Predestination

Rick Archer's Note:  

In 2024, I completed a book titled Gypsy Prophecy.  It told the story of how my wife Marla and I met on a 2001 cruise trip.  The title referred to a curious incident involving a Gypsy who was a complete stranger to Marla.  Marla had gone dancing with friends at a club six months prior to the cruise trip.  Late in the night Marla noticed a Gypsy who had set up shop in the back of the club.  Curious, Marla paid her $10 and listened to what the woman had to say.
................

Excerpt from the book Gypsy Prophecy:

In Marla's own words:

"The Gypsy handed me a deck of Tarot cards and asked me to shuffle them several times.  She asked for the cards back and proceeded to lay the top five cards down on the table.  After studying the cards, she took the palm of my hand and examined it.  For good measure, she put my hand between hers and closed her eyes.  When the Gypsy was ready, she opened her eyes and told me my fortune.

"These cards do not tell what will happen, they tell what might happen.  You have a choice between two paths.  You are in a long-term relationship that brings you sorrow.  However, there is a good chance this relationship will work again if you nurture it.  On the other path, I see you are considering a certain journey.  If you take this journey, your life will be changed forever.  On this journey, you will meet the man you will spend the rest of your life with.  One more thing.  If you do take that journey, you already know the person you will meet."

As it turned out, the Gypsy's prediction came true.  Of course Marla already knew me.  Not only was I her dance teacher, I was the person who organized the trip she was on.  However, my name never once crossed her mind.  Something very curious happened to Marla on the same night she spoke to the Gypsy.  By the time she got home that night, Marla had forgotten all about it.  I know, it is hard to believe, but a stranger had just told Marla she was soon to meet the man she would spend the rest of her life with... and Marla completely forget all about it.  

Fortunately the prediction came true anyway.  Six months later Marla met me in the Disco at midnight on the first night of the cruise.  We fell in love the same night and have never been apart since.  That was 24 years ago.  As it stands, I am fairly certain that Marla and I will be together as long as our Fate will allow us to do so.

So what does this have to do with Predestination? 

Obviously at some point Marla did eventually remember the story or I would not be able to write about it.  One year after Marla and I met on the 2001 trip, the strange memory suddenly came back to her.  In other words, in 2001 Marla had fulfilled the Prophecy just as the Gypsy had said she would... but had been completely blind to the memory at the time.  It was not until 2002 that Marla 'woke up' and realized the prediction had come without her even knowing about it.

Just then Marla remembered something else, something very curious involving a Ouija board back when she was a teenager. 

Excerpt from the book Gypsy Prophecy:

Marla smiled.  "Rick, if you believe in Fate, then you'll like this story.  I was 17 and I was at a slumber party with my girlfriends.  One of them pulled out an Ouija Board and we took turns asking for the initials of the guys we would marry."

"I have never seen an Ouija Board in my life.  How does it work?"

"There's a board with the alphabet on it.  It comes with a little heart-shaped piece of wood called a planchette.  This gizmo roams across the board to spell out words one letter at a time."

"Do you touch the gizmo that spells out the words?"

"I touch it lightly, but it seems to know where it is going without my help."

I was very skeptical.  "This sounds pretty stupid."

"And you claim to be the open-minded one in the family?"

Rick Archer's Note:  

Over the years I kept a List involving every strange event that has taken place in my life. 

Over the course of my lifetime, I have been the beneficiary of more than 100 unusual experiences.  For example, my Readers should note that the Gypsy Prophecy event is listed at #115.  I cannot in all honesty say that every one of these Events were truly 'Supernatural' in origin.  Some of them may have a perfectly good explanation that I am unaware of. 

I could wrong about 10 of these events.  Or 50 of these events.  But at some point the utter improbability of many of these stories suggest the craziest explanation of all - Fate - might actually be the best explanation.  It is my hope that the sheer weight of so many crazy stories will lead my Readers to reach the same conclusion as me.  And what might that conclusion be?

There is so much more to this world than meets the eye. 

THE IMPORTANCE OF COINCIDENCE
 

Coincidence is the word we use when we cannot see the levers and pulleys.   - - Emma Bull

Rick Archer's Note:  

In this chapter, I will share some more of the events that led me to the conclusion that God exists and how Fate plays a major part in what we call Reality.  Let's start with a juicy Coincidence from my days back in Graduate School.  Many people dismiss 'Coincidence' as one of those goofy things that can be easily ignored.  I happen to agree *some of the time*.   It is true that not every Coincidence carries any sort of importance.  As an example, I once saw a dead raccoon during a walk in my neighborhood.  The following day I saw a second dead raccoon in the same forest.  A coincidence, yes, but it did not get added to my Supernatural List because it had no meaning for me, no impact.  I once ran into a fellow Houstonian at a volcano in Hawaii.  Turns out the guy lived a block away and knew some of the same people as me.  However this event had no impact on my life, so it did not make my List either. 

