258: How to Understand and Benefit from Meaningful Coincidences
“There's something else going on that we can tune into. I call it the psycho-sphere. You might call it the universe or God. If we're open to it, it can help connect us to synchronicities and serendipities that can be useful for us.” — Dr. Bernard Beitman
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Guest
Bernard Beitman, M.D. is the first psychiatrist since Carl Jung to systematize the study of coincidences. A graduate of Yale Medical School, he did his psychiatric residency at Stanford University. The former chair of psychiatry at the University of Missouri-Columbia medical school for 17 years, he writes a blog for Psychology Today on coincidence. He is the author of Meaningful Coincidences: How and Why Synchronicity and Serendipity Matter, and the co-author of the award-winning book Learning Psychotherapy. The founder of The Coincidence Project, he lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Summary
Our conversation explored a number of questions:
• Why it is beneficial to pay attention to coincidences.
• The difference between synchronicity and serendipity.
• The obstacles that stand in the way of acting on triggers.
• How telepathy works.
• The nature of simulpathity.
• How the psycho-sphere is likely to function.
• The relationship between coincidence and prayer.
• How agency – free will, making personal choices – is essential when it comes to an understanding and leveraging meaningful coincidence.
Links/References
Website: https://coincider.com/
Podcast: https://www.coincider.com/podcasts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DrBeitman
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/coincider?fref=nf
Instagram: bernardbeitmanmd
Trout Unlimited video: https://www.tu.org/scot-simmons-the-studio/
Show Credits
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"Getting Unstuck" theme music: Original composition of "Allegro ben ritmato e deciso" by George Gershwin. Arrangement and recording courtesy of Bruno Lecoeur.