Synchronicity for the Day: Numbers No. 4

The last synchronicity I posted here was a matching set of dates that occurred at the moment that I finished reading The Seth Material by Jane Roberts.

Just moments ago, I completed reading the next of the Seth books, The Nature of Personal Reality. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an open mind, by the way, as it will really bring some very new possibilities into your realm of thoughts.

That last was, I feel, a very poorly worded sentence. For some reason I cannot seem to string words together very effectively at the moment. I'm blaming my crummy Mercury/Neptune transit and moving on.

Remnants of Agnes over the East Coast

Anyways, I will quote here an small excerpt from the very last page of the book (not counting the Index section):

"...since Seth took up steady dictation on September 11, 1972, following the extensive delay caused by Tropical Storm Agnes."

What day is today again? Oh, that's right. September 11, 2012. The exact 40th anniversary of the work beginning in earnest on this book. I went back to the beginning of the book, and I did see that the very first entry was on June 7, 1972, but it wasn't until September 11 of that year that another entry was made due to flooding from the storm disrupting the lives of the authors and their surrounding communities. From that point there began regular work on the book.

This is the second date-related synchronicity that I have recently experienced right at the moment I have completed a book, and not only this, but both books were in the same series, and containing material that I felt was very significant to my personal growth, as opposed to just some of the assorted works of fiction that I can rip greedily through in a weekend. I'm excited to read the next Seth book, and these synchronicites are telling me that I am on the right path.

Synchronicity for the Day: Numbers No. 3

Wow, here is a nice one. I just finished reading The Seth Material, by Jane Roberts, one of many books by this author, and the second of which I have completed. I have a stack of more of them at the ready. Their material constitutes fodder for an entire world of posts, so I will not get into it right now. It's late and my contacts are getting blurry. And I'm typing on a laptop, which I hate.

As I am laying down the book, which has nicely been rearranging (or maybe supplementing is a better word) the way I view the universe lately, my attention is drawn to the bookmark I have been using. My typical bookmark consists of either remembering what page number I was on, which often works, or whatever scrap of paper happens to be lying around at the time I get started on the book.

I must have started this book just after a Tarot session, because I have been using as a bookmark, a folded up piece of neon pink paper that had been living in the wooden box where I keep my cards. This piece of paper has been in the box for well over a year. On it was written the birth information of an acquaintance, who had written it down for me so that I could take a look at her natal chart and give her some information. The box was where I tucked the paper away and that's where it stayed, for no good reason, until it recently became a bookmark.

So as my attention is now drawn to this pink piece of folded paper, I suddenly think, hmmm.... and have the urge to unfold it and look at the birth date. I open it up and the woman's birthday written inside is July 23rd (I'll keep the year to myself), 11:30 PM.  When did I put down the book as I finished it? July 23rd, at 11:30 PM. Freaking AWESOME.

I would like to believe that this synchronicity means that I am on the correct path in reading these books, and this assumption has been backed up by my friends on the board as well. When I first stumbled upon these books while looking into another topic, I was intrigued and asked someone we were talking to on the board if the material was worth a read, and if so, how much of it was true? They replied (astonishingly, because they are almost never so absolute in what they say) that it was 100% true and that reading it would save them a lot of time explaining any number of complicated ideas. So far I have not only found this to be the case, but I have also enjoyed a series of validations where a number of very specific concepts were explained in an almost identical manner in the book as to the explanations we had received while using the board when asking about the same ideas months, and even years before I had any knowledge of the books at all.

I don't know how to finish out this post, except to say that that was a beautiful synchronicity, and I appreciated being able to see it.

Love and Peace

Synchronicity Discussion at Universal Mind Science

OK, I have not posted in a seriously long time. I guess I could blame it on the Mercury Retrograde, since he is an easy scapegoat, but this dry spell has been going on for longer than that. I keep telling myself that my next post has to be something on a larger topic, and I think I was putting too much pressure on myself to come up with something awesome, and therefore psyched myself out of writing at all.

So in a sort-of cheater way, this post is actually a summary I wrote of a discussion that occurred over two weeks at the metaphysical church I attend. To be fair, I was the facilitator of said discussion, so much of the material covered came from me. There are also stories related by other participants in the discussion, and excerpts from various research materials.

I am lucky enough to have found a church that does not have a single person who delivers a sermon while there is a mute listening audience who is asked to accept what they are being told without question. Rather, each week we have a discussion that is lead by a facilitator (who is not always the same person every time) and that person brings in some thought-provoking material to help get a conversation started. Anyone can put in their two cents on any topic, as our philosophy is that we are all there to learn from each other. I can't speak highly enough of this group, and this may be for selfish reasons, as they accepted me for who I was right from the first time I visited to see what they were all about. There's no dogma, there's no, "This is the one and only way to be and if you are not this way then you are on a path to damnation." There is only, "Here is my experience. What do you think?" Beautiful. You are made to feel like it is a conversation among equals, not as though there is only one enlightened leader who is going to teach an ignorant flock the ways of the universe. But I digress.

So for two Sundays in July, I mustered my courage and volunteered to lead a discussion on Synchronicity, as this is a topic that I thought would be able to spur a conversation, and that I had some experience with. I was nervous, which is odd for someone who normally has zero problems with public speaking, but everyone reassured me that I needn't worry, and kept reminding me that I didn't have to know everything about everything to facilitate a discussion.

