If you'll note, I did some work on the site and added a synchronicity subsection specifically for anyone wanting to play along with my post pandemic deep dives into the topic. The more I've learned, what have I increasingly noted? One, that they seem to follow some sort of anti-structural disruption in planned behavior, two, that I'd say roughly a quarter of them can be verified via basic modern age surveillance technology, and three, they often involve tech malfunctions of some variety. This next one fits all of those criteria.
To start this off, on N7 day (November 7th) it was revealed that it's probably going to be a very long time before the next Mass Effect game is going to drop. This made me realize that I'm def going to have to find something to play through after I finnish both Starfield and CyberPunk: Phanton Liberty (god, what an amazing year if you dig sci fi video games). So on November 9th, while bored at work I finally decided I'm going to dip my toes into the Fallout series when my gaming schedule frees up. If I'm being honest, I just hate the premise of those games. Too dark. An intentionally ugly as shit open world on purpose? I don't get it but I do like games that involve wandering around and chatting with NPC's.
Many people have tried to sell me on these things over the years and I've resisted but it's not like it'll cost much to dip my toes in the water at this point so why the fuck not? Then a few hours after I make this momentous decision, I watch an episode of the Phillip K. Dick Amazon show Electric Dreams that's not just post apocalyptic but post nuclear apocalyptic quite specifically. The show is a bunch of vignettes so I had zero clue there was a post nuclear explosion episode, in fact, remember when I was talking about how these syncs seem to follow anti-structural behavior? I'd completely forgotten the show Electric Dreams even existed, which is odd because I am in fact a big PKD fan.
Why was I watching it? Because Amazon gave me my second consecutive free month of Amazon Prime. I only took advantage of the first one because my Google Chromecast remote broke (in a very peculiar way mind you) and it would have taken weeks to get a new one through Google, which was annoying because the Chromecast barely worked without it. So free 2 day shipping it was. Tech malfunctions.
In the first month I did in fact watch that Dead Ringers show I'd been meaning to get to (excellent) but again, had completely forgot about Electric Dreams which has been out since 2018. I only remembered because of the second free month they gave for reasons unknown, which they've never done before. So I finally decided to dip my toes into a video game series I'd been avoiding, specifically because I don't like the post nuclear apocalpyse premise, then watched a show by one of my favorite sci fi authors about a post apocalyptic future a few hours later, by complete accident.
And via the wonders of technology, you can witness this happen via browsing history. Here I am watching videos of the last 2 Fallout games and settling on Fallout 4.
And here I am watching the first 2 episodes of Electric Dreams later in the same evening on a different browser, the second of which takes place in a nuclear fallout dystopia.
And here are the dates on those screenshares, which were after I'd finished working out, so slightly after it happened.
As it turned, out, Fallout 4: GOTY Edition was only 10 bucks in a Black Friday sale like a week later. Maybe I'll get to it before the TV show drops. This baffling sync definitely helped sell the deal, although admittedly I still hate the concept on a fundamental level. We'll see.
That's just the sync with the concrete paper trail though, have there been others? Of course. In fact, remember when I was mentioning King Crimson? I've had this thing happen with Jake in Hidden Extral Skull twice now where we're jamming and he mentions that he just listened to an obscure album I had just been listening to a few days prior. The first time this happened was with Orbital's Snivilization. I mean, what are the odds right?
"Did you just say you were just listening to Snivilization? So was I. Like, two days ago."
The super peculiar aspect of that one being that he's been listening to that album for 30 years and I just got into in the last 6 months yet I had not once mentioned this to him. Then the same thing happened about a month later with In the Wake of Poseidon by King Crimson. Again, same shit:
"Wait, In the Wake of Poseidon? Specifically that album? The one I just listened to all the way through on Thursday?"
It's some baffling pop culture telepathy and I have in fact expressed my love for that album in the past, even typically ranking it as my favorite KC joint (which is controversial opinion) but I hadn't actually listened to it in years. So there was that. Twice.
Then this other fun excursion with malfunctioning tech leading to mind boggle goof juice terrain. On this occasion we're getting back from Thanksgiving dinner with my wife's family. Her car's in the shop so she jokingly mentions that she was trying to work it with the lesbian mechanic when she dropped it off to get it back quicker, to which I inquire if she also threw her thing down flipped it and reversed it. As we're getting out of the car I'm now signing Missy Elliott, again, because my wife mentioned "working it".
To understand the next part you've got to grok that there is literally iPod shuffle divination in the first episode of the new show A Murder at the End of the World. Not like streaming service playlist divination either, but straight up iPod shuffle divination, i.e. the exact thing I've been writing about for over a decade. So when we get in the car to go to dinner the next night, this odd thing happens where my iPod has malfunctioned. We were listening to Catherine Wheel the night before and that's what I thought was going to come up but somehow it's spazzcore shit. Guns of Barisol. Obvs that's not my wife's jam so I throw on the radio and because of A Murder at the End of the World I'm now expecting a sync. I'm anticipating it.
KEXP still hasn't saved right into my interface so I'm just picking random stations because I'm driving. The classic rock one is talk radio for some reason. This other one's commercials, so Sugar Hill Gang it is. Honestly, as odd as the iPod malfunction is, I don't see how this is going to lead to a sync. But then when we get out of dinner and fire up the car again, what's on the radio? Work It by Missy Elliot. The sync I anticipated did not dissapoint and the point of course is that there is no seperation between your dreams and your waking life really. It's all tied together. All consciousness is interconnected.
Also, while you're here, do you like psychedelic industrial noise rock? Of course you do!