What is this, please?

[funnybusiness]

Okay, this is a little weird. Over the weekend I was on a random Wikipedia page generator and it rotated randomly to a website that included a photo of a castle. For fun, I copied the photo into an email to my companion and told him to guess where in the world the castle was located. I didn't know myself, but thought he'd enjoy trying to identify the location. He loves castles, and we often visit one or more when we visit his native Alsace in France. We narrowed it down to Germany, and found another photo online of the castle from another angle, but didn't really pay attention to finding out the name, since we were after the location, not the name. Neither photo was identified by the name of the castle.

This morning I had an ultrasound, and I engaged the sonographer in a conversation about family history. Turns out she likes to chatter almost as much as I do, and for ten or so minutes even after the test was finished, she talked about her spotty German ancestry--with me still in a hospital gown, lying on the table. Her family name is Drachenberg. She mentioned rumors of nobility and a castle, but mainly wanted to locate the village where the family originated. The name of the village had apparently changed from the name mentioned in family history records-- Uietgrob. The village had been part of Prussia, but later in history was (and probably still is) a part of Germany. But the family could not locate their village of origin, because of the name change.

Being the good librarian that I am, I offered to do some research on the name of the village. I began tonight by searching online for articles on the name "Drachenberg." Then I began searching with combinations of different search terms, eventually trying "Drachenberg Castle."

Yes, you guessed it, the first thing I saw when I did the search for "Drachenberg Castle" was the exact same photo of a castle that had been generated randomly on my laptop over the weekend, but that I had not identified by name until tonight during the search of the sonographer's family history--and with both she and I living in West Texas, of all places. I had never even heard the name "Drachenberg" until today, when I met the sonographer.

Okay, what is this? Is it just an odd coincidence that these two separate but perhaps cosmically linked experiences occured just two days apart? Is it a message or omen for me or for the sonographer?--is someone trying to tell one of us something? Is it an example of synchronicity or of Baader-Meinhof phenomenon? (I know--Baader-Meinhof is supposed to repeat over and over, and that hasn't happened yet).
Is it some kind of premonition or prophecy?

The sonographer told me a long tale of two brothers from Sweden who parted after their involvement in a war that took place in what is now Germany. One brother returned to Sweden and the other brother stayed in Prussia, and they lost contact with each other. Hundreds of years later, a woman found a ring underground in a garden in Germany, and it had a family crest. She traced the ring to the family in Sweden--the Drachenbergs--who told her of the two brothers, who wore identical rings bearing the family crest. The Swedish branch of the family never knew what happened to the second brother, until the ring was found connecting them to the German Drachenbergs. Some of the Swedish Drachenbergs have even gathered in Texas with some of the Drachenbergs in Texas to share the story of the two brothers that links the Swedish and German Drachenbergs.

Why did this story come to me, today? What am I to make of the coincidence of seeing the castle randomly online but not even knowing it by name just a few days before hearing the story of the family for which the castle is named? Is this the beginning of a quest, for either me or the sonographer? Is something being revealed that wants to be revealed, or that someone from the past wants to be revealed? And if so, what is my role in this, if any? I am not at all psychic, so that's not it--and besides, I didn't do anything. This all just came to me.

Thank you for any insights you might have about this odd but in no way earth-shattering occurrence in my daily experience. I am very curious to know if this kind of thing has a name of any kind, so I can read and learn more about it.

 

[mkrnhr]

Hello funnybusiness,
These synchronicity events do happen indeed from time to time. They are mostly a manifestation of how things are connected on some other levels of reality. Most people do not pay attention to them, and when they do so, it triggers either denial or fascination.
From our level of reality it is difficult to understand how these connections occur and how they breakthrough into our reality. It is a fun phenomena to observe though. Because things are as complicated as here, or even more (as below as above) we cannot certainly know if these connections do lead us to some important issues, or if they distract us from some important issues. And sometimes the information that they seem to convey is not as important as the occurrence itself, maybe a wake-up call to acknowledge some reality that is beyond what we think/believe we know, like a herald who calls the hero into the adventure :)

You might consider reading the Wave series http://cassiopaea.org/category/volumes/the-wave/
and perhaps High Strangeness http://www.qfgpublishing.com/product_info.php?products_id=79&osCsid=7dbd8572936b70c9ce93f383f4ebeeaf for a more in depth discussion about these phenomena.

 

[loreta]

Your story is very interesting! There is a very little beautiful book by Phil Cousineau, "Soul Moments, Marvelous Stories of Synchronicity--Meaningful Coincidences from a Seemingly Random World" where people talk about these kind of stories that happened in their lives. Nothing compared with Laura's books, that for me are vital and extremely important to read. But the book of Cousineau, when I read it few years ago, gave me a taste about what is synchronicity.

Thanks to share this story!

 

[Gonzo]

Synchronicity certainly is a fascinating thing. It boggles the mind to think how interconnected we are and to consider the possibility that minor things we do are necessary so that other things can occur, sometimes involving people we've never met, like the butterfly effect.

Perhaps something you said will somehow trigger the sonographer to do something that will have an effect on someone else, as part of a chain reaction that could involve all sorts of people.

Also, perhaps you meeting the sonographer and the ensuing coincidence was designed to have you join the forum. Talk about synchronicity.

Gonzo

 

[kalibex]

Yesterday evening, was reading a sott article about COINTELPRO; this morning I get a notification that I've been added to the Google+ circle of one of the Paradigm Research Group members. For no 'obvious' reason, given that I haven't even been posting at Google+ for months, never mind ever posted anything there (that I recall) regarding the esoteric. Though it's possible that my Google name was recognized by this person from a decade back when I did post on a couple of esoteric sites regularly, for about a year, or this person could also be a member here.

Still, given that it's an Exopolitics group that seems to be focusing on pushing for Disclosure, the timing kinda makes me wonder. In a "Did I read that article because this notification was coming, or did I get this notification due to having read that article?" kind of way.

 

[Therpo]

Some interesting reading on synchronisity: Myths to live by, Author: James Campbell