The Quakers To James Dean Coincidence Trail

James Byron Dean (February 8 1931 – September 30 1955) 

I was wondering what to write about today so went for a walk instead. As I passed a house near the local brewery I saw there was a new picture on the notice board attached to their garage.

The owners have been displaying famous Quakers and change the photo every few weeks. I presume that they themselves belong to the Religious Society of Friends.

Today was a photo of the actor James Dean who was killed back in 1955 following a car accident.

For some reason the Quakers have always appealed to me, though I don't necessarily go along with their beliefs. I continued my walk and then realised I would also be passing The Quakers Meeting House which dates back to 1829, photo below.

It was then that I remembered there were several coincidences from when James Dean was killed while driving his Silver Spyder Porsche sports car. The car was said by some to be cursed.

After purchasing the car Dean was introduced to the British actor Alec Guinness and he took him to see his new Porsche Spyder. Guinness is said to have thought the car to be 'sinister' and said to Dean: "If you get in that car, you will be found dead in it by this time next week." Their meeting was on September 23, 1955 - seven days before Dean's death.

This was a coincidence in itself, or maybe something more. Did Guinness perhaps sense something? Who knows, but following the fatal crash some sort of curse does seem to have clicked in.

The damaged car was bought from Dean's family by car customiser George Barris. While in his garage the car slipped and fell onto a mechanic, damaging both of his legs. This was the start of a series of unpleasant happenings. Of course, after so many years, these stories may have been altered and exaggerated. It's hard to tell.

Barris sold the car engine to a Doctor Troy McHenry who put this in his racing car. The Doctor was killed shortly afterwards when racing at the Pomona Fair Ground.

In the same race William Eshcrid had purchased the driveshaft from Dean's car. He was seriously injured when his car turned over.

George Barris sold two of the tyres from the Spyder, both are said to have blown simultaneously and nearly killed the driver.

And so it went on:

When the Porsche was later repaired, the garage it was in was destroyed by fire.

The car was displayed in Sacramento, but it fell off it's mount and broke a teenager's hip.

In Oregon, the trailer on which the car was mounted slipped from it's towbar and smashed through the front of a shop.

Finally, in 1959, the car mysteriously broke into eleven pieces while it was sitting on steel supports.

James Dean's Grave Fairmount

There were also other precognitions besides the one from Alec Guinness. James Dean took Eartha Kitt for a run in the car and she is said to have warned him, "James, I don't like this car; it's going to kill you."

And maybe even Dean himself felt a precognition. Prior to his death, he gave away a kitten that Elizabeth Taylor had given him on the set of Giant. He told a friend why he did this, "Some day I may go out and not come back."

So that's how this post came about. I didn't know what to write about but followed the trail from the Quakers to James Dean's cursed car.

Other Celebrity Coincidence Stories:
JK Rowling And Harry Potter Birthday Coincidence
Chris Evans Will Be With His Wife Till Hell Freezes
Bryce Dallas Howard And Her Family Of Psychics

Spud And Ring Coincidence News Stories

Jaime T. Licauco who writes for the Philippine Daily Inquirer was surprised by the following coincidence.

A young nurse called Jean Vianney was helping him and his wife Yolanda during the recent 56th graduation ceremonies in Marinduque State College. When Jean got home after the event she realised the coincidence that her parents were also called Jaime and Yolande and that the couple she had been helping had a granddaughter called Jean.

This got Jaime interested in coincidences and he came up with these two, which I hadn't heard before:

(1) A German housewife discovered a ring she lost 40 years before inside a potato! There have been stories of valuable objects being found inside the stomach of a fish and so on, but inside a potato?

(2) Several office workers were chasing a fly around the office trying to swat it with rolled up magazines, when the fly landed on the open pages of a heavy dictionary. Somebody simply slammed it shut. When the dictionary was opened, they saw with astonishment that the ill-fated insect had been squashed against the word 'housefly.'

