Science and Spirituality

 

Background: I have a degree and PhD in Geoscience and have been thinking for a while about how I can substantially re-engage with my previous field of study.

 

Thread 1 (3rd November 2023, 16:50): After seeing an advert on Indeed, I apply for a job at University College London (UCL) for a Rock Preparation / Teaching Laboratory Technician, which would use my geological background and training.

 

Thread 2 (3rd November 2023, 20:08): Following my earlier application, I google and then visit the UCL website directly and discover that tomorrow the annual Festival of Geology, organised by the Geologists' Association, is being held at UCL.

 

Thread 3 (4th November 2023, 11:30 to 14:00): As a result of the geological coincidence I decide to visit the Festival of Geology at UCL, where among other things I attend a lecture called ‘The Geology of Hogwarts’ and speak to members of the Berkshire Geoconservation Group. After seeing a piece of sarsen stone on their stand, I ask them about the sarsen stones and bluestones of Stonehenge in Wiltshire (where I grew up), and any new theories about these rocks. They point me in the direction of Peter Worsley, a geoscientist based at the University of Reading.

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Thread 4 (4th November 2023, 15:45): After leaving the Festival, I decide to sit in a nearby pub to watch something online. I end up watching Hannah Fry’s Magic Numbers for the simple reason that it has been close to the top of my ‘AI’ Amazon recommendations screen for a while and that since I have been having a day of science it seems appropriate. I don’t know anything else about this 2018 series. It turns out that the first episode is about the question of whether maths is discovered (Platonic) or invented. In a scene at approx 30 minutes into the episode, Hannah Fry explains that she works at UCL. She then has a brain scan at UCL which suggests a separate brain region for maths versus language which may indicate that maths is discovered rather than invented - i.e. maths is a 'God-given', platonic, concept.

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Thread 5 (4th November 2023, 17:12): After putting ‘Peter Worsley Stonehenge’ into google, I download and read a paper about the geological formation of the sarsen stones of north Wiltshire, some of which were used in the construction of Stonehenge (see also this paper for the suggested geographic source of the Stonehenge sarsens).

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Thread 6 (5th November 2023, 11:00 approx): I see an article on the BBC website about about rocks being used to block the border between France and Spain, causing a lot of local disruption. An interesting line in the article is:

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"On the Spanish side of the border in the sleepy Catalan village of Espolla, a huge rock taken from the closed border has been placed on display in the main roundabout"

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Summary: There is a chain of synchronicities here, beginning with interesting small-scale, personal events involving me applying for a geoscience position at UCL and then discovering that UCL will be holding a Festival of Geology the following day - which I attend and there discuss the geology of the Stonehenge sarsens. After the meeting, I watch a 2018 documentary series presented by a UCL academic who happens to be discussing the platonic nature of maths. Finally, I download a paper about the rocks of Stonehenge, Wiltshire authored by an academic working across the border in Berkshire who has been suggested to me by members of the Berkshire Geoconservation Society. This was then reflected in an unusual rock-related article on the BBC website the next day.

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Bowling Alone

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Thread 1 (25th October 2023, PM): I watch a movie on Amazon called Blackball (2003), about a naturally talented crown green bowler from a council estate in Torquay, UK who wins a regional competition but is then banned from playing on a technicality (defacing his score card) - largely because he is from the ‘wrong side of the tracks’ and the established clique of elderly middle-class bowlers don’t much like him or his style. Immediately after he is ‘blackballed’ there is a scene (at approx 23 minutes into the film) where the main character - Starkey - walks into the championship dinner and bowls a bowling ball down the middle of a long banqueting table smashing all the glasses and wine bottles.

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Thread 2 (26th October 2023, 09:20): Leading the BBC website this morning is an article about a mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, USA, which happened at 19:00 local time (23:00 GMT) last night. The perpetrator, Robert Card, killed 18 people in a ten-pin bowling alley and a restaurant before later escaping. The bowling alley where the shooting had taken place was initially named in the media as ‘Sparetime Recreation’ but this was later changed to ‘Just-In-Time Recreation’.

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Summary: There is an obvious connection between Crown Green Bowling and Ten-Pin Bowling. An important scene in the film Blackball, which took place immediately after the main character had been ‘blackballed’ for defacing his score card, happened during a banquet. Unfortunately, this is reflected in the location of the tragic shooting by Robert Card in the bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston, Maine. The changing name of the ten-pin bowling alley in the media is also interesting considering the comments about free-will versus determinism on this website.

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The Holy Land

 

Background: This example carries a health warning - contrary to popular belief, not all synchronicities are ‘soft and fluffy’, and this ‘dark’ one is a clear case in point. Focused on Israel, this is a complex, repeating synchronicity, with ‘cycles within cycles’, reflecting earlier synchronicities of a type I discuss further in Chapter 19 of my book (see The Sacrifice to Occam - Section 2). The earlier sequence of events in question occurred in 2021 and 2022 and are described in the sections ‘Uri’s Island’ and ‘Lightning Strikes Twice’, further down on this page.

 

Thread 1 (28th July 2023, 15:46): Due to the synchronicity described in ‘Uri’s Island’, which happened approximately this time last year, for the last few days I have been having the feeling that I need to visit Uri Geller in Tel Aviv. I send an unusually formal email (in retrospect I am not sure why it is so formal – I may have wanted to avoid him thinking that I was stalking him!) and as I mention in my message:

 

“I have been having the feeling that I need to get in touch again and more specifically that I should try to arrange to meet with you…To be honest, I am not exactly sure of the purpose of such a meeting, nor what would be its outcome. I just get the feeling it might be constructive”.

 

In other words, I have a sense that I need to meet Uri Geller, but I don’t really know why.

 

Thread 2 (28th July 2023, 17:05): I receive a reply from Shipi Strang providing information about the Uri Geller Museum.   

