Co-incidences ?

I don't normally bet on 4D but do so once in a blue moon when I have strange encounters involving numbers which seem strangely compelling. Just before Chinese New Year I left my bag in the toilet of a shopping mall. Though I realised it less than 5 minutes later, it was gone when I went to retrieve it. So I lost my handphone and wallet containing amongst other things cash, my IC, credit cards, ATM cards, home keys and a Big Sweep lottery ticket.  I lodged a police report and was in a flurry blocking the cards and getting replacements as well as changing the locks of my home. It gave me the creeps when I imagined the thief going through the contents of my bag and getting a glimpse of my private life including where I stay.  I also wondered whether the lottery ticket won any prize as I had yet to check the result and fantasized the thief becoming an instant millionaire.

Chinese New Year came along and I was too busy to think about the incident. Meanwhile it was in the news that many 铁树 plants in Singapore flowered, a rare occurrence given that these plants only blossom once in 15 to20 years. My garden has one such plant and 4 fragrant stalks of flowers bloomed.

Whilst tossing the "yusheng" during CNY at my mother-in-law's place, my sister in law asked my MIL to randomly utter a 4 digit number for them to place bets on. My MIL uttered "1234" just to humour them. Although I didn't participate in the betting the absence of good news meant the bet money had gone down the drain.

On the first working day after CNY the police informed me that someone had found my bag. Except for the cash and phone all the remaining items were intact including the lottery ticket. The ticket had a 7 digit number that ends with 1234. Just as I was musing at home about the coincidence of the number match  with that of my MIL's random  'lucky number', the thick novel lying on my dining table entitled 4321 by Paul Aster stared me in the face. The almost unthinkable recovery of my bag, the number coincidences together with the rare blooming of the 铁树 in the garden convinced me that there is something mysterious about the number and that signs are heralding something magical to come. As ridiculous as it sounds, I was surprised that 1234 did not win any prize on the draw date when I bet on it.  

One guy called Beitman did some research and found that some people are more prone to having coincidental experiences or maybe perceive so. They are people who describe themselves as spiritual, seeking for meaning or generally people who link external information to themselves.  People are also found to perceive coincidences when they are extremely sad, angry or anxious. A statistician, David Hand said that "extreme improbable events are commonplace....But humans generally aren't great at reasoning objectivity about probability as they go about their everyday lives."

Yet Carl Jung opined that coincidences are the workings of our unconscious mind. Perhaps when I bought the Big Sweep lottery ticket I had subconsciously taken note of the 7 digits. This plus the recent reading of the novel 4321 could have made my unconscious mind sent a telepathy message to my MIL's unconscious mind. Who knows?

Now I wonder who owns Singapore Pool. I won't feel so bad if it is state owned. Though I missed  winning the bet which would have thrilled me into thinking about the secret laws of nature, I am content that the money goes back to the state.