Synchronicity
/ Last week’s tangent had some interesting results. My little passion project for Phantasy Star Online has received over 3,200 unique visitors to date, and has been shared with Nintendo’s Twitter more than 340 times. I’d say it's on their radar, if only as a passing thought. The project was a lot fun, though, and I think I needed a bit of a break from the character art I’ve been spending most days creating. With that being said, thanks for indulging me. I really hope Nintendo will consider the community I rallied and take the idea seriously. The Dreamcast, and its legacy, is still “thinking”...
But in other news…
Something really neat happened yesterday. An older couple came walking by and stopped to chat for a few moments. I like blasting the 80s, and while we were talking “Don’t Stop Believing” came on the radio. It turns out, the wife in this couple used to be a lawyer for Journey’s pianist. She told me how they came out to California trying to make it with 30 days worth of money and ended up having to phone home at the end telling their parents they were coming home. I guess the father of the keyboardist had saved up enough for them to have another 30 days. As luck would have it, the next afternoon they were discovered. The story blew me away.
I mentioned being a somewhat struggling artist and that I am a writer. They mentioned the fact that their daughter works for Disney and offered to pass along a copy of The Amaranth Chronicles. I signed one and sent it off with them. Thanks Dan and Lucy! Made my weekend!
Even if nothing comes of it, it was still a really neat synchronicity. It reminds me of the morning before our release party. I was out front watering the plants when a little old man and two women about my age came walking by and I heard him say; “There, that's the house.” I introduced myself to the trio and, it turned out, the gentlemen had been in the military back when my neighborhood was an Army base. Evidently, the oldest daughter was born here, in my house. I invited them in and we stood on the back porch for a while just listening to the old man's stories. Turns out, they had all been invited by Barack Obama to Bohemian Grove up north and were just passing through. My kitchen table was, literally, covered in 3D printed models to raffle off at the Amaranth Chronicles: Deviant Rising’s launch party. I gave them each a copy of the book.
You know those times that have felt almost cosmically aligned? Those things that couldn't have been predicted or even planned? There is no such thing as coincidence, there is only synchronicity. I’m sure we’ve all felt the feeling of synchronicity, and I can honestly say there have been times in my life where things were just aligning left and right and I was on fire. At other times it seemed like, despite my best efforts, alignments were just not happening. The best I can tell about the difference between the two extremes has a lot to do with how I’m showing up to myself at the time. It seems like synchronicities are aligning more frequently when I’m energized and living closer to my authentic self. It feels really neat when these things happen.Believe it or not there is absolutely a quantifiable, tangible, physics to synchronicity. There is a realm of scientific study based around it and, a year ago, I met one of the leading physicists in the field. I was, and continue to be, naturally drawn to his idea and vision. Sky Nelson-Isaacs has been studying synchronicity for the last twelve years and recently published:
“Living in Flow: The Science of Synchronicity and How Your Choices Shape Your World”
I really enjoyed the book and have been working with him in exploring the idea of using short format instructional videos to convey some of the complex notions and ideas put forth in his research. Check out this animation we’ve been working on discussing holograms and the idea of a holographic universe.
Synchronicity is a very real phenomena and, yesterday, I was once again reminded just how authentic it really is.
