The Coincidence File: Synchronicity, Morphic Resonance or Pure Chance?

by Ken Anderson

Partly a sequel to "Coincidences", this book expands upon the possible theories, such as pure chance and morphic resonance, to explain the phenomenon. There are hundreds of intriguing stories from around the world.

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1999

About the author

Licensed by the Evangelical Free Church, Ken first pastored in Isle, Minnesota and later in Newman Grove, Nebraska. Then he became involved in the newly formed ministry, Youth For Christ, and served as their first full-time Magazine Editor. Ken became connected to a fledgling organization called Baptista Films, where he wrote and then directed his first film drama. Later he launched Gospel Films. Over 200 Christian films have been produced since then, including original dramas for many foreign countries. As a pioneer in Christian films, Ken will be best remembered for the drama story, PILGRIM’S PROGRESS, produced in 1977. Featured in the story is Liam Neeson in his first screen role, as Evangelist. Ken began a writing career that spanned 7 decades. 77 books were published, at least 1 per decade, with 19 books alone published in the 40's. As an author, Ken will be best remembered for his work, WHERE TO FIND IT IN THE BIBLE, published in 1996 by Thomas Nelson. Over 4 million copies are in print, and it remains a busy seller on the Nelson backlist.

Reviews

[Shahrun · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a little worried when I began this book, that it was going to be all 'technical jargon' and no anecdotes. Thankfuly this was not the case. It contains some very interesting things which set my little brain buzzing away. I may even have to contact the author about my own coinciedences (I now realise there have been quite a few). The ending about the assissinations of Presidents Lincoln and Kennedy was rather interesting too. The only thing I'm annoyed about is, I have Coincidences Chance or Fate by the same author and I wish I had have read it first. I always manage to do that - read books in the wrong order! This one says 'Keep Me'.

[Stacy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't complete the book. There are no theories present - it's all anecdotes of what people believe to be coincedences, but the examples are quite weak in my opinion. Even a broken watch is correct twice a day. When so many data points have to be pulled in to demonstrate a coincidence, one has to wonder if there is anything of substance there at all.

I'm not interested in coincidences so much as morphic resonance, and there is none of that in this book. The whole thing was a long-winded disappointment.

[Nick Davies · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed that this didn't explore the science of probability (bearing in mind Littlewood's Law that we can expect a miracle about every thirty days!) and was in fact just a series of anecdotes about coincidental happenings, with the implication that many of these were worthy of praise or proof of something.

Some of the anecdotes were quite interesting and amazing (if true), but the majority were limp or just people trying to hard to find things in common between unconnected events. Much of the book spoke about people finding meaning in co-incidences - the number of times in the book it essentially says "I saw something mundane, and constructed a sense in which that mundane occurrence related to something through a fairly tenuous link. This made me decide to take one action, and that action proved to be beneficial - hence I'm deciding that interpreting mundane occurrences that could be construed as co-incidental is MEANINGFUL in a new-age or religious sense.. because it gives my pitiful existence some meaning". FFS! - some of the co-incidences were of the ilk of "I saw a red car last Tuesday, and my dead wife's car was red, and she died on a Tuesday... wow!".