Difference between synchronicity and confirmation bias

[Farnaby]

Hi!

I've noticed that when I'm more in alignment with my true self, being more authentic and honest, I notice strange coincidences happening. 

I know many people say those are synchronicities and it's the universe giving you hints that you're on the right path, but I'm scientifically-minded and I see another explanation that seems more likely: confirmation bias. 

My take on this is that these coincidences are constantly happening, but since I'm more connected to myself, other people and everything that's happening, I notice those coincidences more often and assign a meaning that I wouldn't otherwise.

Maybe both explanations are just two different ways of interpreting the same experience. 

What do you think?

[Moksha]

From whose perspective? Ultimately, there is only synchronicity. Relatively, the more Self-aware we are, the more clearly we see the sameness in everything.

[Farnaby]

@Moksha from our individual/egoic perspective. 

48 minutes ago, Moksha said:

Ultimately, there is only synchronicity.

this kind of resonates. 

48 minutes ago, Moksha said:

the more clearly we see the sameness in everything.

this, however, I'm not sure I understand. 

[Moksha]

@Farnaby I see it as lucid glimpses, within the dream. Those moments where you realize that everything is One. We are all the same Consciousness. The chord of Hallelujah. 

[mandyjw]

There's a huge difference in how they feel, there's a "knowing" with synchronicity that sort of merges feeling and knowing. Confirmation bias explains the tendency of the mind, but I guess the real question is, what beliefs do you want to support, and what IS objective? I'd say confirmation bias is more like holding a resistance right where it was before, so it might feel sort of comfortable in a way, in that it's a practicing a well worn pattern even if it's one that doesn't feel so great. But it's not like an epiphany, amazement, wonder, a clue or a knowing wink from someone you really love, which is what synchronicity feels like. Although to be honest after experiencing it a lot sometimes I have just rolled my eyes and just laughed about it before. 

In my experience synchronicity sort of blows up confirmation bias, it sort of shocks you awake from your old humdrum, tiring, exhausting belief structure, and shocks you awake with new fresh eyes of childlike wonder. 

 

[Osaid]

1 hour ago, Farnaby said:

Maybe both explanations are just two different ways of interpreting the same experience. 

Yeah, something like that. It reminds me of when people use the word "placebo" to invalidate an experience, as if to ignore the fact that reality can literally be changed just through your imagination.

If you saw a synchronicity in a dream, would you call it confirmation bias? If you won the lottery in a dream, what does that actually mean? Would you explain it away by saying "it was just probability"? Can you see that you are imagining probability and overlaying it on top of that experience? What is a coincidence, really? What is the difference between a synchronicity and a coincidence?

Maybe "coincidence" and "probability" are simply the mediums through which the universe communicates with you. They can easily co-exist in that way.

[PureRogueQ]

Is it bias, it could be, but seeing what you didn't see before does not make it bias . If you can see a  law that actually works, then you just see one of laws governing this reality that you simply didn't see before, but  it was there. 

Then there is other thing, actual change in events of your life, which is less of drawing conclusion of things happening around you, but things that do not happen to you usually, happening one after another, again it might be bias, but how many things you have to tick to make sure it is not a bias.

 

 

[Gesundheit]

Different delusions happening to the same truth; You.

Edited March 28, 2021 by Gesundheit

[mandyjw]

5 minutes ago, Gesundheit said:

Different delusions happening to the same truth; You.

De-lusion, I-llusion

Ill-usion 

illusion- from Latin illusionem (nominative illusio) "a mocking, jesting, jeering; irony," from past-participle stem of illudere "mock at," literally "to play with," from assimilated form of in- "at, upon" (from PIE root *en "in") + ludere "to play" (see ludicrous). https://www.etymonline.com/word/illusion

"All the world's a stage" There are no players, just play. 

[GreenLight]

14 hours ago, mandyjw said:

There's a huge difference in how they feel, there's a "knowing" with synchronicity that sort of merges feeling and knowing. Confirmation bias explains the tendency of the mind, but I guess the real question is, what beliefs do you want to support, and what IS objective? I'd say confirmation bias is more like holding a resistance right where it was before, so it might feel sort of comfortable in a way, in that it's a practicing a well worn pattern even if it's one that doesn't feel so great. But it's not like an epiphany, amazement, wonder, a clue or a knowing wink from someone you really love, which is what synchronicity feels like. Although to be honest after experiencing it a lot sometimes I have just rolled my eyes and just laughed about it before. 

In my experience synchronicity sort of blows up confirmation bias, it sort of shocks you awake from your old humdrum, tiring, exhausting belief structure, and shocks you awake with new fresh eyes of childlike wonder. 

 

This is a good answer

[Farnaby]

On 28/3/2021 at 0:39 AM, mandyjw said:

There's a huge difference in how they feel, there's a "knowing" with synchronicity that sort of merges feeling and knowing. Confirmation bias explains the tendency of the mind, but I guess the real question is, what beliefs do you want to support, and what IS objective? I'd say confirmation bias is more like holding a resistance right where it was before, so it might feel sort of comfortable in a way, in that it's a practicing a well worn pattern even if it's one that doesn't feel so great. But it's not like an epiphany, amazement, wonder, a clue or a knowing wink from someone you really love, which is what synchronicity feels like. Although to be honest after experiencing it a lot sometimes I have just rolled my eyes and just laughed about it before. 

In my experience synchronicity sort of blows up confirmation bias, it sort of shocks you awake from your old humdrum, tiring, exhausting belief structure, and shocks you awake with new fresh eyes of childlike wonder. 

 

Thank you for the detailed answer

One example I can think of where I'm not sure if it was synchronicity or confirmation bias is one time I was talking with a friend of mine about some food I really like (not the typical thing you usually carry with you) and suddenly he picked that exact food out of a bag as a gift for me that he had brought to my place. 

On 28/3/2021 at 0:40 AM, Osaid said:

Yeah, something like that. It reminds me of when people use the word "placebo" to invalidate an experience, as if to ignore the fact that reality can literally be changed just through your imagination.

If you saw a synchronicity in a dream, would you call it confirmation bias? If you won the lottery in a dream, what does that actually mean? Would you explain it away by saying "it was just probability"? Can you see that you are imagining probability and overlaying it on top of that experience? What is a coincidence, really? What is the difference between a synchronicity and a coincidence?

Maybe "coincidence" and "probability" are simply the mediums through which the universe communicates with you. They can easily co-exist in that way.

Yep, placebo is similar to this in a sense. The only problem I see with this reasoning is that it assumes the universe has some kind of intention of communicating with us. Maybe it's more random/chaotic than that and we're focusing on the events that have some kind of meaning for us (which is what confirmation bias is).

 

On 28/3/2021 at 6:57 AM, PureRogueQ said:

Then there is other thing, actual change in events of your life, which is less of drawing conclusion of things happening around you, but things that do not happen to you usually, happening one after another, again it might be bias, but how many things you have to tick to make sure it is not a bias.

 

 

This is what I was talking about when I say that whenever I'm more in alignment, things that do not happen usually start happening and there's also a slight feeling of being able to predict that those events are likely to occur.