So below are my notes for the two weeks of conversation.  You can also read them at the church's Facebook page. I volunteered one Sunday to create a summary of our weekly discussions for Facebook, and have been doing it ever since, so you are welcome to see more of what I get up to in my free time when I'm not blogging about talking boards.

Synchronicity: Service Notes for 7/1/12 - 7/8/12

For two weeks we discussed the subject of Synchronicity.

What is Synchronicity? It is defined as: "The experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance, yet are experienced as occurring together in a meaningful manner. The concept of synchronicity was first described in this terminology by Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychologist, in the 1920s"

What do we think synchronicity means to us? A very basic idea of what the concept meant to Carl Jung, who coined the term is as follows: "Following discussions with both Albert Einstein and Wolfgang Pauli, Jung believed that there were parallels between synchronicity and aspects of relativity theory and quantum mechanics. Jung was transfixed by the idea that life was not a series of random events but rather an expression of a deeper order, which he and Pauli referred to as Unus mundus. This deeper order led to the insights that a person was both embedded in an orderly framework and was the focus of that orderly framework and that the realisation of this was more than just an intellectual exercise, but also having elements of a spiritual awakening. From the religious perspective, synchronicity shares similar characteristics of an "intervention of grace". Jung also believed that in a person's life, synchronicity served a role similar to that of dreams, with the purpose of shifting a person's egocentric conscious thinking to greater wholeness."

Our group had many personal examples to share with us of synchronous events that had occurred in their lives:


Lara recalled the time in her life when she was considering a move to Chicago - everywhere she looked, there were references to the city, as if the universe were reassuring her that this was the right move to make. One day she was attending a Highland Scottish Festival with a friend of hers and she was explaining to her friend this Chicago phenomenon. Her friend brushed it off as coincidence, but just a few moments later, as her and her friend went to view a bagpipe performance, the first pipe band up to play was from Chicago, as if to prove to her that she was not imagining things and reading into normal coincidences.

Neils discussed his lake house back east, where he said that at an earlier visit, he had discovered that a very large tree had fallen into the lake. He tasked a local man to haul the tree out of the lake and dispose of it, but various circumstances prevented this undertaking from being completed. The next time he visited the house there had recently been extensive, and seasonally uncommon rains, causing the lake to flood, and the tree to float to the surface. Now they were easily able to haul it out of the lake with a rope and cut it up into firewood. What were the odds that they would happen to be at the house just in time for the flooding, when they had no idea who they would have gotten the offending tree out of the lake otherwise?

Richard remembered when his brother, who was born in 1937, passed away. Suddenly Richard began seeing 37s everywhere that he happened to look at numbers: Restaurant receipts, addresses, phone numbers. During a phone call with his sister, she said that she was experiencing the same thing, and they both decided that their brother was trying to send a message to them. At a psychic fair which took place after this had been going on, he received a message through a medium from his mother and the first thing she said was that his brother was OK, which was not a normal conversational gambit from her, to be so direct about such a subject.

An example cited by more than one UMS member concerned a time when the church building was undergoing a remodel. The city inspectors insisted that the building have at least two restrooms, so that there would be both a ladies' and a men's room. As church members scratched their heads, wondering how they would rectify this issue on their already limited budget, a man drove by and introduced himself as a plumber. He said that he had just come from a job and had two toilets he didn't end up using, and wanted to know if anyone would be interested in buying them at a very low price, as he needed to be rid of them. Perfect timing!

A fun example was read from the book: Synchronicity & You, by Frank Joseph : "Few motion pictures were more plagued with production nightmares than the 1939 version of The Wizard of Oz.  Among the lesser, although vexing, problems confronting Victor Fleming (one of five directors associated with the film) was something as simple as locating the right kind of coat for the traveling fortune-teller to wear. Incredibly, the studio did not possess a single frock coat that fit Frank Morgan, who portrayed Professor Marvel, or satisfied Fleming. He gave an ultimatum to the head of the props department, saying, "Bring me the coat I want after lunch, or you're fired!" Production had already gone far over budget, so falling behind now on its shooting schedule would result in the film's cancellation. In a panic, the props chief ran from the lot and sprinted several miles to the nearest pawn shop. There, in the back room, he found an old black coat he hoped would pacify the director. It looked about the right size, too. He returned in time for the shoot to find that the long-tailed coat fit actor Morgan perfectly and met Fleming's specifications. Months later, after filming and editing were completed and all the props were collected and returned to storage, the coat used for Professor Marvel's part hit a bureaucratic snag. The item was not in the Warner Brothers stock catalogue, and the prop chief had to explain how and where he obtained it. Turning the collar up to sew in a company label, he was surprised to find a tag bearing the name of its former owner. It read simply, "L. Frank Baum," author of the original Wizard of Oz series of children's books. Baum had already been dead for twenty years, so he could not appreciate this meaningful coincidence, made all the more intriguing because he personally identified with the character who wore the coat, Professor Marvel. The connection was appropriate, nevertheless, in that the 1939 film version did more to popularize his life's work that any publishing effort could have."

We had many questions about this phenomenon:

What counts as a synchronicity? Premonitions? Dreams? Repetition within a short span of time of the same numbers, words or phrases, objects?

Are all these incidents and occurrences happening because we are looking for them, or are they there all the time and it is up to us to use them and open ourselves to them? Or perhaps, are we simply catching an unfettered glimpse of the unifying underlying structure of the universe when our ego consciousness momentarily quiets down? We all had different opinions of which idea was closest to truth, and some of us allowed that it could be any or all of these things, depending on the situation.

