Martin Plimmer

UPDATED EDITION WITH OVER FIFTY NEW STORIES'A FIRST-RATE BOOK' - THE OBSERVERLaura Buxton, aged ten, releases a balloon from her garden. It lands 140 miles away in the garden of another Laura Buxton, aged ten. Coincidence? Or something beyond coincidence?Is someone playing snap with our lives? Could it be the hand of God? Or are we, as some scientists have suggested, being granted an insight into a hyper-connected universe whose ubiquitous web-like workings we can only dimly discern?Beyond Coincidence is a celebration of the universe's most beguiling phenomenon, containing more than 250 amazing stories of coincidence. From sympathetic magic to the science of probability, from the vicissitudes of gamblers to the mysterious communions of subatomic particles, this book chases coincidence in all its many guises, analysing how it affects every aspect of our lives and why it means so much to even the most sceptical of us.

Beyond Coincidence recounts and analyzes more than two hundred amazing stories of synchronicity, the likes of: Laura Buxton, age ten, releases a balloon from her backyard. It lands 140 miles away in the backyard of another Laura Buxton, also age ten. Two sisters in Alabama decide, independently, to visit the other. En route, their identical jeeps collide and both sisters are killed. The winning number in the evening drawing of the New York Lottery three-digit "numbers" game on September 11, 2002 is 9-1-1. From magic and religion to subatomic particles and the laws of probability, Beyond Coincidence deeply explores the roots of luck, odds, and circumstance while telling amazing stories that will have you shaking your head.