What is the other possibility aside from coincidence? Reminds me of the Global Consciousness Project.

If you heard about a certain thing that means its garnishing widespread interest. If you thought about a certain thing its likely something influenced or led you down that path and so may have did so to others.

To be surprised by a coincidence means, somewhere deep down in your heart, you either think or, god forbid, hope, that it's not a coincidence. It's very much like being turned on by a thing that turns you off.

Maybe, though it’s interesting how there are just random things that I just take mental note of and then watch how those things become recurring events.

Confirmation bias? Say if you or I became fixated with a common object say blue jeans or red cars, we'd suddenly begin to notice them more. There is a very little chance all of a sudden random people you've never met are going to suddenly start wearing blue jeans or drive red cars more often, it is a perception. The book "Seeing Red Cars" talks about this and even gives it a positive spin.

Who knows? I could chalk it up to coincidence or mental redirecting. I could even go super metaphysical about it all and talk about how our thoughts are energy and energy influences our surroundings and then tie that to the so-called butterfly effect.

Has anyone ever had moments when they noticed a random topic and had that very topic come alive around them? What I mean is hearing about one inconsequential thing and then having that thing become popular for no related reason. — Braindead

Is a random topic necessarily inconsequential ?
Whenever I try to think of something random that I have noticed, I wonder at its randomness.
How might e.g. a discussion thread be random ?
Something picked out of thin air with no obvious cause.

I think most events have causes, don't they ? And in turn there are consequences. So, how can something random be inconsequential ? It might not have importance but then there will be a knock on effect. The random idea might not be obviously related to another or become popular but it is out there. In the public domain. Memes spread like a virus.

Other times I have heard or thought about a certain thing that no one would normally talk about, only to have that very topic pop up repeatedly. — Braindead

It depends what you consider 'normal'. Recent events have turned 'normal' on its head. It is now normal to hear people talk of 'social distancing', masks and hygiene.

We are more aware of where we stand in relation to each other.
Different ways of looking at the world and the values of society.
Who is considered worthy of saving. Who are left to die alone.

Home alone without usual diversions, some might even turn to philosophy or art. So, our surroundings influence our thoughts and vice versa. We might have more individual and collective energy.

On TPF, I participated in what might be termed a random thread. A little divertimento in the Lounge. That led to a more serious consideration of What is Good Art. So then I look around and lo and behold I notice all these other threads looking for Definitions of Art. What is Art ?
The questions were always there but the topic seems to have become more popular or relevant.

Is it because there is a general stirring of the creative spirit.
We have had to stop consuming products at the rate we were doing. Some things aren't even available.For example, masks or face coverings. So we have to make our own.

Have you seen how creative people have been in making their own ? Necessity is the mother of invention, as is fear.
What the hell would we do if we run out of toilet paper ?
So, collective fear transmits and humans panic.

Nothing particularly random. Just the ways things are.

I had thought that 'Coincidence ?' might be 'Serendipity' but that's not the same thing. Related to ideas about fate v determinism.

At odds with the idea of randomness is the concept of karma. What goes around comes around.
If only...

Other times I have heard or thought about a certain thing that no one would normally talk about, only to have that very topic pop up repeatedly. — Braindead

Sounds like Jung's notion of Synchronicity. But mundane psychological theories, such as the Availability Heuristic and Confirmation Bias make more sense to my mundane mind. :nerd:

Sounds like Jung's notion of Synchronicity — Gnomon

Damn. That's what I meant. Not 'Serendipity'.
Wonder what made me think of that :chin:

This may sound weird, but the television often speaks my mind. I've noticed it enough to where it makes me feel awkward and paranoid. The only time someone else mentioned it they said, "Osmosis." A dude had inquired whether I'd go to a Metallica concert with him, and the tv gave a perfect negative response, which happened to be the truth of how I felt about that.

