First Chapters, Last Chapters

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Trish and Rob

 

I admit to being one of those people who often reads the last chapter of a book first or I read the first chapter and then the last chapter. It doesn’t matter whether the book is a novel or nonfiction. Part of it is that I enjoy seeing how an author carries an idea through from that first paragraph to the last.  With novels, I can’t stand not knowing how the story is going to end. With nonfiction books, I just have to know what the real point of the book is and that’s often condensed in the last chapter.

The book this time: David Wilcock’s The Source Field Investigations: the Hidden Science and Lost Civilizations Behind the 2012 Prophecies. Today at the gym, I stepped onto the treadmill and read chapter 20, the last chapter, entitled Disclosure. Here’s how it begins:

“I do believe a formal, open disclosure of the ET/UFO phenomenon is an essential aspect of our movement into a Golden Age. I have tried to avoid relying on UFO-related accounts in this book, but I do feel there is undeniable evidence that we were visited by human-looking extraterrestrials in ancient times – and that these visits have continued to this very day. Bo discussion of the Source Field is complete without an examination of UFOs and their influence on technology, ancient peoples and the 2012 prophecies.”

As soon as I read this, I felt strongly it was what Wilcock had been working up to all along. Disclosure. This chapter is fascinating in that Wilcock brings together a lot of material from other sources, much of it from India. For instance,  a report in 2006 from the India Daily Technology Team “revealed that UFOs and extraterrestrial civilizations will be announced to humanity on December 2012” and that world governments had been hiding “the truth of UFOs and ETs for decades, but secret preparations are being made to reveal the truth in 2012.” Apparently the countries that are taking the lead in this regard are Brazil, India and China.

I find it difficult to believe that China is on this list, given its repressive society. But here’s a list of countries that have released their UFO files: China is on the list; the U.S. is not.

One of the most intriguing sections of this last chapter concerns a mysterious Mr. X, who was interviewed by Project Camelot. Jerry Pippin apparently interviewed this guy. There isn’t much in the book about Project Camelot – just two references in the index, but more on the web.  Apparently the mysterious Mr. X died of a stroke before he could reveal himself,  but basically, his story is that he had access to top-secret documents that revealed the ET plans to “conduct a mass landing all over the world on December 21st or 22nd, 2012, whether our leaders like it or not….There will be a mass of information released that will shatter not of our core beliefs…If the world stays on the track it is on…we will have to be shown the truth. And if those who run the world do not do it, the ETs will.”

This last sentence intrigued me. The implication is that  the ETs are rebelling against the powers that be who have kept them under wraps. Really? Why would beings who apparently have the ability to travel through both time and space be cowed by the likes of us, who can’t even get their act together enough to conquer unemployment? Hunger in America? Health care for 50 million Americans?

At the end of the day, I am skeptical. I’m not sure why. Wilcock’s book is meticulously researched, duly footnoted, and published by Dutton, a major player in the industry.  As much as I want to believe, it’s tough to believe. I think of Avatar, where the saviors were the aliens (us), who also pretty much destroyed that world before we saved it. I think of Arthur C Clarke’s classic, Childhood’s End, and I think of V and Independence Day and The X-Files and all the other movies and books I’ve read over the years. I think of all the sightings and personal stories of abductions and encounters.  There’s no question in my mind that something is out there, that we are not alone in the universe, that others are probably here and interacting with us in ways we don’t yet understand.

While it’s certainly likely that a global paradigm shift would occur if the skies suddenly filled with UFOs one sunny morning, why is this event tied to the end of the Mayan calendar? It might  happen tomorrow or next week. Or it may never happen at all. We just don’t know. But as a species, we sure do love to speculate. And that’s the strength of this book and of we humans as a species. We always ask, Why? What if? And then what? Our curiosity as a species is what propels and defines us.

