The Caleuche, Part 2

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Trish and Rob

 Homes on stilts – known as palofitos

On March 3, we posted Part 1 of the Caleuche story – the ghost ship that allegedly sails the waters around Chiloe, an island off the coast of Chile.  So let’s pick up with the abduction phenomenon associated with the crew of the ghost ship.

One morning in 1935, when Juan Antonio Fernandez was 16, he left his home at dawn to go fishing. He recalls that he arrived at a small hill that overlooked the beach and heard a strange noise, like motors. Two days later, his family found him wandering aimlessly on the beach.

“I had a terrible scar on my chest, shaped like a gigantic hand with long, narrow fingers,” Fernandez said. “It didn’t hurt and the strange part was that it looked as if it were old.”

Author Cardenas Tabies spoke with Fernandez’s family, who said he was never quite the same after his disappearance. He was difficult, assaulted people without provocation and spoke and worked only when he was in the mood. Cardenas coaxed Fernandez  into showing him his scar. “I have never seen anything like it,” Cardenas said. “The hand covered almost his entire chest, like a scar from a severe burn. When I questioned him about it, he said that if he revealed the secret he would die.”

Armando Pacheco, a journalist and writer in Valparaiso on the Chilean mainland, theorizes that the legend of the Caleuche is so deeply ingrained that the islanders are predisposed to sightings. He contends that the Caleuche is an archetype of the collective mind of the islanders, “given reality through their intense and prolonged belief in it.”

The belief in the ghost ship is so deep that the islanders take special care with aquatic birds and animals for fear that one of them might be a brujo – a sorcerer – from the ghost ship in an altered form. “The legend,” wrote Tabies in Aboard the Caleuche, “states that if any harm comes to a crew member while he is transformed, the guilty party will be killed or abducted and condemned to sail the seas forever as a galley slave.”

One night in march 1976, a farmer in Chauques heard a cry that awakened him, a “kind of bleating,” that seemed to be coming from under his house. He got his dogs and woke up the mai and they went down to investigate. “It was a wolf, trapped between some mudwall panels.” The farmer quickly unfastened three of the panels and the wolf scampered out into the darkness and toward the sea. “I have never before seen a wolf in these parts. I have no doubt the animal was a mariner from the Caleuche.”

We visited the National Museum in Ancud, which at that time was a rather humble building that housed a small, straw-woven sailing vessel, representing the Caleuche. It rested in the center of a table of the main room. Surrounding it were an assortment of straw creatures – wood nymphs, sea monsters, trolls, mermaids and brujos, all symbolizing the island’s mythological inhabitants. Uribe Velazque, who at that time was the museum’s director, said the ghost ship exists only in the fertile imaginations of the islanders, as part of their rich folkloric tradition.

In an article, she wrote: “What would Chiloe be without her Caleuche, her trolls and mermaids and sorcerers?” she asked. “I can’t imagine a night of the full moon without the sudden appearance of the illuminated ghost ship. I cannot conceive of a summer twilight when the profound silence is not broken by the Caleuche’s enchanted music.”

Tabies, though, firmly believes the Caleuche exists. He cites the words of Tim Dinsdale’s from Loch Ness Monster: “There are two types of mysteries: those which are accounts of experiences which have occurred and cannot be explained, and those born of the history of a people.” The Caleuche, says Tabies, is a mystery of both kinds.

We have more to tell about the Caleuche and the brujos on Chiloe, including a peculiar personal experience. But we’ll save that for a third and final segment.

Posted in caleuche, chile, ghost ships, travel | 14 Comments

The Caleuche: The Ghost Ship of Chiloe

Posted on March 3, 2010 by Trish and Rob
 It was a synchronicity that led us to the island of Chiloe, Chile, and the legend of ghost ship Caleuche. We first heard about the ghost ship on a flight from Miami to Santiago, in July 1983. We were on our honeymoon and Chile was our first destination. We struck up a conversation with the woman who sat next to us and asked her where the mythology, the mystery, of Chile could be found. “Chiloe,” she said without hesitation.

