Ella,

Ah yes, Synchronicity! This is the most controversial of Jung's theories. And hard to prove. But when we look back at our 'chance' encounters that turn out to be major interventions that often prove to be life changing events, we have to wonder, 'was it a Synchronistic event'? My great experience which I have repeated many times at the Dream Forum was the Sunday afternoon I had return home from running errands with my wife and as soon as I got in the door, went to the television and turned it on. The station was tuned to the local PBS channel {even before my 'rebirth' I was an enthusiastic viewer of PBS} and I saw Bill Moyers {someone I was very familiar with, he being the one time press secretary for Lyndon Johnson} talking with this guy named Joseph Campbell {someone I had never heard of}. The subject was mythology, a subject I had little knowledge of. It turned out the program was the first of six hour long conversations entitled 'The Power of Myth' and it is still a staple video series PBS stations across the country often use for fundraising promotions.
I sat through the program and was soon mesmerized by the conversation. When the program ended I was totally enthralled and I remember thinking to myself, 'this is important'! I knew something had occurred that would be meaningful in my life.

That experience took place 18 years ago. I was so taken by that conversion, and the next five hours of programming that followed on consecutive Sundays, I began to read all I could about Campbell and mythology. That led to Jung and the dream. And as I sit here I can honestly say it has become who I am, that one moment in time 18 years ago being a transformation from the old self, to the discovery of the new Self. And just how big a transformation it has been is not ordinary. From a couch potato with little inclination to use mental facilities beyond making judgements of who will win the next football game to someone who lives to think, loves the philosophical conversation, and believes the real world is 'within' and the outer world is a dream {speaking metaphorically, or am I?}.

As I look back the whole transformation experience was during my mid-life years. Now at the age of 60 {an age I don't look, feel or act, often passing for someone 10-15 years younger-entirely related to the physical routine I religiously have followed since the late 70s} I am looking forward to early retirement at 62 so I can put all my efforts to my dream work at the Dream Forum and to broaden the pages of Myths-Dreams-Symbols. This is the creative path that both Campbell and Jung spoke of as being the center of a soulful life of bliss, balance and harmony, for anyone who recognizes the journey as a just that; surrendering to the soul's desire for creativity and spirituality. The creativity is in my dream work and building the pages at MDS. The spiritual part is in the desire that my words of interpretation helps others realize their path and how to proceed in achieving balance and harmony, and how I conduct myself in the social realm where I have less control of those forces outside my creative domain. That involves ethics, honesty and a desire to provide a service and product for others that reflects how a spiritual person should live life. WWJD-WWBD. What would Jesus do in any social interaction with his fellow human contacts? How would Buddha consciousness fit with those same interactions? A spiritual approach to everything I do in life, not a cursory attempt to placate the ego. Religious people live that kind of life, a vain attempt to look spiritual. A truly spiritual person walks the walk as well as talks the talk.

My rewards for living a creative/spiritual life. Bliss when working with the dream. And those times when I get a response from and interpretation such as "Oh my God. You just blew me away" {with your interpretation}.

And in the social realm where I find myself putting so much of my energies to my business? In this time of the 'Great Recession' business has been bountiful. And it is a direct result of providing a good, honest service, letting ethics be the driving force in how I approach the business world. Not solely to make a living but realizing I am making an impact on someone else's life. That is important to me. The approach of WWJD-WWBD works and it will work for anyone who walks the walk. I am confident in this because I believe in nature there are those mechanisms that insure such results. if there is any such thing as a true metaphysics, beyond the physical realm of experience, it is within nature. Not unnatural, just seldom utilized as it should be.

At least that is my belief system, one I live by {Myths to Live By}.

Now, I must be off to slay the social dragon.

Jerry