Sometimes we drift a bit from synchronicity on the blog. So it’s good to re-focus on the subject at hand from time to time. We’ve done so here with a primer of sorts, about synchronicity. These paragraphs come from the introduction of our next synchro book, THE SYNCHRONICITY HIGHWAY: Navigating the Signs and Symbols of Life’s Journey.
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Synchronicity or meaningful coincidence can be one of those delightful little surprises the universe springs on you just to keep you on your toes, aware and mindful. Other times, it slams into you out of the blue, a coincidence so startling that you marvel at the odds. It can be a trickster or an ally, clarify and confirm, guide or warn, laugh at you or with you.
Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, who coined the term, first wrote about synchronicity in the introduction to Richard Wilhelm’s translation of the I Ching: The Chinese Book of Changes, published in 1949. In that introduction, he talked about how tossing three coins six times, could yield one or two of 64 hexagrams that provide a response to a question that enlightens or guides the questioner. He defined the phenomenon as the coming together of similar inner and outer events in a way that can’t be explained by cause and effect and is meaningful to the observer. In the case of a divination tool, such as the I Ching, the inner event is the question, the outer event is the toss of the coins and resulting hexagram.
But of course synchronicity typically unfolds naturally without any tools. A simple example: you’ve been thinking about a former friend, roommate, lover, someone you haven’t heard from in years. You log onto Facebook and find a friend request from that individual. Or you’re digging a grave for your cat that died, have the car radio on in the background, and Peter Gabriel’s song, Digging in the Dirt, comes on. Or you dream about a stranger and the next day, that person enters your life.
Jung lumped extra sensory perception under the broad umbrella of synchronicity. This stance is sometimes controversial. Some people feel that calling ESP an aspect of synchronicity suggests that accurate psychically obtained information is merely coincidental. But Jung was simply saying that telepathy, precognition, mediumship, clairvoyance and other psychic abilities work outside of cause or effect. In other words, if a psychic predicts that someone will receive a surprise sum of money and two days later, an unexpected check arrives in the mail, that’s an example of precognition. But it also fits under synchronicity because cause and effect weren’t involved. The psychic didn’t tell anyone to send a check to the client. So an inner experience – the psychic’s premonition– and an outer event – the receipt of a check – came together outside of cause and effect and no doubt it would be meaningful to the client who received the check.
Synchronicity is an equal opportunity experience. Anyone, anywhere, at any time, can experience a meaningful coincidence. Your awareness and receptivity to the phenomenon creates an atmosphere in which you recognize synchronicities when they occur. It’s likely that more occur when you’re aware and accepting of these occurrences.
There are also situations and environments where synchronicities flourish. They are threaded throughout mass events like natural and man-made disasters. They occur in travel and creative endeavors, in social movements and popular culture, and they even might proliferate during and after UFO encounters. When our lives are in transition and during intensely emotional periods, synchronicity is usually right there with us.
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Happy Birthday, Rob!
Hi Rob and Trish,
I’m almost halfway through reading Aliens in the Backyard, and I’m completely riveted–what a fascinating book that’s superbly written! I first learned about it from your interview on Darkness on the Edge of Town radio, and I just had to get it.
I had no previous idea what synchronicity was or that such a concept had actually been defined and documented. The more I thought about it and the further I’ve gotten into the book, the more I’ve realized I’ve had probably hundreds of these meaningful coincidences throughout my whole adult life, but the prominent skeptic in me always dismissed them as random and meaningless. Now I know better. I’ve started paying attention to them, and they are accelerating. Good things are starting to happen for me professionally and personally. Your writing and research into synchronicity has turned some of what I’ve believed (or my lack of belief to be more accurate) on its ear, but in a good way. I’ve also downloaded The 7 Secrets of Synchronicity and can’t wait to start it to learn more.
Thanks for all you do and for opening this skeptic’s eyes!
–Angela
Thanks, Angela! It’s good to know the radio shows help. I’ll drop you an email. Many thanks for stopping by.
I have been a fan of Jung for decades, and I always appreciate your take on these things. I think of you every time I look at my watch and see 11:11 or 1:11, which happens way more often than it should. I hope Rob had a great birthday! 🙂
Happy Birthday Rob! 🙂
“…you’re digging a grave for your cat that died, have the car radio on in the background, and Peter Gabriel’s song, Digging in the Dirt, comes on”.
I can definitely relate to that one .-)
Sounds like another good book.
Happy Birthday Rob.
Another synchronicity book is awesome.
Happy Birthday to Rob!
Thanks,terri!
Happy happy Birthday Rob!
A great intro for your book.
About the psychic prediction though. Belief could have ’caused’ the surprise sum of money, what we properly imprint on the universe, with belief, tends to come to us – good or bad.
P.S. Forgot to say: Happy Birthday to Rob.
Good point, Mike!
Re:
“what we properly imprint on the universe, with belief, tends to come to us – good or bad.”
I think that is only right to a small degree,that’s where I have issue with the “law of attraction” theory.
We as individuals do have power,but maybe not as much power as we think we have.
Life is like a board game which involves say 7 billion players.
Some of those players have good intentions,and some of them don’t.So,on this planet alone there are 7 billion players all with more or less equal will power.
A lot don’t even realize that they have any power and some think they have too much.So,with all these wills for good and ill battling each other the rules of the game become a little unclear.
With everybody imprinting their wills the game becomes a little unpredictable unless you could tap into something like this-
https://www.youtube.com/trendsmap
which would be like a collective game-plan of all the player’s intentions like a big chess game where you could see the strategies being worked out.
If you had access to something like this you would appear to be psychic because you could see all the wills interacting in real time (if there is such a thing as real time) .
But wills aren’t just conscious,they are unconscious as well.
So here is another big complication to the game,because consciousness is only the small tip of a very big iceberg to each individual on this planet.
Synchronicity and psychic prediction is something that can tap into that unconscious part of the will that lays well behind our conscious egos that would like a big house and a happy family.
It can tap into the stuff we aren’t even aware of why we think and feel the way we do consciously.
Synchronicity is a deeper wisdom coming through,taking in the overall game board rather than just our individual game piece.
Like the saying goes,it’s not whether you win,or lose,but how you play the game that counts.
The “law of attraction” is an overrated sideshow to the real game of life to me.
The real game is way more complicated in ways I will never consciously grasp while playing it,which is why I like sync,it cuts through the crap and gives you a better understanding that the game is way bigger than the individual piece and hooks you to other team members in the overall game/story/movie/play/life,or whatever else you want to call it.
Which doesn’t always grantee a happy ending by the way…maybe just lessons we need to learn.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iHeeEAP3uo
I agree, Daz. The law of attraction works to a degree – and then doesn’t work for the reasons you specify. I try to take my cues from synchros that occur, but I’ve been tricked by the trickster- and my failure to dig just a bit more deeply (like with the time travelers, made in ecuador thing).
Off to see your links.
Am in my crazed mode packing and sorting. Aaack. But just want to wish Rob a very Happy wonderful Birthday.
XO
Adele
Good luck on the move, Adele!
great clarification for anyone not clear – i remember the first time i heard this explanation from you all and it was as if that little light bulb had clicked on –
and – happy happy birthday, rob!