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Synchronicity: The Key of Destiny
Saturday, May 4th, 2013. Filed under: Alternative Science Consciousness Inspiration Spirituality
Frank Joseph, New Dawn
Waking Times
Synchronicity is the most mysterious thing in the world.
Synchronicity is the term parapsychologists use for “meaningful
coincidence.” It happens to everyone, more often than we realise. But
synchronicities are not “mere” coincidences, random accidents without
significance.
Going through a half-forgotten collection of old photographs, you’re
surprised to find the snap-shot of a friend you lost contact with years
ago. Just then the telephone rings and the voice on the other end of the
line belongs to the same person in the photo.
You’re desperate to find a parking place because you’ve got to be on
time for a crucial appointment. There’s not an open spot as far as the
eye can see. Suddenly, a car pulls out in front of you, leaving you a
space right in front of the address where you’re expected.
You’ve just finished reading a book about rare birds, when the first
humming-bird you’ve ever seen in your back yard is drinking nectar from a
nearby flower.
These are typical incidents of synchronicity. And while most people
brush them aside as insignificant happenstance, some of the greatest
minds in history have grappled with this universal enigma.
“Synchronicity” was coined by last century’s leading psychologist, Carl Gustav Jung. Fascinated as he was by it, even Albert Einstein could not understand how it worked.
A synchronous event of my own in 1991 prompted me to interview, over
the next six years, eventually 100 persons about their feelings on this
elusive enigma. The meaningful coincides they shared with me proved more
illuminating than anything I ever read on the subject.
Collecting them into a loose order, I was somewhat astounded to see
that these synchronous events experienced by my friends and
acquaintances arranged themselves into repeating categories. Although
many of the persons interviewed differed widely in age, spiritual
beliefs or education, the meaningful coincidences they recounted all
belonged to specific groups of common experience.
Widening my research, I found that persons belonging to other
cultures, sometimes long dead – often many hundreds of years ago – fell
into the same seventeen categories which emerged from the men and women
who told me of their own fortuitous occurrences. Their often dramatic,
occasionally funny, always numinous testimony formed the basis for a
book I wrote, Synchronicity & You, Understanding the Role of Meaningful Coincidence in your Life. Synchronicity
is fundamentally a form of guidance that enters into the personal lives
of every human being. Even if we knowingly discard it, at least part of
its influence enters our subconscious.
Some guiding synchronicities form a category best described as
“Warnings.” A representative incidence of admonitory synchronicity not
included in my book was recounted by the California poet, Miriam Hohf:
of Numbers, which thread together mystical human experience, often with
surprising results. The number 57, for example, is an intimate
characteristic of the American Revolution, as investigator Arthur
Finnessey abundantly demonstrates in his well-researched book, History Computed.
Among the outstanding examples he cites is the last time the Liberty
Bell rang, in tribute to George Washington, before it cracked on
February 22, 1846 – 57 years after his 57th birthday. Together with his
titles and signature, the closing paragraph of the US Constitution,
following its original seven articles, makes up 57 words. It was
ratified by 57 yes-votes from New Hampshire, and all Constitutional law
begins with the Constitution’s 57th word – that word being, “All.” On
February 6, 1777, 57 weeks to the day after the pivotal Battle of
Princeton, another turning-point took place when the French joined the
American cause. They fought off 19 British warships, making it possible
for Washington to defeat Cornwallis on October 19, 1781, in a war which
began on the 19th of April, 1775 – 57 is the sum of these three
significant 19s.
Washington’s only two victories over British Commander Cornwallis
were 57 days apart. So too, 57 days separated the other decisive battles
of the war, at Cowpens and the Guilford Courthouse. The final
anniversary of Lexington and Concord celebrated during the Revolutionary
War was precisely 57 months, 57 weeks and 57 days after they were
fought. In South Carolina’s most famous assault at “Fort Ninety Six”, 57
Americans were killed. Interestingly, “96” is the sum total of the
number of men who signed the Declaration of Independence (57) and the
Constitution (39). The American Revolution’s 57th month concluded on 19
January, 1780; the Redcoats took Charleston exactly twice times 57 (114)
days later. Twelve times 57 (684) days before, the decisive Battle of
Monmouth was fought.
In numerical symbolism, 57 is the combination of two numerals, 5 and
7. Five is associated with male energy (i.e., war), while seven
signifies the completion of cycles. Together they form a symbolic
concept perfectly reflecting the completion of major military cycles
running like inter-linking themes throughout the history of the
Revolutionary War. Isodore Kozminsky refers to any number from 55 to 64
as “the Sword,” associated with military victory (Numbers, Their Meaning & Magic, NY: Samuel Weiser, 1977, page 51).