 

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A McLovin synchro

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Trish and Rob

We’re always encouraging Megan to watch movies with us, movies that she would normally not watch on her own. Door in the Floor, starring Jeff Bridges and Kim Basinger was one such recent example. She watched it, thought it was sad, but pretty good. Midnight in Paris was another.

So Megan has started doing the same thing to us. She suggests movies that we would normally not watch. Usually they’re ones with teens or post-teens as stars. Zombieland was one such movie. It seemed pretty stupid at first, a campy spoof on vampire movies. But it turned out to be fairly good. We were surprised.

Then her next offering was Superbad. During the first twenty minutes, Trish and I thought the movie was apply titled. It did seem pretty bad, a sophomoric story about three high school nerds who are obsessed with sex, so much so that it seemed the main character was a guy named Dick.

The plot involved getting booze for a party, and one the character manages to get a fake ID. When he proudly shows it off, his friends can’t believe he chose only a last name, McLovin.

To our surprise, we found ourselves laughing at the ridiculous situations the three characters encounter on their evening out in search of booze and  sex. It’s definitely a screwball teenage passage movie as the three guys are all graduating within weeks and heading to college. And I have to admit it did remind me of my own high school madness.

So here’s the synchronicity. The next evening Megan and I went to the dog park. Trish was busy with other stuff. While hanging around the doggie swimming pool, I nudged Megan and told her to look at the t-shirt a kid standing nearby was wearing.

She smiled, walked up to him and said, “Bad ass t-shirt, Dude.” Across the chest in large letters, it read: McLovin.

Until the night before I’d never heard of that 3-year-old movie or McLovin. So as soon as McLovin shows up on my radar, McLovin reappears at the dog park.

A pretty bad ass synchro, right?

 

 

 

Posted in movies, names, synchronicity | 14 Comments

The Light Bulb

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Trish and Rob

This is the light bulb that Thomas Edison invented. The first successful trial of the bulb happened on October 22, 1879 and Edison was granted U.S. Patent #233,898 for the device on January 27, 1880. The rest, as they say, is history. The light bulb spelled the end of gas lights and throughout the 20th century remained largely unchanged from what Edison had invented.

On March 13, 2008, the Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act  was introduced, which would phase out all  incandescent light bulbs by 2025. Edison probably sobbed. But by some estimates, replacing incandescent bulbs with CFLs – Compact Florescent Bulbs – will save $12.5 billion a year just in the U.S.

Sounds like a reasonable way to save money as a country – and in your household, budget, right?

But along comes the Tea Party, ranting and raving about the government’s intrusion into our lives. Just look at what the government is doing, their rant says – forcing us to buy certain types of light bulbs.  You know, like this one, the CFL – Compact Florescent Bulb:

So Michelle Bachman, a Congresswoman from Minnesota and a Republican candidate for president, decided to take up the light bulb mantra. In the midst of the debacle to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, she spearheaded a campaign to repeal the section of the 2007  Energy Act – signed by Bush – that mandates energy efficiency standard for light bulbs starting next year.

I have to admit, I hadn’t heard about this until we were watching recaps of the Republican debate that took place in Iowa last night. And wild-eyed Michelle Bachman actually bragged about spearheading this campaign about light bulbs.Here she is, on the cover of Newsweek:

The synchronicity? That a woman whose lights are off actually believes she’s a viable candidate for the presidency. The trickster joke?  The fact that she’s taken seriously.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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A puppy with a message

Posted on October 1, 2011 by Trish and Rob

This one comes from our friend, Melissa, a former neighbor and baby sitter for a much younger Megan. M now lives in NYC and is involved in the creative arts and entertainment.

***

Here’s a synchro, I think!  One of my employees, Kara, asked if she could leave a little early the other day.  A few days prior a female pit bull showed up on her doorstep and she and her husband, Charlie, couldn’t turn her away.  So, they let her hang out for a while and then took her to the vet over the weekend.  When I asked how the puppy was doing, this was her response — I asked her if I could share it with you and she said yes.

