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Some research suggests that people with a particular chromosomal aneuploidy are susceptible to magical thinking and seeing patterns where others perceive none. How appropriate, you might think, considering all that I write about. Not least for seeing a personal rebuke in a randomly generated string assigned to a file by a web server. Admittedly, that one was pretty far out! But I do wonder: might this framing miss something important about how different minds perceive reality?

Three years ago, I stumbled upon a mind-blowing coincidence in my life — a precise spatial alignment between significant locations and events, separated by decades and hundreds of miles. Naturally, a researcher might dismiss my fascination with this coincidence as an example of magical thinking or excessive pattern recognition. They might say I’m reading meaning into random chance, or even dismiss my findings outright as nothing but curious happenstance.

I am open to that possibility too. But I am also open to the possibility that some of us simply perceive patterns that others miss. What if our heightened sensitivity to connections isn’t a flaw, but rather a different way of engaging with reality? For sure, the phenomenon I noticed isn’t imaginary — it’s tangibly precise and geometrically verifiable. It exists whether anyone else sees it or not.

For me, this raises questions about who gets to decide what level of pattern recognition is “normal” versus “excessive.” The medical establishment tends to pathologize perceptions that differ from the statistical norm. But perhaps this reflects a bias in our understanding rather than a problem with divergent ways of seeing. Might I be incorrectly labelled as having disordered thinking simply because I’m attuned to noticing what is actually there — patterns and connections my neurotypical peers might dismiss as mere coincidence.

This isn’t to deny that magical thinking and pattern recognition can become problematic. However, I do wonder if we need a more nuanced framework for understanding different modes of perception — one that doesn’t automatically pathologize ways of seeing that differ from the majority experience. After all, throughout history, individuals have been labelled as having mental illness for perceiving phenomena that weren’t yet understood or accepted by the medical establishment of their time. How many insights might we be missing by dismissing unusual patterns of perception as necessarily disordered?

In noticing those precise geometric alignments or meaningful coincidences in my life, I’m not imagining them — I’m perceiving real patterns that exist independently of my observation. The question isn’t whether these patterns are real, but rather what meaning we assign to them, and how we validate different ways of experiencing and interpreting the world. Might it be necessary to consider that what some would call magical thinking could sometimes be a more finely-tuned awareness of connections that others simply haven’t noticed yet?

My hypotheses?

1. That I am a participant in an incredibly intricate simulation embedded with patterns we occasionally glimpse.
2. That the universe has properties beyond the physical, with threads of meaning or connection we don’t yet understand.
3. Purely random coincidence, of no significance whatsoever.

I am open to all three possibilities, and others beside. Is it really not possible to explore questions about coincidence, meaning, and perception in a way that holds space for multiple interpretations — from the neurological to the spiritual — without forcing a single conclusion? For my part, whether we ultimately view them through a lens of simulation theory, expanded consciousness, enhanced pattern recognition or merely faulty perception, such experiences cannot but challenge conventional understandings of reality. At least, that is my reality.