The Why Files: Operation Podcast - 598: Synchronicities | The Science Behind Your Meaningful Coincidences (STRIPPED)

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

Ever think about someone you haven't spoken to in years, then they call you? You're not imagining things. Carl Jung called these meaningful coincidences "synchronicities," and believed they reveal something profound about reality itself. The universe isn't random chaos—it's an organized, responsive system that actually listens to human consciousness. From CIA experiments with psychic spies to ancient traditions that taught reality-bending techniques, the evidence suggests our thoughts influence the physical world in ways science is just beginning to understand. Twin boys separated at birth who lived identical lives, a balloon that traveled 140 miles to find another girl with the same name, and quantum physics experiments that prove consciousness affects matter. These aren't just stories. They're glimpses into how reality really works - and how you can learn to influence it.

In Bermuda 1975, a man walks down the street. He's hit by a taxi and killed. Exactly one year later, his brother walks down the same street. He's hit by a taxi and killed. Now, not only did the brother die the same way, they were hit by the same taxi, driven by the same driver, carrying the same passenger. Twin boys separated at birth, both named Jim, both became cops, both married women named Linda, both had sons named James Allen, both divorced and married women named Betty, and both had dogs named Toy.

These aren't coincidences. They're synchronicities. Reality responding to human consciousness. Because reality isn't random or chaotic. It's organized. It's aware. And it's always listening. And if you want to change reality, all you have to do is ask.

In 1944, famous psychiatrist Carl Jung was talking with a patient. She kept having a dream about a golden scarab, a golden beetle, an Egyptian symbol of death, rebirth, and transformation. Young listened patiently. He'd heard this dream before, many times. But then he heard something else.

Tapping. Tapping at the window. A beetle was hitting the glass, over and over. Young opened the window, caught the beetle, and gently studied it for a second. It was golden green. A rose chafer, the closest thing to a scarab in Switzerland. He handed it to his patient and said, here's your scarab. At that moment, Young realized that there's more to our reality than we see.

He believed that mind and matter are intertwined, and reality is created by our collective consciousness. And Carl Jung wasn't some mystic. He was a scientist. He was a highly published, highly respected psychiatrist. But when that beetle tapped on his window, it changed him forever. He didn't think this was a random coincidence. It was a meaningful coincidence. He called it synchronicity.

Events may seem coincidental, but they're connected by cause and consciousness. The universe reality itself responds to human thought. Have you ever had a friend pop into your mind, someone that you hadn't talked to in years, and then the phone rings and it's them? Or you think of a song and then you hear it somewhere? That's your mind tapping into the universal consciousness. One of Young's closest intellectual partners was Wolfgang Pauly. He was a Nobel Prize winning physicist and one of the founders of

quantum mechanics. Quantum entanglement seemed to prove Young's theory. When two particles are entangled, changing one changes the other instantly, no matter how far apart they are. One foot apart, one million light years apart. Those particles communicate instantly, no speed limit. That breaks the rules of physics, but tests prove entanglement is real.

Which means there are rules of physics that we don't know about. Like entangled particles can influence each other, your thoughts can somehow influence your reality. The other day, Jen and I had dinner with friends that we hadn't seen in 10 years. Hi Dave. Hi Maureen. Hi Sailor. The next day, I'm cleaning out a folder of old files.

The top file was a picture of Dave and Maureen and baby Sailor taken about 10 years ago. I don't remember taking it. I don't even remember seeing it before. This is synchronicity, and I'm sure you have stories like this yourself. Arthur Koestler collected hundreds of these strange stories and he found an odd pattern in history. Big discoveries often happen at the same time, in different places, by people who had no contact.

Isaac Newton and Godfrey Wilhelm Leidenitz both invented calculus separately. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace both developed the theory of evolution independently. Now here's a crazy one. Alexander Graham Bell and Alicia Gray both submitted designs for the telephone to the US Patent Office on the exact same day. February 14th, 1876, just hours apart. Young said we're all connected. Each of us is one of billions of individual access points to our shared collective consciousness.