During the first week of the discussion the question was asked, "What is the difference between a coincidence, a synchronicity, and a miracle?" When Rochelle, the facilitator of this discussion, was contemplating this question, she received an answer "out of the blue," that was posed as another question to her, "What is the difference between a wave and a tsunami?" The answer was: Magnitude.

The more we take note of synchronicities, the more of them we will see. The universe will show itself to us if we are willing to see it. We talked about how we have to let go of trying to control every aspect of our lives and  let the synchronicities of the world help us.

Synchronicity is a way that we can experience oneness with the universe.

One participant provided an apt metaphor: We are now used to using GPS systems in our cars or on our phones. If we have set out GPS to provide us with directions to a destination, and we you go the wrong way, the GPS will re-direct us until we get where we are supposed to go. The farther off track from the destination we get, the longer and more difficult it will be to get back to the correct path. Synchronicities may be like warnings or guidance trying to nudge us onto the right path. The whole system is self-correcting. If you miss the clues, they will come around again.

We suggested the possibility of keeping a synchronicity journal, so that we may see larger patterns that we are unable to notice when we only look at each small instance separately, especially those instances where we cannot immediately see a meaning behind the event. Not only could we discover larger patterns among our synchronicities, but we would be able to take note of recurring types of incidents that may be specific to us, personally.


How can we interpret the meanings behind these events? Frank Joseph, in the book mentioned above in the Wizard of Oz story, says, "To scrutinize something like synchronicity is to diminish it. We murder when we dissect. In trying to understand the phenomenon, the degree to which we analyze it determines how it either divulges itself or escapes up. Indeed, it is less important that we consciously understand a meaningful coincidence than that we allow ourselves to feel it. What we may never understand intellectually we more certainly grasp subconsciously, with other ways of knowing. People long in contact with synchronous events believe humans have more ways of knowing than most of us realize. they regard the rational mind as a jealous tyrant at all times, who, afraid of losing control, needs to dominate all things at all times and refuses to recognize our intuitive capacity for knowledge through feeling. A concertgoer who confines his attention to the scientific principles of air set in motion through certain vibrations generated by wooden and metal instruments will hear various frequencies of sound, but no music."

As Rev. Jess said at the end of this discussion, "The answers are all there in the æther, until you ask the questions, the knowledge means nothing to you."

Synchronicity for the Day: Music No. 3

I was sitting in my office today, debating with my boss about whether we thought Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter was going to be a good movie. He says he thinks it will be visual effects porn but have a dumb plot; I think I will like it. He said he thought the idea was ridiculous, and I pointed out that the movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is in the works for next year, so more tomfoolery is on the way. At that moment, a White Zombie song (More Human than Human, video below) comes on my iPod, which I am listening to with one ear bud in while I work. Nice. The Zombie apocalypse is at hand.

Ok, now it gets even more awesome. As I'm finishing this blog post about a zombie synchronicity, yet another Rob Zombie song comes on the old 'pod. Pussy Liquor (audio below), from the House of 1000 Corpses soundtrack. I just want to make it clear that out of 904 songs on my iPod, there are 3 Rob Zombie songs on there, so that song had a 0.003% chance of playing while it was set to random.

Board Session: Quest for Career

I've noticed that all my posts lately have been about synchronicities, which is OK, but I'm sure it's getting old for everyone but me. So today I'm going to talk about a board session I had last night.

My husband and I use our talking board about once a week, give or take. I would say that most of the time we're usually asking our non-physical friends about practical matters: what's going on with this car I'm trying to buy? Will there be any issues with this trip we're taking next month? Should I go ahead and do this or wait? Last night was no different.

While I am currently comfortably employed, I have recently resumed my job search. I'm getting the bills paid, but the job isn't going anywhere. There is nowhere for me to move up, and I'm not in a position that is going to make me happy forever. So it's time for me to move on. I've been poring over my usual sources of job listings, applying here and there for positions I think I can do, and will meet my needs for a creative outlet.

Our friends on the board have strongly suggested, nay, told me that I need to put the pedal to the metal and get on with applying for jobs, because the timing is right for me to land something great. I feel like a lot of hoopla has been made that this next job will be some sort of big deal; a major step for me in the direction I want my career to go. The pressure is on, so to speak, for me to not fail and find something awesome. They are saying it's going to happen. Astrologically my transits are ripe for a solid opportunity very soon now (in early to mid July I have transiting Jupiter trine both natal Jupiter and Saturn, for anyone to whom that means something), so I feel like I don't want to miss out on some potent growth opportunities that are being handed to me on a silver platter at this point.

So last night we were on the board and we started out as usual, hands on the leaf, waiting for movement. I hear some people giving advice about using talking boards who suggest that you immediately ask if anyone is there, but I think in the last 10 years or so, there has only been maybe one or two times that no one was there, and there were special circumstances which are too boring to elaborate on right now, so we really don't see any need to do this. Whoever is there will start "talking" when they're ready. We just sit there and wait for the leaf to start moving. So the leaf gets in gear and starts tooling around the board, in the typical exploratory manner we have grown accustomed to seeing whenever a "new" person has joined us. They are "looking around" as they like to say, to check out the layout of the board, see what their options are as far as what letters/symbols/etc. they have to work with, and generally gather energy.

