Top Synchromystics of the Year 2018: Jim Brandon and Alex Fulton

"Synchromysticism: The art of realizing meaningful coincidence in the seemingly mundane with mystical or esoteric significance." ~ Jake Kotze, The Brave New World Order, August 18, 2006.

Top Synchromystics of the Year 2018

by Loren Coleman, author Twilight Language, Mysterious America, Suicide Clusters, and The Copycat Effect.

Jim Brandon

Jim Brandon is the author of 1978's Weird America and 1983's The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit. Both of these books have had a long-lasting effect on the thinking of Forteans and synchromystics, first in articles and books, and now in blogs, podcasts, and digital visual works.

The Fayette Factor, as I have characterized it, was first documented by researcher and writer William Grimstad back in 1977. Grimstad wrote about it in an article entitled "Fateful Fayette," Fortean Times, No. 25, Spring 1978, and in his two books shown here - Weird America and The Rebirth of Pan - credited as being authored by "Jim Brandon," who we know as Bill Grimstad.

In 2018, Jim Brandon/William Grimstad resurfaced with the reissuing of a revised edition of his audio book from 1974-1975, Sirius Rising, which he gave a new subtitle, Mr. Downard and the Synchromystical Boson.

Before Brandon became well-known in Fortean circles for his classic books, he had created and shared with associates his now-long-unavailable and difficult-to-obtain tape of his interviews with James Shelby Downard (March 13, 1913 – March 16, 1998). Yes, it was a reel-to-reel tape.

Renewed recognition of Sirius Rising was noted by me on March 30, and then bestowed as a formal critique on December 19, 2018, by Andrew W. Griffin of Red Dirt Report, in his review, "Magick Bullet: 'Sirius Rising: Mr. Downard and the Synchromystical Boson' by Jim Brandon."

Griffin gives a good overview of the entire contents of Siruis Rising tape, and there is no reason for me to repeat his words here. Griffin takes the reader along on the ride, and reminds us that Grimstad reinforces the definitions we are growing aware of ~ "Synchromysticism is the old study of 'name games' and 'Forteana,'" plus "All coincidences may have meaningful relationships."

Grimstad rightfully deserves to be one of the co-honorees for Top Synchromystics of 2018.

Following in the past tradition of receiving a small token acknowledging his award, Bill will be sent a cup with Lafayette and Washington on it.

Alex Fulton

Alex Fulton is the creator of Cryptokubrology on Twitter and the co-mastermind (in association with Robert Shawn Montgomery) behind various cryptokubrology contributions on YouTube and Facebook. (See their site here.)

During the fall of 2018, Alex Fulton began noting the Cryptokubrology hits were coming fast and furious.

Fulton further implied the cause behind this. The date 11/7/2018 "marked the beginning of the 237th month since Stanley Kubrick's death."

A Cryptokubrology "death watch" began.

Douglas Rain, the voice of HAL in 2001, died on November 11: "Here is the 11/11 Cryptokubrology hit," tweeted Fulton.

11/12/18 = Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee died.

11/16/18 = Alex Fulton's birthday.

11/16/18 = William Goldman, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, died.

11/16/18 = Pablo Ferro, graphic designer, film titles designer of Stanley Kubrick films (Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange), died..

11/24/18 = Another director died. Nicolas Roeg directed David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth, and other important films.

11/26/18 = Bernardo Bertolucci died. He had directed The Last Emperor, The Dreamers, The Conformist, others.

11/27/18 = Samuel Hadida, with over 70 producing credits including the Resident Evil franchise, died unexpectedly at 64, in Santa Monica.

Alex Fulton deserves the recognition as one of the Top Synchromystics of 2018.

As a token of his award, Alex will receive a Christmas ornament fashioned after the key to room 237.

