I didn’t write it down, just kept a running total going, noting when I looked at the time,and I hadn’t looked at the time for a while, whether it was :23 or not. Obviously it’s silly to keep track when I’m sitting at the computer, and the clock is constantly visible. :23s or anything else during that time don’t count. (I never write anything down, I have a really good memory, I don’t takes notes or study for exams either.)
I don’t think it’s anything psychic either, just a subconscious clock that prods me to look at the clock at around 23 minutes past the hour if I haven’t looked at the time for a while. If I haven’t looked at the time in an hour or more, 25% of the time when I look up it will be :23…or it’s just one of those statistical flukes like getting 20 heads in a row.
This thread has a lot in common with the whole belief system tied around the number 11:11, which I happen to think is a load of excrement. As was said before, pick any number and attach a significance to it and you’ll happen to see it a lot. The reason? Numbers without significance, though probably seen a lot more frequently, have no significance to you and thus aren’t noticed.
When I first heard the (excrement alert) theories around the number 11:11, aside from hurting myself laughing, I noticed I too started seeing it everywhere. But after contemplating it a bit, I realized I only ever saw the number on a clock once every week or so, and it was no more out of the ordinary than any number seen on a clock at any random time.
What I did find interesting though was how often I caught the clock on the top of the hour exactly.
Ya know, on the very day I bought a Volkswagen Jetta, instantly there was a disproportionate amount of Jettas on the road driving along with me!
I guess it all has to do with the way our brain filters and categorizes all of our sensory input. Just think of all the stuff your eyes see from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed- you would go bats if you had to “notice” and process everything. Your brain just alerts the concious you to the important stuff. Somehow, the 11:34 got put into the “notice” file of your brain and alerts you when you receive the input (probably due to the childhood scary devil stories). You glance at the clock many times in a day- when you see 11:34 your concious mind is alerted and you remember it.
In my example above, I have always seen approximately 5 Jettas out of the hundreds of cars I see in a day, it is just now I have put the sighting of the Jetta into the “notice and alert” file- When my eyes pick up the image, it lets my concious self know and I remember it- I don’t notice the number of Mustangs, X-terras, F150’s, etc.
I used to do the same thing with 4:20, not because I smoked weed or anything it just seemed to happen but I was prob subconsciously looking out for that time.
After I read this thread yesterday I notice “10:45” on my office clock. Every time I looked it seemed that the clock said “10:45”. I began to ponder what possible significance “10:45” might have. I looked on my birth certificate, but it seems I was not born at “10:45”. And yet repeatedly it has been the case that I look at my office clock and notice “10:45”. Way more than I would expect from pure coincidence.
Today we changed the battery and now every time I look at my office clock there is a different number displayed.
