Synchronicity, telepathy or precognition?

Synchronicity, telepathy, or precognition?

Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish between the three. Recently, I had two experiences that brought home that question.

The first one was simply a thought that came to mind. I suddenly remembered that a reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat was supposed to call me or e-mail me about an interview. I’d forgotten about it, but there was a deadline involved. The article was supposed to appear before a writer’s conference opened in Tallahassee in a few days. Since I was giving the keynote address, the reporter had decided to interview me for his article about the conference.

As I walked back to my office and mentioned it to Trish, she replied that he’d just now sent me an e-mail. So my immediate thought was that it was telepathy. I’d picked up on his e-mail. But he hadn’t sent it yet, so maybe it was precognition. Then again, maybe it was neither. After all, I hadn’t predicted that he would write me at that moment or knew he was writing me. It was simply something that I’d remembered was supposed to happen. So maybe it was just synchronicity. Or, all of the above.

Here’s another example that occurred the next day. It was the same type of situation. I was remembering something from the past when, bingo, I got an update. I’m an avid disc golf player, I play in a league once a week. When I take Noah, my Golden Retriever, to the dog park, I often bring a couple discs and practice a few throws, making sure I don’t clobber any people or dogs with my tosses. As I retrieved my discs, I thought about a particular type of disc that I wanted to replace one that I’d lost in a lake a few months earlier. I’d really liked that disc and had put my name and cell phone number on it.

Not two minutes later, I received a text message from a guy who’d just found it several feet from shore. I was amazed, but didn’t tell him that I was just thinking about that long lost piece of plastic. He didn’t give me his name, but said he might show up at the league game the next day. In fact, he did and handed me the disc. It turned out we have same first name, Rob. A common name, but still it fit with the synchro. Like attracts like. But, again, was it telepathy when I thought about that long lost disc, precognition? Maybe it doesn’t matter.