The first time I heard about The Cosmic Coincidence Control Center, it made perfect sense to me. I was talking to my therapist about the uncanniness of having met someone I started having a relationship with on a bus ride going to New York City from New Jersey. He immediately said “Oh, the Cosmic Coincidence Control Center
at work again!”
All I had to do was reflect for a nanosecond to get what he meant. Sometimes it's hard to imagine the Universe at work in determining my future or the hands of the Big Guy Upstairs orchestrating all things. Now, I had to visualize a committee of otherworldly beings moving the chess board pieces of my life so that I could connect with certain people on my journey! Pretty crazy stuff, huh?!
As Paulo Coehlo wrote:
“Coincidence is the language of the stars.
For something to happen, so many forces
have to be put into action.”
A Few Examples of the Four C’s:
I was visiting one of my brothers in New Jersey for my birthday before going into NYC for more celebrating. I came a hairsbreadth away from missing the bus to Mahattan. The day was cold, lots of snow on the ground and windy. The bus was just pulling out of the stop and we were running so late, my brother had to screech on the brakes in front of the bus in order for me to make it. The scowling bus driver helped me on with my bags and instructed
me to find a seat and fast.
Normally, I resist sitting next to a stranger on a plane, train or bus but, in this case, I could feel the extremely hostile vibes coming towards me from the other passengers, mirroring the annoyance of the driver on my delaying their departure. So, I rapidly and sheepishly took the first empty seat which happened to be next to a man who was both attractive AND interesting. Fast forward and Igor became a fabulous friend and fellow seeker who is still, after ten years, one of my nearest and dearests in this life.
As Nancy Thayer wrote:
“The Universe is always speaking to us…sending
us little messages, causing coincidences and serendipities. Reminding us to stop, to look
around; and to believe is something else,
something more.”
A couple of years later, I was on a bus to New York again – this time travelling from Washington, DC. I “accidentally” sat next to a young man who was a fascinating Russian journalist who had recently been jailed in Russia for a trumped-up offense and had come to the States to work for a think tank in DC. His expertise was in the area of oligarchs and the hold they had on his country. He said Russia was like the Mafia -- run by Putin as the mob boss and the
oligarchs, his lieutenants.
At that time, I was working for a membership organization of retired ambassadors and foreign affairs people. We ran frequent lectures on international topics that our members would find interesting. Weeks after our serendipitous bus encounter, Dmitri was front and center, speaking before the group with some fascinating insider
information to impart to an eager audience.
Someone said:
There are no coincidences,
just divine appointments.
My list could go on. In the 1990’s, I met a Brazilian healer in a room of 400 students attending a four-day spiritual workshop because I moved seats (something I NEVER do) and sat right next to him. The crazy thing was that he had done the same thing – did not like where he was sitting and moved to a seat closer to the back of the room where I subsequently joined him. Eventually, Edemir worked out of my house in Georgetown for seventeen years and helped many people who came for healing work!
Barbara Dillinham wrote:
“Life is not a path of coincidence, happenstance and luck, but rather an unexplainable, meticulously charted course for one to touch
the lives of others and make a difference
in the world.”
My brother, Peter, wanted to go to medical school and was struggling to get in because of a poor grade he received in college chemistry. He was ready to give up until he took a train from Boston to New York, where he sat next to a young doctor from Ireland, who suggested that Peter, with his Irish heritage, should apply to the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. Lo and behold, he applied, got in, did extremely well, transferred back to the States after two years, became Chief Resident in the U.S. hospital where he interned and has had a
great career in medicine ever since.
As Yogi Berra said:
“That’s too coincidental to be a coincidence.”
Emma Bull wrote:
“Coincidence is the word we use when
we can’t see the levers and pulleys.”
In the past, I always considered every encounter with another human being just a random event. But I now believe that it’s not that simple and that the Cosmic Coincidence Control Center is playing a role in all of our lives. Skeptics might say something like this:
PERFECT has seven letters
and so does
MEEEEEE.
Coincidence?
I think not.
or
Dinosaurs didn’t bowl and now
they are extinct.
Coincidence?
Some scientists will say that coincidental scenarios are part of our brain’s need to create order out of chaos; that our brains are programmed to seek patterns. I prefer to listen to Deepak Chopra who wrote:
“When you live your life with an appreciation of coincidences and their meanings, you can connect with the underlying field of infinite possibilities.”
WOW! Does that sound like the place I want to be! Carl Jung, who believed there is a unifying consciousness at play in the universe advised us to wake up to the obvious when he wrote:
“Synchronicity is an ever-present reality
for those who have eyes to see.”
Even Stephen King said that coincidences happen because
“Somewhere in the universe (or behind it),
a great machine is ticking and turning
its fabulous gears.”
We all have stories or memories of those times when, by the merest coincidence, we avoided a disaster or stumbled onto a wonderful, life changing experience or relationship. I choose to think of these as being from a knowing, loving universe and that my life is being divinely guided by intelligent action.
The Cosmic Coincidence Control Center
is always at work in my life!
How about yours?
