Setting yourself up for small Synchronicites

"A finished draft allows the writer to stand back from the story and think both forward from the beginning and middle, and backwards from the climax. In other words, the beginning defines the end and the end defines the beginning.” Martha Alderson

Novels, films, and TV often have predictable plots.

The pieces eventually come together and the outcome suddenly become clear, as if it was always meant to be.

Think of the phrase "The old train…"

Does it end with "...left the station"? Or does it end with "...the young"?

Do you see how the ending alters the beginning?

Another example: When voice-typing, a misheard word often requires re-saying the whole sentence.

This embodies "holism", the idea that parts don't have independent meaning without the whole.

In physics, our description of light is holistic. Light from the sun takes 8 minutes to travel 96 million miles to reach us. but how does light itself change with time? It turns out that our very notion of time is defined by the travel of light. Light itself is timeless. The beginning point and the endpoint of light travel are, in some sense, not separate points. Everything is in “virtual contact” with everything else! (Gilbert Lewis, 1926)

How to embrace this? Start with your end goal.

Synchronicity Institute newsletter manager Jennifer Redelle Carey has used her synchronicity skills to meet her idols from the Marvel movie series.

Jennifer’s approach is to first make a list (on paper or just in her mind) of people she wishes to meet. She asks her friends if they have connections. She researches what panels or events the actors are participating in. When she attends such an event, she brings her list to mind, and then listens to conversations around her and checks social media hashtags related to the actors and events.

Synchroncities occur because Jennifer takes specific actions, which, though not guaranteeing success, are necessary for the end goal! Then it becomes easier for small synchronicities to be enough to bring about success.

Meeting a mutual hero

This talent and skill of hers is what brought us together. Jennifer helped me meet one of our mutual “flow heroes”: the psychologist Dr. Mihaly Csizskszentmihalyi (or Mike, as he preferred to be called).

Jennifer invited me to a conference Mike was sponsoring in Southern California. I knew he might not be at the conference, for he was toward the end of his life. I flew down anyway and Jennifer picked me up to bring me to the conference.

We enjoyed the conference itself, but paid special attention to when and where Mike might show up. Sure enough, at the end of the day we heard a rumor that he was on his way, so we waited where we thought he'd arrive, and we were right! I got the chance to thank him for endorsing my book, and I got his signature on my copy of his book, “Flow”!

Synchronicity would still be possible even if I didn't go to the conference. It's not out of the question that Mike ends up on a plane to San Francisco and we run into each other at the Exploratorium Museum or something. But it's a long shot. By planning ahead, we made it easy for synchronicity to bring us together.

Sadly, Mike died the following year. He is greatly missed. These memories with him are priceless for me.

It would seem reasonable that smaller synchronicities are more likely than huge ones. And when you actively set the stage for your goals, even small synchronicities can make a difference!

Think of the phrase "The old train…"

Does it end with "...left the station"? Or does it end with "...the young"?

Do you see how the ending alters the beginning?

Another example: When voice-typing, a misheard word often requires re-saying the whole sentence.

This embodies "holism", the idea that parts don't have independent meaning without the whole.

In physics, our description of light is holistic. Light from the sun takes 8 minutes to travel 96 million miles to reach us. but how does light itself change with time? It turns out that our very notion of time is defined by the travel of light. Light itself is timeless. The beginning point and the endpoint of light travel are, in some sense, not separate points. Everything is in “virtual contact” with everything else! (Gilbert Lewis, 1926)

How to embrace this? Start with your end goal.

Synchronicity Institute newsletter manager Jennifer Redelle Carey has used her synchronicity skills to meet her idols from the Marvel movie series.

Jennifer’s approach is to first make a list (on paper or just in her mind) of people she wishes to meet. She asks her friends if they have connections. She researches what panels or events the actors are participating in. When she attends such an event, she brings her list to mind, and then listens to conversations around her and checks social media hashtags related to the actors and events.

Synchroncities occur because Jennifer takes specific actions, which, though not guaranteeing success, are necessary for the end goal! Then it becomes easier for small synchronicities to be enough to bring about success.

Meeting a mutual hero

This talent and skill of hers is what brought us together. Jennifer helped me meet one of our mutual “flow heroes”: the psychologist Dr. Mihaly Csizskszentmihalyi (or Mike, as he preferred to be called).

Jennifer invited me to a conference Mike was sponsoring in Southern California. I knew he might not be at the conference, for he was toward the end of his life. I flew down anyway and Jennifer picked me up to bring me to the conference.

We enjoyed the conference itself, but paid special attention to when and where Mike might show up. Sure enough, at the end of the day we heard a rumor that he was on his way, so we waited where we thought he'd arrive, and we were right! I got the chance to thank him for endorsing my book, and I got his signature on my copy of his book, “Flow”!

Synchronicity would still be possible even if I didn't go to the conference. It's not out of the question that Mike ends up on a plane to San Francisco and we run into each other at the Exploratorium Museum or something. But it's a long shot. By planning ahead, we made it easy for synchronicity to bring us together.

Sadly, Mike died the following year. He is greatly missed. These memories with him are priceless for me.

It would seem reasonable that smaller synchronicities are more likely than huge ones. And when you actively set the stage for your goals, even small synchronicities can make a difference!

Welcome to a Leap to Wholeness

We are starting a new series of social media posts around my second book, Leap to Wholeness, How the World is Programmed to Help Us Grow, Heal, and Adapt. One of the big themes in the book is identifying the filters that color the way we look at the world and ourselves. When we can identify a filter or belief we have, without trying to change it, we naturally start to see it better and it's easier to see beyond it. I offer this as a way of healing our old patterns of behavior.