Author

Subject: Ant Bite Dramas

Jane Anderson

13:54 27/09/2000 

Here's a simple little synchronicity story for you all:

As background, we have been filming a seven minute pilot sample for the documentary-drama based on my book 'The Shape of Things to Come'. The sample is a story between two people, myself and Michael (known as 'Mike' in the book).

On day one of filming, Michael and I were filmed together.

On day two, I was filmed alone in an interview situation.

On day three Michael was filmed alone in an interview situation plus some extra things.

On day two:

The camera was rolling and all was going well until I felt a stinging bite on my neck, followed by another on the front of my shoulder. I couldn't ignore it because it was painful and it felt like an ant on the march down towards being trapped amongst my clothes. I had to dramatically shout, "Sorry! Stop the camera! There's a huge ant biting me!" I looked for the ant and for the bites but there was nothing to be seen, yet the pain had been intense.

I can't recall the last time I got bitten by an ant, so I thought it was odd that I was so sure it was an ant.

On day three:

I was talking to a friend who was in the middle of an interesting and complex story when I felt a huge stinging bite on my knee, followed by another one just above my knee. It was extremely sore, and this time I feared where that ant was going, marching up my leg struggling against the tightness of my jeans as I was sitting down. I had to interrupt the friend's story and dramatically run into the house, rip my jeans off .. and YES there was a (now dead) huge ant, almost a centimetre long, and two rapidly growing allergic-looking weal bites.

I went back and noted the time: 1.30. I knew Michael was in the middle of his filming session, being Day 3.

In the evening I phoned Michael and told him the story, knowing there would be some connection, but not sure what exactly it was.

He said that filming had began later than planned, starting at 1.30, and that on two occasions during the session he had used the phrase, "It comes up to bite you on the bum".

Love it! And glad that I stopped tha ants getting that far too.

All good thoughts and wishes sent through the ethers for a great and right outcome for the filming will be much appreciated. Thank you.

Jane Anderson

JuliA

20:42 27/09/2000 

Sending you lots of love & light Jane and all the "Ceremoney" in the world for you new venture and for the filming too!

What's with the Ants.... industrious, busy, work? coming back to bite you? Or is it the significance of the body part where you were bitten? Incidentally did you get bitten on the knee you had the surgery?

Love & Light

JuliA

Jane Anderson

10:34 28/09/2000 

Hi JuliA,

Thank you.

I see ants as industrious, altruistic, ubiquitous and irritating.

Much as I greatly enjoy my work and know that it is my right work, there are times when these four words could reflect my feelings about some of the ... aha... the word 'leg work' flew into my mind. So perhaps there's the symbolism behind the ant crawling up my leg.

Writing books, creating a web site, planning a documentary film (and so on) ... these are the kind of creative ventures which require huge amounts of work to bring to fruition, work that is rarely paid and that, in fact, requires financial investment from other sources of work or from finding new ways of achieving the same ends. Irritation can creep in when I'm in the leg-work phase for too long.

So: why should this synchronicity come up during the filming of our pilot?

Well, I can still feel the sting of the bites (I can now see there were three bites) on my knee, two days later. The pain is surfacing. Recognising the irritation that I might have repressed in order to get my work to this stage may now be surfacing ... no longer (k)needed perhaps?

I enjoyed the filming we were doing 100%, so perhaps these were the conditions to be reminded of previous irritations ... to recognise through conmparison perhaps. To celebrate release even.

On a superficial level I simply manifested Michael's words, spoken at around the same time, talking about the subject we are filming .. an event which happened to him of which I had dreamed in detail. He said, "It comes up to bite you on the bum" and that was exactly where the ant was going. I feel that stopping the ant before it got that far was a good thing (in more ways than one!)

As with all synchronicities, they occur during the process of becoming conscious of what has been unconscious, so we find ourselves being a little mystified by the symbolism and meaning of the synchronicities until a little later when the full insight breaks through along with meaning.

It's classic synchronicity. Identified in the process of birthing but unable to be recognised until the birth is complete.

So, I'll let you know more later!

Meanwhile all other reflections and interpretations are welcome here .. post away.

And no, it was my other knee. The knee which received the surgery is now completely healed, by the way, so I have returned to my usual running, jumping exuberance!

On which subject, JuliA, I hope you're enjoying your last days working with the Olympics!

Jane Anderson

guest

18:59 29/09/2000 

ANTicipation ?

M

Jane Anderson

19:11 29/09/2000 

Aha!!!!

Jane Anderson

Peta

14:56 01/10/2000 

Hi Jane,

Great to hear things are moving on the documentary.

