Today, we took some time off and flew across the state with our friends, Lynn and Bruce Gernon, Rob’s co-author on The Fog.
We flew to Immokalee, Florida in their Skylane, a four-seater 182-Cessna. It took us across the state, over the vast emptiness between the East and West coasts of Florida. It’s mostly Everglades interspersed with farms that grow tomatoes and corn and the ever so lucrative sugar cane. We’ve flown this route before, to various locations, but I’m always astonished by how wild and utterly the middle part of Florida is.
At the airport, as we waited inside the small county terminal for a ride to the casino, Lynn pulled out a small velvet pouch. “Do you know what dowsing is, Trish?”
I was frankly surprised by the question. I have read the tarot for Lynn, done astrology charts for her and her family, but didn’t realize she was into dowsing. She brought out an exquisite pendulum made by Kathy Doore, author of a book on Peru’s mysterious stone forest.
“Let’s see what the pendulum has to say about our trip to the casino.” She grinned. “Are we going to win anything?”
Okay, I thought. Here’s the day’s synchro. Rob and I had allotted ourselves twenty bucks apiece for the slot machines. The last time we were in a casino, in Aruba, we were clueless about the machines – how you placed bets, how they worked, the whole nine yards. But that night, we won and quit while we were ahead. I think we made twenty or thirty bucks, hardly high rollers.
So Lynn and I used the pendulum and the answer was a resounding yes. Now, to put it to the test.
At the check-in counter, Rob and I both received scratch tickets, free draws, because we’d never been to a casino in Florida before. Mine was for $25, his for $10. The clerk said we could use the scratch ticket on every machine except the “progressives.” Once we had placed a bet, we could cash in the value of the ticket. So Lynn led us off to the one-armed bandits.
She explained how you place bets on the various machines – bets from one cent to a quarter. Yes, we started very small. You slide your ID card into a slot, then insert your free ticket, place a bet.. I won $66 on my first try and quit the machine after I cashed out.
What stood out most about the casino was the clientele. Most of the individuals in the place were elderly. Some used canes, some were in wheelchairs, some used oxygen tanks. This part depressed me. Many of these people seemed grim, sad, their faces locked in a kind of despair. Gotta win that jackpot to pay my doctor bills. That kind of thing.
Then, at the “progressive machines,” where your bets progress upward on an incomprehensible scale, a woman shrieked with joy. She had just won $237. She was on a roll and she knew it.
“As soon as she gets up, we’ll try that machine,” Lynn said. “You want to use the machines that win.” And she proceeded to explain which machines she had used in past visits that had surrendered their riches.
That’s when I started to wonder if telekinesis is involved in lucky streaks. Do these people, through their intentions, needs, desires, beliefs, somehow merge with the consciousness of the machine to bring about a win? Is this how it works when a tipping point is reached in any endeavor? Is it how certain movies, books, art or whatever suddenly spill into mass consciousness and become bestsellers?
Here’s a photo of some of popular machines – Indiana Jones! There was actually a waiting line!
By the time we left, our winnings were at $130 and Lynn had won several hundred. Bruce, wise man that he is, sat out those hours with his iPad. I mean, this is the guy who went through the Bermuda triangle and experienced a verifiable time slippage and not much since then has measured up to that experience. For him, the iPad is preferable to the one-armed bandits.
On the way back, I kept examining those sugar cane fields 3,000 feet below us, hoping to see a crop circle (nope!) and marveling that the pendulum had been right. We had won some grocery money on the machines where you bet pennies, five cents, a quarter. No blackjack tables for us.
I also realized that casinos – no windows, no sense of the outer world – may be a lot like the state in between lives, where our expectations and beliefs dictate what we experience. In the between, we enter Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone, a vast emptiness of probability. So if we go to the casino again, my expectations will be higher – more zeros at the end of that 13. And that pendulum will be zipping around like a compass readjusting to the new magnetic north.
It is always the oldest people I have ever seen playing the slots- and growing up in Nevada I had a LOT of time to observe!!
Congrats on your wins! I once put a $5 bill into a video poker machine in Vegas and won $100 which I promptly spent on drinks. That was pretty much the only time I have ever won anything! (Not that I have played much- hee!).
I like that, Jen. A hundred bucks and you spread the cheer around!
The desperation is actually palpable through your writing. Glad you won some grocery money. 🙂
when the boy was growing up–or down the family had a standard vaction spots,, if it wasn’t south for dads parents it was west for ma’s and out west was Nevada,,, elevator races for brother and I (black jack at 16 sitting next 2 someone),, casino’s where (if possible) always a vaction destination,,,, Ever here the term Hotel Casino,,, pick the h off the hotel and put it in the midlde of the second word,, what’s it spell,,,, for me though it’s been the story of “Hotel Caly”… but for a commnet on “synchronicity “couple of days ago R+T someone liked the post card story on the airport road,, C to me that’s not a synchro… for which “by defintion” you need more then one thing to happen strangely,,,, now since the guy (Sal,, strange the next day he was contacting me on F.B.,, maybe just some hacking),, but since the guy is “always” in his skin in his own “enviroment” and he did find his dads picture,, wherever,, to me that’s just a concidence….. But if he where to of found it on his Dad’s birthday,, well then!!! course if he walked the road on any kind of a pattern,,, maybe there just some people out there with a bit of time on there hands,, they like to play around
But back to your post of today T+R,, noticed how you mention a “verifiable” slippage in the Bermuda triangle,,, curious about the particulars,,,, pilot shows few days late???