 

Thread 3 (7th August 2023, 21:23): After giving this further thought, I decide to contact the Uri Geller Museum to enquire about availability on 6th or 7th September 2023. I select these dates because, after looking online, the cost of flights to Israel is lower around this time, as compared to slightly earlier or later. Specifically, flights from the UK to Israel are cheaper on Tuesday 5th September than the surrounding dates. I assume this is because the flights are midweek and that school term time has just begun in the UK (i.e., the expensive summer season is ending).

 

Thread 4 (8th August 2023, 09:14): I book flights to Israel from London Luton Airport (though I later need to change my outward leg to a flight leaving London Gatwick Airport as my earlier outbound flight was cancelled on 21st August).

 

Thread 5 (8th August 2023, 11:31): After a short exchange of emails, I book to visit the Uri Geller Museum at 11am on 7th September 2023.

 

Thread 6 (7th September 2023, 11:00): Between 5th and 7th September, I visit Israel - in particular, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv - and on 7th September visit Uri Geller and his excellent museum in Jaffa, Tel Aviv. I fly out of Gatwick Airport on 5th September and return to the UK into Luton Airport late on 7th September 2023. It is unusual for me to fly - these are the first flights I have taken, and the first time I have left the UK, since December 2016.

 

Thread 7 (2nd October 2023, 17:15): Thunderstorms pass through southern England. A lightning strike hits a 12-year-old boy playing football during a tournament at Sele School in Hertford. This case is very similar to that of Jordan Banks in ‘Lightning Strikes Twice’ as it involves a young male footballer and the fact that the strike was unexpected, with a witness stating:

 

“We'd seen lightning but it was miles off and then all of a sudden there was a enormous thud - it went through everyone's chests” (though the meteorological map indicates the centre of the storm was close to the Sele School).

 

Unlike the earlier Jordan Banks case, the unnamed boy was not fatally struck but was left in a serious but stable condition.

 

Thread 8 (2nd October 2023, 19:20): As part of the same storm sequence a second lightning strike hits a biogas storage tank close to Oxford, causing a large explosion and fireball at the food waste recycling plant.

 

Thread 9 (6th October 2023, 09.49): I read a report that a man was arrested on 4th October by Essex Police for conspiring to abduct and murder female ITV presenter Holly Willoughby. The accused appears later in the day on 6th October in Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court.

 

Thread 10 (7th October 2023, AM): Hamas launches rockets and mounts an unprecedented incursion into Israeli territory, abducting Israeli hostages into Gaza and committing mass murder. Israel embarks on retaliation against Hamas with airstrikes in Gaza.

 

Thread 11 (8th to 9th October 2023): Several commentators, including two senior members of the Israeli military (Major Nir Dinar and Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus) and Uri Geller, describe the Hamas action as Israel’s 9/11. (I note that the day of the Hamas action is 10/7. The number 107 has personal meaning for me as it is a number that kept recurring during the autumn of 2008 (see Chapter 13, Sacrifice to Occam)).

 

Thread 12 (10th October 2023, 18:44): I read an article about people unable to leave Israel's Ben Gurion Airport due to flight cancellations as a result of the current war.

 

Thread 13 (11th October 2023, 07:04): I read an article about a large fire engulfing one of the main car parks at London's Luton Airport which causes the cancellation of all flights. The fire started at 20:47 last night due to an accidental car fire that subsequently spread.

 

Summary: In my summary to 'Lightning Strikes Twice', I comment that the lightning strike in Blackpool could be seen as a sign to highlight connections between the UK and Israel and, in particular, to highlight the disparity between the dangerous situation in the Middle East and the relative safety of UK citizens:

 

“The UK is fortunate in that it is a relatively safe country…One thing this incident perhaps serves to do is to highlight other situations overseas, such as on the banks of the River Jordan, and the connection between the sublimated ‘war’ of soccer and the real conflicts that should be the focus of active diplomacy.”

 

Five days in advance of the most significant Hamas action in Israel in decades, (described as 'Israel's 9/11'), there was another lightning strike involving a young boy footballer, which reflected the earlier strike involving Jordan Banks. There was also an explosive strike on a biogas facility in the southern UK. Two days before Hamas abduct Israeli hostages into Gaza and commit murder, an ITV presenter in the UK is threatened with being abducted and murdered.

 

Meanwhile, my earlier synchronicity involving Uri Geller makes me feel that I need to visit Israel without entirely knowing why on an intellectual level, though I suspect there may be a deeper meaning. I visit Tel Aviv on 7th September 2023, a month after I make the booking with the Uri Geller Museum on 7th August (which was also exactly a year after the synchronicity described in 'Uri's Island') and a month before Hamas's incursion into Israel on 7th October. It feels as though the incidents in September and early October were a sign of events to come in Israel on 7th October 2023 in the way that they paralleled the earlier events in 'Lightning Strikes Twice' and 'Uri's Island'.

 

Similar parallels are seen between the flight cancellations at Ben Gurion Airport due to the war and the cancellations due to the massive accidental fire at Luton Airport. These are also the airports I flew between on 7th September 2023 during my first flight abroad since 2016.

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Bedbug Blight

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Background: On the morning of 28th September 2023, I wake to discover a cluster of unexplained spots on my stomach and some on my side that were not present the previous evening. Coincidentally, on the night of 27th-28th September 2023 one of the most famous trees in the UK at Sycamore Gap, Hadrian’s Wall, close to the Northumbrian town of Hexham, was deliberately felled - apparently by a vandal. There is obviously no connection between these events (unless it is some sort of Hex!). However, other events of relevance to this incident are reported in the national media:

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Thread 1 (2nd October 2023, 04:24 to 04:47): I wake up and the cluster of pink spots on my stomach is angry and raw and I wonder whether they are also spreading further around my right side and the right side of my back. Not having any idea what they might be, and while lying in bed, I go online using my mobile phone to search for ‘skin rash pictures’ as an attempt at self-diagnosis. After determining that it is probably some form of eczema (I had eczema in childhood but have not suffered recently from this), I return to sleep.

