As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, one of the things that Kirsti and I find the most swoon-worthy is synchronicity—when the stars align to create a situation so perfect and unexpected that you could not possibly have planned it yourself. You know what else is swoon-worthy? Laziness. Whenever possible, I believe in following the three Rs: reduce, reuse, recycle—reduce stress, reuse ideas, recycle posts. Two years ago today I experienced one of the best, if not THE best, moments of synchronicity in my life, which I wrote about at the time on my personal Facebook page. In celebration of anniversaries and laziness, I am lifting the veil of my privacy settings and sharing the story here. Enjoy!
When I decided last year that I wanted to shed some weight before my trip to Paris, I started out by following Tim Ferriss’s Slow-Carb Diet. I’d read about it in his book The 4-Hour Body, and what he said about diet and weight loss made perfect sense to me. In fact, everything Tim Ferriss says makes perfect sense to me. I read his first book, The 4-Hour Workweek, years ago and found it to be surprisingly funny and eye-opening. He is the quintessential outside-the-box thinker who simply does not look at the world the way most people do. He’s always searching for a new angle. As someone who usually lives inside the box and always plays by the rules, I aspire to be more like him. He is one of my heroes.
I’ve thought about him off and on during the year-and-a-half since I started the diet, particularly when I was trying to brush up on my French for the Paris trip. Tim has an avid interest in language acquisition and has created his own method for becoming functionally fluent in any language in just a few months. I also visit his blog from time to time, because it’s packed with information on a wide range of topics, always with some fresh insight or cutting-edge discovery. However, I haven’t thought of him much in the past year until recently. Knowing that I’m a fan of Tim Ferriss, my friend Prashanta, who likes to listen to Joe Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, recently sent me links to a couple of podcasts Tim did with Joe, which I listened to shortly before I left for my latest trip to Boston. Given that each show is two+ hours long, listening to them brought Tim vividly back into my consciousness.
I thought about him again while I was packing for the trip. He travels frequently and has lived for extended periods of time abroad. I don’t know if or where he has a permanent residence and have no idea of his movements, since I don’t follow him on Facebook or read his blog regularly. He’s written about how he packs and prepares for a trip and how he gets to the airport. Everything this guy does is about being quick and efficient and doing the minimum amount of work for the maximum result. Looking at my large suitcase and assortment of clothes, I thought, “I need to be more lean and mean like Tim.” He only travels with a carry-on and gets in and out quickly.
I also thought of him right in the middle of my trip, when I was having a personal issue that I considered trying to explore through lucid dreaming. Since I hadn’t read anything new on the topic for a while and I’ve had difficulty in the past with inducing lucid dreams, I did a Google search for “how to have a lucid dream.” I shouldn’t have been surprised that one of the first results to pop up was a link to a post on Tim Ferriss’s blog about the subject. He mentioned Stephen LaBerge from The Lucidity Institute at Stanford (I’ve participated in their at-home experiments for more than 20 years) and gave some induction tips. Nothing new, but I thought it was interesting that he was knowledgeable about lucid dreams. Is there anything that gets by this guy?
During the trip I saw that a friend of mine had commented on a Facebook post about a book called E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality. I was intrigued by the title and immediately purchased the ebook. I scanned the experiments and they seemed simple enough, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to try them. I was also hooked by the introduction, which gave remarkable examples of synchronicities in the author’s own life, as well as some of the scientific evidence behind the idea that we are creating our lives through our thoughts, expectations, and beliefs. I decided to try the first experiment.
Simply stated, the experiment involves giving the Field of Infinite Possibilities 48 hours to show you proof of its existence. That’s it. You simply make a statement that you want a clear sign—that cannot be written off—that there is a “loving, abundant, totally hip force in the universe” that connects everything and is responsive to your thoughts. I read this on a Thursday and decided to start the experiment that afternoon. I made my statement that I wanted clear, unmistakable, unambiguous proof of the existence of this energy field. The 48 hours would expire on late Saturday afternoon, which is when I was leaving to come home from the trip.
I went about my business and noted after 24 hours that nothing had happened, but there was still time. Early on Saturday afternoon I remembered the experiment. I’d unexpectedly turned a corner in Boston the day before and come across Max Brenner’s restaurant, and I wondered if that might have been my sign. I’d made a pilgrimage to his restaurant in New York [because chocolate] and didn’t realize there was one in Boston, so it was a surprise to see it, but then I decided it couldn’t be the sign. I’d asked for something unmistakable, so I wouldn’t have to wonder whether or not it was my sign.
