Life, the Universe, and Lipstick

By Nancy Rynes, author of Awakenings from the Light


“Everything we call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.” 
Physicist Niels Bohr

I have a friend, Megan, whose husband, David, is a pretty cool guy. He's an engineer who doesn’t seem to spend too much time contemplating all of this “woo-woo” stuff in which his wife and I are interested. It’s not that he discounts it, but it’s not the focus of his life. He prefers to focus on politics and campaigning for his candidates, as well as keeping healthy and staying up-to-date on the latest health research. David is kind of a man’s man: he’s athletic, gets outside on his bike often, but isn’t into fashion, and doesn’t spend much time worrying about makeup.

Even with our slightly different approaches to life, David and I are friendly to each other when I travel to Colorado to visit his wife. While I respect David and am awed by his knowledge of health-related topics, we don’t really have a deep friendship or recurring communication on our own.

One January morning, several months after I had last visited the couple at their home in Colorado, I was getting ready to record a video interview that would be broadcast in a few months. I wanted to make sure I looked decent for the camera so I put on my normal routine of mineral makeup (foundation powder and blush). Then I took out some lipstick I had purchased at the drugstore a few days prior, a shade I had picked out specifically for this interview. I don’t normally use lipstick, disliking the way it feels on my skin, so didn't usually keep any on hand. But I definitely needed some for this video interview because my Seattle-white skin would look washed out under the lights.

Photo of lipstick

I hadn’t given the lipstick much thought when I purchased it but now as I was about to apply it I silently asked myself, “I wonder if this stuff is toxic?” No one else was in the room with me to ask, and since I didn’t have any time to research lipstick on my own before the interview my question remained unanswered.

I turned the tube over in my hand, looked at it for a moment, then decided to go ahead and use it anyway since I didn’t have another option. The interview was just moments away and I didn’t have time to run out to a health food store to purchase something that might be more healthy.

The interview went well and by the end of it I had completely forgotten about my lipstick question.

The next morning I checked my email and noticed a message from David. Now, David had only emailed me once before, a few years prior, with some information about hypothyroidism and autoimmune diseases. He hadn’t emailed me since, at least that I can recall. An email from him was doubly-unexpected because it had been several months since I had last seen or spoken with him or Megan in person. And neither he nor Megan knew about the interview I had just recorded the day before.

My curiosity about the contents of his email got the better of me, especially since we hadn’t been communicating in any way, so I quickly opened the message to see what he had to say. David had written a few lines suggesting that I check out recent research findings on makeup, and lipstick in particular! Huh? What in the world was going on? First of all, David is not at all into fashion and lipstick so to have him sending me articles on makeup shocked me. Second, how in the world could he possibly have known that I was just thinking about this very same topic less than 24 hours before?

photo of lipstick


One of the articles he sent was titled something like, “Which Lipsticks are Toxic, and Why?” I was floored, then I felt one of those creepy little sensations running up my spine. You know that sensation…you get it when you receive confirmation, once again, that the world isn’t exactly functioning the way you often pretend it is. I just received additional confirmation that more exists than just what we can see with our eyes or measure with a ruler. Some people may get that same kind of feeling when they see the soul of someone who has just passed away in that very moment (unbeknownst to them), or know who’s calling even before the phone rings.

How in the world had David, who was living 1500 miles away and with whom I had no contact for months, suddenly decide that I needed to see this report on lipstick toxicity just a few hours after I had asked myself that seemingly-innocent question?

Some might say this was random chance, or “mere coincidence.”

I personally don’t think this is the case. What are the odds that less than 24 hours after I wondered if my lipstick was toxic, did someone I barely know send me an article on toxic lipsticks completely out of the blue? I wouldn’t even know how to start calculating the odds but I would guess that they are astronomically against this being random chance.

Ok then, what are some possible explanations for this seemingly off-the-wall “coincidence,” especially given that there is no way that David could have known I had asked myself that question while prepping for the interview?

Every explanation I can come up with hinges on the fact that reality is not what we perceive it to be with our human senses. There is much more to the universe than just a basic, materialist-based existence as I learned at university while studying earth sciences.

Many people have what psychologists like to call “anomalous” experiences…experiences that are out of the realm of ordinary experience. I prefer the term “exceptional experience” because it’s a bit more positive and doesn’t carry the baggage of the word “anomalous.” Being called an anomaly can make people feel they are somehow wrong or broken.

Perhaps you’ve had one (or more) of these exceptional experiences. Have you felt when a loved one was in pain even though they were miles away? Does your dog or cat know when you are on your way home from work, even when you vary the time you leave your workplace? Do you have dreams or visions about the future of your country that then come true? Have you traveled out-of-body or are you able to accurately remote view? All of these things could be considered “anomalous” experiences by psychologists. To me, they are exceptional experiences that give us glimpses into the way reality truly works.

