It is a well known fact that we humans have a built in propensity to identify patterns where none exist; to see causal linkages that are, at best, tenuous; to attribute to skill something that was the result of good luck; and to imply intention where none was meant.
This is, naturally, something that eventually gets us into trouble, because we base our decisions on this interpretation of what has already happened and a misplaced belief that similar “cause and effect” situations will continue into the future.
I have, I think, a hefty scepticism about the reality of many so called coincidences. What is most interesting is the insight that it gives you into the way in which your thinking works.
There is no doubt that there are things which, for me, trigger memories. Sometimes they are quite specific, others are more general – but either way it seems that events in my past have become irrevocably linked in my mind with specific triggers, be they visual/aural/something else.
For instance – Beethoven’s Egmont Overture will forever remind me of the Munich Olympics and the death of the Israeli athletes. The overture was played at the memorial service in the stadium. Visually, the links tend to be more specific and remind of things related to the places that I see – although sometimes the links are more tenuous.
I am sometimes surprised by the links that manifest themselves – transporting my mind back to quite specific events in the past which, up until that moment, I had no real recollection of. Sometimes it is a combination of things – and then we get back to the ‘coincidences’ theme where we started – did that combination come about to remind us of the past event? Or was it just luck? Probably the latter.
I think we must really be careful not to read to much into such enlightenments. When we try hard enough we can probably link just about any two things together with some ‘creativity’ and often when we see these coincidental linkages it is the result of our minds already being focussed in some way on the subject.
Its a bit like reading the side effects for some medication and then realising that you suffer from most of them already. 😀
I don’t expect I will stop making spurious connections, some of them are interesting even just figuring out what the connection is. I hope though that I can retain my scepticism and see that its very rare that there is any deep and hidden meaning behind the way my mind makes the links.