High Tech Synchro Revisited

Posted on February 5, 2010 by Trish and Rob

(image from Center for Touch Drawing)

On August 12, we posted an entry on high tech synchronicity. Synctxt  is a way to explore synchronicity from your email, phone or wherever and however you are connected to the Internet. It’s described as “a research experiment and self-exploration tool that combines modern technology with the concept of synchronicity as postulated by the psychologist Carl Jung.”

In a nutshell, the technology behind the software grew out of the Princeton Anomalies Research Lab, where it was discovered that humans could influence quantum scale events, even at a distance. Once you sign up, a random event generator is assigned to you 24/7 and periodically it generates a message through email or a text message, written by you. You can create up to 64 messages.Ours consisted of things like: Go with the flow. Relax. Time to withdraw. Whatever we need comes to us. Call so and so. Have you forgotten anything? We also included more specific messages related to our work, family, finances, etc

In the five months we’ve been subscribing, we’ve discovered some rather intriguing elements to this marvel. It actually seems to pick up on emotional/mental energy. You know how some days you bound out of bed, eager to get started with your day? On those days, it’s likely that your synctxt alerts will come in fast and furiously. The messages generated may not always relate to exactly what’s going on in your life,  but when you get a flurry of them, you know for sure that stuff in your life is moving.

It also works on days when you get out of bed as sluggishly as a snail. You feel out of sorts – physically, emotionally, spiritually, whatever. Often, the messages generated on those kinds of days act as butt kickers, as if the universe is telling you to get your act together, to get the show on the road, to forgive the past and just, well, move on.

Then there are the times the alerts seem be tricksters. For instance, on Jan 4-5 South Florida experienced really cold weather (at least for us) – in the low to mid 30s. So on the 5th  we found seven synctxt alerts, a sure sign for a high energy day, right? And two of them said, “Chill.” We had written that message as a reminder to relax, but it addressed the weather situation!

A few days later, there were eight alerts today, and I knew that something had to be moving, shifting. So late that evening, Rob says, “Hey, Whitley Strieber has a new journal entry up. Knowing that my editor had sent Strieber my novel, Esperanza, to Streiber, asking him to blurb it, I  replied, “Oh, c’mon, Whitley, please blurb Esperanza.”

Five minutes later, I received an email from my editor with Strieber’s blurb.

So does synctxt work? It definitely has done so for us. It works especially well if you compose your messages with thought and deliberation and if you update your messages periodically. We plan to continue our subscription!

Posted in synctxt, technology | 11 Comments

Rock on!

Posted on February 4, 2010 by Trish and Rob

Here’s one from Haley Luttrell of Cincinatti.

A favorite among my grandma’s many stories of synchronicity – She was building a rock wall at her house and had run out of rocks just short of finishing. As she is taking a break to decide what to do – a truck goes around the bend in front of her house and some stones fall out into her yard…the exact size and number she needed to finish her wall.

Not bad, Grandma! But here’s one about a guy who is bad, although you wouldn’t know it by his name.

One of the most popular early rock ‘n’ roll song was Johnny B. Goode, by Chuck Berry. So it turns out that Jonathan B. Goode, better known by everyone as – of course – Johnny B. Goode, had his picture on the front page of the Palm Beach (Florida) Post on Feb. 1. Actually, there were 40 tiny mug shots of Goode, because he has been arrested 40 times in the past 40 months. Quite a record. Johnny is suffering from a mental illness as well as addiction, and gets arrested for loitering, pestering people for money, shouting obsenities in stores, pounding on the walls of Wal-Mart and stripping naked in a strip shopping center.

Usually, a judge releases him within a day or two, sometimes he stay in jail longer. All his arrests are misdemeanors. Finally, he spent the past six months in a hospital attending to his addiction and mental illness. Now he’s out. It’s a sad story, we wish him well, and we’ve got to say it: Johnny be good!

Posted in Johnny B. Goode | 2 Comments

One Year Anniversary

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Trish and Rob

My goal (Trish) is to learn to do more 
 of what Stinky Petunia the cat is doing!

Today is the one-year anniversary of our blog. We’d like to thank all of you for your support and interest and the many fantastic synchronicities you’ve shared.

We’ve launched a website for our book today, too. The domain name is synchrosecrets.

We’re including a feature called “Synchronicity of the Week,” so take a look at our first one. And,  please continue to send your stories. We’ll pick out the best for the week and post it. And, of course, we’ll still have daily synchronicities here on the blog.

Posted in anniversary, website | 16 Comments

Two of a Kind

Posted on February 3, 2010 by Trish and Rob

Jeff  brought this synchronicity to our attention. It appeared in the U.K.’s The Telegraph and involves odd name connections. In this story, the name is Geraint Woolford – not exactly a Smith or a Jones, right? I liked Redon’s Buddha image image for this story. Trust me. It’s a lot more interesting than photos of the two Woolfords!

