"Decoding Life's Secret Messages"

How to tune in to the hidden meaning of coincidences, those seemingly random events that can guide us toward our destiny.




Jung called it "synchronicity"--random events that occur together in a way that defies rou haven't seen in a while, and she phones you. Oational explanation. You think of a friend yr, contemplating a business deal, you see a sign that reads "Beware of thin ice," and you know to steer clear. If you look more closely at coincidences, you will find guidance in times of confusion or at key moments in decision-making. We are used to looking for symbols in dreams, but coincidences in our waking lives can be also be read as symbols of where the universe is leading us. Coincidence is said to be God's way of remaining anonymous, an indication that there is an underlying reality that connects us all. Here's how to recognize those secret messages from the universe.

1. Read the Signs

Signs are literally all around us. A friend of mine was feeling stuck in her life. As she rushed out in the car to pick up her child from school, she realized she was heading into a traffic jam. "Great," she thought, "the world is mirroring my sense of being stuck." Just then a little white car zipped past her and drove straight into the converging lines of traffic, cutting them off and opening a space for her to get clear. As she seized the chance to get out of the jam, she glanced back and noticed that the vanity plate of the white car read: "CREATE." She was grateful for the double message: that when things stall, we are required to create a new approach, and that we don't have to figure everything out on our own. The universe can be friendly, if we'll let it. Other signs that are "in your face" might include a billboard, a quote on a church signboard, or the first song or commercial that is on the radio when you turn it on.

2. Ask for Guidance

You can ask synchronicity to be your guide. Start by identifying the theme in your life on which you would most like some help right now. Write down a clear and simple request by filling in the blank in the following statement: "I would like guidance on...." Now get ready to receive the first striking or unusual thing that enters your field of perception as a direct response from the universe to your question. A friend who was having doubts about her boyfriend wrote down her question, "Should I end my relationship with Doug?" She turned on the TV and immediately found herself watching a character named Doug breaking up with a girl on the phone--in an episode of "King of Queens," a show she had never watched before. She felt that answered her question directly!

3. Get Moving

Coincidences multiply when we are in motion--because we are traveling outside the grooves of regular habit and ordinary time, into a deeper reality. Airports, train stations, and the morning commute are good places to be alert to messages. You can also consult the "marketplace" oracle. The oracle of Hermes was popular in ancient Greece. Here's how it worked: You entered a walled marketplace and whispered your question into the ear of the statue of Hermes, the messenger of the gods. Then you pressed your hands over your ears until you got back to the market gate. The first words or sounds you heard after you took your hands away from your ears were the response to your question. Try this in a market or mall. Ask a question in your mind, take ten minutes to roam around, then stop and read the first sign you see. That's your answer.

4. Meet the Library Angel




Open a book at random and see what is staring at you from the page. It may be a theme for the day. Many people do this with the Bible or another sacred book. Or go to a favorite bookstore--used bookstores are especially magical--and see what pops up right away. You may come to notice, even among familiar books at home, that the benign "shelf elf," which Arthur Koestler called the Library Angel, will come and play with you--knocking a book off a shelf or revealing others in unexpected ways--if you are engaged in a quest.

5. Notice That Life Rhymes

Mark Twain said that history may not repeat itself, but it rhymes. This is also true of our personal history. When a name or a theme comes up again and again, it may be telling us that we need to get the message. On my way to a TV show in Seattle to talk about dreams, I had to wait at a busy intersection. Suddenly the driver of an amazing vehicle painted blue, with a giant shark's fin on top, stopped to let me cross. I remarked to my friends, "The shark will be a theme today." On the air, the interviewer told me of a dream in which she was flying low over blue waters, watching the dorsal fins of sharks circling below. I commented that, if it were my dream, in addition to watching out for "sharks" at work, I might wonder if anyone I knew was challenged by cancer. Sharks don't get cancer, I said, and have sometimes proved to be helpers for cancer patients in guided imagery sessions in which they picture a shark eating the cells of their disease. Off the air, the TV anchor revealed that her mother, who was vacationing in the Caribbean, had been diagnosed with cancer. I suggested that her mother visualize the shark as an inner healer.

