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!

dreams of dead people

I've also had the same dream as a few other acquaintances about a friend of ours who died, but that was not at the same time. still, i heard about someone else having that dream after i did, so don't think it was just influenced from hearing about it, and then my other friend said an acquaintance, who probably wouldn't have heard about the dream from either of us, also had a similar dream about him Also, i've read about someone having the same/very similar dream as me about dead musicians twice. one time was on the same night, a few days after david bowie died. in these dreams, we have basically the same conversations with the dead person, in similar locations, and the dead person has a similar affect.

mutual dreaming

I've had 4 mutual dreams that I know of. I'll summarize them below. Feel free to ask any questions :) Sorry if it's a long (and boring) read 1.) The first one i had was when i was 15 and i was sleeping over a friend's house before i was about to move away to another part of the country. we had always talked about writing a comic book together, but we never did it. so in my dream, we were "building" like a comic book together (but i guess it was more like a movie). We didn't see each other, it was just like we had disembodied voices. then it got kinda weird, because i kept trying to make the characters do sexual things (i think this was probably because i had a crush on my friend). when we woke up in the morning, my friend told me she had a dream we were making a comic book. i said omg me too, and we talked about it a little more. then she was like 'ok, but then you got weird at the end.. why did you do that?" lol 2.) During another sleepover when i was 17, my friend and i both dreamed that we were at some ho-down, dancing and spinning around with our friends.

Chased down by Mr. Mister

Yesterday I was in a local charity store. The 1983 song "Kyrie" by Mr Mister was playing in-store on the radio. I thought to myself that it was a good song that I hadn't heard in years,and made a mental note to download it when I got home. I noticed there seemed to be some ''new" arrivals in their crate of vinyl records and started flicking through them (all the while, song still playing on the radio...) and the third album in the crate was"Welcome to the Real World" by Mr.Mister, featuring"Kyrie"

House and school coincidence

Coincidence We bought a house from a very nice family about 8 years ago. We shared a celebratory drink on completion and then didn't see them again. This year my daughter is going 70 miles away to boarding school (about 1000 pupils). She is joining in the second year and went to meet the 12 girls of her year that are in her house. As it turned out, one of them used to live in our house, the daughter of the family we bought from. On bumping into the parents at school yesterday, we discovered that I also share a birthday with the father (not the same year alas) What are the chances of that

Did I find the wrong one first?

In 2010 I moved to Chicago. In 2011 I met Neil, born June 19, who would become my boyfriend for the next two years. Also in 2011, I met Lauren, who became a fast friend and remains so to this day. One year ago, in August of 2017, I met Lauren's brother for the first time in DC while he and Lauren and their family were vacationing in DC (where I currently live until I graduate in December), Neal, born June 20, who became my boyfriend and has been for the last year. So I dated two men with the same name, slightly different spellings, and birthdays one day apart who are both from Chicago. Seems pretty strange and bizarre to me! Also, Neil was my first love, but it was not meant to be. Neal is my true love, and we plan to marry in the next couple of years. (Another strange connection; they are both addicts but Neil is still using and Neal has been sober for 10 years.

Jurassic Dog

Last night we took ourselves out to the cinema to see Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. I was suggesting to my brother that it would be funny if someone had dressed up as a velociraptor and frighten all the cinema audience,just as some guy had done online by dressing his dog as a giant spider on youtube. Just at that moment,the ads on the cinema screen for Amazon echo-dot featured a family with a dog dressed as a dinosaur!

Ghosts from the past

I moved to Sweden from England 44 years ago and worked for a while as a postdoc at a university here. 7 years ago I was taken ill and spent some time in hospital, partly in the care of a doctor who turned out to be the daughter of the professor I worked with all that time ago. As if that was not enough, the person in the next bed had a visit from a niece-by-partnership. The visitor recognized me in the next bed: she had worked as a laboratory assistant for the very same professor when I first started here. We had not had any contact for at least 40 years.

World Hockey League

Met Tom in 2003 and work closely with him...Tom played in the World Hockey League 1991-1992 season...his daughter now plays Youth Hockey and Tom coaches...she also collects player cards...similar to baseball cards....now the WHL is not a Major league but they did have player cards rare in and of itself....Tom collected cards and has thousands, he went to find his old card from the WHL to share with his daughter....on top of his card he discovered the card on top was for one Scott Lindsay....so here is the coincidence....my name is Scott Lindsay....today he gave me the card...so strangely Tom and I were connected long before we met....coincidence....I don't believe in them...everything happens for a reason...we need to discover the meaning behind them....the Architect of the Universe is awesome and likes to reveal in these coincidences.

A Message Of Understanding

Last evening I heard some disturbing news that a former colleague and friend had suddenly passed away unexpectedly. We used to get together every month or so for a study group or to relax with a lovely meal and conversation. Over the years, we went our separate ways with new jobs and raising our families and a life altering incident which created a (self perceived) rift within our group. I was feeling some sadness at this sudden loss of life in someone who was so vibrant and dynamic. I am also preparing a book of advice for my daughter who is graduating soon and am writing quotes and pasting in stickers, photos etc. I decided to look for more paper ephemera to add to the journal, and went down cellar to my hobby room and opened up the drawers of an old dresser repurposed into a storage center for paper crafting. I spotted a beautiful hand stamped dragonfly card and pulled it out from under a pile of decorative paper, thinking it would be perfect for the journal. I opened the card and inside was a written note from the colleague who had just passed away and a photo of our group at one of our YA Ya gatherings!

Crick in the neck

One morning my friend wrote me about a crick she had developed in her neck and asked how she might treat it. Later that day, around 330pm, I was watching an episode of Hell's Kitchen in which a chef contestant named Jonathan developed a crick in his neck and couldn't help the others with preparation for supper. Then later that night, around 5pm, I watched as my son practised Jiu jitsu in class, and had his neck twisted hard enough for him to cry and need the application of ice. He had a stiff neck that evening. It occurred to me after that here was a series of three events that were all very similar. Previously I hadn't heard even a single complaint about a stiff or sore neck for what must be over a year. And here were three sore necks in a single day.

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