Thursday, July 22, 2010

a peculiar series of encounters?

i've noticed a peculiar phenomenon that has been happening to me and i still dont know how to tag it.

i was chatting once with this grindree when i punctuated my statement with 'megaknown'. his reply was 'ay parang si mr fu'.

i was puzzled. 'sino yun'

'igoogle mo'

i hastily searched and saw a name 'jeff...' and concluded it was his ex. 'uuuy. naalala pa nya'

'hahaha hindi no! dj siya sa radio at nag-tv na rin. lagi siyang may "may ganon?'.

i havent heard of this mr fu and he mentions it like i should have.

the following day, i listen to some officemates talk about mr fu! and i was so surprised. then in the newspaper, an entertainment columnist talks about mr fu. so all in the span of a few days, i start reading, hearing about this name from multiple sources.

case no 2: im chatting on the phone with my new friend. he casually mentions murakami as one of his fave authors. im curious and ask him for more information, and the titles of his book i should read.

a day after, im reading time magazine. in an article about the best summer reads, i see there again murakami, as recommended by one of their editors. 'kafka by the shore' as a great beach companion.

and just this morning, as im reading the wall street journal, i read about him again, as the first japanese author to have his book e-published for ipad exclusively, with no hard copy planned. and that prompted this post.

so the phenomenon goes like this. you encounter one new term, or one new issue or concept from nowhere. then in just a few days, you will have read about it, heard or even seen it from disparate sources.

is this buzz marketing at work? but it's not as if it all came from talk and referrals. it is unrelated and multi-media. or did my initial encounter with the term 'open' a subconscious eye to actively seek out this new term? a way of searching for more information? what was previously filtered out was now part of the 'radar'?

at best i could only tag this as 'synchronicity' but that sounds woefully inadequate.

hmmm. has this happened to you before?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

23 comments:

jeff said...

I guess you're just more aware now than before, because of the initial encounter. You still would read Murakami in Time and WSJ but would probably ignore the item, had your friend not introduced the writer.

They say it's the same after one encounters a breakup. It seems that everything - from the lousy music in the radio to the verbal expressions you hear from friends - connects you to your ex, when in fact these things have all been there, you were just unaware.

Mugen said...

Not in my case. Probably because I seldom talk, or I talk only when assured that the topic at hand is something both me and my new friend could relate to. :)

Anonymous said...

or CC probably you just became sensitive to mere mention of them because of curiosity that's why articles or talks about the two stand out. you might have come across something about mr fu or murakami before but it didn't register

Darc Diarist said...

must be more of the "radar" thing. you're more sensitive to the idea because of the novelty... just my two cents. hehe :)

twink-bait said...

I'm no stranger to this. I have my moments with multiple mentions of one thing.
This post, too. This is my fourth encounter of Murakami since yesterday. One was a status update in facebook, another was a guy reading Murakami in a cafe, and then my seatmate mentioned him in passing in my litt class.

Anonymous said...

The terms were there right under your nose. You just don't care about them since you weren't interested until they were introduced to you.

TalesAt26 said...

yeah i agree with stepfordboy. we relate to and recognize things/people/events that has been introduced or made known to us. but it doesn't necessarily mean that we've never heard of them before. it's just that we've become more aware of their existence.

question lang, is mr. fu the one in tweetbiz?

and yeah, Murakami's "Sputnik Sweetheart" was good. go read. :)

Doy said...

I love Murakami. I've read a lot of his novels and I'm very impressed. He can write about ordinary things but he can make them transcendental.

And oh yes, it has happened to me before too. I guess that's just normal.

closet case said...

@everyone yeah, it seems like a discussion brought forth by a 'significant' person created a 'tag' in my mind about the topic. without that tag, the topic would have been filtered out. with the tag, it suddenly jumps out.

a part of me, though, wants to believe in something bigger at play... hehe

Guyrony said...

These are just mere coincidences that shouldn't be given too much emphasis.

paci said...

randomness is a wonderful thing isn't it? and coincidences as well.
i have no mathematical explanation for such occurrences but there should be that probability that certain things occur or reoccur. then the connections and misconnections..

joelmcvie said...

Yes CC, something bigger is at play here.

Someone is pulling off an inception into your brain. Or someone is toying around with the Matrix.

You choose.

D said...

may term yan sa psychology e! but I forgot na. it's like that episode in Sex and the City when Carrie first met this guy Jack and then he collects pala random playing cards he finds on the streets, which she thought was quirky and cute. but then Carrie starts noticing na rin random playing cards people lost sa streets. they were there all along, it just took someone to point them out.

Anonymous said...

That's the "Tipping Point" syndrome. As 'novelized' by Malcolm Gladwell in his book of the same title, it's a pop culture phenomena wherein a buzz catches on and suddenly everyone starts talking about it. A buzz can have a slow start, but once it reaches the 'right' people, they can tip the scale to its favor—thus reaching our subconscious via various media.

bluestyx said...

I've had the same experiences. This usually happens to me when I'm deeply thinking about something or seeking the answer to a question. Next thing I know, a chain of weird events flashes the answer. Suddenly, some character on tv or movie talks about it, it gets asked in a game show, I overhear some random people blurt it out, read it from a novel I just picked, or a friend just brings it up out of the blue.
It really felt weird, almost spooky. And yeah, I felt like someone was playing with me 'though I know there was none. But it sure got me puzzled.

Anonymous said...

This happened to me, too.

Anonymous said...

Synchronicities are sometimes considered an effect of the law of attraction, if you buy that idea.

Ming Meows said...

dalawang coincidence pa lang yan. antay ka pa ng isa. tapos pag nangyari ulit, iblog mo.

CladestinePlanet said...

Hi CC,

I'm not new here. I have a few comments to some of your posts. I just happen to start blogging and of course, you're one of my inspirations.

i've only had 2 blog entries so far. it's just that i'm in a dilemma right now and i would really appreciate it if you could give your two cents on my second post.

Thank you so much CC. All the best for you!

Anonymous said...

Our perception of time and events is limited. In fact, it's linear. We can only go forward, never stay in the present or backwards. Who knows what coincidences mean?

AJ said...

Happens to me all the time!

There is also something similar that happens to me: Whenever I think of something (or whenever something pops into my head), I would instantaneously (like 5 seconds or less) see, hear or read it in the physical world. Example: The word "soda" comes to mind. Less than five seconds later, some girl on TV mentions the same word. It's like premonition! Megaknown?

Rob said...

CC, in case you have forgotten it already, let me remind you. You've already been exposed to 'The Secret' and it is actually the LOA (Law of Attraction) at work. There is no co-incidence in this world, everything have been attracted by you :-) Peace!

closet case said...

THANKS, GUYS! i see that this post provoked some thinking! and i see such interesting explanations and similar experiences. but ill continue to share similar experiences once these happen again.