Past Synchromystics of the Year

Synchromystic of the Year 2017: David Charles Plate

Synchromystic of the Year 2016: Joe Alexander 

Synchromystic of the Year 2015: Will Morgan

Synchromystic of the Year 2014: Alan Abbadessa Green

Master List of Synchromystics of 2017: The Living

August 16: The Birth and Death of Queens and Kings

Aretha Franklin, born 1942, dies August 16, 2018. 

Elvis Presley, born 1935, dies August 16, 1977.

Aretha Franklin was born in Memphis; Elvis Presley died in Memphis.

Madonna, born August 16, 1958, turns 60 on August 16, 2018.

Anne of Austria, Queen of Poland, born August 16, 1573, dies 1598.

Ranavalona I, Queen consort of Kingdom of Madagascar and then sovereign, born 1778, dies August 16, 1861.

Robert Johnson, King of the Delta Blues Singers, born 1911, died August 16, 1938.

Clones, Louie's, and Shooters

"I had planned to take my kids to Louie's, but drove over to a Mexican restaurant instead. Something told me not to go to Louie's."

So began my realization that a shooting I had heard about earlier had touched a close correspondent friend of mine.

Perhaps it was Andrew W. Griffin's covert awareness of the power behind the name, Louie's? (See his "Louis/Lewis," in Red Dirt Report, February 13, 2017.)

Whatever the reason, I was happy that this posting was not so close to home. But it is for lots of people, as time goes by and these incidents become commonplace. In terms of people and places that are now touched by mass shootings, this set my mind to thinking about the issue of Thanatourism. I wrote about disaster and dark tourism earlier today, here.

The Incident

"Louie's" is Louie's by the Lake on Lake Hefner. It is one of many Louie's in the region, and the one that Andrew goes to with his kids. Just like many people go to with their children.

On Thursday, May 24, 2018, a children's birthday party was occurring when a shooting began. The shooting happened about 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Louie's, 9401 West Lake Hefner Drive, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Police were called and told that a man was shooting from outside the front door into the restaurant. The shooter was said to be wearing ear protectors and shooting glasses.

When police arrived on the scene, they found the gunman dead outside of the restaurant. He had been shot by two civilians, police said. The civilians were identified as Juan Carlos Nazario, 35, and Bryan Whittle, 39.

Both Nazario and Whittle had their weapons in the trunks of their vehicles. As the situation unfolded, both of the men were able to go to their vehicles and retrieve their firearms and shot the firing suspect.

The Shooter

Alexander Tilghman took a selfie in front of library book shelves of titles catalogued from 973, the United States, through 999, Extraterrestrial Worlds.

Alexander C. Tilghman, 28, of Oklahoma City, was identified as the shooter in Thursday evening's shooting that left four people injured, police said.

Tilghman died after he suffered multiple gunshot wounds, the state medical examiner's office said.

Police said three people, two female children and one adult female, were shot by the shooter identified as Tilghman. All three shooting victims are in good condition and are expected survive, police said.

A fourth person was also injured during the shooting. The adult male reportedly fell and broke his arm during the altercation. He is in good condition.

Tilghman

Tilghman was licensed as an armed security guard. The Oklahoma Council on Law Enforcement and Training's Gerald Konkler said Alexander Tilghman held an active license as an armed guard and there were no disciplinary actions against Tilghman.

Other than a domestic assault and battery complaint against Tilghman when he was a 13 years old, Tilghman had no other run-ins with police. Oklahoma City Police say their last official contact with Alex Tilghman was in 2003. In a police report, Tilghman’s mother said he had punched her in the chest and arms following a fight over the family vacuum cleaner.

The Tilghman name is possibly an altered spelling of the German Tilchmann, an occupational name for someone who raised or tended trees, from Middle Low German telge "branch," "young tree," "seedling."


Demonic Attacks, Gays, and Clones

“I am under hardcore demonic attack you know; I really need some real people in my life so get in touch with me ASAP,” Alex Tilghman said into the camera for his YouTube page. The post happened weeks before police say he went into Louie’s Bar and Grill on Lake Hefner and opened fire.

