A True Tale of Synchronicity — or a Case of Irrational Coincidence?

Sometimes it may be hard to tell the difference

I read an article a few years ago in Ode Magazine about a psychiatrist who was seeing a patient with a pathological fear of snakes. He believed snakes followed him wherever he went — that he somehow “drew” the reptiles to him.

Both the psychiatrist and his client lived in New York City — not exactly an area teaming with serpents. Nonetheless, the man was hypervigilant about snakes and frequently suffered panic attacks just thinking about them.

One morning during a session with his patient the psychiatrist observed — incredibly — a huge snake, a python — coiled nonchalantly atop the bookcase directly behind the man in front of him.

At first he thought it must be an elaborate practical joke but quickly dismissed the thought. He abruptly ended the session, pulling the man from his office with the excuse he felt suddenly ill. He said they’d finish their appointment the next day.

But as he walked him to the foyer he confessed the truth — a snake had somehow gotten into his office. Shocked, but feeling vindicated, his client cried, “See! Didn’t I tell you snakes follow me wherever I go? Do you believe me now?”

In this case, the python had slipped out of the tank of a nearby office and slithered into the doctor’s office — at precisely the same time his client — who was tormented by snakes — arrived for his morning therapy session.

Coincidence, synchronicity and serendipity

Coincidences occur when similar things happen at the same time, like when you make a new friend and discover you’ve got the same birthday and graduated from the same college the same year.

The laws of coincidence also state the more opportunities there are for an event to happen, the greater the probability it will happen.

Years ago I was set on buying a silver Jetta. It had to be silver. I’d only seen a few on the road and I really wanted one. I went to a car dealership one Friday for a test drive but didn’t yet pull the trigger on buying it.

That same week-end I saw silver Jettas everywhere I drove. At a red light I saw them on either side of me and in the opposite lanes across the street.

Of course this was coincidental and guided by the fact I drove a lot that week-end — hence the greater probability I’d see more of them on the roads.

Then there is synchronicity, which is like coincidence on steroids. Pioneered by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, synchronistic events are ones that are meaningfully related.

The event presents a depth of meaning stronger than just a strange coincidence — even including the possibility of the paranormal.

The story of the psychiatrist and the snake-fearing patient was described in the article as a tale of synchronicity.

The writer speculated the serpent found its way into his office to help the patient gain control over his deepest fear, perhaps even releasing a healing vibrational force that inexplicably placed the snake and the man together.

The doctor called the man later explaining how he waited alone in his office with the python for three hours until the snake’s owner arrived with a crate and took him away.

This deeply impressed his client who confessed it gave him new courage to deal with overcoming his irrational fears.

It wouldn’t be fair to not include serendipity into the mix as it too deals with a somewhat similar phenomena.

Serendipity is experiencing something you’ve thought about or wished for and suddenly it wondrously appears.

It’s reported that when actor Anthony Hopkins prepared for a film role in the 1974 screen adaptation of The Girl from Petrovka he couldn’t find the book by the same title. No bookstores carried it and it wasn’t even in the city libraries.

One day on the London subway he found a signed copy of the long sought book on the seat right next to him.

Jay’s story

Our next door neighbor Jay is a retired sales executive who worked previously with a major national security company.

In his position he traveled frequently, sometimes spending numerous days on the road each month calling on his clients.

His brushes with coincidence and synchronicity were undeniably bizarre.

Story #1 — Room 314

One week Jay traveled to Jacksonville, Florida — a city of around 1.64 million people.

Upon arrival he checked into his hotel room, which was number 314.

The next day he drove his rental car about 75 miles down the highway to his appointments in Valdosta, Georgia.

He checked into his hotel room and was surprised to find again he’d gotten the same room number — 314.

The next morning he drove back to Jacksonville. This time he checked into a hotel near the airport since he was flying back to Memphis the following day.

For the third consecutive time he found himself looking at a hotel key with the number 314.

“When I mentioned this strange coincidence to the front desk clerk a gentleman behind me spoke up,” said Jay.

“If you think that was a coincidence, I was standing right behind you when you checked into to the hotel in Valdosta!”

To make things even stranger the room number — 314 — is also the mathematical constant known as Pi.

Did Jay travel through some cosmic wormhole? Was there a deeper meaning attached to his being assigned this number three times in a row — and having a stranger witness the coincidence — or was it synchronicity?

The only thing that would have made it stranger would have been if Jay had checked in on March 14th — Pi Day.

Story #2 — The man at the airport

It was in the late 1990s when Jay found himself watching the NBA playoffs in a Nashville airport lounge.

His son was returning from a week long survival training camp in the Mojave Desert, and was flying in from Denver to Nashville.

Back then, it was far less expensive to fly from Denver to Nashville rather than to Memphis, so Jay drove the 200 miles to pick up his son.

Next to him was a man from New Mexico whose wife was on the same flight as his son. He was in town to attend a reunion at Vanderbilt University.

The two were discussing basketball when Jay chuckled that he was looking forward to seeing his son but wasn’t enthused about the long drive back to Memphis.

“You’re from Memphis?” the man asked.

Jay confirmed he was.

“I’m from Memphis, too,” he said, adding that he hadn’t been back to Tennessee in 27 years.

“Where did you go to high school?” Jay inquired.

“Messick,” he replied. “I bet that school isn’t even there anymore.” He asked Jay where he lived in Memphis.

“I’m on Carnes Avenue,” Jay answered. “It runs right up in front of Messick, which is still there. In fact, I can see it from my front porch!”

The man from New Mexico shook his head in disbelief. “Why, I grew up on Carnes. What’s your address?”

When Jay told the man his street address he gasped in shock.

“That’s my house! That’s the house I grew up in!”

To dispel any doubt, the man pulled out a notepad and scribbled a diagram of the house’s floor plan.

The two men stood in stunned silence — neither believing what they were hearing.

Suddenly the arrival of the flight they were waiting for was announced. Both were anxious to collect their loved ones as they moved swiftly toward the gate — without exchanging names.

Jay has long since moved from Carnes to the house he lives in next door to us, but he’ll always remember that wild coincidence — or was it synchronicity?

Do events like these change the reality of what we attract in our world? Were there deeper meanings associated with Jay’s experiences? It’s said the power of our thoughts can give rise to synchronistic events — coincidences not confined to the logic we imagine governs our lives.

Could there be a bridge between our inner and outer worlds— between our thoughts and our realities?

That, we must decide for ourselves.