After that, I was too busy driving to the airport, going through security, and getting on the plane to think about the experiment again. The 48 hours expired sometime during the flight, but I was focused on the experience of flying and on the audiobook I was listening to, so I wasn’t even thinking about it. I was sitting in an aisle seat and had been listening to my iPod with my eyes closed, but I opened them to see someone coming down the aisle toward the restroom at the back of the plane. I felt a spark of recognition, but then the person looked up and I locked eyes with him for a second. It was Tim Ferriss.
Tim FREAKING Ferriss was on my plane! My little, single-aisle 757 flying from Boston to Los Angeles at 4:30 pm on a random Saturday afternoon in October. I was utterly dumbstruck. I actually put my head in my hands, because I could not process what I’d just seen. He went back to his seat toward the front of the plane and I didn’t see him for the rest of the flight, but I was in a daze. I’d gotten my sign in the form of Tim Freaking Ferriss. It HAD to be.* I thought about walking up there and telling him my story, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I am not the type of person to approach celebrities or public figures to talk with them, and I have a fear of meeting my heroes and finding out that they are rude or disappointing. But this story was too good! What to do? I decided that I would send him an email, even though I’d read in The 4-Hour Workweek that he checks emails as infrequently as once a week and most of them are vetted ahead of time by his staff. Still, it was either that or do nothing. I knew that I wouldn’t see him at baggage claim, because he only brings a carry-on when he travels.
When the flight landed and passengers started filing out, I looked for him in the aisle, but never saw him. By the time I got to baggage claim, there were people crowding around the carousel, so I went and stood near a tall, 30-something guy to wait for my bag. A minute later, Tim Freaking Ferriss walks over and starts talking to the guy. Turns out it’s the friend he was traveling with. O.K., Field of Infinite Possibilities, you’ve got my attention. My heart was racing. How could I possibly approach him? I was trying to work up the courage when he walked right past me, so I called out his name. He turned and said, “Yes? And who are you?” We shook hands and I told him my name. I said that, as he might have surmised, I had read and enjoyed his books. I told him that I didn’t want to disturb him while he was waiting for his luggage, but that I’d like to tell him a story I thought he’d find interesting.
I related my tale and he was very attentive. He was gratified that Prashanta had sent me the links to the Joe Rogan podcasts. He said he hadn’t explored lucid dreaming for a while and really needed to get back into it. When I told him about all the ways he’d been on my mind recently and then about seeing him walk down the aisle of the plane, he replied, “You’re thinking, ‘Man, I can’t get away from this guy!'” From anyone else, that would have been mildly amusing, but it was Tim Freaking Ferriss, so I thought it was HI-larious.
The reason he was standing at baggage claim with his friend is that they were waiting for several boxes of equipment. Evidently, he was in town to film something (probably for his new TV show [The Tim Ferriss Experiment], which I just found out will be debuting in early December). I said, “This is just so odd. When I think of everything that had to coalesce for you to be on my plane… I mean, I don’t know about you, but I booked this flight months ago.” He said that it was very strange, because he never flies from Boston to L.A. In fact, before I’d called out his name, I overheard him say something to his friend like, “I think we took the wrong flight.” He seemed to be implying that they’d booked an earlier or later flight than they’d intended. In any case, weird!
I said to him, “Well, I know you didn’t play any conscious part in it, but thank you for being my sign.” Then I asked him if he would indulge me by allowing me to take his picture—a sort of “proof of life” for the folks back home. He graciously posed for me, making a double thumbs-up. The picture is a little blurry, but the message is crystal clear: I got my sign and it was unmistakable and unambiguous. I met my hero and he wasn’t an idiot or an asshole. Now it’s time to explore those infinite possibilities…
In the two years since my close encounter with Tim Ferriss, I have had several more experiences of synchronicity, including three that were nearly as remarkable. I’ve also explored a number of possibilities, some of which culminated in the creation of this blog. I hope my story will inspire you to think big and expect the unexpected. The Field of Infinite Possibilities is just waiting for you to make your move.
Stuff Worthy Of Our Notice™ in this post:
The books in the 4-Hour series can be purchased from Amazon. All 13 episodes of The Tim Ferriss Experiment are available on iTunes. Be sure to check out Tim’s entertaining and informative podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show. E-Squared can be found at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
*To those people thinking, “Coincidence!” I offer up one of my favorite quotes from Kirsti: “I hate skeptics, because you never get to experience the joy of seeing their eyes light up over something you’ve said.” Also, consider the number of flights that take off and land each day in the U.S. alone and try to calculate the odds that we’d both be on that particular plane.
The Swoon Society 