Doug Dillon's Blog, page 65
June 23, 2015
Answers To Life’s Questions
Most likely, you’ve clicked on this article because you’re searching for a deeper understanding of life. 
Well, you’ve found a friend in that worthy effort and it is my pleasure to share some of my discoveries with you.
You see, I’m a Florida writer, educator, meditator, grandfather and investigator probing into the nature of reality. Through my years of careful observation, intensive research, and startling personal experiences, I’ve come to some partial conclusions about the nature of our existence and what lies beyond life as we know it.
In that light, I offer you access to my extensive blog postings about such things through this website. You can either use the categories I’ve set up or you can insert your own and see what pops up. For a few examples of such posts, see the active links at the end of this article.
Then again, if you would like to investigate some of the books I’ve written, you’ll find that information below.
But no matter what, I wish you well on your journey of exploration. May you find what you’re looking for and how very much I hope you share what you uncover with others, including me.
We’re all in this together and we very much need each other’s help. You may contact me through the link to this posting or you can use the contact form on the website. I would love to hear from you.
Now as to my books that I think you might find of value. If you’re interested, you can order any of them from your local bookstore and all the major online book outlets.
Or, you can ask your local library to make copies available if they don’t already have them in the stacks.
Every library has some sort of procedure for patrons to make book purchase suggestions and they often follow through with those ideas just like the Orlando Public Library does near where I live (pictured here).
First, let me first show you my nonfiction books:
Carl Jung, Hauntings, and Paranormal Experiences (Published as a paperback, hardback and Kindle eBook)
I’ve always been fascinated by Carl Jung and his theory of synchronicity.
His idea that there are no true coincidences, and all things are linked, increasingly fits with what I’ve experienced in recent years to an astounding degree.
And when I investigated Jung’s life, I also found how many truly strange events occurred in his life. Here was a famous psychiatrist whose paranormal experiences mirrored so much of what I was coming to understand that I had to pull it all together in book form.
Amazon.com Barnes and Noble.com Books-A-Million.com
An Explosion of Being: An American Family’s Journey into the Psychic (Published as a Kindle eBook and paperback)
The title almost tells it all. This is a true life adventure that extended to my entire family. Many years ago, right after my father died, strange things began happening.
Those events led to my lifelong pursuit of things paranormal and to the writing of this book with my wife, Barbara.
An imprint of Prentice Hall published the book across the world and Barb and I launched into an eye-opening round of radio and TV presentations.
Amazon.com Barnes and Noble.com Books-A-Million.com
Now for my fiction work:
The St. Augustine Trilogy
Much of my educational career involved teenagers. And after taking early retirement, I decided to combine my experience with young people, my love for history and my paranormal understandings in a book series for young adults. The stories are action packed, with the premise being: “You Create Your Own Reality.”
This series takes place in present day St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest and most haunted city in the United States. And surprisingly, what I have found is that even older adults like what I’ve written despite it originally being designed for teens.
Below you can see larger versions of the book covers and a brief description of each plot.
Sliding Beneath the Surface {Book I}. Published as a Kindle eBook and paperback.
In America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida, teenager Jeff Golden is in trouble. Horrible dreams won’t let him sleep, and he is up to his eyeballs in terrifying, paranormal experiences.
Finally, Jeff turns to his girlfriend Carla, and Lobo, the mysterious Native American shaman, for help. But what he discovers is a lot more than he bargained for.
A ghostly presence linked to a local historic cemetery is not only threatening Jeff’s sanity but his life as well. And before he knows what’s happening, Jeff finds both himself and Carla pulled into one of the nastiest and bloody events in Florida history. It is a place from which they may never escape.
Amazon.com Barnes and Noble.com Books-A-Million.com
Stepping Off a Cliff {Book II}. Published as a Kindle eBook and paperback.
An otherworldly, evil and dangerous force infests America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida. Everyone living there, or visiting, is at risk in ways too horrible to imagine.
Standing between this invader and the people of St. Augustine are teenagers Jeff and Carla, the mysterious Native American shaman, Lobo, and Lyle, the homeless guy.
In their quest to save themselves and all the inhabitants of this ancient Florida city, Jeff and Carla uncover lost parts of St. Augustine history, push past the limits of space and time, and come face-to-face with what they come to realize are the true walking dead.
Amazon.com Barnes and Noble.com Books-A-Million.com
Targeting Orion’s Children {Book III}. Publication due in late 2016.
