Is this the thing where you think of something and it seems to appear on the telly, etc?
I read a study of that once. It turns out there's a reason for this. It's to do with how the mind processes things and (I think, if I remember correctly) how long it takes thoughts to reach our conscious mind, and can even be replicated.

When you see something your mind takes it in and then your conscious self becomes aware of it. There are people who see things, their mind takes it in, passes it to their conscious self, and then they see it. So it appears as if they've thought of something and it appears.

They replicated it with video games. A little flying plane game, I think it was. They had it so that when the person flying the plane pressed to move it, the plane moved. Then they put a delay on it, so that when they pressed to move it it moved after a second. They adjusted to this. Then the people put it back to happening normally again but because the mind was used to the delay it seemed as if the plane moved almost before they went to move it, as if it knew to move.

Really interesting! I'd love to find it again. Get my facts straight and have another read.
( vix0r was not Matthew on, Thu 21 Jul 2011, 14:59, 2 replies)

I think that's along similar lines to how deja vu works
Something goes immediately into your long-term memory instead of short-term, and thus you get the feeling of having experienced it before.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Thu 21 Jul 2011, 15:09, closed)

this seems likely
but I've had some bouts of deja vu where it's not like I've experienced what's happening before, but that I've imagined it or thought of it before, and many many years before at that. Even to the point of thinking at the time "I don't know someone called " and things like that.

Really weird.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Thu 21 Jul 2011, 16:59, closed)

I get that too.
I think it means you're crazy.
( Allisade would love to hear from you, Thu 21 Jul 2011, 20:20, closed)

How about when
You say something and then someone on the telly/radio says the same thing? (Or you read something and then someone who's in the room with you says the same thing, etc.). I would be curious to find an explanation for this.
(bat_fudgie, Thu 21 Jul 2011, 15:57, closed)

Coincidence.
Sometimes things happen by chance; and you're more likely to notice it when the song in your head is on the radio than when it isn't.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Thu 21 Jul 2011, 16:41, closed)

people greatly underestimate the power of coincidence

( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Thu 21 Jul 2011, 16:57, closed)

Spot on.
You read/think/see millions and millions of things, every now and again two things are bound to coindide and of course you notice it and it feels weird.

But it would actually be weirder if it never happened at all. Although you wouldn't notice that it was weird.

I didn't explain that very well.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Thu 21 Jul 2011, 17:13, closed)