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Thread 2 (3rd October 2023, 09:00 approx): Since my online search yesterday I have been wondering if, other than eczema, the sudden unexplained cluster of spots are bacterial in origin and whether the fact that they may possibly be spreading is due to contact and transfer with my bedsheets. I decide to wash these this morning, just in case.

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Thread 3 (3rd October 2023): After washing my bedsheets, I come across the first article on the BBC website related to bedbug infestations in Paris, France. I hadn't seen any articles on this subject prior to this. This is the first of several online articles posted in early October about this subject, with worries about infestations across France, Algeria, the UK, and elsewhere.

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Summary: At the time of writing (10th October 2023), the bedbug infestations across Europe are still an issue, with an article appearing today on the BBC about concerns over bedbugs in London. My spots stopped spreading after the first few days and the liberal application of eczema emollient has caused them to subside. By the way, I don’t have bedbugs – I have checked. 

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A Synchronicity about Synchronicity

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Background: On 5th August 2023 I receive an email from the Magazine of the Society for Psychical Research asking whether I have anything to contribute to their upcoming edition. I reply that I previously submitted an article about synchronicity, but this had been missed due to a change in editorship. Over the next two months I am in sporadic communication with the magazine to provide updated graphics and other information.

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Thread 1 (1st October 2023, PM): I am thinking about the article I submitted to the magazine and wondering when it will be due for publication. I also begin thinking about a particular paragraph that I do not feel I have referenced properly. The subject of the paragraph is the synchronicities surrounding the author Herman Melville while writing his novel Moby Dick. The research for the figures, locations and dates is my own and came from online sources, but my original inspiration to look at the synchronicities surrounding Herman Melville’s life came a few months earlier from a book by Richard Tarnas: Cosmos and Psyche – Intimations of a New World View (2006). Although, I am not referring to his work directly, I feel it would be valuable to reference the book that originally inspired me to look at the Melville synchronicities. However, I am aware that the article is in its final stages of publication and making changes at this stage might be awkward. In any case, I think that because the reference is indirect, I can probably leave it out.

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Thread 2 (1st October 2023, 20:05): While thinking about the above, I start looking online for articles related to Herman Melville and Moby Dick. Between 20:05 and 20:11 (according to my internet search history), I open online Wikipedia articles about Herman Melville (20:05), the whaleship Ann Alexander (20:10) and the whaleship Essex (20:11), plus a Smithsonian article about the fate of the Essex whaleship and its inspiration for the tale of Moby Dick (20:07).

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Thread 3 (1st October 2023, 20:50): Unexpectedly, I receive an email from the SPR Magazine asking for a written biography to go alongside my article.

 

Thread 4 (1st October 2023, 21:43): Since changes are still being made to the article, I feel that this is a timely intervention and open my article as stored online to look back at the Melville paragraph for a way to insert the reference.

 

Thread 5 (1st October 2023, 21:48): I go to open my email account but before I get there I find an Independent article on the Yahoo homepage about a freak whale collision with a small boat off the coast of Sydney, Australia.

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Thread 6 (1st October 2023, 22:00): Wondering how the above article relates to the sinking of large ships (equivalent to something the size of a whaleship), I search online for ‘large ships sunk by whales’ and find a page from Canadian Geographic that suggests ship attacks by whales are rare events and another page from Quartz exploring the possible motivations of the whales involved.

 

Summary: This felt like a timely synchronicity concerning my article about synchronicity. When I revisited my article, I felt concerned that I had not adequately referenced one paragraph and was balanced in my mind about whether to add the reference or leave it out. Believing the article to be close to publication,  my initial thought was to leave it as it was. After thinking this, I received a timely email from the SPR about the article which encouraged me to add the reference. After investigating how to make this small change I immediately come across an online article about a whale collision with a boat, which seemed like a reflection of my interest at that time.   

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A Hive Mind?

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Thread 1 (28th June 2023, AM):  I am currently reading a book which I loaned from the SPR library last Wednesday (21st June) called The Infinite Hive (Rosalind Heywood, 1964), in which the author discusses her personal experiences of ESP during the first half of the 20th Century.

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Thread 2 (28th June 2023, AM): On the BBC news website this morning (posted at approx 06.30) there is an article about a huge bee swarm which landed outside of a bar in Glasgow on Sunday (25th June).

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Summary: Posting this today (6th October 2023) reminds me that the behaviour of humans and bees is not too dissimilar - at least when it comes to swarming in Glasgow.

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The 51st State

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Thread 1 (24th March 2023, 22:30): I watch a film released in 2001 called The 51st State. I am unaware of the plot beyond the synopsis given on Amazon:

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"An American master chemist plans to score big on a once-in-a-lifetime drug deal. All does not go as planned and he is soon entangled in a web of deceit".

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I later discover that it is set in Liverpool, UK and the US and stars Samuel L. Jackson as a golf loving, kilt-wearing, American called Elmo McElroy and Robert Carlyle as a Liverpool F.C. supporting gangster. The film culminates in a drug-deal going wrong in a corporate box at Anfield (Liverpool F.C. Football Stadium). 

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Thread 2 (25th March 2023, 00:06): After I finish the film I look at some recent news articles online. There are two BBC articles about Everton Football Club. The first article is about the women's Liverpool football derby between Liverpool and Everton, held for the first time at Everton men's football stadium - Goodison Park. Another article is about Everton F.C. being under investigation by the Premier League over an alleged breach of financial fair play rules. There is also an article about about Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy progressing in a tournament alongside an American called Scottie Scheffler.

