Synchronous malapropisms

Posted on March 18, 2010 by Trish and Rob


Here’s a short collection of examples of flagrant misuses of the term synchronicity. They range from hilarious to pathetic. I would say that it’s no coincidence if we found out these writers never read Carl Jung, or anything about Jung’s works, or maybe even never heard of the famed psychotherapist who coined the term they are misusing.
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“Synchronicity is a wonderful thing – well certainly if you’re an IT guy in charge of a system that has handheld devices, laptops and desktops reading and writing to your server.  In that kind of environment, software versions that aren’t synched up can mean one device isn’t patched to be protected against a particular virus, and you find a trojan’s found it’s way in via the weakest link.”
– from intisarabioto.com

It is a wonderful thing, but I’m sure these IT guys are finding any meaningful coincidences in their handheld devices, etc.  
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“Running with no interruption, cars moved by some force bigger than me to keep me moving. Synchronicity. Normally, I love it. Not so much while running….At mile three, I was hating synchronicity and all its perfection. And in my hatred, I was able to see through the false sense of orderliness it builds around us. And what I saw was chaos.”
–From a blog called Wandering Through the Words
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Runners, it seems, are competing with techies for strange uses of synchronicity.

“Another 50 feet puts us in front of the first drink stop. Naturally, we’re their first customers because the real runners have yet to make it up Snake Hill. At this point my dear friend is becoming rather exasperated with my slow pace, although I assure her I’m just getting into my rhythm. We’ve just reached a perfect walking synchronicity when shouts alert us to the first runner.”

Let’s see, that would be a perfect walking meaningful coincidence. Hmm. Okay.
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I think the next one is my favorite.

“Carr’s arrival — and his Houston Texans draft-bust days — serves as a painful reminder about what quarterbacks (and power-running, vertical-passing offenses) need to succeed. That boils down to having a wall of 300-pound behemoths who can block with wonderful knee-brace synchronicity.”
–from the San Jose Mercury News 3/12/2010

Yikes, some sports writes are masters of malapropisms. Put that knee-brace synchronicity into your vertical offense and see how far that gets you down the field!

Finally…click to read it, and see if you can figure it out. If you do, tell us.

Posted in misuse of term, word synchros | 10 Comments

Siddhartha/On the Road

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Trish and Rob


 A lifetime ago, I remember reading Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, the best known literary product of the beatnik era. I’ve never forgotten the energy of that book that set off a generation on their own trips. Apparently, the magic of the novel is still alive. Carina Hoak recently posted a related synchronicity on Facebook. After reading On the Road, she picked up another book and here’s what happened.
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I’ve recently bought myself a book entitled “Siddhartha”, by Hermann Hesse. While leafing through it at home, I came across this following passage (much to my surprise):

“In the parlance of cinema, Siddhartha would qualify as a ‘road movie.’ But because the protagonist’s personal motto throughout his various and sometimes contradictory stages of development remains “Thinking, waiting, fasting,” and because he wanders barefoot in an age (circa 500 B.C.) when there was nary a pedal to push to the metal, he logs in a tiny fraction of the mileage accumulated by, say, the characters in On the Road. (…)

“Siddhartha nonetheless does bear a superficial resemblance to Kerouac’s novel, in which, despite their relentless pursuit of kicks, the beatniks maintain a fascination with Eastern philosophy, and, however crudely, demonstrate a hunger for spiritual illumination. For his part, Siddhartha also takes a detour through the pleasurelands of flesh and fermentation before moving on to more refined ground.”

Small detail: I had been reading On the Road a week ago.
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 I read Siddhartha back when I was reading everything that Hermann Hesse wrote. Loved Damian, too. I don’t remember any preface with references to Kerouac or On the Road in the edition of Siddhartha I read,  but I do know that, like Carina, I read the Hesse novel around the same time I read On the Road. 

An added synchronistic touch: After I saw Carina’s post at this  Facebook synchronicity site, I added a post about the link between synchronicity and travel. Carina e-mailed me saying that what I said about travel was very true. She’d just returned from a trip and that was when she’d read On the Road and started Siddhartha. – Rob

Posted in kerouac, siddhartha | 7 Comments

Ray Charles and Frostie

Posted on March 16, 2010 by Trish and Rob

This isn’t a synchronicity, but it will make you laugh!

Posted in birds, ray charles | 6 Comments

Oh, those orbs!

Posted on March 16, 2010 by Trish and Rob

When our daughter, Megan, was a young teen, she wanted to go on a ghost tour during a visit to  St.Augustine, Florida, known as the oldest city in North America. (The village of Oraibi on the Hopi reservation is actually older.) She was very interested in using her new digital camera in hopes of catching a ghost. So, she took photos of  many of the houses and buildings we visited, using a flash, and numerous orbs–spots of light–appeared.