6. See an Opportunity Beyond Every Setback

My rule of thumb is: When you find a door closing in your face, look for the one that may be opening. Here's another example involving Mark Twain. In Hannibal, Mo., young Sam Clemens read in the paper about a "wonder" plant in Brazil that was supposed to have healing properties. Local businessmen agreed to back Clemens on an expedition to acquire a large supply of the plant. But when he got to New Orleans, he discovered he couldn't get to Brazil from there. Repairing to a local tavern to drown his sorrows, he met a Mississippi riverboat captain who agreed to take him on as an apprentice pilot. From his experiences on the river, Clemens got the material for his best stories, as well as his pen name. And so, every time I miss an airplane connection or a plan falls through, I am open to finding an opportunity that would not otherwise have appeared.

7. Don't Be Afraid to Get Lost

This is the cardinal navigational law of serendipity. You can only get to the magic kingdom by getting lost. You get there when you think you are going somewhere else and "fall off the map." Serendipity is a major factor in scientific discovery and invention, as well as in exploration and entrepreneurship. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by accident. He neglected to isolate bacterial cultures from stray spores blowing around his hospital building before going away on vacation. When he returned, he found that a mold had killed the bacteria in his experiment--and his trained mind recognized that he was looking at an extraordinary cure.
The glue used in Post-it notes was another accident; a scientist trying to produce a strong adhesive came up with a very weak one instead--and recognized an unexpected opportunity.

8.Notice Slips of the Tongue

It's amazing what can be revealed through a slip of the tongue. Pay attention to what's going on when you or someone else misspeaks a name or a phrase. This could be a Freudian slip, or a slip of a more interesting kind. I'm pretty good with names, so when I get someone's name wrong, I always pause to ask whether the "wrong" name means something we need to know about. After I called Mark "Charlie" for the third time in one of my seminars on coincidence, I asked, "Okay, who's Charlie?" Charlie had been Mark's best friend, and Mark was still grieving his death. In fact, Mark was wearing Charlie's favorite sweater that day. This guided Mark to construct a simple personal ritual to honor his departed friend and to separate their energies.

9. Identify Your Personal Omens

We don't want to carry around old superstitions. But we can oftenecially in an unlikely place, is always a s find guidance by identifying our personal omens. For me, seeing a friendly black dog, espign that something good is about to happen. I have also received life-guiding messages from red-tailed hawks. Many years ago, wondering whether to leave the city for a rural home, I sat under an old white oak and pondered my decision. I felt that if moving was the right choice, there would be a sign. A red-tailed hawk came circling overhead, dipping lower and lower--and dropped a wing feather between my knees. I accepted the sign, purchased the farm, and found my life entering a new spiritual depth.

10. Be a Synchronicity Magnet

Coincidences tend to cluster around us when we pursue our deepest creative desires. The stronger our emotions, the stronger the effect on our psychic and physical environment, and the more our direction is guided by meaningful coincidence.

The poet William Butler Yeats believed that when our minds are working on a challenging line of inquiry, we attract the interest and guidance of deeper intelligences. Thinking about this one day, I took my dog for a walk in the park--and ran into a cheerful Irish setter called Fergus. His owner explained the name by citing a poem by Yeats. Accepting the coincidence as a sign, I proceeded to make Yeats a major character in the book I was working on.

The world responds to the thoughts and feelings to which we give the energy of our attention. There is no impermeable boundary between mind and matter anywhere in our universe. Through the power of our minds, we can open bridges between the everyday world and a deeper order of reality in which we may find the hidden logic of events--and our own larger stories.

