Glenn Beck and his Granfaloon

Posted on August 28, 2010 by Trish and Rob

If we’re to believe Glenn Beck, the timing of his speech today at the Lincoln Memorial was the result of ‘divine coincidence.’

The over-the-top, emotional, right-wing talk-show host at Fox News is leading a rally  at the site of Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a Dream’ speech 47 years to the day of King’s famous speech.

 “We picked August 28. It was open in my schedule. When I announced it, The New York Times blogged immediately that this is Martin Luther King Day, and I immediately said, ‘Oh my gosh!’ ”
 
No matter what you think of Beck and his politics, it sounds like an insidious lie on his part to suggest that synchronicity rather than calculated planning was at the heart of the timing and location of the speech.
Keep in mind that Beck  has a history of playing hard and fast with civil rights issues. He has a habit of comparing historical figures, such as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, to himself and civil right rallies in which participants were beaten by police and attacked by dogs with his own middle-class, white-bread rallies. Of course, what Beck sees as ‘restoring honor’ by protesting against big government, is actually a reactionary event laced with racism, a fight against the inevitable change in the country’s racial complexion and political leanings.

Listen to Beck co-op the civil rights movement as he talks about his faithful Tea Party followers. “This is a moment, quite honestly, that I think we reclaim the civil rights movement. We are on the side of individual freedoms and liberties and, damn it, we will reclaim the civil rights movement … we will take that movement because we were the people who did it in the first place.”  Huh?

Rather than a divine coincidence, Beck’s rally in Washington D.C. today is a great example of what Kurt Vonnegut called a Granfaloon in Cat’s Cradle. In that novel, Vonnegut describes the concept of a Karass, which is a group of people who are working together unknowingly as part of a greater cosmic plan. You learn that you’re part of a  Karass when meaningful coincidences occur between you and other members of the Karass. However, in the cosmology of Cat’s Cradle, there’s the danger of finding yourself in a false Karass–which involve coincidences that aren’t meaningful, or that aren’t really coincidences. When that happens, you find yourself in a Granfaloon.

It appears that Beck and his avid followers are stuck inside of a Granfaloon,based on hatred, bigotry, and a desire to return to the past…when certain people knew their place.

Posted in beck, granfaloon, politics | 19 Comments

It was FATE

Posted on August 27, 2010 by Trish and Rob

Here’s a followup synchronicity from our recent trip to the Florida Keys. We wrote about our dinner with Jim Moseley, the iconoclastic editor of Saucer Smear, who mixes skepticism and belief in his continuing saga of gossip about the strange world of UFO investigation.

We gave Jim a copy of Seven Secrets and when we arrived home we found a call from Jim with a message to call him about an amazing synchronicity that he’d just experienced. When we called back,  he said, ‘Oh I was just reading your book, that’s good, but I’ve got to tell you what happened yesterday.’
Jim had been trying to reach Phyllis Galde, the editor of  FATE Magazine, because he had heard the magazine had folded. He left a couple of messages, several days passed, and he hadn’t heard from her. So he was working on his latest issue, and writing about the demise of FATE. He ended the section, writing. “The latest and apparently last editor of FATE, Phyllis Galde, was a very nice woman. Unfortunately, we have lost track of her…”
He stopped there, then moments later, before he had a chance to begin the next item, the phone rang and there was Phyllis Galde who told him that FATE was alive and well and a new issue would come out in September. Jim quickly added a FLASH to the item and explained the synchronicity, and went on to say that he was about to write a review of a new book on synchronicity!
So, Jim, who is skeptical about a lot of things,  is a believer in synchronicity.
Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

Another Cloud Message

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Trish and Rob

We wrote about numbers appearing in cloud formations not long ago, now here’s one with letters. I was driving to yoga class, one I was taking, not teaching. The instructor, a young woman named Genevieve, is very talented and teaches as if her students are on the same level. Most of them are at least twenty years my junior and athletic. I remembered the last class I took from her was quite challenging.

I came to a red light and looked up at the sky, noticing odd script-like clouds. At first, I tried to look for numbers and then realized that three of the formations, one after another, formed letters. I read them as:
E Z X. Since I’d been thinking about the yoga class,  I tried to interpret the letters as if they were a message. The first two were easy–literally. E-Z (Easy). The last one took a moment longer, then I saw it: X-ercize. In other words, ‘easy exercise.’

