Our friend, Judi Hertling of British Colombia, sent us this link. It may be one of the most emotionally raw videos I’ve ever seen.
Mind-Blowing Synchronicities
aliens in the bsckyard
The Shift: Reports from the Mystical Underground
White Crows
Cosmos, Psyche, and our Brilliant Future
Our friend, Marcus Anthony, the Australian futurist and talented member of the mystical underground, spoke recently at the TEDx conference at Hong Kong University.
In this 20-minute presentation, Marcus makes a few predictions about the way he thinks science will shift its views on the nature of mind and intelligence in coming years. He also talks about synchronicity, and about the mysterious Jessica, a talented psychic who put Marcus on his path. Jessica is somewhat like Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan in that she was instrumental in Marcus’ mental and spiritual shift, and also that she has vanished without a trace.
Much of his material was derived from his book, Discover Your Soul Template, published this year by Inner Traditions.
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Mindfulness and Synchronicity
One of the questions that Dr. Bernard Beitman’s study on coincidences asks is if we can create synchronicities. It’s an intriguing question, and while I was mulling this over, I happened to check out the ibooks library for new books and ran across The Now Effect, by Elisha Goldstein.
This book fascinates me. The material is undoubtedly familiar to most people who experience synchronicity frequently and yet, Goldstein never mentions the word, never talks about synchronicity per se. Instead, he talks about mindfulness, about being totally present in the moment – echoes of Eckhard Tolle’s Power of Now and and the Abraham/Hicks material.
Goldstein talks about the importance of “dropping into the moment” through breath work, yoga, and just being present. I’ve always had a problem with this concept. When I’m doing yoga, my mind is off into some other zone that has nothing to do with my body and everything to do with whatever I happen to be writing at the time. I’m gnawing away at how I can improve what I’ve written, increase the tension, hone the characters. During meditation, I have a specific set of questions begging for answers. My bottom line seems to be: show me, guide me, and please don’t pull any shifty trickster tricks in the process.
But in reading The Now Effect, I have come to realize that mindfulness is more than the sum of its parts. It’s a state of being. It’s a matter of training your brain to bring itself fully into the moment. When I eat breakfast, for instance, I am scrolling through messages on my BlackBerry, taking note of what I need to answer before I head to the gym. I am living a few moments ahead of myself when it would behoove me to actually pay attention to the sweet succulence of my grapefruit, to the beauty of its color, its texture, to how each bite tastes as it slides down my throat.
So this morning, I paid attention to my grapefruit. I spoke to it – Hey, how’s it going? As I dug out each little wedge, I thought of my friend Nancy Pickard who, after a visit, sent me a set of grapefruit spoons so that I wouldn’t have to struggle to extract those little delicious wedges. I tried to be present for my grapefruit.
Yes, I know how silly that sounds. I know how ridiculous it sounds when you’re telling yourself a story that just isn’t true in this moment – my bills are paid, I am rich, healthy, in love, my kids are doing great, I have EVERYHING I need.
But there’s a certain raw beauty in recognizing that disparity and not being limited by it as you reach out for more. In the end, we are limitless beings whose experiences reflect and encapsulate who we are right now, in this instant. And perhaps synchros are the Aha! experiences that tells us how we’re doing in any given moment. Course correction needed. Pay attention. You’re on the right track. Keep doing what you’re doing…
I still don’t know if we can create synchros. But we can certainly invite more of them into our lives by remaining aware of what we think and do and feel moment to moment. Maybe dogs know and practice this far better than we humans.
Nika, having the time of her life, in the moment.
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Judy and Hank, continued
Spirit communication is probably one of the most mysterious types of synchronicity. Skeptics, of course, would undoubtedly contend that it never happens because, as everyone knows, there’s no such thing as life after death. But for those of us who believe otherwise, who believe that our loved ones who have passed on do attempt to communicate with us, there are certain motifs that recur.
For Mike Perry, our synchro friend in the U.K. that motif is often a white feather. For Darren, our synchro friend down under, that motif has been a combination of animals and music – and, occasionally, movies and writers. For Math, who comments frequently here, the spirit communications take many different forms. We included some of their stories in Synchronicity and the Other Side. One story in that book is called Judy and Hank.