On the other hand, the Coincidence that connected Marla to me was incredibly important.  Some Coincidences are silly while others are Meaningful.  How do we know the difference?  We won't know until the Impact is known.  However, quite often we never realize the importance at the time, so many very important incidents go unnoticed.  As an example, let me share a story about Vanessa.

LIST OF SUSPECTED SUPERNATURAL EVENTS

Suspicious

1973

THE VALUE OF CURIOSITY
 

It was the Intervention incident that caused me to be predisposed to believe in Fate when my personal 'Magical Mystery Tour' began in the second half of my Sophomore year of college.  Thanks to a disastrous Freshman year, I had struck out with one pretty college girl after another.  This, of course, were the formative days of a lifelong curse known as the Epic Losing Streak.

Unable to tolerate any further rejection, I ceased all pursuit of college girls while I licked my wounds.  Back in high school, at least I could look at the girls and dream a little.  No such luck at a men's school.  Unwilling to leave the campus in search of love, I barely knew what women looked like any more.  An entire year passed without a single date.  During this time I sunk deeper and deeper into depression.  Teetering on the edge of a nervous breakdown, out of nowhere, a suggestion popped into my mind to visit the local Quaker Meeting.  Beset by acute loneliness and unsure where else to turn, the following day I attended the Baltimore chapter of the Quaker Meeting in a desperate attempt to seek human contact.  The Quakers have an unusual form of service.  They sit there in silence for an hour of meditation in hopes that God will share a telepathic insight.  If someone wishes to share their insight, they are encouraged to speak up.  About halfway through the hour of my first visit, a man stood up to get our attention. 

He said, "Are you confident the way you view the world is the way it really is?"

That is all the man said.  Then he sat back down.  His words were enough to mesmerize me for the rest of the service.  I sat there wondering what he meant by that.  I was very curious, so I approached him after Meeting concluded.  His name was Richard, same as me.  Richard was a kindly older man, about 75, who exuded warmth.  I was very drawn to Richard, so I asked him to explain. 

Richard smiled and said, "I had a sudden urge to remind my friends to retain their sense of Curiosity.  Perhaps my message was meant for you."

Feeling on guard, I asked suspiciously, "What do you mean by that?"

"You strike me as a young man who is very curious."

I blushed a little.  I never realized it was that obvious.  'Curious' should have been my middle name.  Taken aback, I demanded to know what prompted Richard to say that.  We ended up talking for 30 minutes.  I don't remember the conversation word for word, but it revolved around Columbus and Copernicus. Richard had a problem with people who refuse to challenge their views in face of contradictions. 

"The advance of Civilization is dependent on people who see things differently and have the courage to act on their instinct.  I call them pioneers.  Copernicus suspected the Sun was the center of our solar system.  Columbus suspected the Earth was round.  Both men were dismissed as complete fools.  There is great irony here.  Humans like to think we are the dominant species due to our intelligence, but sometimes the people who think they are the smartest turn out to be the most ignorant of all.  It grates my soul to see men like Columbus and Copernicus written off by closed-minded bigots. 

Take Columbus for example.  He was widely vilified for defying scientists who assured everyone the Earth was flat.  Indeed, many of the sailors who went with Columbus on his fateful voyage were terrified they might actually fall off the edge of the Earth.  Copernicus proved the existence of human stupidity beyond dispute when he theorized Earth revolves around the sun.  No one believed him!  Incredibly, the Catholic Church actually put people to death for the crime of agreeing with Copernicus.  If we fail to challenge our view of the Universe every time we find a situation that defies explanation, we cut off any chance to further advance human knowledge."

I believe that Richard was what we might call a Mystic.  By the end of our conversation, he drifted into subjects I had never seriously considered before such as Reincarnation and Karma.  Seeing my eyes grow wide, he recommended a book, Autobiography of a Yogi, then suggested a bookstore where I could find a copy.  As one can guess, Richard was the man who inspired me to begin my personal Magical Mystery Tour.

To believe in Fate, one has to consider the possible existence of all sorts of unusual phenomena.  Telepathy.  Coincidence.  Psychic Ability.  Prophecy.  Hidden World.  Invisible Beings.  Precognition.  Cosmic Blindness.  None of this can be proven.  However, sometimes our Instinct suspects something might be true long before our rational mind agrees.  According to Richard, the key ingredient to solve these mysteries starts with Curiosity. 

