In times of momentous transitions in our lives, synchronicities tend to occur with greater frequency. A marriage or divorce, the birth of a child, a drastic change in income, career, job, a move, the loss of loved ones: these large, transitional moments in our lives seem to attract synchronicity, perhaps as confirmation, affirmation, as a venue of hope and resurrection. Who knows? What we do know is that these kinds of synchros are invariably powerful and often life-changing.
In recent discussions on Facebook in a synchronicity topic, there has been speculation that the phenomenon is a naturalistic event, something that unfolds from the personal unconscious, like a predilection for certain types of experiences, foods, relationships, addictions. In this particular belief system, synchronicity has nothing to do with the collective unconscious, Carl Jung’s term for events and emotions and situations that are common to all people. In fact, in this worldview, the collective unconscious doesn’t exist, and is simply a result of magical thinking – Jung’s and yours!
So let’s go back to the basics, to the definition of synchronicity, according to Jung: the coming together of similar inner and outer events in a way that is meaningful to the observer, but can’t be explained by cause and effect. For example, I think about someone I haven’t talked to for months, my phone rings and it’s him.
Jung first defined synchronicity in 1949, when he was writing the introduction to Richard Wilhelm’s translation of the I Ching, and asked the oracle’s “judgment about its present situation – i.e., my intention to present it to the Western mind.” (For Jung’s full explanation about this, read the intro to the Wilhelm edition of the I Ching.)
In researching synchronicity for our first book, 7 Secrets of Synchronicity, we found a particular M.O. for the phenomenon, a pattern that extends well beyond just the personal and slides into the collective. The collective unconscious unnerves some people. It’s the place of myths and fairy tales and urban legends; it’s the territory that Joseph Campbell explored, the magic that Lucas and Spielberg have spun into films, that Stephen King and Dean Koontz bring to their novels. It’s the place where we all meet and speculate about ….well, what if. It’s the place where all the b.s. is stripped away and only story exists. Your story. My story. Our story. These areas where yours and mine merge is the domain of synchronicity.
Within that domain, I think that synchronicity speaks to us in a variety of ways and one of them is through spirit contact. When we lose someone we love, we’re experiencing a major life transition. This sequence of synchros come from Gypsy, who lost her older sister in early December. We’ve used her stories in both of our books. Now, from Gypsy’s notes:
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For some time I had been considering doing a weekly Friday post on an ancestor of ours – “voices from the past” giving some interesting little tidbit from their life. It was going to be a different one each week, one who had died on a particular date.
The first post in the series was supposed to be for December 2 , the day I thought about this series. During lunch time that day, I spoke by phone to my older sister, Jerelyn, for over an hour. Later, when I got home from running errands, I went to my ancestry site and searched for family members having died on December 2. It was then that I got a call and learned that Jerelyn had died.
She passed away on “opening night” of her theater production – literally within hours of the house opening. The numbers themselves and the clusters involved in the date of her death were: 12022011 – [3] 2s and [3] 1s [= 9]
On 12/09 en route home, from Delaware to Louisiana, I thought about Jerelyn, her life and death, and asked mentally for a sign of some kind – any kind. Within moments, there was the large exit sign – exit 111.
That same day, within feet of crossing the Louisiana state line, the mileage on my car hit the 100,000 mark – literally.
On 12/12 [again the 2s and 1s], at 4:14pm [time #s = 9], I picked up Synchronicity and the Other Side [the copy which I had gotten for her xmas gift] and asked the question, “What about Jerelyn?”
Then I opened the book randomly – page 36 [again = 9] – and, eyes closed, my finger landed on the 4th paragraph. This passage sets out my story of the girl in the yellow dress at my house while Jerelyn was living with me and how she asked the construction workers if I had told them the story. Also on 12/12, several hours after the incident above, my daughter, Lisa, sent me a text message.
When the message came in, ” I was sitting with the book still open, this time on page 117 [again double 1s plus the total is 9] at this point: “the medium and the message/entertainment world of tv.”
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We’ve divided Gypsy’s journey into two parts. Stay tuned!
if i may – i think part of my original note about the text message from my daughter lisa might not have made it above –
the significance of this incidence was that the text message was to tell me that…”john edward was on anderson cooper with a topic of “are you psychic” …and when the message came in, ” I was sitting with the book still open, this time on page 117 [again double 1s plus the total is 9] at this point: “the medium and the message/entertainment world of tv.”
sorry – and thanks!
Sorry about that, Gypsy. Not sure what happened!
Right back atcha, Vicki! We can never have too many voices on any subject…yes!!
For Gyps and me, as cousins separated by time and space, we nevertheless seem to be twins seperated at birth by some accidental shifting of the universal sands! Throughout our lives this time, the parallels are astonishing, almost too much so to be believed, even to our having relationships with significant others that are so similar as to be mind-boggling.
Our family connection goes back to our Irish heritage and we share the same ancestral name. We “met” here on the blog and it has been a series of continuous synchronistic events for us. We almost seem to be shadows each of the other, in our experiences and in so many ways.I share her grief over the loss of Jerelyn, yet know she’s close-by and well and whole now….a blessing.
Thankyou CJ, I had a feeling when I wrote the above you would add your knowledge, (at least I had hoped!).
