Amazing Heart Coincidence: Their Hearts Matched

At school I was taught not to use the word 'nice' when writing, but this is actually a nice story. It's all about the coincidence or synchronicity of a couple who had just one good heart between them.

Suzanne and Alistair Cotton, from Coventry in England, met at Kingsbury swimming pool but little did they realise what a lot they had in common. And most of this didn't come to light until after they had fallen in love.

They were quite shocked when they first met to learn that they had both suffered from the same rare heart defect. They were diagnosed, when children, as having stenosis. This is a narrowing of the heart valve which requires difficult corrective surgery.

The interesting thing is that their defects were on opposite sides of their heart, so between them they had one good heart. They saw this as being a sign of their destiny to meet.

After Suzanne and Alistair moved in together Suzanne had to go for a routine heart check up and it was then that they learned of an another amazing coincidence.

As children, seven year old Suzanne and fourteen year old Alistair were being prepared for surgery at the Birmingham Children's Hospital. This was in 1974 - and they were in the next beds to each other ready to have the same operation, on the same day and by the same surgeon. Who would have thought they would meet some 20 years later, fall in love and finally marry.

Suzanne said of the coincidence, "We were totally blown away by the coincidence. We always felt like we had a close bond and, because our defects were on opposite sides of the heart, it means our two halves would fit together perfectly. We were obviously destined to be together. When I found out Alistair had the same condition as I did, I knew he'd be able to understand what I'd been through - but I didn't realise just how well he'd understand."

The couple married in 1992 and Suzanne conceived a baby the following year. Regarding this she said, "Many heart patients can't conceive or carry children, and other children are born with dreadful heart problems themselves, so for our amazing story to have such a happy ending is just wonderful. We can't even begin to show how grateful we are to the hospital that has given us so much joy and so much to live for, against the odds."

A nice coincidence story: The couple met 20 years after both having the same operations on the same day and by the same surgeon and their love is sealed with a healthy daughter, now six years old. Yes, that's definitely 'nice'.

How Dreams Solve Problems And Questions

I recently wrote a post with examples of how some famous dreams produced some amazing results.

Today though I'm taking a slightly different track about how we can get answers to problems or questions with the help of dreams.

Here are a couple of illustrations which I have amongst my cuttings.

The first is from the author of self help books Dr Joseph Murphy. He writes: "I once lost a valuable ring, which was an heirloom. I looked everywhere but couldn't locate it.

That night I talked to my subconscious. I said to it, prior to dropping off to sleep, 'You know all things; you know where the ring is and you now reveal to me where it is.'

In the morning I awoke suddenly with the words ringing in my ear, 'Ask Robert.'

I thought it strange that I should ask Robert, a boy about nine years of age; however, I followed the inner voice and intuition.

Robert said, 'Oh, yes, I picked it up in the yard while I was playing with your boys. I placed it on the desk in my room. I didn't think it worth anything, so I didn't say anything about it.'"

Dr Murphy claims it was his subconscious / unconscious which provided him with his request for information.

The second example is again about finding something. This time a will.

The father of the gentleman concerned had died and apparently hadn't left a will. His sister, however, claimed that their father had told her in confidence that he had made one, which was fair to both of them. All attempts to find the will failed.

Prior to sleep the man talked to his deeper mind. His words were: 'I now turn this request over to the subconscious mind. It knows where that will is and reveals it to me.'

He then condensed his request to one word: 'Answer.' He repeated this over and over, almost like a lullaby until he fell asleep.

The next morning the man had an overpowering hunch to go to a certain bank in Los Angeles. He discovered that this was where the will had been lodged - in a deposit box in his father's name. With the right authority he was able to gain access to the will.

Again in this second example the man in question believed the answer came from his unconscious mind.

Personally I don't think it makes any difference as to who or what can answer our questions or problems. It's for us to choose what we are comfortable with, whether that be: unconscious mind, angels, God, Universal Mind, saints, deceased relative or whatever. The important point is that we can get the answers we need with the help of dreams.

The usual format I follow is: once in bed, I still my mind and relax completely.

I then think over the problem or question and try to solve this myself. If I can't find the answer I imagine how pleased I would be if I had found the solution and allow my mind to ponder this mood and the satisfaction of having found the answer.

I drop off to sleep knowing I have the answer to my problem or question.

The solution may come within a dream or a feeling on waking. Should the answer not come right away - no worries. I know the answer will arrive, so I go about my normal day and don't think about the problem (after all it is already solved).

When I am preoccupied with something else then, ding, what I'm seeking will pop into my head or the info will come from another source. Maybe something someone says or from a book, newspaper or almost from anywhere.

If the solution hasn't arrived by the end of the day, I repeat the format.

If you have ever done, say crosswords or something similar, sometimes there are one or two clues that you just can't solve. But I bet if you go back to it later then the answer is often obvious. You wonder why on earth you couldn't get it before. Your 'mind' has effortlessly been solving this for you. It's a similar principle with any problem.

Answers and solutions are always there - if we ask - and dreams can help with this.

