A CASE STUDY IN SYNCHRONICITY
A DETAILED REPORT ON THE SYNCHRONICITY
"In every moment, the Universe is whispering to you. You're constantly surrounded by signs, coincidences, and synchronicities , all aimed at propelling you in the direction of your destiny." - Denise Linn
"Fridolin returns home that night to find his wife asleep, with his mask from the previous night set on the pillow on his side of the bed. " - Traumnovelle by Arthur Schnitzler,1926
[I repeat the previous post here, and add a detailed report from M. Robb]
FOLLOWING A SYNCHRONICITY
[The following, from M. Robb, was sent to the Hellier team, but forwarded to me. I reprint here, with permission.]
As promised, I wanted to forward this on to you. I've been sitting on it since April, as I didn't want to move forward with making anything public until I was sure how my friends wanted to put it all together, but they kinda oddly backed out and dropped off the face of the earth, so here it is.
In keeping with Hellier themes, a couple of friends and I decided back in April (via a reddit thread) to investigate a local legend of high strangeness here in Iowa, called The Van Meter Visitor. In particular the allusion to mining, slag, and three toed footprints caught our attention.
There was a lot of various impressions we got from the area, which I'll get into later, but as we were walking through the woods and discussing various aspects of the case and it's similarities to Hellier and The Trickster in general, and the various guises the phenomenon takes....
We literally stumbled on this. (Attached pic). I have a lot more photos of that day but we all agreed in that moment that, following that discussion (and right before, we were discussing Passport to Magonia), the fact that this popped up in the middle if the woods where this high strangeness took place was a bit more than a coincidence. I have this idea/theory that this is a very conscious and omnipresent phenomena that Hellier and it's tangents, as well as the people looking into it, are tapping into.
I'd love to get your thoughts and maybe have an open dialogue going forward. Let me know what you think!
All the best,
M.Robb (aquatixwitch on twitter)
SITREP V 1.1
VAN METER, IA
INIT INVEST on 3/7/2021 1100 AM
By invest: M. Robb (written and completed 3/27/2021)
Began commute from the DSM metro area to Van Meter, IA; weather was clear and sunny, although at the beginning (more on this later) there was a slight breeze- and arrived in VM just prior to the rest of the crew; GPS coordinates for a nearby baseball field as a meeting spot turned out to be unreliable, as it was located near the desired site of investigation near the old brick and tile factory (previously the coal mine where the ‘Visitor’ was sighted several times), however, maps did not show that it was behind the river, and so the desired meeting place was moved to ‘downtown’ van meter after I was personally taken via GPS to a dead-end unpaid road *1.
Downtown Van Meter is, on the whole, quiet, and unobtrusive. We eventually went back to this location later on in the day to take photos and put ourselves in the shoes of the original witnesses to The Visitor. Once Ben, Krystal and I made our introductions, we headed back to the unpaved road near the brick and tile factory. We discussed the surrounding area while I took mineral, soil, and plant samples for analysis back at home *2.
General observation of the brick and tile factory was that it had clearly fallen into years of disrepair and there seemed to be no human activity at the actual site, despite the surrounding cattle pastures. Cattle pastures are a factor in the samples taken, as it would later prove difficult to separate any intrusion of ‘unusual’ substances into the minerals and soil given the contamination present from the location’s agricultural applications.
THE DISCOVERED MASK
THE "WARNING MASK" FROM "EYES WIDE SHUT"
It should also be noted that the original Visitor sightings occurred at 1 am in September and October in 1903. Given that we were at the location in broad daylight in the spring, a return trip to the sight at the time and date of the original encounters is highly encouraged, to replicate the conditions of the original sightings. This trip should not be considered an in-depth investigation but rather ‘scouting out’ the location and the environment in anticipation of future return trips and investigations.
During the time we were present nearly directly in front of the brick and tile factory, however, a few things about and in the environment stood out. The first that immediately caught our teams eye was a blank, white mask that was laying in the nearby wooded area adjacent the river. I feel that this is important to note given the frequency of trickster elements in high strangeness cases. The mask itself was not made of a ‘light’ material, eg, a dollar store cheap Halloween mask. Rather it seemed made of very thick polyurethane (plastic) composed of several layers; some of which appeared to have sagged or melted. There was no color to the mask at all. Initial attempts to explain or debunk led us to conclude that, as a mundane sort of explanation, perhaps it may be a piece of a scarecrow or other wildlife deterrent. That said, there was nothing else near this mask that would have corroborated that theory, and there was no corn field within walking distance that we could identify as a source. Essentially, it was in the middle of nowhere, (although it could have been washed up from the river, however the river also gave no indication of having been that high at any recent point in time, and the mask had a very clear weight that did not lend to the idea that it had simply been ‘blown in’ on the wind), seemed to be placed directly in our path, and was exceptionally out of place and seemed too much a coincidence being there, given that our teams’ focus is high strangeness. Photos included.