Judy is a friend of mine (Trish) from college. She’s a professional photographer in Manhattan and for 35 years, she and Hank were partners. He died in 2009 and we’ve posted about her experiences with Hank communications several times on the blog – here and here.
Judy is one of these people who sends me holiday e-cards throughout the year. On July 4, she sent one celebrating Independence Day. In thanking her, I asked if Hank had been around. Her response, I think, suggests that Hank is rarely too far from Judy, that the communicition is ongoing, and that he makes his presence known through whatever tools are available to him.
From Judy:
You are so kind to ask me if I’ve heard from Hank. This one is probably a stretch but maybe…
July 4 was his absolute favorite holiday. He would go to West Virginia and get some huge fireworks to explode on the 4th. It was always a good show…either at his best friends’ place in Connecticut or at his family estate in Middeltown. His dad collected antique guns, never shot any of them except for a very small (tabletop size) cannon on July 4. The thing would scare the pee out of anyone despite its size.
Anyway, yesterday I went to see my nephews’ new summer cottage on the water near Mystic, Connecticut. It’s a very quiet little cove, lots of families. There was not a bit of noise all day except for the sound of a few kids playing. Incredibly peaceful.
We were sitting on the deck and I was telling the story of Hank’s teeny canon and the blast it made. No sooner did I get the words out than we heard a huge blast from the cottage next door ! I thought they’d set off an M80. The ground hasn’t rocked like that since I heard that teeny cannon many years ago.
Pretty neat. Even if it wasn’t Hank, I suspect he had something to do with it!
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In Western societies, we have been so inculcated to discount these kinds of experiences as valid and meaningful that we often ignore or dismiss what we intuitively know is significant. We are taught to dismiss these intuitive resonances, to deny the validity of our own experiences and beliefs. But when something occurs that enables or forces us to overcome the consensus reality, to risk ridicule from the finger shaking majority who calls us delusional or schizoid or “highly imaginative,” then our entire landscape changes. We are suddenly alive and aware within a network of intimate connections that may resemble the branches of that ceiba tree in the photo, connections that that don’t recognize time or space or death as divisions.
So, Judy, I don’t think the cannon incident is a stretch at all. Hank was saying hi.
Posted in spirit communication, spirit contact, synchronicity
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Straight from the Mainstream
(We added those glasses!)
A few months ago, we e-mailed a query letter to the editor of Psychology Today suggesting an article about synchronicity. We would explore some of the leading edge research on the subject, including the studies of Bernard Beitman, MD, who has suggested a new interdisciplinary field called Coincidence Studies. A couple of hours later, we noticed that we’d received a visit from Psychology Today. (The visitor’s ISP was linked to a media company which owns the magazine.) After that, nothing. No response, favorable or otherwise. Not even a form letter rejection.
So it was interesting when, barely into July, we happened to spy the August issue of Psychology Today on the newsstand with the cover story SIXTH SENSE: Premonitions, Deja Vu, Coincidences, Near-Death Experiences. As we perused the article, the author quickly assured us that all of these ‘anomalous experiences’ were simply tricks of the mind.
“We often explain such experiences using concepts related to spirits, luck, witchcraft, psychic powers, life energy, or more terrestrial (and extra terrestrial) entities. Such explanations are often more appealing, or at least more intuitive, than blaming an odd experience on a trick of the mind.”
We were also told that these experiences “may be associated with stressful circumstances, personal pathologies, or cognitive deficits.” In other words, if you experience something psychic, you might be stressed, mentally ill or just dumb!
Author Matthew Hutson, a former editor of Psychology Today, makes it clear in the first few paragraphs that this mainstream science journal was not going to dabble in any unorthodox explanations of such ‘outlier phenomena’ as synchronicity. In fact, the article avoids the term. What we call synchros, Hutson refers to as apophenia – the ability to recognize patterns. Even though he says this ability is helpful for our survival, he warns that sometimes it gets away from us.