We’d never heard of it. 

“It’s an island off Puerto Montt, where land transportation ends in my country.  From Puerto Montt, you take a ferry to Chiloe.The name means land of sea gulls. There, they believe in a ghost ship, the Caleuche, that is manned by sorcerers or brujos, who are immortal and possess the power to alter their shapes at will. They can transform themselves into wolves, fish, rocks and birds, and when they take human form, they are tall, foreign, blond.” She went on to say that some islanders believed that the ship itself could transform its shape.

We were hooked. Our synchronistic choice of seats pretty much defined our journey through Chile. We spent two days in Santiago, then boarded an overnight train to Puerto Montt. It was the middle of winter in Chile and as soon as we arrived in Puerto Montt, we went shopping for jackets. Floridians, it seems, are never prepared for winter–especially in July.  The next morning, we hopped the ferry to Ancud, one of three towns on Chiloe. Once we found a place to stay, we started our exploration. 
At a local restaurant, we quickly discovered that the ghost ship wasn’t just a myth to the locals. It was based on real events that involved encounters with the brujos, who supposedly crewed  the ship. The villagers also spoke of stories of the pincoyas – the mermaids – that inhabited the waters near the island. Everything in the restaurant – from the ashtrays to the art on the walls – depicted the ship, the mermaids, the brujos.
We asked our waiter if there was anyone in town we could talk to who had seen the Caleuche. He directed us to a neighborhood down the road, where many of the homes are built on stilts that keep them above the water. “Ask anyone you see about the Caleuche.”

But first, we stopped at the pier where a fisherman offered us a local delicacy – a sea urchin cut in half, spines removed and the jelly-like innards splashed with lime juice. Rob tried one, and while he was devouring it, I asked the fishermen about mermaids. He sort of chuckled. “The legend says that when the fish are running, the mermaids face shore. When the fish are gone, the mermaids face the ocean, so their backs are to us.”

My next question – had he ever seen one – brought a response that turned out to be fairly common. “My father did.” Or, my cousin, grandmother, friend etc. But there were also people who claimed to be actual witnesses.

We walked on toward the outskirts of town and paused on a bridge, gazing out over the harbor where the Caleuche supposedly had been sighted. One night in 1968, a pastor in Ancud was startled to see a large sailing vessel enter the shallow, unnavigable waters of the Rio Pudeto, where we were standing. “I saw several brilliant lights, then a mast, then two more masts and finally, a ship illuminated in brilliant colors.” Father Garcia watched the ship for half an hour before it disappeared in the same slow manner that it had materialized.

Chilean author Antonio Cardenas Tabies believes he sighted the ship in one of its altered forms – as a small launch that approached him and his four companions in the fog. Even though the boat passed within several feet of their boat, they didn’t see anyone on board and didn’t hear any noise from the motor. Then Cardenas and his buddies seemed to have some sort of space/time slippage. They kept rowing for hours and at dawn, found themselves in the same spot. “We hadn’t advanced a meter in any direction,” Tabies wrote in Aboard the Caleuche, published in Santiago in 1980. But that experience led him to interview dozens of islanders who had witnessed an appearance of the ship or encountered its crew members.

Many of the experiences Tabies recounts seem to deal with individuals who bear an uncanny resemblance to MIBs. The crew has been blamed for abductions of islanders. When these abductees returned to their villages, they didn’t have any memory of where they’d been.  One man who was supposedly abducted at the age of 18 and returned to his village 50 years later, claimed he had been on a boat and implored his brother not to ask anything more about it.

We’ll continue this be story in a subsequent post. We still have the article that we wrote for FATE in May 1984, but have to figure out a way to scan it into PDF format so we can make it available.

Posted in chile, ghost ships, travel | 14 Comments

Doppelgängers

Posted on March 2, 2010 by Trish and Rob


This synchronicity comes from Mike Perry, whose blog on synchronicity always has terrific stories and great insights. When I first read the story on his blog, I thought, Wow, a doppelganger!

