End of the Road

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Trish and Rob

Death is the ultimate journey, the ultimate transition, the end of the road. So it’s not surprising that it’s a fertile ground for the occurrence of synchronicity. In The Waking Dream, author Ray Grasse has collected a number of them. Here are some of the most unusual:

– Director John Huston’s last film was called The Dead.
– When John Lennon was murdered in 1980, his top-ten single was entitled, “Starting Over.”
– At the moment that the wife of author and psychologist Ken Wilber died, a powerful windstorm blew through the town where they lived. When Wilber checked the papers the following day, he discovered that the storm didn’t extend outside their town.
-Humorist Will Rogers died in a plane crash in 1928 with aviator Wiley Post. Rogers’ typewriter was found in the wreckage and the last word he had typed was “death.”
– When Hank Williams died, his most popular recording was “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive.”
-Singer Martin Gaye’s song, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” surged in popularity a day after his death, when the movie The Big Chill was released and his song was used in the opening scenes of a funeral.

“Looked at deeply, every death has some significance symbolically,” Grasse writes.

In Jung & Hesse, Record of a Friendship, Chilean writer Miguel Serrano tells a remarkable story about the end of Jung’s life that was related by Jung’s daughter, as they stood in the garden of his Bollingen tower.

She led Serrano and his son to a tree under which Jung used to sit, and pointed at a huge scar that ran along the trunk from top to bottom. “When my father died, there was a tremendous storm over Kusnacht – something which never happens at that time of year. And in the course of the storm, this tree was struck by lightning.”

Serrano looked at the scar. “I took it as a sign that Jung had reached the center of universal forces; Nature had responded; it had been moved; there was synchronicity.”

Posted in death, Jung, Ray Grasse | 14 Comments

Jung’s Dream Premonitions

Posted on October 6, 2009 by Trish and Rob

In Jung’s autobiography, he recounts a number of premonitions he had through dreams and visions. One of the most interesting sequences began in the fall of 1913, when he felt that “the atmosphere actually seemed to me darker than it had been before. It was as though the sense of oppression no longer sprang exclusively from a psychic situation, but from concrete reality.”

In October 1913, while traveling solo, a vision swept over him. He saw a “monstrous flooding” that covered the northern and low-lying area between the North Sea and the Alps. As the flood water approached Switzerland, he saw that the mountains grew higher to protect the country. “I saw the mighty yellow waves, the floating rubble of civilization, and the drowned bodies of uncounted thousands. Then the whole sea turned to blood.” The vision, Jung wrote, lasted an hour.

Two weeks later, the vision recurred, even more vividly. He wrote that “an inner voice” spoke to him and made it clear that the vision was “wholly real and it will be so.”

He subsequently concluded that the vision had to do with him and that he “was menaced by psychosis.”

In the spring and early summer of 1914, he dreamed – 3 times – that a terrible cold “had again descended from out of the cosmos.” But at the end of the dream there was a lone leaf-bearing tree, but without fruit. Jung thought of it as his tree of life. Because of the frost, the leaves had been transformed into “sweet grapes full of healing juices. I plucked the leaves and gave them to a large, waiting crowd.”

On August 1, 1914, World War I broke out.
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This story is included in chapter 6, Confrontations with the Unconscious. It’s one of the most powerful in his autobiography.

If anyone has bought a copy of Jung’s Red Book and read it, we would love to hear wht you think about it. It’s selling on Amazon for $105.

Posted in dreams, Jung, premonitions | 19 Comments

The Pauli Effect

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Trish and Rob

There are some people who, when they enter a room, stuff happens. Appliances go berserk, computers crash, cell phones act up. Physicist Wolfgang Pauli, one of the early supporters of Jung’s theory on synchronicity, was one such person. In fact, it happened so frequently when Pauli was around that his co-workers called it “the Pauli effect.” But with Pauli, the effect could happen when he wasn’t even present.

In Deciphering the Cosmic Number: The Strange Friendship of Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung, author Arthur I. Miller discusses an incident that happened in the 1920s. One afternoon at the University of Gottingen in Germany, a complicated apparatus for the study of atoms collapsed, without apparent cause. Pauli was in Switzerland at the time. “At last, said his colleagues, relieved, here was clear proof it couldn’t be the Pauli effect.” The professor in charge of the laboratory wrote Pauli, telling him abut the event. After a protracted delay, he received a letter from Pauli saying that he had been on his way to Copenhagen, but at the moment the equipment broke down, his train had stopped for a few minutes at the Gottingen station.

