Welcome to The Mystical Underground

In spite of polls showing overwhelming belief that we are not alone in the universe, mainstream science contends there is no evidence that intelligent life exists anywhere in the universe except here on Earth. For those of us convinced that there must be other intelligent life somewhere and that UFOs are a mystery, not a joke, mainstream science seems strangely out of step. Many scientists remain firmly entrenched in the same sort of skepticism that led their predecessors to refuse to believe that rocks fell from the sky.

`Even though people had long seen ‘falling stars’ crash to the ground and collected meteorites, such stories and the stony evidence were relegated to folklore and mostly ignored during the early centuries of the Enlightenment. When scientist did address the matter, falling stars and meteorites were usually explained as atmospheric processes, such as showers of hail condensing in clouds, or terrestrial rocks that had been struck by lightning. In fact, that’s why they were called “thunderstones.”

Others scientists believed that meteorites were volcanic rocks, violently spewed out during major eruptions. Scientists didn’t even consider the idea that meteorites might be rocks from space, because such a concept didn’t fit in the prevalent concept of nature. Until the early 19th century, most scientists shared Isaac Newton’s view that no small objects could exist in the interplanetary space, an assumption that left no room for stones falling from the sky.

Likewise today, UFOs are largely ignored by mainstream scientists because the concept of alien life visiting Earth is not part of the current scientific paradigm. Paul Davies, author of The Eerie Silence: Renewing our Search for Alien Intelligence, seems to echo the earlier skeptics of falling rocks when he refers to atmospheric conditions as one explanation of UFO sightings. Noting that 40 million Americans say they have seen a UFO and thousands of sightings have been reported in recent years, Davies writes that “the vast majority of them get explained straightforwardly as weird atmospheric effects, aircraft seen under unusual conditions, bright planets, etc….So it’s tempting to conclude that if 95 percent of sightings can be explained without too much effort, then so could the remaining 5 per cent if we had enough information at our disposal, because there is nothing to elevate that residue from the rest, apart from being more puzzling.”

Davies takes an easily explained case, such as military flares sighted near a military base, and implies that the believers are silly people who refuse to believe the truth. But mainstream scientists tend to ignore the more difficult cases,  such as multiple witnesses to other-worldly crafts. Their explanation is that there just isn’t enough information available, and if there was it would be explainable. That’s called reductionism, the process of explaining a complex phenomenon by analyzing the simplest aspects of it, the ones that are easiest to explain and understand. Besides, anecdotal evidence, whether it’s one story or a thousand like it, is not acceptable as evidence of anything.

Yet, there are a few scientists, such as John Mack of Harvard and David Jacobs of Temple University who have explored the realms of UFOs and alien abductions. Mack died in a traffic accident after publishing two controversial books and being subjected to a 14-month witch hunt at Harvard and Jacobs, a history prof, continues his work on the frontiers of science. Jacobs’ Phd thesis related to UFOs and remains one of only two such papers sympathetic to the subject that were published by a university press. Such researchers are rare, and UFOs continue to be a taboo research subject.

Essentially, mainstream science is telling us that if  aliens are here, we don’t see them. They are not part of the accepted reality. It could be that the aliens like it that way.

What? He can’t die. He’s immortal. He has more books to write. These thoughts zipped through my head when I first read about his death on Huffington Post. I  was stunned. I mean, please, this writer is supposed to be immortal.

Does he need an intro? Probably not. But just in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last 40 years, read about him here. My first exposure to Bradbury was somewhere in the early 1960s, when we were living in Venezuela. A friend handed me Farenheit 451 and  whispered, “You want to write, Trish? Then you gotta read this book.”

There was something strangely furtive and subversive about this exchange, out in a middle school hallway. Maybe the book had been banned already. Maybe this girl’s parents objected to it. Whatever, I took the book and once I opened it, couldn’t put it down.

As a writer, Bradbury changed my idea of what’s possible in novels. On a human level, he put me on alert about the insidious ways that governments manipulate the dissemination of ideas. Later on, in college, I remember watching the movie version of Farenheit 451 and enjoying it as much as I had the book. The ideas stuck with me. In The Hunger Games, there’s a kind of tribute to Bradbury in a book-burning reference.

When I read The Martian Chronicles, well, I was there, on Mars, and I felt what those characters felt,  lived alongside them. In Something Wicked This Way Comes,  in all of his beautifully written books, I was reminded about the magnificence of language, about the incomprehensible imagination that poses a question – What if? – and runs with it in a way that speaks universally.

Perhaps Bradbury’s greatest gift was that he could present complex ideas in stories so beautifully written, through the eyes of characters so real,  that we were engaged from page one. Even if you aren’t a sci-fi fan, you’ve probably read Farenheit 451, now a staple in many high school reading lists. But in the event that you’ve never met this guy and his books, then by all means treat yourself to  the bonanza that is Bradbury. You will never see the world in quite the same way again. And for a writer, is there any greater compliment?