These ancient interpretations of 57 make its frequent recurrence
throughout the War of Independence very appropriate. Yet, we stand in
awe of its historical significance: Was it somehow an out-growth or
expression of America’s violent struggle for freedom, or did it from the
beginning (from before the beginning) determine historical events?
The outstanding feature of 57, around which acausal incidents
revolved, was a major rift in the fabric of history – the American
Revolution. All other, similarly powerful historical events likewise
produce extraordinary high levels of meaningful coincidence. In fact,
the more dramatic, even traumatic, the event, the greater the intensity
and sheer number that appear.
An outstanding example was the [color:56a8=blue !important][color:56a8=blue !important]Titanic
disaster. Hardly any other single occurrence in the 20th century
generated such a large collection of impressive examples. So many, in
fact, they embraced all 17 categories of synchronicity. The meaningful
significance of particular numerals played its part in the Titanic
disaster, too – in that classic bad-luck symbol, Number 13.
That this traditionally unfortunate number was factually associated with the most infamous of unlucky [color:56a8=blue !important][color:56a8=blue !important]ocean [color:56a8=blue !important]liners
should come as no surprise. Two, separate examples serve to illustrate.
A British journalist, W.T. Stead, demonstrated his contempt for
superstition by deliberately concluding a story on the 13th of April,
1912. Further tempting fate, his narration described the discovery of an
ancient Egyptian sarcophagus and the curse of violent death alleged to
overtake anyone who verbally translated its inscription. The next day,
R.M.S. Titanic met the disaster in which Stead perished.
A fellow passenger who lightheartedly challenged the deadly number
was from Youngstown, Ohio. George Wick had been traveling with his
family through Europe for several months and booked homeward voyage on
Titanic. While in transit to Cherbourg, where the doomed ship would make
final docking before attempting her transatlantic crossing, he stopped
at Paris. There he purchased a Grand Prix sweepstakes ticket, choosing
Number 13 on purpose, just to prove to everyone that he was not
superstitious. “Watch and see what it does for me!,” he exclaimed.
Several days later, Wick went down with the vessel.
The “Warnings” cited in Miriam Hohf’s childhood experience
proliferated around the Titanic before she sailed. A White Star insignia
crumbled to pieces in the hands of Mrs. Arthur Lewis while she was
pinning it to her husband’s cap. He was just about to board R.M.S.
Titanic, where he was a [color:56a8=blue !important][color:56a8=blue !important]steward.
At the time, she regarded the incident as a bad “omen,” although he
dismissed her expressed anxiety as foolishness, until the ship foundered
a few days later. Fortunately, Mr. Lewis survived.
In another Titanic-related warning, Colonel John Weir, a mining
engineer with a worldwide reputation, almost canceled his first class
ticket because of distressful feelings about the voyage. Staying at
London’s prestigious Waldorf Astoria, he awoke on the morning of April
10th to find that the water pitcher atop his dresser had unaccountably
shattered, soaking his clothes. He seriously expressed his premonitory
feelings to the hotel manager, who allayed the Colonel’s “superstitions”
enough for him to reluctantly board the great ocean liner. While at
sea, Weir told his secretary about the burst water pitcher, could not
shake his sense of foreboding, and said he must get off Titanic at the
next [color:56a8=blue !important][color:56a8=blue !important]opportunity,
when it docked in Queenstown, Ireland. Again dissuaded, he remained
aboard, only to go down with the ship he intuited was doomed.
As some measure of the magnitude of synchronous phenomena associated
with the disaster, no less than 899 persons who initially booked passage
for Titanic’s maiden voyage eventually refused to board her because of
warnings they experienced in the forms of various omens, premonitions,
dreams and precognitive events. An additional 4,066 would-be passengers
either missed the boat or canceled their reservations, usually under
apparently normal circumstances, but sometimes through unusual
coincidences that prevented them from [color:56a8=blue !important][color:56a8=blue !important]sailing.
Blanche Marshall suffered a hysterical outbreak on April 10th, 1912,
as she and her family watched the Titanic steam past the Isle of Wight
from the roof of their home overlooking the River Solent. In a virtual
panic, she said the liner would sink before it reached New York and
railed against her husband, daughters and servants for being blind to
her vision of masses of people drowning in the freezing waters of the
North Atlantic.
