Each of us has a personal set of patterns by which to notice and process coincidences. I have initiated a research project using artificial intelligence to seek patterns in coincidence stories and then match people with similar patterns, something like a dating app. Hopefully, this idea will reach fruition and you will be able to find like-minded synchronicity friends to further enrich your experience of both uniqueness and similarity.

I noticed several recurring patterns in these stories.

I enjoy being in the right place at the right time without making a conscious decision to go there. In the chapter titled “Internal GPS,” I tested out my own ability to consciously get where I wanted to be at the right time. Like flocks of birds flying to their breeding grounds or lost dogs finding their way back home, I could intuitively time my actions for really nice coincidences to happen. Others do this too. Do you? Have you activated your Human GPS?

Knocking on strangers’ doors became another consequential pattern. As you will see, knocking on doors led to my taking LSD well before our society had recognized its potential. With that LSD knock came an introduction to astrology and tarot cards. Knowing these areas of study helped me adapt to the pop-up hippie culture of the late 1960s.

Another knock-knock led to my securing the necessary data for the required medical school thesis. Then came a knock that led to my marrying the daughter of a past president of the American Psychoanalytic Association. And a hesitant knock on a colleague’s door opened the path to becoming chair of psychiatry.

My favorite is a cartoonlike pattern that has me swinging from vine to vine in the coincidence jungle. I’d grab one vine attached to a certain tree, climb around on the tree, and meet other coincidence monkeys and circumstances. Sometimes I went out on a limb and needed to jump to catch another vine to another tree. From Devine to Devine, quipped a colleague. Or Coinci-Dancing, punned another.

Like many potential coincidences, I had to jump to catch the next vine. Without moving, without action, many potentially great synchronicities do not happen. With this knowledge, over time I got pretty good at imagining possibilities and helping to make them happen. This time-tested capacity soon became a guideline—imagine something possible and help make it happen.

High emotion and strong need are often the drivers for manifesting what you imagine. Without deciding to act, the desired outcome is unlikely to happen. You violate yourself by not moving. As opposed to being ticketed and fined for driving too fast (a moving violation), you are fined by missing a potential opportunity—a “non-moving” violation.

What are your meaningful coincidence patterns?