NO NAME NO NUMBER CHAPTER 2
House For Sale. 94,000euros.
The house is situated at the top of one of the most picturesque pedestrian only streets in the historic town of Montignac sur Vezere in the Dordogne region of France. This ancient stone dwelling is built on 3 levels, in a pleasant and quiet setting offering an exceptional view of the Vézère valley. Built on a hill, the house comprises 3 rooms with separate access. It sits on a 500 square metres plot of land. Originally, it was part of an old convent.
As soon as I read the last sentence, my heart skipped a beat. I read it several times with disbelief. Another old convent? I must admit that the location sounded wonderful, although I had never heard of Montignac. I went to the bookshop and looked it up on the Michelin motoring and tourist map of France. There I found it, listed between Montier and Montigny-Le-Roi: Montignac. Map reference I.11. Then I looked carefully at my map of Europe and I realised that Montignac was located at 1.1 degrees of longitude. To me, those numbers were very significant. Because of their appearance I knew that whether I liked it or not, this old convent was speaking to me in the language of numbers.
I had owned a convent once before, in Andalucia, Spain. Everything to do with the Spanish convent had mysteriously involved the number 11, 111 or 11:11 in a way that had been far beyond coincidence. Because of the traumatic events that I had experienced during my ownership of the Spanish convent, most of the original building had fallen down. After less than 2 eventful years I had sold it on as a re-development site. Although I didn’t want to get involved in buying another old convent with all the secrets and complex history that I knew would come with it, it was no use. I couldn’t run away from my destiny.
Owning the convent in Spain had taken its toll on me physically, mentally, emotionally and financially. Far from being a sacred, beautiful, atmospheric building which I could have used as a yoga centre, I had discovered a gruelling, dark, bloody history, the echoes of which were still impregnated into the walls of that ancient and historic Spanish building. After selling up and liquidating my assets I worked out that I would be able to raise a maximum of 95,000 euros to buy another property. My dream of creating a yoga and retreat centre was looking like a fading possibility. There was nothing suitable for that sort of price in southern Spain.
“Why don’t you try France?” suggested my sister. “My friend has just bought a really cheap property in the Dordogne. I’m sure you’ll be able to find something in that area for less than 95,000 euros.”
“The Dordogne? You’re joking! Forget it. I'll never go and live there. I can’t stand the place. You know I hate it. That’s the last place on earth I would choose to go to. I don’t like France, I never have done and I never will.”
But I was curious. Was my sister right? Was property in the Dordogne region of France really that cheap? I had been under the impression that French property was quite expensive. Purely out of interest, I googled, ‘Dordogne Property’ and typed in a maximum budget of 95,000 euros.
My sister was wrong because the properties were not cheap. Only 5 properties were available in my price range. There was a small secluded barn, a building plot, a shop, a ruin and the old convent in Montignac.
Despite my personal dislike of the Dordogne I found it impossible to resist investigating the property a bit further. I couldn’t stop myself. It was as if there was a force inside me driving me on. Not only was I curious but I was also very aware of the number 1’s in the map reference and longitude so I simply wrote a short e-mail to the seller to ask whether the property was habitable or not. That was all. But I also set the universe a secret challenge. ‘If the seller of the convent sends the response to my e-mail at 11:11 then I will take note of that. I will then attempt to overcome my resistance to the Dordogne and I will try and find the courage to visit the convent.’ That might sound like a strange ultimatum but there is a reason behind it. Let me explain.
I don’t live my life in a normal way. You might have heard of the film The Yes Man which was based on the experiences of the British comedian Danny Wallace. For a period of 6 months he decided to say yes to every opportunity that was presented to him.
There was also the novel called The Dice Man about a man who used the roll of a dice to make his decisions. Although not a true story, the idea of the book was based on a man (George Cockcroft) who briefly used dice to make decisions while studying psychology.
Well, I don’t say yes to everything and I don’t roll a dice to make my decisions but I do live according to the appearance of numbers in my everyday life. In particular I live according to the number 11:11. Whenever the 11:11 appears I use it as a sign. You could call me ‘The 11:11 woman’. I really do live my life in this somewhat bizarre and unconventional way! However, it is not a random and meaningless decision because my belief is that 11:11 is the sign of our Higher Self/Inner Divinity/God/One Consciousness or whatever term you choose to use. I believe that what we perceive as reality is in fact just a consciousness program. When the binary number 11:11 starts to appear in everyday life it indicates that your de-programming has begun. Or it might be more accurate to say that your re-programming has started. You’re being re-programmed with Divine consciousness. Think about it. Computers are programmed by the binary system of numbers so if we are living within a consciousness program then it follows that we would be programmed with the binary system too.
