A few months ago (2003) I was at work. My mind was on my work when  'thought words' occurred into my mind: Arthur C. Compton. The name: "Arthur C. Compton" spontaneously emerged into my thought, for no reason. Immediately I stopped what I was doing then entered the name into the Search window. 

 I did a search on the Internet for 'Arthur C. Compton' and got  a link to a  web document!  It was a letter  written in 1942. The document was labeled  "Letter: Arthur C. Compton to Enrico Fermi, September 14, 1942." The document was a copy of  a letter to Enrico Fermi  letter  from 'Arthur C. Compton'. I read the letter through.

Then I realized the name Arthur C. Compton was  incorrect.

It occurred to me at that point that the correct name of the man in my newspaper article was 'Arthur H. Compton', not 'Arthur C. Compton.

Quite clearly I remembered only now that it was not Arthur C. Compton I'd read about in  a newspaper story . I realized it was Arthur H. (Holly) Compton.  Yet the name, Arthur C. Compton had occurred into my thought, a thought that had a lot of authority over my body  because  I'd stopped what I was doing without hesitation and  typed the 'thought name' automatically. 

It seemed  very strange that  with wrong information I had gotten a  response.

 I re-read the copy of the letter and saw an error had been made in the signature.  Enrico Fermi had received it  from  Arthur C(ompton) and whoever labeled the letter had  made a mistake.

But how could that mistake  explain the spontaneous words and  immediate response in actions in my life, in 2003? 

What caused the name to appear suddenly into my thought? 

What caused me to immediately type the words into an Internet search window?

That night I went to the post office to get some stamps. The clerk says: "We have some very nice new Enrico Fermi Stamps, would you like to try them?

I bought several Fermi stamps.

Later that evening I read an article in the newspaper that briefly mentioned  Enrico Fermi.

 How would a post-office clerk 'know' to suggest that particular stamp from a drawer that was full of other stamps? She asked if I wanted to try some new stamps and mentioned Enrico Fermi for no reason?

 The  meaning of this event carries some significant information, but what is it? If it was not to illustrate that all of my mental 'eruptions' are not my own, what other reason could there be? The fact that as soon as the name occurred into my thought and I acted without hesitation is what I puzzled about, later. Then I remembered a few other instances when a thought had occurred spontaneously into my mind and  without hesitation I'd done something. Or were those events retrieved and displayed on their string, not by my own will? Did I 'think' or was I the recipient of a string of memories that were significant?

The link to the letter: www.osti.gov/accomplishments/pdf/DE99003405/DE99003405.pdf .

Some context  may be helpful:

What made his name familiar to me was that I had found the article about his work when  I looked for the  news of stories that had happened on my birth date (1-2-1932).  

The news of the day I was born was interesting to me because  I'd wanted to verify that a printout of the news of the day, month and year I was born was correct. On May 18, 1989  I'd been in Chicago and I'd spent a very strange day at the Museum of Science and Industry. What caught my eye on the printout was that  discoveries related to quantum physics as well as the discovery of the function of neurons in the brain were awarded Nobel Prizes that year. I had read several books by then,  Paul Davies Other Worlds; David Bohm's Wholeness and the Implicate Order to name a couple of the first ones I'd read. What unusual books to find myself almost forced by a new compulsion to read!

There was nothing on the day I was born (1-2-1932) so I started to leave when a thought occurred that the news is always a day late. So I asked for the microfiche of 1-3-1932. There it was, a long front page article: "Clew found to human destiny. Flaw found in material formula." 

That seemed to have some significance to me because by then I'd read several books authored by current authors, Paul Davies, David Bohm, Eugene Mallove and Joseph Chilton Pearce's The Bond of Power seemed especially compelling to someone like me. It was a radical change of reading material for me. I read fictions, rarely anything but fictions.

A couple of quotations by Arthur Holly Compton:  "Every great discovery I ever made, I gambled that the truth was there, and then I acted in faith until I could prove its existence."

"It is not difficult for me to have this faith, for it is incontrovertible that where there is a plan there is intelligence - an orderly, unfolding universe testifies to the truth of the most majestic statement ever uttered - 'In the beginning, God.' "