Carl Gustav Jung coined the term synchronicity, which means linked events that happen by what seems to be more than simple coincidence. For example; you get up in the morning and switch on the TV breakfast news, the very first words you hear are; 'The price of carrots has doubled in the last week due to a drought'. On your way to work you sit next to a lady on the bus who accidentally drops a carrot from her shopping bag onto your lap. Then the water supply to your place of work fails. Then the office secretary leans over to show you her diamond engagement ring saying 'It's a full carat' and as she does so knocks your cup of coffee over. Strange coincidences such as these fall within the term synchronicity. You fathom out what the message is yourself.

Let me give you a real life example of sychronicity in action. A man called Philip Bannister was working in the Morecambe Bay area and during his lunch break went for a walk along the beach. As he passed by the sea front he saw a surf board floating on the surface of the water. As he watched it came to rest on the sands just ahead of him. Now surf boards can be expensive and this was a really good one. So Philip lifted it up and examined it. There, on the top of the board, was a metal plate with the name of a school in Wales identifying it as their property. Thinking to return it to the school the next time he was working in that part of the country he put it in the back of his lorry.

That  night Philip was at home in Preston watching TV with his wife when the telephone rang. It was an old friend who used to play in the same pop-group as Philip in the 1960's. They hadn't seen each other in years and the man said that he was driving up to Preston the following week and would like to visit Philip. Of course this was quickly agreed. The next week the man duly arrived at Philip's house and they had a good talk about old times. Then Philip asked him what he was doing now. 'I work as a caretaker for a school in Wales' he said. It was the same school that was named on the surf board.

In her very readable book 'Beyond Explanation' Jenny Randles tells of her personal encounter with the phenomena of synchronicity. Jenny, who is a well known writer and broadcaster, received a strange telephone call one evening telling her of a UFO sighting in the Liverpool area. When she went into the local radio station to broadcast she was checking the news and found that two young men had been killed on a railway line at exactly the same time as the UFO sighting. Thinking they might be linked Jenny thought to call the police. But she decided not to.

As Jenny sat in the Radio City studio she saw, through the glass partition, two uniformed police officers enter. They had arrived to interview some member of the stations staff, not Jenny. However the sight of the police officers seemed significant to her. Then, on her way to the bus station, heading home, she bought a record review magazine and the feature album was by The Police titled 'Synchronicity'. Putting these events together Jenny decided she was being guided by some unseen force to contact the police and tell them what she knew of the UFO and accident link. This she did. But the story does not end there. Some weeks later Jenny was given a lift into Liverpool by a CID officer in plain clothes. As they drove in he told her that he was one of the officers investigating the death of the two young men. He also said he had seen the report of her UFO and that it was considered quite possible that these two men had been scared by something and, as they tried to escape, had been hit by the train.

My personal encounter with synchronicity came whilst I was in Florida during early July filming with the Walt Disney Corporation. Disney were making a series titled 'Petsburgh USA' and I was invited to discuss my work as the author of the best seller Psychic Pets. They flew me over and provided me with a fabulous room in The Yatch Club Resort Hotel. My room number was 3152. Now this hotel had over a thousand rooms and was situated in the centre of Disneyland. Anyone who has been will know that this huge entertainment complex is rather like a city. Over 50 square miles of hotels, restaurants, theatres, cinema's. boating lakes, swimming pools, rides and all sorts of attractions. They even have a big mouse called Mickey.

So, filming over, I headed home. Stopping in the duty-free shop at Orlando airport I bought my wife some of her favourite perfume; 40 percent proof Cointreau. The practice at airports is to seal the duty free goods in a plastic bag and hand the purchaser a numbered receipt so that the goods can be collected on boarding the flight. This duly happened with my wife's litre bottle of orange scent. When I checked my receipt I noted, with some degree of astonishment, that the number was 3152. Exactly the same number as my room in the thousand plus room Yatch Club Hotel. The odds against such an occurrence must be millions to one.

When I arrived home my U.S.A. publishers contacted me to say that the producers of the Disney show had telephoned them. They had, my publishers said, been pleased with my input on their show and wanted to discuss my returning to film with them again.

Those who might doubt the veracity of the above story can refer to the editor of the monthly Journal 'Psychic World' Ray Taylor who has been provided with photostat copies of both receipt and room numbered reference.

If you have experienced any strange series of linked events that you think might be synchronicity in action, then please do write and tell me.

E-Mail John G. Sutton