I'm not a big promoter of ritual and ceremony - I find that it makes people focus on the routine rather than its meaning -  so I really have no formal way that I feel like I need begin a session, or in which to address our disembodied guest for the evening. These are people as much as any of us, and I feel I should just talk to them in a respectful manner the way I would talk to anyone to whom I was going for advice. I have no need for a bunch of silly formalized language and phrases, trying to mold the session into some sort of candles-and-incense mystic carnival sideshow. As I've said before, it's like talking to a friend on the phone - you can't see them, but you know they're there.

All of that being said, I will admit that because people are creatures of habit, and I am no exception, I've settled into a bit of a routine when we begin a board session. It doesn't have to always go the same way, but it seems so far to me to be the most logical conversational progression. Usually once the leaf has made its initial rounds and settled back on the center All Seeing Eye design, awaiting our questions, I will say Hello (and they will usually say "hello" back; there's a Hello at the top of the board), and then I will ask who we are speaking to tonight. Most of the time they spell out their name. Many of the names are ones that we have never heard of, like Abdus, who we talked to maybe a week ago. I've never heard of anyone with this name, but when you're on The Other Side I guess you get to call yourself whatever you want. The only times they don't spell out their name are when we're talking to someone we are already familiar with, which does happen as we do have some people who are involved with us on a more long term basis. Then they might just move the leaf to their Sun sign (like Sagittarius), or to where it says "You Know" on the board, and we often do know who it is just by the feel of the way the leaf is moving around at that point. Each entity feels a bit different in the way they move the leaf, and we are getting better at ascertaining a number of things from their board-side manner, as it were, such as how much energy they seem to have at their disposal, how experienced they are at using this method of communication, and sometimes even if there are other entities present who are interfering with their ability to talk to us. Last night the person we spoke to called himself Thortin (maybe Thorntin, not sure if I saw an 'n' in there).

Once I know who we're talking to (and I'm mostly asking to be polite; I feel like it's kinda rude to just barge in asking for a favor, i.e. Please Give Me Advice, without even the courtesy of an introduction), I then typically ask if there are any messages that They would like to relay to either me or my husband. Then we proceed from there, trying mostly to ask all of the questions and sort out all of the pressing issues for one of us at a time, and then we move on to the other person's questions. This way there's less confusion about who the message is for.

When we arrived at my turn for messages last night, Thortin said to me (and I'm paraphrasing because I didn't write down the exact words), "I need you to be honest." My husband and I both got the feeling that this was a segue to him asking me a question. I agreed to give an honest answer, and he asked, "Are you ready to be the bread winner?" When I speculated aloud as to what the implications of this question were, he continued saying that if I was ready, it will happen, but that I will have to "give up a little of [myself]". I wanted to know what he meant by that, and he replied that some of the things that I am currently embroiled in I will no longer have time for, namely my Astrology group meetings, and possibly even this very blog. He implied that I would not have as much time for these activities as before. I found this a bit depressing, and said as much. He asked, "Do you want a career?"  We had a lengthy back-and-forth regarding the choices I would have to make - what is most important to me, what am I willing to give up. I chewed on this aloud for a bit and said that what I most wanted was to make my mark on the world, but I didn't want a job that would send me home stressed and unhappy at the end of the day. I would not choose this path if it was going to be lined with unhappiness as a price for making money. I know a number of people whose headaches are in proportion to the size of their paychecks, and I don't want to go down that road. He assured me that this career path They have in mind for me will be indeed hectic, but it will be something that I will enjoy doing. In this case I said that I was, then, in fact, ready once again to kick ass and take names. I have had a good rest in my low-responsibility job for the last year or so, and it's time to move forward. To this, Thortin responded that They have found an opportunity that is the right one for me, and based on my response, They will make a push for me to get a good shot at it.

So now I am going forth with vigor, in hopes that I have some help on this venture. Today I was driving home and (like a total nutbar) talking to myself aloud in the car, planning what I would say to imaginary job interview questions. In the middle of me trying to hone my potential responses, I was treated to the following song popping up on my iPod, when it was set to shuffle:

Once again the Universe is talking to me. Yeah. It's time.

Synchronicity for the Day: Words No. 2

Here's a quick one: I'm listening to the radio while a look through my unread emails at work. At the very moment that someone on the radio says the word "trio", my eyes moved to the next email in my in-box, whose subject line began with "trio." Simultaneous. I took this word in through my ear (just the one ear, I was listening to the radio with one ear bud in), and my eyes at the exact same time through two completely unrelated avenues. Perception via two different senses, via two different origins, of the same word at the same time. The trio on the radio referred to a group of TV personalities, and the trio in the email was from a news article about a team of criminals. I've been seeing these type of simultaneous synchronicities a lot more frequently lately.

Synchronicity for the Day: Words No. 1

Saturday morning I enjoyed an obvious and immediate synchronicity. I opened up my web browser, and as I glanced around one of the things I saw was a news article headline about a raccoon that was rescued from a storm drain in Michigan. I did not click on the link to the article, but went to check out my Facebook messages. In my in-box I was treated to a detailed account from my mother about how she discovered a raccoon at her front door during the night, and how its complete lack of fear of humans forced her to almost close the door in its face because it would have sauntered right into the house. 

These two "raccoon" mentions were within less than a minute of each other. This is a good example of how I use event timing to judge whether I will count an occurrence as a synchronicity. Raccoon is not a word that I necessarily hear every day, but it's not that uncommon. But because I saw the word in two places only a few seconds apart, I'm choosing to record this instance. If the two occurrences were a day or more apart, I would probably not count them. I'm kind of using the question, "What are the odds?" as my personal yardstick. At this time I have no assessment of the meaning behind this particular instance.