I interpreted the message to mean that I should take it easy, not push myself. But when I got to class, I found two of my best former students were in class and right alongside me. So, I wasn’t too keen on taking it TOO easy. I worked hard during the class, enjoyed it, and came out of it thinking that maybe I had read too much into the cloud message. Maybe it was something much simpler, that it would be ‘easy exercise,’ and not to worry. At least, that was how it turned out.

The photo above is actually one of the asanas (postures) we did, one that I can do one side, but have trouble on the other. Getting old, I guess. 😉
-R

Posted in cloud messages | 13 Comments

Michio Kaku and UFOs

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Trish and Rob

Michio Kaku certainly doesn’t fit any clear-cut role. He’s a bestselling author, theoretical physicist, professor at City College of New York, co-creator of string field theory, host of Sci-fi Science  on the Science channel, and probably a bunch of other stuff that I left out. I’m not sure how he can do all these things, but he puts the rest of us lazy bums to shame!

 His books are infinitely readable. Physics of the Impossible and Parallel Worlds are two of my favorites.  Recently, he was on MSNBC, talking about UFOs. When this guy talks, I’m compelled to listen.

Posted in michio kaku, UFOs | 14 Comments

The Lost Checkbook

Posted on August 25, 2010 by Trish and Rob

                                            Picasso                    

 

This story comes from Gypsy and involves a missing checkbook, a precognitive dream, and  a curious ending! We’ve posted a number of her synchros before and they’re all over the map- from precognitive dreams to instances of telepathy, to spirit connection.
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It was an early morning dream. I was outdoors, it was dark.  I realized a checkbook had been lost and I was looking for it in the dark. I went over to a utility pole and there it lay, on the ground at the base of the pole. I picked it up and said, “I found it!” The person I was saying this to was my daughter, Lisa. Even though
 I didn’t see her in the dream, I knew she was there. After I picked it up, I turned to my left and backward a bit to hand her the checkbook. Then I woke up. 

That morning, Lisa came straight into my room and asked if I’d seen her checkbook that she’d lost the day before. I laughed and told her told her I’d found it in my dream, at the base of a utility pole. I just didn’t know where the utility pole was.

The following day, I asked again about the checkbook. She still hadn’t found it. That evening, almost as an afterthought when I was on my way to bed, I asked again.  “Oh, yeah, I did actually, and it’s really weird. I found it in my purse, but I don’t know how it got there because I know it wasn’t there. I know I lost
it.”

She had removed every single item from her purse several times, set everything out on the table, and the checkbook wasn’t there. She was totally mystified as to how it had gotten back into her purse.

I remembered I had handed it to her in my dream.
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So, can items we lose in waking life and find in dreams somehow make it back into waking life? Well, why not? If a belief is strong enough, mountains  move.

Posted in dreams, Jenean, precognition | 21 Comments

On the path, in the flow….

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Trish and Rob

Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia

We received an e-mail from a young man named Jonny Long that caught our attention. Interestingly, Jonny had never heard the word synchronicity until recently, yet his life was enmeshed in it. So when he discovered our book, things started falling in place. We were also impressed that Jonny expresses himself quite well. We like his energy.
***

Hi, my name is Jonny. I should start by saying that I was the 888th U.S. visitor to your site. Perhaps you’ve been seeing 8’s today!

I’ve known about synchronicity before reading or hearing anything about it. I intuitively grasped the concept that my whole life was one big conspiracy of coincidences. This summer marked the peak of my awareness. I can’t explain it very well, but everything really began to fall into place for me. Simply put, there were many situations where “this led to that, and then this happened, and that’s how I got here, I met this person, and we decided we would do this activity, and then everything fell into place.”

There are others who know about synchronicity intuitively as well, and wouldn’t you know it? We find each other! We don’t openly talk about it very often, we like to “go with the flow” and let things roll as they should. We also have difficulty explaining the complexity of everything that is going on, because it’s HUGE. I don’t believe in just one coincidence after another. I believe it’s all one big coincidence. EVERYTHING is synchronicity. Everyone is where they should be at every moment in time.

I like the way I think, but sometimes I feel a bit out of my mind. I thought about synchronicity (or “everything,” as I referred to it) all day even before I knew about its place in mainstream metaphysical studies. So, naturally, I encountered synchronicity everywhere. I never had a real conversation about it with anyone because I didn’t want people to think I was crazy. I just go with the flow.

The urban youth is becoming very in touch with the universe, whether we are aware of it or not. I am aware of it. It’s difficult to interact with people in the city and not encounter the cosmic happenings that are going on everywhere. Philadelphia is a very strange city for these phenomena. I believe it could have something to do with its history. It’s an old city (by American standards), and I think that there is a special energy here (even though it’s kind of gritty). Rittenhouse Square is an excellent place to view our synchronized world. If you’re ever in Philadelphia, please visit Rittenhouse Square. I promise that something cosmic will happen.

