The Ephemeral Beauty of Meaningful Coincidences

The two primary meanings of meaningful in the term meaningful coincidences are: What does this mean for me personally? And what does this synchronicity tell me about the nature of reality?

The Many Practical Uses of Meaningful Coincidences

Surprising concurrent events help us make decisions, soothe grief, and tighten connections. They help us find jobs, needed help, information, ideas, and can foster psychological, interpersonal, and spiritual growth. (Beitman, 2016, 2022) They can be helpful during psychotherapy.

They often trigger the question—what does this mean for my future? This question is especially likely to occur in the context of a new relationship.

The Many Explanations of Meaningful Coincidences

Explanations depend on personal beliefs about the nature of reality. My research suggests that the most common explanation is God/fate and the second most common is chance/probability. These are followed by “human minds are interconnected” and “minds are connected to the environment (Coleman, Beitman & Celebi, 2009)

Some coincidences simply draw us into the moment and are beautiful as they are. In these synchronicities, use and explanation are tied together. Their use is that they stir wonder and awe in the moment, like a sunset over the ocean. Their explanation is that all we really have is the present moment of now. A personal experience will illustrate this form of meaningfulness in a coincidence.

The Rock, the Masculine, the Feminine and Internal GPS

A series of meaningful coincidences took place recently between a guest on my podcast and me. What might the meaning be?

I was watching the swiftly flowing creek near my house sculpting one particular rock with its current. Looking closely at the rock, I saw two images: a camel and the Hebrew letter Resh. In the ancient wisdom described in the Book of Thoth (Crowley, 1972) the camel is associated with the High Priestess and Resh is associated with the Sun. On the rock, the Divine Feminine, represented by the High Priestess was mixing with the sun, which represents the Divine Masculine.

Nicole Frolick

Source: with permission of Nicole Frolick

Two days later, Nicole Frolick was a guest on my podcast Connecting with Coincidence. As an intuitive life coach, founder of the Alchemy Academy, and prolific podcast host, she emphasizes harmonizing the masculine and feminine energies. The symbols on the rock in the creek mirrored one of her passions.

Nicole has also developed the idea of an "internal GPS" which helps us get to where we need to be without rationally knowing how we got there. In my recent book, Meaningful Coincidences (2022), I devote a chapter titled "Human GPS" to a similar idea.

In illustrating internal GPS, Nicole used a real-world example similar to one research psychologist Rex Stanford used while reporting on his research into this phenomenon. “As you are driving, you have the strong feeling to turn earlier than usual.” Stanford did take the intuitive hint and missed an accident. Nicole did not follow her urge and was delayed in getting to her destination. Her term "internal GPS" seems to be more accurate than my term, "human GPS" since non-humans also have internal GPS, as suggested by dogs finding their way back to their owners.

The coincidences opened the door for a possible future relationship. Will we walk through together in some way? Or not? So I decided to ask Nicole what meaning she saw.

Nicole replied: "Kismet. A beautiful sweet moment." (Jung used the term “numinous”.)

Comment

The common search for synchronicity as a guide to the future needs to include a recognition that some coincidence will highlight the moment we live in.