Here is a true life example of the phenomenon of meaningful coincidence. After you read the story, you will see that the image of a little girl in a red coat meant something to Judge Gavriel Bach that it would not necessarily have meant to anyone else in the courtroom, including poor Dr. Martin Földi, the man who told the story.
scene from Schindler's List, otherwise in black and white
Synchronicity: The meaning of the coincidence is in the person experiencing it and not in the outer world. It is a subjective experience with an impact so undeniable it is as if the very hand of God reached out and tapped you on the shoulder.
Something that is synchronous and meaningful to you will not necessarily be for me. This is a personal and subjective experience. This is one reason why it is better not to talk about this things to people who don't understand. It goes a little flat.
We understand that language and communication are intended to get you what you want in life ("pass the butter, please"), not to describe transendental experiences. Come to someone like me to explain them. I'll understand ;-)
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The Story of the Little Girl in the Red Coat, quoting from the PBS Online Documentary: "Perhaps the most moving image in Steven Spielberg's epic film Schindler's List is the little girl in the red coat, the only color image in the three-hour black and white film. However, most people do not know that this image is based upon a true story, a story told at the trial of Adolf Eichmann."
During Eichmann's 16 week trial, one witness after another appeared before Assistant Prosecutor (now Supreme Court Judge) Gavriel Bach to explain before world media the atrocities committed by the Nazis and Eichmann in the "final solution".
In a later interview, Judge Bach was asked to name the most moving moment in the trial.
Bach explained. It was when he was questioning Dr. Martin Földi, a survivor of Auschwitz, about the selection process at the train station. It was not consciously acknowledged at the time, but those who went to the left died and those who went to the right lived.
Dr. Földi was sent to the right with his 11 year old son. His wife and little daughter were taken to the left. The little girl was wearing a red coat. At the last minute, a guard sent Földi's son with the crowd to the left. Dr. Földi panicked thinking, how could this young boy find his mother and sister among the thousands there at the station. But then he knew ... he could find his sister because she was wearing the red coat. It would be "like a beacon" for the boy.
Then he states, "I never saw them again."
As horrible as this story is, like so many others told in his presence during the 16 week trial, what added to its horror was that, by chance, Bach had just bought a red coat for his own daughter. |
It is as if God's long arm reached across the courtroom and rested heavily on Bach's shoulder, saying, "This could happen to you."
There is another level of synchronicity to this story which is so obvious you have thought of it but probably brushed it aside because for the most part we have been taught to do that. We are taught to ignore the most obvious things. The animal has been beaten out of us. We are quite thoroughly civilized.
As you perfectly well know, there is another little girl in a red coat, heartily ingrained in the very culture from which Dr. Földi (a German/Yiddish name) and the Nazis come. Her name is Little Red Riding Hood. Little Red Riding Hood is perhaps the quintessential fairy tale of all time. That in itself, bears contemplation.
It may seem odd to work your mind like this, but we're awakening your intuition. According to the mysterious but knowable laws of the subconscious mind, anyone who dressed their little girl in a red coat might know they were headed for trouble and in this context, the trouble is very serious indeed. We know some things far, far ahead of the time they are decreed to happen but/and in many of these cases we do not want to know ... just yet. This is our struggle with becoming conscious.
Our task in raising our own consciousness is to be willing to know. Very, very few things in life are hidden from us, if only we have eyes to see. It begins with wanting to see and being willing to see. There can be no fear in this knowing.
About Folk and Fairy Tales
Professor D. L. Ashliman of the University of Pittsburgh has an interesting website of Germanic and Indo-European folk and fairy tales. Ashliman has a page on little girls in red coats, called Little Red Riding Hood.
Folk and fairy tales are the Volkswagen of the mythological world. Myths tend to carry the supra-collective, the worldview wisdom that is sanctified by the ruling class or the priesthood, wherever the collective power is. Folk and fairy tales are the yin to that yang. They carry the "left hand" or complimentary wisdom of the common folk, the people. Fairy tales teach from the ground up. The viewpoint is small, low to ground and practical. It is earthy wisdom about life.
Now return for a moment to Schindler's List and see what a great visual artist Steven Spielberg. His use of this symbol is powerful. Even if we don't know the story from the trial, we know the story from the bones of our ancestors. Symbols speak to the subconscious minds of all of us.
And we will conclude by remarking on another level of understanding that the Jews were sorted left, to die and right, to live. This is the most basic cross cultural symbolism. The left is the unknown, the dark, the "other". These things are no coincidence. They are full of meaning and reveal much.