"Top 15 Amazing Coincidences"

Life is full of coincidences; some very minor, but occasionally - extraordinary. This is a list of 15 of the most incredible, unbelievable coincidences. 15. Childhood Book While American novelist Anne Parrish was browsing bookstores in Paris in the 1920s, she came upon a book that was one of her childhood favorites - Jack Frost and Other Stories. She picked up the old book and showed it to her husband, telling him of the book she fondly remembered as a child. Her husband took the book, opened it, and on the flyleaf found the inscription: "Anne Parrish, 209 N. Weber Street, Colorado Springs." It was Anne's very own book. 14. Poker Luck In 1858, Robert Fallon was shot dead, an act of vengeance by those with whom he was playing poker. Fallon, they claimed, had won the $600 pot through cheating. With Fallon's seat empty and none of the other players willing to take the now unlucky $600, they found a new player to take Fallon's place and staked him with the dead man's $600. By the time the police had arrived to investigate the killing, the new player had turned the $600 into $2,200 in winnings. The police demanded the original $600 to pass on to Fallon's next of kin - only to discover that the new player turned out to be Fallon's son, who had not seen his father in seven years! 13. Twin Deaths In 2002, Seventy-year- old twin brothers died within hours of one another after separate accidents on the same road in northern Finland. The first of the twins died when he was hit by a lorry while riding his bike in Raahe, 600 kilometres north of the capital, Helsinki. He died just 1.5km from the spot where his brother was killed. "This is simply a historic coincidence. Although the road is a busy one, accidents don't occur every day," police officer Marja-Leena Huhtala told Reuters. "It made my hair stand on end when I heard the two were brothers, and identical twins at that. It came to mind that perhaps someone from upstairs had a say in this," she said. 12. Poe Coincidence In the 19th century, the famous horror writer, Egdar Allan Poe, wrote a book called 'The narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym'. It was about four survivors of a shipwreck who were in an open boat for many days before they decided to kill and eat the cabin boy whose name was Richard Parker. Some years later, in 1884, the yawl, Mignonette, foundered, with only four survivors, who were in an open boat for many days. Eventually the three senior members of the crew killed and ate the cabin boy. The name of the cabin boy was Richard Parker. 11. Royal Coincidence In Monza, Italy, King Umberto I, went to a small restaurant for dinner, accompanied by his aide-de-camp, General Emilio Ponzia- Vaglia. When the owner took King Umberto's order, the King noticed that he and the restaurant owner were virtual doubles, in face and in build. Both men began discussing the striking resemblance between each other and found many more similarities. 1. Both men were born on the same day, of the same year, (March 14th, 1844). 2. Both men had been born in the same town. 3. Both men married a woman with same name, Margherita. 4. The restaurateur opened his restaurant on the same day that King Umberto was crowned King of Italy. 5. On the 29th July 1900, King Umberto was informed that the restaurateur had died that day in a mysterious shooting accident, and as he expressed his regret, an anarchist in the crowd then assassinated him. 10. Falling Baby In 1930s Detroit, a man named Joseph Figlock was to become an amazing figure in a young (and, apparently, incredibly careless) mother's life. As Figlock was walking down the street, the mother's baby fell from a high window onto Figlock. The baby's fall was broken and Figlock and the baby were unharmed. A year later, the selfsame baby fell from the selfsame window, again falling onto Mr. Figlock as he was passing beneath. Once again, both of them survived the event. 9. Mystery Monk In 19th century Austria, a near-famous painter named Joseph Aigner attempted suicide on several occasions. During his first attempt to hang himself at the age of 18, a mysterious Capuchin monk interrupted Aigner. And again at age 22, the very same monk prevented him from hanging himself. Eight years later, he was sentenced to the gallows for his political activities. But again, his life was saved by the intervention of the same monk. At age 68, Joseph Aigner finally succeeded in suicide, using a pistol to shoot himself. Not surprisingly, the very same Capuchin monk - a man whose name Aigner never even knew, conducted his funeral ceremony. 