I am for the time being taking care of two guinea pigs for my little friend while she is out of town. They are sitting there in their cage all day waiting for more food. Though the cage door is always open they refuse to leave it. I guess they feel safe there in their little prison. Sometimes I take them out of the cage to run around on the kitchen floor. I imagine that they need some kind of exercise. But they immediately hop back in the cage again. It is too scary for them out there, in the big world.

We are often not much different. We like our safe and cosy corners. We like things to be comprehensible, not too much drama, not too many worries and uncertainties. When we leave our homes we like the world to be as we expect it to be. Our beliefs and habits are like guinea pig cages. They make our world comprehensible.

I prefer cats. A cat certainly like a snug and warm home where they serve good food. But at night he has to go out to check things out. No one knows exactly what he’s up to out there. Sometimes he is gone for weeks and you begin to think that he might be dead. But he comes back, sometimes with scars and wounds sometimes sound as a bell, with a faint smell of perfume. Cats are mysterious. That is probably why they are associated with magic and witchcraft.

About two months ago I saw a woman walking her unleashed dog through the park. They where maybe 50 yards ahead of me and I felt a strong irritation. I was thinking: “She really ought to have her dog leashed at this time of the year. Dog owners are so careless these days. When they have passed the bridge the dog will go crazy. He will see all the stupid geese on the meadow, with all their stupid little gosling's.” I was stepping out to try to catch up with them before they got there. When I was just a few steps behind them we had just crossed the little stone bridge, but the dog didn’t even look at the geese colony. I was surprised, so I asked her while passing them, how come the dog didn’t even look at the geese, and she answered:
-Oh, I have trained him.

We have managed to domesticate and tame a lot of animals, including ourselves. We have been trained to see what we are supposed to see.

ON MEANINGFUL COINCIDENCES

Monika



Doreen

Me


I was traveling in the US in the fall of 1979. I was 25 years old and completely lost. My girlfriend back home had just left me and I was extremely unhappy. We had been together for maybe five or six years or so and I had no idea how to make it on my own. I didn’t know how to sleep alone and I didn’t even know how to cook a supper.

In San Francisco I met some people and we rented a car to go to LA. It was a Canadian girl, Francoise, two English lads, a guy from Austria, (I can’t remember their names) and there was Monika Hauri from Switzerland. Somehow Monika and I found each other and when the group split up in LA Monika and I traveled on together. I have vague memories about staying in Santa Monica for some time but eventually we took a night flight to Mexico City. We drank lots of Tequila in the restaurants at the Plaza Garibaldi. Hundreds of Mariachi bands were playing simultaneously. It was a fantastic cacophony. I remember also from Mexico City that we always had to run to cross the streets to escape all the mad taxi drivers.

Anyway, after some time I explained to her that I was going to Isla Mujheres because I needed to be alone to think things over. A week later or so she found me there but I didn't want to continue our relationship.I was looking for adventure and adventurers don't walk hand in hand with women. So I told her to fuck off and went to Guatemala.

After a few months I was back in Stockholm, more miserable than ever. I didn’t know what to do with my life. I couldn’t fit anywhere. My friends had little home parties and I was bored to pieces with all the coziness and their boring small talk. “Could you pass me the sauce, please? It’s wonderful, isn’t it?" That kind of stuff.

In late September 1981 I had had enough. I sublet my apartment and bought a one-way ticket to Greece. I had no plans at all on where to go and I figured that Greece could be a good place to start out. The first thing that happened to me was that I caught a terrible flu. I was completely knocked out for a week or so. After another week of recuperation I realized that Crete was not for me. Crete was for couples, sitting in the taverns, silently sipping drinks with little umbrellas or sparklers for decoration. I was desperate. Where should I go and why? Wouldn’t it be the same thing wherever I went?

I checked out from my hotel and went down to the harbor without any idea of where to go. The next boat was to Santorini so I took it, glad to leave Crete behind. It was a horrible trip. The sea was very rough and people were puking in every corner.