Not only do I think that the number 11:11 appears in your everyday life to show you the way out of illusion but I also believe it to be a fast track route. That’s why I follow it. It’s similar to having a direct connection to God. When 11:11 or 111 or 11 shows up it’s like a finger pointing the way to go. It says, “If you’re fed up messing about and you want to get off the wheel of karma and rebirth and out of illusion, just follow me. I’ll bring up all your stuff so you can deal with it and I’ll show you what your contract on earth is. All you have to do is to be willing to keep your mind out of any decision making process and have enough courage to take enormous leaps of faith.”
I need to state the obvious here, namely that I would never take action if the number 11:11 appeared and if acting on its appearance didn’t feel right. I always (and I mean always) run actions past my intuition before I act. If your intuition is not well developed then the 11:11 path cannot be trodden although I also believe that the 11:11 will not appear in your life until you are ready. That's why it appears to some people and not to others. However, I do not run 11:11 prompted actions through my mind because I have learned that decisions based on the appearance of the 11:11 do not always make logical sense. In fact they rarely do. I have also learned that taking leaps of faith requires a large dose of courage.
Numbers are my system of reading the world. To me they are the interface between the seen and the unseen worlds. My understanding is that numbers are the language of consciousness as opposed to words which are the language of thoughts and therefore of the mind. I prefer my guidance to come directly from consciousness rather than through the programming of the mind.
In 2003 when the number 11:11 first started to appear in my life, I had no idea why it was happening. Why did I keep looking at the clock just as the digits lined up at 11:11? Why had I not glanced at the clock one minute earlier or one minute later? It’s not as if I looked at the clock that often. However, number synchronicities began happening so regularly and so dramatically that I realized something very peculiar was going on, something way beyond normal. Shortly after the 11:11 began to appear to me, I decided to start my experiment, using numbers as signs to guide me just to see what would happen. I have been living in this way for 9 years and the longer I do so, the more convinced I become that the 11:11 can be interpreted as ‘Act on this and you are acting in perfect alignment with Divine will.’ Essentially we can either act from selfishness (our ego nature) or unselfishness (our Divine nature). Once we surrender our free will to Divine will we become instruments of light on earth. I have found that basing decisions on the appearance of numbers is an excellent way of releasing the stranglehold of the ego. In my experience it also makes for a very interesting (although somewhat challenging, unsettling and unpredictable!) life.
I was relieved when the reply to my email came through a few days later because it had not been sent at 11:11 or 11:22 or any similar time, though I did notice that it had arrived on October 31st which is Halloween. Halloween is the night of All Hallows. On A(ll) Ha(ll)ows the veil that separates the dead from the living is particularly thin. The following day is All Saint’s Day, the first of November. (1.11.) It is also the Pagan festival of Samhain. (1.11.)
31 October 2006. Hi Hilary, Of
course, this house need some work to become a nice property, but it has been
used by my parents as a summer house for many years. So, I confirm that this
house is habitable but it will need new electricity. At this time, one room of
about 35sqm, the bathroom, WC and kitchen are fully operational.
Do not hesitate to contact me again if you need further information. Yours
sincerely. Bella.
Bella. Her name contained a double ‘l’ which I refer to as a hidden 11, but as there was no powerful 11:11 sign I decided not to do anything in a hurry. In fact I did nothing. I didn’t even reply to Bella’s email. I simply left things as they were. Subconsciously I think I was probably hoping that if I did nothing then the convent would go away or be sold to somebody else. But deep inside I already knew that the convent would one day be mine.
All was quiet and calm until April 1st the following spring. The fact that this was April Fools day did not escape me. Completely out of the blue, I received an email from Bella telling me that the convent had not yet been sold so would like to go and see it? The email had been sent at 9:11. That was just enough to unsettle me because I couldn't completely dismiss it as a sign. It was not the powerful 11:11 sign that I was looking for but, as it was the date of the destruction of the twin towers, (that huge number 11 in bricks and mortar on the New York skyline) and because 9+1+1=11 then it was enough for me to be unable to reject the convent outright.
I saw that she was suggesting May 11th as a suitable date for a viewing. Another 11, but still not the double 11:11. I sat pondering those 2 number signs. 11 and 9:11. In conjunction with the 1.1 longitude and the I.11 map reference, were they strong enough signs to act upon? If so, there should be no hesitation so why was I hesitant? Then I casually glanced down and saw the time displayed in the corner of my laptop screen. 11:11. I drew a sharp intake of breath. That was it. There was no decision to make and there was no hesitation as it was now abundantly clear, thanks to the 11:11 number prompt, that the convent was indeed waiting for me. I did not permit my mind to affect my decision in any way. I simply decided then and there that I would buy it. In that moment I surrendered to my destiny and chose to follow Divine Will.