Start, Apologia, Index of Diary entries
Our science is founded upon causality.
This is a work of correspondences, which follows in the tradition of Carl Jung, Paul Kammerer, Colin Wilson and others who have kept coincidence records.
On February 9th 1984, I began to keep a diary.
Amongst the many dreams I recorded were extracts from books and magazines I had read, thoughts on films and plays I had seen, snippets from conversations in which I had participated, etcetera.
And after a few months I also began to notice the occasional coincidence. And those too I noted.
Those that I deemed worthy of record I here present.
To those which are supportable to any extent via evidence, I have added a
V .
In early 1988 it seemed to me I was running into many, with February 14 1988 providing the focus for no fewer than six.
Although I should very much have liked to list these examples individually, I felt that I could not, and therefore wrote them up as a Narrative. http://james-plasketts-coincidence-diary.blogspot.com.es/2006/03/part-two-narrative-epilogues-and.htmlhttp://james-plasketts-coincidence-diary.blogspot.com.es/2006/03/part-two-narrative-epilogues-and.html
I was so struck by these groupings that I advanced them towards some parapsychologists for their opinions, but I encountered disinterest.
So I shut up about it.
Then in September 1991 I got a letter from a graduate of Oxford University who said that he was studying meaningful coincidence and had heard about my material from a Dutch parapsychologist, Dr H. Breederveld. Could he see it?
He signed himself Roderick Main.
I wrote back, expressing my surprise at interest in the matter being revived after so long, but also enclosing the material. He was intrigued, and we later met to discuss the topic more deeply.
To assist with its presentation and clarification I rewrote it in the Summer of 1992, adding additional incidents and commentaries. Roderick used this material to form part of his PhD thesis Synchronicity as a Form of Spiritual Experience which he worked on in the Department of Religious Studies at Lancaster University.
I have here amended the Narrative further, in the hope that it may become still more accessible.
Part One is the diary of coincidences, all but three of which were culled from my diaries.
Part Two is almost entirely the Narrative of 1988. http://james-plasketts-coincidence-diary.blogspot.com.es/2006/03/part-two-narrative-epilogues-and.htmlhttp://james-plasketts-coincidence-diary.blogspot.com.es/2006/03/part-two-narrative-epilogues-and.html
In an attempt to make the following of it easier I have begun with a synopsis and conclude with epilogues and appendices.
In Part Three the diary continues.
Dr Main has elsewhere commented on the coincidences of the Narrative, e.g. in his 2007 book Revelations Of Chance.
http://www.essex.ac.uk/centres/psychonew/staff/main.htm
Coincidence may denote nothing more than intriguing and sometimes amusing improbability, so the reader may find himself in agreement with Grandmaster Murray Chandler who, although a sceptic, said he thought the presentation of such a collection constituted an almost unique experiment in autobiography and " ...a really fun book! All these stories!"
I would echo the sentiments of Grandmaster Jan Timman in his book The Art of Chess Analysis: "My hope is that you will feel free to make critical comments."
Finally, I should like to express my particular gratitude to Dr John Nunn.
Without his laughter, at the beginning of January 1988, I might not have been prompted to check the details of the naming of the crater in the first place.
James Plaskett, Cartagena, Spain, 2008
Part One: Coincidence Diary
Some of these examples are either mentioned in the Narrative that I include at the start of the listings from 1988, or they follow after or are directly related to it.
I included others because I judged them to be either rich in symbolic content and/or significant in other ways.
I have removed four examples which had appeared in my book, Coincidences, -
Reviewed by Amazon purchasers here -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0950944165/202-5062432-1652660
and less favourably here -
http://www.eadon.com/coincidences/coincidencesaz79plasketreview.php
- and then added over two hundred coincidences.
Many of these are wholly lacking in substantiation, and often the first part is my thinking about something.
Still, since I am not arguing that coincidence means anything, I have decided to include those.
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