Question About Self Observation?

manitoban

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I have a question about self observation and am hoping that members of the forum can once again share some of their knowledge. I've been noticing that whenever I am able to self observe, and bear in mind I am new to this, and can only do it for minutes or seconds, I find that whatever I was thinking about prior to beginning seems to appear in my environment as a physical symbol once I start self observing. It's not an instantaneous thing, there is a short time gap between the prior thoughts, beginning to self observe, and the appearance of the symbols. I'll give a few examples with the prior thoughts in brackets to show what I mean:

{ thinking about material posted about the "police action " of the Matrix} I begin to self observe, step out of my house, and 30 seconds later a police car pulls up right across from my house and two large cops with flak jackets get out of the car. This is very unusual in my neighborhood.

( thinking about how self observing would lead to a peaceful mind} I'm on the subway and begin , a minute later a man gets on, sits across from me, and in his lap is a large paper bag that has printed on it in big letters the words, Inner Peace.

( I had a dream involving someone I know and it was so vivid I'm wondering if this person has had a similar dream) I start and as I'm walking down the street in front of me is someone putting a poster on a telephone pole advertising a play called : Your Dream was Mine.

( thinking about how the forum here is a school that is teaching me a lot. ) Once again on the subway, start, and two women sit down next to me, continuing their conversation. The first words one said was " The opening of the school was their salvation."

So what I'm wondering is, is this an outcome of the self observation? Or am I not actually doing it but merely noticing my environment and connecting it to my thoughts? Like I'm in a still state of mind so I can somehow read the environment around me better? Are the symbols possibly interfering with the self observation ? I mean it feel like I am doing it as there is no internal dialogue,and I am still, just sort of "being", although as I said, I can only maintain this state for seconds or at most a few minutes. The other thing is I snap out of self observing every time I see a symbol like this, my mind starts talking again about what I've just noticed.

I haven't got the Ouspensky book yet, and while I'm waiting for it to arrive any direction on this would be appreciated.
 
Whether these 'synchronicities' are an outcome of the self observation practice I'm not sure - I've experienced similar things but not when I was trying to practice self observation. As is suggested in the Ra material (Book 5), these may be considered as signs which act as confirmation that you are going in the 'right' direction. True synchronicities supposedly do not abridge free will and so occur after decisions are made, and remain ambiguous rather than 'proof'.

If I were you I would continue efforts in self observation with renewed vigour! I've just started practicing it but it is HARD and I have revealed the LAZINESS of the majority of my "I's" :O
 
I don't think synchronicities are the direct result of self-observation itself. I noticed them appearing when I started meditating, and observed that as my mind became more organized, and aligned toward inner development so did my outer reality.

I believe we are in energetic connection with our outer reality, in a similar manner as with our dream reality (but not so obvious). A "normal" mind is usally chaotic, full of constant trains of thoughts. Sometimes it gets focused even without development. Anyone ever fall in love and notice all the music is suddenly a singing about "your" situation? Or that ever since this 11:11 thing came up people started seeing 11:11's everywhere?

There is an obvious reflection between the inner and outer worlds, and after we pass through the stage of looking at this with wonder, we can start using it to our advantage, and lear to read the synchronistic messages and patterns in our lives to reveal inner working of which we may not be aware.

Or we can focus on a problem and look at the patterns and happenings during the day to get hints as to solutions. This is similar to divination methods and even dream interpretation. We don't need to fall into YCYOR theories here, but it seems obvious that the inner and outer worlds form a singular continuum at least to a degree. The more we focus inwardly, the more this continuity reveals itself.

So in many ways the outer world seems like a dream, although it is a dream we share, and the dream need not be any less real because it is such. We can look at it backwards as well: our inner world an extension of objective reality, and is just the part we identify as ourselves. The relationship seems to go both ways, our thoughts are affected by outer stimuli and the energies of other people, and the environment can be influenced by our thoughts, or at least reflect them.

The point is that one can learn alot by reading the patterns of the outer world, in a way that precludes projecting subjective interpretations on them. Self-observation is a big help in generating that kind of objective mind-set.
 
One of my major synchronicities was seeing the number 33 absolutely everwhere, I understand that this is quite a common experience. Since I have been trying to practice self observation I haven't had any synchronicity type events around this time, mine were all connected with my first exposure to the Ra material/Cassiopaea. Ra explains that these events are connected with an individual's lesson profile/'destiny' and 'mission', if you will, and if this is the case then each individual's experience could be radically different.
 
