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!

Distant past

When I was a young child of nine and ten, in 1976, my Father had a Girlfriend whom he was on the verge of marrying. I became very close and connected with this woman. They had broken up shortly after my Father had lost visitation rights with me for lack of support, and I'd never saw her again. Though I didn't thoroughly understand it, I was devastated. 13 long years later, in 1989, at age 22 or 23, I was working at a Men's Shoe Salon in a Sopping Mall in Garden City Long Island. I sold a pair of Florsheims to an older Gentleman. At the Register, I was Processing his credit card information, and noticed after staring at it in disbelief, that his surname was the same surname of this Girlfriend of my Father's, years earlier. I'd asked him if there was a relation. He'd said she was his Niece. There were maybe half dozen Salesmen in the store, but I was the one who'd ended up waiting on him. He lived probably 20 miles away from this shopping mall. We had small talk for a few minutes, I said to say hello to her from me. He'd said he never really sees her. I found this all unusual, to say the least.

Chills/goosebumps experienced by two people at the same time in a conversation

My friend and I were having this conversation about life and our new found faith in spirituality and were pretty excited about how we had connected so well even though we just met a few months back. We'd just finished breakfast and crossed the road, while doing that my friend saw a car number 1212 and showed me. Now we've both been seeing synchronicities (repeating numbers) recently and the seen the spiritual meaning of those numbers actually be a 100% on point in our lives, some more sooner than others. 1212 of course means a new chapter of your life is about to start and this is your magic chapter and so on... Well we walked a few steps more on crossing the road and reached my car and got into an intense conversation about all things and how life works out when you stay connected and don't let fear rule your world. And at this random moment, I don't quite remember what we spoke about but we both felt these goosebumps appear at the same time and we like like woahhh what is going on but as those goosebumps passed something just felt right.

Wrong Name, Right Place, Right Time

At the age of 18, one week after high school graduation, I boarded a bus from Pasadena, CA, to Daytona Beach, FL, hoping to find a childhood buddy of mine, Doug. I wore Dolphin shorts, a tank top, high top shoes, and a headband onto the bus. I stowed my backpack with the luggage. The bus broke down in the South (Louisiana, I think), and we were transferred to another bus. When I arrived in Daytona, my luggage didn't arrive with me. With nothing but the clothes I was wearing--and no address for my friend (I'd figured to get a hotel room, take my time trying to track him down when I arrived)--I looked in the white pages of the phone book for my friend's name. There was a Doug "Last Name" in the book who matched my friend's first and last name, but he had the wrong middle initial. He lived a few miles from the bus station. I figured maybe, just maybe, this guy with the first and last name that matched my friend might have run into my friend, thought it was a huge coincidence that they shared the same name, and remembered him--and maybe where he lived. So I checked a map and walked to the address. It was a condo. I looked through the window ... empty.

Time to wake up!

For almost a decade, I used to wake up every other day or so exactly at 6:32 in the morning (checked in the digital o'clock nearby). Maybe there is a physiological (extreme regularity, which knowing myself I hardly believe) or psychological factor (like remembering only the favorable events) going on here, but it was a very weird period for me. Now it is gone.

A unexpected Sighting

I live in the Midwest. During the month of May, my son and I visited my Cousin and her family for a Month in the Orlando area. We spent a day at Disney World. I was certain that I saw my Endocrinologist walk right past me. How could that be? She lives 1,200 miles away! 5 days after my return, I had an appointment. Yes, it was her. She and her family were at Disney World that day. Very weird!

My son's birthday

I went into labor on July 22, 2002. My son was born 29 hours later on July 23 at 1254 PM. The same birthdate as his deceased Paternal Grandfather. It was certainly an extra special day for his father's family!

Cousins

When I was living in Lilongwe I had a carpool with a certain person. When I moved to Oxford this person's cousin was in my tutor group.

The Planet Vulcan

I went through about a year period of time where I was posting in a local internet forum and I would randomly bring up a topic or a theory I had or anything really, and within a week or two, sometimes days, something directly related to it would happen in the real world. This could be in the form of an article on a mainstream newsite coming out related to it, which most of the time I would find by accident. One of the single craziest ones was while I was doing some reading about ancient gods, I came across the Roman god Vulcan (2018-09-15 ), who I had never heard of. I noticed some similarities to the god of the Bible so I made a little post comparing the 2 (2018-09-19) and unbeknownst to me at the time, several news articles came out that day announcing we discovered the planet Vulcan. They'd be too numerous to name but since they are all posted on a forum, the proof is documented. Well, all the ones I posted about at least. Many more happened that were not documented beforehand. A recent one that comes to mind is I was looking at the meaning of the number 1488 and working on something related to it.

Place I live

My parents lived in Australia 1968-71 and my eldest brother was born there, they then returned to England and settled in Derby in a suburb named Chaddesden where I was born. Several years after moving there my mother was looking through photos of Australia and found a picture of my brother standing next to the mail boxes of the block of flats they lived in (204 The Avenue, Parkville, Melbourne, Victoria) in the background was the entrance to the block of flats and the name above the door was Chaddesden. My parents had never realised and only called it by the number and road name. I have google earthed! Chaddesden and the only places I can find in the world called Chaddesden are the area in Derby that I used to live, some roads in Dronfield Derbyshire that are obviously named after the area I used to live as there are other road names that are the same, and one road in new Zealand which was named after someone who went from Chaddesden to live there.

Headphones

I have so many however this one happened recently. I bought a Crown headphone and the woman who owns the company ran off with my money. I was devastated. 2 wks later a man emailed me, not related or knows of the other Crown headphone company, and said he wants to make me a new best one crown headphone set of my choice. I Sussex him out, found him legit, he made me the headphones of my choice and sent it to me. He had NO idea of my previous trauma with another crown headphone company.

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