Strange coincidences?

Question

When I look at a clock it will display something like 14:41, 22:22, 22:55 (on a digital time display it look symmetrical) or any combination that somehow involves symmetry. It happens often and not just to me but to a few people I know, so it's getting pretty weird.. otherwise I wouldn't have asked. This is silly, but might there be an explanation/superstition/myth about this?

Answer 1

um no.

Answer 2

Don't know about these numbers you quoted, but if you see 11:11 or 3:33 a lot, that is usually a sign that a spirit is trying to contact you or that God is reminding you He's there.

I'll have to research these other patterns to see if they have any meanings or synchronicities involved.

Answer 3

12/21/12, its your subconscious warning you.

Answer 4

Do these numbers correspond to the actual time? (At least according to the respective clock) If so, it is indeed just what you suspect, a bit of coincidence (and a bit of your memory playing a trick on you)... with, possibly, a bit of a patterned lifestyle thrown in. Now, if the clocks immediately altered their time to these numbers when you observed them, THAT might be something!

Humans have an uncanny ability to find patterns (even when there aren’t any). We all do this, usually inadvertently, at one time or another (part of this is due to Confirmation Bias, see reference below)... Along these lines, we also might “create” importance in such mundane events.

In particular: For any clock, there is a finite set of displayed numbers possible; that you happen to look at the clock and remember certain sets better than others is most likely your selective memory at work. You see some numbers that are, for whatever reasons, easier to remember for you and when you see them again, your memory is sparked.

Certainly you look at the clock at other times, you just don’t remember those times as well, hence no imprint in your mind to their “importance”. After all, the times you gave as your example are pretty distinct, no? Those sets would seem to stick out in one’s memory better than, say, 6:27. (Growing up, my friends and I placed special importance on 11:11 for, now, obvious reasons.)

Lastly, the “patterned lifestyle” I mentioned above refers to the fact that some of the “coincidence” might not be so. It could also be that you look at the clock when you are through watching a particular program on TV, or after a class, or after you get off work – whatever activities you tend to do repetitively.

Certainly I cannot prove that all of this is not caused by spirits (no one could), but after given the time to think about all of the perfectly natural possibilities that could be “causing” this phenomenon, doesn’t it seem less likely to be supernatural?