I used to think to myself, “I’m sure there are people who know more about these coincidences.” I thought that maybe, if I became a decent writer, I could try to find a way to explain all these crazy happenings in a book.

It was synchronicity when I found the book. I went to the bookstore, because I was flying back to Philadelphia from my brother’s house in Texas and he suggested that I get something to read. I went to the New Age section, and I thought to myself, “Okay… Here I am at this moment in time. It’s where I’m supposed to be. I’m going to find THE book, that will explain why I think this way. I am going to find THE book, that will explain why my life has become such a journey, THE book that will explain all this crazy stuff that floods my mind.”

I looked down and I saw the word Synchronicity. I thought “That’s it! That’s the word that describes EVERYTHING! It’s all synchronized! I get it now!” I hoped that it was what I thought it was, and it most certainly is. I wondered why I had never used the word “synchronized” to describe the way the universe works, as I perceive it. But when I saw the word “synchronicity”, I knew that this was what I was looking for.

I should mention that this experience, the synchronicity of finding your book and the actual reading of it, has helped usher in a new spiritual base for me where I feel more stable. I’ve finally dropped the notion that I could be mentally “off” and am beginning to accept the universe for what it is. I used to be sort of afraid of synchronicity, in a weird way that I can’t really explain. It made me feel crazy. It was a love/hate relationship before I knew about it’s relevance to modern metaphysics.

I’m 19, an indigo child, and a spiritual warrior. The universe has designed this life for me. It is important for me to just “go with the flow.” I want to go through life and be good to all people. I want to help people and interact with everyone. I want to bring peace into this world in every way that I can.

I believe that a great cultural and spiritual movement is going to take place and I’m excited to be a part of this generation. Sooner than you think, everyone will be in tune with the goings-on in this strange universe. I’d like to thank you both, Rob and Trish, for being aware of ‘everything.’ You have confirmed my beliefs and hugely accelerated my knowledge on the subject. Perhaps someday, we will cross paths. I wouldn’t be surprised if we did.

I don’t believe that God controls the universe. The universe controls itself. The universe is programmed. But perhaps God programmed the universe. So I like to think of coincidences as Divine Moments of Truth.
***
You’re on the path, Jonny, in the flow… on your way to good things.

Posted in 7 Secrets, everything, Rittenhouse Square, spirituality, Youth | 18 Comments

Mercury Retrograde

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Trish and Rob

Mercury is the planet closest to the sun. In mythology, it’s associated with Hermes, the winged messenger of the gods, of commerce, trade, and travel. In astrology, Mercury rules the signs of Gemini and Virgo, and governs communication, travel, education. It can be quite the trickster at times, particularly when it’s moving retrograde, which happens three times a year.

 From our vantage point on earth, retrograde motion is when a planet appears to be moving backward. In practical terms, this is when your travel plans go south, your internet connection fails, your computer crashes, your appliances go haywire, the battery in your car takes a permanent siesta, your relationships encounter snafus, you lose your wallet, get stranded in the Dallas airport, or run into your ex in the grocery store. It’s when things in your life seem to move two steps backward for every step forward.

It’s a good time to follow the three Rs: review, revise, rethink. Make your travel plans on either side of the retro dates – 8/20 to 9/12. Don’t launch projects, businesses, or submit anything new during a Mercury retro. If you have to travel, you had better view the journey as an adventure because you may encounter abrupt, inexplicable changes in your itinerary. Avoid purchasing large ticket items – unless you don’t mind returning them once Mercury turns direct again.

For some reason, I got it into my head that Mercury was going retro on August 23. But when I looked at my ephemeris Sunday, I realized it had gone retro in Virgo on the 20th,  that it had started slowing down – going stationary – on the 19th, the day of Megan’s car mishap. No one was hurt, but the mishap was costly. Mercury is retro in Virgo – and Megan’s sun and moon are in that sign.

Now we’ve experiencing communication mishaps. Our dog chewed through an internet cables twice, severing Rob’s connection to the internet. He, too, has a Virgo moon. We bought a range expander, which is supposed to extend the WiFi signal in your home and is supposed to be easy to install – plug it into the wall socket, get two blue lights for confirmation, and you’re in business. Ha. It doesn’t work with ATT’s uverse equipment. Back to Best Buy tomorrow to return the gizmo.