In this, the final book of The St. Augustine Trilogy, the team of Jeff Golden, Carla Rodriguez, old Lobo, the Native American shaman and Lyle, the homeless guy, gather once again to join forces.
This time, though, the two teens face a paranormal presence that defies full human understanding and becomes a threat far beyond the oldest city in America where they live.
Overwhelmed by the immense responsibility they hold in their hands, Jeff and Carla make a jaw-dropping discovery that leads them in directions they could never before have imagined.
OK, and finally, as promised, here are the links to those blog post samples:
Meditation, Mindfulness and Premonitions
Haunted Lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida
Learn About Writing for Publication in Orlando
LibCon Orlando on June 27, 2015. A full day focused on books, authors, writing and publishing. Come join us.
Panels, talks, discussions, workshops. Meet the authors and talk about their books. A literary delight!
LibCon Orlando
Saturday, June 27, 2015 (Free)
10 AM – 4 PM
Orlando Public Library, 101 Central Ave., downtown Orlando. 407-835-7438. Parking garage across the street.
Love books? Want to meet loads of published authors? Want to be an author and learn how? Here’s your chance. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity. Book signings going on all day.
Click here to connect directly with the library.
June 22, 2015
Meditation, Mindfulness and the Afterlife
A quest for understanding dips into the unknown and plunges into haunting coincidences.
Even though I’ve been meditating for quite a number of years, I also attend meditation retreats periodically. They are a wonderful time to get away from it all, deepen my skills and learn more about myself than I could in any other way.
And although I have been studying and investigating the paranormal for a very long time, I never made a connection between meditation and “things that go bump in the night.” That all changed when I went on an extended retreat near Brooksville, Florida.
Florida is notoriously flat, but our retreat center turned out to be on one of the tallest hills in the state. A beautiful place, built in 1842, it was originally a plantation, now turned conference center. That location is one of the few in Florida where you can actually look down on a sunset.
The administrative offices were located in the manor house, behind which were smaller buildings, guest quarters, meeting space and, of course, a cafeteria. The rooms where we slept were comfortable and the wooded surroundings were wonderfully peaceful.
While driving to the retreat from my home near Orlando, I smiled at the fact that the manor house of the plantation was built right after the end of the Second Seminole War. Why? Because of a series of three circumstances that came together to form an interesting set of coincidences.
First of all, I had just completed the first novel of my young adult paranormal/historical series titled The St. Augustine Trilogy.
The book, Sliding Beneath the Surface, plunges two teenagers back in time, right into the middle of the horrific battle that began the conflict, a place not far from the retreat center. Every year there on the anniversary of the Dade Battle, as it is known, reenactors stage an incredibly accurate portrayal of what happened.
So for me, staying at a place built during the same era as the nearby battle as described in my book made for interesting speculation about how all three things could fit together so neatly. You see, long before that day, I had concluded, as had Carl Jung in his theory of synchonicity, that such coincidental events often point to something deeper in the nature of our existence.
But as interesting as the coming together of those three things were, I had a retreat to attend. And before long, I became thoroughly engrossed in my meditations. Engrossed, that is until one day everything changed.
It started after breakfast, two days into the retreat. After each meal, we were given a period of free time, and on that day, I chose to take a leisurely walk around the grounds of the old plantation. My little jaunt started out on what had once been an old road with tall trees still on either side of it.
And as I studied my surroundings, I looked up at the trees all around me and noticed how each one of them had a lot of dead branches at the top. Immediately, I became afraid, worried that one of those branches could come crashing down and hit me or one of my companions.
Fear? The likelihood of being clobbered in that way was very low and I had walked under many such trees in my time. So why the apprehension? I asked myself, trying unsuccessfully to shake off that sensation.
Instead of giving in to such thoughts, I started wondering what the original owners of the surrounding plantation might think if they encountered such modern day intruders on their property. And true to my writer’s inclinations, I suddenly conjured up this vision of a man in period dress in front of me.
In my imagination, this gentleman and I then had an interesting conversation about the past Vs. the present. And at the end of that chat, the man said, “And remember. Suffer the little children to come unto me.”
What? Those words were so inconsistent with what was being said, that it totally blew my little day dream apart. My companion disappeared, and I continued walking, this time past the manor house in an area I hadn’t visited before.
But those words spoken by my imaginary friend still made me wonder. That whole conversation was just me talking to me in an imaginative way, right?
