Our Inner GPS

Dr. Bernard Beitman, a psychiatrist and visiting prof at the University of Virginia, is in the process of creating a new field of research called ‘Coincidence Studies.’

One of the interesting aspects I’ve found about his research is that he suggests that we all have an inborn global positioning systems (GPS) that allows us to find lost items, and also things that we might be thinking about, but not actively seeking. Dr B hypothesizes that something in us gives us the ability to locate useful things. He also notes that understanding this ability could even help people find direction in life.

In an article about his research in theepochtimes.com, he offered the example of a student who was looking for a cultural anthropology research assistant position. The student found the search a tough one. One day, while he was running in a marathon, his mother, who was at the event, struck up a conversation with another bystander. As it turns out, that person was looking for a cultural anthropology research assistant and ended up hiring her son.

Voila! Like attracts like…with mother played the role of intermediary. “I think the mother GPSed her way to this person,” Dr. B said.

That story reminded me of something that occurred within minutes of downloading the article from The Epoch Times.  I clicked another website that I’d found in email that led me to a book Trish and I had written years ago. It had been so long ago that I barely remembered The Complete Dream Dictionary. It was being offered as a free download…probably illegally.

I turned around in my chair, stared at the bookcase behind me and my gaze instantly fell on that very book. Oddly, I hadn’t noticed it there or thought about it for years. So I picked it off the shelf, thinking that this might be another out-of-print book that we could send to Crossroads, the publisher that has already re-published more than a dozen of our out-of-print titles in the last year and a half.

I opened the book at random to page 138 in the dictionary section, and my eyes fell on the word…crossroads. The definition read: If you have arrived at a crossroads in your dream, this indicates the need to make a choice. If you are hesitant to take either path, this suggests indecision in some matter. In that case, this is a clear indication that making a choice and moving forward is better than standing still without progress.

That essentially describes what Trish and I have done with Crossroads as the publishing industry has undergone major shakeups with the emergence of e-books and the collapse of many bookstores and bookstore chains. We’ve moved forward by moving our books into the e-book format outside of the floundering New York publishing industry.

Coming across that book and opening it to crossroads just confirmed for us that we’d made the right decision. So after reading about my inner GPS, I then seemingly put it to use.