April 2020 - Strange Days: The Blog

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Mysterious red lights appearing on a bedroom wall at night possibly foretelling an alien abduction

An Alien Abduction in Costa Rica? Red Lights in the Rainforest

thomasropp - April 27, 2020 1

A journalist awakes in a Costa Rican rainforest to otherworldly red lights and other signs that hint of an alien abduction.

Brightly lit Orca Encounter promotional sign at Sea World, San Diego

An Orca Encounter (reader contribution)

thomasropp - April 10, 2020 1

Two siblings separated after the tragic death of their parents lead separate but similar lives including an intense love for a killer whale.

Portrait of Pauline Taylor as a young adult

The Odd Tale of Pauline Taylor and Her Non-Biological Twin

thomasropp - April 8, 2020 1

Receiving papers that belonged to someone else led high school student Pauline Taylor to her non-biological twin, Ripley's Believe It or Not! and legendary film director Cecil B. DeMille.

Margaret and Adrian: Carlos Castaneda’s Real Family

thomasropp - April 6, 2020 8

A journalist with a non-ordinary connection to Carlos Castaneda sees the world's most famous literary sorcerer through the eyes of Castaneda's real family.

Paperback book cover of A Separate Reality by Carlos Castaneda

Luminous Beings: My Lunch with Carlos Castaneda (and Kylie)

thomasropp - April 4, 2020 8

The writings of Carlos Castaneda were both brilliant and controversial. Was he really an apprentice to Yaqui sorcerer Don Juan, or was he a fake? After a personal encounter with Castaneda and non-ordinary events before and after the meeting, one journalist has no doubt that Castaneda was the real deal.

A desert raven rests in a soaptree yucca during an Arizona desert sunset

When Ravens Come Calling: The Passageway to Carlos Castaneda

thomasropp - April 1, 2020 1

The Booming caws of two desert ravens awakens a sleeping journalist and leads him to the world’s most famous literary sorcerer — Carlos Castaneda, author of “A Yaqui Way of Knowledge” and “A Separate Reality.”

Have a Strange Day?

Strange days happen. You think of a person you haven’t seen in 20 years and then receive an email or phone call from that person. You’re thinking of your favorite song, turn on the radio, and there it is. You’re driving and hear a voice inside your head tell you to put on your seat belt – moments before another car slams into you.

Synchronicities defy the odds – so much so that when they happen you may experience a momentary out of body sensation. Or possibly just a spine tingling jolt of amazement.

So what’s really going on here? What are we tapping into?

Modern technological humans are linear beings conditioned to believe in beginnings and endings, minutes and hours, days and years. We live in a linear dimension where one realm is all we need for survival so that’s the realm we deem as real. But what if our minds shifted momentarily to catch up with what was happening ahead of us in our linear world? What if we experienced that car crash in non-linear time for an instant before it actually happened in linear time? Could that be the basis of a synchronicity?

Other non-technological people, such as traditional Yaquis, believed in multiple overlapping realities where one could go back and forth among 48 worlds through a change of focus, much like turning the dial of radio. In these societies time was non-linear, where it was believed that everything in your life was occurring simultaneously. Your experience was dependent on where you “pinned the tail on the donkey.”

Ghosts and other nonhuman entities existed simultaneously along with the “everyday world” and could be experienced when realms crossed.

In our modern world, there’s a much harder line between what is real and not real. Ghosts and UFOs don’t exist.

And then one day you see one – and your perspective changes. You begin to think in terms of the universe and not just your world.

The shifting of perspectives began very early for me. At the age of two I heard a voice tell me to focus on particles of dust dancing in a sunbeam that was pouring through a window in late afternoon. I was told to never forget that moment.

Subsequently I have had substantial encounters with “non-ordinary” reality. For several years as a journalist with the Arizona Republic newspaper, I wrote a column on metaphysics called Offramp. Readers sent me their experiences with synchronicities and I would edit the copy for readability.

Quite unexpectedly, as I edited and wrote about the synchronicities of others, I began experiencing my own synchronicities – one after another. Odder yet, the reporters who sat near my cubicle were also having bizarre coincidences. It was though I had connected with this paranormal realm by thinking about it every day and treating it with respect.

It all culminated in a mysterious assignment to Los Angeles where I met literary sorcerer Carlos Castaneda for lunch, and later became friends with his ex-wife Margaret (read my Carlos Castaneda Trilogy).

When I stopped writing the column, the synchronicities also stopped – for me and everyone around me.

What does it all mean?

I’m not an expert in metaphysics, the paranormal or synchronicities. Unlike others who write on these topics, I really have no idea what’s going on. What I do know is that non-ordinary reality is real.

Enjoy my blogs.

Contact: thomasropp@strangedaystheblog.com

Just Wanted To Say

thomasropp on Margaret and Adrian: Carlos Castaneda’s Real Family: “Hey Phil. Thanks for the comment. I knew Margaret got around. Didn’t know about DC but I knew she lived…”
Phil on Margaret and Adrian: Carlos Castaneda’s Real Family: “Margaret was my cousin. Her dad, Ted Runyan, was my dad’s half-brother (same mother). What’s omitted from this and pretty…”
thomasropp on Luminous Beings: My Lunch with Carlos Castaneda (and Kylie): “I was visited by the desert ravens on the morning that the Arizona Republic newspaper, my employer, announced the death…”
Celia Barcellos on Luminous Beings: My Lunch with Carlos Castaneda (and Kylie): “Você reviu os dois corvos na data da publicação da morte de Castañeda, que foi 3 meses depois da morte…”
PQ on Margaret and Adrian: Carlos Castaneda’s Real Family: “Margaret was an amazing woman of immense love, vision, joy, and miracles!”

Everybody’s talking and no one says a word
Everybody’s making love and no one really cares
There’s Nazis in the bathroom just below the stairs
Always something happening and nothing going on
There’s always something cooking and nothing in the pot
They’re starving back in China so finish what you got

Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Strange days indeed — strange days indeed

Everybody’s flying and no one leaves the ground
Everybody’s crying and no one makes a sound
There’s a place for us in the movies you just gotta lay around

Everybody’s smoking and no one’s getting high
Everybody’s flying and never touch the sky
There’s a UFO over New York and I ain’t too surprised

Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Nobody told me there’d be days like these
Strange days indeed — most peculiar, mama