Synchronicity for the Day: Numbers No. 2

Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia.

That’s right people. Try to wrap your tongue around that bad boy. And try not to giggle like a thirteen year old at the innuendo in that last sentence. That’s the name of the fear of the number 666. Revelation 13:18 says, “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number [is] Six hundred threescore [and] six.” It is this biblical reference that links this number to the Anti-Christ, and an assortment of superstitions and fears within the Christian faith have developed and persisted even today.

I don’t personally have this fear, as I am not a Christian, and have not been convinced that the entire contents of the Bible are true, either in a historical or moral sense. And since I am not burdened with this particular fear, when I have happened to meet people who have it, I find it hilarious. I once had a coworker who was telling a story in the office of a time that she was on vacation and the hotel room they assigned her was number 666. She demanded to have it changed because she was genuinely uncertain, despite the humorous way that she relayed the incident, as to whether it mightn’t bring her bad luck, or be a bad omen. I personally found this to be ridiculous. I don’t believe that any one number is particularly good or bad in and of itself. I acknowledge that I may take note of numerical coincidences and patterns that I see play out (this very post is about the same subject), but I’m not moving hotel rooms or demanding that a building rename the 13^th floor for me.

So for whatever reason, I one day got a bee in my bonnet to whip out my phone and take a picture every time I was out and about and saw someone with a car license plate that had the 666 in it. You know, for teh lulz. And I created a photo album on my Facebook page where I add these photos as they come up. At first it was just a dumb thing to do (OK, it still is), but now when I see one I get all excited. I frantically try to get my phone out and get the camera function working in time to capture the plate before the driver takes off. Sounds safe while on the freeway, right? Right??

That Dodge Dakota is the Devil!!!

Since I post these on Facebook, other people know about it and I encourage them to send me any plates if they come across them, but no one had sent me any yet. This morning my aunt calls me to fill me in on some family news, and she also mentions that she saw a 666 plate when she was out on her motorcycle and she wanted to send me a picture, but the driver turned before she could get a shot.

Then, later in the day, another Facebook friend, a former coworker, posted a picture on my wall of a 666 plate that he captured while he was driving. Nice! Two in one day!  I mean, I didn’t actually get a picture from my aunt, but her mentioning it was enough. I commented on my friend’s photo, telling him about my aunt and the plate she saw. He joked back that “these things come in threes; be on the lookout for another one!” to which I was able (I realized suddenly), to reply, “Trifecta complete!” because just last night I had snagged a pic of one of these plates just after leaving the bank.

Now I don’t impart any special meaning on incidents happening in threes especially. I just liked this dual synchronicity where not only did I have two different people think of me when they saw the plates on the same day, and I had just seen one myself, AND one of the people brought up the three factor when in fact his picture rounded out the three.

What does this one mean for me? Well, I did learn last night about a death in my family, albeit of a person whom I did not know extremely well. I can’t say that this incident, or the musical coincidence from yesterday really pertained to the passing of this person, but I think I would like to consult the Collective on the board and ask, mainly for my own record-keeping purposes. If I can begin to see patterns in this occurrences I am documenting, this may lead me to be able to interpret these synchronicities more easily on the future.

Synchronicity for The Day: Music No. 2

Last Sunday I was invited to see a relative's metal band play at a bar. I happily agreed to go, as I was excited to see him playing at some different venues. He told me on the phone that the band would be playing a couple of their own songs, and a couple of covers. One was a Judas Priest song, and another was a Blue Öyster Cult song called Godzilla, which he assured me I would recognize once I heard it. While I like me some metal, in the interest of full disclosure, I was a little kid in the 80s, so to be fair, I'm not intimately familiar with every song that was popular on rock radio at the time, unless it was by one of my favorite bands.

So I get to the bar, whose name suggests that it is a "Bar & Grill," although the "grill" portion consists of about five obligatory booths off to one side of the bar near the bathrooms where no one wants to hang out anyway, so let's just call it a bar, and I find a table near the stage. I have time to kill before his band is up, so I enjoy people-watching and playing a game I like to call, "How close am I to crossing that line?" This is a game I play with myself wherein I observe women who are way too old to be dressed like they are 18 and/or like it's 1986 they're trying to get the attention of a roadie at a Warrant concert. My hope is that I'll have the good sense to know my limits and somehow be aware of when I've reached the you're-too-old-to-be-wearing-that limit and just not do it. My I-don't-care-what-people-think-of-me attitude competes with this level of self-awareness, however, so I think it will be a challenge for me to know when I'm crossing the line.

His band takes the stage, and they make their way through their set to Godzilla. I was embarrassed to admit that I cannot say I remember ever hearing this song before. OK. I can live with that. The band was good and I'm glad I went.

This morning as I'm driving to work and listening to the radio, they were playing an old clip of a live version of Godzilla that was performed in the studio of this radio show some years prior. Now here is a song that I heard live last Sunday, and despite being told that it was a popular song and that I would know it, I didn't know it and was hearing it for the first time as far as I can remember. And then three days later, I'm hearing it again, and another live version to boot. I made it 30 years without hearing this song once, a song that apparently was a major hit, and now I hear it twice in a few days.

