Synchronicity. I try to stay alert to this phenomenon. First introduced to me by Carl Jung, this idea was the first metaphysical idea the staunch atheist I labeled myself as years ago first grasped onto. It was he crack that brought down a confining paradigm I found myself in.
Synchronicity is basically two or more events that seem connected but don't appear to have a causal relation in the Aristotelian/Modern Scientific sense. As the human construct we call "years" passed by, I found more idols who also heeded the power and significance of synchronicity, notably Terence Mckenna and Robert Anton Wilson. Both of them, Wilson and Mckenna, believed that this phenomenon presented itself when the individual is following their path, their life's purpose, dancing to their soul's song. (Insert whichever religious paradigm helps you grasp and accept this idea, its a powerful one.)
Today while I was sending an email to a professor, I tried regurgitating this quote from memory. Too lazy to google it, I butchered it. After the email I happened to message a friend which led to a conversation that could possible change the course of my naively predicated life. This phone call had me in some kind of mood, which led me to watch an obscure interview I saved from Reddit which I wouldn't normally watch.
The guy in the interview is spitting knowledge. He's blowing me away, His self-help cliches aren't destroying my bullshit meter. Its a good interview. He drops the quote I tried recalling earlier. Goosebumps. Ah shiiit. Synchronicity. I'm charged up. I finish the hour long interview, smiling hard, three pages or notes in front of me, and eager to find another interview from another multimillionaire investor. I look through the site's archives and find one from almost a year ago.
10 minutes in, a totally new guy recants the same quote. No. This is too much. The universe, she's done whisper. She's screaming. SHe's Eddie Mercurying all over my prefrontal cortex. The path I'm on, the mood I'm in, I need to get ready. These boots are about to get worn. I best sharpen my machete. This path is getting made.
The first thing this man spouted that summoned my pen to write was what he called the four stages of attitude. My bullshit meter twinged a little as he labeled the stages;
Level 1: To me
Level 2: By me
Level 3: Through me
Level 4: As me
But as he went on to explain them, they made sense. The lowest level is the "to me" stage. Its victimhood. Its the people who experience the world as happening to them. They have no power. Their weak. This is most people. Most people have valid reasons to consider themselves victims. Regardless, this attitude will lead you to an unfulfilling and despondent life. You and only you are responsible and capable of changing your perspective. Just do it. (Nike, contact my lawyers.)
The stage are the people who through sheer will, bend reality to their desires. They work hard. They watch Fox News...
Level three are the faithful. They believe in a higher consciousness and that since they are living according to their perceived true calling, they need only have faith and the world will allow them their dreams and aspirations. (Must be Nice).
Level 4 is Buddha. No one is there. No one I've met can stay there. I've glimpsed it, never sober. Its the perspective where one truly understands and feels an unbroken bond between themselves and all other. There is no other. Language begins to break done.
You're probably at level one. If you're my peer and you're reading this due to my shameless facebook or twitter post, you're young and broke. Its easy to see life as happening to you. That is a perspective. You have the choice to change. You know you can eat better. You can save money in all kinds of ways. You can work out. You can get the degree. You can make your partner happy. You can do.
But you sleep in. Eat shit. Bitch and complain. Drink when you can. Smoke when you can. Binge on Netflix and hulu. Passively letting life sodomize you. There is no time like the present to change your habits, subsequently your life. In fact, you will only ever have the moment.
Well, I'm rambling.