropped through my letterbox together, each telling me about the coincidence on the beach, but both were sent from very different areas of New Zealand!

random song

I was in my room (which me and my brother shared). I randomly began playing a very unpopular 50 cent song in my head "Get in my car". I have not heard this song in about two years. I was about to download the song on my phone when my brother walks into the room singing the lyrics to "Get in my car". I was freaked! I asked him why he was singing this song, he too said he had no idea. It was such a strang coincidence.

Anniversarycoincidence

My husband booked a surprise holiday to Italy for our silver anniversary and on the relevant day we gave each other cards-brought at home and transported in luggage.They were identical even though brought when we were not together.

5 Year Gap

While travelling around Europe in1975 with my boyfriend, we stopped for food at a well known travelers cafe, in Istanbul, Turkey, called The Pudding Shop. We sat talking to an older American man, Bill, who was travelling alone, and sending back reports of his trip by fax, to his friends who ran a Holiday Inn back in America. 5 Years later, now married to said boyfriend, we were visiting the Pyramids in Giza, Egypt. Having lunch in the Holiday Inn next to the pyramids, my husband spotted this man sitting in the corner. "That's Bill!" he said and went over and tapped him on the shoulder. Bill immediately turned round looked at my husband and said, "The Pudding Shop!".

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