Maybe not dramatic coincidences but the odds against the two examples must be sky high. But that's the thing about coincidences and synchronicity once we become interested in them they are also all around us.

Yes, mathematicians will tell us that they are bound to happen somewhere but I, and many others, like to think there is a lot more to coincidences and synchronicity than that. But for those who like factual mathematics for answers take a look at Methods For Studying Coincidences - this is in pdf format.

It's strange but after reading about Jaime and his story of the ring being found in a potato I came across a story of how a gold wedding ring, lost in a potato field in Hólmavík, Iceland 30 years ago, was found last week, completely intact. Okay, not quite in the potato this time but nevertheless still quite a coincidence. Full story is on the Iceland Review Online.

And then I saw a copy of the Telegraph from 1969 which told of a Mrs Coulter who lost her wedding ring the previous Spring. It showed up when she and her family were eating dinner the following year. A baked potato that came from the Coulter garden contained the ring!

Now carrots are joining in! I couldn't resist the title of this story Swedish woman finds wedding ring on a carrot. This is what happened:

"Lena Paahlsson had taken off the white gold ring before a Christmas baking session with her daughters in 1995, but it had disappeared from the kitchen counter where she placed it.

After looking everywhere, and even pulling up floorboards in the search, Paahlsson and her family, who live on a farm in northern Sweden, had given up on seeing the ring again, she told the Dagens Nyheter daily.

That was until October this year (2012), when she was picking the last carrots in her garden and suddenly found one with her ring glimmering around it."

But if we are on the subject of rings this takes some beating: Man who dropped ring down toilet 73 years ago reunited with it.

And then ... alright, I'll stop there but once we are aware of coincidences they really are all around us.

P.S. The photo at the top of the page is of a potato that was on eBay because of the 'religious' cross the family found when they cut open the cooked spud. The bidding went up to $46!

Other Coincidence and Synchronicity Stories:
Coincidence or Synchronicity - Example 3
67 Not Out Readers Coincidence Stories - 10
The Incredible Coincidence Of The Thai Teachers

Today: The Beginning Of The End Of Our Civilisation

Is today the beginning of apocalyptic happenings that will see the end of our civilisation?

I've previously published posts about Orion and how the constellation's belt has been replicated on earth by ancient civilisations at places such as the Hurlers Stone Circles and Thornborough Henge in Yorkshire England.

Why did these ancient civilisations respect Orion? Surely not simply as a calendar, this doesn't ring true.

When digging deeper into the mystery of Orion I came across the theory that the Transit of Venus, as it passes over the constellation of Orion, will signify 'the coming of the end of times'. The book the Orion Prophecy by Patrick Geryl and Gino Ratinckx, for example, believes this to be the case.

June 5th/6th 2012 are therefore significant days as there will be a Transit of Venus. Will this bring about catastrophic earthquakes and tidal waves as predicted by some?

I'm not an astronomer or even an astrologist but this is what was said in the Daily Mail about the Transit of Venus:

"June 5/6 is a significant date because there will be a Transit of Venus.

Although the Sun, Venus and Earth roughly line up every 584 days, the orbits of the Earth and Venus are tilted with respect to one another so Venus usually passes above or below the Sun with respect to the Earth.

A transit takes place only when the three bodies are in line, and this is rare. Transit of Venus occur only in 'pair of pairs' patterns, repeated every 243 years. Two transits take place in December (around the 8th of the month), eight years apart. One hundred and 21 years and six months later two June Transits occur (around June 7th), again eight years apart. After 105 years six months the pattern is repeated.

The first transit in the current 'pair' took place on June 8, 2004, the previous event having been December 6, 1882. The latest transit will take place over June 5th and 6th (2012).

The transit is an exciting time for astrologers, especially as Venus will be transiting the Sun in what is called a retrograde motion - it will appear to be going in the opposite direction of our planet.

