Trish and I were in my office yesterday evening talking about some good news we’d heard about Seven Secrets of Synchronicity. I looked over her shoulder at a bookshelf and focused on a novel that one of us had bought years ago, but neither of us had read. The news we were discussing was that our book would be a hard cover, that the editor was promoting it as a lead book for August, and that it was already listed on Amazon.com and the Barnes & Noble site. The name of the novel on the shelf? Coincidence.
I pulled down the novel and later read the first few pages. The author is David Ambrose, and I remembered reading another of his novels years ago and really enjoying it. That one was called The Man Who Turned into Himself. Considering the title of the book in my hand and the question that Nancy Atkinson had brought up yesterday about distinguishing coincidence from synchronicity, led me to the idea of putting up a few ‘meaningful’ paragraphs from the novel.
The protagonist is a non-fiction writer, named George Daley, who writes non-fiction books that he describes as “occupying a no-man’s-land between real science and fantastical speculation.” He has written about poltergeists, ESP of various kinds, stone circle, ley lines, pyramids. Of course, I thought, hmm, those are also the kind of books I happen to write.
George Daley, however, can’t figure out what he’s going to write about next as the story opens. He’s drinking a scotch and staring out the window at the fall colors and thinking about his father who lives in a retirement home in New England when the phone rings. It’s the retirement home calling to inform him that his father has just died. So picking up the story…
***
“I thanked her for letting me know so quickly and said I’d take a train up in the morning. She agreed that there was no point in my rushing up immediately. She herself would make arrangements with the funeral home if I wished. I said I would be grateful for that and thanked her again.
“When I hung up I didn’t move for some time, just stood there looking at my reflection in the window, watching it grow clearer moment by moment as the light outside faded. What were you supposed to feel, I asked myself, on learning of your father’s death? Was there something specific, something deep-rooted in the psyche, a special sense of loss? Or growth perhaps? And how remarkable that I should have been thinking of him at that very moment when the call came.
“Except, of course, it wasn’t remarkable at all. The association of trees, New England, the fact of having spoken to him that morning, and of feeling slightly guilty about putting off my next visit to him as long as I could explained the coincidence. But I felt no rush of remorse, no sense of unfinished business as a result of having missed that last chance to see him, no lack of ‘closure,’ as your local corner therapist would call it. I felt nothing that I hadn’t been feeling half an hour earlier. The only difference was that my father had been alive then and was dead now. A simple fact.
“But, although I didn’t consciously know it then, I had found both the subject and the title of my next book.
Coincidence.”
***
So there’s a whole web of synchronicities here, within the story and outside of it. George in denying meaningful coincidence inadvertently discovers meaningful coincidence, and that will be the subject of his next book. Meanwhile, on the outside, Nancy had mentioned that her husband, like George, had puzzled over the difference between coincidence and synchronicity. Trish had recently posted about her father’s death, and I spotted the book as we were talking about our own book on meaningful coincidences.
Synchronicities galore.
Rob
Yay!
geeeeee…i've meant to comment about the great news on your book, but didn't quite make it till now! way to go!!!
David Peat is still alive, living in Pari, Italy. Wolfgang Pauli died in room 137, but Peat stayed in room 137 at the Jung Institute during a conference. When he saw his room number, he knew he was there to talk about Pauli, not Jung.
That is excellent news about your book, btw!
Excellent post. I'm so glad you are able to publish your book in hardback. I much prefer those to paperback.
Hey wait a minute, didn't Peat die in room 137?
Since we're doing a little synchro play with words: the word yester (as in yesterday) was in origin 'gestra' which is very similar 'gesta'-the origin of jester. So if Yesterday is really 'jesterday', what does that make today (or is that touday)?
;-)(-;
This was a great post on coincidence and synchronicity. I'll pass it along to my husband, but I suspect that one has to believe in an underlying connection to be able to see synchronicity. My daughter gave my husband multiple examples, but he has a harder time seeing the sign posts. It's is almost like one of those light bulb moments when you finally "get it."
It's a hoot!! Thanx!
;-)(-;
Here's one for you, Toumai. Take a look at the word psychotherapist. Break it up: PSYCHO-THE-RAPIST.
R
Perhaps it's synchronicity that I am sick today and not off to the show.
Forgive me if I seem just a little confused on the issue, because I thought that I was making comments in regards to synchronicity?!
