There are some coincidences in life that we just can't explain and many of you left your
own stories in the comments about your amazing synchronicity experiences. If you're new to the
channel you might be wondering what exactly is synchronicity? The psychologist Carl Jung
described it as a meaningful coincidence that happens when an event in the outside world
lines up with an inner state of the mind; they're not connected by cause and effect,
they're connected by meaning. There's a good example of synchronicity in the movie "I Origins."
It's the story of a man named Ian Gray. He's a PhD student researching the biology of the eye.
One day at a Halloween party he meets a mysterious woman wearing a mask. Her face is covered but he's
drawn to her green eyes. They have a connection. But then without any explanation she leaves very
suddenly. He doesn't even learn her name. He goes home feeling completely alone, figuring
that he'll never see her again. We learned that Ian is an atheist. He doesn't believe in destiny
or fate or that our lives might be guided in any kind of divine way. And yet one day he walks into
a store to buy a lottery ticket and some smokes. Oddly it costs exactly 11.11. He takes some money
from his pocket; it's exactly the amount of money he has: 11 11. He walks outside and looks at the
time. Again it's 11 11. He catches a bus it's the number 11 Broadway. And it's here that things take
a strange turn. A dog starts barking at him. This bothers Ian so much that he decides to get off
at an earlier stop than he normally would, and then instantly he sees it: a literal sign with
the same eyes he saw at the Halloween party. The mysterious woman he can't stop thinking about. He
decides to research the eyes from the billboard. Could it really be her? All of it puts him on a
journey that would change the course of the rest of his life. But what struck me most about this
scene is that even when Ian sees all of these amazing synchronicities lining up in a row,
he tries to dismiss it as a coincidence, and yet he can't ignore it completely. Why? Jung says that
the thing that defines synchronicity is the sense of the numinous. It's a powerful feeling of wonder
in awe that lifts us outside of ourselves, taking us outside of the everyday routine of our lives,
and connecting us with the divine. So let's get into your stories. The first one comes from a
viewer named Curlew all the way from England, who writes that: "a few years ago my brother went into
a second-hand bookshop looking for a cookbook for our mother's birthday. He wandered for a while and
found himself drawn to one of the books. He picked it up and inside the front cover was a page signed
and dated by her mother; it was the same book she used when she was a student at a catering college
about 40 years earlier. We gave her the book for her birthday and she was absolutely surprised to
see it again." I love this story because a lot of us can relate to that feeling of having something
you thought you lost finding its way back to you again, and being suddenly reminded of a special
time in your life many years later. And this story does that in a really magical way, and it
reminds me of a similar thing that happened to the actor Anthony Hopkins, one of the most respected,
accomplished, and kind of terrifying actors we've ever seen. But in the early 1970s Hopkins starred
in a movie called "the Girl from Petrovka," which is based on a book by George Feifer of the same
name. After he signed on to do the movie, Hopkins went to London to look for a copy of the book. He
went all over the city visiting many different bookshops but he couldn't find it anywhere.
Finally he decided to give up and go home. He went to Leicester Square Underground Station to
wait for the next train, but suddenly his eye was drawn to a book he saw sitting on a nearby bench
that had been left behind. He picked it up and was absolutely stunned to find that it was exactly
the book he was looking for. But as he flipped through it he noticed that someone had written
on many of the pages. Later Hopkins had a chance to meet George Feifer the author of the book. He
told him about his remarkable story. Feifer said: "you know I actually had a personal copy of the
book myself and I wrote some very important notes on the margins of the pages but it got lost and I
never saw it again." Hopkins handed him the book that he found at the train station and asked:
"is this your book?" Unbelievably it was. It was Feifer's original copy complete with the same
notes he'd written in the margins all those years ago. What are the odds of that? Imagine losing a
book that was important to you, having it show up in a train station in one of the biggest cities in
the world, where it's found by an actor who just so happens to be starring in the movie version of
the very same book you wrote. And as incredible as it is the only reason it happened is because
Hopkins had the presence of mind to pay attention and to be open to the signs. Otherwise it easily
would have been missed. One of the major lessons that I draw from this is that it's so important
to take the time to be mindful to be present and to live in the moment as much as we can.