From there we decided to follow the unpaved road to see where it led. Although the temperature was near 62 degrees (Fahrenheit), the ground was exceptionally muddy from the previous week’s snowmelt, and later on as we walked down the unindicated trail, there was still plenty of unthawed snow on the ground. Although we did pay attention for any footprints that looked unusual, the general consensus from the three of us was that it would be next to impossible with all the snowmelt to identify anything remotely conclusive. Everything possible was present at the time, from small bird tracks in the snow, to prior human prints, dog and coyote, and even possum and raccoon prints. As we crossed the railroad tracks to access the trail, it should also be noted that wind became very strong. . . and the strength of the wind seemed to follow us as we walked on (until it was broken by a nearby hill on the trail). However the many smaller trees did not seem to bend or sway in this strong gale, although there was plenty of creaking and groaning from these trees as we walked (*could not help in the moment but to make a comparison to Lovecraft's’ The Color out of Space, where the trees seemed to sway and groan but there was no wind to make them do so; this was a similar situation, but the opposite). We also noted both during this walk and afterwards as we went through the populated suburb and downtown area that there seemed to be an almost ‘muted’ effect that blanketed the whole town.).
As we walked along the trail to observe the river and it’s wildlife, we observed several bird species that were relevant to the investigation, given discussion over the size of The Visitor. We observed smaller hawks, ducks, geese, and even a wary bald eagle watching us from the trees. Earlier discussion had suggested that perhaps the people of Van Meter had mistaken the visitor for an eagle, crane, or heron. Although the latter two were not immediately observed, geese and bald eagles were incidentally ruled out as
the cause of the sightings, given that we observed them immediately during our first location scouting! Since The Visitor was described as being eight feet to ten feet tall in height, it would be virtually impossible to mistake it for an eagle or a heron, even at distance. Since the original sightings and the distance between the buildings, as we would discover later, were much much closer than the eagle and geese that we observed at distance, both myself and my team feel that this was not a case of mistaken identity. This coupled with the unliklihood that an eagle or a heron would be shining lights in windows at 1am.
Going on further down the path, Ben, our group tech, was testing out the gopro for filming later on down the line. Because of this equipment experiment, we walked into the woods a little to get a feel for things. However after encountering trees and posts marked with bullet holes-a sign that hunting was obviously very frequent in this area-we decided that this wasn’t exactly safe for the moment and decided to make our way back towards our vehicles. Before we made our way back, it was also observed that several oak trees were probably very old and likely had been around at the time of the Visitor sightings. These oaks were home to several bird species as well as a large owl home. Once again, although an owl could account for a case of mistaken identity for a flying cryptid, proximity of the witnesses to the creature sighted, as well as the creatures’ estimated height, would seem to make this unlikely. Since it can not be ruled out, however, I have included it in my report. It is also worth noting that although we did not spot an owl for ourselves, owls are often present in cases of synchronicity as well as in circumstances of high strangeness; owls are thought to be responsible for sightings of Mothman, as well as frequently used in screen memories of UFO abductees (see: The Messengers-Owls, Synchronicity and the UFO Abductee by Mike Clelland).
As we walked back from the woods and along the trail back to the cars, the wind again picked up to the point it was frankly disruptive. Once again noting that this wind seemed to follow us as we went-and didn’t seem to disturb anything else around us. This again struck us as a little strange-as well as the hills that seemed to jut up from out of nowhere on the landscape. During this time, we also came to the realization that this particular point in Van Meter served as a liminal space and crossroads; right near the brick and tile factory, this point is bisected by the trail itself, the railroad, the river (many cases of high strangeness occur near waterways and along rivers) and the freeway. And although the freeway wouldn’t have been present at the time of Visitor sightings, the trail, river, and railway would have been.
After taking some more photographs, it was decided to head back into the downtown area (with the crazy wind following us as we went). Once we arrived downtown, we took more photographs and attempted to create a sort of reimagining of the events and
where the buildings at the time would have been located, to reconstruct what happened. We noted the very small size of downtown, as well as the buildings, and again how difficult-if indeed these were the original buildings*3
We also had a chance to observe the people of Van Meter; the houses and folks here were very active-people walking their dogs, children playing tee ball in their front yards, women with baby strollers just walking down the sidewalk. Initially it would appear that Van Meter is very family and community oriented, and lively; however, we again discussed that there seemed to be an almost muted effect on the entire area. Save for the occasional nuthatch warble and the creaking of the trees, even with the wind there seemed to be almost no sound at all.
