At the beginning of this month, I had the honor and privilege of attending a summit meeting of board members of The Coincidence Project in Chicago, Illinois to plan activities for the next twelve months. There was no disappointment in meeting my colleagues and heroes in person, but rather a joyful collaboration.

The Coincidence Project  brings together an international group of authors, mental health professionals, scientists, executive coaches and teachers committed to exploring meaningful coincidence, synchronicity and serendipity, “in order to inspire a leap forward in the evolution of human self-awareness.” Current activities include two monthly series: the “Coincidence Café”, which invites participants to share and reflect on their own coincidence stories, and the Speaker Series featuring experts in the field on a broad array of related topics. Both series are recorded and replays are available on The Coincidence Project channel on YouTube.

Examples of meaningful coincidences include uncannily encountering repeated numbers or symbols, such as 11:11 on a clock, or thinking of someone you haven’t seen for a very long time and improbably running into them soon afterward. It might involve facing a significant challenge before miraculously encountering someone or something that helps us to solve the problem, or that otherwise guides us toward our life partner or dream job. The more improbable and meaningful the coincidence, the stronger the synchronicity.

Such experiences tend to leave us with an enlightened sense that we are connected to our deeper selves, to others, and to the world around us in ways that go beyond simple, rational explanations. We might be convinced that there is a higher organizing force or guiding hand at work.

Such phenomena can be referred to by pop psychology adherents as a “law of attraction,” by Christians as a “guardian angel”, by Taylor Swift fans as “invisible strings” and by physicists as the principle of “entanglement.” Some might refer to it by saying “the universe provides.”

Our group is interested in drawing on synchronicity in practical ways. In my book, The Positive Psychology of Synchronicity, I describe my interest in helping people deliberately cultivate synchronistic experiences to enhance their sense of wellbeing, meaning, and purpose. I’ve witnessed how many clients’ lives shifted in a more positive direction following synchronistic experiences that set them on a more favorable path.

More generally, TCP board members aim to help develop a common language and promote concepts relevant to meaningful coincidences, synchronicity and serendipity. This includes outlining principles that can increase our awareness and understanding, raising the frequency with which we experience them, and enhancing our capacity to interpret and make meaning from such experiences. For example, we can allow ourselves to suspend disbelief, set an intention, be open to being open, notice what we notice, and hone our capacity to utilize our intuition as we move forward in life. When a deeply meaningful coincidence seems to prompt us to respond in a certain way, we might decisively act on it before the opportunity passes, taking our “cubic centimeter of chance.”

Our Chicago summit applied these principles to develop plans for TCP in the coming year, including developing an online course, establishing local in-person discussion groups in different countries, partnering with related organizations to expand and leverage networks and reach ever greater numbers of those interested in meaningful coincidences, and honing our means of storytelling to reach people in even more impactful ways.

Our forthcoming developments will be announced at regular TCP activities, as well as on this website. Watch this space!