And most people just stumble into these connections by accident. But some people have learned that our shared reality can be accessed. It could be influenced. It could even be controlled. And if you think controlling reality with your mind would be a nice skill to have, you're not alone. So does the CIA. With prices going up on just about everything lately, being smart with your money is just a good idea. It's essential. But managing subscriptions, tracking spending, and cutting

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Soviet Asians could supposedly see inside American military facilities using only their minds. At first, reports weren't taken seriously. But then more reports arrived. And then more. Project Stargate launched in 1978 at the Stanford Research Institute. SRI was backed by the CIA. They wanted remote viewers who could spy on enemy installations without leaving their chairs. So SRI recruited people who claimed to have psychic abilities.

Joe McMonigal was one of their star viewers. He was a former Army intelligence officer who had a near-death experience. After he was brought back, he could describe places he'd never been. He'd close his eyes and sketch detailed drawings of buildings on the other side of the world. In 1979, McMonicle was given coordinates and asked what he saw. He described a massive submarine, bigger than any sub ever built. Now, intelligence analysts laughed at his sketches of the sub because he drew two subs side by side surrounded by a giant hull. No submarine could be that big.

No one had ever designed anything like this. Six months later satellite photos proved McMonagall was right. The Typhoon class submarine looked exactly like his drawings, but the military wanted more than remote viewing. They wanted to change reality itself. The gateway process explores consciousness manipulation through technology. Robert Monroe had developed something called

hemispheric synchronization or HEMISYNC. Different sound frequencies played in each ear could put the brain in altered states. Test subjects reported leaving their bodies, traveling through time, and accessing what they called other dimensions. Declassified documents describe Focus 15, a mental state where time supposedly doesn't exist.

People claim they could see the past, present, and future simultaneously. Some reported they could influence events before they happened. That caught the attention of the American military and intelligence agencies. They even sent soldiers and agents to learn the gateway process.

And I have a whole episode on this, link below. At Princeton, the Pair Laboratory, PER, ran experiments for 28 years. They tested whether the human mind could affect random number generators. Ordinary people would sit in front of machines and try to influence the output with their thoughts. Now, the effects were small but significant. People could affect machines in ways that shouldn't be possible.

Still not convinced? Well, the Global Consciousness Project has random number generators around the world, constantly producing random data. But around two in the morning on September 11th, 2001, the machine's random numbers started to synchronize. The scientists couldn't explain it. A few hours later, two planes hit the World Trade Center.

This is a published peer-reviewed fact. Some argue that it was just a coincidence. But I could do a whole episode on the Global Consciousness Project and the events they predicted and let me know if you want me to cover it. So not only can we access reality, we can tap into the universal field. Focus 15 where past, present and future don't exist. We can alter reality any place and at any time. The CIA and US military had spent decades and millions of dollars proving

consciousness could alter reality. But they weren't the first to discover this. Ancient cultures have been using these techniques for thousands of years. You ever think about what Keanu Reeves smells like? I mean, the man has to smell incredible, right? Like campfire smoke and fresh squeezed lime on a mountain top. That's the kind of presence I'm trying to bring. And thanks to Harry's body wash,

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Shower with Harry's. Try Harry's Body Wash today for just $8 at harrys.com slash the y files. That's harrys.com slash the y-files for a sniff of this incredible body wash Humans have always known how to bend reality We just called it different names every ancient culture had practices for connecting to the universal consciousness. Prayer, meditation, ritual. These weren't just religious ceremonies. They were technologies.

Technologies for accessing the same consciousness field the CIA wanted. The Hermetic tradition goes back to ancient Egypt. As above, so below. As within, so without. They knew consciousness shapes reality. The mind creates matter. Change your inner world. The outer world follows. Buddhist monks have demonstrated this for centuries. They can control their body temperature through meditation. Scientists tested Tibetan monks in freezing conditions. The monks raised their skin temperature by 17 degrees.