that’s growing up=or down,,,, the family…………
My hubby and his GA family occasionally go to the casino (Harrah’s) on the Cherokee reservation there. I can’t go inside because of the utter chaos; flashing lights and noises. It seriously disorients me. So, I sit on a bench outside and people-watch while they play. Everyone is right: these gambling joints, regardless of their spectacularly brilliant decor, (generally speaking), most of the players seem to be geriatric. As I’ve sat on my bench and watched, many busloads of senior citizens have pulled under the portico right at the front door and unloaded very elderly passengers, many, as you say, with canes, wheelchairs, walkers, etc. Although I don’t consider myself to be a stingy, stodgy old Capricorn, I don’t gamble. Just personal choice. Hubby, contrarily, does play poker each week at one of the two dogtracks and once in a while he’ll win a little, sufficiently for him to enjoy his card-playing. But I looked at the buses of geriatrics unloading, and wondered how many of them were spending portions of limited incomes in an empty wish to “hit the jackpot”….something that only happens rarely, because The House is the Winner. Nonetheless, am glad you two enjoyed the plane ride and the experience! Having once been licenced to pilot both single-engine and twin-engine planes, there’s nothing quite as exhilarating as looking three-thousand feet below and seeing the earth from above! Everything appears very different when viewed from such a height!
The plane ride was fun. There’s such an expanse of nothingnesss between the coasts.
nothingness,, you say farm land,,, what’s the weather situation down there,, you guys getting enough rain,, “sink holes???”,,, nothingness,,,, nothingness can sometimes be a “pretty cool hand”
There’s plenty out there – just no development. Farmland, everglades, alligators… no sinks holes. That’s farther up into central Florida. Weather ok, just dry this year. Not sure what you’re referring to in your previous comment, Whoot.
That’s great. I’ve only been to a few casinos: the one in Monte Carlo and the others in Las Vegas. I’m no gambler but like you my wife and I put a small amount of dollars aside to play with – never won though.
Loved the glamour of the casinos as an experience but it really is an In The Between world – no clocks, gamble any time of the day. I found it also sad. Especially in parts of Las Vegas where they buy jewellery and so on.
I see the Indiana Jones machines in your pic are both $1067.
Monte Carlo! You’re doing the BIG time, Mike! Casinos generally strike me as sad places.
What fun! Congrats on your winnings. I remember seeing Bruce on TV not long ago. I went to Youtube and watched it again. What an amazing story. The casino sounded more like a senior’s zombie land! I love the Indiana Jones machines. Can’t read the last number on the machine in the center…but the numbers I can read add up to an 11. Think if the lines hadn’t been so long this might have been your biggest winner? Sounds like you had a good time…glad you enjoyed your day.
A senior zombie land pretty much describes it! I didn’t even look @ the numbers, but will bring up the photo and do that now. 11? Oh, weird.
“IN THE BETWEEN” is a perfect title for a book, Trish! Congrats on the grocery money. These days, every penny counts! It takes sixty dollars to fill the tank on my Durango with regular gas. And a six-pack of beer costs less than a gallon of milk, according to my sons who oaccasionally tip a can. Never would have believed……
It’s been on my list of possible titles for years!
But there’s no inflation, right?
i was LOL at your casino story!!! i could just SEE you all there, with your cups of change! so funny you used the $20 marker as that’s the one i’ve used the few times i’ve gone to the casinos – and i think you are right about telekinesis – and intention – in the winnings – at least, in my own case i have found it to be true – that is, to win, i must be in a certain “frame of mind” – by that i mean, i “know” that i am going to win – when i get to the casino i will shut my eyes and “feel” which machine is the “winning” one – and then go only to that one or ones – they must “feel” right to me – anyway, that’s what i do when i go and it always works – but i cannot “manufacture” the “frame of mind” – i must already have that knowing/winning frame of reference – i remember one time with my youngest daughter and her fiance going to one of the largest ones here [there are 6 now in this city] and heather was just going to walk up and start dropping coins – but i stopped her and said no – she could not use that machine – i saw one on another isle and said that was the one that would win – the place was packed by the way and we had to push through just to move about – got to the other machine and i looked down and saw a large token left in the return of the machine – we looked around to see if anyone was using the machine and had just stepped away or something – asked a few people – and no one claimed it – so i told heather to play it cause it was going to win – she took the token – dropped it in – pulled the lever – and out came $600 – bells rang sirens went off waitresses rushed up with trays of drinks people gathered round – just like that – easy – [she was in law school then – know how many books $600 bought?! ]
the thing is, though, that i have to be in a certain “frame of mind” [my term for whatever “it” is] – i mean, i can’t just do it – it’s all about feeling it – knowing it – like with picking race horses – enough of that – LOVED your analogy of life in between – in that vast space of probability –
several months ago i did a poem “the space between” – https://thegypsyonwordsunspoken.blogspot.com/search?q=between
now, for your manuscript! very neat post, by the way – just sorry you didn’t find any crop circles, though!!!
Love your story, friend of nica. I can just hear those bells ringing. I know what you mean about that feeling, too. Off to read your poem!