Table of Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 The Surreal and the Mystical 4
My Mystical Moment of Clarity 4
Déjà Vu and Eternal Recurrence 8
The Daemon-Assisted "Wrong" Turn 18
Déjà Vu and the Dream World 20
A Visit to My Grandparents in Heaven 24
Hear, Hear, Old Hickory! 28
Break On Through to the Other Side 30
2 Goodbye Minnesota, Hello Las Vegas 33
Leaving Minnesota 33
Closing Out the 1980s 39
The Three-Day Journey with My Cat Charlie 40
Exploring the New Territory 42
3 Twenty-Six Years in Nevada: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly 47
Las Vegas: Transplants and Tourists 47
Places of Abode 50
Central Vegas: January - October 1990 51
Green Valley: November 1990 - December 1993 52
Angel Park: January 1994 - September 2001 54
Desert Shores: October 2001 - Present 56
Drinking and Smoking 60
The End of Smoking 61
The End of Drinking 62
Video Poker Adventures 65
Work-Related Adventures 70
Nevada vs. Minnesota 70
A Great Firm and Great Colleagues 71
Brothels and Bars 72
Hanging Out My Own Shingle 75
Community Service Adventures 77
Dating in Las Vegas 82
Video Dating 82
Long-Distance Dating 85
Online Dating 85
Family Life in Las Vegas 87
Pre-Marriage and Newlywed Periods 87
Our Kids' Arrivals 89
My In-Laws 90
One Morning at the INS 91
Cooking and Dining 92
An Instrumental Household 93
Jingle Bells, Batman Smells 94
Entertainment and Attractions 96
Golfing in Las Vegas 98
4 Pondering the Meaning of Life and the Nature of Reality 104
Labor vs. Leisure 104
Obsession with Superficiality 108
Important Professions 110
Motor Vehicle and Lottery Insanity 113
The Powerful Force of Sexual Energy 116
An Illusory Reality 121
Our Very Limited Senses 121
More Than Meets the Eye 124
Eratosthenes' Perception of the Earth 126
More Than Meets the Ear 132
More Metaphors and Analogies 133
A Never-Ending Endeavor of Speculation 135
Staying Away from Reality 136
The Vastness of the Universe 138
The Prevalence of Polarity 142
Reconciling Science and Faith 150
The Concept of God and Spirituality 150
Napoleon Hill's Concept of God 154
Leaving Room for Faith 155
A Tragic Sense of Life 158
Proof of Heaven? 162
Consciousness and the Quantum Vacuum 164
5 Tip-Toe Through the Airways 170
A Personal Conversation with Tiny Tim 170
6 Clarity and Insights from Total Solar Eclipses 179
The Captivation of Total Solar Eclipses 179
The 14 November 2012 Total Solar Eclipse 181
A Mystical Attraction to Australia 181
Excitement (and Polarity!) in Cairns, Queensland 184
Unexpected Insights at the Great Barrier Reef 188
Fitzroy Island and the Solar Eclipse 192
Kuranda, Barron Gorge, and the Return Home 198
The 8 March 2016 Total Solar Eclipse 200
An Excursion to Alaska and Hawaii 200
Anchorage, Alaska 201
The 8 March 2016 Solar Eclipse Flight 202
Honolulu, Hawaii 204
7 Déjà Vu, Dreams, and Eternal Recurrence-Continued 208
Defining and Describing Déjà Vu 209
Improving Our Dream Memory 213
Ouspensky's Study of Dreams and Déjà Vu 215
Ouspensky's Eternal Recurrence Theory 222
So Much More … So Little Time 233
8 Synchronicities 234
Carl Jung on Synchronicities 235
Jung's Examples of Coincidences 238
Assessing Coincidences as Synchronicities 240
Birthday-Sharing Coincidences 240
The B-Flat Coincidence 244
Two Royal Flushes Within Fifteen Hands 245
The Daemon-Assisted "Wrong" Turn 246
A Visit to my Grandparents in Heaven 247
The Asymmetrical Zebras 247
Caught on Camera by Google 248
Encounter with an Unknown Third Cousin… 249
The Broken Rock 250
9 Conclusion 252
The Meaning of Life 252
The Nature of Reality 254
Longing for Eternal Striving and Polarity 255
The Collective Consciousness 256
The Reality of Eternal Recurrence 257
My Journey to Clarity and Serenity 259
Appendix: Digressions and Outtakes 262
The Earth's Axial Precession 262
Proposed Design for New World Trade Center 264
The Superficiality of Facebook 265
The Hoover Dam 268
Bibliography 274
Index 283
About the Author 294
