Library Divination

There's something about the library which has connected me to many synchronicities.  I can remember at least 3 distinct book-related synchronicities in the last year in which the books I pick up at random tell me something meaningful...they leave me feeling like I've been led to them for a specific reason.  And it makes sense--if there is a force which can speak to us through synchronicity, why not use the words and stories in books to do it?  Why resort to tarot cards, geomancy, ifa, or the i ching which require intense study to comprehend and then only give general symbolic indications?

The thing about books is that they are long--how does a force of guidance make sure that the message is found and properly interpreted?  One thing I experienced was finding the same phrase in multiple books which I'd happened to be reading concurrently--and then hearing the phrase repeated by someone important at the same time.  Also, I would pick up a book at random and then have an experience that mirrored part of the book...I couldn't ignore it as mere coincidence.  In addition, the way in which the books are acquired has a certain synchronous ring to it that has become familiar.  For example, one book, Native Son, caught my eye as I walked by it and stopped me in my tracks.  I don't remember ever having read about the book before that day, but for whatever reason, the title stood out to me and I reached up and grabbed it and then continued on towards the book I'd come in for.   Below is a review of the books I've found through synchronicity:

1. I've already written about finding The Daily Coyote at the library in the last couple of weeks. The book led me to reexamine my journey towards leaving civilization and to realize the multitude of ways in which I can build a sustainable lifestyle.

On a side note: I read most of Derrick Jensen's book The Culture of Make Believe in 2002 or soon thereafter, when I was 17.  The book had a huge impact on me, though I kind of forgot how much until last month when, at the library, I picked up an audio of a talk Jensen gave more recently.  I'm not counting this as a synchronicity because I picked up the audio specifically because I recognized Jensen's name.  Listening again to Jensen bash civilization was my inspiration to learn to live an uncivilized life.

2. My first incredibly deep synchronicity which led me to a turning point in my life came to me through Aron Ralston's book Between a Rock and a Hard Place in which Aron describes his ordeal being trapped under a boulder in Utah and how he needed to cut off his right arm to free himself.  I  describe my connection to the book in the linked post.  A second book, The Dance of Anger by Harriet Lerner, was also involved in the synchronicity.

Charles Thompson at his trial.

3. I stopped at the library last September to pick up a specific book.  On my way walking to it another book caught my eye--Native Son by Richard Wright.  The book is about a black man that kills two women, one white, the other black.   I'm no scholar of literature and I often miss the point of books, so I won't try and describe the underlying significance of a racist society on the murderer's psyche.  But the day after I picked up the book I was in the jury pool for the trial of Charles Thompson, a 17 year old black teen, accused of killing John Versypt, a white man in a botched robbery attempt.  I wasn't selected as a member of the jury, but I spent 3 days in the selection process and then read the live blog of the trial for the rest of the week until a mistrial was declared.  Thompson has agreed to testify against another suspect and will likely get out of jail after that trial (he plead guilty as accessory after the fact--that is, he says he helped dispose of the clothes of the murderer).  I'm not sure what this synchronicity means--perhaps Thompson, guilty or innocent, is a victim of a still racist society.  And I feel a connection to Thompson that I feel I ought to explore further.  Another part of this synchronicity was the connections to other jury members I met at the trial.  One was the leader of a women's club I had been wanting to join for a few months before, another was a prominent Iowa City lawyer whose name I knew from a trivia question on The Smartest Iowan from the week before (I later realized the other reason why I knew his name, a tragic story which had gripped the entire city a few years prior), and a third was a woman who worked at the same place where I would get a job a couple of months later.

Me talking to the 100th Monkey guy at Occupy Iowa City

4.  In the fall of 2011 after I began having synchronous experiences on a regular basis, I was walking around with a completely opened mind.  I was ready to try on any explanation for the strange happenings.  One day I stopped by a park where Occupy Iowa City had set up occupation and I began chatting with a guy in his late 20s with a blond beard (I found the picture at left, and it turns out his beard wasn't all that blond).  We started discussing synchronicity and he told me that he had been following synchronicity all his life.  He had forsaken all material goods and had been sleeping in his car or on couches and going wherever life took him for a couple of years.  He told me about the 100th monkey effect--there's a good article on Wikipedia about it if you haven't heard of it.. At this point, I'm not sure if the story affected me a great deal, but it sounded interesting.  Later on in the week I was at the library walking through Dewey's 00s-300s, the section I associate with, among other things, supernatural experiences.  I think I was looking for books about synchronicity, but instead I ran right into The Hundredth Monkey: And Other Paradigms of the Paranormal, located at call number 133. I immediately grabbed it and realized that it was written by the skeptical inquiry group.  So much the better.  (This was at the Coralville Public Library; later I went to the Iowa City Library and picked out Synchronicity & You, which was also located at call number 133.  I don't have access to cataloging software, so I don't know what this exact number signifies, but I know that the Iowa City Library has their synchronicity books spread out over many different call numbers and the Coralville Library doesn't have any books on synchronicity, as far as I can tell).  I read the title essay of the 100th Monkey book, as well as several others.  As it turns out, the 100th monkey theory was more or less invented by some guy reading a couple of studies incorrectly, but the paradigm took off before anyone bothered to check the references.  I felt like this synchronicity served to temper my gullibility   Go figure, a guiding force reminding me that I shouldn't believe everything I hear.