“Thank you for asking!  She is doing fine.  We got her spayed on Thursday at a Non-Profit place.  Thank goodness she wasn’t pregnant, but she was in heat.  Whew!  That was close.  LOL.  They determined she had heartworms.  I am not surprised at all.  The jerks who owned her before didn’t take care of her.  They let her have a litter of puppies during her 1st heat (probably around 9 mths old at the time and no where near full grown) and threw her out on our dead end country road like trash when she went into her next heat.

“She is so precious and sweet.  Normally, we would have just found her a good home, but there are some very strange coincidences surrounding her arrival on our front porch that night.  That day was Charlie’s mom’s birthday.  She passed away 9 years ago.  When Charlie lived with her as an adult he had a big, Pit female.  She was precious to people but not to other small animals.  There was a dumb little dog that would come up and mess with her food bowl.

“His mom grew attached to the little dog.  Lady Belle, the Pit, would jump on the dog if she messed with her food, of course.

Charlie’s mom grew tired of it and said that he would have to take care of it, if it happened again.  Well, it did.  He knew Lady Belle would not be able to be another person’s dog so he had no choice in his mind, or his mom’s, back then but to kill her.  It broke his heart.

“So, what comes up on our porch on that night?  She’s a different kind of Pit, but still, it’s weird.  She is so very sweet….just wants to be loved.  I guess she picked the right home that night.  =)))

Our other dog Daisy is getting used to her presence although they are separated right now while she heals.

“We named her Rainy b/c it was raining so bad that day when I was driving home, and it has rained some every day since her arrival.  So, Rainy Sky Brecken.  I know, so hippie.  LOL.”

***

Sounds like a greeting from the other side. Another related little synchro. Last week, Melissa and her husband John stopped by during a trip to South Florida and we gave her a copy of Synchronicity and the Other Side.

 

Posted in synchronicity | 5 Comments

The Wondrous

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Trish and Rob

This gorgeous ten minute film is worth every second of your time. Thanks to Nancy A for alerting us to it.

 

Posted in synchronicity | 7 Comments

Occupy Wall Street

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Trish and Rob

There are days when I am so disgusted with politics that I can’t watch the news. While Rob sits  in our family room,  switching between Countdown and MSNBC,  I sit in front of my computer, half-listening, trying to concentrate on what I’m doing.  And then I hear that Michael Moore is on The Last Word and I’m lured out into the family room to watch him do his thing from the middle of the protest on Wall Street.

As of tonight, September 29, the protest is in its twelfth day. Until Keith Olberman started talking about this story, the mainstream media had stayed clear of it – even the venerable New York Times wouldn’t touch it, and it was happening in their back yard, sullying up the streets, you know. The Wall Street. The political donors.

So tonight we watched Michael Moore from the midst of this protest.  And as usual, Moore summarized the protest, the struggle: the icons of Wall Street, the hedge fund masters, the brokers who make the deals, are  paying perhaps 15% of their income to taxes, and those of us in the middle class are paying about double.

We know a few of the people in the privileged income bracket, the ones who have been benefiting from the Bush tax cuts for the last decade. For the most part, they’re nice people who recognize the inequality in the tax system and know it wouldn’t hurt their bottom line to pay more in taxes. But they’re almost peripheral to this protest in NY. This protest has all the earmarks  of the sixties, when the draft united people across the spectrum because we all knew that war was amoral, a travesty that only fed  the Pentagon war machine. Now those protestors are entering retirement, and their kids and grandkids are the ones protesting on Wall Street. And since there’s no draft, this protest isn’t about just war.

It’s about…well, everything that has gone wrong in the last ten or eleven years.

Why was this protest ignored by the mainstream media until the cable news folks grabbed it? For the same reason that CNN, back in 2003, ignored the fact that ten million people protested the invasion of Iraq: it didn’t serve the corporate interests. War =big business.

