Random chance or fate?

[Doc. Josh]

Wondering as to what the forum counter parts think on this one. Random chance or fate? Somthing to the effect of today i was driving and talking about a movie i said the word psychic and at that very moment i look to the right and there was a psychic reading place. Which ive never seen before today and have only seen a handful. Same thing as to other events like a certain person in the wrong place at the wrong time and so it unfolds to be his or her unlucky day. Like you'r car breaks down in the morning and later on you discover somthing terrible has happend and you would have been there if the car cranked right up ultimately saving your life. Could this be some sort of life balancing thing that has occured for ever or is it really just dumb stupid luck?

Edited April 10, 2011 by Doc. Josh

[Ringer]

Dumb luck, you have probably talked about psychics thousands of times before that, but there was nothing to make you remember it really well. This time you just happen to see an advertisement and remembered it. Same thing with the unlucky day. If something bad happens you are more prone to getting angry over little things that may not bother you if something bad had not happened to you earlier.

[xxSilverPhinxx]

I think you could've maybe seen the sign unconsciously, sometimes we notice but don't see things.

 

Also, have you counted the number of times you've said any other word that didn't coincide with something else?

[Marat]

The brain is constantly ticking over a lot of ideas, almost all of which are misses in terms of any coincidental links to the surrounding world. When occasional hits do occur, we suffer from an observer prejudice that highlights the statistical signficance of this match between brain contents and world contents. These apparent hits can also be exaggerated by our generous use of similarity criteria for determining what counts as a match between mind and world. "Golly, I was dreaming about the unlucky number 13 last night, and when I woke up to my radio alarm, the announcer was saying, 'This is your unlucky day.'" Well, were you dreaming of the number 13 or the unlucky number 13? Does the radio announcer know you and was he speaking to you?

[Dekan]

The brain is constantly ticking over a lot of ideas, almost all of which are misses in terms of any coincidental links to the surrounding world. When occasional hits do occur, we suffer from an observer prejudice that highlights the statistical signficance of this match between brain contents and world contents. These apparent hits can also be exaggerated by our generous use of similarity criteria for determining what counts as a match between mind and world. "Golly, I was dreaming about the unlucky number 13 last night, and when I woke up to my radio alarm, the announcer was saying, 'This is your unlucky day.'" Well, were you dreaming of the number 13 or the unlucky number 13? Does the radio announcer know you and was he speaking to you?

 

This is very interesting, because I've noticed something similar recently:

 

I'm reading a book, or doing a crossword. The radio is on in the background, half listened to. The radio says a word which matches the word that I'm reading!

 

So for instance, I look at my crossword for the clue to "12 Down". At the precise same moment, the radio says "The Dow-Jones index was down 12 points". (That's not an actual example, I just made it up to illustrate the point). But that kind of thing seems to happen with disturbing frequency.

 

I never noticed it happening in past years, but now I do. Is it caused by getting older perhaps?

[Cygnus47]

I don't care for the word fate, it sounds much to magical to me. I'm a determinist and believe that everything, including our free will is determined by our conscience interpretation of external events. And to the dismay of many here that believe in quantum uncertainty, I prefer to believe that every change has a cause. Entropy at work!