Yes, I was raised a Christian, but I had long ago found Christianity unable to fulfill my spiritual needs. In fact, my retreat was based on Buddhism. Why that quote from Jesus would suddenly popped into my head made no sense, but I let it go.
Looking to my left, I was surprised to find a small cemetery dating back to the early days of the plantation. Obviously, it was the final resting place of long forgotten family members, containing only five or six tombstones.
One of those stones lay flat on the ground. Attached to the top of it was a carved lamb. The inscribed dates showed that a child was buried there who died at the age of one year. And under the date were the words, “Suffer the little children to come unto me.”
Okay then. That really made me think. In fact, it made me wonder if, when I was communicating with my imaginary companion, was I somehow tapping into something else?
Or, could it be . . . Nah, the guy couldn’t have had some sort of reality that I didn’t understand. Or could he? A ghost? No way.
Telling myself that I was l letting my writer’s creativity run away with itself because of the coincidental circumstances relating to the retreat location, I spent the rest of the day deeply immersed in meditation.
Then came dinner. And after dinner, I decided to just sit on one of the many benches strategically set between our cafeteria and living quarters. It had been a good day, even though part of it was a bit weird.
And, of course, my mind went back to my fear of those tree branches, the encounter with my ghostly friend, and the inscription on that poor child’s tombstone. What a strange set of events, I thought, just as something huge and heavy crashed to the ground about ten feet to my left.
When I say huge and heavy, I’m not kidding. The impact made the ground shake and immediately, one of my meditation friends came running over wondering if I was OK. Together, we surveyed the large branch that had fallen out of a tree. If it had hit me, I might well have been killed.
Did I have a premonition? And if so, why? I mean, did looking up into those trees and thinking how a branch could fall somehow influence me to sit on that bench instead walking under the branch that actually fell? I don’t know, but it certainly is food for thought, as are those other happenings during my retreat.
Could my meditations have somehow opened me up to such occurrences? Was there some sort of residual energy in that historic location ready to connect with me just then because of that openness? Beats me. Maybe.
Since that retreat, I visited the same location multiple times but without another recurrence of similar events. What I learned through those experiences though, was not to so easily dismiss those things I might normally consider as imagination.
The Dade Battle reenactment .
Oh, one more thing. The day the retreat ended, I felt compelled to visit the little cemetery one more time. And when I got there, a car was parked very close to the tombstones. A license plate on the front of the car said, “Seminole Wars Foundation.”
End of story, but if you are interested in premonitions, coincidental events, ghosts, Carl Jung and synchonicity, you might want to take a look at the book on your left.
I wrote it because I am fascinated by not only Carl jung’s theories but also by his own paranormal experiences. And in studying all that I decided to combine what I had learned with my own experiences and those of others. That’s the package.
You can find the book on most large online bookstores, but below is the link to Amazon.com where you can see the reviews by those who have read it.
Carl Jung, Hauntings, and Paranormal Coincidences.
Sliding Beneath the Surface: Book I of the St. Augustine Trilogy
June 21, 2015
Ripley’s & Paranormal Phenomena
This story is the king of all paranormal coincidences. Well, so far, for me anyway. It’s a fascinating tale but complex to describe. You gotta bear with me as I set this thing up. You will also find some selected text underlining here. That’s because I’m pointing out key elements of the story that all fit together for a total package.
In 2011, I published Book I of The St. Augustine Trilogy, my paranormal/historical novel for young adults titled, Sliding Beneath the Surface.
The story mostly takes place in the St. Augustine, FL neighborhood called the Abbott Tract just north of the Castillo de San Marcos–the old old Spanish fort.
Right at the edge of that neighborhood sits the original Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum. At night, Ripley’s runs their Ghost Train Adventure that begins and ends there at the museum.
In Sliding, the main character, fifteen-year-old Jeff Golden, mentions he’s been to Ripley’s and there he saw a carved Chinese puzzle ball like the one Lobo, an old Native American shaman once handed to him. I had Jeff say all that because in my research travels to St. Augustine, I saw a large puzzle ball at Ripley’s and decided to use it as a key paranormal symbol–hence it’s appearance on the Sliding cover above.
Photo of the puzzle ball I took at Ripley’s several years ago.