LIST OF SUSPECTED SUPERNATURAL EVENTS

Suspicious

1970

PRECOGNITION
 

What about you?  Do you consider yourself 'Curious'?   My guess is you would not have gotten this far in my chapter if you aren't.  Let me reward your Curiosity with a fascinating story about the Titanic tragedy.   This story strongly suggests the existence of Precognition.  'Precognition' is defined as the paranormal foreknowledge of an event.  'Divination' is the practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural means.  Both concepts are dismissed by the scientific community as impossible. 

After the Titanic sank in 1912, people vaguely recalled reading a book that seemed to predict this horrible event.  Sure enough, in 1898 Morgan Robertson wrote a book titled Futility.  The subtitle was Wreck of the Titan.   How good are you at math?  A quick calculation reveals Robertson's book was published 14 years before the tragedy took place.  Quite a coincidence, yes? 

Naturally Robertson was besieged with questions.  As it turned out, Robertson was not the Mystical type.  Following the disaster, he was just as bewildered by the coincidence as everyone else.  Disavowing any psychic ability or spiritual inspiration, Robertson pointed out he was a maritime expert who kept tabs on shipbuilding trends.  Robertson added he was aware of the icy hazards awaiting ships that crossed the North Atlantic. 

Nevertheless, starting with the near-identical name of the doomed ship, the similarities between the wreck of the Titan and the wreck of the Titanic were uncanny. 

•  In the fictional version as well as the actual event, both ships struck an iceberg in the middle of the Atlantic. 

•  The fictional collision and actual collision took place at midnight in mid-April.

•  Robertson's Titan disaster took place 400 miles from Newfoundland. The Titanic disaster took place 400 miles from Newfoundland.

•  In the book, since the Titan was considered unsinkable, it carried far too few lifeboats, "as few as the law allowed."  The Titanic carried just 20 lifeboats, far too few for the number of people aboard.  Oddly enough, this insufficient total was technically legal.  The law said the number of lifeboats required was based on the tonnage of a ship, not her passenger capacity.

•  More than half the Titan's 2500 passengers and crew drowned.  More than half the Titanic's 2200 passengers and crew died as well. 

There were other similarities, but you get the point.  Does the tale of Morgan Robertson's Titan prove that Fate exists?  No, of course not.  A Scientist will claim the similarity is just another one of those odd coincidences like back to back dead raccoons in the forest.  Weird Stuff happens, get over it.

I disagree.  Everyone has the right to believe what they want, but I think most people would agree the similarities between fact and fiction in Robertson's book meet the definition of 'Very Weird'.  Nevertheless, as it stands, Precognition belongs in the same realm of Pseudoscience with ESP and Jungian concepts such as Meaningful Coincidence and Synchronicity. 

Here is a brief recap of the current Scientific Viewpoint:

Precognition is a violation of natural law.  Information passing backwards in time would need to be carried by physical particles doing the same.  Experimental evidence from high-energy physics suggests that this cannot happen.  Therefore one can find no direct justification for precognition from physics. 

Precognition contradicts most of the neuroscience and psychology literature, from electrophysiology and neuro-imaging to temporal effects found in psychophysical research.  Precognition is considered a delusion by mainstream psychiatry.

Well, there you have it.  The sharpest knives in the room have ruled out any possibility that Precognition exists.  Using fancy big words to intimidate us, the Scientific Wise Guys could care less that a book like Robertson's strongly suggests otherwise.  These skeptics say there is no God and claim that psychic phenomena are the invention of charlatans who make stuff up to exploit the weak-minded.  After all, everyone knows the world is full of gullible fools unable to face the cold hard facts of life.

Maybe so, but personally I would enjoy hearing a scientist try to explain why the Morgan Robertson Titanic Coincidence should be ignored.  Morgan Robertson's story was not some vague Nostradamus quatrain.  His description was so accurate it was almost like he transcribed the newspaper account of the actual event FOURTEEN YEARS AHEAD OF TIME.  I contend Robertson's tale makes a strong case for the existence of Precognition.  But why stop there?  Let's read another juicy Precognition story.  

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket is an 1838 novel written by American author Edgar Allan Poe.  To say this book is strange beyond strange is a huge understatement.  That said, what else should we expect from the morbid and macabre Mr. Poe?

Pym is a young man who stows away aboard a whaling ship called the Grampus.  At one point, to evade detection, Pym masquerades as the ghost of a sailor who has died on the trip.  What a great excuse!  Remind me to claim I am a ghost next time I get caught red-handed in the wrong place. 

