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Very, Very Personal and Enduring Synchronicities

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In the early 1970’s I met a young man by the name of Richard Christian Matheson, the son of Richard Matheson, veteran writer for The Twilight Zone (1959-1964), Star Trek, The Night Stalker, Legend of Hell House, Somewhere In Time, etc., who later became a successful writer/producer of both feature films and television.

Shortly after meeting each other and becoming friends we discovered that we have the same birthdays; month, day and time, but he is four years younger than I.

We worked on a few projects together and he accompanied me on several investigations.  As his career grew more successful we lost touch with each other for almost thirty years.

Upon reconnecting again in the middle 2000’s, far more peculiar synchronicities were revealed.  He drove a Lexus and I, a Toyota Supra Turbo, whose license plates differ by only one number.  When we met for lunch, I saw that he was wearing a very specific watch, a brushed, stainless steel, TAG Heuer Kirium Chronograph, to be specific.

I’ve always loved watches and I used to have a stainless steel Rolex Submariner Date for almost thirty years.  It was a piece of junk that never kept accurate time (at least on my wrist) and required frequent maintenance (every three years at a cost of around $700).  I wised up and sold the non- working, although beautiful, watch in 1997 for more than twice what I paid for it.

The only other watch I really wanted after the Rolex was a TAG Heuer Kirium Chronograph, which Richard just happened to be wearing (his parents bought it for him as a birthday gift).  I finally was able to purchase (rather expensive at over $2,500) my own brushed, stainless steel TAG Heuer Kirium watch, although mine is the F1 model.

TAG Heuer Kirium Digital F1

There are likely hundreds of thousands of different makes of watches and many different models of each make.  What are the odds of us both having the almost identical watch?  At that time, TAG Heuer offered dozens of different models with numerous variants of each.

The chance of this being a coincidence are astronomical!

Alright, I’ve spent enough time on the time here, let’s move on to the next level of synchronicities related to Richard and myself.

During the course of our lunch I learned that Richard had been married and divorced since we last spoke several decades earlier, although this particular aspect, I fortunately, did not share in common with him.

He had a relatively new girlfriend who lived with him, and her name is Diana.  All right, wait a minute here.  The last girl I almost dated before meeting up with Richard again, was named Diana.  What a coincidence?

Several years later I had to have several moles removed from body, one above my navel, one directly behind it on my back and one on each side of my body, forming a perfect circle around the center of my thorax all equi-distantly space around the middle of my body, sort of north, south, east, west.

About a week later I was speaking with Richard and learned that on the very same day I had my moles removed at a local dermatologist’s office, Richard had similar moles removed from the same locations, but at his dermatologist’s office.  Think this is strange?  Read on, the best is yet to come.

Quite recently, I was speaking with Richard about an incident when I was seventeen and body surfing off a California beach.  Suddenly I was pulled under the waves by a powerful rip tide current.  I struggled fiercely against it, eventually being overwhelmed by the irresistible force.  I shortly ran out of breath and began to drowned.  I vividly recall blacking out as my lungs filled with salt water.  Everything went dark and I assumed that I was near death.

Suddenly, I miraculously found myself standing erect in what was probably just two feet of water.  I have no idea how I got there or what happened after I lost consciousness several feet below the ocean’s surface.  There didn’t appear to be anyone even close to where I was who could have helped extricate me from my apparent drowning.   I never figured out what happened in this situation as there was absolutely no evidence whatsoever regarding the extraordinary rescue that occurred.  What pulled me out from the rip tide beneath the waves?

Not surprisingly,  four years later, Richard, at the age of seventeen, was at the same beach and experienced the same type of apparent drowning and otherworldly rescue. Who saved him and how?  Perhaps the real question should be; who saved both of us and why?

I couldn’t invent this stuff if I wanted to.  Okay, I’ve heard of being joined at the hip, but this is ridiculous.

One of the last and most significant synchronistic links between us is something I never even knew about until my mother passed away in the summer of 2009.  I was telling Richard about her passing and he asked what her name was.  When I told him that my mother’s name was Ruth and her middle name was Ann, there was a definite pause in his voice, as if to contemplate what he just heard.

As it turns out, Richard’s mother’s name is also Ruth and her middle name is Ann and her maiden name has the same initial as my mother’s maiden name.  Fortunately, Richard’s mother is still very much alive.  Whenever Richard and I start talking about these synchronicities, I always comment that as we are in some strange way linked, and that he perhaps came out on the better end of things as he received the height, the hair, the looks and the financial success I’ve never experienced.  Yet another striking parallel between us is that Richard and I are literally compelled to pun quite regularly, a condition known as paronomasia.

The latest synchronisitic event was when Richard Christian Mastheson’s father, Richard Matheson, died in late June of 2013.  Terrible day for a great, strong and wonderful family, and a terrible loss for the world at large, in that one of its best writers ever was forever silenced.  But when I received the news of the father’s passing, the date meant something really important to me and I initially didn’t even know why.  When I came home, I discovered why the date of Richard’s father’s passing seemed particularly relevant to me.  That month and day was the same date that my father was born.  Oh my god!  This is starting to lose its intrigue and becoming somewhat disturbing.

What’s left after all of that, how is one supposed to react?  I really don’t know.

Better that one of us have the really positive aspects in their life (sans Richard’s fathers death), than neither.  One last significant synchronicity related to Richard and I.   As I was actually writing this blog, I received an email from Richard having no bearing whatsoever to this topic, but nevertheless, timely in its arrival.

One way in which synchronicities are defined is that of an acausal link between people and events.  Supposedly, such occurrences are nothing more than coincidences, right?  Or are they?

In lieu of what I just discussed between Richard and I, what would you call such an extraordinary series of lifelong coincidences?

Bottom line, how many coincidences does it take to make a fact?

What does all this mean?

God only knows, and its for us to eventually discover how reality might really work and why.   I have a strong feeling synchronicities far more relevant and meaningful that we could even begin to imagine.

 

By Dr. Barry Taff

Dr. Barry Taff, who holds a doctorate in psychophysiology with a minor in biomedical engineering, worked as a research associate at UCLAs former parapsychology laboratory from 1969 through 1978. During his 41-year career, Dr. Taff has investigated more than 4,000 cases of ghosts, hauntings, poltergeists, and he has conducted extensive studies in telepathy and precognition which led to the development of the original protocols and methodologies for what was later coined remote-viewing. He is the author of Aliens Above, Ghosts Below.

2 replies on “Very, Very Personal and Enduring Synchronicities”

I have a friend whose name is almost identical to mine, and we share many inexplicable and seemingly meaningless correspondences in our lives. We met when we worked in the same department of a large hospital; we now share the same job. Our hair is the same color, our husbands are from the same town though they never met until after she and I became friends; when she and I met, the houses we lived in were the same color, with the same color trim, and her house number was the same as mine, plus one digit. We decorated our homes with the same color schemes, had the same furniture on our porches, and the same unique wineglasses. My favorite is that she is related to a man named Jim who was married for a while to a woman named Kathy; I am related to a woman named Kathy who was married, for a while, to a man named Jim; and during their respective marriages, these two couples lived in the same city. They are NOT, however, the same couple. Weird!!! As far as I can tell, none of this means anything, but it does make me stop and think about how odd the world can be.

In all likelihood, synchronicities do mean something meaningful, the question is what? Whether this is even related to the paranormal is guess work at best. Perhaps each person must interpret and evaluate their own synchronicities in their own subjective way? However, there are larger, far more dramatic synchronicities that have surfaced throughout history involving major events. Only time, patience and further longitudinal research will eventually supply answers.

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