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Psychiatric Annals introduces their December 2011 issue this way:

“Coincidences are common to us all. This issue explores the possibility of a scientific origin for these events and suggests psychiatry has a role to play in the creation of a new field of study: Coincidence Studies.”

The four articles in the issue are entitled:

Synchronicity: Coincidence Detection and Meaningful Life Events

 An Initial Study of Extreme, Measurable Forms of Synchronicity

 Exploration of Anomalous Mind-Matter Correspondences

 Measurement of Synchronicity in a Clinical Context

It’s good to see the scientific community taking a serious look at synchronicity, rather than simply labeling it ‘magical thinking’ – read non-scientific thinking.  Yet, such studies clearly remain outside mainstream science. I can just imagine the skeptic forums puzzling over the topic of coincidence studies.

The first article starts out this way:

“Early therapeutic use of coincidences is described by Carl Jung, who coined the term ‘synchronicity,’ referring to the low-probability co-occurrence of two different events in a narrow window of time, perceived as striking for the individual experiencing it. ¹ It is now accepted that, for coincidences to qualify as a synchronicity, they have to be meaningful, and help one’s individuation.”

The last sentence is an important one in therapeutic terms. It suggests that synchronicities are guideposts for healing, a positive factor for mental, emotional and spiritual development.

The scientific jargon that’s used is interesting and a bit humorous. The first article repeatedly refers to WCS-2 in their data analysis. What is it? Weird Coincidence Scale. We wonder what happened to WCS-1!

The first study looks at the relationship between age and synchronicity – something that we had never considered as a factor. But, according to the study, it is. The older you are the more likely you are to accept synchronicity.

“Age and probability/chance were negatively related; as age increases, agreement with the statement, “I believe coincidences can be explained by the laws or probability of chance” tends to decrease. Considering this was the only finding regarding age and coincidence detection, replication studies with larger, more representative samples are needed to clarify the true relationship.”

Interestingly, the second study also uses the Weird Coincidence Scale-2. We assume that was not a synchronicity, but part of a coordinated effort to measure coincidence in a similar manner.

What I like about the second study was that it actually included an example of a synchronicity – a complex one involving two scholars simultaneously pondering the importance of footnotes. The story is followed by a detailed analysis of the synchro. To me, it was a synchronicity that only an academic could fully appreciate. Someone not familiar with synchronicity reading this study would probably scratch his or her head and wonder what it was all about.

That’s the problem with academic studies of meaningful coincidence. They tend to make a mysterious  subject even more complicated and more confusing. But that’s my non-scholarly take. Trish feels about the same.

Yet, it’s interesting to peruse these studies, and it’s potentially important for our advancement if the scientific world accepts synchronicity as a reality. We’ll take a look at the last two studies tomorrow.

GOES Project Science is a joint project involving  NASA and NOAA – the National Oceanic Atmosphere Administration. Satellite pictures of Earth that are snapped daily can be found here.  Click on any of these to see how the planet looks on a given day. Then take a look at this You Tube video. Anyone have any idea what this could be?

I wrote this story for our Thriller-Chiller blog, but  Trish it migrated over here. I was wondering if there was a synchronicity involved with this post. I couldn’t see one. But then I looked at the departing tolley car in the cover art by Christian Guldager and saw that it was #22. Megan is 22 and soon leaves home for her new job at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Which just happens to be a short distance from Universal Studios, and the on-going Indiana Jones performance. A stretch, but there it is. 😉

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Every so often I get an e-mail from someone asking if I wrote a novel called Indiana Jones and Staff of Kings. As any avid Indy fan knows, that’s the name of the sixth version of the Indiana Jones computer game. There is no novel by that name. But there was supposed to be one. I know. I wrote it.

It rests on a shelf behind me in manuscript form. Had it been published, it would’ve been my seventh Indiana Jones novel.

The novel was written under contract, it was accepted for publication, and I was paid quite well for it. I was even flown out to LucasFilm in San Francisco to talk about the novel.

Everything seemed to be going quite well until the publisher literally forgot about it. The jargon phrases used for such a mistake go like this: ‘Someone dropped the ball.’ Or, ‘It fell through the crack in the floor.’ No, it wasn’t a ball, it wasn’t a crack. It was rigid thinking by the company execs, and an overworked editor.