Where would we be as a species, allegedly, if one didn't notice patterns like that or things that 'fit together'? One could imagine many discoveries and inventions were spurred by the observation of something occurring in ones environment of no relation to the observer. Now these examples are probably not how the following were conceived but perhaps they were at least in isolated cases or societies. Watching a bird make its nest or a beaver make a dam could've influenced primitive housing. Seeing a tree branch fall on an unfortunate deer, stunning it, may have influenced early blunt weapons. Coming across a charred bird or bear from a recent wildfire and noticing it was oddly aromatic and had the inexplicable power to make your mouth water may have influenced early cooking. As a few examples.

More specifically the idea of finding answers by environmental factors sounds a bit like divination in my opinion. It's usually more doing something that can produce two or more results and going by that ie. taking two identical twigs or branches and assigning a unique choice to each, placing the tip of each in a fire just until ignition, then seeing which one extinguishes itself first. Or today, flipping a coin. Kind of like how if someone was about to rob a house out of necessity, knowing it's wrong, and upon touching the handle hearing thunder rumbling or a loud thunder strike and deciding not to. Or the inverse, wondering if they should go and see if a neighbor who always helped them needs help and seeing the sun shine through the clouds after an overcast day.

It is human nature to find meaning in the otherwise meaningless, to create order out of chaos. The phenomenon of pareidolia is a prime example.

Conversely, maybe meaningful synchronicity is a real thing. And where will we be if we never realize this, and always attribute uncanny coincidences to some pattern making machine in the mind? Where will we be if there is a higher order to life in the universe, but we reject it in favor of "common sense?"

For example, a while back when I read the books “Maze Runner” and “Divergent” only to have the very same movie versions of the two come out a few months later(books came out 5 and 3 years before movie versions respectively). Other times I have heard or thought about a certain thing that no one would normally talk about, only to have that very topic pop up repeatedly. — Braindead

None of these are coincidences. Divergent and Maze Runner were popular, film studios were looking for more franchises to milk money out of after Harry Potter and took the most popular books they had in store to produce them. The reason you read them was that they were popular, you discovered them because they were popular and wide-spread and because they were popular and wide-spread they caught the studio's attention as well.

The other part is the thing that made Carl Jung think of the collective unconsciousness. But the reality is that we as a society take part in the same events and ideas until they become a feedback loop. What we perceive as coincidences are mere that we observe and take part in the same things as others, therefore, we think similar thoughts and we observe others express the same kind of ideas as us. It's the concept behind why two movies from two different studios gets made at the same time, case point, White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen.

Coincidences are how we perceive similarities around us, it's an intellectual flaw out of our biology as pattern-seeking animals, nothing more. If you want answers to your phenomena you can do further reading in psychology.

Prove it.

Coincidence
(the occurrence of events that happen at the same time by accident but have no connection.)
When your thinking of someone…and they call.
You dream of a disaster…and it happens.
A thought flashes across the screen of your mind and later re-call the intuition.
Your late leaving the house, only to come upon an accident.
You say a prayer, and someone is healed.
Someone inflicts pain, and vengeance is return…anonymously.
Could coincidence be part of Murphy’s law, or linked to knowledge lost?
An unraveled thread to our soul?
Is it an awakening of what we lost when our “image” pursued vanity?
Or is it part of our heritage long forgotten in the passage of time?
Perhaps coincidence…is an emissary of wisdom, a vessel of knowledge,
A redeemer of hope!
Does the answer to the question lie deep within our consciousness
As we meander lost in a world that uses fear to intimidate the multitude
In servitude instead of freedom?
And as you search to solve the riddle, is there a ray of hope that flutters
within the spirit as it traverses across the plain of lies and deception it created?
Perchance…the solution lies not in the journey, but following a discipline that
quenches a parched and lonely neighbor…

Frequency illusion or Baader–Meinhof phenomenon

Has anyone ever had moments when they noticed a random topic and had that very topic come alive around them? What I mean is hearing about one inconsequential thing and then having that thing become popular for no related reason. — Braindead

It's Siri. It listens in and then controls the world.