Just by thinking about it, they dried wet sheets on their bodies in sub-zero weather. Then there's Nikola Tesla. He didn't just invent electrical devices. He believed in the connection between thought and energy. Tesla would visualize his inventions in perfect detail before building them. He'd run the machines in his mind for weeks checking for problems. When he finally built them, they were perfectly, every time, on the first try.

Napoleon Hill interviewed 500 successful people in the early 1900s. Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison. They all used the same technique. They held clear mental images of what they wanted. They felt the emotions of already having it. Then reality rearranged itself to match their vision. Hill called it Think and Grow Rich. But it wasn't about money. It was about consciousness creating reality. Then the new thought movement spread across America. Authors like Neville Goddard taught that imagination creates reality, not metaphorically, literally.

Your thoughts impress themselves on a responsive universe. The universe has no choice but to manifest them. Fast forward to 2006. The secret goes mainstream, and millions learn about the law of attraction. Critics called it wishful thinking. But here's what's interesting. Every culture throughout history discovered the same principle independently. Aboriginal Australians, ancient Chinese, Native Americans, African tribes.

They all found ways to communicate with reality itself. The techniques vary, but the core message doesn't. Reality is conscious. It listens. It responds. And the most dramatic proof comes from the synchronicities that happen without us even trying. In June 2001, Laura Buxton released a balloon at her grandparent's anniversary party.

She was 10 years old, living in Staffordshire, England. She wrote her name and address on a tag, tied it to the balloon and let it go. The balloon traveled 140 miles south. It landed in a hedge in Wiltshire, where another 10-year-old girl found it. And her name was also Laura Buxton. The second Laura wrote the first, and they arranged to meet. Both girls showed up wearing pink sweaters and jeans. Both brought their pet guinea pigs.

Both guinea pigs were orange and white. And of course, the guinea pigs had the same name. And the coincidences kept piling up. Both Lora's were the same height. Both had brown hair and blue eyes. Both had three-year-old black labs at home. And both also had gray rabbits. When they opened their bags, both had packed the same stuffed animal. Identical. And the odds of all this happening are so crazy that it's mathematically impossible. But it happened.

There's plenty of photos and video. The news covered the story. This is not an urban legend. Anthony Hopkins. He needed a book. The girl from Petrovka. He was playing the lead in the film and he searched every bookstore in London with no luck.

It was out of print. Hopkins had finally given up when he was sitting on a bench waiting for a train. Someone left a book on the bench. He picked it up. It was The Girl from Petrovka. But this wasn't just any copy. This one had handwritten notes in the margins, personal observations, character analysis.

Hopkins studied the book for his role. Two years later, while shooting the film, Hopkins met the author, George Pfeiffer. While they talked about the book, Pfeiffer mentioned that he'd lent his personal copy to a friend. That friend lost it on the London Underground. All his notes, his analysis, gone. He was disappointed. Hopkins heard this and said, Wait here.

And he ran to fetch the book from his trailer. He showed Pfeiffer. It was the same book. Pfeiffer's handwriting, his notes, everything. Somehow the universe set that book to the actor playing the lead. And then the universe sent the book back to its owner. Now here's a story of the law of attraction. Robert Todd Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's son, attracted death.

Presidential death. April 14th, 1865, Robert was at the White House when his father left for Ford's theater. We know how that ended. Sixteen years later, July 2nd, 1881, Robert was Secretary of War. Walking into the Baltimore Atomic Train Station, President Garfield was shot right there in front of War. Walking into the Baltimore Epitomic Train Station, President Garfield was shot. Right there in front of Robert. He saw it happen.

September 6th, 1901. Now Robert was President of Pullman Company. He arrived at the Pan American Exposition. Minutes later, President McKinley was shot. Again, Robert was there. Three Presidents, three assassinations, one man present at all of them.

But here's the synchronicity that haunted Robert. Years before his father died, Robert fell onto train tracks in Jersey City. The train was coming. He was about to be crushed. A stranger grabbed his collar and yanked him to safety. That stranger was one of the most famous actors in the country. Edwin Booth, the brother of John Wilkes Booth.

