POCO SYNCHRO PROFUNDO- Some Coincidences Worthy of Immortalization- Entry #1: 10/7/2017 By: Michael Wolfson

POCO SYNCHRO PROFUNDO- Some Coincidences Worthy of Immortalization- Entry #1: 10/7/2017 By: Michael Wolfson I must admit that I am no stranger to coincidence, although my intended co-author remains an inspirational skeptic. I would guess that even Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham Lincoln, whose life was saved by assassin John Wilkes Booth’s brother on a train platform and who went on to be present at three presidential assassinations (and one for a lesser political figure to boot) would be impressed by certain of the bizarre event couplings I have endured. And the great Carl Jung might be inclined to move beyond his stubborn willingness to explain away such happenings as a joint application of the law of large numbers and the psychological ability to find patterns in the gestalt of perception. Some of the events I have witnessed involve near misses and some chance encounters with notable persons or events subsequently recognized (e.g. Howard Stern, Ken Osmond, Colonel Tom Parker, Tom Waites, Ted Bundy, Big Thompson Canyon flood-I do have a few stories to tell!). Others have left a thicket of evidentiary trail brush and witnesses. Occasionally, the weave in the pattern of events appears to unfold in such a manner as to point to extra-causal “effects” transcendent to the normal laws of physics (actually, Jung’s definition of “synchronicity” is “meaningful a-causal connections”) pointing to a metaphysical overlay (I’m hesitant to use parapsychology terms such as precognition and psychokinesis as I am hoping not to lose all but the wackos, crackos and quackos too quickly. We sure didn’t lose many serious onlookers if you peruse the 12 Life extension articles Greg and I did on Scribd and look where science is now. Nobel prize caliber types stalking Scribd articles for inspiration? Hmm! We have now been fully vindicated!) I do realize we are living in a time when science reigns supreme due largely to engineering and science successes and that the world of many great thinkers such as Plato, Descartes, Kant, David Bohm etc. is unfortunately somewhat out of favor, but I will press on. I intend to publish the very extensive list of synchronicity stories in no particular order but in rapid fire succession since otherwise opportunity will expire and my option to achieve Scribd immortality will end unexercised (time is always limited and option pricing theory is always a branch of my decision tree, as least back to the days of Edward O. Thorp). Entry #1. The Las Vegas Shooting. I have to begin here with a comment on the extent of the tragedy. Whatever the verdict is on my writing skills or thought process, I certainly do not have the ability to put into words the gravity of the horror and suffering connected with the carnage of these recent days. Please understand that nothing in these writing is intended to make light of or present a flippant or dismissive attitude toward what happened. I am in shock as is everyone else. If you’re not, stop reading I don’t want you here. I have experienced personal tragedy 1st hand as well. I published on Facebook the following on September 30, 2017: “ Poco pathos profundo! Plus the uke sound closely resembles the attack/decay punch of a cyprus/cedar flamenco guitar, evoking sorrow, pity, sympathy, jondo pathos. Sound at death's door! Thanks for the video.” I was commenting on a very nice video of a singer accompanied by her uke. She is now pseudo-named Dee in view of her apparent unwillingness to coauthor here. I had in mind in composing this particular post a conversation with long time Cleveland guitar store owner Dick Laurie in which he stated that the guitar was an instrument of death. My retort to his point was that a sustained tone instrument is a living one, so an electric guitar would be as alive as a violin (even if some might describe the sound as “living hell”), whereas a quick decay sound profile of an classical guitar could fairly be called “dying”. More so with the quicker attack/decay punch of a flamenco guitar, harp, uke, hammer dulcimer etc. I will now insert in its entirety the email to Dee dated October 4, 2017. This is a follow-up trying to encourage the would-be coauthor to join forces. She had already turned on the synchronicity sprinkler weeks before. (You will see that soon enough.) Given that we have an age difference as wide as the Grand Canyon, I made it clear from the start that I wasn’t pitching woo. Of course Steve Brandt, one of my professors years ago, used the term WOO to mean “windows of opportunity”, so guess I did in that sense. In my mind, Dee should have gleefully seized the opportunity to immortalize on Scribd, but sometimes the path of a 20 something has a different trajectory. Anyway, this communication is replete with inside meaning references some of which I will not be able to now fully elaborate. As an example, we talked of metronome use in guitar/uke practice in the moments before realization that the Vegas events were unfolding. Some of the coincidences/events referenced in the email will be explained in future entries: Tattooed lady, Bernard Hermann lp, Hurricane, ID theft etc. and the reader can now think of those as mere foreshadowing. I felt that republishing this communication in its original form would be most instructive (as well as easier for me since time is always of the essence). Only the names have been altered along with a few grammaticals. Apologies to you, gentle reader, I know it is a bit cryptic and turgid. Here we go: “hi Dee, I guess it is more inspiring for me if you remain skeptical, but consider: 1. The “sound at death’s door” post on your website is dated 9-30. Front and center to the post is the attack/decay punch of a flamenco guitar sound. Listen to some Paco du Lucia if you do not see the parallel to the rapid fire pop pop pop of automatic weapons. You wouldn’t even have to adjust your metronome. This predates the Las Vegas shooting. 