CNN’s web site includes a series of articles called The Other Side. The series is introduced this way: Some stories blur the lines between science, spirituality and the supernatural. These are stories from “The Other Side.“
The latest in the series is about synchronicity and starts out with an incredible example.
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Royce Burton was teaching history at a New Jersey university when he decided to tell his class about a frightening experience he had as a young man.
He was a Texas Ranger, patrolling the Rio Grande in 1940, when he got lost in a canyon after dark. He tried to climb out but lost his balance just as he neared the top of a cliff. Suddenly Joe, a fellow Ranger, appeared and hoisted him up to safety with his rifle strap. Burton thanked Joe for saving his life but lost contact with him after both men enlisted in the military during World War II.
Burton was in the middle of sharing his story when an elderly man appeared in the doorway. It was Joe, the fellow Ranger. He had tracked Burton down 25 years later and walked into his classroom at precisely the moment Burton was recounting his rescue.
“I’ll have Joe finish the rest of the story,” Burton said, without missing a beat as the astonished classroom witnessed the two men’s reunion.
You could call Burton’s story an amazing coincidence, but James Hollis calls it something else: “synchronicity” — a meaningful coincidence.
“Everybody has stories like that,” says Hollis, a Jungian analyst and author who knew Burton and shares his story in the book Hauntings: Dispelling the Ghosts Who Run Our Lives. “We live in a haunted world where invisible energies are constantly at work.”
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Reading that story reminded me of another one that we’ve written about and referred to as the Plum Pudding story. It’s a classic in the genre of synchros. As I continued reading the article, what did I come across but the Plum Pudding story. Here it is:
In 1805, Deschamps, a French poet, was treated to plum pudding by Monsieur de Fortgibu, a stranger he met in a restaurant. A decade later, Deschamps goes to a Paris restaurant and orders plum pudding again. The waiter tells him the last dish has been served to someone else — a Monsieur de Fortgibu.
The story gets odder. In 1832, Deschamps goes to a diner where someone offers him plum pudding. He jokingly tells his friends that the only thing missing is de Fortgibu — and de Fortgibu, now an elderly man and lost, promptly wobbles into the diner.
jersey guy tell ya about Texas Rangers… or maybe about cousin Sandy (also NJ) who used to live in a certain town in West Virginia… What town??? blah blah blah!!!
Not sure what you’re referring to!
it’s your blog Rob… referring 2…layers upon layers…
come on rob play along what town was cousin Sandy from…. who broke the foot of the person with the nephew’s dogs name… beside hand rail paddings what R they called!! no play play??
Trish here. I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about. If you’ve got a synchro, spell it out! What is it?
it’s not a story Trish, it’s a list… 9/14/09
Ok, that helps. I’ll take a look.
Wonderful! Threads of the great web…….. sometimes it really is so funny, and amazing.
Recently I started work on a Green Man bas relief sculpture. While working on it I received an email from someone who wanted to put my leather Green Man mask in front of the door to their new home – but he was concerned that it wasn’t suitable for being out doors, and wanted to know if I would ever consider making the image in clay?
Threads of the spiderwoman, of Indra’s net….all the connections. So interesting about Green Man!
On Facebook, Jenean Gilstrap reminded me of a synchro she experienced that also had to do with timing. We wrote it up several years ago:
From Jenean: i had forgotten how neat a story! https://themysticalunderground.com/?p=647