Here’s an article on synchronicity, written by Dick Cavett, that appeared in the New York Times on May 8, 2009.
Cavett doesn’t use the word synchronicity, which is surprising. He also refers to Freud, but doesn’t mention Jung. It’s almost as if he is just awakening to the idea that something mysterious might be going on.
There are numerous comments by readers that follow the article. What astonished me was how many belittled the idea of ‘meaningful coincidence,’ and looked for rational ways of explaining these co-incidents. Still others just laughed it off. Some, however, recognized a bigger picture at work, beyond cause and effect.
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A friend of mine was meeting his soon-to-be in-laws for the first time. They had driven from a faraway state. Their license plate, he saw, consisted of an unusual, arcane scientific term: something like “GENTFRETS.” Let’s call it that.
Nothing strange so far, except that the families had never met, and my friend’s father’s license plate, relating to his profession, also read: “GENTFRETS.”
That baffling phenomenon — coincidence — intrigues me more and more as instances spice up my own life with their mysterious improbability. I’ve had some doozies.
I think this is a promising article for giving credence to synchronicity – in the news and at an academic level. It only takes one voice to begin the ripples in the pond.
Believers enjoy watching the journey of discovery and skeptics have the opportunity for new paths of thought.
I find it intriguing that the article appeared in the NYT. Some of the comments are curious – a real mix of skeptics and believers. I hope that Cavett Googles coincidence, finds his way to a definition of synchronicity, and learns that Freud had nothing to do with it!