I had a run in with a green ant yesterday! I haven't been bitten for ages - perhaps over a year. We've been doing some final garden renovations. No - we haven't sold yet, but it must be close. We have definitely been industrious, and although it is rewarding to see our surroundings being transformed, it has been a lot of work on all fronts preparing the 'runway' as it were, for even bigger things to come. And yes, you could say there is considerable ANTICIPATION!

By the way, did you know that a paste made of water and bi-carb soda, takes the sting out of ant bites.

Peta

MichaelC

22:12 01/10/2000 

Hundreds and hundreds of flying ANTicipations invaded our home tonight - not a nuisance, merely a heralding.

Michael

Jane Anderson

09:25 02/10/2000 

Hi Peta and Michael,

Interesting juxtapositions your two posts, as I remember standing in the front garden of the old house, not long ago, watching flying ants marching up the porch columns, climbing up the roof and (?flying?) from the little spike on the top. Though I didn't know it consciously at the time, this was only weeks before I too left the house and moved on to this new home. Unconscious ANTicipation, I guess, since my dreams at the time were full of the heraldings of moving on.

Here in Australia we are awaiting rain. (Maybe the ANTicipation of the Olympic spectaculars kept it at bay for too long.) Ants sometimes go on the flying march, moving nests, when rains are on the way. ANTicipation again, Hey?

So, Peta, there's a tie in with YOUR house-moving perhaps.

Michael, thank you: the beautiful reminder that what appears to be a nuisance (or an irritation, or a bite, or a sting) can be, instead, the glorious heralding.

From where I sit at my computer I can see bushfire smoke pouring onto a deep blue sky as somewhere not too far away from the city burns in our dry, spring heat. How long has it been since it rained? Yet sometime soon it will fall ....ANTicipation of .....

Jane Anderson

Stace2

11:12 03/10/2000 

...looping back to where you started to know the place for the first time, just like the water cycle.

Re: "As with all synchronicities, they occur during the process of becoming conscious of what has been unconscious..." (above)

I don't mean to be an irritant by changing tack, but I had some new thoughts when I saw this sentence again:

1) Is it possible that Newton's Third Law applies here (for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction)? i.e. that a conscious state of mind goes unconscious when synchronicities happen, e.g. when synchronicities started to cluster in my life, my bleak (adolescent) existential view of the world died utterly.

2) The equal and opposite reaction could also occur in the form of the ego-kickback inflation that can happen with synchronicities, as the new symbol of change threatening the ego's position. Therefore, it may be better to emphasize transformation of consciousness rather than just growth from unconscious to conscious.

3) I'd dispute the 'all' bit, as it's possible to place yourself in states of mind that generate synchronicites, e.g. the hypnosis experiments in 'The Shape...' - it was a conscious decision to place yourself in a state of mind that simulated a quantum uncollapsed state of consciousness that enabled the nonlocal alignment to the future moment that was in the same state of uncollapse. So the movement is really much more like conscious- unconscious- back-to-conscious again (more like a death & rebirth thing, wouldn't you say?)

Well, they're my views anyway. It's an important sentence which I agree with the heart of, but I'd just spin it slightly differently. Or as I say to my staff sometimes at work picking up on a minor fault, "I don't mean to be picky but...I mean to be picky".

[Posted opposite the Queen Victoria Building, Sydney, about 100m away from Sydney Town Hall, the end-point of the ticker tape parade for the Aussie Olympians which just started.]

Stace2

21:10 04/10/2000 

(revised non-bureaucratic version)

In anticipation of... wonderful documentaries

In anticipation of... parapsychology being taken REALLY seriously

In anticipation of... multiple realities accepted in the one mind, in the one room

In anticipation of... a new phase in our lives

In anticipation of... not seeing another Olympics in Sydney again

In anticipation of... not taking anyone around me for granted

In anticipation of... everlasting peace in this moment

In anticipation of... the tomorrow that never comes

In anticipation of... the sun burning out in 4 or 5 billion years time

In anticipation of... the theory that will explain everything

In anticipation of... '2001: A Space Odyssey' in 2001

In anticipation of... an arrow that never left the bow

In anticipation of...

Jane Anderson

21:47 04/10/2000 

Hi Stace2,

Things go from conscious to unconscious 'all' the time, so inevitably they will during synchronicity too. Some of these may even be denial of magic, perhaps?

Interesting point about my hypnosis experiments/experiences:

(Warning: Those of you who have not read 'The Shape of Things to Come' may not be able to follow the rest of this post, as it relies on knowledge of the Hypnosis Project.)

Pondering again, I must say that even as the things/concepts/events mentioned under hypnosis came to pass in my life, they were not 'all' instantly recognisable. In some cases there were a few moments between the event and the 'aha', but in most cases there was a vague sense of "Oh, this feels like the event/thing I mentioned under hypnosis", which then grew as further synchronicities endorsed the original and then blossomed as the full extent of the symbolism/insight struck.

