One of the first synchronicities we posted on this blog, on February 4, 2009, concerned travel, books, and writers. Back then, we were casting around for patterns that manifest themselves through synchronicity, drawing heavily on our own experiences, and we knew this story was a good one. We’re reposting it for several reasons.
In the labels for the 500 plus synchronicities on this blog, travel is one of the largest categories. And we have gotten some terrific stories. Butternut Squash’s Nepal story immediately leaps to mind. Others that are equally powerful:
Bangkok Odds
Chicago Breakfast Bum
Doppelgangers
A Trucker’s Tale
On the Road with Gypsy
Each of these is quite different in content and texture and runs the gamut from the mundane (like finding a particular restaurant when you’re starving!) to the genuinely esoteric. But each addresses the mysterious nature of the time/space reality that we inhabit.
When we travel, we’re outside of our normal routines and habits. We tend to be more open, receptive. Events manifest more quickly. The law of attraction is in full force. Synchronicity becomes the universal language of our journey.
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from Rob:
In 1988, we traveled to Venezuela, where Trish was born and raised, and visited the Gran Sabana, one of the most fascinating wilderness regions of the planet. I remember carrying a big clunky Radio Shack laptop computer into the jungle, and finding time to work on the re-write of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the novel adapted from the script. Our adventure among the soaring buttes, waterfalls and forest went by too quickly and we soon found ourselves back in Caracas.
At the airport, we headed to customs, where we were surrounded by guards with machine guns. Colombian drug dealers had begun using Caracas to export cocaine and the government was cracking down. The air conditioning wasn’t working right and the air in that area felt tense, tight, it was difficult to breathe. The guards were particularly interested in the man in front of us. He was a tall, middle-aged Venezuelan, who wore a dark, three-piece suit and carried a briefcase. They told him to open it up. Slowly, the man unlatched the briefcase and the guards leaned forward to see what was inside. You could almost hear the collective intake of breath.
We were right behind the man and had a good view. Surprisingly, there was only one item in the briefcase, something I found quite astonishing. It was a paperback copy of one of Trish’s novels, FEVERED. Of course, the man had no idea that the author was standing right behind him…and we didn’t tell him, either. And even if we had told him, why would he believe it? Trish didn’t have any ID that proved she was Alison Drake. It was just a pseudonym she used.
And think about that word, FEVERED. It perfectly described the atmosphere in the customs area – the guys with machine guns, the lack of fresh air, the tenseness, the poor man with the briefcase…Law of attraction?
It remains one of the strangest travel synchros we’ve experienced.
We’re thinking that our next synchronicity book is On the Road With Synchronicity. We welcome your travel stories!
Ray, Gypsy, Vicki: thanks! It's good to know people enjoy reading the books as much as I enjoy writing them.
I totally agree with you Ray and Gypsywoman. When I start one of Trish's books I'm gone.
ditto on ray's comment, lady! gee, i can't put them down when i pick one up –
Ray – may all writers have readers like you!
– Trish
I read FEVERED when it came out. The Tango Key books were a series I wish had continued. I don't recall what the book was about. I know I liked it. I haven't found a book Trish wrote I didn't like.
Ray
LOVE this story!!! LOVE IT!
and love ON THE ROAD WITH SYNCHRO'S for new book – were i not so exhausted i would comment more – left you a little tidbit from my trip home at another post comment while ago – but for the life of me am so tired can't remember where/which post now – about a car tag – anyway, sorry to be so out of "synch" so to speak –
more later –
WOW again, as always your posts lead me down memory lane and the the stories or experiences I myself have had.
Keep em coming 🙂
Keep us posted, Raksha! It does seem that synchros happen more frequently when we focus on them.
That's an incredible story!
It will be interesting to see what (if anything) happens in the next 24 hours. Somehow, I had the feeling that if I posted a comment on this blog, something synchronistic would happen. I guess it's because that has been my past experience; i.e. the more I focus on synchronicity, the more frequent it seems to become.
That's amazing! Really.
Aleksandar – this sounds like a book I need to find! Butternut – love that, little journeys within bigger journeys. Too bad there isn't a little virtual cafe somewhere that serves good coffee. Then we could all sit around and talk!
Butternut Squash – I agree.
It's all a journey isn't it? There are little journey's within bigger journeys. The synchros are like somebody knockin you on the noggin and saying, "Hey, pay attention here!" And of course we do pay attention, if only to say, "Man, that was wierd!"
I really enjoyed reading all the different surprising stories. It makes me feel at home.
That estate is gorgeous! Maybe you did live there in a past life. There is a ghost at the Biltmore – so I was told by a guy who worked there. It manifests first with a scent of tobacco smoke.
I remember visting the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC and at one point of the tour my wife and I were standing on the rear veranda enjoying the view of the surrounding countryside and I was struck with such a feeling of familiarity, a sense of "ownership". I've never experienced anything like it and often wonder whether a Vanderbilt spirit manifested within me, a "walk-in", or had I lived there in a past life?
No, it's not translated, but it mentions my name and my mother's name (the spookiest synchronicity in my life out of many spooky – at least the book itself claims that coincidences don't exist). Who knows, it might have a new life or something. Here is the summary (translated by Google and slightly improved by me):
During the bombing of Serbia, at the end of last century, a quite ordinary priest comes into possession of unusual manuscripts. These manuscripts will to him and all those who will try to get them to reach them change lives from the bottom. Entering the Constantinople road the reader will with laughter and tears experience an exciting journey through time and space. A journey that leads to the limits of the so-called objective reality. And over them. Through interweaving of banal and sublime, current and eternal, someone will through new light see everything that happens to us, someone will ask questions which are thought to have been forgotten, but all will while traveling Constantinople road know that nobody's life is just what we think it is.
Aleksandar, is there an english translation of this book? Vicki – sounds like past life to me, especially the remark about the cold!
Mike – maybe it is the heightened expectancy.
Hadn't read this before – that's some story!
Travel is the place for coincidences and synchronicity. Could be the heightened expectancy – it somehow produces a clarity of mind.
I got chills from that story.
My husband and I had an amazing thing happen on our honeymoon 25 years ago this July, when we were traveling in Italy.
It is a long story but I will get to the point.
Every where and I literally mean everywhere we went people thought I was a native Italian (I am not in fact part of my family came over on the Mayflower, But, my husband is 100% Italian and first generation American).
We would go to a restaurant and the others in our tour would be seated in the general area and then several times the owner or manager would see me and say "oh no not you two you follow me" and we would, and we would be seated with the locals, we had the best food!
We would walk into stores and they would all start talking to me and I would explain I didn't speak Italian and they would say "that's ok" and we would get great bargains!
But, in Venice, a place I have always been drawn to, I felt like I was home. In fact I couldn't get lost. We even tried just wandering and then put our map away and every time I would get us back to our hotel.
Things like this have happened before but not so dramatically.
I remember being in a castle in Ireland and as we walked up some stone stairs I touched the stone wall and said "I forgot how cold it could get." I hadn't realized what I said until my husband pointed it out to me.
I don't know if these are synchronicities, I think they are definitely past life memories, but I thought you might find them interesting.
"There is no coincidence. One only has to get known with the network. To find coordinates." Nenad Ilic, Carigradski drum (Road to Constantinople), page 16, translated from Serbian (probably available only in Serbian) by me
This novel is about traveling, coincidences, time/space and stuff. It even ends with something that looks like a prophecy. I've tried to reach its author, but I couldn't have.
OOOH! That is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. 🙂