Ep 13: Let's Talk about Coincidences!... (and Eclipses!) / Boston

Today I’m talking about a different kind of topic… 

I took an exciting trip about 3 months ago to see the “Great American Total Eclipse”. Eclipses are pretty rare and it’s amazing that they even happen at all.     

To me, the total eclipse was significant and meaningful. So I knew that I had to get myself to a location to see full totality. 

During my eclipse research, I kept reading that a total eclipse is a celestial coincidence. But I think it is hardly a random coincidence.

And our personal worlds can collide with other people’s worlds in coincidental and amazing ways too.  

Some people notice coincidences a lot more than other people do.

So do these coincidences actually have a deeper meaning or higher purpose? Do coincidences happen so as to show us something?

Most of the time though – if not all of the time – they seem to not lead to any significant changes in my life.   

If something significant happens as a result of a coincidence, that is probably a coincidence in and of itself. – Maxx Mitchell

1)                  I think coincidences only happen because we are connected to and intimately intertwined with the Universe. The Universe is part of us, and we are a part of the Universe. 

 The Universe is in us and of course we are in the Universe. The Universe, in effect, “bends” toward us and we “bend” toward it. 

I just wish I could control those coincidences so that I could attract a ton of money or attract the love of my life! 

2)                  Many times in my life I have attributed meaning to amazing coincidences. But that can have a negative impact on your life or can even be dangerous. 

 3)                  Coincidences are only coincidences because we notice them. Coincidences literally happen all the time and we don’t notice them. 

 4)                  Although I don’t believe that coincidences in our own small worlds have any significant meaning, I do believe that perhaps coincidences have meaning on a grand scale, like coincidences in the metaphysical or coincidences in the cosmos may be intentional. So in a similar way, I believe that the total eclipse is not a coincidence. 

As far as the coincidences that happen in our daily lives, we should not read too much into them individually, 

But we can partner with the Universe in many ways… such as thru meditation, or praying, or simply believing that something is true! 

So what do you think? Do you think all coincidences have meaning? Are you a proponent of the concept that “There are no coincidences?” 

The Universe has “bent” towards me to help me prove my case. Also I “bent” towards the Universe as well. 

Transcript

Hey there Listeners! Welcome to Episode 13 of the Shy to Dynamic podcast! First of all, I want to thank you again for continuing to tune in and provide feedback, and for making this all worthwhile.

Today I’m gonna talk about a different kind of topic…. But of course it’s gonna lead to a deeper message ultimately, as it always does. And then you can hear what I believe and hopefully you will let me know what you think of this topic. 

So to get started, I took an exciting trip about 3 months ago. The main event of the trip was on April 8, 2024. Perhaps you know what major event happened on April 8 of this year… It’s something that some people traveled very far to see. Any guesses?

Well if you don’t know off the top of your head, I’ll go ahead and tell you. It was the day of the total solar eclipse, or the “Great American Eclipse” as they called it. The eclipse was conveniently visible in multiple big cities across the USA such as Dallas and Indianapolis and Cleveland. A total solar eclipse is a fairly rare event and even more rare if you are looking for a total eclipse to occur in a specific inhabited location. The last eclipse that was visible from American soil was only 7 years ago, but that was pure luck and coincidence because the previous one that was visible from America was way back in 1979, which is a more typical time gap between eclipses for a specific location. The next one that will be visible from the contiguous United States will not be until twenty years from now in 2044. So eclipses are pretty rare and it’s amazing that they even happen at all. So this makes them a major event.      

So to me, the total eclipse was significant and meaningful. It was important. I saw a post from someone on Facebook that asked “Am I the only one who doesn’t care about this damn eclipse?” I replied back, “Definitely yes!”... even though I knew that wasn’t exactly true. I just knew that I personally cared greatly about the eclipse and it was important to me!

So I knew that I had to get myself to a location to see full totality. (And I just hoped that the Universe would do me a solid and provide cooperative weather conditions wherever I chose to view it!)

I chose to drive up to Indianapolis to see this amazing celestial phenomenon. It was the closest decently large city to me in the path of the total eclipse. Dallas and Austin were too far to drive. Buffalo and Cleveland were also a little further and I didn’t have much interest in eclipse-tourisming in either of those places. 

I asked my good friend to join me on the trip, and he was hesitant at first – not because he didn’t want to see it with me, but because his work and personal schedules were a little complicated at the time, but ultimately, he called me up and said, “Yes friend, I can go with you!” So everything worked out in the end. 

As luck or blessing would have it, Indianapolis ended up having perfect weather on eclipse day! In defiance of the fact that it rained a little the day before and a little more the day after. I was there right in the window of “weather perfectality”! (Yeah, I did just make up that word… lol)

And even better, I got to share the experience with my closest friend! 