In continuing first person comments, Jeff makes clear his dislike for all the tourists who flood St. Augustine and go on silly ghost tours like the one at Ripley’s. Then Jeff describes times during terrifying paranormal exploits when he and his girlfriend, Carla:
Ride their bikes past the historic St. Francis Barracks that houses the Florida National Guard HeadquartersEncounter a soldier in front of the National Guard building
Go to the St. Augustine National Cemetery just down the street from the National Guard building
View the historical marker there erected by the West Point Society of North Florida in relation to the Second Seminole War
View the 3 coquina pyramids that cover the remains of over 1400 soldiers killed in all the Seminole WarsLearn about the start of the Second Seminole War from Lobo, the old shaman
Encounter a cannon used in the Second Seminole Wars
Photo courtesy of Greg Dillon
In writing Sliding, I mention in the book:
How some of the officers killed in the first battle of the Second Seminole War were West Point Graduates and
That my father, Walt Dillon, graduated from West Point. (Both my parents are buried there)
Now, many years ago, my wife Barbara and I wrote our nonfiction book titled, An Explosion of Being: An American Family’s Journey into the Psychic, originally published by an imprint of Prentice Hall.
When I published the Sliding book in 2011, I also brought out a new edition of Explosion through my own publishing company. That book is dedicated to my father and describes his funeral at West Point. Dad’s death started Barb and me on our investigations of the paranormal and resulted in the writing of Explosion.
The Ripley’s mansion on San Marco Avenue
Just after the first of this year, 2012, I contacted a friend of mine, Dave Lapham. Dave wrote two books on the ghosts of St. Augustine. I called him because I wondered how he had marketed his books.
Turns out, one thing Dave did was to set up book signings at Ripley’s right there up the street from the neighborhood where all my fictional characters live. Dave suggested I gave Ripley’s a call. Ripley’s? I had thought about book signings in St. Augustine but not at Ripley’s. How interesting.
At the time though, I was so swamped with other things that the thought of working St. Augustine book signings into my schedule just then seemed overwhelming. Dave’s idea was a good one but it took me until the week of May 14 to do anything about it. Here’s where the coincidences really come flying at me. Yup, everything you’ve read up to this point has been prologue.
Early in that week, my friend Chuck Dowling, another author but a writer mostly of military fiction, emailed me. He asked if I had ever thought of doing book signings in St. Augustine. I replied and said, yes, I had just put it on my calendar to call Ripley’s on Friday based on Dave’s suggestion.
Florida National Guard Headquarters
A day or so later, I got an emailed newsletter from the Seminole Wars Foundation based in Bushnell, FL, of which I am a member. In doing research on the Second Seminole War for Sliding, I found the group’s goals and activities very worthy.
Anyway, one particular article in the newsletter really caught my eye. Their next meeting was coming up and here’s what it said, boiled down to the following bullet points:
The meeting will:
Be held on August 18, 2012
Be held in St. Augustine
Be held in recognition of the 160th anniversary of the 1842 interment of all Seminole War casualties buried in the St. Augustine National Cemetery
Annual Reenactment of the Dade battle that started the Second Seminole War
Be held at the Florida National Guard Headquarters–the old St. Francis Barracks
Involve The West Point Society of North Florida, in addition to one other military organization
Involve the entire group walking from the National Guard Headquarters to the St. Augustine National Cemetery
Involve a ceremony at the 3 coquina pyramids
Involve the firing of the cannon from the Dade Battlefield park museum, like the one Jeff and Carla encountered
I’m telling you what. I read that piece over several times, marveling at the fall meeting’s connections with both my books and my father. To say all that was startling is to do it an injustice. I had yet to attend a meeting of the Foundation but this one I could not miss.
For a few minutes, I just had to sit back and marvel at how many things could come together like that. Even believing at least some coincidences have significance, as is my thinking pattern, I was no where near prepared for such a rush of multiple, connected events. Synchronicty at its best. Carl Jung would have loved it.
BUT WAIT! It doesn’t end there. Back to Ripley’s.
As planned on Friday, May 18 , I called them. Ripley’s that is. There I spoke to Ralf who was very receptive to the book signing idea. In fact, he said, it might be good for me to do one on a Saturday evening when there are a ton of their Ghost Train folks coming through the museum, and then again during the next day on Sunday. After looking at my calendar and checking with my wife, the dates of July 14 and 15 were open for both of us and for Ralf so I immediately scheduled them. Perfect.
But that also got me to thinking. I would be going up to St. Augustine on Saturday August 18 for the Seminole Wars event during the day, right? That led me to ask Ralf about doing a book signing that same night and then the following Sunday. Again, both dates were open and I immediately scheduled them as well as those two days in July.