Tilghman lived in Oklahoma City and his social media posts are filled with cryptic references to demonic attacks. In one video posted from the Oklahoma City Zoo, Tilghman complained of a demon-possessed squirrel, which followed him around the park.

Other videos posted three weeks before the shooting, Tilghman appears to be recording video near Lake Hefner of the cars passing by, which he claimed Satan was making sound louder. Tilghman advertised his social media page using bumper stickers and posters he left around town. One poster that pointed to his YouTube warned of “Demons in Cloned Transsexual Bodies.”
“I even have my refrigerator attacking me,” a monotone Tilghman said in the video. “It turns on when I am thinking something.”

His monologues mix between this demonic possession belief and one where he feels he is living in a “matrix.” The “matrix” Tilghman talks about is in reference to a series of movies of the same name where humans are part of a computer-generated world and have to be liberated from that cybernetic network in order to be free.

The local LGBT newspaper, Gayly had interviewed Tilghman about weird flyers he put around town. They had earlier discussed his flyers.

Bizarre Coincidences

In a strange twist of reality and the same name, Alexander Tilghman is the moniker of Shirley Tilghman's nine-years-younger son. And who is Shirley Tilghman? She is a world famous pioneer in cloning, and former president of Princeton University. The other Alexander Tilghman, the Louie's shooter, was obsessed with demons and clones. In terms of parallelism, it is quite weird.

Other happenstances include that a county in southwestern Oklahoma is called "Tillman." Around 1966 or so, there was a strange UFO sighting near the town of Davidson in Tillman County, Oklahoma. A man encountered an alien "repairing a craft" near the side of the road. The story is shared by John Keel.

Andrew Griffin passed along that Hayden Hewes, the late local ufologist reported on a saucer rising out of Lake Hefner in a 1965 sighting.

Cayce Crash

A February 4, 2018 morning crash involving an Amtrak passenger train - the Silver Star Train 91 - and a freight train in Cayce, South Carolina, killed at least two people and injured more than 100. 

The number of the engine of the CSX freight train is 36. The number on the engine of Train 91 is 47.

Here are the main elements of the morning's events.

▪ There were eight crew members and approximately 139 passengers on board.
▪ The two people who were killed were Amtrak employees. They were identified as train engineer Michael Kempf, 54, from Savannah, Ga., and conductor Michael Cella, 36, Orange Park, Fla.

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article198332739.html#storylink=cpy

▪ The crash between the Amtrak train and a CSX freight train occurred near Charleston Highway and Pine Ridge Road around 2:35 a.m. Sunday. The lead engine and a few passenger cars derailed.
▪ The Amtrak train appeared to be on the wrong track, when it collided with a freight train that was stationary and on a loading track.
▪ All the passengers have been removed from Amtrak 91, which was operating from New York to Miami.
▪ More than 100 passengers were taken to local hospitals, McMaster said. The Palmetto Health hospital system received 62 patients from the crash. According to Dr. Steve Shelton with Palmetto Health, one patient remains critical and two others are in serious condition. There were 48 patients being cared for at the main Palmetto Health location in Columbia. At least two children were involved in the accident, Shelton said. Sources 1, 2, 3.

The thoughts of the shooting in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017, at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.

Cayce, South Carolina, ia a city in Lexington and Richland counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina, along the Congaree River. The population was 12,528 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Columbia, South Carolina, Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Cayce as a name has the meaning "alert, watchful." Cayce is a variant form of Casey (Irish, Gaelic): from the male Gaelic name Cathasaigh.

Casey is a common variation of the Gaelic cathasaigh, meaning "vigilant or watchful."

In ancient times, O'Casey came from the gaelic, O'Cathasaigh word meaning "watchful or vigilant in war" + "grandson or descendant." The O'Caseys were descendants of the O'Carrolls, the Princes of Ely. The Princes of Ely were in turn descended from the Kings of Munster.

