SYNCHRONICITY (COINCIDENCES) & PRECOGNITIVE DREAMS: THE INNER SELF AT PLAY
The guidance that streams forth from the Inner Self manifests in a vast variety of forms. In this Inner Guidance section of the website, I explore Synchronicity (Coincidences), Precognitive Dreams, Emotional Guidance (including Excitement), Example Dream experiences, Physical Reality Dream experiences, Impulses, and Intuition. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list, however, and these concepts are deeply interrelated. As a loose form of emphasis and organization, I’ve highlighted each term as it appears within this Inner Guidance section of the website in capitalized and bold text.
Before getting into more of the “nuts of bolts” of inner guidance in the pages that follow, I wanted to first explore my favorite two types of inner guidance experiences -- Synchronicity (Coincidences) and Precognitive Dreams. Why? Because they are the most Exciting and the most fun! As discussed in the Coaching Philosophy page, your Inner Self understands and experiences so-called waking reality as a dream. Thus, I refer to your sleep state dream experiences as Example Dreams and to your so-called waking reality (day-life) experience as your Physical Reality Dream.
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About a year after starting my dream journal, I began making additional journal entries that I call “Synchronicity Notes”. Whenever I take the time to re-read these coincidence entries, I always find myself startled – startled by their frequency and startled by their amazing nature. I’m convinced that most people experience Synchronicity (Coincidences) frequently but then brush off or explain away each separate incident as being isolated. When you start to journal your coincidences, however, you cannot help but be amazed by them.
Though journaling my dreams, I’ve discovered that coincidences occur even more rampantly within my Example Dreams than they do within my Physical Reality Dream. In fact, I’ve come to regard a coincidence as a “dreamsign” or “lucidity cue”, a hint from my Inner Self, telling me that I might be within an Example Dream instead of within my Physical Reality Dream. This points to what I consider to be the primary purpose of Coincidences. The extraordinary nature of coincidences is meant to cause us to question our rigid assumptions about the nature of reality. Each coincidence is a hint, telling us that there is a tremendous amount of coordination taking place “behind the scenes” of our physical reality experience.
Sometimes a coincidence will make me laugh out loud, helping to convince me that my Inner Self has a lively sense of humor. On a summer Sunday back in 2012, I picked up my cousin to go out to lunch. He had recently started taking singing lessons. As we were driving, he told me that he had memorized the lyrics to seven different songs. I asked him which songs he had memorized. The first one that he mentioned was “Hello” by Lionel Richie. Within 5 seconds of him saying that, we pulled up at a stop sign. Someone had placed a small square sticker on the stop sign, showing the face of Lionel Richie and the word “Hello”!
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I’ve had several Synchronicity (Coincidence) experiences that involve multiple coincidences occurring in rapid succession. I’ve also experienced coincidences that appear intended to point me to specific information (such as a book) that my Inner Self thinks will be helpful or interesting to me. One of my coincidence experiences illustrates both of these characteristics. On Saturday morning in early 2012, I ended up having requests from two different real estate buyer clients to show them the identical house (Coincidence #1). This was not a house that I had listed. This is the only time in my 11+ year real estate career that I’ve ever shown the same house to different buyer clients on the same day. As things worked out with their schedules, the showings were set up back to back – one at 10:00 AM and one at 11:00 AM. With both couples, the husband was a military physician (Coincidence #2). One of the couples involved a further coincidence in that they both attended my college (Coincidence #3). I rarely encounter people in the Charleston area who graduated from my college (Holy Cross College in Worcester, MA) and they were referred to me by a business contact who had no awareness of our alumni connection. The second couple (the 11:00 AM showing appointment) wanted to see some other homes. While they were touring inside one of these other homes, I was perusing a bookshelf in the main living area of the house. I saw a copy of The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra. I realized that this was yet another coincidence (Coincidence #4). The prior evening, I had been reading Book 4 of The Personal Sessions of the Seth Material (by Jane Roberts and Robert Butts). The section of the book that I had read Friday night included a copy of a postcard that Jane and Rob had received from one of their former students. In the postcard, their former student mentioned that he had just enjoyed reading The Tao of Physics. I had never heard of The Tao of Physics prior to this coincidence. I later ordered a copy of the book enjoyed reading it -- except for the closing chapters, which included complex physics equations that were completely over my head! Originally published in 1975, it explores the parallels between modern physics and eastern mysticism.