So it appears that synchronicities are not an outcome, (directly as EQ said), of self observation, but are a side effect so to speak, of certain types of work on inner development, including meditation (EQ), or gaining knowledge as Ben did by reading the Ra and C's. I guess I have to add the Ra books to my growing list of required reading! The thing that fascinates me is the idea that one could learn to "read" these synchroncities. Especially if these events are connected with one's lessons here in 3D. I'm going to try to ponder some current issues in my life prior to self observing and see what I can "read" around me. It's amazing that only a few short months ago I had never even heard of The Work, and now I am totally focused on learning about it. And it really helps to be able to talk about it here on the forum, to learn from others who share their experiences and knowledge.
 
manitoban said:
And it really helps to be able to talk about it here on the forum, to learn from others who share their experiences and knowledge.
Check out the Cassiopaea gloassary entry for synchronicity:

from http://glossary.cassiopaea.com/glossary.php?id=744&lsel=S

Synchronicity

This term was introduced by Carl Gustav Jung to denote 'meaningful coincidence.' In Jungian thought, there exists a collective unconscious populated with a species memory of archetypal forms. Different people may tap into this same psychic reservoir and synchroneously, i.e. at the same time and without apparent causal link, come to the same idea, thought or feeling. This process may take the form of meaningful 'chance' encounters, accidents, sudden changes of perception, losing and finding objects, essentially anything that may carry a symbolic meaning. This is also sometimes called acausal connecting principle.

Sheldrake's concept of morphic resonance is similar to synchronicity. This too posits a semantic universe of forms that is independent of physical medium and which acts as an ordering principle and can carry information without physical link. For example, what one population of animals learns in one place, another population of the same species will learn on the other side of the world. Findings are contested, as usual.

There is a whole culture about meanings of synchronicity in the New Age field. For example, people seeing 11:11 in digital clocks with uncanny frequency is a widely reported phenomenon. Such observations may be a way for the personal or global unconscious to signal something. We cannot say anything definite about synchronicity. It appears in many accounts of 'high strangeness' and unusual psychic effects. There is little doubt that external forces are fully capable of setting up the most convincing looking synchronicities for manipulation purposes. On the other hand, synchronicity is not always a sign of danger. It could be seen to be a wake-up call but becoming obsessed with finding meanings for all things which look like synchronicities is generally not a fruitful pursuit.

There are observations in physics about so-called quantum teleportation where the states of two particles seem instantaneously coupled across a distance, evidencing some sort of instantaneous connection. Such effects in themselves cannot however be used for faster than light information transfer. . Their existence may reflect the existence of some ordering principle from which synchronicity or effects attributed to some 'morphogenetic field' could be special cases. Various hypotheses exist but physics cannot say anything definite of synchronicity.
Personally I tend to be a bit suspicious of synchronous events. I feel like I am being pushed towards whatever I am being shown. Notice how people tend to drift towards whatever is forcing its way onto their plane of awareness. I know of a few people who have seen these situations as being a sign. Which isn't a bad thing, but one should not automatically consider it a good sign.

just my two pennies :cool:
 
beau said:
Personally I tend to be a bit suspicious of synchronous events. I feel like I am being pushed towards whatever I am being shown. Notice how people tend to drift towards whatever is forcing its way onto their plane of awareness. I know of a few people who have seen these situations as being a sign. Which isn't a bad thing, but one should not automatically consider it a good sign.
I agree, and thank's for the glossary info. I think synchronicities can reflect our inner state, but that by no means implies we should go around chasing profound meanings through every little event.

Synchronistic indicators are like dream symbols, which can be revealing or misleading. In that sense, I think it pays to be aware, and be willing to identify if something is forcing its way to our plane of awareness, and perhaps work toward understanding it before jumping to any conclusions, and proclaiming profound truths from the rooftops.

It pays, I think, to learn discernment on this level of perception. Manipulation apparently works on many levels of existence, and discernment correspondingly works at all those levels as well. And it's possible that elements that seek to manipulate are trying to cover up a real avenue of potential knowledge.

All in all, as usual, things are not so simple, and the challenges we face on one level such as the level of social interaction are reflected on other levels as well. I believe one can learn to read the "signs of one's life", just as one can learn to observe and identify true self, and identify sincerely motivated individuals as opposed to psychopathic ones.

In moving to do so and open to reading sychronistic information, therefore, we should never forget that where there is wheat, there is also often chaff as well, and that it's important to know how to tell the difference. So if one is interested in this, it is best to simply dispassionately observe synchronicities when they happen, sense one's response to them, try to understand not the symbol, but its effects upon one's person, to guage its perceived tone without definitive labels.

Eventually, patterns may emerge in our observations, after we have tested if the synchronicities also evolve into other events or simply appear and disappear.

The truth is, people can manipulate, thoughts can manipulate, feelings can manipulate, dreams and visions and synchronicities can manipulate. And the first step in dealing with any and all manipulation is discernment, which is best applied wherever manipulation can manifest, whether the causes are intrinsic (due to individual weakness) or extrinsic (due to elements outside the individual psychic complex).

All part of the same grand learning tapestry in my opinion.
 
Thank you both for the clarification re:synchronicities. It is good to be reminded to temper my enthusiasm with caution. I will carefully observe the synchronicities that occur when I am self observing, but not jump to any conclusions! And the learning goes on.....
 
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