The town was incorporated in 1914 and named for local businessman William J. Cayce.

The modern City of Cayce was born out of the coming of the railroads in the 19th Century. At that time the area was known as Cayce Crossing, named for Uncle Billy Cayce, a prominent citizen. In 1914, when the city was formed, the name Cayce was chosen for the town to honor “Uncle Billy.”

Also, in 1914, the Cayce family built a new home in Cayce and moved there to be closer to the center of the town’s activities and the Cayce family’s general store. (Their second home still stands on Holland Avenue.) By 1930, the population of Cayce was around 3,000.

By 1941, the small town of Cayce had become predominantly a railroad town. The railroads made a substantial contribution to the city with the number of local citizens it employed and the payroll it generated for many years. Both the Southern and the Seaboard Railroads handled passengers and mail to and from Cayce and beyond At that time, the railroad, lumberyard, quarry and fertilizer plant were the principal places of employment. Source.

William J. Cayce, Sr., affectionately known as “Uncle Billie,” was born July 29, 1864. He built a general store in his early 20’s and operated the store for nearly 50 years. The store was located in the heart of “old” Cayce, near the Seaboard Railroad. Uncle Billie built his own railroad siding to obtain merchandise for his store, and trainmen often referred to the store as Cayce’s Crossing. The City of Cayce was chartered in 1914, and is named in honor of Uncle Billie Cayce.

Three or four generations removed, we find William Cayce in the family tree of Edgar Cayce.

Free association of the name "Cayce" would naturally bring us to the individual Edgar Cayce (March 18, 1877 – January 3, 1945), who was an American Christian mystic who answered questions on subjects as varied as healing, reincarnation, wars, Atlantis, and future events while claiming to be in a trance. A biographer gave him the nickname, "The Sleeping Prophet." A nonprofit organization, the Association for Research and Enlightenment, was founded to facilitate the study of Cayce's work.

Edgar Cayce was born on March 18, 1877, near Beverly, south of Hopkinsville, Kentucky (site of the later, 1955 sightings of "little people" at Kelly, important in flying saucer lore). Edgar was one of six children of farmers Carrie and Leslie B. Cayce. As a child he played with the "little folk" and was alleged to have seen his deceased grandfather. Some consider Edgar Cayce the true founder and a principal source of the most characteristic beliefs of the New Age movement.

The Red Dirt Report editor Andrew W. Griffin began the morning with the comment: "Pay attention to names, numbers and circumstances in Cayce, South Carolina train crash today. Train theme weighing heavily on my mind of late."

The Cayce crash followed quickly in the wake of the Crozet crash.

On February 4, 1977, a Chicago Transit Authority elevated train rear-ends another and derails, killing 11 and injuring 180, the worst accident in the agency's history.

What else should we expect on this date?

1974

On this date, February 4, 2018, the number one focus of most media and Americans is Super Bowl LII (52). Should we watch the actions of the two teams' players wearing the numbers 91?

Dolores O'Riordan Flies Away [Updated]

Dolores Mary Eileen O'Riordan (6 September 1971 – 15 January 2018) was an Irish musician and singer-songwriter. She led the rock band the Cranberries for 13 years before the band took a break starting in 2003, reuniting in 2009. Her music has been labeled alternative rock, Celtic rock, and post-grunge.

Her Mysterious Death

On 15 January 2018, at the age of 46, while in London for a recording session, O'Riordan died unexpectedly at the London Hilton on Park Lane in Mayfair, an affluent area in the West End of London towards the east edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster. The cause of death has not yet been made public; police said it was not being treated as suspicious.

Lead Singer of the Cranberries Dolores O'Riordan died of Fentanyl poisoning on the 15th, said a source in the London Police Department. Authorities found counterfeit fentanyl near the rocker's bed.

In dying of Fentanyl overdose, O'Riordan joins other pop singers "including Lil Peep (November 1, 1996 – November 15, 2017), Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 – April 21, 2016) and quite probably, Tom Petty" (October 20, 1950 – October 2, 2017), noted the Santa Monica Observer on January 13, 2018.

