Coincidences aren’t always what they seem. Today on PsychologyToday.com, I discuss two essential things to keep in mind before embracing any event as a direct line to the divine. Hint: One of them has to do with research on ESP and psychokinesis, and the other with Santa Claus!
Sharon Hewitt Rawlette, PhD 
2 responses to “Are Coincidences Signs From God?”
I just read the piece on Psychology today Sharon. I like the way you emphasize the need for thought about ‘meaningful coincidences’. It’s something that doesn’t often get said.
When someone attributes something to God, it always begs the question – What is your definition of God?
I once asked a priest, who was also my professor, and who was of some rank and made frequent trips to Rome, how they conceived of God in the high levels of the Catholic Church [we were reading Beowulf in the original, where the view of God is quite different from anything you see today] – he replied: “There are different views.”
I listened to your interview on the Past Lives Podcast and really enjoyed your fascinating stories. I have a couple of my own that, like you, snapped me out of my apathetic mindset about afterlife matters and caused me to develop a very robust spiritual life.
The first happened when I was 24. I had just moved to a new city to finish my last semester of graduate school interning. I did not know anyone there. My first full day in my new apartment I went Walmart to buy things and had some of the items in my cart when I started to feel very weird and had the overwhelming urge to leave the store. I left and asked some ppl if there was a Target nearby and they said no but there’s another Walmart down the road . So I unexplainably left that Walmart and drove to another Walmart and while shopping there I saw a guy I had gone to high school with though we never interacted back then I recognized him. I said hello and we started talking and long story short we now have been married 16 years and have 2 kids.
The other was when my second daughter was born she became very sick with something called PPHN and was on a ventilator really quite sick. I was absolutely terrified and could not eat or sleep for days I was so distraught and worried. In the private hallway leading to the NICU when I would go to visit her I started to notice a small piece of paper in the hall. Every time I came to visit my attention would be drawn to this scrap of paper but in my grief I just ignored it and kept walking to her unit. Well after about the third day of this I took a seat in the hallway while some other family went to visit my baby and when I looked on the ground right in front me was this scrap of paper, so I finally picked it up. It was a Chinese fortune and said “Little acorns lead to mighty oaks.” I felt like a 1000 ponds of worry had been lifted off me. Indeed after several weeks my daughter recovered and has been healthy.
These two coincidences really made me take very seriously the possibility that there is more than just the physical world and I do a lot of studying and reading on the same topics that interest you. My life is so much more fulfilling than it would have been had I continued with my apathetic attitude about life never realizing the value of our experiences here on earth.
Thank you!