While neither Mrs. Marshall nor anyone she knew sailed aboard the
Titanic, she was prevented from boarding another doomed liner just three
years later by similar precognition. In 1915, her husband had booked
tickets for their return trip to England from America aboard the
Lusitania. She thought nothing of it until she saw the May 1st date of
the tickets. Convinced the ship would be torpedoed and sunk on that
passage, Blanche convinced him to change their booking. Interestingly,
she felt safe traveling on Lusitania at any other time. It was only the
prospect of the May 1st crossing that alarmed her. True to her sense of
foreboding, the vessel was torpedoed and sunk with heavy loss of life on
the same voyage she refused to take.
A sub-category of “Premonitions” is synchronous literature. Published in 1892, From the Old World to the New described
the sinking of an ocean liner after colliding with an iceberg in the
North Atlantic. The “fictional” name of its captain, E.J. Smith,
likewise belonged to the man who commanded R.M.S. Titanic, twenty years
later. Interestingly, the author of From the Old World to the New, W.T. Stead, lost his own life on board the same ship.
While Titanic was being readied for her maiden voyage, the May issue of Popular Magazine was
coming off the presses with the story of Admiral, an 800 foot-long
ocean liner crossing the North Atlantic through calm seas at 22 1/2
knots. She strikes an iceberg and sinks, leaving the survivors among her
thousand passengers to be rescued by a steamer. Similarities to the
real-life tragedy convinced readers the story was based on Titanic’s
particulars. But author Mayn Clew Garnett was said to have received the
details for his novelette in a dream he had while sailing on the
Titanic’s [color:56a8=blue !important][color:56a8=blue !important]sister [color:56a8=blue !important]ship,
Olympic. While he may have been influenced by physical parallels
noticed during his passage aboard the virtually look-a-like vessel,
Garnett’s selection of 43 north latitude for Admiral’s collision with
the iceberg was virtually the same position at which Titanic met her
identical fate.
Literature is not alone among the arts which figure into synchronous
events. More in black humour than conscious precognition, a crewman and
his wife made recordings for each other, the husband singing “Only To
See Her Face Again” to her “True Til Death,” on April 7, 1912, prior to
his service about the world’s greatest ocean liner. Three days later, he
sailed on the Titanic, never to return.
Animal interaction in human experience forms its own, distinct
category of synchronicity, and was not missing in the fate of R.M.S.
Titanic. The age-old sailor’s belief that rats leave ships long before
any apparent danger of sinking was exemplified aboard R.M.S. Titanic,
when two crewmen in a forward boiler room saw panic-stricken rodents
scampering aft, away from the starboard bow. Next day, an iceberg struck
that very spot. Both men escaped the disaster with their lives, because
the rats’ sudden appearance had made them uneasy enough to station
themselves, as often as possible, in the immediate vicinity of the
lifeboats.
Another incident of animal synchronicity associated with Titanic
concerns Bess, a thorough-bred horse belonging to Isadore Straus, the
co-founder of Macy’s Department Store. The same night he and his wife
were killed in the sinking, six-year-old Bess suddenly died of causes
the [color:56a8=blue !important][color:56a8=blue !important]veterinarian was unable to determine.
Tactile sensations comprise a sub-heading of “Death” in
synchronicity. The unaccountable perfume of flowers associated with
someone close and recently deceased is not uncommon. Another example
belongs to May de Witt Hopkins, who experienced the fragrance of roses
in her London home one day after R.M.S. Titanic sank. Although word of
the disaster had spread by that time, names of those on board were not
yet published. But with the flowery scent filling her room from no
apparent source, Hopkins suddenly felt that someone she knew was trying
to make her aware of his or her death. She later learned that a friend,
who was, unbeknownst to her, a passenger on the ship, had indeed
perished when it went down. Interestingly, her own mother, during the
late 19th century, had been similarly alerted to the death of a loved
one by a mysterious, flowery odour.
“Inanimate Objects,” like the White Star insignia that fatefully
disintegrated in the hands of Mrs. Lewis, comprise a wide-ranging group
of synchronous experiences. The Managing Director of the White Star
Line, Joseph Bruce Ismay, survived the Titanic, but thereafter resigned
his post, because he was publicly, although unfairly, blamed for the
tragedy. He spent the next 25 years of his life in virtual seclusion,
dying on October 17, 1937. That same Sunday afternoon, a framed, oval
mirror that hung in Ismay’s office during his tenure at the White Star
Line suddenly crashed from its hook, scattering broken pieces across the
floor.
Two weeks after Titanic was lost, a large wooden crate left unclaimed
at Pier 61, in New York harbour, was opened by port authorities. They
were surprised to see that it contained a meticulously detailed model of
the sunken vessel. It had originally been sent to the US for
promotional purposes on behalf of the White Star Line and was supposed
to be returned to the London offices on the doomed ship’s return voyage.