Two brothers, both famous actors, both connected to Abraham Lincoln. One brother would save the president's son, the other would assassinate him. These patterns are a little too perfect. This isn't random. This is reality organizing itself. To be able to influence reality would be the ultimate power. That's why people have been studying this technique for thousands of years. But here's the secret they don't want you to know.

Anyone can learn to change their reality at will. Even you. Dr. Joe Dispenza had a patient who couldn't walk. He was paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors said it was permanent. But then the patient started meditating. And not just regular meditation, quantum field meditation. He visualized his nerve endings connecting and rebuilding. He focused on feeling his legs working perfectly. Six months later, he walked into dispenses office, no wheelchair, no crutches.

He walked. The doctors couldn't explain it, but Dispenza could. The patient had tapped into the quantum field where all possibilities exist. And this isn't wishful thinking. This is the practical application of quantum physics. When you observe something at the quantum level, you change it. That's the observer effect. A particle exists in all states at once until you observe it.

And it exists in all states at once until you observe it, and it exists in only one state. Your consciousness can tap into the quantum field. At this moment, infinite realities are laid out before you. Every nanosecond, infinite decisions are being made that cause the infinite possibilities to collapse into this one reality. But you can learn to influence the outcome of all those decisions. You can alter your small corner of reality. Setting clear intentions is the first step. You can't be vague. Like wishing for more money.

You have to be specific, detailed. You have to say, I receive a $10,000 bonus on March 15th. The universe needs precise instructions. But thinking isn't enough. You need emotion, gratitude specifically. Feel grateful for what you're manifesting as if it already happened. Concentrate on that feeling of believing it already happened. Your brain doesn't know the difference between a real experience and a vivid imagination.

That's why athletes visualize perfect performance. Their muscles respond as if they actually practiced. Donald Hoffman spent 30 years studying consciousness. He believes what we perceive as reality is nothing more than a user interface, like computer icons on a desktop. Behind every icon, behind every pixel, is complex code. What we see isn't really here. Space, time, objects.

They're all icons, all pixels. Consciousness is the only thing that's real. Now, if Hoffman is right, and reality is just an interface, you can hack it. And people do it every day without realizing it. Think about someone and they call. Need a parking spot? One opens up.

Worry about something and it happens. That last one's important. Reality doesn't judge good or bad. It just responds. So be careful what you focus on. You'll know when you're connecting with the universal field. You'll see signs. Some people always notice clocks when they read 1111.

Other people have number patterns they see everywhere. In dates, addresses, then numbers of cars. Look around. License plates contain messages. So do song lyrics. Reality is constantly communicating with you. You just have to learn the language. Some people see results immediately.

Others take months. The difference is doubt. Every doubt is a new instruction to the universe to not honor your original request. If you can conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it. We all know the stories about the highly successful CEO who visualizes his entire day each morning. Every meeting, every decision, every outcome. He's not psychic, he's programming reality.

You've heard of vision boards? If you don't have one, create one right now. Put a cork board somewhere where you can see it every day. And on that board, pin pictures of everything you want. A dream house, a car, a boat, a travel destination. Even handwritten notes to yourself about landing the perfect job or finding your soulmate. Study that board every day. You'll be surprised at what happens.

You might not buy that yacht tomorrow, but by setting clear intentions, those trillions of micro-decisions will guide you to your goal. Now, these aren't miracles. This is technology. Ancient technology that we forgot how to use. But a part of you remembers how to communicate with reality. Because reality is us. All of us.