Here are the facts:

Not a single person responsible for the financial meltdown in 2008 has gone to jail or even stood trial. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, the banker boys on Wall Street: they’re all still free men, doing whatever these guys do once they’re no longer in the pubic eye.

It’s not just Republicans, either. Democrats in power are part of the problem. Obama appointed some of Bush’s Wall Street maestros to his team- Bernanke, Timothy Geithner, the guys who, under W gave away the farm,  the homestead, the present and the future and everything else in between. Also, as Michael Moore pointed out, Obama’s largest contributor in the 2008 election was Goldman-Sachs.

The bottom line is that all the politicians are bought and paid for. It’s corporate-democracy, the best government money can buy.

To date, the wars on three fronts – Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya – have cost us nearly three trillion bucks. That’s a lot of zeros. We could have every person in America fed and housed and with health care for that price. Instead, we  have more than 9 % unemployment nationally, more than 16% among Afro-Americans, and around 50 million without health insurance.  The housing market in many states remains so flat that according to a recent study, nearly 25% of Americans are underwater in their mortgages – i.e., they owe more than their homes are worth.

So what’s the answer?

I don’t know. But tonight I said to Rob that it may be time to put on our protest shoes again, and take to the streets, to Wall Street. Let’s occupy Wall Street, wherever we live. As Moore said tonight, we, the people, far outnumber the boys on Wall Street. The time of this inequality is done, over, history. This is how the silly Tea Party was born, funded by the Koch brothers. Let’s show these guys that the only funding we need is that of conscience.

Posted in politics, synchronicity | 35 Comments

The Guidestones

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Trish and Rob

It’s known as one of the strangest monuments in America. It’s called The Georgia Guidestones and seems to provide post-apocalyptic instructions in eight languages, including Swahili and Aramaic. No one knows who commissioned the monument or how it came into being.

We read an article in Wired Magazine about it after seeing a photo and commentary about the Guidestones in Nancy Atkinson’s blog. We weren’t really thinking about doing a post on it until a synchronicity came into play.  The guidestones, it seems, were calling.

First, a bit more info. The stones have existed on a barren knoll in northeastern Georgia for about 30 years. They consist of five slabs of granite, each 16 feet tall. A 25,000 pound capstone rests atop the slabs, four of which weigh more than 20 tons. Apparently a series of notches and holes relate to movement of the sun and stars.

While based in the heart of the Bible Belt, the monument’s text has a  New Age flavor referring to universal love instead of any deities. For that, it has been attacked as the Ten Commandments of the Antichrist. The Guidestones were recently defaced with spray-painted graffiti.

Notes the article in WIRED, “Whoever the anonymous architects of the Guidestones were, they knew what they were doing: The monument is a highly engineered structure that flawlessly tracks the sun. It also manages to engender endless fascination, thanks to a carefully orchestrated aura of mystery.”

After reading the article, we asked Connie Cannon (MathAddict) who lived most of her life in Georgia if she ever heard of the monument. Not only had she heard of it, but she was leaving shortly for a wedding in Georgia and had plans to visit the monument, which was on their route. She said she would send photos.

A mysterious monument and a neat syncho.

 

Posted in guidestones, synchronicity | 14 Comments

Double Heart

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Trish and Rob


Today is the official release date of DOUBLE HEART, which is available in print or digital. The publisher is sending out an interview to media outlets including blogs. So it only makes sense that it should appear here first. Here’s the Q&A.

1) In your own words, Rob, tell us a little about Double Heart and the characters we will meet when you read the book.

Double Heart features Will Lansa, who has moved from a privileged life in Aspen to the Hopi reservation where his father is chief of police. When Will decides to write his senior thesis on Hopi witchcraft, he’s warned against pursuing the subject. That makes it even more enticing to him, especially when he uncovers a long-running feud between the Sun Kachina cult and a coven of Hopi witches. The stakes quickly escalate with murders and a kidnapping and Will finds himself the target of a deadly shapeshifter intent on destroying him.