I (Rob) didn’t think much of it. I’d read technical explanations about why orbs appear sometimes on pictures taken with  digital cameras.  But I’d also noticed that Megan seemed to have better luck photographing orbs than I did, unless I was taking pictures of her. See the one above. That photo was taken during an unusual  sunset when the atmospheric conditions had turned the sky deep red. (Also notice the horizontal face above Megan’s head – an extra spooky effect!) All the pictures that evening were charmed with orbs.

Was it synchronicity that Megan was there and so were the orbs? In other words, Megan was interested in  orbs, and they appeared in the pictures. I’d snapped similar dramatic sunsets without Megan, or anyone else, in the viewfinder, and no orbs appeared in the photos.

The first time I noticed an orb in one of my photos was a shot of Megan when she was eight or nine. The orb had a tail, like a comet, and appeared as if it was coming from outside the frame, striking Megan in her mid-section. I took that photo with 35mm film.

So what are these orbs? There are lots of opinions. Here’s what C. Norman Shealy, M.D. says: “Orbs may be to the atmosphere what crop circles are to the earth. Having seen orbs and had them photographed while I am speaking, it is great to know that we are receiving cosmic energetic communication.”

“Orbs may just be evidence that can only be explained outside of the box of current limiting and reductionist worldviews,” wrote James O’Dea, president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

“The orbs are certainly not creatures of our spacetime world. This type of photographic evidence should be accessible with even higher-dimensional life-forms under the appropriate circumstances,” commented William A. Tiller, Ph.D professor emeritus, Sanford University.

Those comments suggest that orbs are something more than stray reflections, moisture particles, spots on the lens, dust or pollen particles, or optical flares, as skeptics maintain. None of the above writers, however, offered specific ideas on the identity of orbs.

But JZ Knight did in the foreword to The Orb Project, by Miceal Ledwith and Klaus Heinemann. Knight is the well known channel for the entity known as Ramtha, who several years ago gave “a long set of teachings on what he called the ‘orb entities.'” In her autobiography, State of Mind, Knight wrote: “They are not just a ball of curious light but rather what you and I are out of our bodies! We are the Ball of Light that is the life-force of our brain and body.”

Knight also wrote that she has seen orbs herself on numerous occasions. So have a lot of other people. My mother, who is psychically sensitive, saw a ball of light in her house in the weeks after my father died. She also saw his nickname, MAC, scrawled in frost on a window next to the chair where he used sit and read. But are these sightings the same thing the digital cameras are picking up?

Personally, I’d rather have a dust speck causing an orb than some dark misguided entity messing up my picture. On the other hand, I openly welcome highly evolved spirits in my world and my photos for guidance and inspiration!

We’d love to hear your experiences and ideas.

Posted in orbs | 17 Comments

Obama & UFOs visit Cleveland area

Posted on March 15, 2010 by Trish and Rob

President Obama flew to the Cleveland area to give his last speech on health care today (Monday). Interestingly, last night was the ninth night in a row that UFOs have been sighted over Lake Eerie and the Cleveland area. Here’s an article with video from  MSNBC.

We don’t know if this is synchronicity, but it’s interesting!

UPDATE: Dennis Kucinich flew with Obama today to Cleveland, and we just happened to remember that Dennis K. was the only presidential candidate in ’08 who said that he has seen a UFO. So, yeah, synchronicity, after all!

Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments

UPDATE: Jung’s Red Book

Posted on March 15, 2010 by Trish and Rob

from Jung’s Red Book

Teapotshappen left a comment on an older post that Jung’s Red Book is available as a free download here. But it’s more than 146MB! Still, it’s too tempting to pass up. Onto the laptop, which has more disk space.

Posted in Carl Jung, red book | 2 Comments

Dead Man’s Curve

Posted on March 15, 2010 by Trish and Rob

 This photo of a dead man’s curve is in Bolivia, but the  next synchronicity is about similar dangerous curve in Georgia.

After reading A Trucker’s Tale, Connie Cannon sent us  the following story.
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Our friends were “Joan and Dave”, (pseudonyms), who had been married for seven years and had no children, although they had been trying to conceive for years.  Dave was a some-times-heavy beer drinker, and on the night of April 12, 1970, had gone out in his Mustang to a bar on the other side of Atlanta.  He got back into the car after having too much to drink, was driving much too fast, and on a curve that was so dangerous it had been dubbed “dead man’s curve”, Dave lost control of his vehicle and rammed it into a tree.  Almost every bone is his body was broken and, for all intents and purposes, he was dead, kept alive by a respirator.

When we received the call and went to the hospital, I found Joan in the chapel there on her knees sobbing, begging God to let Don live because she wanted a baby so badly.

Dave did not only miraculously survive, but survived with no after affects whatsoever.  Later, I helped Joan fill out their insurance forms, and according to the police report the accident had occurred at 2:02am on April 13, 1970.