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". . . the modern physicist, like the Eastern mystic, has come to see the world as a system of inseparable, interacting and ever-moving components with the observer being an integral part of the system." “If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you, you haven't understood it yet.” - Niels Bohr |
I had a fun coincidence connected with my writing of this website. I honored the coincidence by revising some of the terminology that I employed in the Toolbox section of this website. From my journal:
August 7, 2015
Coincidence Note. During the day on Friday, I was playing around with navigation menu titles for the lucidcoaching.com website. At dinner, I explained to Ann [my wife] that I was thinking of having a heading called “Meditation and Calm Abiding” and we discussed the dream yoga concept of “calm abiding”. As we were getting ready for bed, I played a game of online chess on my iPhone . . . . My opponent’s screen name was “CalmAwareness”. |
I’ve also recorded numerous extraordinary Precognitive Dreams among my Example Dreams. I’ve come to understand that my Inner Self offers these precognitive experiences to me for a purpose very similar to the purpose of coincidences. When you journal these extraordinary experiences and you incorporate their frequency of occurrence into your awareness (in my case, so frequent that I now regard both as “normal” for me), you cannot help but ask yourself: “How is this possible? What is going on here?” Precognitive Dreams can be thought of as a special kind of coincidence. With a Precognitive Dream, a person, place or activity from an Example Dream coincides with a person, place or activity that follows shortly thereafter as a Physical Reality Dream experience. They also cause us to call into question the way we ordinarily perceive time. We are accustomed to perceiving time as being strictly linear. For the Inner Self, time is malleable.
Some of my Precognitive Dreams highlight the creative and playful nature of my Inner Self. Here is a good example:
October 24, 2013
Dream 2 (6:15 AM). The setting is the lobby of a movie theatre. I’m with Ann [my wife] and a maybe two others. There is an offer where you purchase one ticket but get to see two consecutive movies. COMMENT: On Thursday evening (same day as the dream), Ann & I drove part of the way to Cashiers, NC. We were listening to a public radio show that featured an interview with Stephen King (the horror book author) and his son, Owen King. The intro to the interview referred to Owen’s new comedy book called “Double Feature” and to Stephen’s new horror book called “Doctor Sleep”. As soon as I heard “Double Feature”, I thought of this dream. The interview itself had elements of a “double feature”: two authors and two books. The dream was about the movies and the interview was about books. This is yet another parallel or double element in that Stephen King is famous for having so many of his books turned into movies. |
Many of my Example Dreams turn out to contain soft or loose precognitive elements which I take notice of but I do not consider to be a direct hits. In other cases, there are very specific connections. Here are two Precognitive Dreams from my journal where an acquaintance appears as a dream figure in one of my Example Dreams and then I encounter this same person in my Physical Reality Dream on the same day. In both cases, the “dream figure” was someone with whom I shared no regular business or social activities and I might normally expect to cross paths with them perhaps once in a year’s time. Both involve daytime activities that I don’t normally undertake more than a few times per year. The community where I live (the Charleston, SC metro area) has a fairly large population, in excess of 600,000 people.
December 8, 2012
Dream 3 (6:54 AM). My friend Glen* and I are in a classroom. The instructor is Bob* [a lawyer whom I’m acquainted with]. Bob gets frustrated with Glen and has Glen sitting in a corner. . . .Then there is a scene where another student (a woman) mimics Glen’s complaining voice. Pretending to be Glen and distorting her voice, she jokingly says: “I’m going to file an appeal with Wayne Dyer”. COMMENT: On Saturday afternoon (same day as the dream), I went to the Patriot’s Point golf course driving range. After I hit about half of my balls, Bob arrived and set up near me. With a little hesitation, I mentioned to him that he appeared in one of my dreams that morning. I described how he appeared as the instructor – and I joked that I would be watching his golf stroke for ideas. February 26, 2011 Dream 3. My former commercial banker April* is looking for a new banking job and I bring a copy of her resume to Gary* at NBSC Bank. COMMENT: After entering my sketch dream notes into my iPhone, I felt as if I wasn’t able to recall some other dreams. Later in morning, Ann [my wife] sent me a text asking that we re-activate our Costco membership and I told her I would do so today when I went out to the library. As I was walking into Costco, April was coming out of Costco with a full cart. She mentioned that this was her first ever trip to Costco. I rarely go to Costco and our membership had been inactive for some time. This brief encounter resulted in a sudden recall of my dream about April and her resume. * name changed for privacy reasons |
This last dream shows the connection between the common experience of déjà vu and Example Dreams. By maintaining a dream journal, I’ve built a stronger bridge than most between my Example Dream experiences and my Physical Reality Dream experiences. If I did not keep a dream journal, I likely would have experienced just a vague sense of déjà vu when I encountered April at Costco. Because of the mental bridge I’ve built, I was instead able to instantly recall a full dream in place of the vague sense of déjà vu.