I've thought about what this particular synchronicity might be pointing out, and so far I haven't arrived at any conclusions, but I've committed to logging these as they happen, so here it is. If it turns out to mean anything later, which these things sometimes do, I'll update the post.

Little Fish in a Big Pond?

This jolting dose of perspective may make some of us feel insignificant, helpless, or even apathetic about their role in the grand scheme of things. Not me. It reminds me that I am a part of something universal, profound, beautiful, and infinite. It doesn't matter how big or small of a part I am. Some people sigh that they are only a tiny fish in a big pond, only one of myriad others. But each one is essential, and important. Because if you are not important, then nobody is important. And if no one matters, then it would be just the same if none of us were here at all, right? Wrong. Everyone matters. Everyone and everything is connected, and no chain holds together with broken links.

Once in a great while I manage to stumble upon a conscious awareness of this infinite connection. It has only happened maybe two or three times in my life thus far, but on those occasions it brought a lump to my throat because the feeling was so immense, the connection so far-reaching. That is what I wish everyone could really have a chance to feel, at least one time. I'm hoping that my path leads to a better understanding of how to experience this awareness intentionally, rather than by happy accident as I have so far.

Talking Boards: Part 2

So I've already covered some of the basics of talking boards, but WAIT! There's more! For just five easy payments of $19.95, you, too can have -

Nevermind. 

Very Superstitious

Let me just jump right in and pontificate on a subject that is the basis for much bitching and moaning on my part: Ghosts. Demons, evil spirits. You name it, there's a bullshit movie about it. Think of almost any haunting movie: The Exorcist, Poltergeist, The Amityville Horror, Paranormal Activity... What are your standard plot elements? Sweet innocent family moves into a creepy house with a horrible past and a GHOST who wants them out. Or, the ever-popular someone-is-doing-something-dumb-with-some-sort-of-stereotypical-ritual-or-occult-accoutrements (Ouija board, spell casting, ancient burial grounds, the Necronomicon) and they UNLEASH THE KRAKEN!!  

Sorry, I don't have the ability to say the word 'unleash' and not mentally follow it up with 'the Kraken.' Anyway, they unwittingly unleash some demon or ghost or evil entity who wants to do BAD THINGS to everyone involved. I would like to be on record as saying to all of these plot devices: Why don't you go outside and play hide-and-go-f**k-yourself?

From my experience, and from questioning The Collective on this matter, there seems to be infinitesimally small grounds for the reality of any such occurrences happening in real life. I'm not saying there aren't locations in this wide world that have a greater amount of spiritual "activity" than normal, I'm just saying that there are no spirits trying to maliciously levitate your baby for no apparent reason, no matter how much cyan tint you put on your security cam footage. No one dead is trying to "possess" anyone alive, or steal your soul for any so-called demonic ends. So let's everybody just calm down with the superstitious nonsense, OK?

The bulk of the Collective is actually out there trying to help us, and I would say most of those that aren't actively helping with the affairs of the living are just on their own, indifferent and possibly wanting to be left alone for a time.  So please rest assured that no one is going to "come through" your talking board and start haunting your house or trying to harm you. Probably the worst you're going to get is some gibberish series of letters that doesn't make sense or maybe some swear words. And if you were offended by a few profanities you would have stopped reading this post a long time ago.

I ain't afraid of no ghost.

Party Foul

I have learned that talking boards seem to get a lot of use at parties and events. Everyone gets slightly tipsy and wants to see if they can summon the ghost of a celebrity and ask them stupid questions. All my personal derision for other people's ideas about the dead aside, I would like to explain why this is not the most productive idea.

You can do it, of course. As long as you have at least two people, preferably a Speaker and a Battery. The leaf will start moving around and coherent words may or may not be spelled out.  You can start asking questions of your friendly neighborhood dead person, and they should begin to try to answer you. 

Here's where it gets tricky: remember how I talked about the Collective? And how a lot of them are involved in our affairs? Well wrap your head around this, my spiritually curious friends: each one of us living, fleshy beings has, on average, two to three "invisible" buddies hanging around us at any given time. Some people have more. During one board session my inquiries about this revealed that one of my relatives had a whopping thirty-two souls gathered 'round her at all times, mostly due to her very receptive nature. They're trying to help us keep our lives on track and in line with the Great Plan. Hoping to nudge us into making decisions that will benefit us on our path to spiritual growth. They're the movers and shakers, working to make circumstances unfold properly so that we can continue down the right path for each of us. That little voice in your head that sometimes warns, "I wouldn't do that if I were you," when you're about to do something dangerous? Yeah, that's probably not you. It's more likely someone else trying to help you out. More on that in a future post. 

The point is this: if each of us is walking around with an entourage of at least a couple disembodied spirits, think of the crowded spiritual party scene that ensues when even a modest group of eight or ten living people is in the same place at one time. Now imagine getting on a talking board and trying to ask questions. I know that the vast majority of my personal board sessions are done with only two people (me and my husband), and with even a quorum of participants, there are always specific messages for each of us, and usually more than one apiece. Once you start adding additional participants to the mix, the number of messages in total that the other side of the Collective would like to relay increases exponentially. Now there is, essentially, a cacophony of voices trying to be heard. 

"WHAT? I'M GONNA HAFTA CALL YOU BACK!"