2) How did the idea for Will Lansa come about? What was his inspiration? What are your plans for Will in the future?

I’ve had a long-time interest in the Hopi because of their mystical traditions and have made several trips to the reservation. I wanted to create a realistic character, one who is both outsider and insider. I was influenced by my own experience as an outsider on the inside. During my twenties, I spent four years as an editor of a community newspaper on an urban Indian reservation – Little Earth of the United Tribes – and from that experience I was able to create Will. Sometimes, though, it seems that Will is an independent entity, one who keeps pushing me to tell his story.

Double Heart is the third installment of the Will Lansa story – following Prophecy Rock and Hawk Moon. After this one, Will graduates not only from high school but from the realm of young adult fiction. In the next novel, Time Catcher, Will is a young anthropology professor, who is called back to the rez by his aging grandmother, Vina, who launches him on another adventure into Hopi mystical reality. Time Catcher also comes out this fall.

3) Now, you’re well known for writing officially licensed Indiana Jones books, which are pure adventure fiction. The Will Lansa stories do have adventure in them, but they are more mystery with a paranormal edge to them. You’ve also written tons of non-fiction as well. As far as genres go, do you have a favorite? Why or why not?

I find writing fiction a bit like brain surgery. It’s difficult and has gotten harder as I’ve moved more and more into plots involving magical reality. That’s what interests me. I also write non-fiction self-help books, some with my wife, Trish. Subjects have included: synchronicity, dream interpretation, astrology, yoga, meditation and psychic development.

Non-fiction is less like brain surgery, but still challenging in different ways. Finding a unique approach to a subject is essential. Of course, so is finding a publisher!

4) Speaking of Indiana Jones, can you share a little about your experience authoring several of his books? What is the process like? How does one get a gig writing books for one of the most beloved adventure heroes in the world?

When I wrote seven Indiana Jones novels, I must’ve been in a trance most of the time. I wrote each one in four months. When I finished one, the next was due four months later. George Lucas insisted that the stories involve real legends and actual sacred artifact. So there was considerable research involved – and no Internet at the time. Indy is also a world traveler, requiring more research, but my background as a travel writer in the 1980s helped out.

I was contracted to write the Indiana Jones novels because I was in the right place at the right time. I had just finished two novels based on scripts for an editor at Ballantine Books. One was written under a tight deadline because another novelist had abandoned the project. As a result, I was rewarded with an offer to write a novel based on the script of an upcoming movie called, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. When the novel hit the Times bestseller’s list, I was asked to write a series of original Indiana Jones novels.

Interestingly, neither the editor at Ballantine nor the folks at LucasFilm knew that I had studied anthropology in college and taken several journeys to archaeological sites in Europe, North Africa, and Latin America.

5) In fiction, who are some authors who have had the greatest influence on your writing? Who does Rob MacGregor like to read for pleasure and escape?

Although they are not categorized as fiction, the stories from my youth that greatly influenced my perspective and writing were the first four books by Carlos Castenada. There are many others, of course, but that’s what pops into my mind at this moment. As far as reading fiction for pleasure, that’s a challenge because I’m always analyzing stories. It’s pleasure, but it’s also work. I recently enjoyed the Stieg Larsson novels.  Lisbeth Salander is one of the most memorable characters I’ve ever encountered in fiction. I’m currently reading The Hunger Games novels,  a 3-part YA series, mostly out of curiosity about how a novelist makes more than $20 million in one year. I haven’t found the answer yet.

6) Besides writing, what else do you do? Hobbies and interests?

I teach three or four yoga classes a week. I also teach a six-week meditation course several times a year. I also enjoy working out in the gym, trail riding on my mountain bike…and a good cup of coffee.

7) If you could only provide ONE piece of advice for aspiring writers, what would it be?

The cynical response would be to keep your day job. However, a better response: write because you enjoy telling a story or writing about a subject. The rest will follow.