Miller also relates another story that happened in 1955. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the discovery of Einstein’s special theory of relativity, Pauli was to lecture at the Zurich Physical Society. Three of his friends and colleagues had dinner with him beforehand, then they all set out for the lecture. One Swiss physicist was on his scooter, saw he was low on gas, and stopped at a gas station. His scooter caught fire, was totaled, and he had to walk. A second Swiss physicist discovered that his bike had two flat tires, so he had to walk, too. The third man took the tram, which he did frequently, but forgot to get off at the right stop.

They all made it to the lecture, but as one of the men observed, “A defining feature of the Pauli effect was that Pauli himself never experienced any harm.”

As one of Pauli’s close friends noted, “It is quite legitimate to understand the ‘Pauli effect’ as a synchronistic phenomenon as conceived by Jung.”
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Do any of you know someone like this?

Posted in pauli effect, telekinesis, Wolfgang Pauli | 26 Comments

Updated Signs

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Trish and Rob

This post is an update to The Sign, that comes from Nevine. We talked about it- was it really a synchronicity since both people knew what the other liked in books? We decided it was a good example of the kind of telepathy involved in close relationships.
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Well, let me tell you about my little experience, last weekend. While you were at Barnes and Noble, I was at Borders. I’d just finished with an appointment at my hair salon and was at Borders, really, to pick up my husband, who was waiting for me there. Well, I didn’t find him, and I figured he’d walked to his favorite cigar shop around the corner. So, I wanted to see what was new at Borders, and I saw that “The Lost Symbol” was available, as was Ted Kennedy’s “True Compass”. I knew my husband had talked about Kennedy’s book, so I picked it up for him, and “The Lost Symbol” for myself. Then, I walked to the cigar shop to find my husband. There he was, with his cigar in his hand, smiling at me as I walked in the door. And he said to me, “Check out what I got at Borders. I got ‘The Lost Symbol’ for you, and ‘True Compass’ for me.”
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A psychic exchange.
***
UPDATE on the UPDATE
When we first posted IT’S A SIGN, I mentioned the phrase AS ABOVE, SO BELOW to explain the odd sequence of reading passages from two books that seemed to go together, one from the POV of a helicopter pilot chasing a car, and one from the driver of a car being chased by a helicopter. And both in desert settings. I didn’t buy either book, but Trish bought THE LOST SYMBOL. So I was reading Dan Brown’s novel on a recent trip, and oddly enough ne of the themes repeated 2 or 3 times in the first 100 pages was: AS ABOVE, SO BELOW.
Rob

Posted in books, dan brown, the lost symbol, the sign, writers | 23 Comments

Out of Africa

Posted on October 3, 2009 by Trish and Rob


After receiving dozens of e-mails over the years that a long-lost relative has left me millions of dollars – the notorious Nigerian Scam – I have received an e-mail from Nigeria about a book on coincidences.

At first, I was wondering if this was a new and clever approach to entice me to send my bank account numbers to an unknown person, but Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth is not only is sincere, but has a book out that takes a unique approach to synchronicity. In essence, Augustine connects Western philosophers, scientists, celebrities, etc. with African counterparts. His web site promoting the book, however, lacks examples. So, Augustine sent me one. Here it is. You be the judge.
***

Saint Augustine of Hippo(354-430A.D), an Algerian, has been described
as the greatest thinker to have come out of Africa.

Whereas Fela Anikulapo-Kut, a Nigerian, has been described as the
greatest musician to have come out of Africa.

One of the names given to Fela by his Fans is Augustine because of his
protruding head.In the Yoruba Language a protruding head is known as OGO
anglicized to AUGUR and so the name AUGUSTINE.

Fela was born in 1938 the year the Augustinian monks came to settle in
Nigeria precisely in Jos where the Augustinian Seminary and
the Augustinian Monastery are located.

Saint Augustine and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti both have been described as
womanizers and philosophers. Saint Augustine was a priest and Fela a chief priest.

Saint Augustine’s mother, Saint Monica, has been described as the patron
saint of mothers and Fela’s mother, Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, has been described as an icon of the struggle of Nigerian women and the mother of Africa.
***
Those of us with an interest in reincarnation might see these connections as synchronicity AND possible examples of reincarnation. At the very least, it shows we are all connected.
– Rob

Posted in africa, names | 10 Comments

6 Degrees of Separation

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Trish and Rob

Most of us have heard the phrase 6 degrees of separation. But just to be sure I understood it, I looked it up on wikipedia. “6 degrees of separation (also referred to as the “Human Web”) refers to: if a person is one step away from each person they know and two steps away from each person who is known by one of the people they know, then everyone is at most six steps away from any other person on Earth. It was popularized by a play written by John Guare.”