8. Photographic Coincidence A German mother who photographed her infant son in 1914 left the film to be developed at a store in Strasbourg. In those days some film plates were sold individually. World War I broke out and unable to return to Strasbourg, the woman gave up the picture for lost. Two years later she bought a film plate in Frankfurt, over 100 miles away, to take a picture of her newborn daughter. When developed the film turned out to be a double exposure, with the picture of her daughter superimposed on the earlier picture of her son. Through some incredible twist of fate, her original film, never developed, had been mislabeled as unused, and had eventually been resold to her. 7. Book Find In 1973, actor Anthony Hopkins agreed to appear in "The Girl From Petrovka", based on a novel by George Feifer. Unable to find a copy of the book anywhere in London, Hopkins was surprised to discover one lying on a bench in a train station. It turned out to be George Feifer's own annotated (personal) copy, which Feifer had lent to a friend, and which had been stolen from his friend's car. 6. Twins The twin brothers, Jim Lewis and Jim Springer, were separated at birth, adopted by different families. Unknown to each other, both families named the boys James. Both James grew up not knowing of the other, yet both sought law-enforcement training both had abilities in mechanical drawing and carpentry, and each had married women named Linda. Both had sons, one of who was named James Alan and the other named James Allan. The twin brothers also divorced their wives and married other women - both named Betty. And they both owned dogs which they named Toy. 5. Revenge Killing In 1883, Henry Ziegland broke off a relationship with his girlfriend who, out of distress, committed suicide. The girl's enraged brother hunted down Ziegland and shot him. Believing he had killed Ziegland, the brother then took his own life. In fact, however, Ziegland had not been killed. The bullet had only grazed his face, lodging into a tree. It was a narrow escape. Years later, Ziegland decided to cut down the same tree, which still had the bullet in it. The huge tree seemed so formidable that he decided to blow it up with dynamite. The explosion propelled the bullet into Ziegland's head, killing him. 4. Golden Scarab From The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche: "A young woman I was treating had, at a critical moment, a dream in which she was given a golden scarab. While she was telling me this dream I sat with my back to the closed window. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me, like a gentle tapping. I turned round and saw a flying insect knocking against the windowpane from outside. I opened the window and caught the creature in the air as it flew in. It was the nearest analogy to the golden scarab that one finds in our latitudes, a scarabaeid beetle, the common rose-chafer (Cetonia aurata) which contrary to its usual habits had evidently felt an urge to get into a dark room at this particular moment. I must admit that nothing like it ever happened to me before or since, and that the dream of the patient has remained unique in my experience." - Carl Jung 3. Taxi In 1975, while riding a moped in Bermuda, a man was accidentally struck and killed by a taxi. One year later, this man's brother was killed in the very same way. In fact, he was riding the very same moped. And to stretch the odds even further, the very same taxi driven by the same driver - and even carrying the very same passenger struck him! 2. Hotel Discovery In 1953, television reporter Irv Kupcinet was in London to cover the coronation of Ellizabeth II. In one of the drawers in his room at the Savoy he found some items that, by their identification, belonged to a man named Harry Hannin. Coincidentally, Harry Hannin - a basketball star with the famed Harlem Globetrotters - was a good friend of Kupcinet's. But the story has yet another twist. Just two days later, and before he could tell Hannin of his lucky discovery, Kupcinet received a letter from Hannin. In the letter, Hannin told Kucinet that while staying at the Hotel Meurice in Paris, he found in a drawer a tie - with Kupcinet's name on it. 1. Historical Coincidence The lives of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, two of America's founders. Jefferson crafted the Declaration of Independence, showing drafts of it to Adams, who (with Benjamin Franklin) helped to edit and hone it. The Continental Congress approved the document on July 4, 1776. Surprisingly, both Jefferson and Adams died on the same day, July 4, 1826 - exactly 50 years from the signing of the Declaration of Independence. My love for you is a journey, starting at forever and ending at never.....