A doppelganger is usually defined as the ghostly double of a living person, perhaps due to bilocation, and is often referred to as “evil.” In  Mike’s story, there’s nothing ghostly or evil about his doubles!
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I’m not sure if this comes under the category of coincidences and synchronicity but it’s something that has worked to my advantage.

Sometimes I get mistaken for someone else, usually with the same surname. A couple of examples:

My wife and I were on a holiday / vacation in Wales and I thought we deserved a meal in a good restaurant. I phoned to make a reservation and whoever I spoke to was extremely polite, almost over the top and I booked a table for 8.30pm.

We got to the restaurant at about 8.15pm, we walked in, I said I was Mr.Perry and had a reservation.

“Ah Mr. Perry,” was the reply or words to that effect, “Lovely to see you again. How was South Africa?”
I was a little unsure what to say but, to my wife’s embarrassment, I just went along with it. Who was I to argue? “Fine thanks.” Needless to say I hadn’t been to South Africa.

The meal was superb, we had one of the best tables and the service was first class. We almost felt like royalty.

The second instance was again when we were on holiday / vacation. This time in the USA. We were travelling through Phoenix and had booked an hotel for two nights in advance.

I walked over to reception and the person behind the desk said, “Mr. Perry, how nice to see you again. We have given you the same room.”

I had never been to Phoenix previously (I live in England) or, for that matter, the part of Wales where the restaurant I mentioned was situated.

What does this mean? To be honest I don’t really know, but there have been quite a few similar instances. All I can say is that mostly when it happens it’s to my advantage, as I get well looked after.

Anyone else had this sort of thing happen?

Posted in doppelgangers, travel | 18 Comments

Betty Hill, UFOs, Abductions

Posted on March 1, 2010 by Trish and Rob

In all fairness, this story doesn’t entail a specific synchronicity. It’s a kind of part 2 to an earlier post on MIBs. That said, I think the value in such stories lies in adding a personal observation to the vast and complicated knowledge and speculation in the UFO field.
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First: some background. This map is a depiction based on what Betty Hill drew about the origin of the ETs who abducted her and her husband, Barney.

On September 19, 1961, Betty and Barney Hill were on their way home from a vacation in Canada. Betty, a 41-year-old child welfare worker, and Barney, 39, a postal worker, were traveling along Route 3 through the White Mountains of New Hampshire to Portsmouth, where they lived. During the drive, they both observed a white light light in the sky. Betty thought it might be a communication satellite and urged Barney to stop for a closer look and so they could walk their dog. Barney was apparently concerned about bears  and removed a gun he kept in the trunk of the car.

Now, from Wikipedia: ” Approximately one mile south of Indian Head, they said, a huge craft rapidly descended toward the Hills’ vehicle. The craft descended to approximately 80–100 feet above the Hills’ 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air and filled the entire field of the windshield. Barney, carrying his pistol, stepped away from the vehicle and moved closer to the object.  Using the binoculars, Barney claimed to have seen about 8 to 11 humanoid figures who were peering out of the craft’s windows, seeming to look at him. “The one remaining figure continued to look at Barney and communicated a message to him to “stay where you are and keep looking.

“At that instant red lights on what appeared to be bat-wing fins began to telescope out of the sides of the craft and a long structure descended from the bottom. of it.The silent craft approached to what Barney estimated was within 50–80 feet overhead and 50–100 feet away from him.”

The rest is UFO history. The Hills claimed they were abducted, subjected to terrible physical tests,  and you’ll find the torrid details all over the internet. The wikipedia article or John G. Fuller’s book, The Interrupted Journey, are good places to start. Now let’s fast-forward to the mid-1980s, when we were covering a UFO conference in Hollywood, Florida, for OMNI Magazine.

Budd Hopkins and Betty were the guest speakers that weekend. My (Trish) first impression of her was of a warm, funny woman with a lot of nervous tics in  hand gestures, facial expressions, stacatto laughter, and her chain smoking. Although Rob and I had read Fuller’s book – and whatever else was available in those days on UFOs – neither of us was convinced of her story. Yet, seeing Betty in person, talking to her, it was obvious she experienced something so traumatic and powerful that it had impacted her entire life, her perceptual view of reality.

