Up pops a list of journal articles all dealing with that topic. The different articles don't cause one another. They just all appear there in the list because the computer has found they all deal with the same thing. So when you focus on the word abstemious in a magazine one day, it's as if you send out a signal to the universe to do a data search over 'abstemious'. You then receive back your list in the form of a series of events in your life that involve that word or theme.
Some people experience synchronicity in the form of numbers.
One day the TV news reports a train wreck. The number of the train is 79257. A couple of days later the winning lottery number is 7925. Then you receive a letter from a forgotten childhood friend. The Zip Code is 79275.