But the 30 foot-long representation was accurate in more particulars
than anyone could explain. Although it presented a full compliment of 20
davits, there were only a dozen miniature lifeboats. Moreover, the bow
was partially ruined and a long crack appeared from the keel toward the
upper deck, mimicking the actual damage sustained by Titanic.
As might be expected, “Dreams” are an important category of
synchronicity. While traveling in Europe during the spring of 1912, a
New York lawyer, Isaac C. Frauenthal, dreamt of being aboard a large
ship which collided with some floating object and began to sink. His was
a long, vivid nightmare, in which he clearly recalled the sights and
sounds of calamity. Several nights later, the identical psycho-drama
repeated itself, and he told his brother and sister-in-law that it must
be a warning against their up-coming voyage on R.M.S. Titanic.
But they laughed at his dream and convinced him to go through with
their return trip to America aboard the doomed White Star liner. All
three survived the sinking foretold in Isaac’s recurring nightmare.
Perhaps the most inexplicable aspects of synchronicity are those more
infrequent instances of “Parallel Lives.” When Lucien P. Smith narrowly
escaped death during the terrible fire on Viking Princess, in 1966, it
was his second, major disaster at sea. A survivor of the Titanic, he was
in his mother’s womb when that ship sank, just as Mrs. Astor, also
aboard, was pregnant with her son, John Jacob. Both children were born
eight months after the sinking, in which their fathers perished. Their
mothers died in the same year, 1940.
Individual lives and major conflicts are events sometimes so powerful
they echo beyond their own time and appear to replay themselves in the
future. Such an extraordinary case of parallel history began to unfold
when William C. Reeves went aboard the tramp steamer, Titanian, as an
ordinary seaman, departing Scotland for New York on April 13, 1935. Ten
days later, at 2300 hours, he was ordered into the foc’s’le head to
stand watch.
Although the sea was calm, the darkness was moonless and
impenetrable. Reeves began to feel increasingly uneasy, not only because
of the very poor visibility conditions he now faced as ship’s look-out.
He thought, too, of the premonitory novel he had been reading in his
cabin, Morgan Robertson’s Futility. Reeves was unable to keep
his mind from drifting back to a dramatic moment in the book when
Titan’s look-out missed seeing an iceberg in time to avoid disaster.
Also, he could not help but notice the ironic similarity of his ship’s
name, Titanian, and Robertson’s Titan with Titanic.
As his sense of irony deepened into anxiety, he realised that the
time was now 23:35, just five minutes before the hour Titanic struck the
iceberg. Reeves knew that penalties were severe for raising a false
alarm, the darkness ahead showed no sign of danger, and for some moments
he hesitated to act. But at last his feelings of imminent collision
overwhelmed him and he ordered the bridge to stop engines, “Iceberg
ahead!”
No sooner had the ship’s speed dropped off, than she smashed into
several large fragments of ice, which twisted her bow and disabled her
propeller. Slowing to full stop, Titanian’s crew were astonished to
behold an enormous iceberg looming directly ahead out of the darkness.
The floating mountain appeared at 23:40, the same hour of Titanic’s
collision.
Doubtless, had the Titanian not stopped in time, she would have
followed her predecessor to the bottom. An SOS sent to Cape Race,
Newfoundland, brought rescue to the stranded crew.
The multiple synchronicities of this parallel event – the similar
ships’ names, Reeves’ powerful premonition, his reading of Robertson’s
book, precisely the same hour for meeting with a deadly iceberg – far
out-strip all considerations on behalf of mere chance. Instead, they
clearly define the operative principle of meaningful coincidence as a
legitimate phenomenon.
About the Author
FRANK JOSEPH is the editor in chief of Ancient American magazine and the author of numerous books including The
Destruction of Atlantis, The Lost Civilization of Lemuria, Survivors of
Atlantis, The Lost Treasure of King Juba, Atlantis in Wisconsin, The
Lost Pyramids of Rock Lake and Last of the Red Devils. He lives in Minnesota.
The above article appeared in New Dawn No. 88 (January-February 2005).
If you appreciated this article, please consider a digital subscription to New Dawn.
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Saturday, May 4th, 2013. Filed under: Alternative Science Consciousness Inspiration Spirituality
Frank Joseph, New Dawn
Waking Times
Synchronicity is the most mysterious thing in the world.
Synchronicity is the term parapsychologists use for “meaningful
coincidence.” It happens to everyone, more often than we realise. But
synchronicities are not “mere” coincidences, random accidents without
significance.