It fits this next story from Carol Bowman, author and past-life researcher. We previously posted another one of her synchronicities.
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In September of 2007 a friend of mine alerted me to an essay in The New York Times written by Sandy Ungar, a former NPR host and the current president of Goucher College. The essay was about Sandy’s accomplished brother who died before Sandy was born. He talked about living in the shadow of his brother, and concluded his essay with a comment about believing that somehow they might share the same soul.

Having written a book about reincarnation in the same family, I wondered if indeed Sandy Ungar was the reincarnation of the brother who died before his birth. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to present that possibility to the author of the essay.

I wrote a cover letter explaining my twenty years of research of children’s past life memories, included a copy of my book, and mentioned that I was occasionally in the Baltimore area because my brother, a medical researcher at Johns Hopkins, lived in the area. I sent off the package and never heard from Sandy Ungar. I wasn’t too surprised, and forgot about it.

This evening I was talking to my brother, Paul, who is a medical researcher and an ophthalmologist at Hopkins. He has been suffering with the flu for the past week. He said the most disappointing part of being sick was that he missed an opportunity to have dinner at Sandy Ungar’s house with Karl Rove! I interrupted him, “You know Sandy Ungar?” (I didn’t even mention my shock that my liberal Democrat brother would have an opportunity to have dinner with Karl Rove.) He told me that he is Sandy’s wife’s doctor. I then told him how I had tried to contact Sandy a couple of years ago because of the essay he wrote. Paul said, “You should have told him you were my sister!” Of course, I didn’t know there was a direct connection two years ago when I wrote the letter and I used my married name, so Sandy couldn’t have known Paul is my brother.

Posted in 6 degrees of separation, Bowman, connections, Ungar | 14 Comments

Oh, Brother!

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Trish and Rob


Here’s a quite astonishing story of like attracting like, the law of attraction, and synchronicity. Enjoy.
***

Gary Nesbit was just the guy carrying the other end of the couch for deliveryman Randy Joubert. At least that was the case until the coworkers found out they were brothers. Both adopted at birth, the men made the discovery decades later while working side by side at the same furniture delivery company in Maine.

Nesbit has worked for the delivery company in Waldoboro for 7 years. Joubert joined the business in July. Joubert had been researching his family history after a state law allowing adopted children to obtain their birth certificates became effective Jan. 1. Joubert learned that both of his parents had died, but in their obituaries he found his parents had another son, born on June 10, 1974.

Customers routinely told the 30-something deliverymen they looked like brothers.
In August, when a customer again mentioned their resemblance, it clicked for Joubert, according to the Bangor Daily News.

He started asking Nesbit some personal questions. “As soon as he said his birthday I knew,” Joubert told Villagesoup.com. The two brothers, just a year apart, grew up in neighboring towns and attended rival schools. Finding each other nearly 35 years later was a shock to both men. “Phenomenal,” Nesbit said.

But the chance discovery didn’t end there. A teary-eyed woman showed up at the brother’s workplace on Thursday (Sept. 17) clutching a birth certificate.
She is their half-sister.

“I’m really awestruck,” Joanne Campbell, who was born to the same mother five and six years before the two men, told the Bangor Daily News. “After all of these years, here I am 41 and now I finally found my brothers.”

Posted in adoptions, brothers, law of attraction | 13 Comments

The Owl and the Money Clip

Posted on September 30, 2009 by Trish and Rob

Here’s another good story from Jim Banholzer that involves owl medicine. He heard it from a friend, Tammy, after he helped her and her husband Richard move into a new house.
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At the old place, Richard and Tammy had lived with a single mother, an arrangement that worked great in some aspects, but also felt a little cramped, which tends to get worse during harsh Idaho winters. Both families had gone down to look at the prospective larger house a few times. All four kids loved it, as did Tammy and her single-mother friend. Richard wasn’t so sure; after all, they had already moved earlier this year. His hesitation was understandable, as the new house cost more and he is the main breadwinner.

With the pressure on to decide soon, one evening Richard vociferously announced that he was “going fishing.” He walked down to the river to spend some time alone and reflect. As the evening twilight progressed, an enormous owl swooped down over the water and dropped something shiny. Richard waded out to where the owl dropped the item and discovered an empty money clip. Examining it closer, he saw that the silver was emblazoned with his own initials!

