For the last ten minutes, I’ve lingered near the rollercoaster in the amusement park. Watching people have a blast on the rollercoaster ride fueled my desire to join them, prompting me to purchase a ticket. I quickly found myself on the rollercoaster, sharing the ride with just a few others. The instant the ride kicked off, an electrifying surge coursed through me, delivering an adrenaline-fueled rush beyond compare. I didn’t know how much force it let me experience, but it was more than what I had experienced till now. I remember that during my trip to Japan, Fuji-Q Highland park held a thrilling adventure: a hair-raising experience on the Moonsault Scramble rollercoaster ride that I won’t soon forget. They say you can experience a force of 6.2 to 6.5 g on that ride. But today I experienced a force, which I assume must be somewhere around 12g, the highest force a rollercoaster can let you experience.
Midway through the ride, an unexpected twist unfolded. If you have watched the roller coaster 7D movie, you can understand—the tracks ahead were shattered, causing the coaster to catapult into the air before seamlessly reconnecting to the other end. It was an electrifying experience, the impactful landing intensifying the thrill as the ride continued its thrilling journey.
A desire for a repeat experience surged within me, but as far as I could see, the track seemed to be intact. My desire for an airborne thrill intensified—I wished for the upcoming track to vanish. Miraculously, it did. The ascending track ahead of us dissolved, launching the train into an unending ascent, elevating us to imposing heights amidst the open air.
I thought “This feels surreal, too extraordinary for reality. Could it be a dream?” The startling possibility began to take shape, prompting me to consider the plausibility of being within a dream.
I attempted to recall the name of the park, its location and at what time I arrived here; only to find that I knew none of these answers. A certainty settled in me that this was definitely a dream. And after being aware of my dreaming state, I molded the dream by changing the things around me. Shaping the story of the dream, I directed the roller coaster skyward, initiating our cosmic odyssey. Drifting past the moon, our odyssey spanned through diverse planets and the asteroid belt. Amid cosmic travels, elusive memories resurfaced, reminding me to be on the planet Sindharak, by the aid of the tea that was given to me by Mickey.
Wanting to discover why I was brought earlier to planet Sindharak of Lucid Universe by that mysterious man, I hit a snag trying to move. I imagined a familiar mall and, in a flash, I was there, exactly as I had pictured it. It was a busy mall, full of people doing their thing and enjoying the lively vibe. Everyone was shopping, chatting, and laughing, making the place feel alive. This was where I had met Swami. That very mall where it all started.
I was really hoping to run into Swami or Mickey, but no luck. So, I decided to hang out at a coffee shop in the mall, drinking coffee and hoping that maybe, with time passing, I’d bump into one of them. I repeated this routine, grabbing a snack, playing some arcade games, or having more coffee or tea, but still, no sign of either of them.
Then suddenly, without me thinking of it, the world around me vanished, and a whole new world unfolded before my eyes. In this new realm, a vast crowd of people was flocking to a circus, their faces alive with excitement and curiosity. It was as though something exceptionally rare and captivating was about to transpire under the circus tent.
As the grand finale of the circus, a remarkable individual with the power to peer into the depths of one’s soul emerged. He revealed astonishingly personal details, things only the individuals themselves knew, leaving the audience awestruck. Some attendees questioned him, recounting their experiences and demanding answers, to which he responded accurately, further astonishing the crowd.
Then, the gaze of the soul-reader turned to me, but it was not with curiosity or amazement. Instead, it was filled with anger. He asked if I had any inquiries, and I hesitated, recalling Mickey’s advice not to share personal information here. Despite my uncertainty, I asked, “Is the planet Sindharak real?” But he didn’t answer my question. Instead, he spoke with great anguish- “You should not have come here.” He foretold trouble ahead and emphasized the importance of being cautious, as I couldn’t escape the impending punishment.
With growing fear, I watched as he ran toward me, his intentions unclear. Filled with terror, I fled and, to my surprise, found I could fly. But he pursued me, and the fear of not being able to escape consumed me. In the end, I lost control and started falling. My fear grew stronger as I plummeted finding him behind me, chasing me with great speed. And exactly when I was about to hit the ground, I awoke in my bed with a sense of dread, gasping for breath and yearning for a glass of water.
My brother also woke up startled and asked me, “What happened? Was it a nightmare?” I nodded to indicate yes, and he brought me a glass of water. I gulped it down quickly and requested more water. He had the bottle ready, refilling my glass, and I drank it up instantly. “It must’ve been a powerful dream.” he suggested, I nodded in affirmation. After this unsettling episode, I managed to fall back asleep and proceeded with my usual morning routine, heading to the office as usual.
The dream’s influence stayed, unsettling me for the whole day, compounding the restlessness that had begun with the earlier meeting with Swami.
In the afternoon, my colleague Ashish approached me. “Hey Sarthak, Wassup bro?” he greeted me warmly.
“Hi Ashish,” I replied, my tone unintentionally lacking enthusiasm.
