The idea for the title of this post came from an email convo with Eunus Noe. It fit well with the ideas that have been swirling around in my mind lately.
Synchronicity is throwing me for a loop.
I've been trying my best to come to terms with the fact that every book, movie, poem, or cartoon I've ever read or watched (or written, for that matter) is a retelling of the same damn story.
The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, Moby Dick, 2010: The Year We Make Contact, X-Men, Thundercats, The Smurfs, Star Wars, Star Trek...etc., etc., ad nauseum...really all the same damn story.
Over and over again, whether through media or personal synchs, we seem to be reinforcing the same creation/disaster/dream/salvation memes to ourselves like a giant, shared subconscious post-it note.
For some reason we must remember these stories. But why?
I can see the patterns, but I don't necessarily recognize any specific, actionable event that the syncs are leading up to (at least not one that would satisfy my logical human mind).
I feel like a rocket stalled on the launching pad...waiting to GO.
I'm starting to subscribe to the viewpoint of one of my fav movies of all time...The NeverEnding Story.
Maybe every unique thought we have keeps a World of Dreams alive in a parallel reality (and vice versa).
Maybe the darkness of The Nothing can only defeat us when we run out of new ways to retell the story.
Maybe the only reason we're not living in paradise on Earth is because there are not enough of us dreaming it.
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Ultimately, Joe Chip learns that Runciter, in fact, was the sole survivor of the explosion on the moon, and that his messages to the group are the result of his attempts to communicate with them while they are in half-life. The regressing world in which they find themselves is discovered to be the product of Jory Miller, another half-lifer whom Runciter encounters earlier in the story while communicating with Ella. It is revealed that Jory devours the life force of other people who are in suspended animation to prolong his own present existence. Of the group of anti-psychics and technicians, only Joe Chip eludes him, aided by the substance called Ubik. This substance, whose name is derived from the word "ubiquity", has the property of preserving people who are in half-life. Joe Chip is instructed in its use by Ella Runciter, who is en route to a reincarnation....
Dick's former wife Tessa remarked that "Ubik is a metaphor for God. Ubik is all-powerful and all-knowing, and Ubik is everywhere. The spray can is only a form that Ubik takes to make it easy for people to understand it and use it. It is not the substance inside the can that helps them, but rather their faith in the promise that it will help them.... we can't be sure of anything in the world that we call 'reality.' It is possible that they are all dead ... It is also possible that they are all alive and dreaming." ("Ubik")