Going through a half-forgotten collection of old photographs, you’re
surprised to find the snap-shot of a friend you lost contact with years
ago. Just then the telephone rings and the voice on the other end of the
line belongs to the same person in the photo.
You’re desperate to find a parking place because you’ve got to be on
time for a crucial appointment. There’s not an open spot as far as the
eye can see. Suddenly, a car pulls out in front of you, leaving you a
space right in front of the address where you’re expected.
You’ve just finished reading a book about rare birds, when the first
humming-bird you’ve ever seen in your back yard is drinking nectar from a
nearby flower.
These are typical incidents of synchronicity. And while most people
brush them aside as insignificant happenstance, some of the greatest
minds in history have grappled with this universal enigma.
“Synchronicity” was coined by last century’s leading psychologist, Carl Gustav Jung. Fascinated as he was by it, even Albert Einstein could not understand how it worked.
A synchronous event of my own in 1991 prompted me to interview, over
the next six years, eventually 100 persons about their feelings on this
elusive enigma. The meaningful coincides they shared with me proved more
illuminating than anything I ever read on the subject.
Collecting them into a loose order, I was somewhat astounded to see
that these synchronous events experienced by my friends and
acquaintances arranged themselves into repeating categories. Although
many of the persons interviewed differed widely in age, spiritual
beliefs or education, the meaningful coincidences they recounted all
belonged to specific groups of common experience.
Widening my research, I found that persons belonging to other
cultures, sometimes long dead – often many hundreds of years ago – fell
into the same seventeen categories which emerged from the men and women
who told me of their own fortuitous occurrences. Their often dramatic,
occasionally funny, always numinous testimony formed the basis for a
book I wrote, Synchronicity & You, Understanding the Role of Meaningful Coincidence in your Life. Synchronicity
is fundamentally a form of guidance that enters into the personal lives
of every human being. Even if we knowingly discard it, at least part of
its influence enters our subconscious.
Some guiding synchronicities form a category best described as
“Warnings.” A representative incidence of admonitory synchronicity not
included in my book was recounted by the California poet, Miriam Hohf:
“Many years ago, when I was a small child living in theAnother prominent category of synchronicity falls under the heading
Pennsylvania countryside, I took long walks by myself across the fields
and into the forest, listening to the birds and talking to the rabbits
and squirrels. I never felt afraid and deeply loved all the trees and
animals. But on one otherwise beautiful, sunny day, my surroundings felt
different somehow.
“Everything was absolutely calm and motionless. Just when I
approached the edge of the forest, however, a gust of wind suddenly
arose, loudly rustling the leaves. I stopped and listened to them,
because I felt they were speaking to me. They seemed to be saying, ‘Go
away! Do not come into the woods today! There is danger here! Danger!
Not safe to play here today! Go away!’ For the first time, a chill of
fear ran through me and I fled, almost in tears. I did not visit the
forest again, too afraid to return.
“About a week after my experience, mother told me about a terrible
story just published in the local paper. It seems that on the same day
the leaves spoke to me the body of another little girl was found by the
police. She had been brutally raped before being murdered. Did the
spirits of the forest warn me in the rustle of their leaves?”
of Numbers, which thread together mystical human experience, often with
surprising results. The number 57, for example, is an intimate
characteristic of the American Revolution, as investigator Arthur
Finnessey abundantly demonstrates in his well-researched book, History Computed.
Among the outstanding examples he cites is the last time the Liberty
Bell rang, in tribute to George Washington, before it cracked on
February 22, 1846 – 57 years after his 57th birthday. Together with his
titles and signature, the closing paragraph of the US Constitution,
following its original seven articles, makes up 57 words. It was
ratified by 57 yes-votes from New Hampshire, and all Constitutional law
begins with the Constitution’s 57th word – that word being, “All.” On
February 6, 1777, 57 weeks to the day after the pivotal Battle of
Princeton, another turning-point took place when the French joined the
American cause. They fought off 19 British warships, making it possible
for Washington to defeat Cornwallis on October 19, 1781, in a war which
began on the 19th of April, 1775 – 57 is the sum of these three
significant 19s.
Washington’s only two victories over British Commander Cornwallis
were 57 days apart. So too, 57 days separated the other decisive battles
of the war, at Cowpens and the Guilford Courthouse. The final
anniversary of Lexington and Concord celebrated during the Revolutionary
War was precisely 57 months, 57 weeks and 57 days after they were
fought. In South Carolina’s most famous assault at “Fort Ninety Six”, 57
Americans were killed. Interestingly, “96” is the sum total of the
number of men who signed the Declaration of Independence (57) and the
Constitution (39). The American Revolution’s 57th month concluded on 19
January, 1780; the Redcoats took Charleston exactly twice times 57 (114)
days later. Twelve times 57 (684) days before, the decisive Battle of
Monmouth was fought.