We're all connected. Our shared consciousness is always listening. It wants your dreams to come true. All you have to do is ask. Craving a thrill that doesn't require a plane ticket or a passport, Audible has your next adventure ready whenever you are. Whether you're into spine-tingling horror, sweeping fantasy romance, or high-stakes suspense, Audible brings it all straight to your ears. One minute you're tangled in the dark romance of Onyx Storm, the next you're gripping the edge of your seat with Never Flinch by Stephen King. And if you haven't checked out Mad Love, an Audible original, it's like a psychological

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New members can try Audible now free for 30 days and dive into a world of new thrills. Visit audible.com slash y-files or text y-files to 500 500. That's audible.com slash y-files y files to 500 500. That's audible.com slash y files or text y files to 500 500. Synchronicities are real. We've got the photos of the two Laura Buxtons. Young's beetle tapped on that window. Anthony Hopkins found that exact book. These things happened.

So is the universe really responding to our thoughts? Well, here's where it gets tricky. Critics point out that our brains evolved to see patterns in randomness. This is called pareidolia. Rustling in the bushes. Could be wind. Or it could be a predator. The ones who assumed predator live longer.

So we're wired to see connections even when they're not there. Now the skeptics have a point. Millions of twins get separated at birth. Some are bound to have weird similarities. We only hear about the impossible ones. This is called survivorship bias. Cherry picking facts to support a hypothesis while ignoring everything else. Take the Laura Buxton balloon. Release enough balloons over enough years. The odds are you'll eventually create an impossible story.

The odds are extremely low, I'll admit, but they're not zero. Critics also say the CEO who visualizes his perfect day, that's not tapping into some universal field. That's just preparation and confidence. But the skeptics can't explain everything. The Global Consciousness Project is real. Random number generators do show patterns during major world events. September 11th, tsunamis, elections. Princeton's Pear Lab ran for 28 years. Millions of trials. Now the effects were tiny, but they were real. Consciousness affected those machines.

The observer effect is proven physics. When you observe a quantum system, you change it. Some physicists think consciousness might be fundamental to reality. Others think consciousness is reality. No, you can't manifest a yacht. But mind and matter are more connected than we thought. So you can put yourself on a path where you're making decisions that lead to that yacht. But you have to keep visualizing.

Just like Tesla visualized his inventions, it's all about seeing it and thinking about it and focusing on the problem and the solution. Have you ever gone to sleep with a problem in your mind and woke up with the answer? I have. In the early 19th century, scientists were baffled by benzene, a compound made of carbon and hydrogen that's extremely strong and stable. Chemists tried to replicate it, but they didn't know how to arrange the molecules.

Friedrich Kekulé discovered the structure of benzene in his sleep. He had a dream of a snake eating its tail, a ring. That was the breakthrough. Benzene is so strong and so stable because it's built like a hexagonal ring. This discovery was a huge leap forward in chemistry. It changed and created entire industries. Dmitri Mendeleev saw the periodic table in a dream. Now these aren't manifestations,

but they're not random either. That's why every ancient culture has similar techniques, prayer, meditation. It's all about visualizing the outcome. Now the military spent millions on remote viewing and it worked, sometimes, but it worked enough that it was better than chance. Better than nothing. So where does that leave us? Synchronicities happen more

than statistics predict. Consciousness can influence physical systems in small ways. Princeton proved it. I tend to believe Carl Jung that we're all part of a vast neural network. Each of us is one of billions of nodes of the same consciousness. Now, most of the time, we're out of sync. Events are chaotic. The signals are random. But sometimes the signals align. Someone thinks of you.

You think of them. The phone rings. Now, I don't know if consciousness creates reality or reality creates consciousness, but I know it's listening. Now, I'm not here to convince you of that. I'm not asking you to believe in universal collective consciousness. I'm just asking you to be open to it. How?

Simple. Be positive, be kind, be confident and be grateful. If you make these small adjustments and I'm wrong, your life will still be happier. But if I'm right and these adjustments allow you to bend reality to your will and control your own destiny, you'll end up asking yourself one simple question. What took me so long? Thanks for watching or listening to the Y-Files Stripped where I try to get right to the point, right to the story, then right to the truth. But if you want me to expand this into a bigger, longer episode with what's his name, just

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["Dreams of a New World"] you you you