She was traveling with a close friend, a nurse, as it turned out, and somehow we all ended up at our townhouse in Fort Lauderdale one evening. I remember feeling  embarrassed that our place  was so cluttered – books everywhere, dust bunnies under the kitchen chairs, dishes in the sink. But Betty didn’t see any of it. Her eyes were on the sky visible through the windows, on her story about what happened that night so many years ago.

We had a couple of beers around the kitchen table as she related the events of that night in 1961. I recall that at one point we all walked outside at one point and Betty pointed at some lights in the sky that I knew were planes. But she said,  “There. It’s them.They can disguise themselves.”

At that point, I understood why she was so hyper, and why a a nurse was traveling with her.  Something so horrifying had happened to her and Barney that even now, decades later, it affected her psychologically, emotionally,spiritually. And suddenly, after listening to her story  for hours, I believed her. Out there on Route 3, in 1961, Betty and Barney were taken.

These days, we would classify her “condition” as post traumatic stress syndrome. But sitting there in our kitchen, standing outside with her, listening to her, feeling what she felt, I became a believer. The big question, is what, exactly, did I believe?

Yes, something happened to Betty and Barney. But was it due to ETs from Zeta Reticuli?  Was it due to implanted memories from the U.S. government? Did the government have that sort of mind control technology back then? Were these beings from our own future?

Years later Rob and I still talk about that weekend, wondering  what it was really about. We still don’t have a satisfying answer. Jung theorized that UFOs are manifestations of the collective unconscious, a thrust toward integration of the self, symbols of wholeness, like mandalas.But what about abductions? In centuries past, before the appearance of UFOs, there were reports of abductions by fairies and other mythical creatures. In the early 20th century, on an island off the coast of Chile, called Chiloe, a ghost ship, called the Caleuche reportedly anchored on a number of occasions, and men dressed in black came ashore and abducted villagers.

Betty and Barney Hill experienced something. But what? Maybe that’s one of the conundrums of our journey toward wholeness.

Betty in 2004, the year she passed on

Posted in abductions, Betty and Barney Hill | 24 Comments

Parallel selves?

Posted on February 28, 2010 by Trish and Rob
Back in the 1980s, Dick Sutphen published a number of New Age books, many of them about past lives. But in at least one of those books, he wrote about parallel lives, and so did Jane Roberts, author the Seth books from that same era. The idea is that the self is far more complicated than we realize and that not only do we have past and future lives, existing concurrently, but that we also have parallel lives–another person or person existing in this world at this time who is part of the same self or same soul-entity.
With that in mind, it’s interesting to see what Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth, a Nigerian living in London, has sent us regarding the connection between India’s Mahatma Gandhi and Nigeria’s Bola Ige. If you’ve been reading our blog, you might recall other posts by Augustine about synchronistic connections between Nigerian and Western leaders.
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“There are unusual connections between India and Nigeria especially as in regard to Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), Hindu Nationalist and Bola Ige (1930-2001), Yoruba Nationalist.

Gandhi and Ige both studied Law at the University College London.

“Gandhi and Ige were both imprisoned for their struggles on the Democratic front.

“Gandhi and Ige have both been described as having caustic tongues.

“Gandhi was a mystic and Bola Ige was a Rosicrucian.

“Gandhi and Ige were both assassinated in their 70s, Gandhi in New Delhi, the political capital of India, and Bola Ige in Ibadan, the political capital of the Yoruba nation of Nigeria.

“Gandhi’s right-hand man, Pandit Nehru, was twenty years younger than Gandhi. Nehru studied Geology, physics, chemistry, botany and eventually law. Bola Ige had a special assistant, Olu Agunloye, who was

eighteen years younger than Ige and studied geo-physics.

“Ige expressed strong sentiments toward India, Gandhi and Nehru. In his autobiography, Kaduna Boy, he revealed that India was the first country he visited beyond the borders of Nigeria. He also disclosed that he had read virtually everything Gandhi and Nehru ever wrote.

