POCO SYNCHRO PROFUNDO- Some Coincidences Worthy of Immortalization- Entry #1: 10/7/2017

By: Michael Wolfson

I must admit that I am no stranger to coincidence, although my intended co-author

remains an inspirational skeptic. I would guess that even Robert Todd Lincoln, son of Abraham
Lincoln, whose life was saved by assassin John Wilkes Booths brother on a train platform and
who went on to be present at three presidential assassinations (and one for a lesser political
figure to boot) would be impressed by certain of the bizarre event couplings I have endured.
And the great Carl Jung might be inclined to move beyond his stubborn willingness to explain
away such happenings as a joint application of the law of large numbers and the psychological
ability to find patterns in the gestalt of perception. Some of the events I have witnessed involve
near misses and some chance encounters with notable persons or events subsequently
recognized (e.g. Howard Stern, Ken Osmond, Colonel Tom Parker, Tom Waites, Ted Bundy, Big
Thompson Canyon flood-I do have a few stories to tell!). Others have left a thicket of
evidentiary trail brush and witnesses. Occasionally, the weave in the pattern of events appears
to unfold in such a manner as to point to extra-causal effects transcendent to the normal laws
of physics (actually, Jungs definition of synchronicity is meaningful a-causal connections)
pointing to a metaphysical overlay (Im hesitant to use parapsychology terms such as
precognition and psychokinesis as I am hoping not to lose all but the wackos, crackos and
quackos too quickly. We sure didnt lose many serious onlookers if you peruse the 12 Life
extension articles Greg and I did on Scribd and look where science is now. Nobel prize caliber
types stalking Scribd articles for inspiration? Hmm! We have now been fully vindicated!) I do
realize we are living in a time when science reigns supreme due largely to engineering and
science successes and that the world of many great thinkers such as Plato, Descartes, Kant,
David Bohm etc. is unfortunately somewhat out of favor, but I will press on.

I intend to publish the very extensive list of synchronicity stories in no particular order
but in rapid fire succession since otherwise opportunity will expire and my option to achieve
Scribd immortality will end unexercised (time is always limited and option pricing theory is
always a branch of my decision tree, as least back to the days of Edward O. Thorp).

Entry #1. The Las Vegas Shooting. I have to begin here with a comment on the extent
of the tragedy. Whatever the verdict is on my writing skills or thought process, I certainly do
not have the ability to put into words the gravity of the horror and suffering connected with the
carnage of these recent days. Please understand that nothing in these writing is intended to
make light of or present a flippant or dismissive attitude toward what happened. I am in shock
as is everyone else. If youre not, stop reading I dont want you here. I have experienced
personal tragedy 1st hand as well.
 I published on Facebook the following on September 30, 2017:

Poco pathos profundo! Plus the uke sound closely resembles the attack/decay punch of a
cyprus/cedar flamenco guitar, evoking sorrow, pity, sympathy, jondo pathos. Sound at death's
door! Thanks for the video.

I was commenting on a very nice video of a singer accompanied by her uke. She is now
pseudo-named Dee in view of her apparent unwillingness to coauthor here. I had in mind in
composing this particular post a conversation with long time Cleveland guitar store owner Dick
Laurie in which he stated that the guitar was an instrument of death. My retort to his point was
that a sustained tone instrument is a living one, so an electric guitar would be as alive as a violin
(even if some might describe the sound as living hell), whereas a quick decay sound profile of
an classical guitar could fairly be called dying. More so with the quicker attack/decay punch
of a flamenco guitar, harp, uke, hammer dulcimer etc.

I will now insert in its entirety the email to Dee dated October 4, 2017. This is a follow-
up trying to encourage the would-be coauthor to join forces. She had already turned on the
synchronicity sprinkler weeks before. (You will see that soon enough.) Given that we have an
age difference as wide as the Grand Canyon, I made it clear from the start that I wasnt pitching
woo. Of course Steve Brandt, one of my professors years ago, used the term WOO to mean
windows of opportunity, so guess I did in that sense. In my mind, Dee should have gleefully
seized the opportunity to immortalize on Scribd, but sometimes the path of a 20 something has
a different trajectory. Anyway, this communication is replete with inside meaning references
some of which I will not be able to now fully elaborate. As an example, we talked of
metronome use in guitar/uke practice in the moments before realization that the Vegas events
were unfolding. Some of the coincidences/events referenced in the email will be explained in
future entries: Tattooed lady, Bernard Hermann lp, Hurricane, ID theft etc. and the reader can
now think of those as mere foreshadowing. I felt that republishing this communication in its
original form would be most instructive (as well as easier for me since time is always of the
essence). Only the names have been altered along with a few grammaticals. Apologies to you,
gentle reader, I know it is a bit cryptic and turgid. Here we go:

hi Dee, I guess it is more inspiring for me if you remain skeptical, but consider:

