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.

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Well I Never!

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

Bosnia Herzogovinha

In the 80s I was reading Anna Karenina with BBC Radio Four on in the background. I just got to the part where Bosnia Herzogovinha is mentioned - this was the forst time I had seen this written down or heard of it, I wondered how it was pronounced and at that exact same split second the BBC Radio news reader said it . . . wow, I laughed at that because it was such a coincidence

Doorstep caller coincidence

I was watching an episode of Mr Bean on a Sunday afternoon, about two years ago, where he was walking through a shopping centre. It reminded me of the time when I was walking through a shopping centre, in the 1970s, and was stopped by a market researcher who asked me about the Radio 1 Newsbeat programme. The next minute there was a knock at the door. It was a market researcher from NOP who was asking questions about pop music. He wanted to talk to somebody under 30, so I was no use to him.

family meeting

In 1947 I went to Warwick from my parent's home in Worthing to apply for a course in Birmingham. There were a number of applicants. Luckily I was accepted and with another successful applicant we agreed to share digs. She had come from Spalding. Later in the year she rang to say she and her parents were staying in Eastbourne and could she and her mother come over to Worthing to meet up again. We chatted for a while then as conversation flagged I suggested they went down the garden to meet my father. Then my father asked my new friend's mother if she knew Birmingham at all.The reply was 'no' but she had, many years ago, been to a party in Tamworth for a Lizzie -------, to which my father said well my wife's name is Edith -------. When my mother came home it traspired that my two of my aunts had been to the boarding school owned by my new friend's grand mother. The two families had known each other all those years ago..

Mrs C A Dawson

I ahve a twin sister living in Canada. Approx 18 years ago, I was working as an office manager at a company called AM International in Hemel Hempstead. One day, one of the company directors told me that the company was about to go through an official audit and one of the company auditors from our head office in Dallas would be visiting. I was asked if I would accomodate this auditor in my office area, and show her around, including tea & coffee, canteen, stationary supplies etc. etc. My Co Director said that it was a coincidence that the lady concerned was called Heather Dawson and I said that I had no relatives in any part of the world called Heather Dawson. She was brought to my office and we were introduced - I proceeded to show her around all the Office facilities and hoped she would make herself comfortable - If there was anything she needed to please ask. After a very short while, Heather asked me if I could show her to the Ladies Toilets. As we were on our way to the toilets, she said that she really used this as an opportunity to speak to me alone. She explained that she was feeling very strange about talking to me and did I have any relatives living in Canada.

Sometimes There is no choice but to learn Karmic lessons,- need not greedd

I lived in Melbourne and was freqently out of work . I saw an ad in the paper for models in Sydney On taking the Bus up there 13 hr journey I was extremly uncomfortable '' Tummy wobbles'' Anyhow the ad turned out to be a con. I should have listened to my innner voice The agent got himself in to a bit of trouble later that year by running over the investigative teams photographer . On the occcasions I have been to see a Psychic they always say '' You are Psychic'' a lot of Gay people are I am told the reason for this has a '' DScientific'' basis the mothers of the gay men are anxious by nature this feeds in to the boys Adrenaline system ( fight or Flight ) so in insetteling occasions acccording to the subconcuouis fires of adrenaline leading to an uneasy feeling alerting the concious mend something is wrong how acute the subconciouis is at relaying this message gives the strength to the experience Thus we get the '' Cassandra '' effect premonition about negative situations rather than positive ones , but seems a sensible survival device

Hospital Visit

Arriving at a large teaching hospital I asked the first nurse I saw where I could find the ward my daughter was in. It transpired she was the nurse allocated to the care of my daughter and took me straight to her

relation coincidence

A few years ago my wife was in a vegetarian restaurant in Shrewsbury during the Easter School holidays , when she came aware of a converation between a very capable granddaughter and her grandmother. About a month later, the only time in her life she has attended Chelsea Flower Show, the aforementioned grandmother was seen by my wife. Then later, on the May Bank Holiday, at the local Church Fete at Wentnor,Shropshire, the self same grandmother appeared on the scene. My wife felt she was being 'haunted' by this woman and so she approached her and the above sequence was confirmed. It transpired she and her husband had recently moved in to the district. I conversed with the husband and upon enquirying about his previous occupation, prior to his retiring, he had been in the Engineering Department of the Union Castle Shipping Line based in their London Office. I then revealed that 2 brothers-in-law of mine worked in the same department and he confirmed that they were, in fact, colleagues. What are the chances of that happening, both the former and the latter?

Dr Richard M

Some years ago I was listening to the Gymnopedie no1 by Erik Satie on a CD in my house and switched on to Classic FM where exactly the same piece of music was being played.

coincidence 20 years apart.

My sister and I both married men who are seven years our junior. Both our husbands' suffered two serious (life threatening) illnesses within the first two year of marriage. My sister was married in 1978 and I was married in 1998.

The same names

My parents are Ronald and Dorothy H (nee T). When my birth was registered the registrar was a lady by the name of Dorothy T-H. To have a mother who was Dorothy T who became Dorothy H and a registrar called Dorothy T-H has always seemed a strange coincidence to me. This occurred in late 1956 in Lancashire. Steve H

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