Have you ever had a profound coincidence? The kind where you check into a hotel, only to find an old friend you were thinking of that day in the room next to yours? Or perhaps you've just been thinking of a friend and the phone rang -- it was your friend calling just as you thought of them.

These experiences are called synchronicities. Synchronicity is a phenomenon most people can readily understand because they have experienced it themselves. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung developed the idea and defined it as a meaningful coincidence.

-from the Introduction by
Dr. Joanne McMahon, Parapsychologist

 Can your mind influence your surroundings?

Many people have asked me these questions, and it is not surprising. I asked many of these questions, and more in 1990 when my mother died and I had some prohetic dreams.

I thought I was delusional when something I dreamt of would later happen. I was confused. Did the event happen before the dream or after? Did the event happen at all? My problem was that in fact I dreamt of a large burnished Buddha surrounded by a quartz path, and later I traveled in northern Thailand and found exactly what I had dreamt a month earlier, thousands of miles away.

Another synchronicity occurred concerning my trip. I was at the Emperor's Palace in Bangkok on May 5, 1989. When I returned to New York, I discovered that my father (who I hardly knew) had also traveled in Asia. I found a picture of him also at the Emperor's Palace in Thailand (then Siam) dated, May 5, 1939. Exactly 50 years to the day, I was in the same place where my father had been without the knowledge that he had been there. What are the chances?

My research into such meaningful coincidences began when I could no longer doubt that events in the material world clearly coincided with that of the dream world or history. In the world of synchronicity, time does not seem to apply.

Consider the following:

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.
John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.
John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.
Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.

Both their wives lost their children while living in the White House.

Both President's were shot on a Friday.
Both were shot in the head in the presence of their wives.

The Secretary of each President warned them not to go to the theatre and Dallas, respectively.

Lincoln's Secretary was named Kennedy.
Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.

Both Presidents were assassinated by Southerners.
Both Presidents were succeeded by Southerners.

Both successors were named Johnson.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.
Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.
Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins:
-were known by their three names.
-names have fifteen letters.
-were murdered by men who pleaded insanity.
-were thought to be involved in a conspiracy.

John Wilkes Booth ran from the theatre and was captured in a warehouse.
Lee Harvey Oswald ran from a warehouse and was captured in a theatre.

There are so many aspects of this phenomenon that a short article does not do justice. However, if you are interested in taking a further leap into this mysterious, natural phenomenon, have a listen to 30 well-researched stories on the new CD from Metro-Video Productions, Ben Robinson on Synchronicity. Available from The Store.

For more information about Ben Robinson on Synchronicity, click here.