2. The sound of violence was also front and center at our meal the day of the shooting. Vee is a co-witness (as was Tom and Arfus earlier). Vee tells me you already knew of the shooting, but I certainly did not. I was trying to decide whether to invite you to assist as coauthor of either a Hitchcock paper or a synchronicity one. Now I know we need a combined paper on Hitchcockian archetypes (possibly as a mere chapter) which would include Storms, Identity Theft and now the Sound of Violence. These must be both Jungian archetypes and Platonic Forms. Granted the slashing knife sound from the shower scene in Psycho that we discussed via violin glissando/staccato effect is different than the rat a tat which would be more analogous to the bird sounds that Bernard Hermann synthesized for the Birds. That movie has no music which was what Hitchcock originally planned for the shower scene. But the whole point of the discussion was to identify the appropriate sound for different types of violence displayed in film. This was the case down to the discussion of a nautical description for Ocean Motion and the pre-double entendre use of the terms “Rock and Roll” and “Shake, Rattle and Roll”. By the way, I saw a Tom Petty interview last night where he claimed Rock music and its use of guitars today is not as pure as earlier instantiations. Petty too was a petty part of our conversation at the meal given his grave medical condition. 3. Remarkably, we also discussed the North by Northwest scene at the Mount Rushmore diner where a kid puts his hands to his ears to muffle the pop sound of ANTICIPATED gunfire. It couldn’t have been more than 30 minutes before I first found out from Vee at the gallery about the Las Vegas shooting. Foreshadowing for the kid and for us both! (Did Hitchcock overlook such an obvious flaw in his film? Not likely, so it must be a foreshadow.) 4. Carl Jung and others have suggested that coincidences are often observed during transitional times (moving, death etc.) due to heightened awareness. Your last visits to and from Kent have closely coincided with at least three events of historic proportions (more than Hitchockian but less than Biblical in scale), namely Storm/hurricane, Equifax ID theft and now the Rapid Fire Sound of Violence in Las Vegas. The many surrounding coincidences that you and I and Tee and Arfus and now Vee inspired/witnessed (including the Bernard Hermann lp, Hitlerian balloons, the Facebook post and Harold Arlen’s Tattooed Lady Song inter alia) have further highlighted and embellished these events.” “I am not going to write this stuff for publication without major assistance. (Of course electronic communication is fine but I would need a lot of help.) I am with HP Lovecraft in my belief that oblivion may be preferred to immortality. For example, I am certain that there is less money here than in selling art. This is more like climbing Long’s Peak in Colorado. But, if you think immortality is a tall order with no dividends, think again. 500 years from now or when the multiverse simulation is up for review, perhaps someone might look and say “Dee and Mike sure coauthored an interesting paper”. I am sure you are thinking we should just raise our hands over these events and say “that’s weird” and move on. But I’m not sure that even childbearing can strike a more enduring blow toward the eternal. Bach’s compositions are universal but his offspring only contributed marginally and only for a few generations. The Las Vegas shooter’s father may have been a bank robber, but the machinations of one of his offspring will not endure (one would hope). Without enthusiastic proactive assist, I am done. I said that before, but now you have infused the pattern of events with even more connections. You are the consummate synchronicity catalyst. Don’t get me wrong though. Absolutely nothing personal here if you want to forget it. Also, I see that it is by no means desirable to be ‘connected’ in any way to dark catastrophic events like floods, shootings, death or loss of identity. I too would be happy to “cluck” out, as Hitch might say.” “Final Note: translation of dolce far niete as “sweet nothing” would be a great definition for a synchronicity except for the fact that it is usually used to mean it is sweet to be idle. Life is easy for the untested and I mentioned the Epictitus comment that a life worth living is a tested one, so Dee please help!” “Final final note: You are considerably younger than I am and if you look at the options life presents from a perspective combining decisions tree analysis and Black/Scholes option pricing theory (Myron Scholes was a professor of mine in the years before he won his nobel prize), you can easily conclude that this is your future more than mine. I don’t pretend to be much of a salesman, so you figure it out. Regards, Mike” To highlight some of what I consider interesting in this patterned chain of events, I would like to point out that the media has, for good reason, worked diligently to censor public exposure to the most graphic video of the Las Vegas tragedy. Perhaps they don’t realize that the audio sound of automatic gunfire is equally, if not more, horrific. Hitchcock depicted horror contextually. Didn’t Marshall Mcluhan have something to say about the distortions of broadcasting hot topics on a cool medium? The most remarkable event as above delineated is the pre-tragedy publication of what is therein described as sounds of death. Paco Du Lucia in particular should be praised post-mortem. At least no one is harmed by his rapid fire presto digital “pop”-pouri. I am also reminded of the discussion during the OJ Simpson trial of a Sherlock Holmes case involving a man named Simpson and the dog that did not bark. What do you think, Arfus? Sotto voce and sub silentio. The rest is icing plus crumbs from the pieces of cake which will be the subject of future publications. I have said enough for now and I am hopeful that you will find it worth your time to press on when I press more. Copyright 10/7/2017 Michael Wolfson email: mwolfson@stanfordalumni.org