My Personal Celestine Journal:
Synchronistic Events In My Life

Constructing My Timeline

Awareness of coincidences in my life, leading to an
awareness of guidance and purpose (or guidance TOWARD
purpose), such guidance coming from a source or sources
unknown but which I believe(d) to be God.

A few of the incidents recounted below, I believe,
should have resulted in my death. That they didn't,
I only know that these incidents left me alive and
whole for some reason that I was then and still am
unable to comprehend, other than that there was some
purpose for my survival.

1. At age 5, I stuck a horseshoe magnet in an electrical
socket, and got shocked mildly while green sparks flew
from the socket. The magnet was rendered into a charred
and blackened filament as thin as a few strands of wire,
but I was alive and unhurt.

2. Recurrent dream from about age 6 to about age 8.
Coming home from the store, the ground shook and opened
up, spouting fire. I grew wings and tried to fly home,
but couldn't get off the ground or inside my own back
yard. But I could see my father at the window, with my
mother and brothers. My father was waving me away, and
I could here him telling me to save myself.

This dream stopped recurring at about the time another
strange thing occurred. Instead of coming straight home
from school, I went to a friends' house (coincidentally,
this friend, Jason, was born on the same day as I was).
Toward sundown, I headed home, and my father found me on
the way. He had found my winter coat at the beach (January
on Lake Erie), though I had been at Jason's house the
whole time (to the best of my knowledge). Also, I didn't
feel cold at all, even though I had no coat on and the
weather was below freezing.

It occurs to me that the cessation of the dream at the
occurrance of the after-school episode is one of those
coincidences of the First Insight. I have yet to
comprehend why the coincidence of birthdate between
me and Jason stuck with me so all these years.

3. In July of 1973 or thereabouts, I was at a church
retreat while in the foster care of a minister in the
Restored Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
During the course one service, in a roofed open-air
structure, a young woman was suddenly unable to move.
The people around her moved away so the Elders could
"lay on the hands" in prayer.

While this was occurring, about three-fourths of the
people inside the structure rapidly moved outside,
while I and several others remained seated. When the
praying ended, the woman was again able to move under
her own power. But in the interim, someone had apparently
spoken in tongues, and I understood what had been said:
"Fear not, for I am with thee."

For many years, I had believed this episode to have been
a battle between God and Satan. I now tend to believe it
was the more basic confrontation between Good and Evil.
I also believe that the voice of the tongues was directed
specifically toward me, based on the fear I felt at the
time about going into the Marines and learning to kill,
and the unexplained happenings of my life that brought
a perhaps unwarranted fear upon me.

4. During boot camp, August through October of 1973,
I developed an attachment to a girl I was friends with
back home, and she with me, through our letters to each
other. We got engaged during my first leave, but she broke
up with me a few months later, swearing that she had seen
me and a mutual friend following the bus she was on to
North Carolina when in fact we were heading back toward
my duty station in Memphis. We haven't spoken since
that time. I had been unable to develop a lasting
relationship with anyone else, until years later.

5. In 1974, psychic astrologer Jeanne Dixon predicted that
a U.S. naval vessel would be sunk by another U.S. naval
vessel in late 1975. During the predicted time, I was on
board the aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Midway, somewhere in
the Pacific Ocean. One night, we were scheduled to take
on supplies; but the rudder on the supply ship jammed,
with that ship on a broadside course for the Midway.
There was no logical way for a collision to be avoided,
yet there was no collision. The ship turned, we took on
our supplies and left, but the supply ships' rudder
was still jammed in the same position.

6. In January, 1976, still on board the Midway, somebody
accidentally opened the valves to the liquid oxygen tanks
on the hangar deck, while men were working. Approximately
30,000 gallons of liquid oxygen was spilled, yet there was
no spark, fire, or explosion to set off the substance and
send the ship and crew to the ocean depths.

7. In February, 1976, I was on a 10-day detachment to
Puerto Rico with 80 other men, a cargo plane carrying
our gear, and four jets. All vehicles and personnel
arrived on schedule save one jet, which was carrying
our pay records (we flew through the Bermuda Triangle).
That jet arrived about two hours later, with it's
chronometer reading the time it was supposed to have
arrived, and the pilot swearing he'd lost no time but
had lost the other three jets along the way.

We recieved our pay two hours later than scheduled as
a result; I got on a bus with several of my friends,
heading for San Juan for liberty. But the bus detoured
around an accident: the previous bus to San Juan, which
had left two hours before, had crashed, killing all
passengers.

8. In 1977, after hitchhiking from upstate New York
heading for Florida, I got hungry and broke in North
Carolina, so I headed toward the coast of that state,
where I knew several people. I arrived in the small
town of Havelock, outside my last duty station before
I was discharged, at around 2 A.M. Not wanting to wake
up my friends, I spotted an apparently abandoned train
boxcar; I climbed in and went to sleep. Seemingly not
long after, I was awakened by a high-pitched humming
sound, and I saw multi-color flashing lights above the
boxcar. I went outside to see what was happening, and
the lights and sound moved away; I followed, and when
I was several yards from the boxcar, it caught fire,
burning rapidly.

9. In September of 1978, my boss had a car accident
and had to close his business. Being the end of tourist
season, there were no other jobs to be found. I felt
impelled to return to Florida. When I arrived at my
stepmother's house, I (of course) had a place to live
for a while. She introduced me to a man who got me a
job and provided my transportation to and from work.

I should note here that I have rarely been long without
a job and/or some other legitimate means of supporting
myself.

