Unexplained Experiences: Coincidence or Connection? Part 5 - So...Coincidence?

Over the course of this series, I’ve laid out the strangest, hardest-to-explain moments of my life. Childhood brain tingles tied to my mother’s emotions. Feeling my children’s injuries in real time. Dreams that came true, a coin that shouldn’t exist, cardinals that arrived (and stopped) at pivotal moments, flickering lights that tracked my moods, hunger that vanished with my mother, and angel numbers that still find me.

Each story alone might be brushed off as a coincidence. But together, they form a pattern that’s harder to dismiss.

Not everything can be explained.

The Skeptic in Me

I’ll say it again: I’m a scientist. I don’t jump to paranormal explanations when there’s a rational one on the table. The brain is powerful. Grief is complex. Psychology, stress, physics, and biology can explain a lot.

Our minds seek patterns, especially in times of loss, and especially when you have Asperger's like me. But still, seeing a cardinal after a death or noticing repeating numbers could simply be my brain grabbing onto comforting symbols. Feeling my kids’ pain could be maternal intuition sharpened by years of observation.

Coincidence is often enough.

But Then There’s the Data

And yet… these experiences keep stacking up.

Childhood. My brain would jolt with icy-jar tingles any time my mother was upset — even if I wasn’t with her. At twelve, I somehow knew I’d live until 2030 (TBD, let's hope this is just a childhood weird though). My mother dreamed of rising grass the night before we had a devastating RV accident, where she saw the same vision.

Sports Predictions. With the sheer number of football games, horse races, and other sporting events that I have predicted with the burning core feeling to where I could say I'm sure - go bet on that, I promise you I am right. You almost can't deny something is happening there.

Motherhood. I felt my children’s injuries in real time — sharp pains, sudden instincts, even answering the phone before it rang to ask if my son was okay (and he wasn’t). I knew when my daughter was pregnant before she told me.

Dreams. I once dreamed I’d lose my phone at the airport. Despite locking it away, I still lost it — playing out the dream beat for beat.

Manifesting. In a drunken joke during a Cowboys game, I asked the table who the best player on the opposing team was. I smashed a napkin effigy of the opposing team’s star (and passed it around the table for everyone else to smash) — and, on the next play, he tore his ACL, ending his season, and didn't play for almost a year.

Timing. Years later, my father’s organ failures mirrored in my own body until the very hour he died. My appetite switched off with my mother’s and returned the morning after she passed.

Signs. A guardian angel coin appeared on my spotless desk. A red cardinal battered itself against my brother’s house for months, then stopped after our mother died. Another cardinal — the first I’d ever seen at my home — perched on my retaining wall and chirped at me after she passed. Angel numbers aligned with nearly every moment of grief, doubt, or questioning.

Energy. Lights flickered only in my most emotional states, once pulsing stronger as my anger rose.

If these were one-offs, I’d shrug. But they happened repeatedly, across decades, across different settings, with different people. At what point does coincidence strain under the weight of too much data?

As a scientist, I fall back on data. But here it is - for us to see. But is it coincidence?

A Possible Mechanism

That’s where my mind goes: mechanism.

In physics, quantum entanglement describes particles linked so closely that what happens to one instantly affects the other — no matter the distance. Einstein called it “spooky action at a distance.”

What if DNA carries some echo of that? A kind of biological entanglement that links parents, children, and bloodlines in ways we don’t yet understand? It sounds far-fetched, and science hasn’t proven it. But when I map my lived experiences against the concept, it feels less like magic and more like science we just haven’t measured yet.

And maybe — just maybe — energy and emotion manifest outwardly too. Into lights. Into patterns. Into the timing of a bird or a number.

What I’ve Learned about Unexplained Experiences

I don’t believe in ghosts. I don’t believe in magic. But I do believe in data. And the data of my own life points to something. Whether that something is quantum, neurological, or simply a coincidence wearing a cloak of meaning — I can’t say for certain.

Here’s what I do know:

• These experiences have shaped me.

• They’ve connected me more deeply to my parents, even in their absence.

• And they’ve made me pay attention — to patterns, to people, to the moments that might otherwise slip by.

  

  I feel that there's something out there. I don't know what it is, why it is, or how it works, but something is there.

Your Turn

If you’ve followed along, here’s my invitation: start noticing.

• The next time you feel a sharp pain or odd twinge — check on someone close to you.

• The next time you’re grieving or questioning, glance at the clock. See what numbers look back.

• Watch for signs, not because they prove anything, but because they remind you to pay attention.

• If you have a strong 'gut feeling,' or burning in my core, as I describe it, go with it and see where it takes you (or prevents you from going).

Maybe you’ll find nothing. Maybe you’ll find patterns. Either way, you’ll be more awake to the connections in your life.

Closing the Case

So, was it all a coincidence? Maybe. That’s the easiest answer.

But if it was, then coincidence is a lot stranger, more stubborn, and more insistent than we give it credit for.

And if it wasn’t… then maybe there’s an entire layer of science, energy, and connection still waiting to be discovered.

Until then, I’ll hold onto both possibilities. Because for me, the line between coincidence and connection has never been so thin.

✨ End of Series ✨Unexplained Experiences: Coincidence or Connection?