Inexplicable* things that have happened to you

The King of Moo

Background: last night I was expecting a text which I did not receive.


This morning I woke up much earlier than usual, quite awake, though partly still thinking I was in a dream (that I don't remember).

I reached over to the nightstand to obtain some proof that I'm invisible (that's the only thing I remember from the dream), and just then my phone (which was on the nightstand and millimetres from my hand) beeped and I received the message I had been expecting last night.

Afterwards I thought maybe the phone had beeped before I reached for the proof of my invisiblity**, but I was awake enough to be aware that it beeped then, and I checked the time of the message's arrival.
I know it was all a big coincidence, but it was just so bizarre!

Have you ever experienced something that seemed like such a massive coincidence, or simply didn't make any sense whatsoever?

*I know that it is really explicable as it was a coincidence and my subconscious waiting for the message may have made me wake up earlier, like when you wake up before your alarm when you have to be up earlier than usual.

**I never got the proof of my invisibility, in case anyone was waiting for closure.

summerskin

Who said that? I can't see you!!!!!!!!!

Sky King

It's usually confirmation bias - i.e. it's only amazing because it happened and you believe it was a coincidence. How many times have you woken up and not got a text message?

I have often been thinking of someone and they call me soon after... but when you think about it, the people that cross my mind most often are those most likely to call me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

rgmmg

Some of the women i've been with over the years have been inexplicable. Even the lads cannot explain it.

newport2

rgmmg wrote: »

Some of the women i've been with over the years have been inexplicable. Even the lads cannot explain it.

The fact that they've been with you or you with them?

The King of Moo

Sky King wrote: »

It's usually confirmation bias - i.e. it's only amazing because it happened and you believe it was a coincidence. How many times have you woken up and not got a text message?

I have often been thinking of someone and they call me soon after... but when you think about it, the people that cross my mind most often are those most likely to call me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

Yeah I know looking back on it, but at the time it just felt so bizarre that it beeped just as I was reaching out.

I just remembered also the time when I was very young and my mother was carrying a glass butterdish that just exploded into tiny pieces without warning (I remember looking that up a few years ago and finding some plausible scientific explanations for it).
And one time I was walking home down a quiet road at night, when I came upon two cats sitting on top of the ruins of an old farm shed, facing each other and mewling back and forth at each other, both sounding exactly like they were saying "I love you!" to each other.

rgmmg

newport2 wrote: »

The fact that they've been with you or you with them?

The fact I've been in them.

The King of Moo

rgmmg wrote: »

The fact I've been in them.

It's even more inexplicable if you made the sound "RGMMG!!" while getting inside them.

xsiborg

posted earlier this morning, i dont know how the fcuk i was still alive either!

xsiborg wrote: »

myself i was involved in an accident years ago while out cycling my bike, i attempted to cross a four lane road on a dark night wearing no visibility gear, and failing to look left before i attempted to cross- my own fault basically.

i got hit by an oncoming car in the first lane. i wasnt badly injured but the driver was badly shook up. i made sure she was ok before retrieving my bicycle from underneath her car. she continued on her way.

slightly dazed and confused by the experience, i didnt have my wits about me when i hopped back up on my bike and went to carry on into the second lane. whereupon i was hit by a second oncoming car that didnt see me. this time the driver reversed back a bit off my bicycle, put the car in gear, and sped off in haste. i got up off the road and retrieved my bicycle, yet again, only this time it was in bits.

this time rather than attempt to get up on my mangled at this stage bicycle, i checked the next two lanes before i crossed the road safely, whereupon there were two young girls who had witnessed what had just happened, only one of them was lying on the ground, whereas her friend was frozen with shock. i asked the girl was her friend ok, her friend was unable to speak so i checked the unconscious girl's vital signs and deduced she must have just fainted.

i called 999 for an ambulance for the girl (back then i had a solid brick of an 088 phone that hadnt been damaged in either collision) and waited til they arrived. the paramedic didnt know where to look as i wasnt looking in great shape myself, yet trying to explain to him that it was for the girl that had fainted (who was by now sitting up, as i had told her not to try standing) that i called the ambulance.

i was quite embarrassed by the whole incident.



for those who are wondering- in Portlaoise there is a four laneway road called James Fintan Lawlor Avenue, which is quite a steep hill, you can go in along by the wall inside the shopping centre that leads down to the car park, and then come out onto the road through a small gap in the wall, to cross the road near the blue overhead bridge, to the street across from that to get to the main street in Portlaoise. that is where this incident happened.

incidentally, even the cars didnt have time to "beep beep" before they hit me!