Venus began its retrograde on May 15, 2012 and completes it on June 27, 2012."

Okay, but where does that lead us?

Firstly one date to notice in the above is the first transit of June 8, 2004. Six months following this was the dreadful 2004 tsunami and earthquake in the Indian Ocean. Think of this as you will.

Now we move on to what The Orion Prophecy suggests. The authors say an equivalent transit was in 9792BC which was the culmination of a cycle of the Mayan calendar - this, it is claimed, was when Atlantis was destroyed.

The book goes on to say that June 5/6 transit heralds a similar catastrophe which will occur on December 21, 2012 which is when the Mayan calendar completes its current cycle. This is why today June 5th 2012 is the beginning of the 2012 Phenomenon which, some would say, will lead to the end of our civilisation.

Personally I'm more positive. No one can deny that there are changes happening in 2012 already, think simply of the worldwide financial crisis and the uprisings in various countries.

Yes, change is on it's way, but life is change. Nothing stays the same. I'd like to think that 2012 heralds not disaster but a shift or transformation in mankind's outlook both spiritually and physically. The so called time capsule that is the 'Hall of Records' may not be some physical record but something we sense and feel inside.

There could be exciting times ahead. Perhaps that's why the ancients replicated Orion's belt on the ground, they knew something we have forgotten. 2012 may be our wake-up call.

Other Posts:
The Mystery Of The Three Hurlers Stone Circles
Mysterious Links Of The Ancients To Orion And The Afterlife
The Orion Bug Lets The Imagination Take Flight

The Ghosts Of Roman Soldiers Walking On Their Knees

The Treasurer's House, York

I like ghost stories - true ones, that is, like the one that follows about Harry Martindale.

The sighting was made by Harry way back in February 1953. At the time many doubted it was true but later events have shown how everything fits together nicely. Original objections to his story have now been overturned. This is what happened:

In the early 50s Harry was an apprentice plumber and was carrying out some work at The Treasurer's House in York. The property is called that because the treasurers of York Minster lived there until about 1547. So there's lots of history to the house and in York itself.

Harry was working in the Treasurer's House cellars and was up a ladder doing something or other to the heating system. It was then that he heard the sound of a distant horn or trumpet. He imagined that this must be coming from outside, and that was why the horn sounded so muted.

The horn, however, gradually got louder and then louder, each time seeming to be nearer to where Harry was working. This is where it will be hard to believe for many readers.

Suddenly a big cart horse emerged through the wall of the cellar. Needless to say Harry was shocked, so much so that he fell off his ladder and crouched, hiding as best he could.

The horse and cart was followed by a Roman soldier who in turn was followed by about twenty dishevelled men dressed in green tunics, with shiny tops and plumed helmets. Round their waists they had short, red 'skirts' with strips of leather hanging down. They were carrying spears, short swords and round shields. An even stranger thing was that they seemed to be walking on their knees. The ghosts, or whatever, went straight through the cellar.

Being understandably scared Harry scuttled to his feet and ran up the cellar stairs as fast as he could. He met the house's curator who looked at the apprentices white face and said, "You've seen the Roman soldiers, haven't you?"

It appears that several other reliable people had also experienced the same scene.

Though the curator believed Harry's story others didn't. It was too much to believe: soldiers walking on their knees and besides, Roman soldiers had large square shields not round ones as Harry had claimed to have seen.

But bit by bit answers came about.

The cellars of the Treasurer's House were excavated and it was found that there was an old Roman road about 15 inches below the floor's surface. So this was why the men appeared to be on their knees - they were really walking on the ancient road.

As for the round shields, in 1953 it was believed that Roman shields were large and rectangular. Later excavations of Hadrian's Wall discovered that auxiliary Roman soldiers did in fact have smaller, round shields.

Experts now agree that Harry's description of Roman Troops was accurate.

Harry Martindale never spoke publicly about what he had seen until the 1970s in a television interview. He gave up his plumbing career after the sighting and became a policeman, a reliable witness you would therefore think.