In numerical symbolism, 57 is the combination of two numerals, 5 and
7. Five is associated with male energy (i.e., war), while seven
signifies the completion of cycles. Together they form a symbolic
concept perfectly reflecting the completion of major military cycles
running like inter-linking themes throughout the history of the
Revolutionary War. Isodore Kozminsky refers to any number from 55 to 64
as “the Sword,” associated with military victory (Numbers, Their Meaning & Magic, NY: Samuel Weiser, 1977, page 51).
These ancient interpretations of 57 make its frequent recurrence
throughout the War of Independence very appropriate. Yet, we stand in
awe of its historical significance: Was it somehow an out-growth or
expression of America’s violent struggle for freedom, or did it from the
beginning (from before the beginning) determine historical events?
The outstanding feature of 57, around which acausal incidents
revolved, was a major rift in the fabric of history – the American
Revolution. All other, similarly powerful historical events likewise
produce extraordinary high levels of meaningful coincidence. In fact,
the more dramatic, even traumatic, the event, the greater the intensity
and sheer number that appear.
An outstanding example was the [color:56a8=blue !important][color:56a8=blue !important]Titanic
disaster. Hardly any other single occurrence in the 20th century
generated such a large collection of impressive examples. So many, in
fact, they embraced all 17 categories of synchronicity. The meaningful
significance of particular numerals played its part in the Titanic
disaster, too – in that classic bad-luck symbol, Number 13.
That this traditionally unfortunate number was factually associated with the most infamous of unlucky [color:56a8=blue !important][color:56a8=blue !important]ocean [color:56a8=blue !important]liners
should come as no surprise. Two, separate examples serve to illustrate.
A British journalist, W.T. Stead, demonstrated his contempt for
superstition by deliberately concluding a story on the 13th of April,
1912. Further tempting fate, his narration described the discovery of an
ancient Egyptian sarcophagus and the curse of violent death alleged to
overtake anyone who verbally translated its inscription. The next day,
R.M.S. Titanic met the disaster in which Stead perished.
A fellow passenger who lightheartedly challenged the deadly number
was from Youngstown, Ohio. George Wick had been traveling with his
family through Europe for several months and booked homeward voyage on
Titanic. While in transit to Cherbourg, where the doomed ship would make
final docking before attempting her transatlantic crossing, he stopped
at Paris. There he purchased a Grand Prix sweepstakes ticket, choosing
Number 13 on purpose, just to prove to everyone that he was not
superstitious. “Watch and see what it does for me!,” he exclaimed.
Several days later, Wick went down with the vessel.
The “Warnings” cited in Miriam Hohf’s childhood experience
proliferated around the Titanic before she sailed. A White Star insignia
crumbled to pieces in the hands of Mrs. Arthur Lewis while she was
pinning it to her husband’s cap. He was just about to board R.M.S.
Titanic, where he was a [color:56a8=blue !important][color:56a8=blue !important]steward.
At the time, she regarded the incident as a bad “omen,” although he
dismissed her expressed anxiety as foolishness, until the ship foundered
a few days later. Fortunately, Mr. Lewis survived.
In another Titanic-related warning, Colonel John Weir, a mining
engineer with a worldwide reputation, almost canceled his first class
ticket because of distressful feelings about the voyage. Staying at
London’s prestigious Waldorf Astoria, he awoke on the morning of April
10th to find that the water pitcher atop his dresser had unaccountably
shattered, soaking his clothes. He seriously expressed his premonitory
feelings to the hotel manager, who allayed the Colonel’s “superstitions”
enough for him to reluctantly board the great ocean liner. While at
sea, Weir told his secretary about the burst water pitcher, could not
shake his sense of foreboding, and said he must get off Titanic at the
next [color:56a8=blue !important][color:56a8=blue !important]opportunity,
when it docked in Queenstown, Ireland. Again dissuaded, he remained
aboard, only to go down with the ship he intuited was doomed.
As some measure of the magnitude of synchronous phenomena associated
with the disaster, no less than 899 persons who initially booked passage
for Titanic’s maiden voyage eventually refused to board her because of
warnings they experienced in the forms of various omens, premonitions,
dreams and precognitive events. An additional 4,066 would-be passengers
either missed the boat or canceled their reservations, usually under
apparently normal circumstances, but sometimes through unusual
coincidences that prevented them from [color:56a8=blue !important][color:56a8=blue !important]sailing.