I’m revising my novel, right in line for a Mercury-ruled sign like Gemini. My gmail is acting up, the dishwasher sounds like it’s on its last legs. You get the idea here.

Just to give you a broader backdrop, look back to the presidential election in the U.S. in November 2000.Mercury had turned retrograde in Libra on October 18. It turned direct on November 7, 2000, at around 9:20 PM. That was about the time that Tom Brokaw and NBC News announced that Florida had been called too early, that there was some confusion in the ballots, that Gore may not have won the state. For the next 35 days, confusion reigned about who had actually won the presidency and the supreme court ultimately called it for George Bush.

Mercury turns direct again on September 12. Between now and then, be kind to yourself. Find joy in whatever you do. If it’s true that we create our lives from the inside out, spinning our experiences from the cloth of our deepest beliefs, then take a look at those deeper beliefs when things go awry.

A friend commented that before he knew about Mercury retrogrades, things would go all weird several times a year and he couldn’t figure out why. But when he looked back, he detected a pattern that coincided with these retrograde periods. Some years ago, the agent Rob had at the time refused to submit her clients’ manuscripts during Mercury retrograde.

Sure, part of what you do or don’t experience depends on your belief system.  But hey, there’s plenty of scientific research about the effects of the full moon on tides and weather – and on the number of nut cases that roll into the ER. If the phases of the moon can impact us, why not Mercury retrogrades?

And just for the record: Jung wrote about astrology – but not about Mercury retros.

Posted in astrology, mercury retro | 23 Comments

Tickle, Tickle

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Trish and Rob

              The moon, from Dali’s tarot 

 We received an email from clarity, inviting us to take a look at her blog about some of the synchros she has experienced.  She has some good ones and we selected this one to repost. From Salvatore Dali’s tarot deck, we chose The Moon, symbolic of intuition, emotion, mom, nurturing, our inner worlds.
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A few years ago, my son was ill and I had to take some time off to take care of him. During the days he’d sleep a lot and sometimes be awake to watch some TV – and during the nights he’d wake up a lot and need something to drink or to be comforted and lulled back to sleep. As you can imagine, I didn’t get much sleep myself.

As he felt alone lying in his bed in his room, I placed his mattress on the floor in the living room and let him sleep there, day and night – it made him feel safe. As I had to be near him at night, I chose to sleep on the sofa, right next to him.

Now ..our sofa is a very nice and comfortable piece of furniture to sit in but far from perfect to sleep on. During the two weeks my son was ill, I developed a nasty back pain – or rather, an old back pain I’d had coming and going for years, came back and was worse than ever. In fact, it became so bad I could hardly move during the day and no matter what position I tried to fall asleep in, I was in a terrible pain. I called my doctor to get an appointment but she wasn’t able to fit me in until after a couple of days and I couldn’t go there until my son was well again, anyway, so I had to get through the days on painkillers and manage as well as I could.

Spirits

At the time this happened, I was doing a lot of meditation and reading about spirits and spirit guides. I mainly used the meditation as an effective tool to relax and get some relief from a busy life running my own business, as well as trying to be as good a mother as I could be. As far as the spirits and spirit guides were concerned, I wasn’t convinced as to whether or not these ‘entities’ really existed but still found the subject intriguing.

As the pain killers only took some of the pain, I tried doing some meditation to get some further relief. It helped – a little – but I was still in too much pain to be able to fall asleep. Then I remembered how people claim they can call upon spirits and spirit guides for help in times of need. Well, this was certainly a time of need for me; having to take care of my son and at the same time having to battle a nasty backache – so why not try and call for some spiritual assistance? The way I saw it, I had nothing to lose.

As I didn’t want to disturb my son, I whispered this into the room: “If there are any spirits present here in this room, could you then please do something about my back pain?”. Then I suddenly felt a very brief sensation on the spot where my back hurt, like fingers tickling it, and I am not kidding: my back pain disappeared as if by magic. I was totally amazed ..and whispered a deep felt ‘thank you’ out into the room. But what was even more amazing than the immediate releif was that I haven’t had any problems with my back since then (this happened more than 2 years ago). Maybe, we really are surrounded by spirits who will come to our help in times of need. If so, isn’t it great to know?!

Posted in back pain, health, spirit contact | 11 Comments

Edge of Dreaming

Posted on August 21, 2010 by Trish and Rob

 Photo by Natalie Thomas

We’ve done a number of posts on precognitive dreams, one of the areas that Jung placed under the larger umbrella of synchronicity. Now a Scottish filmmaker has made a documentary on that very topic.