The Story

The only two men in Britain named Geraint Woolford ended up in neighboring beds in the same hospital.  Geraint Woolford, 77, was a patient at Abergele Hospital in North Wales when Geraint Woolford, 52, was admitted. Both are retired policemen.

The senior Woolford is a past president of the Conservative Club in his hometown of Llandudno.The younger Woolford is  the current vice-chairman of the Conservative Club 34 miles away in the town of Ruthin.The men had never met before and after checking back into their family trees found they were not related.Checks with public records  showed they are the only two people in Britain named Geraint Woolford.

Having two patients on the same ward with the same name caused a headache for staff who had to make sure they were dealing with the right one.The younger Woolford, who was in hospital for a partial knee replacement, said: “They had to double check and triple check everything. But we’ve both definitely had the right operations.It was just uncanny that we ended up in the neighbouring beds. I think the hospital would have been glad to see the back of us. It was a nightmare for them.”

The older Woolford, who underwent a hip replacement operation, arrived first. “They came to me and said that there was another Geraint Woolford coming in. I said, ‘Don’t be silly – there is only me here. There cannot be two of us.’ We had a lot of fun in hospital. Every time the staff came to me I said: “Are you sure that’s for me, are you sure you’ve got the right one?”

A hospital spokesman said: “It was an amazing coincidence – the chances of the only two Geraint Woolfords being admitted at the same time must be millions to one.”
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Interesting, too, about the police and club connections and that both were in the hospital for joint replacements.

Posted in names | 5 Comments

On the Road

Posted on February 2, 2010 by Trish and Rob

 Whether we’re headed across town or across the world, travel removes us from normal routines and habitual thinking.  We’re open to new experiences, uncanny encounters, and all the high strangeness the universe can muster. Travel is the door that opens us to synchronicity.

This travel synchronicity comes from T Thorn Coyle, teacher and  author of several  books on magic and evolutionary witchcraft. She’s also a pagan minister. What we particularly like about this story is that we’ve all been in the situation she describes – on a plane, seated next to a stranger. Is the seating random or synchronistic?As we wrote in a post way back in February, the seating may not be random at all.

Thorn tried to book a flight direct to Charlotte, North Carolina, but couldn’t find one. So she had a layover in Chicago. On the flight between Chicago and Charlotte, she and another woman were in the same row, with a seat between them that was filled with the other woman’s papers and books. Thorn settled in with her music and book while the other woman typed away at her computer. About an hour into the flight, the pilot announced they might encounter turbulence during the descent because of storms around Charotte.

In Thorn’s words:

This woman turned to me and said, “If I reach out and touch you, it is just to reassure myself”. I said that would be OK, and returned to my music and my book. Moments later, the plane shook and her hand reached out. The turbulence passed. Another jolt, and the hand reached out. I pulled off my headphones to tell her it was fine for her to hold the armrest, or indeed my own arm. I saw that she seemed frightened, so began talking her through breathing slowly and down through her feet. Between rounds of turbulence, it came out that I sometimes counseled people with anxiety.

“Really, you work with people who have panic attacks?” she asked.
Yes, sometimes, though not always. “I do spiritual direction,” I said. “I’m a Pagan minister.”

More turbulence. The plane rocked, she gripped my arm. At that point, things began to get much worse for the plane and for her. I leaned over, holding her arm, talking her through breathing. “Touch the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth. Imagine breathing down to your feet.”

She began to whimper and beg for help. It soon became apparent that though we were both trying, she was barely keeping herself together and was heading into full, hyperventilating panic. I told her to hang on, cleared the seat with one hand, got her computer out of her lap and to the floor and said, “I’m coming over.” And I did, buckling myself one handed into the new seatbelt, and pulling her toward me with one arm. The physical enfoldment was not going to be enough, so I threw my aura around her, and asked my contact, LVX, to help. As I murmured that she was surrounded by light and safety, she settled down, resting in my arms. We sat together and breathed as the plane bucked and shook, fighting the wind and rain. We kept breathing and
centering, breathing and centering, for about half an hour, until the plane finally touched ground.

There is more to the story, of course. More effort on both our parts, more snippets of words spoken and energy exchanged. But mostly, the story is, she was afraid and asked for help and I responded.

Once on the ground, she thanked me, calling me “a general among soldiers”. I gave her a few more techniques to try and told her she could contact me, and gave her a bit of LVX to call upon for the journey back to Chicago, and recommendations for Rescue Remedy. Mostly, I told her she needed to deal with this, because putting herself through such strain and terror was not good.