El Guapo!

I often wake up seconds before my alarm goes off.
Or talk about an episode of the simpsons or something that I haven't seen in years but then it turns out it's on later that evening. It's freaky enough but entirely coincidental.

The King of Moo

Originally posted by xsiborg

:eek:! Sweet Jesus, I'm glad you made it out of that ok! I can't believe you made it out with no injuries. You must have been in shock a little when you rang the ambulance.

Did it worry you that your situation had caused the girl to faint? It probably would have made me think I might've been more injured than I realised.

Duggy747

Someone once paid me a compliment.

chakotha

I sometimes get coincidences in timing when waking up too. Like turning over in the middle of the night and going "Hmm it must be about 4:47" - and sure enough it IS. And waking up just before the morning alarm goes off.

Talking to someone on a work phone call and rummaging and failing to find something I had in my hand not 10 minutes ago.

--Kaiser--

I used to check my phone seconds before I received a text message. Practically every time. It happened so often I assumed I was attuned to microwave frequnecies or something. Doesn't happen anymore though, lamest superpower ever!

Nforce

Dean09 wrote: »

I often wake up seconds before my alarm goes off.

Happens to me regularly.

Another one is humming/singing a song (as you do ) and switching on the radio only to hear the exact same song playing.:eek::pac:

xsiborg

The King of Moo wrote: »

:eek:! Sweet Jesus, I'm glad you made it out of that ok! I can't believe you made it out with no injuries. You must have been in shock a little when you rang the ambulance.

Did it worry you that your situation had caused the girl to faint? It probably would have made me think I might've been more injured than I realised.

the easiest way i can explain it is that i was purely amped up on adrenalin (the "fight or flight" hormone) after the first car hit me, i was actually better off that in that moment i didnt realise the severity of what had just happened, my brain was in a whole other place altogether as all i wanted to do after the first car was get the hell out of there to save my embarrassment. then the second car hit me, same thing, just wanted to get out of there 'cause i was mortified.

then i saw the girls out of the corner of my eye, they caught my attention as i had the front wheel of the bike between my legs trying to straighten the handlebars!

tbh i'd seen worse as my father was an engineer with his own workshop at home and the worst i'd ever witnessed myself was when my brother almost got his hand lopped off rummaging through lathe shavings for a piece of metal. it literally was like something you see in the B-horror movies the way the blood spurts out of tubes like that!

actually another incident now i think back on THAT time, was when i decided to build myself a "clubhouse" out of concrete breeze blocks and an inch thick two foot by two foot steel sheet for the roof. now bearing in mind that tbh i wasnt the cleverest child, i put the blocks together the same as i would have done a lego house, split the block in half at the doorway, full block on the next level and what have you, about four blocks in height, (i was a short arse of a child too that knew there was no way i'd be able to lift the steel plate up onto a fifth level of blocks), with no cement between the blocks (but only because i couldnt find any!

everything was fine until i decided to try it out, headed inside, and for reasons i still cant explain to this day, i wasnt 30 seconds inside when the whole thing collapsed in on top of me! i was only miraculously lucky that the blocks fell in on top of me first and covered me, acting like a shield almost, and the steel sheet fell off to one side down the slope of blocks, otherwise if the sheet had fallen in on top of me, it definitely would've crushed my skull.

i came out of that relatively unscathed too, even now i only have, just checked, still there, a small scar of like "tissuey" texture, perfectly formed little round hole just inside my calf where one of the breeze blocks, the corner of it dug into my leg. that time alright my parents took me to hospital to have it stitched and given a once over.

i was about 12 when that happened, 17 when the cars thing happened.


