I have a friend who repeatedly experiences ‘like attracts like’ in a very odd way. He used to be a neighbor, a single guy who lived in the same development years ago. We’ve kept in touch and get frequent updates on his life since he and I go on lengthy early morning bike rides a couple of times a month, followed by breakfast. We have the biking in common, and he’s a nice enough guy.
However, he’s quite skeptical about the paranormal and always thinks there must be some trick involved. He believes most of it is razzle-dazzle and doesn’t really comprehend how much of a role these matters play in my world and Trish’s as well. He thinks it’s just a way that we’ve managed to make a living, a niche in publishing.
So, with that in mind, it’s very interesting to hear about his relationships with women over the years who inevitably are involved in New Age-related matters. His girlfriends have included a psychic, a UFO contactee, a witch, and most recently an acupuncturist – though I’m not sure the latest will develop into a romantic relationship.
Whenever he told us about one of these relationships, we were usually quite interested in meeting his new friend. But soon we started seeing a certain pattern. He was unconsciously drawn to women who re-enforced his beliefs about ‘New Age types.’
The witch was probably the best of them. We liked her, but noticed that she was quite confrontational about her beliefs with people who had misguided ideas about Wiccans. There’s nothing wrong with that. But she tended to get into conflicts with authority figures, such as bosses, and inevitably she became a ‘victim’ of their ill-informed ways.
The UFO contactee was someone we met once and never cared to see again. She felt she was the selected messenger the aliens had chosen. She was bombastic and sounded utterly ridiculous. If she wasn’t crazy, then the aliens were.
Then there was the psychic. She topped them all. We had heard about her for awhile, but never met her until one evening when we had a party involving several friends who were involved in metaphysical areas. One is a well known past life therapist and author, another is a Hollywood script writer, who is also a talented psychic, an astrologer who is married to a former military remote viewer and author, and a couple of others.
We all got along quite well, but then my friend arrived with the mystery psychic. She sat at one end of the table and every time she spoke, it was the same sort of material that we had heard from our friend’s previous paramours. She had inside information on aliens invading earth and she was the one with the answers. It wasn’t long before everyone else moved away from the table. I got stuck talking to her for quite awhile, and realized that my biking buddy had hit a new low. This one was truly certifiable, and in fact within two weeks she was committed and the relationship ended.
I don’t know much about the acupuncturist, except she lives in Palm Beach and says she’s close to Donald Trump and provides acupuncture at Mar-del-Lago, Trump’s ritzy Palm Beach resort. I really don’t want to meet her.
My friend wants to believe. Yet, repeatedly, he has entered relationships which confirm his doubts. As I said, like attract like. But in an unusual way.
So, you might wonder, why is he my friend? Probably because he’s not judgmental. He accepts people for what they are. After all, if he were overly critical, he would never have entered such unusual relationships in the first place. I get along with him. We don’t talk about aliens or the paranormal…or his old girlfriends. We just talk about guy stuff. Enough said.
Oh, yeah, and his name is Rob.
I guess the other Rob attracts what he needs to confirm his opinions. You will, perhaps, have an important part to play one day – when he does finally twig a truth or two.
What a funny story, and what a truth is in there as well! It does almost sound like your friend is often personally encountering the “paranormal” ………good point that maybe he’s drawn to these strange women because he either unconsciously needs to disprove the whole scary subject, or perhaps, alternatively, he really does seek more “intimacy” with spiritual matters, but also seems to need to “help” people who are mentally ill?
I really enjoy Mathaddict’s wise posts, but I have to disagree this time……..from many summers teaching at the Brushwood Center in NY, I’ve come to know the Frosts (now in the 80’s), and they’re lovely, kind people. They don’t dance naked in the woods there, but actually have taught ballroom dancing at the Starwood festival (ever seen a bunch of pagans trying to do the samba around a bonfire? Pretty funny!)…..they are well aware of the controversy they’ve stirred up in their lifetime, and consider it important to have been iconoclasts. I don’t agree with some of their stuff, but consider it was written 30 or 40 years ago, and they’ve been brave people, offering to take the role of trickster/devil in the face of religious intolerance.
I also don’t think there is any one “true religion”, not in Christianity, nor in Wicca. Religions evolve through time and culture, and individuals find what works for them. Starhawk (“The Spiral Dance”) and her group evolved from Wicca, as did Z Budapest, the Covenant of the Goddess, the Earthspirit Community, etc………….all very different, and yet sharing commonalities, all contributing to changing our worldview.
Sorry to go on so! Blessed be.
Sometimes it’s just nice to have someone that is non-judgemental and talks about guy/girl stuff. It’s actually a good combination. Just trying to find someone non-judgemental is often difficult.
This is an informative post on several levels, Rob. The only comment I want to make is this: there is the traditional Wicca religion, which is The Old Religion, being the oldest religion known to humanity, and it is the true path of genuine Wiccans, requiring several years of study and initiations within the Chirch itself….not through books, etc. Then there is the “New Age” Wicca, a prostitution of Wicca that has been created by people such as Frost and Gardiner, etc. Traditional Wiccans do not become confrontational or argumentative about our convictions, and only seldom discuss the tenets of our religion unless a person is genuinely interested and has a sincere desire to know and understand what we are about. Essentially, the only time most of us will even speak of our convictions is to gently explain that we are not satanists and that we do not perform blood rituals or dance naked in the woods. (Generally speaking 🙂 ) And even those few explanations are not done defensively or arrogantly. Ours is a quiet, gentle, Nature path that doesn’t lend itself to battles about religion. So I would suggest that this man’s witch friend is just a New Age Frost or Gardinerian follower who isn’t acquainted with the Old Ways. There are many such folks out there now. My thoughts on the matter of this fellow is that perhaps his soul is attempting to lead him to people who might be able to open his mind, but for whatever reason, he finds only those who support his negative views of the paranormal. As you say, like attracts like. I suspect one day he may have a personal experience that he, himself, won’t be able to deny. That’s usually what happens with the most profound debunkers. Experience is truly the best teacher, yes?? His relationships have merely given strength to his denials. I wonder….methinks perhaps he doth protest too much…..
>> I suspect one day he may have a personal experience that he, himself, won’t be able to deny.
Don’t count on it. We’ve written a couple of posts here that involve the other Rob in experiences that I found truly significant, but neither one seemed to impress him as particularly unusual. One was about a bike trip in which he and his brother became lost in their search for a B&B. They were off their bikes walking up a long hill when a voice called out from the nearby woods asking if they needed help. The voice gave them precise directions to the B&B. They never saw anyone, only heard the voice. The other example was the three Roberts story we used in our first sychro book – three men named Rob or Robert staying at a house in the Florida keys and discovering a jar of jelly in the refrigerator named, oddly enough, Robert is Here.
If you’re not attuned to such matters, they happen and pass by without a thought. Or, at least without a thought that they might have some deeper meaning, a hint of a larger picture.