Blanche Marshall suffered a hysterical outbreak on April 10th, 1912,
as she and her family watched the Titanic steam past the Isle of Wight
from the roof of their home overlooking the River Solent. In a virtual
panic, she said the liner would sink before it reached New York and
railed against her husband, daughters and servants for being blind to
her vision of masses of people drowning in the freezing waters of the
North Atlantic.
While neither Mrs. Marshall nor anyone she knew sailed aboard the
Titanic, she was prevented from boarding another doomed liner just three
years later by similar precognition. In 1915, her husband had booked
tickets for their return trip to England from America aboard the
Lusitania. She thought nothing of it until she saw the May 1st date of
the tickets. Convinced the ship would be torpedoed and sunk on that
passage, Blanche convinced him to change their booking. Interestingly,
she felt safe traveling on Lusitania at any other time. It was only the
prospect of the May 1st crossing that alarmed her. True to her sense of
foreboding, the vessel was torpedoed and sunk with heavy loss of life on
the same voyage she refused to take.
A sub-category of “Premonitions” is synchronous literature. Published in 1892, From the Old World to the New described
the sinking of an ocean liner after colliding with an iceberg in the
North Atlantic. The “fictional” name of its captain, E.J. Smith,
likewise belonged to the man who commanded R.M.S. Titanic, twenty years
later. Interestingly, the author of From the Old World to the New, W.T. Stead, lost his own life on board the same ship.
While Titanic was being readied for her maiden voyage, the May issue of Popular Magazine was
coming off the presses with the story of Admiral, an 800 foot-long
ocean liner crossing the North Atlantic through calm seas at 22 1/2
knots. She strikes an iceberg and sinks, leaving the survivors among her
thousand passengers to be rescued by a steamer. Similarities to the
real-life tragedy convinced readers the story was based on Titanic’s
particulars. But author Mayn Clew Garnett was said to have received the
details for his novelette in a dream he had while sailing on the
Titanic’s [color:56a8=blue !important][color:56a8=blue !important]sister [color:56a8=blue !important]ship,
Olympic. While he may have been influenced by physical parallels
noticed during his passage aboard the virtually look-a-like vessel,
Garnett’s selection of 43 north latitude for Admiral’s collision with
the iceberg was virtually the same position at which Titanic met her
identical fate.
Literature is not alone among the arts which figure into synchronous
events. More in black humour than conscious precognition, a crewman and
his wife made recordings for each other, the husband singing “Only To
See Her Face Again” to her “True Til Death,” on April 7, 1912, prior to
his service about the world’s greatest ocean liner. Three days later, he
sailed on the Titanic, never to return.
Animal interaction in human experience forms its own, distinct
category of synchronicity, and was not missing in the fate of R.M.S.
Titanic. The age-old sailor’s belief that rats leave ships long before
any apparent danger of sinking was exemplified aboard R.M.S. Titanic,
when two crewmen in a forward boiler room saw panic-stricken rodents
scampering aft, away from the starboard bow. Next day, an iceberg struck
that very spot. Both men escaped the disaster with their lives, because
the rats’ sudden appearance had made them uneasy enough to station
themselves, as often as possible, in the immediate vicinity of the
lifeboats.
Another incident of animal synchronicity associated with Titanic
concerns Bess, a thorough-bred horse belonging to Isadore Straus, the
co-founder of Macy’s Department Store. The same night he and his wife
were killed in the sinking, six-year-old Bess suddenly died of causes
the [color:56a8=blue !important][color:56a8=blue !important]veterinarian was unable to determine.
Tactile sensations comprise a sub-heading of “Death” in
synchronicity. The unaccountable perfume of flowers associated with
someone close and recently deceased is not uncommon. Another example
belongs to May de Witt Hopkins, who experienced the fragrance of roses
in her London home one day after R.M.S. Titanic sank. Although word of
the disaster had spread by that time, names of those on board were not
yet published. But with the flowery scent filling her room from no
apparent source, Hopkins suddenly felt that someone she knew was trying
to make her aware of his or her death. She later learned that a friend,
who was, unbeknownst to her, a passenger on the ship, had indeed
perished when it went down. Interestingly, her own mother, during the
late 19th century, had been similarly alerted to the death of a loved
one by a mysterious, flowery odour.
“Inanimate Objects,” like the White Star insignia that fatefully
disintegrated in the hands of Mrs. Lewis, comprise a wide-ranging group
of synchronous experiences. The Managing Director of the White Star
Line, Joseph Bruce Ismay, survived the Titanic, but thereafter resigned
his post, because he was publicly, although unfairly, blamed for the
tragedy. He spent the next 25 years of his life in virtual seclusion,
dying on October 17, 1937. That same Sunday afternoon, a framed, oval
mirror that hung in Ismay’s office during his tenure at the White Star
Line suddenly crashed from its hook, scattering broken pieces across the
floor.
