Many years ago, when Asher was still having to rely on speaking in words (his ‘second language’) to communicate with me, he told me that he believed synchronicity worked differently for people like himself with autistic spectrum perception to the rest of the population.

I was intrigued and asked him to explain, but he did what he usually did when he couldn’t find adequate language to express his thoughts — became frustrated, angry and silent.

Now that we’ve mastered communicating in his first language — telepathy — he finds it far easier, so recently I asked again whether he could explain what he knew about synchronicity that I didn’t.

There turned out to be quite a lot…

Asher: It’s how we consciously form events as we are creating our lives. It’s like a signal to our bodily senses that things are going right: a sign of the impression we are making on the world. If we see a synchronicity, we know we must be on purpose. If everyone knew that and could recognise it, their lives would be so much easier to create.

Asher: Yes. Exactly that. Once you realise that you are creating your life that way, looking for the right thing to create is a big choice. It can be scary, so the synchronicities are like way-markers. When they pop up we can relax a bit and know what to do. That doesn’t mean life is predetermined, though, because there will be an infinite range of ways to get through the paths and to expand our experience.

Jes: Yes, that’s clear. I recall you once saying you suspected synchronicity was different/stronger for you than for neurotypical people like me.

Asher: I think the only difference was that I knew their purpose, so I could use them constructively.

Jes: ‘Use’ as in be on the lookout for them or ‘use’ as in actually making them appear in order to influence events?

Asher: Both, but often the latter. Cause and effect are interchangeable, you see.

Yes, he does freak me out sometimes!

With some apprehension, I asked if he could give me an example.

Asher: Well let’s say I’d wanted a person to act in a certain way. If I placed something similar where they would be very likely to see it, that could nudge them into behaving the way I wanted them to.

Now I could see why that word ‘manipulative’ came up in connection with Ash so many times when he was a little kid. As a child, he’d always had an uncanny knack of getting his own way. I asked whether he’d ever used that ‘skill’ to affect my choices.

He had.

Quite often.

Ah well, the concept of how and why synchronicities work — putting scheming, Machiavellian kids aside — is interesting, don’t you think?