10. During the summer of 1980, I began feeling restless,
as if something bad was going to happen if I didn't
leave Florida. In July, a man I thought was a friend
told me he could get me a job with IBM if I went back
to New York with him. At the end of the month, we left.
On our arrival in Poughkeepsie, I found that there was
no job, no money, and I had no place to stay. The local
police hooked me up with someone from the department of
mental hygiene (they thought I was an outpatient), and
someone in that department hooked me up with the emergency
services division of the department of social services.
Through that agency, I found a room and got an emergency
food voucher. I got a job within three weeks, which
started on my 25th birthday.

11. Less than a week into my new job, I met the woman
who would become my wife and mother of my son. I
literally almost ran into her, at work, as I was
heading for the video machines (The kitchen was slow
that night); as I was passing her booth, she stepped
out in my path. We talked for a while, getting to know
each other. Within a week, I KNEW she would marry me
one day (instinct, intuition?). And we got married over
four years later, on October 8th, 1984. Our son was born
on June 2nd, 1985.

12. During the first year of our rocky relationship,
I met several people who she knew, who became integral
parts of my life experiences, providing assistance and
guidance at the most opportune times. Almost all of
this had to do with so-called "governmental services."
I learned to be wary of most government agency employees,
and to find my way through the bureaucratic maze of
rules and regulations.

When Nancy died, on September 25th, 1989, I had a support
network of friends and co-workers who helped me continue
with my life.

12. I began building an in-home business in December, 1989,
which could have provided a very good income. But on June
1st, 1990, the county child protection agency took my son,
David, away from me. Then, in August, I ran into a friend
who I knew had studied law. I asked him if he could help
me fight the accusations I was facing and get my son back.
He replied that he didn't know that part of the law himself,
but the man coming around the corner at that moment did,
and he introduced me to the man who became my best friend
ever, Anthony Hynson.

In the process of getting my son back, Tony's boys were
taken away; as far as we could tell, it was because he
was helping me. After I got David back, I helped Tony
get his sons back (actually, we were doing both at the
same time, but my case was finished first). David came
home in June of 1993, and (if memory serves) Tony's boys
came home in June 1994.

13. In August 1996, I felt impelled to move back to
Florida. When David and I arrived, it had already
been arranged, by my family, for us to move in with
my youngest brother, Richard, and his girlfriend, until
I could find my own place. By the end of the month,
David and I both had gotten tired of the near-constant
arguing between Richard and Terry; and I had fortunately
found an apartment close to downtown. Shortly afterwards,
an old high-school friend got me a job where he worked,
which only lasted a few months.

Not long after losing that job, I was hired by an Arab
family to work in their store and laundromat. One of
my co-workers got me an apartment in the building where
he lives, and I've been there to this day, July 3rd, 1998.

During the course of writing this chronology of important
events that seemed coincidental, I realized that there
were many other events which I had thought of as random
chance, thich were actually guiding my life in certain
directions.

For example, the after-school fight in third grade that
messed up my right hand temporarily, forcing me to learn
to use my left, which, now as I look back, also opened
up the subjective, creative part of my brain.

Or the circumstances that placed me in foster care at
17 years old, with a family whose father was an Elder
with the Mormon-based church that provided me with the
experience of witnessing a spiritual battle between
"Good (God)" and "Evil (Satan)."

Or the many people who've entered my life for a time,
guiding my learning and understanding in new and
unexpected ways:

Like Dave Fulton, who helped me understand the Japanese
culture on my trip there with my Marine Corps unit (it
was his second trip);

Robert Wayne Lee, who sent me to Washington D.C. after
my discharge in an attempt to get it upgraded (the
attempt was fruitless but gave me contact with others
who helped my growth along, including Michael Loveless,
who was disabled from Viet Nam and taught me that being
disabled does not mean one is less human;

Marty Corbin, who guided me into studying the writings
of Carlos Castaneda;

Richard Beamish, who gave me a glimpse of Satanism as
a religious philosophy;

Jeffrey Gordon, who provided me employment and friendship
until a car accident forced him to close his gas station;

Calvin Turner, the student of law who introduced me to
Anthony Hynson rather serendipitiously;

Carol Sue Jones, an old high-school friend who, even after
years of separation, I can still be comfortable with as
nothing more than friends;

and many, many others who have meant so much to my
growth and well-being through the years I've so far
come through. I thank them all for being there, and
I thank God, whoever or whatever that may be, for
sending these people my way at the right times.

Donald Charles Rice Jr.

Further note: My deceased wife and mother to my son
was born on April 29th, 1958. At the time of this
writing,he only really close relationship I've had
since she died was with a woman born April 23rd, 1958.

It recently struck me as interesting that these two
women were born in the same year, same month, and same
occidental astrological sign (Taurus, the Bull). Also,
they apparently had many of the same life issues to deal
with, from foods they would and wouldn't eat to sexuality
and relationships (typically of strong Taureans, these
are issues of primarily physical satisfaction).

The next relationship I had was with a Capricorn woman,
which began several months after I'd ended the second
relationship. She had similar issues as the first two,
especially in the area of sexuality.

I believe this particular set of circumstances suggests
that I have issues to resolve concerning relationships
with this particular type of person. To the best of my
understanding, the primary issue here seems to be that
I have other interests that each person was jealous of,
and which all three refused to take an interest in, even
though I encouraged them to do so.

I understand that the nature of a problem tends to suggest
the solution to that problem. However, I saw no workable
solution without a complete termination of the second
relationship. In fact, that relationship ended due to
her excessive drinking and the fact that she gets very
nasty and sarcastic, and makes irrational accusations
when drunk, and I refuse to tolerate such behavior.