Our next story comes from a viewer named JC who also went to a bookstore. JC was drawn
to two books and picked them up. One book was "the 5am club" on self-development and waking
up early. The other book was about the Spartans of ancient Greece. JC wasn't sure about buying either
of them. While flipping through the 5am book, it opened to a random page and there it was:
a reference to the Spartans. This is a great story and for a lot of people who do book research many
of them describe very similar experiences. The author Arthur Koestler calls this type
of synchronicity the "Library Angel" which happens when just the right book or exactly
the right reference comes to you at precisely the right time. The British author Dame Rebecca West
tells the story of trying to go through a huge number of books and documents about the Nuremberg
trials. She found hundreds of volumes of material but the worst thing about it was that none of the
information was organized or indexed in any way, which meant that it could take months for her
to find what she was looking for. After hours of mindlessly flipping through the pages she turned
to one of the Librarians and said: "I'm never gonna find it, it could be in any one of these."
She pulled a random volume from the shelf, opened the book, and there it was: the page with exactly
the information she needed. And she's not alone. The author Graham Hancock describes his experience
with it like this: "as a researcher there have been a number of occasions where exactly the
right book or exactly the right piece of research has come into my hands at exactly the right moment
when I needed it in order to make progress. Way back in 1989 I was in the house of a friend,
he was aware of some of my interests, and he thrust into my hands a book and it was called
"Hamlet's Mill." Had that book not been given to me at that time I would never have gone on to
write "Fingerprints of the Gods" and yet it seemed to come to me purely by happen chance. I think the
term Library Angels is a good one for this kind of experience, it seems like some higher force
is looking after us in some way and ensuring that from time to time we get exactly the information
we need at exactly the moment we need it." Graham says that being given that particular book in that
particular moment had a huge influence on the direction of the rest of his life.
Our next story comes from a viewer named Donna Dymally. Donna Dymally. Dymally? I'm so sorry if
I butchered your name. She writes that she was on an airplane on a five-hour flight and had a
strange feeling that something was wrong; it felt like she was having a stroke. The plane landed in
Dallas Texas and somehow she managed to deplane. She still had to catch another connecting flight
to Birmingham Alabama. Donna turned to one of her employees and said: "I think I had a
stroke on that last flight so after we get off our next plane I'm going to check into a hospital."
Suddenly a man who overheard the conversation told Donna not to get on the plane. He warned
her that if she did, she could have another stroke. That man happened to be a doctor and he
called 9-1-1 for an ambulance to take her to Las Colinas Medical Center, which also happens to be
the top stroke center in Irving Texas, and this very likely saved her life. This is an amazing
coincidence not only because it highlights the importance of listening to your gut and trusting
your intuition, it also shows us that more of us should know the signs of someone having a stroke,
especially because it's the second highest cause of death worldwide, with heart disease being
the highest. So how do we notice the signs? Just remember the acronym "FAST." "F" stands for face,
so if you think someone might be having a stroke ask them to smile. When they do check to see if
one side of their face droops down, and check if they have any trouble seeing out of one or
both of their eyes. "A" stands for arms. Ask the person to raise both their arms and then check to
see if one of the arms drifts downwards. Ask if they feel any numbness especially if it's only on
one side of their body. "S" stands for speech. Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence and
then listen to whether they're slurring their words or if they seem confused. "T" stands for
time. If you see any of these signs call 9-1-1 and get them to a hospital right away. Every minute
counts because the best treatments for stroke only work if the person makes it to the hospital within
three hours of their first symptoms, and even if the person seems okay, after a few minutes it can
still be a sign of a serious medical condition, so get them to the hospital as soon as you can.
And now I'd like to share one more comment from a viewer named Mark Warner. He writes that when
he was 30 years old he was falling in love with a woman named Elsie. He remembers one night when
they were chatting and sending messages to each other, she said to him: "where have you been
all my life?" He could sense from her words that she was getting emotional. A few seconds later a
song came on: "where have you been all my life" by Sunshine Anderson. He was blown away and he took
it as a sign that they were meant to be together. I just love music related synchronicities and all
of these stories highlight something that over the years I've come to feel in my core to be
undeniably true. And that is "when you're on the right path the universe winks and nods at you from
time to time just to let you know." And if we pay attention to them it nudges us towards the things
we're meant to experience at just the moments we need them. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"people who are destined to meet will do so apparently by chance at precisely the right
moment." And if you want to experience and notice more synchronicities in your life or if you're
wondering what your synchronicities mean click on this video on the left side of your screen.
I would absolutely love it if you press the like button and left a comment with a music note Emoji,
it really helps me out and I'd love to read more of your stories in the comments.
As always thanks so much for watching, take care of yourselves, and I'll see you in the next one.