Various adventures and misadventures befall Pym including mutiny and subsequent shipwreck.  When the four survivors of the wreck enter a lifeboat, the tale turns gruesome.  Starving to death, three sailors decide to eat a young, rather unfortunate cabin boy named Richard Parker.  It is the only way to survive. 

They say Truth is stranger than Fiction.  In 1884, the yacht Mignonette sank with four men cast adrift.  After weeks without food, they sacrificed one of the four so the other three could survive.  The loser was a young, rather unfortunate cabin boy named Richard Parker. 

Edgar Allan Poe wrote his story 46 years before the real life event took place.  Very curious. 

When it comes to Occult phenomena, there are many doubters who warn that open-minded people risk having their brains fall out.  Noting that hucksters fool well-meaning, over-trusting people far too often, the cynics warn we must keep up our guard.  When something seems too good to be true, watch out.  Otherwise you may drag a deceptive Trojan Horse into your mind.  Maybe so.  But then there is the danger of being closed-minded as well.  I happen to like this quote a lot:

"The more frequently one uses the word ‘Coincidence’ as an excuse to explain bizarre happenings, the more obvious it becomes that one is not seeking, but rather evading the real explanation."   -- Robert Anton Wilson
 

During my Magical Mystery Tour, I ran across another interesting quote from Robert Anton Wilson.  Wilson, a science fiction writer, had a similar outlook to my Quaker friend Richard on the value of curiosity.  If a person sees something out of the ordinary and asks an odd question, he might seem foolish for a brief time.  If he has a question but never asks, he is a fool forever. 

Wilson praised the value of questioning Reality.  He said people who scoff at the idea of Precognition do the same thing with Coincidence.  Wilson countered by saying there is much about this world that we do not understand. 

"Every  fact of science was once damned.  Every invention was considered impossible.  Every discovery was a nervous shock to some orthodoxy.  Every artistic innovation was denounced as fraud and folly. 

The entire web of culture and progress, everything on earth that is man-made and not given to us by nature, is the concrete manifestation of some man's refusal to bow to Authority. 

We would own no more, know no more, and be no more than the first apelike hominids if it were not for the rebellious, the recalcitrant, and the intransigent. 

As Oscar Wilde once said, Disobedience was man's Original Virtue."  -- Robert Anton Wilson

MEDICAL MYSTERIES AND CLOSED MINDS
 

It seems to me that once some people get an idea planted in their mind, they hang on to that view with steel-trap tenacity despite views to the contrary.  Personally, I think a sense of Rebellious Questioning would do us all some good.  For reasons I do not fully understand, some of the most closed-minded people who walk the earth belong to Science.  Thank goodness there are a few scientists who retain their sense of Curiosity.  Here are the stories of famous scientists who changed the world through Observation. 

•  In 1796, Edward Jenner observed that milkmaids seemed to have a natural immunity to the dread disease known as Smallpox.  This critical observation led to the development of the smallpox vaccine.  Dr. Jenner is credited with singlehandedly saving the lives of 10% of the world's population.  Would that we all be so observant.  However, there was a disturbing footnote to Jenner's work.  When he submitted a paper to the Royal Society in 1797 describing his experiment, it was rejected.  Jenner was told his ideas were too revolutionary and that he needed more proof.  For years after that, Jenner was widely ridiculed.  Critics, especially the clergy, claimed it was repulsive and ungodly to inoculate someone with material from a diseased animal.  A satirical cartoon of 1802 showed people who had been vaccinated sprouting cow's heads.  Stubborn resistance to new ideas is a recurring theme in Science. 

•  In 1928, Alexander Fleming noticed something very odd when he returned to his laboratory after an absence.  On a Petri dish full of bacteria, a mold had developed which seemed to inhibit bacterial growth.  Fleming's sharp eyes led to the discovery of penicillin.  The entire field of antibiotic research developed out of this one keen observation. 

• In 1859, Charles Darwin shared his theory of Evolution by natural selection.  Individuals who adapt best to their environments are more likely to survive and reproduce, a simple, yet powerful concept that had been overlooked for centuries.  Darwin's ideas were inspired by observations he had made on the second voyage of HMS Beagle (1831–1836).  Darwin was also influenced by a mathematical conundrum.  Thomas Robert Malthus, a political economist, noted that if population is allowed to increase unchecked, it explodes exponentially.  However, the food supply grows gradually.  In other words, people reproduce faster than they can think of ways to increase food production.  This inherent limitation would lead to an inevitable competition for resources, thus explaining the struggle for existence throughout nature.  From this, Darwin postulated his Survival of the Fittest theory.  The winner of the conflict gets to eat, the loser starves, the winner gets to reproduce while the loser's genes fail to make it to the next generation.  It took many years for Darwin's theory to gain acceptance.  In addition to the skeptical scientists, a legion of religious leaders firmly objected to the idea as blasphemy towards God.  Religion and Science do not get along very well. 