On some level, I believe it was my destiny to be there in that spot at that time, and to have a great positive experience!

Interestingly, the eclipse occurred on 4/8/24, which is a date that has some significance for me from a numerological standpoint. So did the Universe align itself coincidentally to be on that date just for me? – Doubtful, but maybe it designed my brain at this moment to believe that that date was significant to me and to make me have the strong desire to drive nine hours to see the eclipse and to want to create this podcast episode. Is that too much of a stretch? – Maybe.

So what made the eclipse so significant and amazing to me?

For one thing, during my eclipse research, I kept reading that a total eclipse is a celestial coincidence due to the fact that the sun happens to be 400 times larger than the moon and the moon happens to be 400 times closer to us than the sun.  So did it really just happen to be that way?? – Yeah ok. I think it is hardly a random coincidence.

The Universe can amaze us in so many ways… on a grand scale like an eclipse… where the relatively small moon can move in a perfect position to block out all of the enormous sun’s light except for the beautiful shimmering white light of the sun’s corona. But the Universe can amaze us even on a small individual human scale as well. Coincidences happen in our everyday personal lives as well. Because we are celestial bodies ourselves. There are worlds of movement and activity within each cell of our human bodies that keep us alive and protected. And our personal worlds can collide with other people’s worlds in coincidental and amazing ways too.  

When an eclipse happens, the colossal Universe is putting on a show just for little ol’ us. For our viewing pleasure. (Although before all the technology was developed that helped us to understand eclipses, there’s little doubt that solar eclipses were not pleasurable or fun at all. I’m sure people were scared out of their minds!) 

But think of all the ways that the Universe puts on a show for us on a smaller scale in the form of coincidences and synchronicities that seem so unlikely that they must have some kind of significance. 

Now some people notice coincidences a lot more than other people do. I know I am one of those people. And many people assign more meaning and significance to these coincidences than others. I red in an article online that quote:

[It was found] that certain personality traits are linked to experiencing more coincidences—people who describe themselves as religious or spiritual… and people who are [often seeking out deeper meaning in things] are… coincidence-prone.

End quote. So do these coincidences actually have a deeper meaning or higher purpose? Do coincidences happen so as to show us something, or are they just meaningless random events that we place more significance into than what they deserve?

I know I personally have observed a lot of coincidences in my life. But that’s because I think they’re pretty interesting and cool, so I’m on the lookout for them. Most of the time though – if not all of the time – they seem to not lead to any significant changes in my life.  

I still remember an amazing coincidence that I still think about from time to time to this very day.

There was a girl that was a super close friend to me in high school. We had graduated from high school a few years prior to the coincidence I’m about to mention. I had gone to Toronto just for a quick vacation when I was living up north. I was walking down a Toronto street and all of a sudden I spotted her on the street. So we talked for a bit, in awe of the freakishness of the fact that we would run into each other on a random street in a city far from where we were from. What are the freaking chances??? And as we said our goodbyes, I was about to step out onto the street, and she pulled me back because a bus was coming. Did she save my life?? – I don’t know… Maybe I would have noticed the bus anyway as I turned around. But then again, if I had not been talking to her for several minutes, I would not have started to turn towards that street at that moment anyway, so it wouldn’t have been necessary for her to save me. And furthermore, why would it have been necessary for her to be the one to be there at that moment to save my life? It could have been anyone on the street at the time that could have saved me. 

So you would think that there must be some significant life-changing reason why we were on that same particular intersection on the surface of the world at that same time, right?? But in the end, nothing really came out of it. It’s not like after that moment, I ended up dating her or something crazy like that. (Which was doubly unlikely considering she had been dating my high school roommate ever since high school.) So what was the purpose of that big coincidence anyway? From the way our lives have unfolded since then, it seemed that that coincidence had no apparent meaning. 

But if something had resulted from that moment, we would have said “Oh… the Universe aligned to bring us together and that our meeting in Toronto was kismet… a sign from the Universe.” But that did not happen at all. 

So if something significant happens as a result of a coincidence, that is probably a coincidence in and of itself. – Maxx Mitchell

I have another amazing example of a coincidence in my life… even more amazing than my first example! So some years ago, for some reason, my friend, the same one who saw the eclipse with me, sent me an article about a senior-aged flight attendant who had sued Delta Airlines for age discrimination. Her name is Ida Gomez-Llanos. So this lady’s story was fairly interesting. Do you know that a few months later, I randomly ran into that woman at a Starbucks in Phoenix, Arizona?! I am very good with faces, so I recognized her and her hairstyle, and oddly she was wearing the same red shirt that I had seen her wearing in the photo in the article! (Now that part was just a little weird to be honest.) But that red shirt helped me to recognize her even more! You would think that the chance of these three independent unlikely events happening would be impossible. First, my friend randomly sending me the article about the lady and secondly, me and the lady being in the same Starbucks at the same time a short time later, and 3) me seeing and recognizing her! Yet it happened. You might ask… “Are you sure that that was the same woman?” Yes, I am because of course I went and talked to her to confirm it, and she was very nice and it was indeed her! So you would think that a coincidence like that would have to be meaningful, right? Of course not! We each went on with our lives separately!