You see, the publisher was fixated on the novel coming out the same time as the related computer game. The problem was that LucasFilm changed their game platform and that changed their schedule. No one told the publisher about it. Well, actually I did. A couple of avid Indy bloggers informed me of the changes, which I passed on to the editor. Unfortunately, the message never got through. The editor thought I had it wrong. Certainly, she would be informed on such matters, she implied.

Then the game came out just as the bloggers had said it would, but there was no book accompanying the release. The logical thing, it seemed to me, would be to rush the book into print. Nope. Somehow, the powers-that-be felt the book would not sell well unless it was released precisely at the time the game came out.

That’s what I call rigid thinking. Do people who buy and play computer games buy a related book? Maybe some do. But I think it’s a different audience. If you’re spending money on games, you’re probably not buying books.

So Del Rey lost money on the project, namely because no one ever had an opportunity to buy the book. An Indy fan wrote Howard Roffman, president of the Lucas Licensing, and asked what happened to the book. The response was forwarded to me. ‘Rob MacGregor missed the deadline.’

Oh, yeah. I wrote to Roffman and told him that Del Rey had the completed novel for more than a year before the game came out. He checked on it, wrote me back, and apologized.

From a writer’s point of view, it’s all part of the business. If you get a contract and get paid, what happens to the book is basically none of the writer’s business. It wasn’t the first time I’d encountered a publisher who accepted my work, paid me, then failed to follow through. Years ago, Trish and I wrote for OMNI Magazine and they did the same thing. Repeatedly.

Of course, OMNI doesn’t exist any longer, and I’m thinking that many of the major publishers will fall through that ‘crack in the floor’ themselves…because someone ‘dropped the ball.’

This synchronicity came from Vicky Watt,  whose blog – Acoustic Wave – covers all sorts of mysterious stuff, including synchronicity. It’s a good one!

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Yesterday – Thursday 24th November – I finally finished a 6-part  ‘Be The Change’ blog series on my own webspace.  It was very late at night and it had taken me all day to create.  Following an initial post a couple of weeks earlier (inspired by your Occupy/Stephen King discussion funnily enough), I had planned to just write a follow-up post with a few bullet points summarizing the  way people might embrace the ‘be the change’ ethos.  Clearly I subconsciously knew that each theme deserved to be a little more fleshed out as I had already stalled the project for many days.   At the same time, I was very keen to complete it all in one day because I’d put it off for so long!  When it was finally complete,  I laughed out loud to my partner, asking what had even compelled me to create the ‘Be The Change’ series?  I joked that few people would even read it!  My blog doesn’t have a very big readership 🙂

Anyway, despite it being very late at night, we had agreed to watch an episode of the American TV comedy drama ‘Castle’ before going to bed.  First, I browsed the other writers on my blog list and saw that Seth Godin had written a new post for Thanks Giving.  The post read…

“A great way to give thanks…for the priveleges we’ve got is to do important work. Your job, your internet access, your education, your role in a civilized society…all of them are a platform, a chance to do art, a way to give back and to honor those that enabled you to get to this point. For every person reading this there are a thousand (literally a thousand) in underpriveleged nations and situations that would love to have your slot. Don’t waste it.”

This small note from Seth Godin to his readers really inspired me.  He was right. The message I took from this for myself is that it didn’t really matter how few people were reading my blog.  I was in a very privileged position and I should use it, wherever possible, to speak my truth, to  to share positive messages.   Isn’t that what it means to be the change?

Finally, just before a long overdue bed time, we cozied up to watch the episode of  ‘Castle’ and as I relaxed into its lighthearted fictional storyline about a crime writer who helps to solve cases, I forgot all about being the change for a while.  Then, at the end of the episode – just before the credits rolled – the woman who plays the part of Castle’s mother, announced that as part of her new career as a life coach, she was hosting

a ‘Be The Change You Wish To See‘ gathering for her social group.

That night, I slept happily, knowing that my efforts had somehow been given a little nod and wink of acknowledgment from the universe.

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.

In celebration of the lunar eclipse – and an early Christmas gift for the family – we bought the virtual workshop in Phoenix that was held on the day of the lunar eclipse, December 10. It was the first Esther Hicks has done since the death of her husband, Jerry, about three weeks ago.

