33 Mysteries Weblog

Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 2:19 AM

Subject: Re: Thank You

Dear Adam,

Thank you for your site, keep up the excellent work. Dare I say it is the "Original and the Best!"" Many have tried and failed but - 33 Mysteries has stood the test of time! Do not be fooled by impersonators! LOL - I just wrote an ad for you!

All the best

Andrea

Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008 3:44 AM

Subject: Re: Thank You

Hi Andrea,

I really appreciate your kind comments, and I must admit that I have come to take some pride in my 33 Mysteries website. It has always been my intention to provide a forum for exploration of diverse people's experiences of the number 33 as an argument- and agenda-free web presence. I am pleased that so many have written and shared their experiences so generously and without animosity and that you and others have felt enriched by their visits here. I sincerely believe that "33" calls us to this more compassionate, honest, and considerate approach to one another. My heartfelt thanks go out to each who has helped to make this site what it is.

Appreciatively,
Adam

After I had posted my entry, below, I received some nice replies from you folks. The first one said this: "I think you HAVE gotten the message! So hard to keep remembering it, though."

Others have written to me to say essentially that they concur that it is worthwhile to let go of 33 experiences.

Perhaps I have been misunderstood by all but one! :-)

Please forgive me. After all, I had posted a mysterious list of questions. What can be discerned from a list of questions, especially questions about a mystery? What about answers, Adam???

I may have some for you now, or at least one. Others have suggested something quite similar to this in the past, and I'm not claiming anything particularly new, here. It's making more sense to me now.

Some of the respondents to my blog posting have said things like: Nowadays when I see another 33 I think, 'What the hey,' and just keep going.

That is not at all what I was getting at. In a sense, that is the opposite of what I meant.

What I would like to suggest is this: that 33s are very much to be EMBRACED - ALONG WITH EVERYTHING ELSE THAT IS NOT THE 33, AND AT THE SAME INSTANT.

See what I mean?

We have been focusing a lot of energy, feeling a lot of awe and wonder - feeling a deep sense of mystery, and often comfort or affirmation - when we see yet another unlikely 33...on a clock, a license plate, in our lover's numerology or current age (my own wife is 33 this year, in fact)...

Maybe we can take the next step...

Here it is: Next time you find a strange 33 staring you in the face, at that moment, look all around you. Look inside you. Remain calm and quiet, and just look. Don't ask any questions, don't generate any thoughts.... Just amplify that feeling you have about the 33 and apply it to everything, and to everyone, around you... to everything you can see, to everything you can hear and feel, to anything you are touching or tasting...

You see, I am by no means suggesting that you reduce your sense of wonderment when you see a 33. Quite the contrary!

I am now convinced that it is possible in any moment to put that 33 at the center of everything, and then to stretch out with your feelings to the very edge of your universe, as far as your heart can reach. The wonder you feel about 33 can magnify many thousands of times, maybe infinitely, each time you see everything as the SAME AS 33 - as if 33 is at the very Heart of Everything, and you are standing there beside it looking out at all of it, taking it all in, all back into your Heart in that moment....

Those of us who see 33s are immeasurably fortunate to have a reminder like this showing up in our daily lives. We don't even have to exert the energy to remember to pay attention. This thing comes at us, saying: "Hey you, right now: NOTICE! REMEMBER! LOOK AROUND...!"

It is as if the Heart of the Universe suddenly opens up to you, and you are standing there to behold all of it.

Now, I feel confident that eventually - if we approach this in the best spirit - the 33s will no longer need even to remind us. We will see wonder in everything, equally.

Let's not miss this opportunity.

Don't let go of 33... EMBRACE IT ALL.

With love,

Adam

At the entrance to many Buddhist and Hindu temples, one may see some statues on either side of the steps or walkway as you approach or as you enter. These may be in the form of lion-like figures or snarling "demon-dogs." In some instances, humanoid figures near the entrance may appear alluring or even erotic. Here we have the notion of the "dragon's gate," where the idea is that only those who are "worthy" may pass beyond and into the inner temple, toward the sanctum sanctorum.

The suggestion is that if you are caught up with any strong reaction to any of these figures, these "guardians" - or if you are distracted from the purpose of your visit - then you are not yet ready for the type of calm and openness essential for the greater experience and communion you seek inside the temple itself.

Allow me to pose this question: What if our 33s are like these temple guardians?

Over the nearly 14 years I have been seeing 33s all around me - not infrequently under very odd circumstances or in unusually large quantities where they reasonably should not be - I have become perturbed, to state it honestly. While my reaction has tended toward awe, sometimes it has included an element of fear, as well. During some periods, I have felt somewhat seduced, magnetically drawn to this numeric icon. At other times, I have felt almost angry, like I am the subject of some cosmic joke or conspiracy to which I alone am not privy!