We came to Santorini late at night, maybe 11:30 pm, or so. There were many people in the harbor and a lot of restless hustle and bustle. I put my backpack down and smoked a cigarette while I was trying to figure out how to find a place to stay at this late hour, when a young boy came up to me.
-Hotel room mister? Do you want a hotel room?
When I said yes he told me to wait a few moments and disappeared in the crowd. When he came back he had a young American woman with him.

Then we took a bus up to his parents hotel. I fell in love immediately. She was so pretty and seemed so smart. I liked the way she talked. I liked everything with her.
At the hotel they made us a dinner. Suddenly I was sitting there in the warm Mediterranean oktober night, with all its stars and creaking cicadas, and a beautiful young woman with brown eyes across the table,and a bottle of wine to the moussaka. I thought I was dreaming.

We had some wonderful days and nights there and I was madly in love. One day I asked her about what she did before coming to Santorini and she told me that she had stayed in Luzern in Switzerland for some time and worked in a hotel there as a waitress. Then I told her that I knew someone from Luzern and that her name was Monika Hauri. I can’t find words to the feelings that came over me when she told me that she knew her. She told me about what had happened to Monika and that she was now happily married to a Canadian guy.

Then the love of my life suddenly left me. Just like that. She ditched me. She had had enough of my neurotic negativity and I was all alone again.

The next day I took a night boat back to Athens and if I had been confused before it was nothing compared to my confusion that night. I spent the whole night on the upper deck looking at the stars and the moon and the dark endless sea. And the sea, the night sky and my consciousness kind of merged into an incredibly strange experience. I was all alone in the universe. I was feeling so alone. And in the same time I was feeling connected. We were all connected in some strange way, through some kind of invisible web.

Well, to make a long story short, I went to India and then I spent a number of years on the moon.

One day there in India I bumped into Monika again. She wasn’t very happy to see me but we had a short conversation in a chai shop in Pushkar. I told her that I knew a little about what had happened to her and I remember that I asked her if she didn’t find the whole thing very strange. She couldn’t see anything strange with people bumping into each other. She said: “Of course you meet some people again if you’re traveling along the same routes."

Eventually I came back home, found myself a girlfriend, an apartment and a job as a gardener and everything was all right for many years, with pasta dinners, TV nights and everything. This relationship also ended in a catastrophe and I have been a living alone since then. And I have been quite happy with that. I have finally learned how to live alone.

In July 2005 something interesting happened though. I found a letter among my bills and junk mail when I came back home from work. It said: “Greetings! Do you remember me? If yes send me an e-mail." It was from Doreen. I hadn’t heard a word from her for almost 25 years so I was, what should I say, a bit surprised.

I sent her an e-mail right away, eager to know what had happened to her after she had left me in Santorini. And I had so many memory gaps that I needed help with. I have always been interested in strange coincidences and I have periodically experienced a lot of them, but this what happened to me in Santorini was by far the most fantastic of them all. Isn’t it incredibly strange that I fell in love with someone who knew Monika Hauri? What is the probability for such a coincidence? And Doreen dumped me much in the same way as I had dumped Monika. Wasn’t it strange that I kind of got paid back with the same currency? Is there a God that sometimes interfere with the course of events and direct our steps, and if it is, what is the reason for it? Is it a God or is it a bunch of Gods or is it something in our unconscious minds that create the synchronicities? Or is all this with synchronicities just illusions?
I had thousands of questions I needed to discuss with her.

*

Well,here are some of my observations regarding synchronicities:

Many people have experienced or will experience synchronistic phenomenon’s without being aware of it because synchronicities are not on their maps.

Some people seem to believe that one will experience synchronicities when one's meditation practice is deepening, when one begins to find more harmony in life. I don’t think so. I think that synchronicities are more frequent when we are completely lost and upset, when we lose our heads, when someone or something has put us out, like a divorce or the death of someone near to us. Synchronicities can happen when we feel balanced, yes, but they will not be very strong. Well-balanced and satisfied people who are set with everything rarely experience synchronistic phenomenon’s. In fact, they don’t even know what you talk about if you happen to bring up the subject.

