Posted by Cory on March 27, 2001 at 00:59:17:
I take a skeptical view towards it, because it is only meaningful if we apply meaning towards it. You use the Oak example. But suppose you walk into an oak tree...then later walk into a Mr. Garbler...then you get a piece of mail from Winchester Furniture...then you get a phone call from the American Survey Institute wanting to know if you'll answer a survey.
Now, these four events are random, but so are the Oak synchronicity events. Maybe the odds that you would walk into a Mr. Oake after the oak tree are 1 in 2 billion. But maybe the odds of walking into a Mr. Garbler are also 1 in 2 billion. The fact is, whether you walk into a Mr. Oake or Mr. Garbler, the odds are the same. The meaning is relative. What if you knew a man when you were younger with the last name Garbler who sold Oak Furniture?
I hope I'm making sense to you. It all works out in my mind, I just have problems expressing it. :) I think David Hume wrote about the nature of coincidence and how it's just a "habit of mind".
So my point is, it's all just random happenings and statistics and it's only meaningful if we happen to apply meaning to it, not that there's any inherent meaning in the situation (like an omen, or a sign from God, or whatnot)
-Cory