He uses the example of Mark David Chapman who, before killing John Lennon, noted 50 connections between Holden Caulfield’s time in New York City in The Catcher in the Rye and his own life. Hutson suggests that overactive dopamine transmissions help us find meaningful coincidences in things. It’s also called schizophrenia.
Thankfully, he concedes that these experiences also might be ‘healthy inventions’ of the brain, which is often busy searching for patterns. What sends some people into mental illness can lead others to be creative and insightful.
But he quickly returns to mental dysfunction when he notes there is a significant correlation between belief in the paranormal and in conspiracies. “A key trait that predicts a belief in conspiracy theories is paranoia.”
The article continues with a lot of generalizing about ‘magical thinking’ and the usual attempts by mainstream science to explain away telepathy, precognition, and remote viewing, as well as near-death experiences, and spirit contact. It’s nothing new, just more of the same rigid thinking on these subjects that mainstream science has generated decade after decade while ignoring hundreds of studies to the contrary by so-called ‘fringe’ scientists. If there’s any crack in the dam here, it’s a grudging recognition that noticing patterns, i.e. synchros, might be a healthy pre-occupation.
Hutson, though, seems most comfortable writing about pathologies related to paranormal beliefs and struggles a bit in presenting the concept that exploring psychic experiences has a healthy psychological benefit for many people.
“People high in sensation-seeking–those who search for novelty and exciting stimuli–also report more paranormal beliefs and experiences. Perhaps they’re drawn to the idea of a world inhabited by mysterious forces. So, being a pattern-finding sensation-seeker means you’re more likely to experience odd coincidences in the first place, and then more likely to entertain unconventional explanations for them. A one-two punch.”
When he refers to coincidence, Hutson turns a bit cynical. “Research shows that we find coincidences involving ourselves much more surprising than identical coincidences involving others, because we feel we’re somehow special. (Yes, I know, you really are special.)”
Bottom line: when it comes to dealing with anomalous experiences, Hutson assures us it’s all in our heads, tricks of the brain. Think you’ve seen a ghost? Think again. “Once you have it in your head that you might see or hear something, your brain is often happy to oblige by presenting a hallucination, especially when you’re tired or scared.” That may be true, but is that always the case, 100% of the time? Hutson implies over and over that it is, which places him squarely in the rear guard of psychic exploration. It’s hard to investigate a subject fairly if you don’t believe it exists.
While pursuing these experiences might be healthy in small doses, Hutson concludes that two thirds of the population is either misguided or mentally challenged when it comes to understanding the source of such phenomena, and some of us are downright crazy.
We probably would’ve reviewed this article even if we hadn’t queried the journal on the same subject with a different approach. But that gave us an added incentive. We saw a pattern, a connection, one that even extended to Hutson’s own work. He published a book this year about coincidence and the paranormal, and called it: The 7 Laws of Magical Thinking. Hmm, sounds like the mainstream science response to The 7 Secrets of Synchronicity.
Or maybe we’re just seeing things.
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Denver Airport
There’s something deeply joyful about these flash mob dances. This one takes place in the Denver, Colorado airport.
Happy July 4!
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Birthday Cake Trickster
a normal birthday cake
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Okay, so the story goes something like this. An elderly gentleman is about to celebrate his 85th birthday. His four daughters plan the party at a local restaurant and one of the husbands is supposed to order the cake from the local grocery store. The cake is supposed to read: Happy 85th birthday, Dad.
But when the guy arrives at the store, the little Asian woman who decorated the cake informs him that all those words won’t fit across the top.
“Well, can you write it on the plate or something?” he asks.
The Asian woman says that should work and tells him to return in 30 minutes. He does some shopping, but is becoming increasingly anxious about time. He’s due at the restaurant shortly, where the festivities are being held. So when he picks up the cake, now boxed, he doesn’t check it.
He sets the cake in the passenger seat and speeds toward the restaurant. His wife and the other three sisters were worried that he was going to be late. They set the cake on the table and the man’s wife removes it from the box and sets it on the table. Uh-oh. The greeting is messed up.
“What should we do?” one of the sisters asks anxiously.