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Summary: So, the dodgy dealings at Liverpool football club in The 51st State by a kilt-wearing, golf-loving McElroy could be compared to the articles concerning financial irregularities at Everton F.C., the first ever women's Liverpool football derby at Goodison Park and the two golfers: Rory McIlroy (who incidentally was not a famous golfer in 2001 - he was then only twelve years old and living in Holywood, Northern Ireland) and Scottie Scheffler. Samuel L. Jackson's character - kilt-wearing Elmo McEIroy - ends The 51st State playing golf outside of a castle he has purchased in Scotland.

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Uri's Island

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Thread 1(5th August 2022, AM): I visit the library of the College of Psychic Studies (CPS) in South Kensington, London. After browsing for a while, I pick up two books - The Flying Cow (Guy Lyon Playfair, 1975) and The Secret Life of Uri Geller (Jonathan Margolis, 2013) - which I then begin to read.

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Thread 2 (5th August 2022, PM): After reading a section of The Secret Life of Uri Geller, I decide to search for articles about Geller online and also have a look at his website.

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Thread 3 (5th August 2022, 20:37): Further inspired by my research, I decide to get in contact with Uri Geller by sending him the following email:

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“Dear Uri,
 

I just wanted to quickly say hello. I was born (on this day!) in 1978 so I missed much of your early work, particularly the scientific investigations. I then became an orthodox scientist with (at best) an agnostic worldview. I later experienced a period of stress which was associated with a couple of minor psychokinetic events which haven’t repeated themselves and an awful lot of coincidences, often on a very large/global scale, which keep happening to this day…
 

…my main reason for getting in touch is that today I went to the College of Psychic Studies (CPS) in London and wandered absentmindedly around their library before first picking up The Flying Cow by Guy Lyon Playfair and then The Secret Life of Uri Geller by Jonathan Margolis, which I then got down to reading. After I left, I looked at your website (it is the first time I have done this) and looked through some online articles about your island in Scotland (I used to live in Edinburgh so was interested to hear more). I mentioned above that I get a lot of global synchronicities, and these often come in the form of news reports. So as soon as I had finished looking at your website, I went to the BBC website for the recent news and the first two reports I came to were the following:

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Gaza: Palestinian militant killed as Israel strikes after threats  

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Scottish island of Pladda on sale for price of a city flat

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The first article was leading the BBC website and it is the first time I have seen an article about Israel leading the BBC for quite some time. And news reports of Scottish islands being available for sale are also fairly rare as far as I can tell.”

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Thread 4 (5th August 2022, 21:23): I receive the following email from Uri Geller:

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“Hi Christof, you have no idea on what synchronicity you just happened to come upon...Please check out who wrote the story you read on the BBC about the war in Israel. And Please on Monday check out the BBC website again.

Much Energy

UrI”

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Thread 5 (7th August 2022): An article appears on the BBC website with the headline:  The mysteries that gave birth to the world’s newest micronation, which is specifically about Uri Geller's Lamb Island. The article includes the line: “[8th August] is the day chosen by Geller "in recognition of Scotland's proud history" to declare Lamb's statehood”.

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Summary: The BBC article about Uri Geller's island seems to have been written to coincide with Geller's plan to announce 'independence' for Lamb Island on 8th August and to invite members of the public to become citizens of the island in exchange for a small donation to charity (for more see: https://www.urigeller.com/lamb/). I had not previously had any interaction with Uri Geller and had no idea about the upcoming plan for his island, which only appeared on his website on 7th August, in conjunction with the BBC article, two days after I had initially contacted him.

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Chain Reactions

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Thread 1 (15th April 2022, 13.06): Set up an account with a laboratory involved with nuclear energy research and begin an application for a civil nuclear position.

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Thread 2 (16th April 2022, 07:30): Read a BBC article about Ukrainian President Zelensky saying that the world should be prepared for a Russian nuclear strike and Russia warning of unpredictable consequences if US and allies keep supplying weapons to Ukraine.

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Thread 3 (16th April 2022, 18:14): Receive an email from Indeed: "30 new laboratory technician jobs". The first job on the list is the one I am in the process of applying for at the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and the second is with Smithers MSE Ltd, a packaging and product testing laboratory. Both adverts stick in my mind because I see a connection between the NNL job and the character 'Smithers' (an employee in a nuclear power plant) in the Simpsons cartoons.

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Thread 3 (16th April 2022, 19:32): Read an article on the Telegraph website about a fireworks explosion with a mushroom-shaped cloud close to the M4 motorway. This was apparently in a farm building containing pyrotechnics/fireworks and yet was also coincidentally located near RAF Welford, which is an ammunition dump operated by the USAF. There is also a connection here with the account of the Moskva sinking (see 'Enigma' below).

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Thread 4 (17th April 2022, 15:03): Complete my online application for the nuclear laboratory job.   

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Thread 5 (17th April 2022, 16:18): Reading Poltergeist Parallels and Contagion by Darren W. Ritson (2021). I have just finished reading a section of the book describing the occurrence of the 'Enfield Poltergeist' in the late 1970s. Check my email messages to see that I received an Indeed message at 16:01: "30 new laboratory technician jobs" - the same as the one I received yesterday (though I have no idea why these emails arrive at different times each day). Today, the advertised job at the top of the message is Trainee lab technician, Specsavers in Enfield, which says it has been "just posted". The second job on the list is the one I have just applied for, at 15.03, at the NNL and the third is with Smithers, which I remembered because of the connection I made yesterday.

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Thread 6 (20th April 2022, 22:00): Russia releases a video of a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile launch.

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Summary: There are obvious connections between the civilian nuclear application in my subjective life as reflected in the objective news events, though these are of a more 'military' nature.