In another Precognitive Dream, I dreamed about participating in botched “give and go” basketball play. After recording my dream notes in my iPhone, I went about my normal morning routine. At breakfast (same morning as the dream), I read an article in the sports section of the newspaper which addressed the demise of “give and go” type basketball plays. I think it is interesting to note that, while I played a lot of basketball in my youth, I’ve rarely played basketball as an adult. Basketball is not a recurring theme in my Physical Reality Dream but it is a recurring theme in my Example Dreams. Here is my dream record:
January 23, 2013
Dream 7 (6:20 AM). I’m playing basketball. Give and go play. I pass to team-mate - he is at top of key area. I go along left sideline, looking for return pass near [the] hoop as I approach it. Guy on my own team blocks my path and says I’m moving too early. But then I see the pass arriving right where I would have been. I say “fuck”, as it would have been a pretty play. My teammate apologizes for blocking me. COMMENT: At breakfast (same morning as the dream), I read the following article that was on the front page of the Post & Courier Sports section. Headline: “Clemson’s Brownell on why the motion offense is declining in college basketball”. The first paragraph of the article read as follows: “Motion offense is built on trust. Players run and sweat without the ball to create space and opportunities for teammates. They give up the ball expecting to get it back if they have an open shot. Motion offense is built on selflessness. Big men are expected to move away from the basket to set screens. Passes are generally preferred to dribbling. Motion offense is built on knowledge. There are no set plays. Players must read defenses, anticipate where teammates will be and understand concepts. Motion offense is disappearing.” |
Here is another newspaper related Precognitive Dream from my journal, this time involving a very specific kind of visual image.
June 22, 2014
Dream 1 (2:19 AM). An architect friend, Steve*, has organized some kind of trip. We are taking a private plane. . . . I see visuals of some buildings that are under construction. One is a new church that has an unusual design. Domed roof but some tiers to it? COMMENT: The Sunday (same day as dream) Post & Courier had a feature story on the cover of the Religion section (which they run on Sundays only) about local practitioners of the Baha’i faith. The article included a large picture of the church’s main North American house of worship in Wilmette, IL. The roof features a dome structure and could definitely be described as having “tiers”. Another interesting element here is that I have several college friends who are from Wilmette and I’ve visited the town several times, although I don’t recall having seen this building in person. * name changed for privacy reasons |
I’ve had several Precognitive Dreams in which elements of a dream subsequently show up during my day as something that I see on television. I typically record initial sketch notes on my iPhone upon waking and then convert the original notes into a narrative form. In the case below, I’ve just included my original sketch notes:
January 12, 2013
Dream 1 (7:16 AM). Original sketch notes: “Punt play. Aerial view. Kicked at angle. Tumbles just as desired. Out of bounds at 2 or 3 yard line.” |
In the early evening (same day as the foregoing dream), my wife and I were both napping in our bedroom. The NFL playoffs were going on. I checked the NFL scores on my phone. I saw that Denver and Baltimore were in the second half of a close game, with Denver up 28 to 21. I told Ann that I was going to go watch the end of the game. I turned on the TV in our living room. Denver had the ball near mid-field. I watched Peyton Manning run a few plays. They were not able to get a first down and had to punt. As they set up for the punt, I remembered my “punt play” dream and wondered if the ball would go out-of-bounds as depicted in the dream. The punt took a bounce but did not head toward the sideline as was the case in the dream. However, the Denver players did pin the ball down exactly between the two and three yard lines!
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