no coincidence

The only place where coincidence exists is in the mind of those who cannot see anything other than an obvious, physical connection between cause and effect.

There is the famous “Butterfly Effect” of Chaos theory, where an event, through a generally undetectable chain of physical transactions may produce an effect someplace distant from its point of origin. This concept is, however, once again based on the idea that all things are related through a chain of physical cause and effect, the mechanistic, reductionist paradigm that is wreaking havoc with the physical and psychological environment of humanity.

The “non-local phenomena” concept of Quantum Theory allows for a quantum identity shared by apparently different things. This quantum identity acts as a medium of a simultaneous effect regardless of things separation by distance or dissimilarity of form. This is not unlike divination theory, in which things that share a preponderance of the same essence are grouped by easily discernable symbols that correspond to that essence such as the 9 Ki Stars (the Luo Shu Diagram), the 7 traditional planets, the 5 elements, the 64 Hexagrams and so on. These symbols constitute a language of essences, rather than forms, as R.A. Schwaller De Lubicz explained.

But if there is no coincidence, and experience is not random, does this mean that there is no free will? Yes and no. One could say that there are no influences on human consciousness other than the environment it interacts with. This argument could be used to assert that all choices are the result of individual, or free will, which may vary according to the psychology of the individual. or that there is no such thing as individual will, because the self is an illusion made up of the way in which we build our perception of the various environmental factors in which we function.

Others say that there is only cosmic will, but we all have freedom of choice, in that choice is an opinion, rather than an act of a non-existent individual will. Western ideas of predestination and Eastern ideas about Karma usually describe individual will and self-interested choice as being the source of all evil, so religious hierarchies in both hemispheres tend to favor the idea of absolute authority of the institution over the individual. But there is another twist to the cosmic string pull theory.

We could say that coincidence is the word the brain uses when we ask certain questions, like “how could that fortune cookie have made an accurate prediction?” or “why, on the way to the exam, did my book fall open to the exact subject that turned out to be the topic of the essay?”. Although the brain is the best computer in the known universe, it is programmed to use coincidence as the default answer for questions whose chains of causality are confusing or indecipherable. De-conditioning the mind through meditation or other disciplines will introduce one to many other realms of causality, so the brain no longer is forced to make do in this fashion. A simple healing practice that will speed you along is to never think of "the C word" without it having a red circle and diagonal slash imposed upon it. Also, write it that way with a red marker 108 times a day for 108 days. Your mind will find other answers.

So on the one hand, there is only reaction to an environment that moves everything along by simple laws of physical cause and effect, and in this view, coincedence is as much of a non-sequitor as is free will. And then there is the idea of perceptual error about cause and effect, which implies the ability to change the perception so that previously hidden causalities now become visible and open to tailoring by individual choice. Of course, in this view, the possibility is open that cause and effect may be manipulated unconsciously because of environmental factors, and that there is a stage of self-realization in which one can thwart these unconscious factors. Then of course, there is the 'religious' view in which transcendental experience allows for the merging of the individual will with the will of the divine, also effectively annihilating the concept of coincedence, because nothing exists that is not moved the cosmic will. In any of these views one thing is clear: there is No Coincidence.