EDIT: im just after realising what you meant by

It probably would have made me think I might've been more injured than I realised

and it made me remember the time when, i was 18 at this stage, and i was working in this factory anyway, and one of the lads there had a spanky "raleigh activator II" (top of the range bike at the time, and all the accessories). so i'd forgotten my lunch that day and i asked him could i borrow his bike to go home and get it. no bother he said, just be careful on it.

so i cycled home anyway, picked up my lunch (chocolate sandwiches, keep in mind!) and was heading back to work, when i saw by my watch that my break time was nearly up. i decided to cut down through a housing estate cycling as fast as i could, and then the speedometer/odometer? caught my eye. suddenly it was a challenge to see what the top mileage on this fancy bike with it's front fork suspension wheels could do!

i took my eye off the road, staring intently at the speedometer as the numbers clocked up, then bang! straight over the handlebars i went! i looked up to see the bike still standing, but the front wheel wedged underneath the front bumper of a cobalt blue nissan micra, a brand new '95 reg one at the time. i got up off the ground as fast as possible before anyone saw me and as i was pulling the bike out from the car, i noticed that the slices of bread from my sandwiches that i'd been eating while cycling, were now stuck to the windscreen of the car!

i checked for any serious damage done to the car, none, relieved, i hopped back up on the bike and sped back to the factory, put the bike back where i got it and ran into the office to wash my hands. then i noticed the secretary giving me some funny looks before she eventually said what the fcuk happened to you? i told her i just fell off the bike and she goes "your face, your all blood", she fished a compact mirror thing from her handbag and sure enough, all down the front of an aran jumper i was wearing at the time was covered in blood. i was after bursting my chin open on the bonnet of the car and i hadnt even noticed i was pumping!

again i was taken to hospital and had stitches in my chin. the rest of me was fine. so i got into work anyway the next morning and the boss wanted to see me. i went into the office and there was the guy who'd lent me the bike. apparently he was on his way home on the bike the previous evening when the front wheel came away with half the forks and he realised i'd damaged his bike. i didnt even realise it myself til that moment. my boss asked me what was i going to do about it so i'd no choice but to suggest to him that he repay the other guy out of my wages in installments. the bike was worth 300 pounds, which was ridiculous money back then, took me almost a year to pay it back at 10 pounds a week.

Naos

I think I'm secretly a spy.

The amount of times I look at a clock and see 007 is unreal.

10:07, 20:07, 00:07. Always happen to look at the clock at that time.

Biggins

When I was a teen (around 17) I woke up one night late about 3am in the morning to a phone that was ringing in my parents home.
As soon as it rung and woke me, my first very immediate thought was "my grandfather has died".
I don't know why I suddenly thought that. It was just such a strong 'feeling' inside me.
The man had indeed died.
He had been fully healthy and active. There was no reason for his passing other than natural causes - totally out of the blue.
...But when I woke in my bed, I just knew, I just knew immediately that he had died.
It was like something had hit me with the information, totally out of nowhere and I felt it.
Strange - but true.

amacachi

Dean09 wrote: »

I often wake up seconds before my alarm goes off.
Or talk about an episode of the simpsons or something that I haven't seen in years but then it turns out it's on later that evening. It's freaky enough but entirely coincidental.

Yeah but are you like me that you talk about The Simpsons so often that it would actually be weird if it didn't happen at least every year? :pac:

reap-a-rat

Biggins wrote: »

When I was a teen (around 17) I woke up one night late about 3am in the morning to a phone that was ringing in my parents home.
As soon as it rung and woke me, my first very immediate thought was "my grandfather has died".
I don't know why I suddenly thought that. It was just such a strong 'feeling' inside me.
The man had indeed died.
He had been fully healthy and active. There was no reason for his passing other than natural causes - totally out of the blue.
...But when I woke in my bed, I just knew, I just knew immediately that he had died.
It was like something had hit me with the information, totally out of nowhere and I felt it.
Strange - but true.

I had a similar experience as a young'un. I was cycling around the house after school, and up our little road a bit, back in, around the house, over and over again. So I was passing a window and my sister comes knocking, trying to grab my attention and I just thought, in that instance, "The school is on fire".

Now, I have no idea why I thought that, but that was it indeed. Our school had been set on fire and my sister had just received a phone call from her friend that lived near it to tell her. I always thought that was odd. I remember it like twas yesterday and it was about 11 years ago now. Freaky.

