In 1984 I was living in London. Every day I took the train from Chiswick to Covent Garden. One day as I boarded the train and took my seat I noticed an advertisement above the seat across the aisle from me. The visual was a scene from Jack and the Beanstalk. I began to think of the story and remembered there was a chicken that laid golden eggs. I thought most people don't remember the chicken in this story. Then I began to ponder the meaning of golden eggs, and then which naturally led me to the story of the goose that laid the golden egg. I pondered the meaning deeper, really began to concentrate on golden eggs.

As the train pulled into the next station a young man got on and sat down on the seat across from me. He was a nice looking young man maybe about twenty years old give or take a year or two.

The train pulled out of the station and I noticed the man reach into his pocket. Much to my surprise he took from his pocket a gold egg. He held the egg out as if showing the egg. Then he opened the egg to reveal another golden egg inside. He then closed the egg, put it back in his pocket and got off the train at the next station.

Needless to say I was, as they say in England, gob smacked. With 20/20 hindsight I wish I had spoken to the young man but I guess I was so surprised I didn't think to say anything.

This was no dream and I can still see this even as clear as the day it happened, over fourteen years ago.

On one hand I don't want to over analyse what happened but on the other hand I have thought about this event many times over the last fourteen years and I wish I had a deeper understanding. Maybe if I paint the image a few times I can have a better relationship with the meaning of that encounter on the train.

For some reason I have had the occasion to tell this story several times in the last few weeks. For some reason the golden egg has been on my mind more than usual lately.

--Octatuo [sic] 31, 1998

EDITOR'S NOTE

Dismiss it as a Halloween prank if you like. I can't quite. I've had too many of these bizarre Jungian synchronicities myself. Jung himself did; so do modern dreamworkers. Surreal prompts like this, when the universe turns dreamlike, are what kick of lot of us into dreamwork in the first place.

Source: Larry Vigon's book Dream, 2006. Unpaged, dreams untitled. I added title of convenience to aid searches.

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