The Stargate Conference during the weekend of October 16-
18 was a time of incredible synchronicity for me, and some of
it was downright funny.
It started on Friday afternoon, when I rubbed the belly of a
fat, golden Buddha statue on the grounds. I had heard that,
in Buddhism, rubbing the fat Buddha's belly is supposed to
bring good luck, but then absolutely everything started to go
wrong!
First, most of our speakers were delayed in arriving, leaving
us to talk to the attendees all alone, up on an empty stage,
on Friday evening. It was so awkward that Whitley and I felt
like maybe we should tell some jokes or belt out a song, or
something.
It had taken us only a few hours to drive from LA to Joshua
Tree on Friday afternoon, but Starfire Tor and Brandon Scott
were incredibly delayed, hitting traffic jam after traffic jam on
the highway. They were on the road for almost 8 hours!
Then William Henry's luggage was put on another plane, so he
had to wait for it at the airport. Since it contained not only
his clothes, but everything he needed for his power-point
presentation, he couldn't wait for the airline to deliver it to
the retreat center. Was this Buddha secretly malevolent?
As I was walking through the crowd talking with people, a
man came over and told me about his daughter, who was
very ill from breast cancer. I had brought a collection of
baseball caps with me and when we had a little
free time before lunch, I put on the one I talked about in an
earlier diary and asked everyone in the audience who
wanted to pray for her to take a moment to do so.
Shortly before this, Whitley had come over and whispered to
me that he was avoiding a man whom he suspected wanted
to recruit him for a sort of "cult" religion that is very popular
with famous folks in Hollywood (getting Whitley on board
would have been a terrific coup for them). I had already
spotted him because, unlike the "rumpled Midwestern" look of
most of the attendees, this guy had the rich casual look that
is so familiar from the movie biz: slim, well-tailored black
pants and expensive sunglasses. I then realized that my
public prayer had probably put an end to his missionary
activity, so he would give up and go home. I decided that
maybe that Buddha was on my side, after all.
At our star watch on Friday night, we didn't see any UFOs,
but Whitley did hear an incredible story: A young man told
the group about a lucid dream he'd had that he was driving to
his father's house. He went in and was greeted by his dad,
who told him that the father of a close friend was working in
the garage and would like to see him. He went into the
garage, and this man told him to tell his own son that he was
okay.
The young man agreed and then left, intending to give his
friend the message. As he drove away, though, he
remembered that his father had been dead for years. He
immediately turned around and went back, but this time he
found that his car was blocked by a gate in the road. A man
at the gate (Saint Peter?) told him that he'd had a one-time-
only pass and could not return, because it was not yet his
time. When he woke up in the morning, he remembered the
dream vividly, and was deeply shocked to find that his
friend's father, who was suffering from cancer, had died that
very night. Because of his dream, he was able to give his
friend a very welcome message during his time of grief. From
that day on, as well, he ceased to doubt that there is an
afterlife.
On Sunday morning before we left, I met a woman in the
bookstore who said she was glad I was there because she
wanted to talk to me since her sister had just died of breast
cancer, the same disease the woman we said the group
prayer for has. She was surprised to see me there because
she said she head felt "compelled" to go to the booksstore
that morning. Then who should show up but the man whose
daughter we prayed for! I introduced them because I thought
they could bring comfort to one another and I hope they
bonded.
My head was whirling from all these synchronicities, and then
came the biggest one of all. The day before Starfire and
Brandon were scheduled to speak, someone had come into
the auditorium where we were holding our talks to try to
deliver a bunch of green balloons that he said were meant for
a six-year-old child. Since there were no children at the
conference, we told him he had the wrong place.
Then Starfire and Brandon told about a time slip they had
experienced in a shopping mall with a young boy who was
carrying a red balloon. They said that they often noticed
balloons around during their time slip experiences. I took the
microphone and said that I'd first heard this story shortly
after I'd received the
Green Man
Message, so I had told them to be on the lookout for green
balloons and that, in fact, someone had tried to deliver a
bunch of green balloons the day before. A man in the
audience said, "I know where they are, they're tied up
outside," and he went out and brought them in and we
passed them out. I thought to myself, "That Buddha must be
having a big laugh."
We had supper with Starfire and Brandon at a restaurant near
the retreat before we all headed out to the highway and
went our separate ways. Starfire said she'd had a vision that
Whitley should start a think tank. I realized that this was the
final synchronicity of the weekend because the conference
HAD BEEN a think thank. So many ideas and experiences were
shared that we all went home with lots of new things to
ponder.
As we drove home, I reflected that I was extremely glad
that, before we left, I had gone up to that trickster Buddha
again and patted his belly and apologized to him. He certainly
gave me a lot to think about!
UPDATE: A reader writes: "Anne's way off, rubbing the
Buddha for good luck a myth, it has nothing to do with
Buddhism. In Buddhism rubbing the Buddha's belly is
considered disprespectful and BAD LUCK, not good. So it's no
wonder that 'absolutely everything started to go wrong' as
Anne says! Take it from someone with a PhD. in Buddhist
Studies: It's not good luck to rub the Buddha's belly. It IS
good luck to offer flowers, incense and saffron-flavored
water, the way they do in Thai Restaurants."
Related Entries:
10-Nov-2009: On NOT Going to a Movie about UFOs
11-Oct-2009: The Red Coat
22-Sep-2009: Four Days
07-Sep-2009: Portents, Synchronicities (and Coincidences?)
27-Aug-2009: Two Birthdays
12-Aug-2009: Held Hostage by Hummingbirds
05-Aug-2009: The Irish Milkmen of the Dog World
27-Jul-2009: Two Surprising Events
29-Jun-2009: Trickster Coyote
08-Jun-2009: Tool Users