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Drop by Daz’s blog for more treats about Bradbury. Daz beat us to it on this post.

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And we can’t forget about another writer today. HAPPY B-DAY Trish!!! From Rob, Megan and the animal gang (Noah, Nica, Simba, Tiger Lil, and Powder).

Here’s a very funny little synchro from Jane Clifford of Wales.

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I lunched with a member of the Guinness family last week and did a quick bit of shopping beforehand. I found and bought a little book featuring wrong exam/test answers by kids.

I’ve seen such books before and they are very funny indeed, but also kind of sad in that they clearly show that the education system is failing these children. Their answers often indicate the power of television to influence their thinking.

Over lunch with Mr. Guinness, I was reading out the funniest ones, and turned the page and saw this one. The question was: What is the name of the first book in the bible?

The misguided answer: “The first book in the bible is Guinnesis.”

Ha! What are the odds of that one! Lunching with a Guinness, and coming upon a Guinness synchro!

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Good one, Jane. One for the book of records.  Hmm, the Guinness Book of Synchronicities. Cheers!

We were just getting ready to submit our proposal for ‘Aliens in the Backyard: Abducting the World’ when we decided  to place more emphasis on synchronicity. Synchros were already rampant in the four chapters we were submitting, but we needed to focus more on it in the all-important marketing section. That’s where we emphasize how our book is different from those already published about alien abductions.

The idea is to make use of our expertise and to show that we are placing strong emphasis on an element of the abduction scenario that has been either overlooked or only mentioned in passing. That way we make our book proposal more unique.

The next morning we were still working on some finishing touches, but were getting close to sending it out. That’s when we noticed a striking headline at the top of the Local & Business section of the Palm Beach Post.

It read: District considers abduction alert.  

Apparently a man had tried to abduct two school girls and the school district was considering a district-wide alert. Not alien abductors, of course, but still it was kind of startling to see. And a synchronicity.

You might ask, how do we know it wasn’t an alien abductor going after school girls? Well, it probably wasn’t because the girls got away. As abductees report, escaping alien abductors is no easy task.

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After Rob wrote this post, we heard from Al, our agent. “Who is publishing alien books these days?” he asked.

I glanced at the books  stacked on my desk, jotted down the list of publishers, and sent it off. Al responded quickly: “Trish, can you please concentrate on recent publishers?”

Now, I’m fairly certain Al has never sold a book on aliens or abductions or UFO encounters – fairly sure, but not 100 percent positive. He’s been in this business for  40 years and, at one time, represented Jess Stearns, so maybe back there somewhere, he might have repped a UFO book. But even if he never represented a book on UFOs, he immediately grasped what we needed. Rob combed through Amazon, came up with a list of recent publishers, and we sent it off.

And this may be part of the secret to Al’s success as an agent. As a Virgo who is meticulous about details, Al knows when he’s out of his element and has no hesitation about  asking for additional info. He’s also aware that the publishing industry right now is in a terrible state and to sell a book – any book – requires more than business as usual.

So, we’ll see where it goes. In the end Rob and I still adhere to the belief that each of us creates our own reality. We want to see this book published. We’ve invested a lot of time and effort in the proposal. And we’re practicing some visualization techniques we’ve learned from Mike Perry. When  it comes to manifesting what you desire, we’re all babes in the woods – and are just learning to walk.

Megan showed us this video while we were sitting outside by the pool in her complex. She knew the words and understood the sentiment, drawing  comparisons between this vid and her last boyfriend. The video is a hoot.

Jung’s place, Lake Zurich

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Social media is a fascinating phenomena – Facebook, Twitter, tumblr, Linkdin, blogs, You Tube. Each one offers something different, but enables you to connect with people from all over the world.  The one social media that I use but don’t really understand is Twitter.

First, you have a limit – 140 characters. Not words, but characters. In fact, what you just read here amounts to 280 characters (without spaces), which is twice what Twitter allows. Hey, is that a synchro? (140×2.) I use Twitter for links to certain posts on our blog. Self-promotion, in other words. Other people use Twitter to post daily feel-good aphorisms that are usually self-promotional as well:

Love yourself.

Nurture yourself.

Forgive and forget.

Yes, okay.

Occasionally, advertisers end up on my Twitter page, but when I catch them, I dismiss them – i.e., delete them.

Where Twitter seems most valuable is in organizing protests (the Occupiers), revolts and revolutions (the Arab spring) and in  offering live coverage of trials, legal hearings, congressional debates, and that sort of thing. Recently, for instance, I first followed the John Goodman sentencing  on Twitter. Goodman is the polo mogul charged with vehicular manslaughter in 2010 for the death of a 23-year-old man. I finally gave up on the Twitter feeds and just turned on the TV.

Rob is far more active on Facebook than I am. Neither of us use Linkdin, and we have posted just one thing on tumblr. Our daughter’s generation is really the Facebook and text messaging crowd. When we were looking for a software engineer who might be able to write simple IOS code for a divination app we were developing, she gave us the phone number of a friend who was working in the computer department of a local university.