Actually, it was only after speaking with Ralf that the enormity of what I would experience on August 18 truly hit me. Wow. With the Seminole Wars event during the day and signing both books at Ripley’s that night, I had scheduled myself into living out all those coincidences within about an eighteen-hour span of time. And it had taken less than a week from the time my friend Chuck called asking me about St. Augustine book signings until I finally set everything up with Ralf . Quite a whirlwind of activity.
Photo courtesy of NASA
The universe had spoken and emphatically so, but why? Was there any purpose in all this happening in such a linked way, assuming it all fell together as planned? Was I being guided somehow if nothing more than a higher aspect of my own being? To be perfectly honest, I would like to think that it was some sort of confirmation of my efforts in writing and studying the paranormal. Maybe yes, maybe no.
But the universe is a tricky place and when you try to interpret it’s intentions, it can very easily smack you upside the head. Some of those folks who study synchronicity suggest that intense coincidental events partially, at the very least, reflect your own thinking and observational patterns.
The idea is that you increasingly play a part in creating “coincidences” on a quantum level without realizing it. This can result in delusional cycles of self-reinforcement instead of revelation. Here is where people interpret series of coincidences that mirror their beliefs that the world will soon end and are just a bit disillusioned to find it hasn’t gone away on schedule.
So, for now, I’m just going to be very thankful that I was privileged to watch such amazing patterns emerge out of our everyday world and fuse themselves into a structure in which I will be a grateful participant. No matter what, it’s going to b e fun to see it all unfold.
By the way, all the location photos you see here I took a number of years ago in my research for writing Sliding Beneath the Surface. Under the category Photo Galleries here on my website blog, you will find a number of groupings that relate to the Dade battle–the one that started the second Seminole War in 1835. Or you can find them under the Florida History category.
If you are truly interested in all kinds of strange phenomena, you also might be like to take a look at my book, Carl Jung, Hauntings, and Paranormal Coincidences. You can find it in most online bookstores. Listed below, however, are direct book links to some of the larger retail outlets in the English speaking world:
Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Amazon India, Amazon Australia, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository
Here are some interesting links if you care to check them out.
Click here for another interesting series of “coincidences”.
Click here for the spring newsletter of the Seminole Wars Foundation. See page 3.
Click here for the Seminole Wars Foundation.
Click here for the West Point Society of North Florida.
Click here for the St. Augustine National Cemetery.
Click here for the Florida National Guard.
Click here for Ripley’s.
Is Life Actually a Dream
Most likely, you’ve clicked on this article because you’re searching for a deeper understanding of life. Well, you’ve found a friend in that worthy effort and it is my pleasure to share some of my discoveries with you.
You see, I’m a Florida writer, educator, meditator, grandfather and investigator probing into the nature of reality. Through my years of careful observation, intensive research, and startling personal experiences, I’ve come to some partial conclusions about the nature of our existence and what lies beyond life as we know it.
In that light, I offer you access to my extensive blog postings about such things through this website. You can either use the categories I’ve set up or you can insert your own and see what pops up. For a few examples of such posts, see the active links at the end of this article.
Then again, if you would like to investigate some of the books I’ve written, you’ll find that information below.
But no matter what, I wish you well on your journey of exploration. May you find what you’re looking for and how very much I hope you share what you uncover with others, including me.
We’re all in this together and we very much need each other’s help. You may contact me through the link to this posting or you can use the contact form on the website. I would love to hear from you.
Now as to my books that I think you might find of value. If you’re interested, you can order any of them from your local bookstore and all the major online book outlets.
Or, you can ask your local library to make copies available if they don’t already have them in the stacks.
Every library has some sort of procedure for patrons to make book purchase suggestions and they often follow through with those ideas just like the Orlando Public Library does near where I live (pictured here).
First, let me first show you my nonfiction books:
Carl Jung, Hauntings, and Paranormal Experiences (Published as a paperback, hardback and Kindle eBook)
I’ve always been fascinated by Carl Jung and his theory of synchronicity.
His idea that there are no true coincidences, and all things are linked, increasingly fits with what I’ve experienced in recent years to an astounding degree.
And when I investigated Jung’s life, I also found how many truly strange events occurred in his life. Here was a famous psychiatrist whose paranormal experiences mirrored so much of what I was coming to understand that I had to pull it all together in book form.