 

Posted in books, synchronicity | 11 Comments

Super New Moon in Libra

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Trish and Rob

Apollo 11

Tomorrow, September 27, there will be a new moon in Libra. It will also be a super moon, a new or full moon that coincides with a close approach of the moon to the earth.  New moons are about new beginnings, new chapters opening in our lives.  But thanks to challenging angles from Uranus and Pluto, these new opportunities come at you out of the blue and may be jarring.

Before you read any farther, you may want to go here to find out where Libra is in your natal chart. You’ll need your date, time, and place of birth.  Once you locate where Libra is in your chart, check here to find out what that particular house rules. That’s where the opportunities as well as the challenge will appear. The symbol for Libra:

Let’s say you have Libra on the cusp of your second house of finances. That would mean new money opportunities, but also some sort of angst or tension surrounding finances on that day because of these challenging angles from Pluto and Uranus.

In my own chart, for example, Libra rules my twelfth house. This house rules all that is hidden, the personal unconscious, power you’ve disowned, institutions, dreams. So, with five planets crowded into my twelfth house that day, my personal unconscious is going to be rockin’  and rollin’.  But in terms of opportunities,  I may have a super powerful dream that illuminates a concern I have. I might make new friends, network in a new way,  or have a chance to work behind the scenes, doing something I enjoy. Balance will be key.

At the time of this new moon – 7:09:35 AM EDT, there will be five planets in Libra – the sun and moon, of course, at 4 degrees Libra, Mercury (conscious mind), Venus (love, romance) and Saturn ( structures, karma, discipline). Libra is a cardinal air sign. Libra individuals are perpetually seeking balance and will often bend over backward to find that balance.  So those traits are going to be really apparent in everyone. The challenge is the Uranus opposition to the sun, moon, and Mercury, and an exact and challenging angle (a square) from Pluto. Either one of these challenging angles can make for trouble; both of them could prove to be unpleasant.

Energy will abound on the 27th, thanks to  a strong, positive angle from Mars in Leo, a fire sign that ‘s compatible with Libra. Mars symbolizes, physical stamina, aggression, sexuality.  So, the bottom line here? Buckle up. It could be a very wild ride!

On a global level, this super moon could be a harbinger of earthquakes or other natural disasters. Last’s year February 28 super moon coincided with three events: the February 27,  8.8 earthquake in Chile, the Pacific tsunami warning triggered by that quake, and the February 24 “snow hurricane” in the northeast. Scientists says there’s no connection between super moons and quakes or any other disasters. Here’s an article about that published a day before the super moon on March 19, 2011, and a week after the 9.0 quake in Japan.

Here’s another article where the author  – “weather guy” – isn’t a supporter of the super moon theory. But by the end of this post, he has found some other “coincidences” where disasters coincided with super moons.

Posted in astrology, synchronicity | 19 Comments

Faster than the Speed of Light

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Trish and Rob

If faster than light travel is possible, as the recorded speed of a nutrino apparently proved recently, then time travel is possible…at least for nutrinos. But maybe, just maybe – if you know the ins and outs of the time travel – books can be published before they are written.

That’s what I thought when I noticed that a book, Finite Theory of the Universe, Dark Matter Disproof and Faster-Than-Light Speed, was published one week before the results of the faster-than-light experiment at CERN was made known.

The book, which appears to be very mathematical in nature (not for popular consumption) deals with both artificial faster-than-light motion and natural faster-than-light galactic expansion….and other matters.

So imagine that the author is just now planning to write the book, as a result of the recent experiment,  but he can save a lot of time and effort by simply reading his completed text because the book moved back in time and was available September 16.  Now that would make life a lot easier for writers.

Then again, maybe the publication of the book so close to the release of the experimental data was just a synchronicity. Hmm, that makes synchronicity sound like the reasonable option.

 

Posted in synchronicity | 4 Comments