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Enigma

 

Thread 1 (13th April 2022, approx. 19:30): Watch a film called 'Enigma', based on Bletchley Park (incidentally where I was born) in WWII, which is about a rush to break the German U-Boat 'shark' codes before a pack of U-Boats intercept a convoy of merchant ships crossing the Atlantic from the US to Europe and it includes a scene of U-Boats torpedoing transport ships in the Mid-Atlantic.

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Thread 2 (14th April 2022, 08:09): This morning, the main report on the BBC website is about a flagship Russian Cruiser in the Black Sea - the Moskva - which has been damaged by an explosion on board after either being struck by Ukrainian missiles or, according to the Russians, a fire in an ammunition room.

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Criminality in London and New York

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Thread 1 (12th April 2022, 10:46): Write an application for a job with an Australian organisation that involves possible relocation to Australia. Make the flippant comment in my application that: "the great nation of Australia was partly founded on the serial incompetence and injustice of the British criminal justice system"

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Thread 2 (12th April 2022, 12:11): Read a news report on the BBC website about the second round of fines issued for Downing Street parties during the Covid-19 lockdown. At this point it is unclear who has received fines.

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Thread 3 (12th April 2022, 13:50): Am watching a film called 'Odd Thomas' about a psychic who can forsee the future and works with the police to avert future crimes. I switch off for a while (it is not a great film) and flip to the BBC website to discover a breaking news story published two minutes ago about Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, who have both been charged for attending Downing Street parties during lockdown. 

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Thread 4 (12th April 2022, 14:09):  At 1:17:20 into the film 'Odd Thomas', just finished watching the scene where the two police officers (i.e. those who should uphold the law) break the law by creating a gun-massacre in a shopping mall.

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Thread 5 (12th April 2022, 14:48): Read a breaking news story about a multiple shooting in a Brooklyn subway station (36th Street Station in Sunset Park) in New York that took place at 8.30am local time (13.30 BST).

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Summary: There is an interesting connection between watching a film about a psychic who works with the police to predict future criminality (in this case caused by two police officers who are responsible for upholding the law) and the subsequent reports in the media of lying and illegality by the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak (who are both partly responsible for writing laws) and more directly, the criminality in the film, represented by a gun massacre in a shopping mall and the real-life multiple shootings in the New York subway immediately after I finished watching the film.

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Connecting Across Borders   

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Background: This example is in some ways similar to 'The Cost of Energy' given below. I currently live in a 'French area' of London and work for a French company with operations in London.

 

Thread 1 (2nd April 2022, 15:12): I send an email to my employer's HR department to change two of my shifts.

 

Thread 2 (4th April 2022, 10:51): Receive my first email from a french member of staff ('Y') in the HR department (most are not french), who confirms the shift change and also attaches a link to April's rota.

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Thread 3 (10th April 2022, 08:09): Send 'Y' an email reply to say that I need to cancel my shift on 23rd April (St. George's Day) because of an upcoming online conference I wish to attend. I have no particular reason for replying today as the conference is still two weeks away. This is also the first email I send with my new signature attached:

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'Interested in large, astounding, meaningful coincidences? See my website http://www.globalsynchronicity.com where you can also get in touch and submit your own experiences.'

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Thread 4 (10th April 2022, 10:00 - 17:30): Working on shift with the French company.

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Thread 5 (10th April 2022, AM): Discover that the lead story on the BBC website today is news about the first round of the French Presidential election, which I had not previously realised was today.

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Thread 6 (10th April 2022, 15:07): Receive a reply from 'Y' confirming my shift cancellation on April 23rd.

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Thread 7 (10th April 2022, 20:35): Search online to discover that the second round of the French Presidential election will be held on April 24th.

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Summary: There is a connection between sending my first email to a French member of the French company where I am working on the day of the first round of the French presidential election. This is also the first email I have sent with a signature about meaningful coincidences. The email is sent on a significant French day about an event happening on a significant English day and the day before another significant French day. It seems like a connection across borders.

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 All the World's a Stage

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Thread 1 (15th March 2022, 10:37): I receive an email from 'Richard' in the US about my book manuscript. I think that I am going to send a quick response but the coffee shop I am sat in has a bad internet connection. I have worked in here before and know that I can usually re-establish a connection with the internet WiFi by switching it on and off a few times on my laptop. However, something strange happens this time and my WiFi will not switch back on after I switch it off. I somehow get the feeling I should not be responding right now and should wait.

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Thread 2 (15th March 2022, 15:53): I receive an email about a film shoot at Heathrow Airport tomorrow. I applied for this yesterday (14th March) through an agency, without knowing anything about the subject of the shoot apart from the fact it was based at Heathrow airport. The interesting point here is that I have not applied for anything with this agency for a while and even when I have done in the past they have not regularly responded with an offer, so this is quite an unusual event.  I then discover that the shoot is for a Virgin Atlantic TV commercial. The email asks that we bring our passports to the shoot to get through security (unusual for a film shoot but a requirement because we are filming at the airport).

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Thread 3 (16th March 2022): Spend all day (7am-9pm) in the concourse of Heathrow Airport Terminal 4 (which is currently closed because of reduced flights due to Covid-19) as a supporting artist working on the Virgin Atlantic commercial. During the day I notice a BBC news article on my phone about the Iranian hostage Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe having her passport returned. This has been an ongoing story in the UK since Zaghari-Ratcliffe was jailed in Iran in April 2016 (incidentally the same month I changed my name). It is also a story I feel close to as I used to live in the Hampstead and Kilburn political constituency in 2016 and was aware of the local MP and her support for Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Later that day, the BBC website carries an article that Zaghari-Ratcliffe will be returning by airplane from Iran to the UK that afternoon. In the afternoon, the casting assistant asks me if I want to return for another day on the same shoot at the airport tomorrow.

