It actually did have an effect on me, though, because I remembered how I used to really read into coincidences quite a bit when I was studying Kabballah and Golden Dawn type stuff, tarot, etc. I gave all that up quite a while ago, but this book make me remember quite a bit about my thinking back then. There really were a lot of really unusual coincidences in my life much like the book describes (however not as impressively awesome by a long shot).
Anyway, the point of the book is to say that God is communicating to you through these coincidences. I started thinking, "for an atheist such as myself, is there another explanation for perhaps miraculous and beneficial coincidences manifesting? Karma? Dakinis? What?"
Since I am really just concerned with Dzogchen perspective at this point, I Googled "Dzogchen Coincidence" and I immediately found a blog about one of my favorite authors, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche:
Not the best-formed first sentence, but I think I get what it is trying to say.Due to Tulku Urgyen's realization of the ultimate lineage, the expression of awareness as blessings combined with the openness created by his students' faith. This coincidence enabled many of them, regardless of their level or capacity, to recognize the nature of mind in a single instant. This evidently happened for hundreds and hundreds of students. This was Rinpoche's unique way of benefiting beings. — http://blazing-splendor.blogspot.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The next thing I found was some Facebook account by a guy going under the name Longchen Rabjam. I don't know if he is quoting Lonchen or just making up his own dharma advice, but here's what he said:
Is there any way we can interpret a very, very unlikely and beneficial coincidence? Should we just see it as karma or what? I often see the phrase "auspicious signs" ...the When God WInks book defines "god winks" as "a personal signal or message, directly from a higher power, usually, but not always, in the form of a coincidence." It never really occured to me before, but where would the auspicious signs be coming from? I imagine there a number of possibilities, not just one, so I open the question up for public scrutiny...All situations are totalized in the completeness of situations and the absence of any particular situation. Totalized situation is the immovable great perfection of awareness; no room outside, no room inside, no beyond; no alternative to the complete coincidence, relax and you will reach the distal end of your perceptions; Dzogchen.
Once arrived at totality, there is no beyond. Beyond is the obsidian wall, the visible, impenetrable emptiness where elaborations end [because there is no space and no thing to sustain them or to make space] and which returns us here, to fullness, where elaborations also end in the complete acceptance of what is, without a jot being elsewhere, with no beyond.
Can you hear the absence of sound, see the absence of light, taste the absence of flavour, smell the absence of odour and feel the absence of resistance? Of course you can. This is death, nirvana, the emptiness of substantial existents; your lover, pure awareness always awaiting, the all encompassing capacity of space un-delimited by the small. The perfect coincidence; Dzogchen.