One of the ways Carl Jung thought of synchronicity was to compare it to ‘memories of the future.’ I’m not sure he ever used that particular phrase, but he did say that one of his favorite quotes on synchronicity was from Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, in which the White Queen says to Alice: “It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backward.”
Here’s the full reference from the story, as cited by Wikipedia.
‘The rule is, jam to-morrow and jam yesterday–but never jam to-day.’
‘It MUST come sometimes to “jam to-day,”‘ Alice objected.
‘No, it can’t,’ said the Queen. ‘It’s jam every OTHER day: to-day isn’t any OTHER day, you know.’
‘I don’t understand you,’ said Alice. ‘It’s dreadfully confusing!’
‘That’s the effect of living backwards,’ the Queen said kindly: ‘it always makes one a little giddy at first–‘
‘Living backwards!’ Alice repeated in great astonishment. ‘I never heard of such a thing!’
‘–but there’s one great advantage in it, that one’s memory works both ways.’
‘I’m sure MINE only works one way,’ Alice remarked. ‘I can’t remember things before they happen.’
‘It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,’ the Queen remarked.You might ask, how can we remember the future when it hasn’t happened yet? Well, that’s true if we see life as linear. But what if linear time is an illusion, as the theory of relativity suggests, and all time is taking place simultaneously, or all points in time are equally real.
This concept, I suspect, dates back to the ancients, but in Western philosophy, it was formulated in the writings of John McTaggart, author of The Unreality of Time (1908). Essentially, the ideas is that time is just another dimension, that future events are already ‘there.’ In other words, there is no objective flow of time, only the subjective experience of the passage of time.
Perhaps if we as a species understood the true concept of Time/Space , we might be better able to understand how the Aliens arrive here, and their origins…..whether they are inter-intra-dimensional, whether they come here through portals or worm holes or black holes, from other planets, stars, galaxies, universes. They certainly have conquered “the secret”, the physics of Time/Space, and we are trailing eons behind them.
Robert Rosen, a not so well known but amazing scientist, has concluded that we must remember the future in order to be aware and even alive, that remembering the future (Rosen used the word anticipation) is the secret ingredient that makes us living beings different (and never properly modelled) from machines. In his book Essays on Life Itself he mentions Humpty Dumpty. The part “All the King’s horses and all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty in his place again.” is, for some weird reason, a sort of Lewis Carroll’s intuitive insight (combined with White Queen capable to remember the future) into a difference between the world of relations (synchronicity, just like phenomena in quantum mechanics, belongs to that world of relations and causal loops) and the world of parts. It’s not surprising that the books about Alice are mentioned in the book Godel, Escher, Bach.
I forgot to add this link: https://blog.keirsey.com/2012/02/02/that-relational-thing/ I have posted there comments as aleksmalecic.
For those interested, FUTURE MEMORY by P.M.H.Atwater (1999) is a really good book on this subject. Available at Amazon in all formats. I do warn that it can be difficult to navigate, but is well worth the time and effort. Lots of good stuff in it.
‘Memories of the future’ has a nice ring to it. I think it will make a perfect chapter title for my new Indy story. It actually fits nicely with the time portal / distortion effect that I’ll be exploring as I write. Thanks for the great topic! 🙂
For sure there is no time in our dreams. I think dreams are vastly underrated in the general culture. The Tibetans say there is no difference between what happens in a dream and so called “reality.” I have had the experience of “remembering backwards” but apparently my logical mind will only let me do this in the dream state.
love this alice quote – for me, this concept of “time” makes total sense –
Me, too, gypsy.
You always bring up stuff that makes me think! Very interesting… and I too feel its rightness.
That intuitive sense seems to be our beacon, doesn’t it?
An interesting article. Also, could it be that time, unlike the experts state, moves and flows at different speeds?
Intriguing thought, Anne. And why not? Time is so often subjective.
Just saw “Cloud Atlas” at the movies this afternoon,which hinted at that theme as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWnAqFyaQ5s
Cloud atlas, as you said, wasn’t Matrix, but it was a wonderful and ambitious movie.
I’ve always had this feeling that there is no such thing as time – it’s why we should be able to travel to the past, to the future and perhaps ‘sideways’ as well. Precognition, when detailed is, perhaps, really a memory of the future.
I’ve always found this to be one of the most difficult concepts to grasp, yet sense its rightness.