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Thread 4 (17th March 2022, 07:13): St. Patrick's Day. Send an email reply to 'Richard' with my manuscript draft as an attachment. The lead story on the BBC website this morning is about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe returning to the UK from Iran and landing in the UK in the early hours of this morning. As I am leaving my flat at about 9am, I find that I have received my order of Jung, Synchronicity and Human Destiny by 'Ira' Progoff (1973). I have had this book on order since Feb 17th and it is well overdue. It is coming from a supplier in the US and I had already been in touch to try to get a refund as it looked as though the book had gone missing. I had not been expecting it to arrive today and was resigned to making another request for a refund when the grace period ended on 23rd March.

 

Between 11am and 8pm we are filming in the Virgin hanger at Heathrow airport. I have the role of passenger on a Virgin Airbus airplane in which filming is taking place in the hanger.

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Thread 5 (17th March 2022, PM): In the evening, the manager of Everton Football Club, with whom I previously had a legal altercation, breaks his hand while celebrating a rare victory, as reported on the BBC website.

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Thread 6 (24th March 2022, AM): I receive a reply from 'Richard' about my book manuscript at the same time as I am connecting online with a colleague about the subject of synchronicity.

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Thread 7 (25th March 2022, 14:22): I send a follow-up email to 'Richard' explaining some background details, including information regarding my previous legal altercation with the Everton manager and his wife.

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Thread 8 (28th March 2022): I read details on the BBC website about last night's Oscars ceremony. The most memorable incident occurred when WIll Smith walked onstage to slap Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife and then followed up by shouting: "Keep my wife's name out of your [expletive] mouth". Smith himself later won the best actor Oscar for King Richard and during his acceptance speech said: "Art imitates life". "I look like the crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things."

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Summary: I see connections here between people and information in transit by airplane and email respectively, by my staged transatlantic journey as acted out at Heathrow Airport that mirrored my email to 'Richard' regarding my book and background details of my legal altercation. This altercation could itself be seen as mirrored in the on-stage fight between the Oscars host, Chris Rock and the star of King Richard, Will Smith.

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Asteroids in Greenland

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Thread 1 (11th March 2022): I watch a film called ‘Greenland’ on my PC. It is an ‘apocalyptic’ story based on the idea of a comet crashing into the Earth in an extinction-level event. The film, particularly during a sequence where many meteorite ‘fireballs’ hit the Earth, reminds me of an earlier film – 2012 – which has a very similar sequence. Incidentally, when the film 2012 was being made I was sharing a flat (between 2009 and early 2012) in west London with a CGI specialist who had worked on the film and created some of those special effects.

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Thread 2 (15th March 2022): I see an article in the Independent newspaper about an incident that happened on 11th March 2022 when the European Space Agency (ESA) picked up a small (~3m sized asteroid) immediately before it impacted Earth close to Iceland. Initially, I thought that this kind of thing must be a common occurrence, but apparently it was only the fifth asteroid ever observed in space before striking the Earth, which is why it made the newspaper. This was also confirmed on the ESA website, which stated that:

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“Signals from the impact were detected from Iceland and Greenland, suggesting an energy release equivalent to 2 to 3 kt of TNT”.

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The film ‘Greenland’ was partly filmed in Iceland and the underground bunker where the survivors of the story were sheltering was supposed to be located in Greenland.

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I also later recalled that March 11th was the date – 11 years earlier – of the earthquake and tsunami that overwhelmed the Fukushima power plant in Japan. That day – 11th March 2011 – was significant for me personally because I had taken an airplane trip (very unusual) for a job interview focused on geological faulting (I am a geologist by background) at University College Dublin, Ireland.

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Thread 3 (16th March 2022): A report appears on the BBC Website about another earthquake off the coast of Japan in roughly the same location as the 2011 Fukushima earthquake.

I am (unusually) working on a film project in Heathrow Airport today (see above), which connects back with my (unusual) journey by airplane 11 years ago through Gatwick and Dublin airports on the same day as the original Fukushima disaster in 2011.

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Thread 4 (23rd March 2022, 19:29): Decide that I want to investigate global synchronicity online and purchase this website and web address.

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Thread 5 (30th March 2022): The asteroid synchronicity described above inspires me to use an asteroid flyby as the background theme for this website. 

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Thread 6 (6th April 2022, 15:00): I update the website with these examples of synchronicity and send an advertising message through LinkedIn.

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Thread 7 (7th April 2022, 11:05): Read an article on the BBC website (which was first posted at approx. 22:00, 6th April) about a three-year-long excavation of a dinosaur that was killed on the actual day of an asteroid strike 66 million years ago.   

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Summary: There are obvious connections between the 'apocalyptic' Fukashima earthquake and tsunami in 2011, its repeat on a smaller scale 11 years later in 2022, and watching the 'apocalyptic' film Greenland on the anniversary of the Fukashima disaster. The storyline of the film 'Greenland' was also mirrored on a smaller scale by the actual asteroid impact near Greenland (unusually detected in advance by ESA) on the same day. Similarly, on the same day that I publish this website with this specific example, the BBC publish an article about a dinosaur that was killed on the same day as an asteroid strike 66 million years ago.

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Life, The Universe, and Everything

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Background: I used to go to the gym on a regular basis, but I was considering that it might be more economic to buy my own exercise bike rather than pay for a monthly gym subscription. During the period recounted I was also preparing a presentation for the PA-SSE Connections 2021 online convention.

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Thread 1 (27th May 2021, 17:18 [according to my internet history]): First time I search for ‘spin bikes’ on a particular internet retailing site. I continue to do so intermittently over the coming weeks.

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Thread 2 (16th June 2021, PM): I read an article on the BBC website about the dimming of the star Betelgeuse due to a dust cloud (Amos, 2021).