“Is everything okay? You seem off.” he inquired, a touch of concern evident in his voice.
“Yeah, I’m fine, thanks.” I responded, my attention still glued to the laptop screen.
“You don’t seem alright. This isn’t your usual self. Yesterday, you seemed distracted, like your mind was somewhere else. And today, too, you don’t seem to be the usual you. So I hope you can now understand my concern. You are working even during lunch hour.”
“Oh, is it lunchtime?” I responded, genuinely surprised as I scanned the empty cubicles around us, realizing everyone had left for lunch. I indeed failed to notice things around me. “I don’t feel like having lunch. Have you finished yours?”
“Actually, I was thinking of going to The Singh Restaurant for lunch, and I thought you might want to join.” -Ashish suggested casually.
Situated conveniently across from our office, The Singh Restaurant had opened recently. During its inauguration, we found its name amusing and made jokes about it. It had become our spot to have lunch, sharing stories from our daily lives. Despite the haunting thoughts of recent unsettling lucid dreams, I agreed to his suggestion. “Sure, let’s head there.” I replied, closing my laptop and accompanying him to the restaurant.
We arrived, and Ashish placed his order while I opted for just a cup of tea.
“Are you sure you don’t want anything to eat?” he asked.
“Yeah, not feeling hungry.” I replied.
“Come on, have something. I don’t want you neglecting your health over whatever’s bothering you.” he insisted.
“Please, Ashish, don’t push it.” I requested, and he let it go.
“Okay, I won’t pry, But at least tell me what’s really going on? I’m not convinced everything’s alright. I don’t wish to insist too much but I am really concerned.” Ashish pressed. I knew he was surely concerned which was also evident in his tone and he was supposed to be concerned, afterall he was one of the very few I opened up to. I rarely befriend people and used to spend most of my time alone. Only a few people were allowed in my personal space and he was one of those. I felt bad that I was hiding this from him so I finally gave in and shared recent eerie dreams I had.
“Well, you are right. I’ve been having these bizarre dreams that feel incredibly real, and the events in them are really unsettling me.” I said feeling a bit uneasy about how he might perceive me.
“I understand your restlessness, but it’s solely due to overthinking,” he mentioned, continuing, “I’ve repeatedly cautioned against those antidepressants. They’re the cause of your illness. Your belief that you’re sick is aggravating it.”
“No, Ashish, it’s not just a typical dream. It’s not me overthinking. This one is really bizarre.” I emphasized, trying to convey the uniqueness of the experience.
“Alright. Let me hear about your dreams first, and then we can determine whether it’s just your overthinking or something else.” he suggested.
“Okay. So here’s what I saw. I was in a bar and…” I stopped abruptly as something completely unexpected grabbed my attention. “NO, THIS CAN’T BE. THERE CAN’T BE TOO MANY COINCIDENCES.” I exclaimed, taken aback by what I’d just noticed.
It was the voice of the man I was grappling to believe wasn’t real—Swami’s voice. Yet, he wasn’t physically present. The sound resonated from the television airing his interview. His appearance mirrored exactly what I’d seen in the dream: the same attire, the same face.
“So, Mr. Swami, what sort of challenges do you anticipate as you embark on establishing your brand?” the interviewer inquired of Swami.
“What’s going on, Sarthak? Why’d you suddenly stop?” asked Ashish but I politely gestured to him to stay quiet and he noticed how engrossed I was in watching the interview, so he refrained from speaking until it ended.
“Challenges are inevitable. With the market growing, competition is on the rise too. Competition itself isn’t my concern; it’s the wrong kind of competition that I detest.”
“Well, that reminds me of the allegations we’ve heard about you. People claim you’re not trustworthy in business. They say you don’t treat your enterprise members like family, only looking out for your own interests. What’s your take on that?”
“Well, I believe you should be mindful of your words. Making baseless negative claims about someone is incredibly wrong. What message does that send to the public? Do you think they’ll form an unbiased opinion of me? No, they’ll perceive the image you project.”
“Apologies if I’ve caused offense, but as a journalist, I’m committed to bringing forward the public’s questions to you.”
“Take care with these kinds of questions. Nonetheless, I’ll provide an answer. Concerning these claims, who precisely are these individuals? Do they possess any evidence? None whatsoever. They’re my competitors working to damage my reputation. Some are former employees whom I dismissed due to their dishonesty and lack of sincerity, and now they’re trying to defame me.”
During the interview, I discovered that Swami was a prosperous businessman managing multiple garment shops and was on the brink of introducing his own brand. The most bizarre revelation was that he was from my hometown. I couldn’t simply dismiss it as a coincidence, and this realization truly unsettled me.
After the interview, Ashish asked again “So tell me what’s going on? And what’s so special about that interview?”
I recounted all my dream experiences while we both wrapped up our lunch.
“Look, he’s at the interview. Doesn’t that prove he’s real?” I queried as we headed back to the office.