Yes, I did venture into the realm of trying to understand the “Language of Synchronicity” by following/researching where I felt ‘synchronicity’ was leading— in much the same way that you, Trish, went to the library to research “Nike” (as per your dream) and then formulated your own opinion as to what it meant in terms of your own personal life.
It is obvious that you give others much leeway in their posted comments, but then again, I also understand the difference – re:the difficulties posed by my comment. If you are worried that I was planning to post the Psychiatric report on your blog, let me assure you that I would never do this.
Please allow me to defend myself by at least saying this: I know that I do not live in the United States, but here in Canada we share so much of the same in regards to our democracies and culture. Canada uses the same Psychiatric Bible as the United States and we are pretty much aware of the power that this group has. I think it’s pertinent that those of us who are daring to explore synchronicity be educated as to what today’s Psychiatrists are formulating in this regard. Don’t you?!
Of course, you have the power to delete anything I say if it’s not to your liking, but I hope you don’t.
I’ve been warned.
Congrats on the hardcover designation! I'm going to pre-order it today!
great post! talk about the merry-go-round of synchronicities!
Toumai – we welcome your comments about synchronicity. But please don't use our blog for personal matters that are more appropriate for your own blog. Thanks.
If you note the wiki reference number above is 22. I consider this a little signature of sorts and encouragement to look deeper. Also the wiki excerpt above mentions the number 27– also meaningful (remember the numerous suicides of musicians at age 27– you posted a story). So there may be a connection.
So, I decided to follow through a bit further. Note these excerpts from wiki regarding G. Stanley Hall (also mentioned by wiki re 1909 meeting of Jung and Freud). It's simply horrifying:
"Hall was the first president of the American Psychological Association."
"Hall had no sympathy for the poor, the sick or those with developmental differences or disabilities. A firm believer in selective breeding and forced sterilization, Hall believed that any respect or charity toward those he viewed as physically, emotionally, or intellectually weak or "defective" simply interfered with the movement of natural selection toward the development of a super-race. Hall's social vision was a socialism of the right, a blueprint for the future German National Socialism that arose just a few years after his death."
—
very sad. Probably also what led to the earlier practice within Psychiatric Institutions of labotomizing Gay's and Lesbians.
Makes you wonder about the residual effect and how concepts like these sicken the masses and push certain sensitive members of our young to deny an intricate part of themselves and suicide.
It is so important for society to grow.
THAT, is why I will be posting the Psychiatric findings of Dr. Brunet in the near future. For those who may not be aware and in a nutshell: A Supreme Court Order was obtained to have me undergo Psychiatric Assessment (due to my highly controversial views ie: conjoined twins theory and belief/research surrounding sychronicity) and to determine if I am 'fit' to self represent myself at trial. I managed to overturn the Court Order via the Appeal Court, though only after the fact of having been made to undergo the humiliation of clinical assessment. The Appeal Court allowed me the right to insist on the only copy of Dr. Brunet's report if I so wished to request (which I did) and that I could do with as I may.
Sometimes we have to pick up the necessary challenges, be brave for the sake of our children and their future.
Good one with 9s, Toumai! Eerily reminiscent of Peat's experience with room 137!
Decided to sleuth a bit more, so the following is an excerpt from wiki on Jung:
"Jung's first trip outside of Europe was the 1909 conference at Clark University. The event was planned by psychologist G. Stanley Hall and included 27 distinguished psychiatrists, neurologists and psychologists. It represented a watershed in the acceptance of psychoanalysis in North America. For Jung especially, the experience forged welcome links with influential Americans.[22]"
reference [22]:
^ Rosenzwieg, Saul (1992). Freud, Jung and Hall the King-Maker. ISBN 0-88937-110-5.
___
that's curious- the King-Maker(?)
It seems that our minds are sensitized to observing synchronicity. I suspect that these scenarios have been purposely set in place in order to encourage us along the path to better understand the meaning behind and the language of synchronicity.
Yesterday I had begun reading the book on Jung that I had recently picked up at a second hand book store. The Author briefly mentioned that Jung met Freud for the first time in 1909 and oddly this date had seemed familiar enough for me to ponder on it. Then I realized that my hotel room # here in Ottawa is 1909. But to top it off, I just checked today's date- December-19-09. So I decided to share.