1. The sound at deaths door post on your website is dated 9-30. Front and center to the
post is the attack/decay punch of a flamenco guitar sound. Listen to some Paco du Lucia
if you do not see the parallel to the rapid fire pop pop pop of automatic weapons. You
wouldnt even have to adjust your metronome. This predates the Las Vegas shooting.
2. The sound of violence was also front and center at our meal the day of the shooting. Vee
is a co-witness (as was Tom and Arfus earlier). Vee tells me you already knew of the
shooting, but I certainly did not. I was trying to decide whether to invite you to assist as
coauthor of either a Hitchcock paper or a synchronicity one. Now I know we need a
combined paper on Hitchcockian archetypes (possibly as a mere chapter) which would
include Storms, Identity Theft and now the Sound of Violence. These must be both
Jungian archetypes and Platonic Forms. Granted the slashing knife sound from the
shower scene in Psycho that we discussed via violin glissando/staccato effect is different
than the rat a tat which would be more analogous to the bird sounds that Bernard
Hermann synthesized for the Birds. That movie has no music which was what Hitchcock
originally planned for the shower scene. But the whole point of the discussion was to
identify the appropriate sound for different types of violence displayed in film. This was
the case down to the discussion of a nautical description for Ocean Motion and the pre-
double entendre use of the terms Rock and Roll and Shake, Rattle and Roll. By the
way, I saw a Tom Petty interview last night where he claimed Rock music and its use of
guitars today is not as pure as earlier instantiations. Petty too was a petty part of our
conversation at the meal given his grave medical condition.
3. Remarkably, we also discussed the North by Northwest scene at the Mount Rushmore
diner where a kid puts his hands to his ears to muffle the pop sound of ANTICIPATED
gunfire. It couldnt have been more than 30 minutes before I first found out from Vee at
the gallery about the Las Vegas shooting. Foreshadowing for the kid and for us both!
(Did Hitchcock overlook such an obvious flaw in his film? Not likely, so it must be a
foreshadow.)
4. Carl Jung and others have suggested that coincidences are often observed during
transitional times (moving, death etc.) due to heightened awareness. Your last visits to
and from Kent have closely coincided with at least three events of historic proportions
(more than Hitchockian but less than Biblical in scale), namely Storm/hurricane, Equifax
ID theft and now the Rapid Fire Sound of Violence in Las Vegas. The many surrounding
coincidences that you and I and Tee and Arfus and now Vee inspired/witnessed
(including the Bernard Hermann lp, Hitlerian balloons, the Facebook post and Harold
Arlens Tattooed Lady Song inter alia) have further highlighted and embellished these
events.

I am not going to write this stuff for publication without major assistance. (Of
course electronic communication is fine but I would need a lot of help.) I am with HP
Lovecraft in my belief that oblivion may be preferred to immortality. For example, I am
certain that there is less money here than in selling art. This is more like climbing Longs
Peak in Colorado. But, if you think immortality is a tall order with no dividends, think
again. 500 years from now or when the multiverse simulation is up for review, perhaps
someone might look and say Dee and Mike sure coauthored an interesting paper. I am
sure you are thinking we should just raise our hands over these events and say thats
weird and move on. But Im not sure that even childbearing can strike a more enduring
blow toward the eternal. Bachs compositions are universal but his offspring only
contributed marginally and only for a few generations. The Las Vegas shooters father
may have been a bank robber, but the machinations of one of his offspring will not
endure (one would hope). Without enthusiastic proactive assist, I am done. I said that
before, but now you have infused the pattern of events with even more connections. You
are the consummate synchronicity catalyst. Dont get me wrong though. Absolutely
nothing personal here if you want to forget it. Also, I see that it is by no means desirable
to be connected in any way to dark catastrophic events like floods, shootings, death or
loss of identity. I too would be happy to cluck out, as Hitch might say.

Final Note: translation of dolce far niete as sweet nothing would be a great
definition for a synchronicity except for the fact that it is usually used to mean it is sweet
to be idle. Life is easy for the untested and I mentioned the Epictitus comment that a life
worth living is a tested one, so Dee please help!

Final final note: You are considerably younger than I am and if you look at the
options life presents from a perspective combining decisions tree analysis and
Black/Scholes option pricing theory (Myron Scholes was a professor of mine in the years
before he won his nobel prize), you can easily conclude that this is your future more than
mine. I dont pretend to be much of a salesman, so you figure it out.
Regards, Mike

To highlight some of what I consider interesting in this patterned chain of events,

I would like to point out that the media has, for good reason, worked diligently to
censor public exposure to the most graphic video of the Las Vegas tragedy. Perhaps
they dont realize that the audio sound of automatic gunfire is equally, if not more,
horrific. Hitchcock depicted horror contextually. Didnt Marshall Mcluhan have
something to say about the distortions of broadcasting hot topics on a cool medium?
The most remarkable event as above delineated is the pre-tragedy publication of what is
therein described as sounds of death. Paco Du Lucia in particular should be praised
post-mortem. At least no one is harmed by his rapid fire presto digital pop-pouri. I
am also reminded of the discussion during the OJ Simpson trial of a Sherlock Holmes
case involving a man named Simpson and the dog that did not bark. What do you think,
Arfus? Sotto voce and sub silentio. The rest is icing plus crumbs from the pieces of cake
which will be the subject of future publications. I have said enough for now and I am
hopeful that you will find it worth your time to press on when I press more.

Copyright 10/7/2017 Michael Wolfson email: mwolfson@stanfordalumni.org