•  In 1982, Dr. Barry Marshall stated that ulcers are caused by a bacterium known as 'Helicobacter pylori'.  The medical establishment was immediately up in arms.  This assertion contradicted the long-held belief that ulcers are caused by stress, smoking, anxiety, spicy food and so on.  Marshall got nowhere.  He couldn't get published, he couldn't get anyone to listen to him, he couldn't get funding, and he was constantly ridiculed and disrespected.  Marshall got so frustrated that he took a desperate measure by deliberately making himself sick.  He did this by ingesting a teaspoonful of the harmful bacteria.  Within 24 hours, he developed severe gastritis, thereby proving his theory of the true origin of ulcers.  Only one problem  Marshall was very sick!  Fortunately, Marshall had a solution... antibiotics.  Problem solved.  As an interesting footnote, his wife wanted to kill him for using himself as a guinea pig. 

•  In 1847, Ignaz Semmelweis was in charge of a hospital ward with a high number of deaths from puerperal fever that attacked pregnant women.  One day a fellow doctor was dissecting the cadaver of a fever victim.  After the man accidentally stabbed himself with the scalpel, he died of the same fever soon after.  Semmelweis was suspicious that some sort invisible substance had been transferred from that scalpel.  This was a radical thought since the existence of germs was unknown.  As an experiment, Semmelweis ordered the doctors under his supervision to wash their hands before treating the pregnant women.  Sure enough, the incidence of fever dropped dramatically.  What an amazing insight!  Women stopped dying!

Semmelweis should have been celebrated across the land.  Not so.  His fellow practitioners proceeded to drive him insane.  A major obstacle to progress is the scorn heaped upon men and women who dare challenge the Establishment.  A perfect example is the story of Ignaz Semmelweis.  The older doctors at another ward in the hospital refused to wash their hands.  "Doctors are gentlemen, and the hands of gentlemen are clean!"  Maybe so, but their female patients continued to die at an alarming rate. 

Meanwhile, the training doctors who were forced to do what Semmelweis ordered them to do dramatically reduced the death rate of the pregnant women.  Nevertheless, the proud doctors paid no heed.  Since Semmelweis could offer no acceptable scientific explanation for his findings, the doctors were offended by this hand-washing folly.  Ignoring results showing that hand washing had reduced mortality below 1%, they ridiculed Semmelweis unmercifully.  As a final insult they ordered him to leave the hospital. 

Why did Semmelweis have to go?  Because his observation conflicted with established scientific and medical opinions.  Deeply upset by the ignorance and disrespect, Semmelweis suffered a nervous breakdown.  Committed to an asylum, he died a mere 14 days later at age 47.  No wonder people learn to keep their mouth shut!  The naysayers always seem to have the upper hand.  Except for one thing... Science has been wrong before.  In fact, Science has blundered many times. 

"The progress of science is strewn, like an ancient desert trail, with the bleached skeletons of discarded theories which once seemed to possess eternal life."  -- Arthur Koestler, noted British author

"One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow minded and dull, but also just stupid."   -- James Watson, the scientist who discovered the Double Helix

Hmm, that reminds me.  Wasn't there a time when the learned scholars of the day insisted the Sun revolved around the Earth? 

•  The story of French scientist Louis Pasteur is fascinating because he had the guts to stick to his guns despite intense criticism from his peers.  Through the force of his conviction, Pasteur succeeded in championing the same theory that had caused the demise of his predecessor Ignaz Semmelweis.  Louis Pasteur was well aware of the Semmelweis story.  Encouraged by the findings of Semmelweis, Pasteur became a pioneer in the field of germ theory.  Curing anthrax and rabies along the way, Pasteur developed a technique to eliminate bacteria from milk, fruit juice and beer, thereby making it safe to drink.  Out of respect for his revolutionary ideas, the term 'pasteurization' was coined to honor him.

Like his contemporary Semmelweis, at the start Pasteur was widely ridiculed and vilified by his peers.  The eminent scientists of the day condemned him for his lunatic theories.  Invisible germs, mon dieu, who has ever heard of anything more ridiculous!  In 1860 Pasteur was publicly shamed.  He was greeted by a nasty headline courtesy of La Presse, a French newspaper. 

"I am afraid that the experiments you quote, Monsieur Pasteur, will turn against you.  The world into which you wish to take us is really too fantastic to believe." -- La Presse