“When Nehru became prime minister in 1947, Ige  “was as happy as if he was an Indian”and when Gandhi was assassinated in 1948 he experienced “three days of excruciating mental agony and moodiness.”

India is the worlds largest democracy and Nigeria the largest democracy in Africa. India and Nigeria both have histories of slavery, colonialism by the British, and ethno-religious conflicts.

In colonial Nigeria, students sang a protest song that read in part: “After India comes Nigeria…”
Can Nigeria, I wonder, recreate the miracles of modern India with its successes in information technology, publishing, mediicine, and academic excellence of some Indian universities?”

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Parallel lives are one possible way of explaining these connections between Gandhi and Ige. Another might be that Ige spent a past life or lives in India, possibly with Gandhi. Or maybe it’s just a prime example of how we are all connected.

Just when I thought there might be something to the parallel selves idea, Augustine sent another one comparing George W. Bush and Winston Churchill. No, I refuse to believe that those two are from the some mold. But, for the record, here’s Augustine’s comparison.
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“By the Chinese calendar Winston Churchill and George W. Bush were both born in the year of the Dog.
Churchill in 1874, year of the wood Dog and Bush in 1946 year of the Fire Dog,
“Churchill was the British leader during  the second World War and Bush was the American leaders during
the Second Gulf War. Churchill slugged it out with Adolf Hilter, born in the year of the Ox, 1889.
Bush slugged it out with Saddam Hussein, born in the year of the Fire Ox, 1937. Hitler and Hussein were both dictators and they both have been described as megalomaniacs.”
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I think Hitler would roll over in grave on that last comparison.  Before his defeat, he controlled most of Europe and took on Russia, a fatal mistake. At the time of the invasion of Iraq, Hussein’s powers had been greatly reduced by years of  Allied patrols of the No Fly Zone.  He was basically the mayor of Baghdad, had no WMDs, and posed virtually no threat to people outside of  Iraq. Except in his mind…and in the minds of George W. Bush & Co.- Rob
Posted in bushmen, Gandi, parallel lives | 14 Comments

The 8.8 Quake in Chile

Posted on February 27, 2010 by Trish and Rob

This morning, in the window of a ‘super moon,’ an 8.8 earthquake hit Chile. That magnitude is nearly 1,000 times more powerful than the earthquake in Haiti last month. This quake triggered tsunami warnings that threaten a quarter of the globe. The first wave in Hawaii is expected at 11:05 Hawaii time. Follow live here. This link also has live twitter updates.

(A super moon is a full moon that exerts more intense than usual tidal pulls on the Earth.)

For tsunami updates for other areas: here. 

More excellent links for information.



In early January, we posted an update on the mysterious disappearance of the sea lions from Pier 39 in San Francisco. Some of the sea lions reportedly were spotted in the sea lion caves in Oregon.  Did animals in the affected areas in Chile know beforehand?

UPDATE:
The following comment appeared early this morning on the sea lion post mentioned above. Apparently, the sea lions recently abandoned the sea lion caves in Oregon.

“Apparently there are some signs that the sea lions may be returning to Pier 39 in San Francisco. Also, the thousands of sea lion guests crowding Sea Lion Caves in Oregon have suddenly left. (The thinking was that part of that gathering was from San Francisco.)

More info on the sea lions appears here.

Gypsy also reported a dream recently that might’ve been a forewarning of events today. More on that later.

Posted in chile, earthquake, tsunami | 5 Comments

Can Your Heart Remember?

Posted on February 27, 2010 by Trish and Rob

  This next story fits the definition of a synchronicity – no cause and effect – and it is certainly meaningful to the people who experienced it.
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When an eight-year old girl received the heart of a ten-year-old girl who had been murdered, she ended up on a shrink’s couch, haunted by nightmares of her donor’s killer.  She claimed she remembered who the man was.

After a couple of sessions, the psychiatrist notified the police. The cops followed the girl’s instructions and tracked down the murderer. He was convicted on the basis of the clues the eight-year-old gave them: the time, weapon, place, the clothes the man wore, what the victim had said to him. Everything the eight-year-old said turned out to be true.