Imagine you're on the phone with someone, and that person is at a noisy party. They're trying to talk to you, but you can barely hear them because of all the noise that other people are making. Maybe you even mistake someone else's voice for your friend because so many people are speaking at once. Or maybe you have a few friends at this party, and several of them are jostling to get on the phone and have their turn to talk to you. This is the type of confusion you can have when you try to use a talking board at a crowded event. There are a lot of crossed lines and mixed messages, and chaos ensues. This has happened to me a few times, where we thought a particular message was for one person, and later we discovered that it was meant for someone else entirely, but because there were too many spirits competing for a chance to get their message across, information got muddled and was directed at the wrong recipient. This is not only confusing for the people asking the questions, but it also does a disservice to the reputation of talking boards in general, making the whole affair seem like none of the information delivered was worthwhile or relevant.

Because of this phenomenon of too many voices, I have found that my most productive sessions are those that have anywhere from two to four live participants. Other than the two-person minimum needed to operate the board, this is not a hard and fast rule, just an idea of what seems to be the most useful from personal experience. It is also worth noting, that if you can, it's a good idea to have an equal portion of Speakers versus Batteries with their hands on the leaf. I recently had a session with three Speakers and only one Battery, and the poor Battery person was pretty drained and tired by the end of it, because they were providing the bulk of the energy fuel for four people's worth of questions.

Silent Oracle

It's also worth noting that there are some questions that They won't answer for you at all. Even when we ask questions that They will answer, the responses run the gamut from the pretty cut-and-dried yes or no variety all the way to vague, enigmatic responses consisting of initials or clue-like buzzwords on which They won't elaborate any further as to the meaning. So while even normal questions can elicit sometimes frustratingly confusing answers that no amount of disambiguation seems to clarify (I've found myself many a session pulling my hair going, "What the hell are you telling me? That doesn't make any sense!"), there are in fact some types of inquiries that will cause your spiritual messenger to clam up altogether. Let have some examples, shall we?

Q: When/how/am I going to die?

A: Listen, cubby, they're not going to tell you that, so don't bother asking. This is probably the poster-child for the types of questions, the answers to which provide you with information that would cause you to make a bunch of bad decisions and/or stray from the path that you're supposed to be on in life. How would you change your way of life if you knew you were going to die next week? Next year? Not until you were 97 years old? This is information that will cause you to act in a way that would be out of character for yourself, as it were, and this is not The Plan.  And consider this: what if They're wrong?  It's happened. Events don't always unfold in the most likely manner. You may ask questions about your future when you're on the board, but the answers they give you usually are based on your life taking the path that looks like the strongest probability at the moment for The Collective. But things change, so They are not going to burden you with information about death (your own or that of others), especially when that information might not be 100% guaranteed - not a good basis for decision making, to say the least.

Q: What are the winning lottery numbers?

"Woohoo! Live-in pizza chef, here I come!"

A: The Collective is not going to allow itself to be used for purely selfish material gains. Read up on some of the history of the original Ouija board marketing from the early 1900s if you would like to see how They deal with people trying to make money from this gift of communication. The gentlemen attempting to run a business selling talking boards found themselves in not-so-fortunate circumstances before too long. Yes, They will answer questions you have about your search for a better job, or help you make decisions on buying a house, starting a business, or having a baby. All of these are factors that contribute to your quality of life, and while they are not the sole keys to happiness, they are perfectly reasonable topics of inquiry. I mean, even if you get a better job, it's still you that's earning your living. The Collective is not simply going to hand you sudden, independent wealth - if it was part of the plan for your personal spiritual growth for you to experience a sudden windfall and then deal with the aftermath of such an event, this would occur regardless. So don't be silly and ask for the keys to the mansion when you are only a weekend guest, OK?

Q:  Is my boss sleeping with his admin?

A: This is just one example of an entire category of questions that you probably won't get an answer to - not necessarily because the information is sacred, but because They believe that if you had the information, you would likely do something destructive with it. A participant in a board session once asked if the company they worked for was preparing to let them go. They were told that this was not the case, and to stop worrying about it. Shortly thereafter, however, they were let go, just as they had originally suspected. Now why did the spirit answering questions that day basically lie to this person? They knew that this person would be let go, but they proceeded to give reassurances that this was not the case. My suspicions were confirmed when we consulted Them a few days after the event, and They admitted that although They knew that events were about to take a turn for the worse, They did not give the querent the heads-up this time, because They knew that given this information, the employee would have probably taken some sort or rash, preemptive "revenge" action against their employer, for even daring to terminate them. The Collective knew that such an impulsive and likely bout of temper would have consequences that would probably hurt this person's chances at future employment, which they would be needing post haste in light of the upcoming break with their employer. As you can see from this example, an honest answer from The Collective would have probably cost this person dearly, if only due to an inability to overcome human emotions in such a heated situation. And much as they will not give you information that they think will cause you to do harm to your own chances for success, they will also not tell you things that they think you will use, intentionally or not, to do harm to others or their circumstances.

To sum up: the other side of the Collective is here to help us, not to harm us. They are eager to talk and are pleased when we can both hear them, and are willing to listen. If you are polite and respectful, as you would be when asking advice from any person you look up to, they will provide you with the information that you can use to steer yourself along the most spiritually beneficial path for you, without harming anyone else in the process.