It's interesting that in an interview Harry told of how the soldiers he saw 'looked weary, miserable and dirty, shuffling along like an undisciplined rabble. Some looked ill, even wounded.'

Some ghostly sightings do seem to do the same things over and over again. They are like a dodgy video on loop, and when the circumstances or vibrations are right people can see the pictures. Emotions captured in their surroundings perhaps. Who knows, maybe Harry's soldiers had been part of some dreadful battle which imprinted itself on the Roman road.

Other Ghostly Posts:
The Ghost Of A Nun Was Herself In A Previous Life
Ghostly Rye: The Most Haunted Town In England
The Tickling Ghosts

Coincidence And The Improbable Babel Fish And The Zebra Crossing

A quote by Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001), author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:-

"Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.

The argument goes something like this: 'I refuse to prove that I exist,' says God, 'for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.'

'But,' says Man, 'The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.'

'Oh dear,' says God, 'I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly vanished in a puff of logic.

'Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white ...
... and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing."

What is a Babel Fish?

The Babel Fish is small, yellow, and simultaneously translates from one spoken language to another.

When inserted into the ear, its nutrition processes convert sound waves into brain waves, neatly crossing the language divide between any species you should happen to meet whilst travelling in space.

Some say that the evolution of the Babel fish could not have been accidental, and hence that it proves the non-existence of God.

Arthur Dent, a surviving Earthling, commented only 'Eurgh!' when first inserting the fish into his ear canal. It did, however, enable him to understand Vogon Poetry - not, necessarily, a good thing.

Other Similar Sunday Posts:
Life Isn't Always As It Seems
You Don't Have A Soul
It's National Tell A Lie Day

The Secret Butterfly Visualisation

I thought I'd publish this review of The Secret by Rhonda Byrne which I saw recently. Personally I don't think the book is all it's cracked up to be. It's simply regurgitated stuff slickly marketed. But, in saying that, there are truths contained within the pages. I liked the following review because it illustrates how visualisation can work. Some would say it's a coincidence story. Whatever, this is JJ's story from Germany.

I had used The Secret on and off, but in June of 2010 I needed a boost! I was in the 'down, everything falling apart' phase and needed hope desperately. So I decided to try out something that I thought would be impossible with the visualization principle.

In the north of Germany, where I have lived for the last three years, I had always seen just tiny lemon yellow butterflies. I decided to visualize a big 5 cm (2.5") long red butterfly with black borders. I visualized for a week, every evening when I returned from work: My dream butterfly on the little shrubs outside the porch. Then I forgot about it.

I was invited to the North Sea by a friend and we were to cross over to an island at low tide. We were a group of 25-30 people. It was a 10 km walk through the wet sand. 5 km in and I look up and a couple of butterflies came right up into my face. As they danced around and passed by, the friend of my friend said, "They are from the island. It's like they were attracted to you! They came just to you" (She hadn’t the faintest idea of The Secret.)

That’s when I realized what their colour and size had been… perfect! And so many of them! At that moment I was 5 km away from both the shores and at a wide distance from the water that would fill up the space we were standing on in the next three hours.

From then on, I never ceased believing that I am in charge of my own life and since then have created and received all that I've wanted.

~ JJ Germany

Other Visualisation Posts:
The Secret Of Visualisation
Visualisation Brings A New Carpet Via A Coincidence
Visualisation Of The Mystic Masters

The Secret is available on Amazon USA
The Secret is available on Amazon UK

Coincidence Photo Of Baby And A Kitten

Here's a photo to make you go ahhhhh! or maybe in your country it's more of an awwwww!

I published a post back in April 2011 called Coincidence Photos Of Children And Their Dogs. For some reason it's been getting quite a lot of hits over the past few days. So I thought I'd add to the  ahhh or aww collection with this photo of a baby and a kitten.

Not so different are we?