“Nothing,” says another sister. “It’s too late to change it.”
And just then, the birthday guy appears, sees the cake and its inscription, and explodes with laughter. Here’s what the cake said:
Sounds like the work of the trickster, doesn’t it?
You hear the oddest stories at the dog park.
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Paranormal
“You can guide your life to a certain extent, and then, if you are lucky, serendipity takes over. It leads you down a path that you would not have considered an option. Once you’ve experienced that path, though, you become comfortable with it and know that it is the path you should have chosen all along,” writes Raymond Moody in his fascinating memoir, Paranormal: My Life in Pursuit of the Afterlife.
Moody is the man who coined the term near-death experience – or NDE – with his mega seller Life After Life, published in 1975, when he was still in medical school. It hit every bestseller list in the world and stayed there for more than three years. It was the first book to examine the possibility of life after death in a non-religious sense, and was the first book to examine the stages in a near-death experience. Moody points out that no two NDEs are identical, but that many share these traits:
Ineffability: People have a tough time expressing what happened to them.
Hearing the news: You hear the doctor pronounce that you are dead.
Feelings of Peace and quiet
The Noise: Loud buzzing or a loud ring.
The Dark Tunnel: You feel pulled rapidly into a dark space
Out of the Body: Just want it sounds like. You see yourself from a vantage point outside your body.
Meeting Others: You meet spiritual beings who are there to ease you through the transition or to tell you it isn’t your time to die.
The Being of Light: An encounter with a light that eventually assumes an “unearthly brilliance.” Some describe this being in religious terms, but regardless of what it’s called, this being of light helps you to “proceed along a path of truth and self realization.
The Review: The being of light often leads you to review your life, which is displayed in “panoramic intensity.”
The Border or Limit: This is a point people often reach in an NDE. If you move beyond it, you can’t return.
Coming Back: Exactly what it sounds like.
Most NDErs Moody spoke with also shared three other facets of this experience: They didn’t want to talk about the experience for fear of being labeled crazy. This may not be as true today as it was in the 70s, thanks in large part to researchers like Moody.
The effect of the experience on these individuals was “profound and noticeable.”
All reported that the experience left them with new views of death.
Even after such groundbreaking work, Moody claimed that his research didn’t prove life after death. It proved a commonality of experiences at the moment of death. But his continued explorations led him into a study of past lives, scrying as a means of communicating with spirits (John Dee Memorial Theater of the Mind) and most recently, into the area of shared near-death experiences.
Moody had heard about such experiences over the years but in 1994 experienced it himself at his mother’s deathbed. He was there with his wife, two sisters and their husbands, waiting for the moment of their mother’s death. “As we held hands the room seemed to change shape, and four of the six of us felt as though we were being lifted from the ground. I felt a strong pull like a riptide, only the pull was upward.”
Moody’s sister suddenly pointed at the foot of their mother’s bed and exclaimed their father was there, that he’d come back to get their mother. The light in the room became “soft and fuzzy, like looking into the water of a lighted swimming pool at night.” As Moody later wrote: “It was as if the fabric of the universe had torn and for just a moment we felt the energy of that place called heaven.”
These shared death experiences happen to people who are with a loved one who is dying. “These spiritual experiences can happen to more than one person and are remarkably like near-death experiences.”
Yet, Moody found four differences in shared NDEs that he considers extraordinary and new:
Mystical music. This music often emanates from the surroundings and is heard by others. It can last for a long period of time.
Geometric Changes in the Environment. The room or space shifts and changes shape. Moody admits he doesn’t know what it means, but it “seems as though people who are dying, and sometimes those around them, are led to a different dimension.”
A Shared Mystical Light. This part of a shared NDE is described in many different ways – as a translucent light, a light filled with love, a light that is like being swept up into a cloud.
Mist-ical Experience. Seeing emissions of mist from the dying.
Paranormal is a fascinating page turner that provides glimpses into the man himself – an undiagnosed illness that plunged him into a depression so severe he attempted suicide; his domineering father, his closeness to his mother; the cost of fame. Moody is now 68 years old and could have rested on his laurels decades ago. But the unrelenting curiosity that drives his explorations and his joy of discovery come through so powerfully in this book that I’m sure we’ll be reading more about shared NDEs.