Neuropsychologist Paul Pearsall collected 73 stories about transplant recipients in which part of the donor’s personality and memories have been transferred to the recipient. In his book, The Heart’s Code, he contends that the heart and the brain share equal importance in human intelligence. The body is composed of cells that communicate information electromagnetically and Pearsall argues that a transplanted organ can continue to transmit this “old information.”

Critics attribute the altered personalities of some recipients to the drugs they must take to prevent rejection. But how do you explain this one? An eight-year-old Jewish boy died in a car wreck and his heart was given to a three-year-old Arab girl. As soon as the girl came out of surgery, she asked – by name – for a piece of Jewish candy she couldn’t have known existed.

The story is here.

What I find so compelling about stories like these is that it seems science is catching up to what mystics have always known. In a series of books about the nature of reality that were channeled by Jane Roberts between the 1970s and her death in the early 1990s, the personality essence called Seth talked quite a bit about cellular consciousness. In The Unknown Reality, Seth said: “The cellular consciousness experiences itself as eternal, though to you the cells have a brief life. But those cells are aware of your body’s history, in your terms, and in a much more familiar fashion than you are aware of the earth’s history. The cells are also aware of probabilities in a more familiar fashion than you are, as they manipulate the past and future history of the body.”

Posted in memories, organs, transplants | 10 Comments

Why Can’t We?

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Trish and Rob

 Obama rally we attended in Fort Lauderdale, campaign 2008

We recently posted a synchronicity about what often happens as death nears for a loved one.  I think many of us have been or are in similar situations with parents and loved ones. So Keith Olbermann’s special comment on the evening of February 24 on Countdown really hit home for me and seems strangely synchronous in terms of timing.

I realize there are people who dislike Olbermann for political reasons, who think universal health care is a “socialist agenda.” But I’ve been where Olbermann is now – not with just one parent, but both parents. I know what it’s like to stare down that long, dark tunnel where decisions have to be made about end of life care for a parent or other loved one. When that pending death  is staring you in the face, you are utterly and completely powerless. You want to do what is best for the person you love, but what is the best?

Both of my parents had living wills that stipulated no extraordinary measures should be taken to  prolong their lives. It sounds great on paper, but when that point is actually reached, all kinds of doubts pour through you. And at some level, you know you are seeing your own mortality, the end of your time on the planet, so all kinds of issues surface about what you believe about life after death.

We were fortunate.  Both of my parents had Medicare and private insurance. But neither covered the two years that my mother spent in an Alzheimer’s facility or that my father spent in an assisted care facility. That was paid for with money my dad had saved for the 60 plus years of his working life. It wasn’t cheap and the cost became a constant, nagging voice at the backs of our minds: what will we do when the money runs out? My sister and I both had jobs, families, children, and college expenses looming for them in the near future. There was no way we could afford to cover the kinds of expenses that nursing homes and Alzheimer’s units demand. I have no idea what we would have done if my parents had not had Medicare and private insurance. In all likelihood, we would be bankrupt.

So when you watch this emotional video, think about the people in congress who have great federal insurance, paid for by you and me,  the ones who  stand up in front of TV cameras and declare that a public option is off the table. Think about the senators and members of congress with major health problems who don’t have to worry about what if the money runs out or that they might be denied care by their insurance companies.

And think about how we are the only industrialized nation without universal health care. And when your insurance company tells you that oops, so sorry, your daughter’s rape is a pre-existing condition, your wife’s diabetes is a pre-existing condition, that the life-saving drug you need isn’t included in your plan, realize that you have come face to face with the real death panels. 

If you voted for Obama, as I did, think about his campaign mantra about change – yes, we can – and know that he has failed. Perhaps he lacks the courage to take on the insurance industry. Or maybe he, like so many politicians on the left, right and in between simply fell into the trap of expediency once he was in office.But it seems that we, as a people, as a nation, should be able to do better than this.