“Should I leave him a message on Facebook?” I asked. “Or call him?”

Silence. I could almost hear the HUGE sigh that she somehow stifled. “Mom, we use Facebook, but not like that. We use our phones, but for what you’re talking about, we text.”

This is why Megan and I have unlimited text messages in our cell plans.

Social media is changing the world in unprecedented ways. This statement probably seems obvious, until you’re in a position where your You Tube shows the humiliation you endured during a TSA search at the airport. It may be irrelevant until your computer is hacked or your identity is stolen or your email is hacked and you discover you can file an online  report with the FBI’s cyber security  site. You discover that you can ask your server to text your cell phone with a code that will enable you to  seize control again of your email, your blog, your identity.

The Internet is one big synchronicity. Regardless  of what the Facebook stock does or doesn’t do, whether Twitter ever extends its 140-character limit, whether your text messaging is limited or not, the technology is here and for better or worse, in sickness and in health, we are connected. Married. Joined at the hip.

This is not only the future, it’s the NOW, an Eckhart Tolle moment. Seize your opportunity, but be aware of that 140-character limit!

Last Christmas when Santa brought me an iPad, I was thrilled. I had done quite a bit of research on this gizmo, online, at the Apple store, and asking   writer friends what it could and couldn’t do. I was trying to get some sense of how I might be able to write a book on it. The consensus was that writing a book on the iPad might be possible if you have a keyboard and Pages, but it wouldn’t be any writer’s first choice. However, the iPad, they agreed, does everything else.

“Like what?” I asked.

Your e-mail is easier to pick up

Cool apps

And, my personal favorite – you’re always connected.

But did any of that justify the price of an iPad?

Well, that depends. In the six months I’ve had  iPad2, I’ve tested that Internet connection: at the gym, in the supermarket, on road trips, while getting my hair cut. No matter where I am, I can be electronically connected to the larger world- and to the people I care about most. I can conduct business, purchase a book, read a book, edit a manuscript, write and reply to e-mail. But in the back of my mind, I have always known  the ultimate iPad test would happen during a hurricane.

In 2004 and 2005, when the hurricane season was particularly active, we invariably lost electrical power. In one of those years, we lost power for a week. In the other year, we didn’t have power for 10 days.  During the 10-day outage, we plugged into a neighbor’s generator ad at least got the fridge powered up. I used to open the door and stand in front of it just to cool down.  In both years, I notice that cell reception returned within a day or two.  I remembered this fact when I was doing my research about the iPad.

Today, May 29, two days before the official hurricane season starts, we got a taste of that power outage. A cell of thunderstorms swept in over our county, thunder, lightning, 60 mph winds, the whole Olympian tempest. Our electricity went off at 2:30. Our landline didn’t work, so I called our neighbor on my cell and asked if her electricity was off, too. Yes, it was. Okay, time to report this to Florida Power and Light, I thought, and got out my iPad.

I use ATT for my cellular connection on the iPad. I activated it, went online, reported the outage to FPL,  then used their interactive map to find out where the outages were and to keep tabs on the status of repair. I was able to check the local radar, the National Weather Service, and to answer some email.  Even though this storm was just a violent weather cell passing through, the power failed, the cell towers didn’t. I was always connected.

During a Category 3 hurricane or higher, cell reception probably would be lost because cell towers would go down. But unless those towers snapped in half, they would probably come back online more quickly than the electrical grid. So what purpose might an iPad (or iPhone, for that matter) serve during or in the aftermath of a major hurricane?

Let’s take Hurricane Andrew,  which slammed into South, Florida 20 years ago, in 1992, and decimated Homestead.  Granted, there was barely an Internet in1992, at least not for most of us. But if there had been and if the cell signal held during even part of the storm, I would have live radar that showed  where the worst cells were located, where tornadoes might be, and where the center of the storm was. I would know which side of the storm was the strongest and whether I needed to take extra precautions – like hide in my bathtub with a mattress over me, as one friend had to do. And in the aftermath, once the cell towers were back online, I would know where I could find help, food, water, and everything else I needed to know.

Of course, in the aftermath of a Cat 5 storm the cell towers probably wouldn’t come back online any faster than electrical power, which means you have to rely on battery-operated radios or TVs for news. These venues are better than nothing, but there’s something empowering about holding this iPad gizmo in your lap and hopping around at your own discretion to find useful news. While using FPL’s interactive map, I discovered that only 63 homes had power outages and one of the areas pinpointed on the map was close to the yoga studio where Rob’s meditation class that evening would be held. He used his cell to e-mail the owner of the  studio about whether she had power. She didn’t. She was using candles.

For me, this inconvenient power outage confirmed a couple of things:

–       This is NOT my parents’ world

–        I love most technology

–       I’m grateful this was  NOT a hurricane

–      I love my iPad