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What's the word?

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amother

Wed, Feb 07 2024, 9:38 pm

Is there a word for an event that happens that is like a strange coincidence?

For example, you hear about a fascinating new concept or word for the first time, and later that day, you happen to read that exact thing in a book?

Or you randomly think of someone you havent thought of in 20 years, or find a picture of her, and then she calls you?

Or you find a thread on Imamother from 2004, in which you read a vort someone repeated from seminary that you never heard before, and later that day you listen to shiur and the speaker mentions that exact thought, with the source?

These things happen to me a lot. Is there a word that describes this idea? (Aside from hashgacha pratis. I'm referring to an English word.)

Malkqueen

Wed, Feb 07 2024, 9:44 pm

The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon, also called the frequency illusion, is a cognitive bias that affects how we think and process information. It's a phenomenon where something you recently learned seems to appear everywhere, making it feel like it's more common than it actually is.

(Copied this from quick Google search; I remember hearing about this in the past.)

amother

Latte

Wed, Feb 07 2024, 9:49 pm

in school we were told it shows that "it's lshma". lol
like if a teacher was preparing a lesson or a shiur and then randomly bumped into something that supported that idea, it showed her she was doing it for the right reason.
I'm sure that's not what you meant.

amother

Wed, Feb 07 2024, 9:57 pm

Malkqueen wrote:

Yes, this.
But it's more.
Like when you meet a person one day and the next day someone asks you if you ever heard of that person.
It's not just learning about something and seeing reference to it.

I have heard that sometimes someone will learn something in Daf Yomi, and an hour later they will see that gemara quoted in a Rashi in chumash. That seems to be a thing as well.

It's freaky when these things happen. I feel they happen to me a LOT. Anyone else have this ? I have a few such stories a week.

cbsp

Wed, Feb 07 2024, 10:01 pm

Synchrocity?

613mitzvahgirl

Wed, Feb 07 2024, 10:02 pm

Yes and yes. This has been halleneing to me a lot lately. The English word is de ja vu. It’s a real thing.

amother

Wed, Feb 07 2024, 10:06 pm

It's not really de ja vu.
De ja vu is when you experience something that has happened to you before. Or similar.

This is more like a strange coincidence.
Where people or events coincide twice in a row in unexpected ways.

zaq

Wed, Feb 07 2024, 10:19 pm

Dejá vu is a distortion of memory that makes you FEEL as if what is happening has happened before, rather like watching a scene from a movie you've watched before. It is not an actual repeat of a previous experience, but it feels as if it is. Rather discombobulating.

amother

Wed, Feb 07 2024, 10:32 pm

zaq wrote:

Yes but sometimes you are experiencing a new event that mirrors closely an event that happened in the past. It's not that I think this exact story happened before, but the same elements happened before. And now it's replaying again.

amother

Navy

Wed, Feb 07 2024, 10:39 pm

That other phenomenon is not a distortion of memory but rather an awakening of attention. Because you recently learned or experienced a word or a person's name or a concept, it's in the forefront of your memory, and therefore you notice it in your environment. It's the same reason why your own name will jump out at you from a list of a hundred names or from a buzz of conversation--because your brain is sensitized to it. These words or people or names have always been there, but you never noticed because your brain never had any reason to.

A similar process goes on every time I declutter. Shortly thereafter I invariably I find that " drat, I could have used that" recipe or tool or whatever--except that I wouldn't have. The item is at the moment in the easy -access portion of my memory because I just saw it as I was getting rid of it. Before that, it was quite forgotten and I would never have thought to use it--which is why I got rid of it in the first place.

amother

Wed, Feb 07 2024, 11:07 pm

amother Navy wrote:

Regarding your decluttering example...
I wrote a short childrens book a few years ago. It was on printed paper, a few words on each page. I showed it to a few people for feedback. I thought I might do something with it, but I never did. I forgot all about it.

Recently, a friend asked me what ever happened to that book? I said nothing. I don't even know where it is. Later that night, I was searching for an envelope. I looked through an old pile of stuff. As I did so, I came across my children's book. I had not seen it in about 5 years! And I happened to find it on the day my friend asked me about it.

amother

Bergamot

Wed, Feb 07 2024, 11:07 pm

OP I totally know what you mean. This happens to me often though I wouldn't say several times a week. That's a lot of freakiness! I don't know the name for it.

effess

Wed, Feb 07 2024, 11:09 pm

https://www.google.com/search?.....afari

Synchronicity

amother

Wed, Feb 07 2024, 11:13 pm

cbsp wrote:

Synchrocity?

I just looked this up. This is the closest to what I'm thinking of. Thank you.

EtA. Actually the word is synchronicity, like Effess said.

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