How are we like her? She had sought out hypnotherapy, but talked herself out of believing in it. She is busy. She works. She has children and a partner. She always manages to come last, leaving herself in panicked situations when she most needs the structure of some day-to-day support. What in us, right now, needs to
learn something new, or practice something old, so we are prepared for what may come?

In her crisis, she knew to ask for help. How often do we ask for help? How often are we willing to be vulnerable? How often do we know we have a need, but are avoiding it? What in us prefers the strength of our resistance, bolstering some part of self? What in us needs to control so badly we cannot trust that the pilot
will safely land our plane?

I feel grateful to this woman for all of these reminders, for these lessons, and for giving me both the opportunity to help her and the chance to reflect on the parts of my ego that still engage in the dance of avoidance. So today, I asked for help to face the tasks that are in front of me.

Posted in planes, travel, writers | 13 Comments

Just for Fun

Posted on February 1, 2010 by Trish and Rob

 Matisse – Mimosa

Occasionally, I Google synchronicity just to see what links come up. When I did it recently, I was astonished at the variety of businesses and groups that have that name.

Some of them are related to spirituality, healthier living, the mind/body connection. But the majority have zero to do with synchronicity and a couple of them made me laugh out loud. The word “synchronicity’ seems to be a buzz word of some sort. Here’s a sampling. I’ve linked the ones that either have something to do with synchronicity or which seem to understand the concept.

 
– a boutique
-a theater group in Atlanta
-an art gallery in Michigan
-a Canadian Magazine
-an online magazine – synchronicity seems to be the main thing, there’s a good list of recommended books, but way too much advertising for tarot and psychic readings
 -bookstore in Atlanta
– singing quartet
– consulting firm
-2 marketing companies
– figure skating club in Denver!
-traditional Chinese medicine consultants
– fine arts gallery
– web design company
– ceramic art business

-global finance and philanthropic company – this one is curious. Based in Bermuda, it seems to be both an off-shore global finance company and a philanthropic foundation. The “synchronicity fund” mentioned here appears to manage the funds of hedge funds. Not sure how that’s connected to synchronicity, but the website is well done. 

– spiritual talk radio show – synchronicity and related content

-Last, but not least: an album by The Police

‘If you act as you think
The missing link
Synchronicity’

Posted in words | 6 Comments

The Trickster in Sweden

Posted on January 31, 2010 by Trish and Rob
 

Sometimes, idle surfing around the Internet turns up some really odd synchronicities.This one from Sweden, involving a weight watchers clinic, has the trickster’s fingerprints all over it.

Apparently, while 20  clients of a weight watchers clinic in Växjö, in south-central Sweden, were lining up to be weighed for the week, the floor started to rumble. Some of the people in line thought it was an earthquake. Stuff flew up in the air. Then the floor in a corner of the room collapsed, fault lines spread across the rest of the floor, and other parts of it gave away.

Quoting the article: ”  Luckily, all of the dieters escaped uninjured and managed to move the scales to the corridor, which was not damaged in the accident, and were able to complete their weekly weigh in.
The cause of the floor’s collapse remains under investigation.”
 
Pretty strange, right?

“We suddenly heard a huge thud; we almost thought it was an earthquake and everything flew up in the air.
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Hmm, maybe they should limit their weigh-ins to 15 people, instead of 20.

Posted in trickster, weight | 5 Comments

Void of Course Moon

Posted on January 30, 2010 by Trish and Rob

 

In the Jungian scheme of things, divination systems – I Ching, tarot, astrology to name the most common – fall under the giant umbrella of synchronicity. When you toss coins, lay out cards, study transits you’re actively engaging synchronicity. So with this in mind, here are a couple of synchronicities involving the void of course moon.

The moon changes signs every two and a half days.  It’s said to be void of course when it has left one sign and isn’t quite in the next sign yet. It can last for minutes or hours. Supposedly, when the moon is void of course, confusion rules. Things don’t come to fruition. It’s wise not to start new projects or relationships. The problem with this advice is that the moon is void of course often. However, if you’re scheduling something ahead of time, a look at the void of course tables on an astrology website might be helpful.

Phyllis Vega, my friend and co-author on Power Tarot, called me the other day to tell me a void of course moon story. Her daughter, Sharon, and granddaughter, Jessie, were supposed to go skydiving in the keys on December 28. The weather wasn’t great, so the takeoff was delayed until 1:00. Then it was delayed again. Then it was cancelled altogether. Phyllis, who is also an astrologer,  knew that Mercury went retrograde on 12/26, which might account for events, but also checked to see if the moon was void of course.  “I never paid much attention to the void of course moon, but sure enough, it went void of course at 12:54 PM, six minutes before they were supposed to take off for the jump.”