Yet, when I watched portions of the health care summit on 2/25, I felt sad, discouraged, and then enraged. The arguments were pretty much the same ones that were put forth against social security and Medicare. Only the faces of the obstructionists have changed.

It all seems to boil down to class wars. How ridiculous is that? In the 21st century, we’re still embroiled in the battle of us against them, the rich against the poor, the elitists against everyone else, the corporations against the ordinary American. One Democrat said that the insurance industry owns the Republicans. But the truth is that the insurance companies – entities that produce nothing, that contribute nothing but heartache, that create nothing, that are merely middle men who get rich off the rest of us – own congress. They and all their corporate buddies run the country. There are eight lobbyists for every member of congress. Their message: The government is taking over our lives, taking away personal freedom.  Oh, really.

So when your loved one is staring down that long, black tunnel, I hope that you can make the right choices,  from the heart, and that synchronicity provides guidance along the way.

Posted in end of life, health care, ridiculous politics | 20 Comments

‘She’s a Mystery to Me’

Posted on February 25, 2010 by Trish and Rob
Here’s a music-related synchronicity related to a song written by Bono/U2. Bono came up with the song in a somewhat mysterious manner – literally dreaming it, then he played it for the band. They said it sounded like a Roy Orbison tune. So while they were working on the song, who shows up at the studio but Orbison, who asks Bono if he has a song for him. The two men had never met. 

In the youtube link, Bono and Orbison talk about the creation of the song. Orbison went on to record  the song, “She’s a Mystery to Me,” written by Bono.

Thanks to Marcus Anthony for alerting us to this fascinating synchronicity. Marcus remarked: “The universe is not only stranger than we think, but stranger than we can think. I love this one because it suggests the unconscious–but nonetheless intentional–coming together of minds in an entangled universe.”

Posted in bono, music, roy orbison | 19 Comments

Demystifying the Mystifying

Posted on February 24, 2010 by Trish and Rob

It seems somehow appropriate that a psychologist who names his  book Demystifying Meaningful Coincidences, would be experiencing  ‘coincidences’ that seem, well, somewhat mystifying, related to speaking engagements to promote his book. It seems that Gibbs Williams has the trickster on his trail.

“The other day I received an e-mail inviting me to be part of a panel discussion at Indiana University in a group of scientific psychologists. This has been very much on my mind as I have very much wanted to have speaking engagements and travel.” The timing was very favorable related to the release of his book.

“The next day I went to a copy store to have some class assignments printed up. The woman at the counter who knows me asked about my book. I mentioned in passing that I had been asked to speak at Indiana University. As I was telling her this I noticed a man of about 60 who looked professorial waiting for his reprints. In looking at him closer I saw the name Indiana on his sweatshirt.”

Not only was the sweatshirt from Indiana University, but the man was very familiar with the university’s psychology department. Currently he is a professor in of psychology at City University of New York. Up to that point he had never had any connection with Indiana.

Around that same time, Gibbs was talking with a salesman and mentioned his book. When the man said he was very interested in reading it, Gibbs asked if his group of sales people ever have conventions with guest speakers. He replied that there was one such upcoming convention at Colorado State University this summer. For Gibbs, that was a meaningful response. Colorado State University was where ten years ago, he presented his  first paper on synchronicity: The Psychodynamics of Meaningful Coincidences.

Both examples were geographically meaningful coincidences to him, reinforcing his belief that he is on the right path for promoting his book, “The self-generated message is that the timing both internally and externally is just right for me to go all out to walk this pathway.”

He goes on to say: “Once again this confirms my naturalistic theory of synchronicities. I am not being guided by god, or fate, or master teachers, or angels – I am being guided by myself, clear about my purpose and working hard to attain and sustain it.”

But maybe with a little help from the trickster, who plays in the collective unconscious.

Addendum: Gibbs Williams has a tricky name. When we googled him to find the book cover for this post, we accidentally reversed the two names. Upon clicking William F. Gibbs, up popped a photo of a red-headed musician sipping from a bottle of orange drink with a crazy-looking chicken perched on his shoulder. More trickster stuff!

Posted in authors, books, Gibbs williams | 15 Comments