It is often impossible to tell anyone about a synchronistic experience. If you do, either you or someone else will look completely ridiculous. The synchronicity is often set up in such a way. Many of my “best” synchronicities can never be told without causing trouble, so I have to take my stories with me to the grave. Also Jung noticed this. Many people experience synchronicities but refuse to talk about them. Synchronistic experiences belong to a secret dimension of life, an esoteric dimension.

You can never prove that you have experienced an interesting synchronicity. It is therefore meaningless to study the phenomenon scientifically. If someone tells you a story about a synchronicity it can be true or it can be just a made up story. Or it might have some truth in it but it is changed a little here and there to make it sound better.

One shall not become too interested in synchronicities, though, I think. If you look for synchronicities and meaningful encounters everywhere you will go crazy. You will become paranoid. Why is he calling now? Is it a secret meaning behind this seemingly normal meeting? Why did I forget my keys? Everything is not synchronicities.

However,if I had not caught that terrible flu on Crete I would have left Crete much earlier and in that case I would not have met Doreen. Well, in that case I would not be sitting here writing this. If I had not been so desperate and unhappy with everything I would most probably not even have gone to Crete. Synchronicities have serious philosophical implications. Unhappiness and desperation can be a part of a plan. Is everything part of a plan? It is impossible to find answers to such questions so it is better to drop them, I guess. It is like speculating if there are many more universes out there. We will never get to know about it. We will never find out if we have a free will or not, but we have to live as if our will is free.

A strong synchronistic experience can change the way a person look at life, but really, there are many things in life that are far more important than looking for synchronicities, like taking care of children for example, or trying to be helpful to other people and to wake up to what is going on in the world and every once in a while celebrate and have some fun.

I believe that people who know who they are and what life is about has fooled themselves. I believe that all religious leaders, all self improvement gurus and all scientists are talking through their hats. They think that they know but they don’t. They think that they know and manage to fool both themselves and others.

What we know is just tiny little fractions of all that there is to know, like the light we can see is just a fraction of all electromagnetic radiation. We are all pond frogs. When you realize this things change. You are waking up.

We are fooling ourselves and each other. We trust our leaders because we are pack animals and don’t want to think for ourselves. We are desperate to get the answers from someone, someone who can tell us what life is about. It doesn't really matter if the answer is pure madness. We are not like frogs, we are like dogs. A dog doesn't care what his master is up to as long as he get some food in the bowl. This is why we are ruining our beautiful little planet.Our leaders are crazy for money and power and we do the best we can to help them with their obsession.

So, to realize how little we know about how things really are, is to wake up from a dream. It is the first step out through the door that opens up to the garden, the mystical garden.
-What an amazing firework this world is! Isn't it?

Donald Duck has sometimes a little devil sitting on one shoulder whispering devilries into his one ear and a little angel sitting on the other shoulder telling him to be nice and kind with a soft and priestly kind of voice. These figures are of course portraits of his inner voices.

We have also inner voices, not only one as some people think, and not only two as in Walt Disney’s animated films, but many.

Listen carefully to your present inner voice as you read this over and over again. Listen to the accent and the intonation. The words are mine, but the voice is yours. Isn’t it so? I have hypnotized you for a few moments. I have taken over your mind.

Listen now to the response in your head. Listen very carefully. What do you think? Are the answers really your own or have you got also them them from somewhere. Can you hear your mother’s voice? Can you hear your gurus? Can you hear your best friend from your teenage years? Most probably you have learned how you should think and most probably you have learned a number of different ways how to think, but is there an answer there in your head that is truly your own? What do you think?

Sometimes the inner voice is complaining endlessly about this or that, stupid workmates, stupid politicians or stupid spouses. Sometimes the voice is singing idiotic little songs, sometimes it is formulating elaborate defenses or excuses.

One voice is saying: “Oh! I feel like a cigarette and an ice-cold beer. Health fanatics are such boors.”
Another voice is saying: “What an idiot you are! You have given up smoking. Smoking is not good for you. You know that very well.”
A third voice is saying: “I can hear clearly what is going on in my head. I have you two guys sitting there arguing how to live, but I will not listen to any of you. I’m putting my awareness to the present moment instead.”