Traditional psychology and western medicine treat these experiences as nothing more than dreams or hallucinations, and definitely not real. But anyone who has an exceptional experience knows they are in fact quite real, and are windows into a greater understanding of the nature of reality. We have thousands of stories about people knowing the instant a loved one dies, without any real world contact to tell them of the death. Dogs knowing when their owners are coming home even when the owner intentionally varies her schedule and method of travel (see Rupert Sheldrake’s work). We have near death experiencers who see visions of the future that come true, listen in on conversations happening far away from their bodies and accurately reporting those conversations later, or seeing things that they couldn’t otherwise see, like a red shoe sitting on an inaccessible ledge of the hospital.

Like many windows, most of these exceptional experiences only give us a small glimpse of what lies on the other side of the glass, but the glimpses they do give us are astounding.

The old view of atoms as little billiard balls is not really true.
The old view of atoms as little billiard balls is not really true.


Physicists in the last 120+ years have discovered that the “stuff” that appears to make up our material world isn’t really “stuff” as we prefer to think of it. An atom isn’t really composed of hard, tiny billiard balls of matter that are somehow, magically, glued together to form molecules. At their cores, atoms, protons, electrons, and the multitude of even smaller “particles” are actually energy, or even more bizarre, probability waves. These energetic probabilities interact to create the “material” world in which we perceive ourselves to exist.


“As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clearheaded science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about the atoms this much: There is no matter as such! All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particles of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. . . . We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent Mind. This Mind is the matrix of all matter.” 
Physicist Max Planck


Yes, this is real. Bizarre, definitely, but also real.

But how does this explain David sending me articles about the toxicity of lipstick, completely out of the blue?

Assume for a moment that what all of these brilliant scientists have discovered is true (and every experiment that has been done regarding these quantum phenomena demonstrates that these basic concepts are true): that reality as we experience it is energy and probability. The chair on which you’re sitting, your eyes reading these words, the dog at your feet or the cat trying to curl up on your lap, all are ultimately energy and probability. 

In addition to that field of energy and probability, as Max Planck contends, all is held together by what he refers to as Mind, or what I call the Divine Consciousness or the Divine Field. Eben Alexander calls it the Divine Presence, and Gregg Braden refers to it as the Divine Matrix. We’re talking about the same thing.

All of us are a part of the Divine Field by very nature of our existence. You and I are energy. Every atom, every minuscule bit of energy that makes up our atoms…our bodies, minds, and souls, all are a part of this universal energy field. And it’s through this Divine Field of energy and probability that we are connected to each other in ways that go deeper than physical existence. You might know this intuitively, and many NDErs confirm this understanding. It’s also through this field that we are able to communicate in ways that defy the tenants of material existence: though knowing, hearing, or seeing things that we otherwise could not see, hear, or know. It’s how our dogs know when we’re coming home at the exact moment that we decide we’re coming home. It’s how we can feel the pain of a loved one from miles away when our minds don’t even know that they are hurting. 

photo of spider web


It might be easier to wrap your brain around this concept if you envision this Field as a 3-Dimensional web of energy, structured kind of like an infinite spider web, that connects all things and all beings. And like a spider’s web, a tiny vibration made on one strand transmits itself all the way across the web. But in the case of the Divine Field, it happens instantaneously. Time and space don’t appear to be obstacles to information as it transits this field.

Many who have had spiritual experiences will corroborate this: near-death experiencers, shared-death experiencers, people who have traveled out-of-body, and the like, recount that what we know as the passage of time didn’t exist for them, and that distance wasn’t an obstacle. Most will tell you that communicating with other beings on the spiritual plane, whether deceased loved ones or spiritual beings who exist at the level of pure energy (e.g., “angels”), is without vocalization, happens instantaneously, and that they just knew what the other person was thinking and feeling. They might even see what we would consider very specific, "future" events that eventually come true.

In my own experience, as outlined in Awakenings from the Light, this method of communication was natural, profound, and utterly beautiful. It was the hardest thing to leave behind when I was sent back to my body. Well, I thought I was leaving it behind but I soon learned that it exists for us when we’re in the physical as well. It’s just a little more difficult for some of us to access. This non-physical form of communication seems to happen more often with people we know (friends and relatives), but it can also happen with people who are complete strangers as well.

That question to myself about the toxicity of lipstick was actually a question that I unknowingly sent to the Divine Field. And whether David consciously realized it or not, he “heard” my question transmitted through that Field and answered it just at the “time” I needed it the most.

In the next newsletter we’ll do a little investigation into communication across the veil of death by learning about my father and his childhood friend, Sidney.


And if you want to learn more about lipsticks, check out these articles:




Stuff You Might Have Missed
Archive: Past Newsletter Issues

TODAY Show: Nancy's Interview on NBC TV's TODAY


Article: Seven Lessons That Dying Taught Me About Truly Living (Aspire Magazine)

Article: Lives Changed by NDEs (Boulder Daily Camera)

Article: Awakening to Life(Pages 6-10, Journal of Exceptional Experiences and Psychology, Summer 2016)

Article: The Meaning of Life (Excellence Reporter)




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