Europe's "The Final Countdown" is all I have to go on.*

On the To-Post list for the blog are a 1) review of my experience going to see Dr. Steven Greer, head of the Disclosure Project, speak at UNCA on September 11th, and 2) an introductory post on this thing called synchromysticism, which is one of the four sub-fields of Ufology I had previously mentioned.

I want to go ahead and get a start on that post here. Synchromysticism is going to take the most work to explain, in no small part because of the fact that I still fail to really "get it" myself. But it's also extremely valuable because of just how far it goes in its anti-academicism--while, as is common in the study of UFOs, borrowing heavily from and relying upon well-established disciplinary work. Synchromystics see their own minds and experiences as the spaces where the universe's objects of study are produced. Those objects of study are the statistically near-impossible constellations of synchronicities--coincidences that appear meaningful despite being causally unrelated--that pop up in day-to-day life, in the news, in Hollywood productions, in the thematic relations between significant persons, etc. As "syncs" build up around certain themes, persons, concepts, or events, it begins to feel to the experiencer that a larger force or framework is at work, that "something" is responsible for organizing these random occurrences into seemingly non-random patterns of meaning.

Here's an example from my own life: two or three weeks ago, the titular line from that awful 80's anthem by Europe, "The Final Countdown" popped into my head. You know, the one that goes, "...it's the fiiiinaaal cooouuntdooowwn!" I sang it to myself, but then realized that I wasn't familiar enough with the song to know how the line actually went, what its melody was, and how to sing it as it occurred in the song. So I looked it up on Youtube:



Come to find out, the song is about blasting off from Earth and "heading for Venus...'cause maybe they've seen us..." !!! I'd never known what the song was about before. So, first sync.

A couple of days later, I took up a task I'd been sitting on for a few months and began re-watching the T.V. series "Arrested Development." (I sincerely hope you're all familiar with it, because it's hilarious.) On the show, Gob (pronounced like the biblical character Job) is a magician whose act begins with flashes of light and smoke machines and...the introductory keyboard riff from "The Final Countdown." That makes sense; it's anthemic, cheesy, and good for a laugh in association with an astoundingly silly magician's deluded image of himself.

The next day, I was stopped in my tracks when, walking down King Street, a car rolled past me blasting "The Final Countdown."

Several days later, watching the Pittsburgh Steelers play the opening game of the NFL season, I hear "The Final Countdown" played along with the animation and graphics announcing the start of the game.

Then, Dr. Steven Greer uses the phrase "the final countdown" at least twice during his presentation, speaking about how close we supposedly are to achieving worldwide disclosure of the UFO phenomenon by major governments.

Then, playing pool at Boone Saloon the other night, I hear someone whistling that same anthemic opening keyboard riff to "The Final Countdown" from the other end of the bar.

Now, these events ARE unrelated. No one is watching me from surveillance cameras and satellites, making sure to pump this tune into my ears at auspicious moments, hoping I'll pick up on the "message." But it's in their very unrelatedness that the weirdness is most clear. That's where the mysticism of synchromysticism comes in: a synchromystic in my shoes would read some manner of cosmic intelligence into the picture. However, WHAT the synchronicity means is not as important to explore as is the fact THAT it means.

That's a way of describing synchromysticism on an individual level. The more exciting--and bizarre--dimension of it involves attempting to divine a narrative of the planet's history (and future) not only from constellations of synchronous events, but also from 1) the emergence of classic motifs from the realm of mythology onto the world stage, and 2) the intersection of so-called "esoteric" and/or occult symbolism with present-day events. It's like watching what Hollywood produces movies about and instead of thinking, "They're responding to the interests of movie-goers," thinking something along the lines of, "The collective unconscious is manifesting possibilities for the human future in the form of a string of alien-themed blockbusters." Or looking at Barack Obama's visit to the mystery-ridden (and occult-history rich...see Hitler, e.g.) Giza plateau as symbolic of an ancient power or knowledge returning to its source in the form of a New World Order-like political personality, while Egyptians make a buck off of these little plaques:



That's pretty far out, I know. But you'll be shocked when I show you some examples of how methodically this has been done. Anyway, more to come on it for sure. Next will be a talk with Derek about my attempts to reacquaint myself with Foucault and in what way I can most effectively use him to describe these fields and the significance of their development outside of the boundaries of mainstream research.

*That's not really all I have to go on. But it's a funny thought, and if laughing at myself can help sustain me through this project, I'll take it. Feel free to laugh at me too.