What is this I made of, who can put the attention to the different parts of reality? Is it made of thoughts?

One I want to go this way and another I want to go that way. A third I want to go in a third direction. Is there really a true I?

-I just want to be myself.
-But what if your will is not your’s. Maybe it is your mother’s will you are following, maybe it is your fathers. maybe it is your friends. Your mother always wanted you to become a lawyer; your friends want you to be silly; your girlfriend want’s you to be presentable. Whatever.

There are different ways to be disillusioned. You can, for example, be depressed because things did not turn out the way you had hoped for; or you can feel a relief because you are finally no longer fooling yourself with a particular illusion. “How could I be so stupid? I’m so glad this is all over now.”

There are also different ways to be happy. You can be very happy because you are drunk or in some other way temporarily oblivious about all the troubles; or you can be so very happy just because you are alive and this world is so amazing with all it’s bombastic cumulus clouds and chirping little birds and crazy little children and everything is fantastic in spite of all the hypocrisies, evil, exploitations and injustices.

Many people who call themselves Christian are not Christian at all. Their Christianity is just a cover. They lay up for themselves treasures on earth, and go to church on Sundays with pious expressions.

However, all people are liars, not only Christians. We are born into a world of liars. Some are big liars, some are sometimes truthful, some are mostly truthful, but all of us know what it feels like to tell a lie.

Just because someone says that he believes democracy is the best political system it doesn’t necessarily mean that he supports democracy. He might even work franticly against it.

Just because someone swears that he didn't steal the car it doesn't means that he didn't steal it.

It doesn't mean a damned thing if someone says that he is deeply concerned about the future of coming generations and wants to take steps to save our planet. Maybe he cares, maybe he doesn't. It can be a strategy to win votes in an election or simply a way to present oneself as a responsible person. It is impossible to tell. One cannot trust anybody to a hundred percent, not even, as I have said before, oneself.

It is perfectly normal to tell lies. It can be a means to get away with something or to keep oneself out of trouble. The survival instinct uses lies as a tool, so one shouldn’t be to judgmental about it. But if a man want to know the truth he will soon find that it is not that easy. It is difficult to get reliable information’s. Everybody seems to know but all have different stories to tell and everybody point in different directions. What is happening to us when we die? What is the right and what is wrong way to have sex? Is it OK to be a thief? Was Columbus at thief or a great explorer? Is there really a judge somewhere that judge what we do? Are we sent to hell if we have been bad in this life? Is some part of us reincarnating?

Science has developed methods to try to find out if someone is talking rubbish or not. A scientist who claims something has to show proof. If someone else can prove that he is wrong he has to change his mind or come up with some new more compelling proof.

However, to prove something that cannot be measured is impossible. If I, for example, have experienced some very strange and interesting synchronistic phenomenon’s and want to tell abut them, I can not expect to be taken seriously. I simply cannot prove that what I am saying is true. I cannot construct an experiment that proves I am right. There are billions of fantastic stories in circulation. Everybody has stories, ideas and opinions that are complete bullshit. Human beings talk an incredible lot of nonsense. Maybe all the hot air is contributing to the global warming. There is simply no way to tell the difference between true and false statements that can't be measured. That is why I am reluctant to tell about my synchronistic experiences. There is no point with it.

Among “spiritual” or religious people proof and truth is completely irrelevant. That is one reason spirituality and religion cannot evolve. It is doomed to stay on the level of fantasy. The Lord of the Rings, The Bhagavad-Gita and The Bible are made of the same stuff, imagination. Maybe you are going to heaven when you die, maybe you are going to the underworld, maybe someone takes you there on a boat across a river. Maybe Jesus will come back and the dead will rise from their tombs. Maybe you will reincarnate. Maybe the body is a costume; maybe the soul is made of wind. So what?

Again, just because there is so much gravel, dust and sand, it doesn’t mean that there are no spiritual pearls to be found. There are, but when you have found one, know that you can never show it to anyone and that you can never sell it. It is invisible.