Further Reading:
Examples Of Famous Dreams
Dreams And Precognitions Of Aberfan Disaster
Famous Precognitive Dreams: Abraham Lincoln



Photo: Nevit Dilmen

The Hampton Court Ghost Caught On CCTV

The Ghost At Hampton Court Palace
The photo above shows a ghost caught on CCTV (Closed Circuit TV used for security purposes) at Hampton Court Palace in London.

Hampton Court is said to be one of the most haunted places in England with claims that the ghosts of such people as Jane Seymour, Catherine Howard, Henry VIII and other royalty have been sighted.

Before the photo (part of a video tape) was captured there had been reports of fire doors at the palace being mysteriously opened. When the CCTV video was perused to try and find out the reason for this security lapse the ghost was seen opening the very same fire doors.

Experts who have perused the tape say the ghost appears to be almost skeleton-like, with an extremely white face and also looks to be transparent - but still strong enough to open doors!

The Palace is full of history stretching back to the early 1500s and is one of only two surviving Palaces belonging to King Henry VIII. He was given this in 1528 by Cardinal Wolsey and then set about enlarging the building.


Today Hampton Court Palace is open to the public but there is no guarantee that ghostly apparitions will be seen.


Photo of Hampton Court Source

Bizarre Chinese Lottery Coincidence

Here's a bizarre lottery coincidence from China. It was reported in the Chinese newspaper, translated as, Modern Evening Times (MET).


The story is about two winners of the Chinese lottery in April 2009. They each won 5 million yuan, one lived in Henan and the other Heilongjiang. These two towns are thousands of kilometers from each other.

Okay, not too strange so far but they both picked out the same number of 3511587 - which, I guess, they would have had to do if there were two winners.

But now here is the bizarre coincidence bit: The two gentlemen concerned picked these identical numbers at exactly the same time - right down to the second! They were both purchased on 2009/04/26 at precisely 10:17:12 - and their tickets prove this.

Seemingly, for this lottery, there were over 10 million numbers picked by players and at peak times over 100 transactions take place every second.

The reporter in the MET, Zhang Feifei, also added as a bonus coincidence, "Interestingly, the two big winners also had the same height, weight, and blood type."

An assistant professor of mathematics at Heilongjiang University has had his calculator on overdrive to work out the odds of this happening - the lottery bit that is, not their height and such.

This is what the prof, He Chunyang, worked out, "Suppose you pick a two-digit number using the digits 1 to 9. That makes 81 combinations. If you have two seven-digit numbers with an identical sequence, the probability is 1/282429536481 (one in 81x81x81x81x81x81), or roughly one in 282 billion. And when you factor in the two players thousands of kilometers apart who bought tickets at precisely the same second, the probability approaches zero."

Not sure I understood all that but he seems to be saying that it's virtually impossible for two players to pick the same numbers at exactly the same time - but they did, and this is what happens in the world of coincidences and synchronicity: the virtually impossible actually happens.

Further Reading:
The Bulgarian Lottery Coincidence
Dead Wife Helps Husband Win £26 Million On Lottery

Kristine's Coincidence Stories - Part 2

This coincidence story from Kristine follows on from yesterday's post.

"Eventually I left my job also. I did so because I bought a small cafe at the beach.

Mary and I made plans to have breakfast one morning so I could show her my new place. She called me a few days before we were to meet and asked if she could get a rain-check. She had recently been promoted and her new boss had invited her to breakfast the same day. She felt that it was important for her on a professional level that she accept the invitation.

I agreed with her, and told her we would make it another day. On the day of our cancelled meeting, I looked up from the counter at the cafe, and was surprised to see Mary standing in front of me with a huge smile on her face. As I walked around to greet her and ask her what was up, I noticed she wasn't alone.

After I gave her a big hug, she introduced me to her new boss, who looked familiar. Mary went on to explain that her boss had wanted to take her to visit a very special little restaurant that she went to every weekend without fail. The food was great, the ambiance was perfect, and so on.

Right when I was starting to wonder why they instead came to my cafe, it dawned on me why her boss looked so familiar. She sat at the same table every weekend with her boyfriend and their dog, on the patio of my cafe.

Coincidence? Synchronicity? It gets better!

As it turned out, Mary and the boss were not the only ones in their party that day. The boss' boyfriend (and the dog) would be arriving as soon as he was done surfing.

A few minutes later, I see Mary waving at me, so I head over to her table. She tells me that the boyfriend ran into an old buddy while surfing, and they need another chair because he is going to have breakfast too.

No problem! Chair provided. I got a little busy, but I kept my eye on them and saw that all had arrived, and were seated. My staff was taking good care of them.

I finally got free, and headed over to Mary's table to see that they had enjoyed themselves.

When I arrived at the table, my jaw basically fell from my mouth onto it. The boss was happily introducing me to her boyfriend and going on about the coincidence of Mary's friend owning her favorite breakfast spot.

It took a minute for Mary, the boss, and the boyfriend to notice that the surfing buddy and I were both shell shocked.

Why, you ask? It is almost too absurd to be believable. The surfing buddy lived four houses away from me, and we had been neighbors for almost 10 years.

