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Although I am generally a skeptic, I still have interests in the occasional unexplained phenomenon. One such phenomenon is what Carl Jung termed synchronicity. He believed that the collective consciousness of people works together to create coincidences.

Anyhow, today I came across another example of something that is slightly uncomfortable to put down to mere coincidence... especially as there's nothing closer to a collective consciousness than Wikipedia.

I was browsing around on Wikipedia as you do. I started with the Berlin S-Bahn (since we are travelling there soon and I wanted to learn a bit about public transport there). Wikipedia told me that the S-Bahn was similar to Britain's Merseyrail system so I clicked through there. From there I got to Merseyside (a county that has always confused me) and I read a bit about its connection with administrative counties and ceremonial counties.

Then I thought "what actually is a ceremonial county?" Wikipedia tells me it's an area delegated by the Queen to a representative known as a Lord Lieutenant. This is the first time I'd heard this term so I had a look into that. Greater Manchester has a Lord Lieutenant, it seems, so I clicked through to the article on Greater Manchester's Lord Lieutenant and what do I find? Today the Queen appointed a new Lord Lieutenant for Greater Manchester - the first new one in nineteen years!

Could something I saw in the MEN today have guided my actions towards that page? It's possible, although I searched the MEN web site and couldn't find an article on it (which, to be honest, shows how shoddy that paper is!) - but even if it was that, doesn't it show how powerful the human brain can be?

Of course, it could just be another meaningless coincidence and there is no way I will ever know.

Tagged as: manchester news synchronicity county wikipedia
I'm feeling quite quite tired

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