I have mentioned synchronicity and interesting meaningful connections in some of my past stories for Band Of Writers. Sometimes it may seem like these stories are just all about Me. Of course, many BOW members write about their own experiences for their essays too. However, the idea of synchronicity is meaningful in itself. Scientists and authors have shown how things outside us can become symbols of our own experiences that can guide any of us and connect us to our world. So my synchronicities are examples of this guidance, and we can all find them if we watch for them. They can guide us to a new greater purpose, success and wisdom.
For BOW I wrote about my awakening to a more-spiritual world view in Summer 1966 to Spring 1967, which was much like what many others whom I knew experienced then, and in 1966 during this period I swiped a boat for a peaceful ride by myself on a lake. At about the same time and during the next few years I experienced recurring symbols in both a favorite movie and in many favorite songs about boats being stolen, watched or ridden in, and about ships and submarines taking us all somewhere. Just before swiping the boat, I stood under the water tower in my favorite town Mendocino where this movie was filmed and there I heard singer Petula Clark, who had just helped awaken me, singing on the radio there her earlier song "it’s the sign of the times". A water tower was like the symbol for Aquarius, the reputed sign of the new age dawning. These and other symbols connected me to the awakening of consciousness that was happening in the world, and let me know that I was part of it, and this added greatly to the beauty and the new path I was discovering.
More info at what floats my boat essay
I have experienced many synchronicities in my life, even though on most days I don’t find any. But this second set I also wrote about for BOW, and it involved the famous author Bishop James Pike of the Episcopal Church. I was named Eric after my Mom’s favorite minister she knew from her youth in Oklahoma City who moved to San Francisco and baptized me at Grace Cathedral. Bishop Pike was also a minister in Oklahoma City and also moved to San Francisco and Grace Cathedral. My Mom was his fan. He was a renegade who against church orders married a younger woman named Diane Kennedy, and together they wrote a best-selling book called The Other Side about his son’s tragic suicide and a medium’s subsequent communications with him. But soon afterward James Pike went "there" himself. In 1966 or so I had ridden my bike over two blocks from my home and saw confetti on my classmate Scott Kennedy’s house. Diane was his older sister, and she had just married Bishop Pike. Years later from 2000 to 2017 I produced health and psychic fairs half a block away. My Dad visited me through mediums there the first year. Peter Kreeft wrote that three famous authors met together on "the other side" after their death on Nov. 22, 1963: John F Kennedy, Aldous Huxley and C. S Lewis.
More info at my essay on Breaking Through To The Other Side
I had mentioned Pike’s book to my Dad just three weeks before my Dad died in 1999, and he laughed. He had been an atheist and a materialist electronics engineer. Now in 2026 I communicate with him though mediums. Are these family gatherings, or gatherings of like minded soul relatives? This brings me to a third set of synchronicities about another Lewis, this one spelled Louie, and it’s his first name; the semi-famous French composer and organist at Notre Dame de Paris, Louis Vierne, who lived 1870 to 1937. I wonder if he is a member of my soul family on this side and on the other, or even if I am he reincarnate. I wonder about that since he had an accident in which he severely damaged his right foot stepping into a hole, and I inherited a bad right foot. Don’t worry, I won’t talk much about astrology, it is just part of this story. I was born on Oct. 5th, and that’s Oct. 6th Greenwich time. Recently Mike offered to buy me lunch on October 8th for my birthday, soon after my last visit to the San Jose BOW on Oct.4th. This reminded me that Louis Vierne was born on Oct. 8th. So his Sun position is close to mine, and to my Dad’s on Oct.10th too. Not only that, but in his chart the planets Mercury and Mars are also in my exact zodiac degree location. Neptune is also aligned with my Sun, at where the Sun is located on Oct.8th. Neptune is closely opposing Louis Vierne’s Sun position. Louie’s Moon position was the same as mine too. Does this and more connect me to him? I thought so, since I wrote an orchestral arrangement of his semi-famous Finale to his First Organ Symphony. It was a top favorite of mine and I learned to play it on the organ. I felt that this movement was similar to classical orchestral works like Beethoven’s 5th Symphony finale, another favorite of mine, and to Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries, but I also recognized a similarity to the French national anthem La Marseillaise. I read later that Vierne also made this comparison himself, and that he had also made an orchestral transcription of it. When I started to play organ at First Unitarian San Jose Libby Codd was also an organist here. It was she who originally recommended French organ composers to me. When she passed on, an organist was hired for her celebration of life service at San Jose UU that I went to, and he played this piece at Libby’s request. It was great to hear it, and to remember her by it.
See and hear my video on Daniel Chorzempa performing Finale to First Organ Symphony by Louis Viene
What did I gain from these synchronicities? They gave me a direction in life that I really believe in. They led me to bring visionary experiences into the world through my art, music and books, and to help many others to share theirs. They guided me to learn about reincarnation and about spirit communication and philosophy. They help me recognize that I am connected to this world and have a place and purpose in it, even though I have not always been treated fairly here. This encourages me though the hard times, and if you can find such connections, they might connect, encourage and guide you as well. You also may have had, or will have, life changing experiences, and maybe some synchronicities in them would help you understand what they mean. Maybe you might even write about them here.