Amazon.com Barnes and Noble.com Books-A-Million.com
An Explosion of Being: An American Family’s Journey into the Psychic (Published as a Kindle eBook and paperback)
The title almost tells it all. This is a true life adventure that extended to my entire family. Many years ago, right after my father died, strange things began happening.
Those events led to my lifelong pursuit of things paranormal and to the writing of this book with my wife, Barbara.
An imprint of Prentice Hall published the book across the world and Barb and I launched into an eye-opening round of radio and TV presentations.
Amazon.com Barnes and Noble.com Books-A-Million.com
Now for my fiction work:
The St. Augustine Trilogy
Much of my educational career involved teenagers. And after taking early retirement, I decided to combine my experience with young people, my love for history and my paranormal understandings in a book series for young adults. The stories are action packed, with the premise being: “You Create Your Own Reality.”
This series takes place in present day St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest and most haunted city in the United States. And surprisingly, what I have found is that even older adults like what I’ve written despite it originally being designed for teens.
Below you can see larger versions of the book covers and a brief description of each plot.
Sliding Beneath the Surface {Book I}. Published as a Kindle eBook and paperback.
In America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida, teenager Jeff Golden is in trouble. Horrible dreams won’t let him sleep, and he is up to his eyeballs in terrifying, paranormal experiences.
Finally, Jeff turns to his girlfriend Carla, and Lobo, the mysterious Native American shaman, for help. But what he discovers is a lot more than he bargained for.
A ghostly presence linked to a local historic cemetery is not only threatening Jeff’s sanity but his life as well. And before he knows what’s happening, Jeff finds both himself and Carla pulled into one of the nastiest and bloody events in Florida history. It is a place from which they may never escape.
Amazon.com Barnes and Noble.com Books-A-Million.com
Stepping Off a Cliff {Book II}. Published as a Kindle eBook and paperback.
An otherworldly, evil and dangerous force infests America’s oldest and most haunted city, St. Augustine, Florida. Everyone living there, or visiting, is at risk in ways too horrible to imagine.
Standing between this invader and the people of St. Augustine are teenagers Jeff and Carla, the mysterious Native American shaman, Lobo, and Lyle, the homeless guy.
In their quest to save themselves and all the inhabitants of this ancient Florida city, Jeff and Carla uncover lost parts of St. Augustine history, push past the limits of space and time, and come face-to-face with what they come to realize are the true walking dead.
Amazon.com Barnes and Noble.com Books-A-Million.com
Targeting Orion’s Children {Book III}. Publication due in late 2016.
In this, the final book of The St. Augustine Trilogy, the team of Jeff Golden, Carla Rodriguez, old Lobo, the Native American shaman and Lyle, the homeless guy, gather once again to join forces.
This time, though, the two teens face a paranormal presence that defies full human understanding and becomes a threat far beyond the oldest city in America where they live.
Overwhelmed by the immense responsibility they hold in their hands, Jeff and Carla make a jaw-dropping discovery that leads them in directions they could never before have imagined.
OK, and finally, as promised, here are the links to those blog post samples:
Meditation, Mindfulness and Premonitions
Haunted Lighthouse in St. Augustine, Florida
Learning About Book Publishing in Orlando
LibCon Orlando on June 27, 2015. A full day focused on books, authors, writing and publishing. Come join us.
Panels, talks, discussions, workshops. Meet the authors and talk about their books. A literary delight!
LibCon Orlando
Saturday, June 27, 2015 (Free)
10 AM – 4 PM
Orlando Public Library, 101 Central Ave., downtown Orlando. 407-835-7438. Parking garage across the street.
Love books? Want to meet loads of published authors? Want to be an author and learn how? Here’s your chance. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity. Book signings going on all day.
Click here to connect directly with the library.
June 20, 2015
Book Lovers Event in Orlando
LibCon Orlando on June 27, 2015. A full day focused on books, authors, writing and publishing. Come join us.
Panels, talks, discussions, workshops. Meet the authors and talk about their books. A literary delight!
LibCon Orlando
Saturday, June 27, 2015 (Free)
10 AM – 4 PM
Orlando Public Library, 101 Central Ave., downtown Orlando. 407-835-7438. Parking garage across the street.
Love books? Want to meet loads of published authors? Want to be an author and learn how? Here’s your chance. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity. Book signings going on all day.
Click here to connect directly with the library.
Paranormal Coincidences & Decision Making
Should you pay attention when a coincidence, or coincidences, seems to point to a possible danger? And if you pay attention, what action(s) should you take, if any, to avert that danger?