We knew each other well enough that over the years we had occasionally gone out for coffee, and walked our dogs together.

Coincidence? Synchronicity? Or just plain weird?

All I know is that it all happened. I am not sure that the coincidences were 'meant to be' since they didn't all result in a big change for those involved. I am sure that they took all of us off-guard, and have given us a fantastic story to retell."

Thank you Kristine for sending me your coincidences - Mike.

Further Reading:
Kristine's Coincidence Stories - Part 1

Kristine's Coincidence Stories - Part 1

I had three coincidences by email from Kristine who lives in Southern California. As the first coincidece is quite long I'll publish the other two tomorrow - they follow on from this one. Here's the first part of Kristine's story:

"While working at a department store in California, I hired a very nice lady (we'll call her Mary) from Brazil. She worked for me as a salesperson for several years, and we became good friends during this time. Since she didn't have any family nearby, she spent holidays with me and my family.

My family is a small one, consisting of myself, my mother, and my only brother who lives in Morocco with his wife and kids. Though not present for every holiday, my brother and his family visited the US often enough that Mary got to know them fairly well.

Time passed, and Mary was given the opportunity to work at a better paying job with considerably more potential for advancement. While we were sad to no longer be working together, we remained friends, and talked frequently.

About a month into her new job, which was at a law firm, Mary called me for some advice. She was very upset because she wasn't fitting in very well. No one had made any moves to befriend her, and because she still had some troubles with language, she was shy about striking up conversations herself.

My advice to Mary was to do a lot of listening. I told her to listen to what the others were talking about publicly in the lounge, and on breaks. I suggested that when she heard a conversation on a topic she was familiar with, she should try and become part of the conversation, and see if the group would welcome her.

Less than a week later, I receive a very excited call from Mary, and this is what she told me:

She was in the lounge, eating lunch, and listening to her co-workers talk. She had been trying to find an opportunity to join a conversation, and had worked up the courage and determination to do so that day.

As chance would have it, she heard 'Morocco', and thought that since she had learned something of Morocco from my brother and sister-in-law, this was her opportunity.

She listened a little more, and discovered that the speaker was sharing stories of her recent wedding in Gibraltar, and subsequent honeymoon in Morocco. When the wedding pictures came out, Mary got up with a few others, and joined the group looking at them.

Mary found her opening and was right in the middle of explaining how her previous boss, who she became friends with has a brother that lives in Morocco, and suddenly she said, "This is actually him, right here in this photo!"

To everyones' astonishment, the best man and the maid of honor at the wedding in Gibraltar were none other than my brother and sister-in-law. The flower girl was my niece, and the bride and groom had been friends with my brother for over 15 years.

Not only was Mary welcomed into the conversation, her entire status changed. The bride had worked at the law firm for 10 years, and was a cornerstone of the companies social hierarchy. By association, the bride considered Mary part of her family, and from then on, treated her as such. The two of them became instant friends, and Mary never again felt like she didn't fit in."

Part 2 tomorrow.

Further Reading:
Coincidence Or Synchronicity: Example 3 - An unexpected meeting.

67 Not Out Thank You Link Love

It's been more luck than judgement but I've just had an unbelievable week with this blog. At the time of writing 67 Not Out has had over 200,000 hits in the last seven days - honest!

As a way of showing my appreciation I thought I'd give a little 'link love' - at least I think that's what it's called - as a way of saying thank you. So below are a few links to some interesting blogs and posts.

SYNCHRONICITY is a blog I read every day because it's about meaningful coincidences or synchronicity plus other interesting posts on such things as reincarnation, UFOs and so on. It's written by authors Trish and Rob MacGregor, their latest book is The 7 Secrets of Synchronicity. Give them a look.

Teapots Happen. This was one of the very first blogs to link to 67 Not Out and I've picked out a great post about a coincidence and ... well you'll just have to read the post. Let's just say that there are one or two teapots involved!

When A Southern Woman Rambles is by the exotically named L. Avery Brown and her blog linked to mine just after I got started. It's nothing to do with coincidences and the like but is extremely well written - as you would expect from a former middle school history teacher.

Is There Such A Thing As Time? asks Suzie Shine. I 'met' Suzie through Squidoo where I have published a few lenses and now she leaves comments on a lot of my blog posts. Suzie's lens about time gives a quirky look at the subject.

Terri Patrick's Blog. Terri writes contemporary romance novels and loves sassy dialogue. She says her characters always have a mythology or philosophy or esoteric interest that blends with their work. For example: an accountant who knows her astrology, or a photographer who reads palms.

The Power Of Prayer. I've picked this post out from Nancy's blog Life In The Second Half. Her posts are always a pleasure to read plus I have appreciated the comments she has left on 67 Not Out.

Barbara Martin writes some excellent posts but my favourites are when she writes about Canada and it's history. There are some stunning photos. Barbara often leaves me comments on this blog.

That concludes the Link Love for this time, seven seems an appropriate number.

I'd like to thank everyone who has visited this blog, left comments or has linked to it. Sorry I couldn't mention everyone - but I really do appreciate your contribution.