This is a classic example of a fortuitous unlikely chance encounter which suggests the existence of synchronicity as a genuine phenomenon. Seen against the background of all my other experiences previously mentioned here it does seem to have occurred through something more than simple chance.
For about fifteen years I have been collecting together the history of the locality where I live as this has been neglected by others because it is so fragmented. One small detail in this jigsaw puzzle of fragmented facts is the history of one particular large house standing a short distance from our home. It stands in isolation on a relatively quiet country lane behind high brick walls and similarly imposing automatic security gates and I knew nothing about the owners and wasn’t sure how to find out anything about it. Public records did not provide the information that I wanted but approaching the owners would obviously not be easy. Occasionally when we fancied a walk my wife and I would walk along that lane past the house but I can’t recall ever seeing any of the occupants and we only went that way a handful of times each year. I could have written a note and put it in their letterbox or probably there was an intercom somewhere by the gates, but in order to introduce myself and explain my activities and reason for having an interest in their property adequately without being disregarded in an offhand way I felt that I needed to meet the owners face to face. The problem was how to bring this encounter about.
Near the beginning of the week before the Christmas holiday in 2023 I started thinking about this problem for some reason that I can’t recall but I still saw no certain solution to it and put the matter aside yet again. There were many other tasks outstanding in my research and it was of little importance and could be left until I had dealt with them. Therefore when, on the morning of the Friday of that week, we decided to take a walk to get some exercise before the forthcoming less healthy activities of Christmas, it was almost by chance that I suggested a route that included that particular lane. As there is no pedestrian footpath along the lane we prefer to walk it when it isn’t being used as a rat run by drivers and we anticipated that it was likely to be relatively quiet so close to Christmas. Certainly I had no plan in mind regarding my interest in that house as it was bound to be as impregnable as ever.
However, during our stroll as we walked alongside the walls of the property we saw a man standing outside the gates doing something to them. When I asked him who lived there he said that he was the owner. He explained that a courier had tried to force a package into the letterbox attached to the rear of one of the gates and had damaged the box, which he was attempting to repair. Of course I took the opportunity to explain my quite genuine interest in his house and he said that he had documents covering the full history of the property since the original building was built there a hundred and twenty years earlier and that I was welcome to see them some time. He explained that the property had been modified and expanded several times over the period, so my interest in the earliest building at the very beginning of the twentieth century would be covered in the documents. The result of this fortuitous encounter is that I now have his name and of course already know where he lives and even exactly where his letterbox is, so I can now confidently contact him again whenever I choose to take him up on his offer.
Somehow my problem solved itself, but was there more to it than simply a remarkable piece of good luck? Synchronicity appears to need some form of interaction over a distance but all my experiences suggest a different view of it. It is quite possible that my thoughts about the house earlier in the week actually coincided with the courier damaging the letterbox, thereby bringing about my later meeting with the owner. However, my view is that what mattered was not the meeting itself but my memory of it now having happened as that memory is within my mind and not at some remote location, although it is remote in time from when the letterbox was damaged of course.
Personally I am more inclined to believe that it is possible for fragments of memory to percolate backwards in time within my own brain than that somehow the brain can receive signals over physical distances about events that may or may not matter to the recipient of those signals. All my memories are relevant to me, so there is no need for any filtering as would be the case if we were continually being bombarded with information from literally everywhere through some psychic medium. Of course while the action by the courier substantially increased the probability of my meeting the property owner face to face the second influence would have been the owner’s decision to go and repair the letterbox on the Friday morning. Evidently this provided a substantial opportunity which only required me to suggest the walk down that lane to ensure our encounter. This perspective suggests that rather than being sensitive to physically distanced events our minds are sensitive to rapid changes in the probability of particularly desirable memories appearing within our own minds in the future.
However it works, the phenomenon clearly achieves far more than mere chance would appear to allow. The other possibility is that it was simply a welcome Christmas present from Santa Claus. It all depends on what one chooses to believe.