My wife Barb and I are serious believers in the idea that everything in existence is connected and also linked to unseen worlds, dimensions, universes, etc., etc. This boils down to the understanding that no event is fully random even though we may not understand how this comes about. For us, it’s just something we accept as a demonstration of such connectivity and we don’t have to prove causation to ourselves or anybody else. Nor do we question why something happened very much. Once in a great while, however, we are forced to look more closely.
Such a time came a couple of years ago when we got a letter from our electrician warning all his customers about the possibility of fire if they had a particular circuit breaker box made in the 1970’s.
Since our house was built in 1976, we paid close attention.
Sure enough, we were the proud owners of one of the breaker boxes in question. That kind of shook me up because during the previous week I had two experiences with electrical fires: one at my chiropractor’s office and one in a nursing home where I visit Hospice patients. Those fires were small and did little damage but the fact that they both happened with me present now made me sit up and take notice. Besides, the stink of burning wires from each fire was still fresh in my memory and the warning letter seemed to glare at me from its place on my desk.
When I called the electrician, he said that during all those years since the ’70s, the company did make some faulty breakers but all-in-all, not too many fires occurred, and there had not been a general recall. His assessment was that a slight danger did exist but probably not much to worry about. He told me he felt obligated to send out the notice he himself had received but since a new box would cost right around $1,000, it was highly questionable whether the minimal danger warranted such a high expense.
I liked what he had to say because I sure didn’t want to shell out that kind of money if I could help it. Still, I went on the Internet to research the situation myself. I came up with a mixed bag of results. The search verified much of what my electrician told me but I also read reports by other electricians who said the breaker boxes in question were crap, they wouldn’t have them in their homes and and they wouldn’t install one. Not so good but I still didn’t want to pay $1,000 if I could help it.
Just as I had that thought about not paying the money, the power in the entire house flickered on and off. Woops. A power shift when I’m researching electrical problems and almost deciding to not get a new breaker box? Uh, that was a little too coincidental for comfort. As a result, I did another Google search and came up with a newsletter published by a civic association for the the Village of Westover. Location? Very near Harrisburg, PA.
The entire front page was about my breaker box and how many of the homes in the community were originally constructed in the 1970’s using identical equipment. Evidently, enough fires had begun because of those boxes that quite a few families in the Village of Westover purchased new equipment. One woman talked about how fire started in her home built in 1976–the same year mine was constructed.
After reading that woman’s story, I happened to glance at the list of officers for the civic association. The last name for the immediate past president? Dillon, my last name. Not an overly common name. Yes, I did a double-take on that one. Click here to see that newsletter.
In discussing this all with Barb, we decided there were just too many linkages to ignore. As much as we hated to do it, we reluctantly agreed to get a new breaker box installed. It didn’t happen right away. I think it was a combination of my not wanting to part with all that money and just being overly busy.
A couple of weeks later while doing my usual walk around the neighborhood for exercise, I passed what was left of a house just up the street from us. For whatever reason, I had forgotten the thing burned up a year or two before. Since no repairs were made for so long, I guess I just accepted its looks as normal until that moment when the word fire suddenly sprang to mind. My neighborhood. 1970’s. Oh my God!
After she arrived home from work that evening, I reminded Barb about the burned out house near us and my new reaction to it. Like me, she had put it out of her mind but she immediately got on the Internet. After an extensive search, she found our city’s report giving details about the house fire in question. In the document she read, it cited the cause as faulty circuit breakers. Within a week, we had a new breaker panel, the one pictured above. Sometime you just gotta stop fighting the problem and go with the flow.
Update: May 23, 2012
A couple of months after having the new breaker box installed, our clothes dryer stopped working. So naturally, I called in repair guy. Turns out he had nothing to repair. He said I must have a faulty circuit breaker. What? No way. Sure enough, he had me feel it and damn if the thing wasn’t warm–a sure indication that a problem existed.
I immediately got the electrician back who installed our brand new breaker panel worth $1000. “Yup,” he said, “that’s weird. Shouldn’t happen.” He aslso said he didn’t think it really put us in any danger but he replaced the breaker for no charge.
SO – what does this say about interpreting a series of coincidences and acting on them? All the indicators pointed to danger so we acted, right? But what if our interpretation was wrong? If there was indeed a message in all those coincidental events, it is conceivable this was it: By All Means, Do Not Buy A New Breaker Panel. It will contain a Faulty Breaker and This Will Put You in Danger.