 A void of course moon and a Mercury retrograde also played havoc with the election on November 7, 2000. Mercury, the planet of communication and travel, had been retrograde for several days when the polls opened on the morning of November 7. The moon was in late Pisces.Around 8 PM that night, the major networks called Florida for Gore. At 9:05 PM, the moon went void of course as it left Pisces and hadn’t yet entered Aries. And at 9:24 PM, Mercury turned direct after several weeks in retrograde motion. Around 10 PM, the networks said that Florida couldn’t be called yet.So we had a communication snafu, with the networks announcing Florida too early, and we had a void of course moon, which means the election didn’t reach fruition.

Fortunately, on Nov. 2, election day this year, Mercury will be direct.

Posted in 2000 election, astrology | 11 Comments

Awareness vs. Synchronicity

Posted on January 29, 2010 by Trish and Rob

One of the things I’ve noticed in following the Google alerts on synchronicity is that techie people, writing about techie stuff, have adopted and adapted the term. They did the same a few years ago with ‘intuition.’ A certain software, they would say, is intuitive, meaning you could learn how to use it without the manual. To me, that meant the software was easy to use. It was logic not intuition that made it easy to operate. When software actually becomes intuitive, it will mean the machines are running the show.

Now the techies are co-opting synchronicity. Some days most of the Google alerts are from technical sites. where ‘synchronicity’ is the term used for things that run parallel…but by design, not chance. It’s casual, not acausal.  In other words, they’re referring to synchronous operations, as in ‘Let’s synchronize our watches.’

All of that said, those of us who see synchronicity as similar events coming together in a non-causal fashion sometimes also misuse the term. We sometimes point to synchronicity when we’re actually dealing with awareness. In other words, we become alert to the possibility of synchronicity.

Here’s an example. Recently, I posted a story about a famous or infamous yoga teacher and his notoriety for sexual expoits with his female students. I pointed out that he is now seen far and wide seated on a mattress, notable by himself. These mattress ads are on television, in magazines, and elsewhere. I considered that synchronicity as well as karma.

So a few days after that post, I was driving along a thoroughfare and realized that directly in front of me was the yoga teacher in question seated on a mattress staring at me. It was an ad plastered on the back door of a City Mattress truck.

To me, that was a case of awareness, not synchronicity. If I had been thinking about that particular teacher and then spotted him staring at me from the back of the truck, I would’ve considered that synchronicity. Instead, his appearance alerted me to the possibility that if I had not made that post, I might not have noticed the poster on the truck. I might have completely overlooked it, or it might not have been there at all.

Here’s another example, this one arrived yesterday from Sansego, well timed.

“I was on Facebook yesterday and saw that a lady I had been interested in for the past two and a half years (we went out a lot and had fun, even though she was in a long distance relationship with a guy in the Netherlands) had posted a picture of Jewel, saying that this singer was who people thought she looked the most like. When I saw that, I immediately thought of Jewel’s song “You Were Meant For Me”, as that is how I feel about Christine. Within five minutes of thinking that, the radio station I had been listening to all day actually played Jewel’s ‘You Were Meant For Me’ as the next song!”

Sansego’s story resonated with me on a couple of levels. When he thought about that song and how it fit his feelings for Christine, it was an example of awareness. When the song came on the radio a short time later, that was synchronicity, and it clearly captured his desires for the relationship, even though his love-interest is out of reach.

In terms of guidance, it seems that a part of him that exists outside of time and space and cause and effect was echoing his desires, or maybe taunting him like a trickster, since the woman has moved to the Netherlands and is engaged.

I might be splitting hairs, distinguishing awareness from synchronicity, but if we see virtually everything as synchronicity, then we might be deluding ourselves and diluting the meaning of the term–as the techies have done. – Rob

Posted in awareness, basics | 6 Comments

Three Only Things Revisited

Posted on January 28, 2010 by Trish and Rob

Synchronicity sometimes leads us to the right people at the right time, the right place, even the right book. This story comes from Karen Anne.
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My story starts at your blog Synchronicity. I was reading your recent blog about the book The Three Only Things, and loved what you wrote. I said to myself when I saw this on your blog that I must get that book. Money being tight…I put it off. Today my daughter called to tell me that while I would be sitting for my granddaughter that I should bring a book since they have no TV, and the baby would be napping during my stay.

So I picked up a book I already had started, but decided to look in my bookcase for another. Something kept me looking and looking….and there right before my eyes was the book The Three Only Things! I had purchased this book a while back, forgot about it and just didn’t read it. I find that sometimes I will purchase a book that might not have relevance at the time, and then find out later it was just the book that I needed in my life later.

This book had been on my mind, and then there it appeared to me. It found me! Thanks for reminding me about it…as my life has had some hurdles lately that have caused me to forget about being consciously watching for coincidence…and paying attention.

Posted in books, robert moss | 1 Comment