Here’s the synopsis from PBS, which will show the documentary on August 24. Mark your calendars!

Synopsis

Scottish filmmaker Amy Hardie has built a career making science documentaries that reflect her rational temperament. When she dreamed one night that her horse was dying, only to wake the next morning and find the horse dead, she dismissed the incident as a coincidence. Then she dreamed she would die at age 48 — only one year away. When Hardie does get ill, just as the dream predicted, she visits neuroscience experts and eventually a shaman. The Edge of Dreaming is an evocative, intimate chronicle of that year and a fascinating investigation into the human subconscious. (75 minutes)

And the trailer:

Posted in documentary, precognitive dreams | 13 Comments

Love the One You’re With

Posted on August 20, 2010 by Trish and Rob

For the last two days, we’ve been moving Megan back into her college dorm, on Florida’s west coast. It’s a four-hour drive across the state and Megan was about ten miles ahead of us during the last part of the trip. We were on the lookout for synchros. They often happen when we travel.

During the drive, Rob and I were talking about how Megan’s car insurance rates should be lowered in a few weeks, once she turns 21. “When was her last ticket?” Rob asked.

“Probably two years ago,” I replied. “It should be off her record by now.”

A few minutes later, my cell rings. It’s Megan. “Uh, mom, I’m at the exit and I was just in an accident. I was stopped, must’ve taken my foot off the brake, and my car rolled into the van in front of me. I’m okay,” she added quickly. “Everyone’s okay.”

Synchro 1. About a minute after we’d been talking about her insurance rates, we get her call.

She wasn’t  moving more than 2 or 3 miles an hour, but the van had a trailer hitcher  that had gone through the fender of Megan’s car and now, she said, the car “sounded weird.” The driver of the van, a county employee, was obligated to call the police because he was in a county vehicle.

By the time we got to the exit, the cop was there, the van’s driver was standing next to Megan’s car, and Megan, shaken up, was in her car, fiddling with the air conditioner. The “weird sound” happened whenever she turned the AC on.

It was August hot, incredibly humid, not much of a breeze, and the five of us stood around, sweating, guzzling water, as the cop went through the whole process.  Yes, he would have to write her a ticket for careless driving.He felt bad about it, practically apologized for having to do it. The van driver felt that bad that he was obligated to call the cops (or lose his job). We all felt bad, especially Megan, who was just trying to get moved into her dorm for her senior year.

When we finally left the exit, Megan rode with Rob and I drove her car the 7 miles to campus. Without air, I felt like a lobster being broiled alive.I tried the AC a couple of times, but it sounded like a rabid dog on steroids. You simply can’t get by in Florida in the summer without air conditioning. I know practically nothing about cars, but when you drive a vehicle often enough, you get an intuitive sense about it. My sense was that the engine wasn’t damaged, but that the repairs weren’t going to be cheap.

On the way to campus, Megan filed the report with the insurance company and got an appointment the next day with an insurance appraiser. We got her moved into her dorm, then she found out she had several classes at the time of the appraisal, so Rob and I said we’d take her car in.

That evening, with Megan settled into the dorm, Rob and I went into downtown Sarasota and stopped at the place in the photo for a drink. We talked about what the repairs to the car might cost and decided to file an insurance claim. We’ve been paying for the insurance for years and never have filed a claimed. Besides, her insurance rate was going to rise regardless. We were both feeling uneasy about everything.

A band was playing – a local group – Big T and the Tornadoes. The black piano player burned up the keyboard and you could tell he was really enjoying himself. I kept thinking about enjoyment and the law of attraction, and wondered what all of this was really about. Suddenly, the band started playing Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young’s Love the One You’re With.

Synchro 2.   This song has particular significance for me. In my novel, Esperanza, which will be released 9/14, one of the characters, Dominica,  always “loves the one she’s with.” It’s her litany, her reason for being. “Rob, that’s Dominica’s song,” I exclaimed.

We both laughed at the irony. Of all the songs in the universe, why this one?  Because regardless of what we attract – good and bad – as a family, we three MacGregors stick together. I suddenly felt everything would work out okay with the car.

Sure enough, it worked out better than either of us expected. The total cost for repairs: $1400. With our deductible, we’re out $500. The entire front fender will be replaced – and it already had plenty of bumps and bruises – and the AC will be repaired. Even though most car rental agencies won’t rent to anyone under 25, Megan will be able to rent a car for the three days or so it will take for the repairs.The car will look like new, the AC will work again.

And, in the end, no one was hurt. That was the best part of it all.

Posted in cars, college, driving, music | 13 Comments