Sky Nelson-Isaacs - Living in Flow: The Science of Synchronicity and How Your Choices Shape Your World

Sky Nelson-Isaacs has created some excitement in Living in Flow, in which he explores meaning, perspective, authenticity, synchronicity, and all the things that make up the flow of our universe. He invites the reader in with a friendly, down-to-earth warmth, helping the nonscientist stay engaged. References to research and personal anecdotes make Living in Flow a compelling work that I enjoyed immensely.

In this rare gift Sky Nelson-Isaacs has given us a remarkably insightful and readable understanding of synchronicity and how to live into it.

Reading this book made me happy. And hopeful. As an elder and a spiritual theologian it moves me to learn from a young physicist who is posing perennial questions from the viewpoint of the new science. Sky Nelson-Isaacs ignites new sparks that shed light on ancient mysteries. The authors method of LORRAX (Listen, Open, Reflect, Release, Act, XRepeat) as the path to flow parallels in many ways the four paths of creation spirituality in my work: Via Positiva, Via Negativa, Via Creativa, and Via Transformativa. There is rich and fertile ground here born of postmodern science for birthing a language that is far more friendly to spiritual and mystical realities than most of the perspectives of the modern world view ever was or could be. This book sparkles with insights and connections that we are all hungry for.

Sky Nelson-Isaacs brings a vigour and rigour to his analysis and locates his interpretation of synchronicity in day-to-day examples that have happened to him and to others, giving the reader a step-by-step analysis of synchronicity and how the theory applies. He develops an original model of synchronicity called meaningful history selection. Grounded in quantum physics the visual model of the tree of possibility helps us understand how some choices are made en route, while others not, highlighting how we choose particular branches based on our intent.

Copyright 2019 by Sky Nelson-Isaacs. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Published by

North Atlantic Books

Berkeley, California

Cover photo gettyimages.com/MATJAZ SLANIC

Cover design by Howie Severson

Book design by Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Illustrations by Sky Nelson-Isaacs and Alison Manes

Printed in the United States of America

Living in Flow: The Science of Synchronicity and How Your Choices Shape Your World is sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing, and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature.

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Passage from The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster text copyright 1961, copyright renewed 1989 by Norton Juster. Used by permission of Random House Childrens Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All Rights Reserved. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, Norton Juster 1961; passages from Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership copyright 1996 by Joseph Jaworski, reprinted with permission of the publisher, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., San Francisco, CA. All rights reserved. www.bkconnection.com; Excerpt from pp. 85-86 from The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. Copyright 1971 by Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers; Excerpt from The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber Ltd.; Excerpt of 8 I. from #48 from Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, A New English Version, with Foreword and Notes, by Stephen Mitchell. Translation copyright 1988 by Stephen Mitchell. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers; Excerpts from pp. 3, 6, 7, 44, 5859 from Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Copyright 1990 by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers; Brief quote from p. 76 from Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Copyright 1996 by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers; Excerpts from pp. 69, 70, 119 from Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, copyright 1997, 1998. Reprinted by permission of Basic Books, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Nelson-Isaacs, Sky, author.
Title: Living in flow : the science of synchronicity and how your choices
shape your world / Sky Nelson-Isaacs.
Description: Berkeley, California : North Atlantic Books, [2019] | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018034423 (print) | LCCN 2018036743 (ebook) | ISBN
9781623173128 (e-book) | ISBN 9781623173111 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Coincidence.
Classification: LCC Bc11f075 (ebook) | LCC Bc11f075 .N45 2019 (print) | DDC
123dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018034423

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Dedicated to Rishi, Axel, and Sara, who showed an early interest in the ideas in this book.

To Dana, my soulmate. Im so glad I found you early.

To Ellie, for the future I want you to have. You being here makes it better already.

I am deeply grateful that Sky Nelson-Isaacs has written this book. I have been waiting for over twenty years for a highly qualified physicist to embrace and verify the fact of synchronicity and to explain the fundamental physics that may underpin this phenomenon.

In these pages, Nelson-Isaacs has done so in a clear, concise, and nontechnical waya way that all of us can understand. He has written with honesty, balance, passion, and a sense of urgency, given the state of the world we are now experiencing.

Most importantly, Nelson-Isaacs has given us a roadmap for cultivating the capacity to enable synchronicity in our everyday lives. The central message is that our choices shape our world. Every choice we make is meaningful because the Cosmos responds to the choices we make. Our intention and way of beingour total orientation of characterdrive the future we will experience.

Accordingly, as we mature, we must answer the most important questions in life: Who am I? Why was I put on this earth? What is my lifes purpose? Once we have determined the answers to these questions, we must live and act authentically, aligned with our purpose. The formula is: Listen carefully to what is seeking to emerge. Live from the heartwith love, wonder, boldness, and gratitude. And actbecome a spark. When the inevitable challenges arise, have faith and remain committed. If we do this, we will experience success in uncommon terms.