Fair use: Paul Jeffers' image of Dolores O'Riordan from The Cranberries performs during F1 Rocks! Melbourne

Compare it to the "Jesus Christ Pose" of Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington.

Of course, I had expected another young death on the fringes of the alternative rock/post-grunge arena, after recent months. The hanging suicides of Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington merely continues a long legacy. (See here, here, here, here, here, and here.)

Exactly 14 years ago on January 15, 2018, Hope Of The States guitarist James "Jimmi" Lawrence (born 25 Jan 1977), 26, died by suicide, by hanging, in Peter Gabriel's Real World studios near Bath, while working on his band's debut album.

The Name Game

O'Riordan was raised as a Roman Catholic. Her mother was a devout Catholic who chose her daughter's name in reference to the Lady of the Seven Dolours. 

Seven Swords Piercing the Sorrowful Heart of Mary in the Church of the Holy Cross, Salamanca, Spain.

Besides being busy, another one of the reasons I didn't rush into writing a blog posting on O'Riordan was that a couple friends quickly wrote good essays on her passing.

At Secret Sun, Christopher Loring Knowles dived deeply into Dolores O'Riordan's passing. I especially appreciated finding this passage in his "Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan Swims to the Siren" :

...do note that Dolores derives from "Our Lady of Sorrows" and Reardon means "poet king." So the name-game was strong with this one.

But we're not talking about depression or even the machinations of the music industry here. We're talking about an avalanche of syncs, symbols and connections all seeming to tell us that we need to pay special attention to a reclusive, middle-aged songstress from way back in the day.

How or why, I still have no earthly idea. I do have an unearthly one, however.

In that light, please note that O'Riordan died in a hotel a short distance from Royal Albert Hall, where Our Lady made her only public appearance in 2017, on the first day of Leo. The ostensible reason for the appearance was to discuss 1988's Blue Bell Knoll, which very much laid down the specific template bands like The Cranberries followed.

And remember that those tickets went on sale the day after Chris Cornell died in a hotel in Detroit. Also on the same day Twin Peaks: the Return premiered in Los Angeles.

Lourdes Water

There is little doubt that Dolores O'Riordan was touched religiously. In one of her last interviews before her death, she said she wanted to come back as an angel to help the unfortunate.

Dolores O'Riordan in January 2014

In November 2014, O'Riordan was arrested and charged in connection with air rage on an Aer Lingus flight from New York to Shannon. During the flight she grew verbally and physically abusive with crew. When police were arresting her after landing, she resisted, reminding them her taxes paid their wages and shouting "I'm the Queen of Limerick! I'm an icon!", headbutting one Garda officer and spitting at another. The judge hearing her case agreed to dismiss all charges if she apologised in writing to those she injured and contributed €6,000 to the court poor box.

After the arrest, Dolores O’Riordan's mother revealed that her daughter was separating from her husband after 20 years of marriage. The superstar singer was said to be in a "very vulnerable" state and was under the care of a psychiatric doctor, her mother Eileen O'Riordan said.

Eileen, speaking to the Limerick Leader newspaper at the time, recalled seeing her daughter when she arrived at Shannon Garda Station.

She said: “Dolores was inside in a room, she was lying on the floor, curled up. She had her head covered and her face covered up. She was trying to protect herself. I gave her a hug. I tried to talk to her. She didn’t realize I was there at all. I put Lourdes water on her."

More Cranberries, Back to the Future

Besides Knowles' Secret Sun thoughts, I would recommend reading, Andrew W. Griffin's "Dreams linger...," Red Dirt Report. 

Andrew W. Griffin, 1995.

Cranberries in the 1990s

While Zombie was one of O'Riordan's better known songs, the following is known by many.

It, 1990.

The Cranberries, Salvation, 1996

It, 2017.

She many know the answers now.