After several more photographs and video, we adjourned the location for lunch out of town. It should be noted that once we were out of Van Meter, the wind seemed to follow us right out. It was, as A. A Milne would say, “a very blustery day.”
[Emotional and Intuitive impressions-Personal]
I would be remiss in my report of high strangeness phenomenon if I did not mention the personal impressions I got, outside of the standard observations. Van Meter as a physical location seemed to go out of it’s way in attempting to demonstrate how unremarkable and inactive a metaphysical location it was. There was absolutely nothing out of place here that would give any notion or idea that this had once been the sighting-place of a notorious North American cryptid. Aside from the strange blanket of no-noise-but-creaking that seemed to follow us through the town, it seemed a very serene, happy little midwestern town. And that in and of itself rubbed me the wrong way. It’s like a bowl of fruit with bright and crispy apples on top that are hiding the rest of the rotten ones underneath. There’s a feeling of something being right in front of your eyes, but also obscured; like there’s something you should be seeing, but something is intentionally making you look the other way. The entire time I was there I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was missing something, but I couldn’t quite figure out what it was or where else I should be looking but wasn’t. *4
This concludes my situation report for the initial Van Meter location investigation on 3/7/2021. See notes and attached photos on the next page.
Notes
*1. The unpaved road here is exceptionally muddy and deep. It is not recommended for those traveling in a car that does not have a high profile or four wheel drive when it is wet. You will get stuck. The unpaved/unmarked road here then veers off in two directions-one that leads to a dead end and a trail that runs parallel to the river, and another that branches off to a private agriculture road marked ‘No Trespassing’. Out of respect for the owners of the property and for our own safety, we did not go down this second road during the course of the investigation, and we have since made plans to attempt to contact the owners of the property for permission to use the road at a later date.
*2. Data for the samples taken was remarkably inconclusive. It literally gave me nothing anomalous. All the mineral samples were consistent with the brick and tile factory byproduct and included high amounts of mudstone, silt, and clay. Soil samples were unremarkable and unreliable in that they were heavily contaminated with manure (suggest more samples closer to the location of the old mine. Future samples should test for the presence of sulphur and slag-slag not only being typical of coal mines, but as per John Keel in The Eighth Tower, often accompanies many cryptid reports, along with the trademark stench of sulphur and three-toed footprints). Surrounding flora showed no signs of any damage or alteration in their typical structure or composition-eg, no signs of being burnt or chemically damaged by anything anomalous in the soil). Out of eight mineral samples, only one stood out; which was a specimen of igneous rock-which is not typical to the area or even the state-containing a red pumice. Pumice is typical, however, of later century landscaping rock. Volcanic pumice, however, is mined from special volcanic regions for such applications (NOT from coal mining, such as what occurred in Van Meter). Pumice is caused by high-temperature ash and air cooling rapidly as it is ejected from a volcanic eruption. I would be interested to find out if this was just a case of simple landscaping-I didn’t see other rocks there like it at the time- and so I would like to collect more samples in the future to determine if there was more. It also seems worth studying to see what, if any, application pumice would have in either coal mining or the processing and development of brick and tile. It should also be noted that there are locations in the world (e.g. Mauna Loa, Kilauea) where it is taboo to take the volcanic rock away from it’s summit. Bad luck and strange activity often follow such thefts, and out of desperation, these rocks are often mailed back to the places from which they were taken, often with an added plea to ‘take the curse off’.
*3. More study is needed here with regards to which buildings standing in downtown are the original masonry, which have been moved or altered, and the location of the various storefronts (e.g. the bank) mentioned in the original sightings. Also maybe helpful to determine where the original train depot might have been located.
*4. Subsequent investigations should be done in and at the actual brick and tile factory and the location of the original mine entrance, if at all possible. Calls to Dallas County to ascertain the current property owner has, as of this writing, been unsuccessful. We will continue to pursue this avenue in the hopes that we may obtain permission to go onto the property and observe it ourselves. There is some inherent risk, I would think, given that this is the location of the coal mine. However there are videos of individuals being allowed on the property recently to conduct their own investigations, so this seems a plausible endeavor. Likewise it may be worth permission for a camp out in the fall on the afore mentioned date in the report.
See also - https://soundofheart.org/galacticfreepress/content/hidden-meaning-synchronicities-and-coincidences
See also - The Strange Synchronicities of Hellier - tinyghoul productions