Two weeks after Titanic was lost, a large wooden crate left unclaimed
at Pier 61, in New York harbour, was opened by port authorities. They
were surprised to see that it contained a meticulously detailed model of
the sunken vessel. It had originally been sent to the US for
promotional purposes on behalf of the White Star Line and was supposed
to be returned to the London offices on the doomed ship’s return voyage.
But the 30 foot-long representation was accurate in more particulars
than anyone could explain. Although it presented a full compliment of 20
davits, there were only a dozen miniature lifeboats. Moreover, the bow
was partially ruined and a long crack appeared from the keel toward the
upper deck, mimicking the actual damage sustained by Titanic.
As might be expected, “Dreams” are an important category of
synchronicity. While traveling in Europe during the spring of 1912, a
New York lawyer, Isaac C. Frauenthal, dreamt of being aboard a large
ship which collided with some floating object and began to sink. His was
a long, vivid nightmare, in which he clearly recalled the sights and
sounds of calamity. Several nights later, the identical psycho-drama
repeated itself, and he told his brother and sister-in-law that it must
be a warning against their up-coming voyage on R.M.S. Titanic.
But they laughed at his dream and convinced him to go through with
their return trip to America aboard the doomed White Star liner. All
three survived the sinking foretold in Isaac’s recurring nightmare.
Perhaps the most inexplicable aspects of synchronicity are those more
infrequent instances of “Parallel Lives.” When Lucien P. Smith narrowly
escaped death during the terrible fire on Viking Princess, in 1966, it
was his second, major disaster at sea. A survivor of the Titanic, he was
in his mother’s womb when that ship sank, just as Mrs. Astor, also
aboard, was pregnant with her son, John Jacob. Both children were born
eight months after the sinking, in which their fathers perished. Their
mothers died in the same year, 1940.
Individual lives and major conflicts are events sometimes so powerful
they echo beyond their own time and appear to replay themselves in the
future. Such an extraordinary case of parallel history began to unfold
when William C. Reeves went aboard the tramp steamer, Titanian, as an
ordinary seaman, departing Scotland for New York on April 13, 1935. Ten
days later, at 2300 hours, he was ordered into the foc’s’le head to
stand watch.
Although the sea was calm, the darkness was moonless and
impenetrable. Reeves began to feel increasingly uneasy, not only because
of the very poor visibility conditions he now faced as ship’s look-out.
He thought, too, of the premonitory novel he had been reading in his
cabin, Morgan Robertson’s Futility. Reeves was unable to keep
his mind from drifting back to a dramatic moment in the book when
Titan’s look-out missed seeing an iceberg in time to avoid disaster.
Also, he could not help but notice the ironic similarity of his ship’s
name, Titanian, and Robertson’s Titan with Titanic.
As his sense of irony deepened into anxiety, he realised that the
time was now 23:35, just five minutes before the hour Titanic struck the
iceberg. Reeves knew that penalties were severe for raising a false
alarm, the darkness ahead showed no sign of danger, and for some moments
he hesitated to act. But at last his feelings of imminent collision
overwhelmed him and he ordered the bridge to stop engines, “Iceberg
ahead!”
No sooner had the ship’s speed dropped off, than she smashed into
several large fragments of ice, which twisted her bow and disabled her
propeller. Slowing to full stop, Titanian’s crew were astonished to
behold an enormous iceberg looming directly ahead out of the darkness.
The floating mountain appeared at 23:40, the same hour of Titanic’s
collision.
Doubtless, had the Titanian not stopped in time, she would have
followed her predecessor to the bottom. An SOS sent to Cape Race,
Newfoundland, brought rescue to the stranded crew.
The multiple synchronicities of this parallel event – the similar
ships’ names, Reeves’ powerful premonition, his reading of Robertson’s
book, precisely the same hour for meeting with a deadly iceberg – far
out-strip all considerations on behalf of mere chance. Instead, they
clearly define the operative principle of meaningful coincidence as a
legitimate phenomenon.
About the Author
FRANK JOSEPH is the editor in chief of Ancient American magazine and the author of numerous books including The
Destruction of Atlantis, The Lost Civilization of Lemuria, Survivors of
Atlantis, The Lost Treasure of King Juba, Atlantis in Wisconsin, The
Lost Pyramids of Rock Lake and Last of the Red Devils. He lives in Minnesota.
The above article appeared in New Dawn No. 88 (January-February 2005).
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