I bring this up to remind myself and everyone else how difficult it is to tease specific meaning out of coincidental events. This is one area where humanity has tripped itself up over the eons by assigning way too much meaning through the use of seers, oracles and psychics. If the Multiple Universes Theory of quantum physics is correct, perhaps the strong indicators we see in a series of coincidental events may have a probable meaning but it may have stronger or weaker shades of probability according to the universe in which you live. A huge caution sign.
Am I now second guessing our decision to install a new breaker box? I did for a few seconds but as I weighed the two interpretations, I realized I would do the same thing again. Choices. It’s all about choices but based upon as much cool analysis as possible.
If you are truly interested in all kinds of strange phenomena, you might be like to take a look at my book, Carl Jung, Hauntings, and Paranormal Coincidences. You can find it in most online bookstores. Listed below, however, are direct book links to some of the larger retail outlets in the English speaking world:
Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Amazon India, Amazon Australia, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository
June 19, 2015
Meet Authors in Orlando – All Genres
LibCon Orlando on June 27, 2015. A full day focused on books, authors, writing and publishing. Come join us.
Panels, talks, discussions, workshops. Meet the authors and talk about their books. A literary delight!
LibCon Orlando
Saturday, June 27, 2015 (Free)
10 AM – 4 PM
Orlando Public Library, 101 Central Ave., downtown Orlando. 407-835-7438. Parking garage across the street.
Love books? Want to meet loads of published authors? Want to be an author and learn how? Here’s your chance. Don’t miss this wonderful opportunity. Book signings going on all day.
Click here to connect directly with the library.
Time Travel @ the King & Prince Resort?
For our anniversary in 2009, my wife Barb and I treated ourselves by spending a few days on St. Simon’s Island, Georgia. Beautiful place with a long history that connects with St. Augustine in our home state of Florida.
In our travels on that island, we visited what’s left of Fort Frederica, a crucial British outpost just before the Revolutionary War. The fort itself is very small but the surrounding area is huge because an entire town once existed there as well. When the British abandoned the fort, the town died. All that you can see of it today are the foundations of houses and businesses.
This photo shows the elegant hallway at the entrance to the solarium.
Our home base for all of our excursions was the gorgeous King and Prince Resort. It’s a very comfortable place right on the ocean and dates back to 1935.
Maybe it was our day of exploring that eerie Fort Frederica ghost town without anyone else around but something happened at the King and Prince to make us wonder.
After dinner that evening, we decided to check out the hotel’s solarium, a sort of sun room area used for events like small banquets.
It was just Barb and me. That whole area of the hotel seemed as abandoned as the town near Fort Frederica. Totally quiet except for our conversation.
We spent some time looking at the furnishings and decor before finally plopping ourselves down in two Wingback chairs.
Shown here is the actual solarium entrance, looking back into the hallway
After a while, we both sell silent, lost in our own thoughts. It’s at that point I had a distinct sensation Barb and I weren’t alone. I kept looking around to make sense out of what I was feeling, but couldn’t. Seconds later, Barb broke the silence and told me she was having similar thoughts.
Realizing we were both on the same track, we decided to just sit silently for a while and tune in to whatever seemed to be happening near or around us. This we did for about five minutes and then shared whatever sensations, thoughts or feelings bubbled up in the quiet.
The result was fascinating. I would say a few words, then Barb, and then me again–back and forth as if we were both describing the exact same scene. When we got done speaking, we just looked at each other in wonder.
What we had jointly described were the sights and sounds of a party going on in the solarium. It was as if people were walking around–people of a bygone era. There was music, laughter, food and drink being served and some people were playing games. Glasses, dishes and utensils clinked. Amazing. It gave us chills.
No we didn’t actually see or hear those things. It was more like we were tuning into a television program but a reality show in which we were somehow distant participants.
Our conclusion? We as human beings are connected to all that is, has been and will be. Sometimes, especially in the stillness and quiet of the moment, we are privileged to perceive some of those connections.That night we were simply thankful to have received such a gift. A further explanation simply wasn’t needed.
If you are truly interested in all kinds of strange phenomena, you also might be like to take a look at my book, Carl Jung, Hauntings, and Paranormal Coincidences. You can find it in most online bookstores. Listed below, however, are direct book links to some of the larger retail outlets in the English speaking world:
Amazon.com, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Amazon India, Amazon Australia, Barnes and Noble, The Book Depository