I was curious about how Jerry’s death might impact Esther’s ability to connect with the nonphysical group, Abraham, that she channels.  On a personal level, I was trying to put myself in her shoes. Not only did she lose her spouse of decades, but the man who was  her business and spiritual partner. This workshop was the most powerful I’ve seen, either virtually or physically.

In a nutshell, the Abraham/Hicks premise is that we create our own realities through our emotions, beliefs, and thoughts, which determine our “vibration,” a magnet through which we attract everything in our lives. This premise isn’t new.

Carl Jung, in his introduction to the I Ching, wrote, “like attracts like.” He was discussing why the I Ching, an oracle that uses coins and 64 hexagrams, was able to answer questions. But like attracts like also became the basis of his theory of synchronicity.  Seth, a nonphysical energy channeled by author Jane Roberts, put it more bluntly: You get what you concentrate on…there is no other main rule.

My introduction to these concepts began with the I Ching when I was about 18, and then continued with the Seth material when I was in my twenties. The Seth books were the first channeled books I’d ever read that resonated on an intuitive level. Seth and Jane wrote twenty some odd books before her death in 1984. I read all of them. I even bought the books that contained “the deleted material” – information Seth provided to Jane and her husband, Robert Butts, about her physical ailments, their private lives, their marriage. Some of the deleted material is difficult to read, particularly the stuff that was channeled when she was bedridden for  a year because of her rheumatoid arthritis.

But the messenger can never be confused with the message: that’s what I ultimately took away from the Seth books – and from the virtual Phoenix workshop we watched. And yet, the messenger’s presence is important.

In the 1960s, 70s, and early 80s, when Jane and Seth wrote most of their books, there was no Internet, social media, cell phones, iPad, iPhones, Facebook, blogs, Amazon, Twitter…you get the idea. Jane and her husband worked out of their home in Elmira, New York, holding regular Seth sessions for more than twenty years. To my knowledge, there is only one video in existence of Seth speaking through Jane. Today, of course, there are many websites about the Seth material, but these are not written by Jane Roberts or Seth.

For awhile, Jane held sessions in her home for outsiders and some of these outsiders, who were really young when they attended, are now carrying on her work – Rick Stack, for instance, and Sue Watkins.

Esther Hicks is a whole different ballgame. She and Jerry, when he was alive, embraced every social media venue to promote Abraham’s ideas and products. And there are many products – books, CDs, workshops, a cottage industry.  And yet. There’s Esther herself. When Megan and I attended one of her workshops in person in 2009, I went with the intention of trying to determine if she was in a trance during the entire six hours of the workshop. By the end of the workshop, that point was rendered irrelevant because the message, the philosophy, the core of the material is so inherently positive and resonates for me.

During tonight’s workshop, the impact of Jerry’s transition was apparent. As Abraham said at one point, Jerry’s transition was the next logical step. His overwhelming desire to know and understand had triggered their journey and now his transition gave him the ability to view the larger picture, from a nonphysical perspective.

The best parts of these workshops are the questions that are posed when someone is selected to sit in the “hot seat.” This is like a one on one with Abraham, and never is there any apparent struggle on Esther’s part to answer the questions. She’s always composed, listening intently, and you sense that she’s tuned in to something other than herself, something greater than herself. Now and then, when the person in the hot seat talked about suffering and the great works of art that came from pain, Esther made these very strange sounds, a kind of high pitched shrieking, and then looked off to the side and murmured, “That was Jerry.”

Suffering, apparently, is not the preferred method for creating great works of art, music or literature. But it may be the point where the musician, artist or writer releases  his or her resistance to success, beauty, whatever. Even though Tchaikovsky’s life was one of pain and suffering, when he composed music, he released himself from resistance and the universe flowed through him. Isn’t this process the epitome of creativity? Of synchronicity?  Abraham is quick to say that suffering isn’t necessary to release resistance, that awareness is key.

During the last segment of the workshop, Rob, Megan and I kept relating our  personal experiences to what Abraham was saying,  a sure sign of psychic resonance. And in the end, there really isn’t any other criteria that matters more than what we ourselves feel and know when evaluating information.