1)                  So ultimately, I have come to my own conclusion about coincidences. I think they only happen because we are connected to and intimately intertwined with the Universe. The Universe is part of us, and we are a part of the Universe. The Universe is in us and of course we are in the Universe. The Universe, in effect, “bends” toward us and we “bend” toward it. 

In an article I red, it talked about a concept created by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. It’s called “Unus Mundus”, translated as One World. The concept of Unus Mundus “…is the theory that there is an underlying order and structure to reality, a network that connects everything and everyone.”

End quote. I think coincidences are just a natural result of that connection. There is not necessarily a meaning we can take from these coincidences. I believe coincidences happen as evidence that we are all part of a whole. Just like Universe puts on a massive show for us in the form of the eclipse, it also puts on a show for us in these little ridiculously unlikely coincidences. We are simply able to “attract” certain events or confluences of events to us when we think about them. Now I just wish I could control those coincidences so that I could attract a ton of money or attract the love of my life! But anyway…

And alas, I don’t have any control over it. And I have no answer for you as to how you can control or harness the power of coincidences in your favor.    .

2)                  Part of the reason I came to this conclusion that coincidences hold no significance was that many times in my life I have attributed meaning to amazing coincidences. Especially when it came to believing that someone was attracted to me the same way I was attracted to them… which of course led me to be very disappointed!

A quote from an article I red said that:  

The eery thrill of coincidences is relatively benign, on the whole, but it can be toxic. If your mind puts too much weight on [coincidences], you could end up making really bad life decisions.

End quote. That is so true. Such as if a certain coincidence has led you to believe that you and another person are meant to be… against all odds. And you believe that you must fight till the end to stay with a person that is bad for you. That can have a negative impact on your life or can even be dangerous. 

3)                  Another important point. Coincidences are only coincidences because we notice them. There are plenty of coincidences that happen and we are totally oblivious to them. Prime example. I had a coincidence just yesterday. I saw a guy with a distinctive hairstyle outside a brewery and again I saw him an hour later at my local grocery store. And before you criticize me, yes, I know that that is definitely not an amazing coincidence… and that is quite a letdown compared to the two shocking coincidences I just mentioned. My point is that this one was a coincidence only because I noticed it. I noticed the guy for two reasons. One was his very distinctive hairstyle. The other reason was because when I saw him the first time that day, he was talking with a guy that I’ve never met personally, but I remember this other guy from an event at a festival where he was competing in a cook-off competition and I had been very impressed with this other guy. So without these two reasons, I would not have even noticed that I’d seen this same guy in both places. The quote-unquote “coincidence” would have effectively never happened because I wouldn’t have noticed it. Coincidences literally happen all the time and we don’t notice them. We may walk by a person at one venue and then walk by them a day later at another place 100 miles away. But we don’t recognize them or notice them. I red a quote in the article that said:

And… that’s why the amazing thing is not that these things occur, it’s that we notice them…. A coincidence itself is in the eye of the beholder,”

End quote. To a person who wins the lottery, it’s an amazing life-changing coincidence that they were selected to win a million dollars out of thousands or a million lottery ticket buyers. But it seems hardly a coincidence when we hear that a random person that we don’t know won the lottery. We don’t marvel at the fact that some random woman named Shiela Roberts won it, unless of course your name is Shiela Roberts or Shiela Roberts is your sister’s name or something. And right now, there is someone named Shiela Roberts listening who is like “What a coincidence that Maxx said my name!” But of course that is extremely unlikely… which would make it a great coincidence! So a coincidence is a coincidence only if the components of the coincidence are already significant to you and then you notice them.

4)                  So although I don’t believe that coincidences in our own small worlds have any significant meaning, I do believe that perhaps coincidences have meaning on a grand scale, like coincidences in the metaphysical or coincidences in the cosmos may be intentional. The existence of the total eclipse could very well be an intentional design of our Creator rather than just something that happens to exist now and didn’t exist one trillion years ago and will cease to exist a trillion years from now. So then I would ask… Is it pure coincidence that we were born to the parents we were born to, or did the metaphysical version of you look down and decide that that’s where you wanted to land. Like I said last week, maybe we design our own worlds in our minds and everyone else is experiencing a whole different world. So where we end up may not coincidental and random at all. 

