Kind of like Occams Razor (well not quite). You've doubtless said it before, Nigel, but the human brain is programmed to see patterns in things and extrapolate from that. Often that's led to sensible death-avoiding situations, and so it's got evolutionary advantage. But sometimes it leads to people interpreting coincidences as meaningful (wow I thought of Aunt Marie and then she phoned, we must be psychic). And hopefully, a scientific method can help you sort out the two.

(Nigel, I was waiting in the queue at the cinema last night and I could hear two women next to me discussing their homeopathy tablets and even more gah-producing, kinesiology. I resisted saying something, obviously. Though it was so tempting. But they wouldn't have appreciated it. Still it's their money they're wasting innit. God I'm getting grumpy in my old age.)