Richard took the owl’s message as a sign, which helped him, decide that his family would be better off in the end if they made the move. Coincidentally, a few months ago, at their old house I had dropped off some animal totem books, including the one by Trish. On a whim, I marked one of the owl stories with a copy of my own owl story, using it as a bookmark. It’s called The Midday Owl who Withdrew from the Bank.

What’s interesting about my story is that it’s the same one that forty moons ago, I sent to Trish, when I saw a sentence towards the end of her and Millie’s totem book, which asked readers to contact them, if they had any interesting animal encounter stories of their own. In other words, the same story I stuck in their book is the same story that led to your and my Internet friendship and enduring exchange of ideas!
***
Thanks, Jim. And that was long before we began this blog.

Posted in messengers, money clip, owls | 14 Comments

More and Better

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Trish and Rob


MORE AND HIS BUDDY

BETTER

This story comes from a young woman in NYC, who is applying to graduate programs to pursue her master’s in fine arts.
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I was writing my MFA admission material and in my story I had these two birds. One was named “better” and I was thinking of naming the other one “More.” I ended up naming that bird Stendhal. But later that day, I was reading this essay that was totally unrelated and here was the first lines:

“For most of human history, the two birds More and Better roosted on the same branch.” (from this blog)
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It seems to me that she’s on the right track. I mean, does it get any better than More and Better?

Posted in birds, word play | 6 Comments

Remembering Kate Duffy

Posted on September 28, 2009 by Trish and Rob

Yesterday morning, I thought about my former fiction editor, Kate Duffy, and wondered how she was doing. I considered dropping her an email, but didn’t. Then this morning, I learned that Kate died yesterday. Not a welcome synchronicity.

She was an original, an Aquarian with a Cancer moon who had a biting wit and a raucous laugh. She rescued my fiction career in February 1997, when she bought one of my paranormal thrillers, Hanged Man. We did a total of 12 books together and during that time, I came to appreciate how rare she was as an editor. She understood that novelists do their best work when they write about what they love and always gave me complete creative freedom. She was also a relentless cheerleader for my books.

But more than this, Kate understood the terrain of the human heart. When my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimers and my dad moved in with us, she called frequently to find out how we were doing. In May of 2000, Kate called when I was sitting at my desk, sobbing, and I told her I would have to call her back. She wouldn’t let me get off the phone until I told her what had happened. I had just been told by my mother’s doctor that she wasn’t a candidate for hip replacement surgery because of the Alzheimer’s and that she was now doomed to live out the remainder of her life on morphine. Kate talked me through it. When my mother died, when my father passed on several years later, she was there to talk.

When her dad was ill, I remember looking at her birth chart – and his – and telling her about a challenging period that was coming up. A few months later, I felt something had happened to her and called her cell – which I’d never done before. She was on the train, her father had just died.

During a trip to New York, Kate took Megan and I out to lunch and asked Megan, then 15, about the time travel novel she was writing. She listened as though Megan were one of her authors and then gave her some advice about it. This is the kind of person she was.

Her time and expertise were always available to me and I used both liberally. I could give her a single paragraph of an idea and she would know immediately whether it would work. When I was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe award, Kate sent roses. When I won, I sent roses to her.

At a romance conference in Orlando in 2005, the last time I saw Kate, she and I stole away at nine PM one night to watch Lost, a show we both loved. We drank wine and laughed, talked life and politics. On my way home the next day, I had a weird feeling that I wouldn’t ever see Kate again. Fifteen minutes later, I got a flat tire. At the time, I didn’t associate the thought with the flat tire.

The relationship between novelists and their editors is often complex. You may be friends, but you’re always aware the editor has the final say on what you write. So in April 2008, when I learned from my agent that Kensington wouldn’t be renewing my contract, I was hurt. I had sensed it might happen,but here it was. Real. Kate called me later that afternoon – something she certainly didn’t have to do – and told me how much she had enjoyed working with me. I understood it was business, so it didn’t feel like a dismissal. It felt like what it was – Kate reaching out one last time to offer encouragement, options.

We were both big Obama supporters, so it seems fitting that the last email we exchanged was right after Obama had won the election.

Me: We’re watching the birth of a whole new paradigm! Yahoo!!!
Kate: Went to bed in tears.

I’d say, rest in peace, Kate, except that you probably aren’t. I figure you’re starting your own publishing house on the other side and writers are already flocking to you. I’m sure I’ll see you around or hear that booming laugh in some unexpected place. Take care, Kate, and thanks for everything.

Posted in books, editor, Kate Duffy, writers | 16 Comments