I don’t believe we were created by evolution or the Big Bang Theory. Of course once we were created, we evolved over time genetically. But our origin was all planned and was not coincidence. It’s not even coincidence that humans still exist and a meteor or even a human-created calamity hasn’t taken us out yet. The fact that we are here and that we are still here is not just a random lucky thing. So in a similar way, I believe that the total eclipse is not a coincidence. 

So that’s why the eclipse was important to me. Not only was it a physically stunningly beautiful and captivating thing to see, I red so much spirituality and meaning in it. But maybe it’s just a pure cosmic coincidence, but I doubt it.  

And as far as the coincidences that happen in our daily lives, we should not read too much into them individually, but I strongly believe they are evidence that we are connected and intimately intertwined with the Universe. Therefore we can partner with the Universe in many ways… such as thru meditation, or praying, or simply believing that something is true! Even little ol’ we human beings who seem so insignificant compared to the moon, earth, sun, and stars can affect and change the Universe… or at least a little part of it.

So what do you think? Do you think all coincidences have meaning? Are you a proponent of the concept that “There are no coincidences?” Or do you think coincidences don’t mean anything? Or do you believe, as I do, that it shows our connection to God, the Universe, other humans, and everything around us? Hit me up and let me know. There’s a feature in Apple Podcasts where you can send me a text message! 

So this week’s episode is dedicated to the city of Boston! Coincidentally, I actually spent a summer in Boston. Just kidding, that’s not much of a coincidence. But I did spend a summer in Boston and a few years after that, I spent some time living near Boston. Boston is a great city! So much to see there! I’m amazed at the number of institutions of higher learning there are there in the area, such as Harvard and MIT and Northeastern, as well as Boston University. And I enjoyed all the culture and amazing infrastructure that they have there such as the subway system which they call “The T”. Boston is also known of course for the Boston Tea Party, and Fenway Park, Boston Common, Boston baked beans, and Boston cream pie! I did have one very tiny coincidence that a friend that I met in South Carolina happened to live in Boston at the same time I lived near there, so that was a fortuitous coincidence, and it was cool to be able to hang with him when I was there. 

 And with that… if you have enjoyed this episode, and you’ve gotten something useful and meaningful out of this episode, then please give me five stars and write a review. Your ratings and reviews are really important to me! Also please pass this podcast along to your friends or family or anyone you know that could benefit from what I’m saying as well! And please contact me and let me know your important viewpoints and all your successes! And tell me about your coincidences too of course!

As always, remember to show up and DELIVER for yourself today and everyday, and create a NEW important and dynamic version of yourself!

Episode 13, the Boston episode, is now DONE!

Hey. Normally I would let the music play on before I did my postscript. But what I have to share is too fascinating to wait. This definitely blew my mind when I realized this after I had completed writing this episode. This was totally unplanned on my part. I realize now that the two male friends that I happened to speak about in this podcast – the one that I saw the eclipse with and the one that coincidentally lived in Boston as the same time I did… have the same birthday. Now I already knew of course that these friends have the same birthday because they are good friends of mine…. But it’s just a coincidence that in an episode about coincidences, that the two guy friends I happened to mention just also happen to be friends of mine that share the same birthday. And that’s only because this week happened coincidentally to be the episode dedicated to Boston and I only brought up the second male friend at all because the two of us are somewhat connected thru Boston. 

And guess what else, there is also another pre-existing coincidence… these two friends’ respective spouses also share a birthday. And again I did not plan this… I did not include these two friends in this episode about coincidences because of their and their spouses’ coincidental sharing of birthdays! 

Coincidences are everywhere, guys, and yet they most often don’t mean anything consequential to our lives at all! Yet in what I just told you, it just shows that the Universe has “bent” towards me, so to speak, to help me prove my theory that coincidence happen because we are connected to the Universe and we think them into existence. This theory may not even always be true. But because I believe it, the Universe has “bent” towards me to help me prove it in this case. Because I and the Universe are connected. 

Also it’s like I “bent” towards the Universe as well. I debated about whether to just change the dedication city of this episode to Indianapolis instead of Boston because that’s where the eclipse was. And I also debated about delaying this topic to a future episode… a future episode that wouldn’t have been dedicated to Boston. But something told me to move forward this way. And because I made those two decisions, then I was able to see and notice the birthday coincidences that I mentioned above, which I wouldn’t have noticed had I made different decisions.

On the one hand this freaks me out, but on the other hand, this kind of thing is completely normal in my life now. But too bad that these birthday coincidences have no major financial or other beneficial consequence in my life. Except for the benefit of observing the obvious spiritual connection that I have with the Universe. And we all have that connection! Ok, that’s all I have to say for now…  Bye!