Some of the manifestations took a different form from that 'seen' or 'seeded' under hypnosis (e.g. the bunch of orange and purple flowers which appeared - on time as requested - as a gift of a blouse with a pattern of orange and purple flowers from a stranger), so it took a while for the matter-shift (but same symbolism or same sound and shape of word) to be identified as meaningfully relevant. Unconscious pre-recognition (precognition) beheld the symbolism of the synchronicity ... my conscious mind took its usual slow processing steps between matter and symbolism towards recognition.

Right now my conscious mind is slowly shutting down (you may have noticed), as my unconscious limbers up to produce tonight's dream goodies.

Goodnight 'all',

Jane Anderson

Stace2

16:20 05/10/2000 

Thanks for that Jane. I guess I brought a looping movement in because of the slightly different wheelbarrow I'm pushing which has 'nonlocality' labelled on the side (as well as my own internal resistances I'm encountering in moving on...)

I must admit I'm curious about your latest project - about how much explanation/theory ('antswers' if you like!) you will attempt to provide beyond giving viewers an introduction into the legitimate existence of this whole area. Of course you don't have to answer that if it's all still under wraps - you have my best wishes for the whole process...

Jane Anderson

19:27 05/10/2000 

Thanks Stace2,

Kind of under wraps, but not entirely new in terms of the original vision. The Director saw the manuscript a year before 'Shape' went to press and his instant reaction was that it was written visually and that it should form a television series. Of course the shape has morphed a few times since then.... and I have learned how slow the film and television business is in comparison to ... even .. book publishing! That is why the recent filming burst has been such a freeing celebration.

(Am I on this Earth to learn patience or the lessons of impatience I wonder? Ahhh... another ant insight: are ants patient in their slow altruistic toiling or impatient in their irritable bite?)

Yes, illustrating legitimate existence (of the experiences and the subject matter) is the essence, and the anTswers ... well, the clever bit will be in the presenting a balance between straightforward anTswers and puzzling paradoxes. And as most forum readers will know, the purest essence is touched inside the wordless shape found hanging in the air bound by paradox.

It will be a fun project .... and I guess each viewer will walk away from it with their own understanding.

Jane Anderson

Jane Anderson

22:08 17/10/2000 

Hello Everyone who is still with this story ... for the next instalment go to "Am, Aim,Amie" several posts above this one. By the third post in that thread I realised the connection to this continuing ant synchronicity.

So, in ANTicipation of ...

Jane Anderson

WHAT IS
SYNCHRONICITY?

Jane Teresa's Explanation

Jane Teresa Anderson

WHAT IS SYNCHRONICITY?

________

Synchronicity occurs when you experience a coincidence, or several coincidences, that seem so bizarre that you feel they must be meaningful in some way.

Some people believe that synchronicities are signs to follow, to lead you to where you are 'meant' to be. My understanding, however, is that not all synchronicities are to be followed, because ...

Synchronicities are SYMBOLS of where you're at, not signs to follow.

Synchronicities speak the same symbolic language as dreams.

When you experience a synchronicity, you are witnessing a change within yourself, an insight, a birth of something that has been unconscious bubbling up into consciousness.

At such times of change we see, all around us, symbols that reflect our shift in perception and self-understanding. This is synchronicity.

To understand this fully, and to see why it is not always appropriate to follow synchronicity, you can read my book, THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME. This way you can also discover how to read the synchronicities in your life and how to act on them in positive, life-enhancing ways.

Reality may never feel the same again!

______

P.S.

In Jungian terms all synchronicities begin with a dream.

The dream comes first, then the symbol from the dream appears in waking life in ways that seem incredibly meaningful - though, classically, it is hard to understand, consciously, what that meaning is.

This is because the dream is painted by your unconscious mind in advance of your conscious mind 'catching up'. When the insight (unconscious shift) is big, synchronicities follow.

What happens is that your incredibly powerful unconscious mind (far more powerful than your conscious mind) manifests its insight physically into your waking life. (You have changed - the world, as you experience it, changes in accordance.)

It usually takes up to a couple of weeks before your conscious mind understands the symbolic dream manifesting in your waking life as synchronicity.

Being human, as we all are, we often forget the original dream but still experience the synchronicities.

There are many excellent reference sources on Jungian synchronicity.

My approach is largely Jungian, but slightly shifted.

Again, if you are seriously in-depth interested, I suggest you read my book "THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME" to understand where I am coming from.

Quite simply, synchronicity is a waking dream and interpreting it as such is immensely enriching.

Jane Teresa Anderson