Mystic Places

Who is that woman?

This tale of synchronicity comes from Dale Dassel of Georgia who is a long-time BIG, BIG fan of all things related to Indiana Jones – the movies, the books, the gear, the computer games, all of it. I’m not going to tell how many times he has read my Indiana Jones novels since his early teens because you would not believe me.

For the past two and a half years, Dale has been writing an Indiana Jones saga himself based on the computer game, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.  In doing so, Dale imagined actress Julianne Moore portraying the leading lady, Sophia Hapgood. He even enlisted another big, big Indy fan, Danish artist Christian Guldager, to create a cover for his novel, and on that cover is a recognizable image of Julianne Moore as Sophia. While Dale can never sell this novel, he can post it on fan sites. He plans to finish it by June, the 20th anniversary of the release of the game.

So, with all that in mind, here is the synchronicity that he encountered.

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Today I remembered a recent synchro that I’d forgotten to tell you about. Last month I was browsing Amazon.com for books about Atlantis when my search results brought up Mystic Places, the first volume in the Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown series published in the late 80’s.

I remember the TV commercials for the series as a kid, and how badly I wanted to order the set (my parents refused at the time). So I ordered a mint-condition copy at a reasonable price and then surfed over to Youtube to see if the vintage commercial was available. Naturally it was, but I was delighted when I watched it for the first time since 1988 because it opens with a very familiar redhead: a 20-something Julianne Moore, my very own Sophia Hapgood!

I watched the TV spot several times, and it synched up with my childhood memory quite well, since I did recall the pretty redhead. Of course I had no idea who she was back then because Julianne wasn’t famous and I’d never seen her in any films until The Fugitive in 1993.

Here’s where the synchro gets really interesting. A couple of weeks after receiving the book from Amazon, I happened to pull out my Fate of Atlantis  game manual to re-read and examine pictures of the stone disks & symbol alignments. At the very end of the booklet is a small bibliography list of books recommended for further reading.

Mystic Places was right in the midst of it! A few days after that, I was re-reading the Wikipedia article about the game, where I was astonished to find that Mystic Places was the very book which inspired Hal Barwood on the subject of Indy’s Atlantean quest. Indeed, the very first chapter in the book covers the subject of Atlantis. But the Julianne Moore connection to the Time-Life commercial for the book is what gets me.

The universe never ceases to amaze me.

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Dale was tuning in when he imagined Julianne Moore for the role and also when he ordered the book that he discovered inspired the game. It all came together. What you focus on with intent and desire is what you get.