Trevor Kent

I have a knack for calling the first number to come out for the lotto while watching on telly (subsequent numbers seem to catch me out....:( ) and the same sort of knack for calling the river card (Poker players, well texas holdem players will know what im on about) but only while not in the hand.

I also get the odd bout of sleep paralysis, where my mind is awake, but my body is still asleep, so im sort of trapped. Only lasts a few seconds, but the first time it happened, it scared the schnit out of me.

rgmmg

reap-a-rat wrote: »

I had a similar experience as a young'un. I was cycling around the house after school, and up our little road a bit, back in, around the house, over and over again. So I was passing a window and my sister comes knocking, trying to grab my attention and I just thought, in that instance, "The school is on fire".

Now, I have no idea why I thought that, but that was it indeed. Our school had been set on fire and my sister had just received a phone call from her friend that lived near it to tell her. I always thought that was odd. I remember it like twas yesterday and it was about 11 years ago now. Freaky.

You weren't mumbling "Red Rum, Red Rum" repeatedly by any chance?

summerskin

Me and a mate were working together about 20 years ago and were driving in a car with no radio. We were both quiet, as it was a friday afternon and we were heading back to Manchester after working in Birmingham all week when we both at exactly the same time shouted the line "And so is Michael Fish!" from the song "John Kettley is a Weather Man".

No rhyme or reason to why we did it, as the song was about 4 or 5 years old and had never been a big hit, and as we had no radio we'd not heard it that day or anything.

Nforce

Biggins wrote: »

When I was a teen (around 17) I woke up one night late about 3am in the morning to a phone that was ringing in my parents home.
As soon as it rung and woke me, my first very immediate thought was "my grandfather has died".
I don't know why I suddenly thought that. It was just such a strong 'feeling' inside me.
The man had indeed died.
He had been fully healthy and active. There was no reason for his passing other than natural causes - totally out of the blue.
...But when I woke in my bed, I just knew, I just knew immediately that he had died.
It was like something had hit me with the information, totally out of nowhere and I felt it.
Strange - but true.

I'd a somewhat similar experience too. January 28 1986 I was having my breakfast before heading for school. A news report came on (I think TV-AM was on) talking about the much lauded impending launch that day of the Space Shuttle Challenger.
I turned to my father and said that I had an eerie feeling that the Shuttle was going to blow up. I thought nothing of it for the rest of the day and on arriving home after school,watching the TV the words "News Flash" came up on screen. Straight away I said "The Space Shuttle blew up!",just before it was announced that Challenger had exploded on take off with the loss of all crew.

Aodan83

Checking my phone and the time is 12:34. It happens a lot. Although that is almost definitely a case of confirmation bias.
Also, summerskin, I found that hilarious. Looked up the song and it's my new favourite song.

denballs

Ive had more and more of these of late.....

Example, ...me and xbox live people argued over pronounciation of deus ex machina..{ they wer playing the game}..2 days later im thinking about it....i watch fringe.....they experience somthing that couldnt be possible unless it had already happend in the future and was deliberately forced to happen in present........guy says deus ex machina...the hand of god.......now i know what it means and think...thats a fair coincidence......an hour later on the simpsons...homer asks god to turn the apocalypse back.....god says ok ..waves his hands....and bellows the words......DEus ex machina....


..............................................

exmple 2..... Ive never been to grange castle...never even new or heard about it.....someone needed me to meet them nearby...the only bus i could get near.....went to grange castle........i get there....notice loads of road works........on the way home im listening to spin 103.8 (maybe fm104} I hear...big news ...microsoft {either them or some other big ass company} are creating a thousand construction jobs for their new site at grange castle.........

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,


Every day that goes by I believe more and more that im the star of a real life truman show..........

thats just 2 things this past couple weeks.........id say i get about 10 big things a month and constant de ja vu...............im in no way superstitious or anyhing....but theres somthing up.......even now this thread seems like your trying to fuk with me....

\\\\\\\\EDIT///////

Dean09 wrote: »

I often wake up seconds before my alarm goes off.
Or talk about an episode of the simpsons or something that I haven't seen in years but then it turns out it's on later that evening. It's freaky enough but entirely coincidental.

I also get this...ill decide to download an old movie and suddenly its advertised on tv,....tv seems to follow my downloading behaviour...a good business strategy tbh