I didn’t come across the work of Stanislav and Christina Grof until 2020, which is too bad because their work related to spiritual emergencies and extreme states of consciousness would have helped me immensely.

In June, 2021, I visited an online used book website to peruse different authors and books that might be in stock. I searched on Stanislav Grof and noticed that his book When the Impossible Happens: Adventures in Nonordinary Realities was available. I decided to purchase it and placed the order.

A week later, I was pleased to see my book had arrived. I opened the package and noted it was in good condition. I flipped through the book and noticed there was a single, paper bookmark in it.

I picked up the bookmark and was quite surprised when I read that the bookmark was from the Banff Book and Art Den. Considering Grof coined the phrase “spiritual emergency” and considering that I endured what would have been well-defined as a spiritual emergency in Banff, I found that connection to be pretty impressive.

Since 1998, I have visited Banff numerous times and was familiar with many of the shops and how they have changed over the years. I recognized the name on the bookmark, yet I couldn’t place where the bookstore was in town. Finally, I looked it up and learned that the bookstore closed in 2008. The article showed a picture of the store, and I recognized it immediately. I remembered going into that bookstore several times during the time I stayed in Banff until I felt comfortable enough to fly back to the United States.

I enjoy numerous connective experiences of synchronicity, serendipity, and just plain weird things happen. I usually consider them to be gifts from the universe. In this case, this connection was impossible as indicated in the book’s title. Yet it was highly improbable.