Bernard Beitman is a visiting professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia who has written a book on meaningful coincidences. We’ve used his material before. In this story, he’s addressing a curious type of synchro that, in 7 Secrets of Synchronicity, we wrote about in Secret 4: The Creative. That secret is that creativity lies at the heart of synchronicity.
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As of 1/29/15 , on the website for his book The Improbability Principle, statistician David Hand starts with the story of the simultaneous publication in the US and England of the cartoon character Dennis the Menace in March, 1951.
Cartoonists in both countries introduced audiences to a trouble-causing little boy named Dennis, each of whom had a dog who helped create the chaos. The boys were quite different in their attitudes but not their results. The British Dennis intentionally caused trouble, while the American Dennis, always good-natured and angelic, consistently stumbled into trouble. Both boys were immensely popular. They each had hit a cultural pleasure nerve—the archetypal bad boy.
The British Dennis had gone to press ten days before the publication of the American Dennis, so there was no evidence of plagiarism.
Professor Hand suggests that this coincidence is an example of low probability events that happen in large populations, sometimes known as the law of very large numbers. He does not recognize the phenomenon of simultaneous discovery, a well-established subset of coincidences. Simultaneous discovery appears to have an explanation more complicated and more specific than the law of very large numbers. The low probability draws our attention but does not explain the coincidence. It appears that cultures evolve with explorers on the edge, those seeking ideas that fit with current cultural interests, needs, and demands. The telephone, for example, was invented by two Americans each of whom presented their discovery to the US patent office on the same day: February 14, 1876. Also on the same day, Google and Stanford University separately announced the enhanced capacity for computers to recognize images. Each did not know the other was working on the project. There are hundreds more examples most without evidence of plagiarism.
The simultaneous appearances of two Dennis the Menace and many other examples suggest that it is probability at play but another form of explanation involving cultural curiosity and need. “When the time is ripe for certain things,” remarked the Hungarian mathematician Farkas Bolyei, “they appear at different places in the manner of violets coming to light in early spring.”
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Rob and I have experienced this kind of synchro several times with other writers. It’s as if the ideas are all flowing through the same river and when writers dip into that river at the same time, the result is similar plots and characters.
https://jstevekane-thechroniclesovjstevekane.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/red-and-blackdennis-menaceflamengo.html?m=1
Above id a link to a relatively recent posy of mine which may or may not throw light on the “Dennis the Menace” Archetype like most of my posts while it may seem trivial to some it has been incubating in my mind/conciousness or sometime
https://jstevekane-thechroniclesovjstevekane.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/red-and-blackdennis-menaceflamengo.html?m=1
Above is a link to a blog post of mine which like many of my posts while it may seem trivial to some has been incubating in my mind/psyche for years – maybe it throws indight on the dennis the menace archetype maybe not
I’ll click over! Thanks for dropping by.
One thing that Pro-Life people love to say in their arguments against abortion is that a woman might be aborting the next Mozart or Shakespeare or someone who might discover the cure for cancer…but I think that’s ridiculous argument (they never mention that abortion might also prevent another Hitler or Charles Manson) because I think things do exist in the “ether” that anyone can access to if they have that ability, which is what we see when similar projects appear in different parts of the world around the same time. I don’t fear that an aborted fetus is depriving the world of a unique genius, because we have plenty of humans on earth now that are capable of accomplishing great things or introducing new ideas or finding new discoveries. The problem is that our society dumbs people down and focuses on trivial stuff. Plus, popular music these days is mostly in the hip-hop / rap / dance genre, rather than classical.
Kinda of a specious argument from the pro-life folks. Then again, so much of what conservatives say is ridiculous.
The British Scientist Richard Dawkins introduced the meme theory to explain why certain concepts suddenly appear in different parts of the world simultaneously, books, film scripts, etc. put simply memes he says are ideas that jump from brain to brain in the collective. I am not fond of Dawkins as a scientist because he isn’t open to genuine scientific enquiry but rather accepts those scientific dogmas that are relied upon as truths. He wrote The God Delusion which the scientist Rupert Sheldrake responded to with The Science Dekusion. For me Sheldrake is the better scientist.prof Bernard Beitman is using some of my synchronicities in his next book!
Sheldrake is by far the better scientists. Memes: just another word for synchronicity. Creativity is one venue for synchronicity! Greaet about Bernard using some of your synchros, Jane. You’ve got some good ones!
You and Mike Perry been speaking, heee heee heee
Really!
The dates are interesting. The UK version first appeared in the Beano comic, dated the 17th of March 1951, but which was available in the shops from the 12th of March 1951. The USA version was first in the newspapers, on the same day, 12th of March 1951.
I’ve just written a post on currents of thought for a few days time, similar to the ‘rivers’ you mention.
I’ve enjoyed your posts these last few days!