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Thread 3 (19th June 2021, 08:25): I start thinking about the outlines of my talk for Connections 2021 and (somewhat absentmindedly) open a blank presentation and type ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’ into a title slide (as a placeholder title). I wasn’t consciously thinking about the origins of this common phrase.

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Thread 4 (19th June 2021, 19:18): During the day I think about the phrase and put it into an internet search engine. It autocompletes as Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which I then also search online. [I have never read the book by Douglas Adams, but I recall seeing parts of a screen version and was aware of 42 as being the answer to ‘everything’, but I hadn’t directly connected it with ‘Life, the Universe and Everything’].

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Thread 5 (19th June 2021, 21:31): To improve my vague knowledge, I decide to order an audio version of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (Adams, 1978/2012).

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Thread 6 (19th June 2021, 22:05): I order a book about quantum mechanics called The Ghost in the Atom (Davies and Brown, 1986/2008), which is a transcript of a 1980s BBC Radio 3 documentary series.

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Thread 7 (20th June 2021, PM): I start listening to the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy audiobook and discover that one of the main characters (Ford Prefect) comes from the Betelgeuse star system and that the ancient planet of Magrathea (home to the builders of Planet Earth) was located in the Horsehead Nebula dust cloud and was presumed missing/mythical.

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Thread 8 (20th June 2021, PM): I make a couple of bids for used exercise bikes online but am outbid.

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Thread 9 (21st June 2021, 09:00): I buy a cheap exercise bike online.

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Thread 10 (21st June 2021, 18:46): I receive today’s Nature Briefing email (Nature Briefing, 2021), with the subject: ‘Betelgeuse’s ‘great dimming’ was just dust’, which links back to a Nature article originally published on 16th June.

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Thread 11 (22nd June 2021, 20:12): I am still listening to approx. 1 hour of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy each day. I vaguely recollect a connection between Douglas Adams and exercise bikes. I remember reading somewhere that he used to cycle on an exercise bike when suffering from ‘writer’s block’. I put ‘douglas adams exercise bike’ into an internet search engine and discovered that he actually died following a heart attack on an exercise bike in May 2001.

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Thread 12 (24th June 2021, 21:16): I receive an email from the SSE about the Connections 2021 conference. The first sentence says: "New information has been added to the SSE-PA Connections 2021 website: 42 confirmed presenters & talks, with more to come!“ At 22:35, I finally finish listening to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

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Thread 13 (25th June 2021, 15:37): I check my online watch list – I discover that the exercise bike I bought was one of 42 that were sold in that lot before the advert was taken down.

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Thread 14 (25th June 2021, 23:41): Still waiting for The Ghost in the Atom book to arrive, which I should have received by today at the latest. I think about whether to send a follow-up email to the supplier today or wait a few days. Decide to send one now and get an autoreply from Marvin (of Rare & Antiquarian Books Customer Service) to wait until 14 days after the order date. ‘Marvin’ is an unusual name and the name of the paranoid android in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

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Thread 15 (26th June 2021, 11:33): Check my mailbox – The Ghost in the Atom has arrived. If the book hadn’t been delayed and/or I hadn’t sent my follow-up email, I would not have heard from Marvin.

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Summary: There seems to me a connection between all of these threads – the references to Betelgeuse and to Magrathea being hidden in a dust cloud in Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and parallel references to contemporary research concerning Betelgeuse as being ‘hidden’ in a dust cloud, the references I kept getting to the number 42 (even though I wasn’t particularly looking for them), and my communications from Marvin – an unusual name that I only remember coming across once previously in real life about 30 years ago. Then there was the exercise bike (which was not something I had previously considered buying) and its connection with Douglas Adams. I was even 42 years old at the time of these events.

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The Cost of Energy

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Background: I pay my electricity bill by direct debit from my bank account every month. I rarely adjust how much I pay or make any additional payments. I live in an area of west London with a heavy French presence (including the French Embassy) and which has been nicknamed Paris’s 21st arrondissement.

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Thread 1 (3rd May 2021): At approx. 08:00 I decide to make a one-off £20 payment and add an additional £10 to my monthly direct debit to my electricity supplier to make up for a shortfall in my account and recent electricity price rises. My electricity supplier is a French organisation with UK business operations.

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Thread 2 (4th May 2021): At 00:04, I receive a confirmatory email from my supplier for the increase in my direct debit.

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Thread 3 (4th May 2021, 14:25): I order Just One of Those Things (JOTT) by Mary Rose Barrington (Barrington, 2018) as an eBook which I begin to read that day. One early passage sticks in my mind: Mary Rose's description of how she came up with the term JOTT (at 1% into the eBook, under the heading Jott defined): “Jott is a collective word like "fish”, and like it can also be used as singular or plural, an all-purpose word”.

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Thread 4 (4th May 2021, 17:05): I submit a job application for the role of Science Educator at the Natural History Museum located directly opposite to the French Embassy Consular Section in the ‘French’ area of west London.

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Thread 5 (4th May 2021, 21:30): A report is carried on the BBC website about the news that France is threatening to cut off the electricity supply to the British island of Jersey (95% of its electricity coming from France) over French fishing rights in the island’s waters (the island lies 14 miles from the French coast) (BBC News, 2021).

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Thread 6 (4th May 2021, 22:24): I receive a confirmatory email from my electricity supplier about my additional one-off payment.

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Thread 7 (5th May 2021, AM): Reports in UK newspapers carry details of the diplomatic spat over Jersey’s fishing rights.

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Thread 8 (5th May 2021, PM): The Jersey row escalates and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson sends gunboats to defend Jersey as described in an article on the BBC website (Harrison, 2021) (since updated on 6th May 2021).

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Summary: So again, there are threads connecting the subjective situation of my payments to my French electricity supplier (which I very rarely adjust) and what I was reading online regarding the objective situation of the electricity supply to the island of Jersey and its fishing rights.