What if this is the very point of our 33s?

What if when I discover in the lot all around me 5 cars out of 20 with 33s on their license plates, right after I have parked the car at 3:33pm...what if I register no reaction of any kind, aside from merely observing the fact?

Moreover, what if I regard this as nothing any more special than everything else around me in that moment? What if I feel the same sense of wonder to park near a beautifully flowering plant as I feel when I unintentionally park between two 33s?

What if everything I experience inspires a similar reaction; or better, maybe nothing throws me off center, one way or the other? What if I remain in perfect equipoise in all circumstances, seeing nothing as any more or less "special" than anything else?

Why do I react with awe, just because something unlikely appears before me?

What if I recognize that all of this human experience is, in a sense, "unlikely" and precious, just like so many sightings of "33"?

Maybe 33s are the lions at the gate, reminding me that so long as I make distinctions - favoring one thing over another, finding wonder or beauty in this, but not that - then I am still not really getting the message; the message that all is wondrous, that all is Divine, that all is precious and lovely? ...Thinking there is some "message" in 33s, but not in my neighbor telling me again and again how much her long-since-passed, dear pet cat she had lived with alone for 15 years, had especially liked me?

What if that's really what we are dealing with here?

I'll let you know how it goes after some time....

I have the same kind of ongoing relationship with seeing 33s everywhere as most of you, for about the past 14 years now, and still it remains a near total mystery to me. 33 does show up in many spiritual traditions, however, and I intuitively feel that it is mostly a good thing (though we can become obsessive about it - not a good thing!). I don't have many new insights about it at this time.

I know that in our culture, we do not have room for mystical experiences. Much of what gets labeled "psychotic" might be considered mystical in other cultures.

I do not tend to associate 33 with the afterlife, but then I do not see a big distinction between this life and the next. Our true nature is immortal, in my view, and this is just one chapter, one perspective we are having in this present life.

The persistent mystery about 33 for me is why it shows up for some folks, but not others, and frankly, HOW it can show up in the nearly impossible ways it does! My friends can attest that 33s show up in my life with a frequency, and under circumstances, that really genuinely defies any kind of rational probability, so there is something going on with it - something genuinely "paranormal" - and that is about the only thing I can be certain about.

It feels comforting to me, like it is saying I am on the right track. Many who write to me feel that way. One woman wonders whether it is shown to people who are "pure souls in need of some 'correction'", and my reply to her is that - in my view - that applies to each one of us, to all people!

Alas...the mystery continues... Do feel free to keep me updated with any discoveries or revelations you may have about it.

In response to one kind reader who recently wrote with some good suggestions about opening up this website for reader editing (wiki-style) and other types of interactivity, I wrote the followng [excerpts from my reply]:

...I like having some discretion over what content is presented at
my site.

For the past few months, I have been getting lots of porn postings in my Guestbook, and it is easy enough to delete them. Were I to open the site up further, I suspect I would then be dealing with a much more cumbersome maintenance regime to keep the site clean. I would like to be able to say I have time for that level of involvement, but I do not.

As for interaction, interactivity among users: One regular poster and e-mailer (to me and others) founded a yahoo group about a year ago, but became discouraged and gave up after some folks with very narrow agendas essentially took over the direction of that site. I am not keen to undergo that kind of experience with my own site.

I am happy that my site remains essentially "agenda free." Folks are invited to post whatever they like, and I practically never edit anything folks post.

Most people include their e-mail addresses, so it seems to me that there is plenty of opportunity for people to interact on their own, directly and personally, and without requiring any intervention or, frankly, participation from my side. I enjoy personal correspondence... but with over 250 participants in my Guestbook - growing weekly! - I can see having to deal with too much were I to host a more interactive forum.

As for the general, overarching purpose of my site, I maintain it for three primary reasons: One, to allow folks to have their say and to make themselves available for dialogue with others (via inclusion of their e-mail addresses with their entries); two, to try to serve as a hub for most of the best 33-related info on the web; and three, to serve as the location for whatever discoveries may come along about this enigma we call "33 experience."

If one looks over what all of the folks have written at my site, it seems clear that, despite some very interesting and important observations and opinions from guests, there is not yet any consensus - or maybe even any clear direction - toward deciphering this mystery. If - and I certainly hope, WHEN - someone "figures this thing out," they will surely write to me and/or post that info at my site.

I do appreciate the idea of community and the interaction of same, so I encourage others to host sites of their own for 33-related dialogue, and I will happily post links to and write ups about those, provided those sites are sticking to the theme whilst avoiding the all-too-common pitfalls of rude and misguided bantering, agenda pushing, etc....