Synchronicity for The Day: Music No. 1

First thing this morning, which seems to be a common time for me to experience synchronicities, I was treated to a musical "coincidence." I was lying in bed with a serious headache, an ice pack on my temple, silently cursing every noise in the house at the time. Because it was the normal getting-up time, my oldest (and fattest) cat initiated his usual routine of walking all over me and stepping in my hair on the pillow, pulling it (which is great when you have a headache) and generally using the annoyance of his bulky presence to encourage me to get the hell out of bed and put some kibble in his dish. Despite my annoyance, one of my go-to personal song parodies came into my head: a play on Ram Jam's Black Betty - Fat Kitty. Whoa Fat Kitty, blam-a-lam, Whoa Fat Kitty, blam-a-lam...  I know, that's dumb, but what can I say? I thought of it once, and now with my ever present fatty catty, it comes up all the time. So once I admitted defeat and accepted that the thumping of blood in my left temple wasn't going away, and I got up and moving, I ended up in front of the mirror to put on makeup. Sometimes I like to have some music while I get ready for work in the morning, and today was one of those days. First song up when I put my iPod on shuffle? You guessed it.

What do I take this synchronicity to mean? Well, I am rarely certain what these mean, but I think this morning as I was wallowing in bed, bemoaning my headache, I remembered the Mars transit I'm having right now (let's just leave it at that, and have some mercy on non-astrologers) and I decided that I needed to use that burst of energy I am enjoying thanks to the red planet to muscle through this bullcrap. That I needed to conquer this pain and not let it get in the way of the things I needed to get done. I'd like to think the synchronicity was an affirmation that this was the correct tactic to take. Maybe it meant something else, but it was enough that I noticed Their message if nothing else.

Worth Your Weight in Mustard

Riddle me this: Why is it when you go to a fast food joint it's so hard to get some mustard?

Mustard's a normal burger/hot dog topping, right? Ketchup and Mustard, the ever-together condiment twins. Am I nuts here?

Hey man, I'll sell you this '87 Iroc Z for 2700 packets.

The chick at the counter hands me my tray of food. I ask, "Can I get a packet of mustard?" Rather than just grabbing a couple mustard packets and handing them to me, I usually get one of three responses:  I might get, "You want honey mustard?" with a facial expression and tone that conveys skepticism and confusion. Did I f**king say honey mustard? No I did not. "No, just regular mustard, thanks," I respond. Which can sometimes bring me to the next response, which I sometimes actually arrive at first, bypassing the honey mustard litmus test altogether: the person helping me has to say, "Just a second," and is forced to consult another employee. An entire Mustard Committee must be formed in order to discuss, vote on, and accommodate my apparently freak request. "Do you know where we have any mustard?" they will ask their coworker in a baffled manner like I just asked them for a potted cactus and a can of shaving cream. I'm at a burger joint right? Mustard should not be that weird of a thing to ask for. I get so annoyed at the predictability of this scene that I end sentences like that last one with prepositions. The third type of response I get is the suspicious, "How many do you want?" They have the mustard back there, oh yes they do. But unlike the ketchup, which they will foist upon you in double fistfuls, like they can't give the stuff away, the mustard they guard jealously and mete out like there's a global shortage, or an impending apocalypse and the Wall Street bean counters have predicted that the vinegary yellow stuff will be the new world currency after we fight off all the zombies.

Seriously, am I effing crazy? I see other people putting mustard on things. I'm not the only one. Why are they holding out on me? I had a McDonald's employee tell me that they didn't have any mustard. At all. You're a burger joint for f**k's sakes! Is my family going to have to have an intervention on me and break the news that I am the last living person who wants some mustard on their burger, like they had to explain to that one lady on The View that the world isn't really flat? Is that what's going on here?

Is this important in the grand scheme of life? No it is not. I just don't understand this phenomenon at all. But I think I'm going to start hoarding mustard packets just in case. The first sign of zombies and I'm the next Bill Gates, muthaf**ka.

Synchronicity for The Day: Numbers No. 1

So I wanted to start formally taking note of when I see these various synchronicities happening in my daily life, which is all the time. I promise I will make a longer entry about the concept of synchronicity, but let's just say for now that these are the little coincidences-that-are-not-really-coincidences that pop up from time to time. They are The Collective's way of telling you, "Hey! Pay attention! Take note of what is going on right now!" Or also, "Things are right on track for your Life Path right now, everything is humming along on schedule/as planned." Déjà vu is also something like this, but that is a topic for another day.

So this one happened to me yesterday when I was driving home from work (I'm continually amazed at the amount of spiritual experiences and thoughts I have while driving). I wanted to post it last night, and I got all crafty thinking that I would just get the Blogger app for my phone and do it on the fly while it was still fresh in my mind. But of course, like any time I think I'm gonna do something "simple," everything went to hell in a hand-basket and technology thwarted my will once again. Curses!!!  So after installing/uninstalling/re-installing the app and going in circles with it wanting me to use a gmail address and not recognizing my account for my actual blog, I gave up and decided to troubleshoot it (like that will come to any avail) later, on the desktop instead of the phone.

Let's get to the actual synchronicity event again, which will probably be a shorter paragraph than all my complaining above. So I'm driving home listening to a talk show on Sirius, and like many call-in type shows they gave their phone number for listeners to call as they went to a break. The phone number ended in 6766. And right as the show's host was telling us what the number was, and I mean literally as the words were coming out of the speakers, I was looking at the license plate of the driver ahead of me and their plate was 6XXX766. The Xs were actually three other letters, but I decided I probably shouldn't list someone's actual plate number online. But yeah, that was a good one. Very precise. And very simultaneous. Sometimes I see these a few hours apart, but this one was immediate. So that made me feel good. I knew that things were going along as intended, which always makes me happy.