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BS: The satisfactions of the random

04 May 12 - 06:24 AM (#3346743)
Subject: BS:The satisfactions of the random
From: MGM·Lion

I might have mentioned before that one of the facts which give me delight is that "schoolmaster" and "the classroom" are perfect mutual anagrams. It is the perfection of the association of meanings as well as the cruciverbal possibilities which so please.

I take a similar pleasure in seemingly adventitious coincidences which sometimes penetrate my zone of consciousness. An example from this morning:

I had never heard, such being my intense but limited musical tastes, of a 20-years-back Norwegian pop group called A-Ha, though Emma assures me that they were big in their day. But this very morning they formed part of a solution in the Guardian crossword, to end the word "Satyagraha" (= Ghandian passive resistance). And, on p3 of this very morning's Times2, in the daily contributor's opinion and observations feature, appears a piece on the subsequent artistic career of that very group's lead singer, Morten Harket.

So, within, at most, 45 minutes, from two separate publications, this gap in my knowldege was twice drawn to my attention and repaired.

I love, and take some sort of inspiration as to the potentialities of the Universe, from such random concatenations. Does anyone else?

~Michael~


04 May 12 - 07:01 AM (#3346751)
Subject: RE: BS: The satisfactions of the random
From: GUEST

yes by the hour


04 May 12 - 09:24 AM (#3346795)
Subject: RE: BS: The satisfactions of the random
From: Amos

Serendipity is a powerful attention-getter. Hard to say which parts are random coincidence and which parts show deeper connections.


A


04 May 12 - 09:34 AM (#3346799)
Subject: RE: BS: The satisfactions of the random
From: Keith A of Hertford

Rupert Sheldrake put forward a theory that coincidences occur more often than they should, due to a phenomenon he called morphic resonance.


04 May 12 - 10:12 AM (#3346811)
Subject: RE: BS: The satisfactions of the random
From: Rapparee

Oh, my. The Universe just changed. Again.


04 May 12 - 10:31 AM (#3346818)
Subject: RE: BS: The satisfactions of the random
From: GUEST,Eliza

Several years ago I had never even heard of this village here in Norfolk, it's quite buried and isolated. But my old friend took me there one day to a sale in the village hall. I remember remarking "What a dreadful old village hall, it's falling to pieces!" Many many years later, here I am, a resident in that same village, and on the Village Hall Committee. Our aim- to build a new one! But I wonder if these 'random' occurrences are really so? It seems sometimes as if the Universe wishes to teach us something, and repeats it for us, or prepares us beforehand, so we may have knowledge.


04 May 12 - 10:39 PM (#3347034)
Subject: RE: BS: The satisfactions of the random
From: Rapparee

I visited this place in 2000, and three years later moved here. Didn't think much of it then, but I do now.


05 May 12 - 01:21 AM (#3347050)
Subject: RE: BS: The satisfactions of the random
From: MGM·Lion

Keith A ~~ Yes, Sheldrake has indeed some interesting theories; I have corresponded with him about an apparent "psychic" I used to know well. But his "morphic resonance" theories seem to me more germane to such psychic phenomena as mind-reading &c than to the sort of random coincidence I have related in the OP ~~ I don't think even Sheldrake would suggest that I was in any way in any sort of 'morphic' contact with both the compiler of the Guardian crossword and the writer of the Times article, or they with one another, such as to give rise to any sort of "morphic" FX.

Regards

~M~


05 May 12 - 12:17 PM (#3347179)
Subject: RE: BS: The satisfactions of the random
From: Mrrzy

paternal-prenatal-parental are all anagrams too. Not mutual ones, though, that would be redundant if you added mutual.

Does "therapist" and "the rapist" count?


05 May 12 - 01:01 PM (#3347189)
Subject: RE: BS: The satisfactions of the random
From: Amos

At one level, I suppose, random coincidences reassure you that your life is not completely moribund and locked into sameness of days.

But Sheldrake was pointing out something far more telling, I think; the linkages that actually "make" coincidences of meaningful event happen.

A


05 May 12 - 03:07 PM (#3347223)
Subject: RE: BS: The satisfactions of the random
From: MGM·Lion

Agreed ~~ 'mutual' in relation to 'anagram' is tautologous. Sorry.

Have always liked 'therapist' - 'the rapist' too. It counts if you want it to ~ certainly some sort of semantic felicity.

But none of these of quite the same sort as the two simultaneous refs, after about ¼-C, on the same morning in two different journals, to the one long-ago pop-group. That's the sort that really gives me the sort of delight I attempt here to describe, and doesn't seem to me to be within the parameters of Sheldrake's observations.

~M~


05 May 12 - 08:46 PM (#3347326)
Subject: RE: BS: The satisfactions of the random
From: Rapparee

If any given population is large enough "random chance" will cough up "coincidences." Once, a few years back, I was asked about my visit to a meeting in Kentucky. At that time I'd never been in Kentucky in my life. Turns out a guy who looks very much like me (tall, blonde, built like a god* and exuding sexual attraction) was a salesmen who had Kentucky in his territory. I never met him, but a couple of times I was mistaken for him.





*male, heterosexual, human looking.


06 May 12 - 12:34 AM (#3347350)
Subject: RE: BS: The satisfactions of the random
From: GUEST,Hippy Twat

Every single brain cell may be an entire universe.
We all may carry the gravitational weight and expanse of multi dimensional existence
deep within the core of our own unique and individual being..

within and without you.....


06 May 12 - 09:56 AM (#3347454)
Subject: RE: BS: The satisfactions of the random
From: foggers

Far out, man!