A few months passed, and they conceived a baby boy.  More time passed, and Dave traded automobiles.  He purchased a brand new Pontiac Grand Prix, in which he went out drinking on the night of April 12, 1972, to the same bar on the other side of Atlanta.  Coming home, once again driving too fast and inebriated,  he flew around Dead Man’s Curve.  But he didn’t make it.  The car smashed into a steel utility pole.

Dave was carried to the same hospital.  He had no visible injuries this time, but had sustained a closed head injury and it killed him.  According to the police report, (I again helped Joan with the insurance forms), the accident happened at exactly 2:02am on April 13, 1972, exactly two years from the moment of his first accident.

At both accident scenes the police knew the time because the car clocks had stopped at the moment of impact.

Did the Universe answer Joan’s sobbing supplications and allow Dave to survive another two years so that they could have their baby boy?

The police reports and insurance papers prove the exact time and place of both accidents.

But who can prove the reason Dave recovered from the first, only to conceive a child and then die at the (apparent) originally appointed time?

His wife has never re-married, remaining a widow to this day, almost 38 years later.  She remains totally spooked by the synchronicity of the events surrounding her husband’s accidents and subsequent death, but is comforted by their son.

Posted in car accidents, travel | 11 Comments

Loki – Shape shifter, trickster

Posted on March 14, 2010 by Trish and Rob

Loki, by Manarama

The other day someone asked the meaning Caleuche, the name of the ghost ship we’d written about. A short time later, d page responded with a succinct answer–it was a word from an Indian language that meant shape shifter. How appropriate that was since the ship and the crew were known as shape shifters.

So it was interesting when, a short time later, I found myself reading about another shape shifter – Loki. Here’s the passage:

“One of the best-known trickster myths features the Norwegian god, Loki, the son of two giants. He possessed great ingenuity, but was a rascal and raconteur who enjoyed stirring up trouble. A shape-shifter who took various forms—including a horse, falcon, and fly—Loki could even change his gender, so it’s no wonder trickster synchronicities appear in many guises. Loki hung out with the major gods, Odin and Thor, yet he was often their enemy. When he wasn’t invited to a banquet at Valhalla, for instance, he crashed the party, becoming the thirteenth guest. He lumbered around, demanding food and alcohol, embarrassing everyone. He even tricked Hoder, the blind god of darkness, into shooting Balder, the god of light and joy, with a mistletoe-tipped arrow. Balder died and the earth was plunged into darkness. Ever since, the number thirteen has been considered unlucky.”

The source for that  paragraph? Seven Secrets of Synchronicity.  I was reading the galleys, our last step before publication in August.
Rob

Posted in Loki, shape shifters, trickster | 13 Comments

Corey & the Trickster

Posted on March 14, 2010 by Trish and Rob

Another actor has died and once again we’ve found a synchronicity related to his recent acting career. Previously, we’ve written about the deaths of David Carradine and Keith Ledger, Bruce and Brandon Lee, and the synchronicities related to them.

Now Corey Haim, who starred in Lost Boys as a teenager, has died at age 38 after a career that was marred by drug use. For years, Haim’s debilitating drug use eliminated him from consideration for movie roles. He started making a comeback a couple of years ago, co-starring with Corey Feldman on Two Coreys, a reality show that lasted two seasons. Last year, he had a role in Crank 2:High Voltage. (Although the movie isn’t drug-related, crank is street term for amphetamines.) The tag line for the movie is: He was dead…But he got better.

 This year, Haim starred in his first movie in two decades, which will be released this fall. The apt title: American Sunset. The tagline: Everything is a clue and everybody has something to say, even if it is from the grave. And so it is for Corey Haim.

Also, notice the limo in the publicity photo. It looks like a hearse.Once again, it sounds like the trickster was active in the passing of an actor.

Posted in lost boys, movies | 3 Comments

Five Minutes of Pleasure

Posted on March 13, 2010 by Trish and Rob

 According to neuropsychiatrist Dr. Louann Brizendine, author of “The Female Brain,” men think about sex every 52 seconds. Meanwhile, women tend to think about sex once a day. (Ha! says Trish.)
 
So, being a guy, I figured it wasn’t really synchronicity when a woman at the gym obliviously made a remark that could be interpreted as a double entendre. We were talking about diet. Since she is in training for an upcoming competition, I was curious about what she ate. She said the most difficult time was the evening, when it would be so easy to grab a bag of potato chips while watching television. 

I suppose we’d been talking about a minute–at least 52 seconds at that point–when she added: “But for five minutes of pleasure, it’s not worth it.” With that she excused herself and walked away.

Her last comment was overheard by a guy who’d just arrived in that corner of the gym, and didn’t know what we’d been talking about. He gazed after the woman, then turned to me. “Did I hear that right? Five minutes of pleasure? I think it would be worth it.”

“She apparently doesn’t think so.” Then I explained what we’d been talking about. We laughed a bit about that. Then, as if on cue, Synchronicity, by the Police, came on the gym’s sound system. So maybe it was one after all.

Posted in police, words | 8 Comments