As it stands, I welcome from visitors - and will readily post - pics, facts, essays, and the like at a visitor's request (provided that such data is relevant to the theme of my site). Please see my Site Map [click here] for all of the pages at this site.

Thank you for your continued and courteous participation in my 33 Mysteries website!

If you've been following my blog, you will know that I rarely post personal "33 experiences." Here is one remarkable enough that I have decided to include it.

My next door neighbors - aside from the amazing coincidence that I sort of knew both the husband AND the wife (separately) well before they ever moved in next door (none of us were aware of that fact until after they moved in) - they had a truck with a 33 on the license plate, and so it sat right next to my driveway, a few feet from my own car.

Virtually every time I go out onto my street, or more often to the nearest major intersection, I will see at least one 33 on a license plate right there, close to home. My neighbor's "33" came VERY close to home, right next door. I see this 33 plate without even having to leave my driveway. For some time, they had a large RV, and its serial number - in bold, black print on the side - also included a 33.

Maybe that is not strange at all.

But when they sold their truck, then bought a new one, I was rather surprised to discover that the new one had a different plate with another 33 on it.

License plates in our State are given out randomly (verified through our DMV), and these neighbors have little or no interest in 33, nor did they select these plates in any way.

About two weeks ago, they sold that second "33" truck and they replaced it with a new Honda sedan. They kept the same license plate, and so I still have a 33 on the plate next door.

Also worth noting: Far more cars with 33 can be found at houses on my street than would normally happen, given their random distribution; at last count, there are about six of them within 2 or 3 blocks to either direction from my house.

In this way, 33s on plates come to me; I don't even have to leave home to see a 33 on a license plate.

I just had a thought; maybe it will develop into a suggestion for those of us who see 33s....

As I was just now reading a report from a 33 seer, newly writing to me, I found myself comparing, and sometimes contrasting, my experience with his, and it occurred to me that maybe I do this regularly, naturally. My guess is that most of us do this.

For example, we write about our own experiences, because that is what we know best. But how carefully - how attentively - and how non-comparatively do we read and process the reports of others' experiences?

Most who find this site for the first time describe their surprise. Many people - including myself before I posted this site some years ago - thought that they were the only one experiencing this "33 phenomenon." Coming in with a view like this, some are changed instantly as they realize they are not alone, that others have very similar "33 experiences."

But, then we may wonder, just HOW similar is that to what I experience? The thought process may go something like this: Well, I haven't seen 33s as the result of some loss of relationship; or, I do not interpret my own experiences as so-and-so does; etc....

In that case, might we be in danger of paying significantly more attention to our OWN experience than we are at that point to the larger community of people who are COLLECTIVELY having 33 experiences, or to the fact that this thing is bigger than any one of us - or indeed, even ALL of us combined?

So, what I am trying to ask is this: I wonder what it would be like to read a Guestbook entry written by another 33 experiencer as if their story held some essential and vital clue to our own mystery? As if in some sense they are holding some piece that uniquely fits your puzzle, a piece that you could uncover only if you can see it or hear it clearly?

What would you do if someone wrote to you in such a way as to give you reason to believe that in their message may lie the very "answer" you are looking for?

Now, what if that were actually true, but you missed it because - rather than reading attentively and listening carefully - your mind was too noisy with comparing his or her words against your own experiences?!

Or, to put it another way, What if the key to YOUR 33 mystery could be found only collectively, only when we all genuinely and caringly listen to the messages of others describing their own experiences? What if something about that process of attentiveness itself might reveal the key to this Mystery?

For a moment, pause, breathe....

A frequent contributor to this site has recently posted something that I think is a good example of one of the many problems we can run into when we focus too much on ourselves, and too little on the thoughts of others. He writes:

"It...has struck me as odd how people of the Christian Religion immediately think it has to do with their religion regardless of the fact that many people of different religions see the number. I mean, if the number itself is to convert non Christians to Christianity, then why would the Christian be seeing it?"

He makes a good point, it seems to me, and it has broader implications for us.

As strange and as widespread as this 33 phenomenon is, any solution might be equally strange. What if the answer to YOUR mystery could only be found inside of the experience of another? What if you could find that only by quieting the impulse to tell your own perspective and to deeply listen to that of the other, instead?

Interesting food for thought, wouldn't you agree?

Along these lines, there have been to date well over 250 signatories in the Guestbook Forum at this site; plenty of opportunity to explore what others have to say about 33.

Thanks again to all of you who have continued to write courteously, respectfully, and sincerely. Despite some recent intrusions with spam-like entries, I continue to feel grateful for the consideration for others demonstrated by those who post at this site.

_____________________

"If something seems true to the mind, it may or may not be; if it feels true to the heart, then it is." -- ACB


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