“Hmm,” he contemplated, giving it serious consideration. “I understand, but could it be that you’ve already seen him in real life, and your dream reflected your existing memories? Moreover if it all was true, why did he not send you any message as he promised in the dream?”
“You are right, but…”
“There should not be any ‘but’. It’s all your overthinking because of the recent events.”
“Recent events? Do you mean my break-up?”
“Yes, I personally feel you’re still thinking of her?”
“No, bro. I’m over her. It does not bother me much.”
“Have you tried talking to her?”
I wanted to say ‘No.’ but the words eluded me. Truthfully, I missed her, though I pretended to have moved on. He was inquiring about my girlfriend, Aradhya. Perhaps he thought steering the conversation away from the dream mishap and toward reality would be beneficial. Our breakup happened recently. I couldn’t fathom why she couldn’t understand my situation and chose to leave when I needed her the most. It’s painful to realize that despite my efforts for her, she departed when I was at my lowest. Some of my friends had warned me about the challenges of long-distance relationships, but I disregarded their advice. However, recent events have made me reconsider; it seems they were right—long-distance relationships often don’t succeed.
“No bro. She is not talking. I tried a few times but she did not want to talk. And now I’ve also grown weary of trying to talk to her and now I am trying no more.”
“I understand, but try not to overthink. I know some dreams can appear so vivid, and some coincidences so improbable that we tend to correlate everything. I assume you are aware of the correlation-causation fallacy. Aren’t you?”
I nodded in a ‘yes’. I wished to tell him that it was not my overthinking and it was highly improbable for it to be merely a coincidence. But I thought not to discuss it anymore, so I nodded in agreement even though I disagreed in my heart. But more than that, I was happy to see that he cared. He was able to notice my changed behavior and my worries.
“Thank you so much Ashish.”
“For what?”
“For your care towards me.”
“Anytime bro. I always felt like you’re my younger brother.”
Abruptly, he began rummaging through his pockets, exclaiming, “Oops, forgot my wallet at the restaurant. Hold on, I’ll be back.” He hurried across the street, returning to the restaurant, as I patiently waited.
As I waited, an eerie familiarity surfaced in my mind—a voice echoing from my dream: “You should never have come here.” The soul-gazer’s voice resonated, haunting my thoughts.
I ignored that voice and shifted my gaze across the road, hoping to spot Ashish. Unexpectedly, I saw someone I didn’t anticipate—Myra, the same girl from my dream who had mocked and teased me at the bar. She was accompanied by a friend. With an impulse to approach her, I began moving in her direction. However, before I could reach her, I noticed she had gotten into a cab and left.
A sense of bewilderment lingered as I watched the cab disappear into the bustling streets. Disappointed by the missed opportunity to confront Myra, I turned back to find Ashish returning.
“Did you find your wallet?” I asked, trying to shake off the remnants of the disconcerting encounter.
“Yeah, luckily it was right where I left it.” he replied, glancing around. “What happened? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I hesitated, unsure how to explain the encounter with Myra without sounding irrational. “Nothing, it’s just… a strange coincidence.”
“You are still overthinking. Come on, ignore those thoughts.”
We soon reached the office. I couldn’t stop thinking that it was highly improbable to encounter so many coincidences. Witnessing Swami’s interview and spotting Myra near my office wasn’t something I could ignore. For a moment, I felt like telling this to Ashish, but I decided not to bother him again.
All the events of the day led me to contemplate Carl Jung’s principle of synchronicity, a concept deeply embedded in psychology. I had never believed in the principle of synchronicity, but that day I could not accept it to be a coincidence only. Could Carl Jung’s principle of synchronicity be true? I remember Carl Jung’s words, ‘The universe tries to tell us something. But only those who have ears to hear can comprehend its meaning.’
As the day unfolded after work, the thread of strange coincidences continued. First, in a shop, I saw someone buying a book called ‘Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle’ by Carl Jung, coincidentally while I stood at the checkout counter. Trying to dismiss this intriguing moment, I made my way home, hoping to unwind. However, the unusual occurrences of the day showed no signs of slowing down. Upon arriving home, I found my brother watching a movie. A particular line grabbed my attention—it echoed the unsettling words from my dream: “You shouldn’t have come here.” The bad guy said it to the main character, similar to the warning given to me by the soul gazer in my dream.
The strange series of events continued. While scrolling through my phone, a YouTube video titled “Synchronicity: Meaningful Patterns in Life” popped up in my feed. These strange connections left me feeling unsettled. Despite being aware of the concept of synchronicity, I watched the video, and it made me wonder if the universe was attempting to convey something significant. I couldn’t shake off Carl Jung’s words from my mind: “Synchronicity is an ever-present reality for those who have the eyes to see.”
I thought the day had seen its fair share of events, assuming no more peculiar coincidences were in store. But as I nestled into bed, I was proven wrong. The most inexplicable moment of the day unfolded before me—a message lit up on my phone screen: “HELLO, THIS IS SWAMI.”