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Lightning Strikes Twice

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Background: I have had a few run-ins with soccer over the years including: a legal altercation with the previous Everton Manager, a PhD supervisor who was also a Scottish premiership football referee and at one point I worked for a bank that assisted in the sale of English premier league football clubs.

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Thread 1 (10th May 2021): Rockets are fired by Hamas from Gaza into Israel. The Israelis respond with airstrikes on Gaza. This marked the first escalation of the Israel-Palestine conflict for seven years (since 2014).

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Thread 2 (10th May 2021, 17:32): Booked to see Prof. Michael Grosso present his talk entitled ‘Miracles in an Age of Disbelief: Theory and Practice’ at the Scientific and Medical Network.

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Thread 3 (11th May 2021, 17:00): A nine-year-old boy died after being struck by lightning during a football coaching session in Blackpool, NW England (as reported at approx. 21:30 on the BBC website (BBC News, 2021).

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Thread 4 (11th May 2021, 22:14): Manchester City FC won the English Premier League title tonight after second-place Manchester United FC lost (1-2) to Leicester City FC at Old Trafford in Manchester, NW England.

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Thread 5 (12th May 2021, 16:14): I buy Smile of the Universe: Miracles in an Age of Disbelief by Michael Grosso (Grosso, 2020) as a Kindle eBook.

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Thread 6 (12th May 2021, 18:23): I get multiple ‘pulses’ (see Other Communications page) in a muscle (right tricep) on seeing a news report about the boy killed by lightning yesterday, who has now been named as Jordan Banks. (A BBC report on their website (BBC News, 2021) states that: “on average in the UK two people are killed by lightning every year. BBC Weather meteorologist Simon King said lightning was not uncommon, especially during the spring and summer months. There were an estimated 3,000 lightning strikes across northern England between 16:00 BST and midnight on Tuesday.” This is a sensitive subject, but what are the odds of a child footballer called Jordan Banks at a football coaching session being killed struck by lightning on the same evening that the Premier League winners were decided and on the same week that the conflict was happening in Israel (cf. River Jordan) and Gaza? To put this in some context, the chance of any particular person being killed as a result of being struck by lightning in the UK is estimated to be around 33 million to one (Elsom and Webb, 2017).

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Thread 7 (12th May 2021, 19:30 – 21:30): I attend the talk by Prof. Michael Grosso: ‘Miracles in an Age of Disbelief: Theory and Practice’ at The Scientific and Medical Network.

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Thread 8 (13th May 2021, 10:39): I see a BBC website update on the conflict in Gaza which has seen 65 people killed in Gaza, including 14 children, and seven dead in Israel (BBC News, 2021).

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Summary: While not on first impression an uplifting story, Jordan Banks was described as an “extraordinary young man” and a “superstar footballer”. The UK is fortunate in that it is a relatively safe country, with a temperate climate, does not suffer from regular natural hazards like earthquakes or volcanoes, and is not at war. One thing this incident perhaps serves to do is to highlight other situations overseas, such as on the banks of the River Jordan, and the connection between the sublimated ‘war’ of soccer and the real conflicts that should be the focus of active diplomacy.

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As I was preparing to give my presentation at Connections 2021, a number of other incidents arose which made me wonder whether this was a case of a synchronicity of synchronicity – i.e., because I was preparing an analysis of synchronicity, further synchronistic threads then appeared in response. Prior to giving my live presentation at the end of July 2021, I made a backup video of the talk in case of any communications failures on the day:

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Thread 1 (10th July 2021, 11:53): I book a slot to make a video recording of my presentation with the event organisers at 17:00 on 12th July 2021. Prepare and rehearse my presentation on 10th and 11th July.

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Thread 2 (12th July 2021, 08:14): Read an article on the BBC website (BBC News, 2021) about a lightning strike which killed 16 people taking selfie photographs from a 12th Century watchtower in Jaipur, India on Sunday (11th July).

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Thread 3 (12th July 2021, 16:15): As I prepare to record a backup copy of the presentation for Connections 2021 (at 17:00) an electrical storm begins across west London, including regular lightning bolts, which continues throughout the recording of my presentation.

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Thread 4 (12th July 2021, 19:45): An article appears from Sky News about flash flooding in west London due to an hour-long deluge: 'London flooding: Travel disruption for commuters as roads and stations closed after 'hour-long deluge‘’ (Sky News, 2021). A similar article appears on the BBC website at approx. 19:30 (BBC News, 2021).

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Thread 5 (13th July 2021, 19:22): Read an article on the BBC website about a lightning strike that hit three people taking a selfie photograph in west London during the storm yesterday. The selfie actually captures the instant of the strike at 17:05 on 12th July 2021 (Shah, 2021).

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Thread 6 (21st July 2021, 13:00 – 15:30): Return books to the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) library on the first day it has reopened since the Covid-19 lockdown. I have no prior intention of borrowing any new books out but see one on display that catches my attention: ‘Changed in a Flash’ (Krohn & Kripal, 2018) about a near-death experience (NDE) following a lightning strike, which I decide to take out.

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Thread 7 (21st July 2021, 21:08): Learn that the inquest for Jordan Banks, the child struck by lightning, was today. The reports indicate that the weather changed in the last ten minutes of the football training session. The coroner stated: "This was an extremely rare occurrence. Although the weather had changed, it had changed very quickly and there appears to be no obvious reason why Jordan was struck by lightning." (Nsubuga, 2021) & (Sky News, 2021).

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Summary: So again, I felt a meaningful coincidence between making a video copy of a presentation that included content concerning electricity and lightning strikes and the news reports of lightning strikes in the media, one of which happened while I was actually recording the talk. Of course, thunderstorms happen regularly, but the coincidence of people being struck by lightning while taking selfie photographs on two consecutive days (albeit on opposite sides of the world), and both of those events being reported in the news media, caught my attention.

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