Now listen to Moody talk about his own near-death experience.
Posted in NDEs, synchronicity
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Headed Our Way in July
Now that you’ve survived Venus’ retrograde (May 15- June 27), and we’ve hit July, here are some highlights:
July 3 features a full moon in earth sign Capricorn. Full moons tend to bring about culmination, harvest, and can also bring news related to the sign and house in which they fall. This full moon in Capricorn can help to ground us, keep us focused. Powerhouse Pluto forms a close conjunction with this full moon, suggesting that any news you hear is likely to be transformative. It occurs at 8 degrees and 9 minutes of Capricorn, so if you have planets at or near that degree, you may feel the effects of this full moon more than other people. (Click here for your free natal chart and here for the house meanings).
Uranus, the planet of sudden, unexpected change, forms a challenging angle to this full moon, suggesting an element of irritability, impatience, even anger. If you feel like stepping outside to bay at the moon, by all means do so! Even if it annoys your partner or your neighbors, you’ll feel better afterward.
On July 19, there’s a new moon in water sign Cancer. New moons generally usher in new opportunities according to the sign and house in which they appear. Cancer rules home and hearth, your domestic environment, the more nurturing parent, and is connected to intuition, your inner world. So new opportunities may arrive in any of those areas. Check your natal chart to see where Cancer falls. This moon occurs at 26 degrees and 55 minutes of Cancer.
On July 15, the second Mercury retrograde of the year begins, in fire sign Leo, and it’s in place until August 8, when it turns direct again. Mercury rules both Gemini and Virgo, communication, travel, the conscious mind, contracts. The best rule of thumb for a Mercury retro is what I call the three Rs: revise, review, rethink. For a writer, this is the perfect revision time. For people in other professions it’s smart to tie up loose ends, work on projects you’ve already begun, and avoid starting anything new. And be sure you communicate succinctly and clearly to avoid miscommunication.
Travel can be a challenge during a Mercury retrograde. Your carefully planned itinerary suddenly goes haywire, your flight is rerouted or cancelled, you have a flat on the Interstate…well, you get the idea. That said, if you do travel, then at some point in the near future, you may revisit that destination again.
It’s fine to enter into a verbal agreement with someone, but don’t sign any contracts when Mercury is out of synch. We did that once, mainly because it couldn’t be avoided, and everything about the contract was messed up. Another area to avoid? Try not to schedule a move during a Mercury retro period. We did that once, too, and it was disastrous – the moving van was late, the people buying our house had last minute demands, and we were late for the closing on the house into which we were moving.
The good news is that Venus (love, romance, money), Jupiter (expansion, luck), Mars (physical energy, sexuality, your booster rocket) and Saturn (structure) travel fairly close together in air signs for most of July. Their camaraderie helps to mitigate some of Mercury’s shenanigans.
July is a mixed bag astrologically, but there is always some small gold nugget to mine.
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Indra’s Net
Kevin Moss dreamed of this image, or something close to it and asked what it might mean. I told him it looked like Indra’s Net. He’d never heard of it and was amazed by what he found out about it, since he very interested in the interconnections among people, as he’d written about here.
“Internet…Intranet…Indra’s Net. What a coincidence?!” he commented.
We’ve written about Indra’s Net in the past, but combined with Kevin’s dream image, it seemed worthwhile to bring it up again. Here’s a quote that nicely illuminates the net.
“The Net of Indra is a profound and subtle metaphor for the structure of reality. Imagine a vast net; at each crossing point there is a jewel; each jewel is perfectly clear and reflects all the other jewels in the net, the way two mirrors placed opposite each other will reflect an image ad infinitum. The jewel in this metaphor stands for an individual being, or an individual consciousness, or a cell or an atom. Every jewel is intimately connected with all other jewels in the universe, and a change in one jewel means a change, however slight, in every other jewel.”
–Stephen Mitchell, The Enlightened Mind
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