May I answer for Vicki, or rather with Vicki? Yes. The frequency represented by the number 9 resonates to endings, which inevitably lead to fresh beginnings. 9 is relative to the closings of doors so that other doors of opportunities may open; to the period on the sentence of old relationships and situations which no longer serve us, so that we may develop relationships which are better able to support our current circumstances. Most essentially, 9 resonates with the death of the old and the birth of the new, especially relative when transition occurs from this dimension into another. Thus, 9 is relative not only to those who remain here when a beloved one sheds the old clothes of its physical vehicle and leaps into its true and unencumbered form, it is even more relative to that one who has leapt! Gypsy, my cousin, you are loved, and as always I feel your losses with you and have parallel experiences. Of course when Jerelyn passed, I lost my cousin, but here in my immediate family I simultaneously lost the physical presence of my precious friend of more than 25 years. Unlike Jerelyn, Sherry wasn’t ill. It seems she simply decided it was time to go, and that is what she did. Hers was an “aware” death. She knew, somehow, and in the moments just prior to that transition in her journal she had written, “Asscension into Light Body. Home.” She was alone in terms of anyone being with her in this dimension, but I have no doubt she was surrounded by countless Others who assisted her across the threshold, as I have no doubt was the case with Jerelyn. We send them thoughts of peace and bliss and joy, knowing they are free. 9 represents that freedom of transition from one state of being into another!!
Thanks for the info, math!
“In fact, in this worldview, the collective unconscious doesn’t exist, and is simply a result of magical thinking – Jung’s and yours!” Serbs and some other Orthodox Christians still follow the Julian calendar for religions holidays (13 days late to the one we all know and use). According to this calendar New Years is on January 14. When I heard that some orchestra played Tschaikovsky’s music for that occasion, I knew immediately that they played 1812 Overture (my personal and very intense synchros, New Year playing an important role – https://www.rts.rs/page/stories/ci/story/8/%D0%9Aultura/1023656/%D0%9A%D0%BEncert+u+godini+velikog+jubileja.html – Serbian, Cyrillic, but 1812 visible in the middle of the text above the bold title). Well, it seems I didn’t know, I am stupid and I just think I knew (regardless of my posts on Facebook wall before the regular New Year – https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1480938746).
Thanks for the link, Aleksandar. I need to translate your page!
Have you seen “A Dangerous Method”? Its a movie about the love triangle between Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and a young lady who was a patient of Jung. I read an article about it and it sounds intriguing. Michael Fassbender plays Jung and Viggo Mortensen plays Freud and it supposedly deals with all kinds of psychology and the nature of mental illness. I want to see it, but I opted to see “The Iron Lady” instead. I’ll have to see if I have time to see this Jung / Freud movie on Sunday or the coming week.
The Jung/Freud movie is on my list, Sansego. Last night, we saw girl with the golden tattoo. Really terrific movie.
So saddened to hear of Gypsy’s loss.
Your sister was definitely reaching out to you and you were receptive. I help people a lot when loved ones pass so KNOW that this is true.
Interestingly the number 9 resonates to “change”.
Does your address add up to 9?
I have also found that when people embrace the “change” vibe from 9 it is positive. I think possibly your sister is letting you know that things may have changed for you
but to embrace it for all will be ok.
Did she have a pet? A dog maybe?
I send you a warm hug and loving memories for you to be filled with.
Oh, at night talk to her before nodding off, you may be blessed with a visit.
Vicki – does 9 also resonate to beginnings and completions?
…the paradigm shift perceived to be approaching/happening with 2012…
you know, this post just really is so profoundly poignant to me – for obvious reasons, of course – but on so many other levels – to think of that to which we may become tapped into – and then, to think of how much more THERE IS – somewhere – out there – within – to which we have shut ourselves off – or to which we simply have not yet opened ourselves – whatever the reason – all striking home again – and i may not have quoted it per se’, nor totally correct – to that quote of [whom?, i forget] – that we are truly spirits/spiritual beings inhabiting a physical body, rather than physical entities with spirit] – we have but to open ourSELVES to it all – it’s there – whatever “it” is – i like to think that this paradigm shift – the shifting of consciousness – can be nothing less than just that – the opening of ourselves to all that is – to open and to receive –
such a beautifully done post – the image is perfect – magnificent – and the intro perfect, as well – my heart thanks you –
We may leave this up for another day. Thank you for letting us use it, Gypsy!
it is so very striking – the whole of it, trish – moves me to tears – i know of no one else on this planet with whom i care to share first these experiences of mine –
Gypsy: ditto!!
Gypsy, I think the little ditty goes like this: We are not physical beings looking for a spiritual experience, we are spirits experiencing a physical existence.
yes, that’s it – just couldn’t get it all together in the heat of the moment so to speak – thank so much!
I agree that momentous transitions bring about synchronicities, or maybe we are more receptive or aware of them because of our changed state of mind.
Gypsy’s notes are very touching. I can recollect similar events happening when I have lost loved ones. Some would probably say we are looking for something to cling to, but it’s much more than that to those who have experienced such losses – the synchros are very real, meaningful and also comforting.
So sorry to hear of Gypsy’s loss, though I had previously read between the lines that something had happened.
thanks so much for your comment, mike – and kind words –
and, you know, for those naysayers to such experiences, well, for me, they may naysay all they like – that’s on them – it may be true, and only natural, that we may all look for something – anything – to which to cling in such moments of sorrow and loss – however, that does not, then, mean that all such experiences, as you and i and many others know, should therefore be dismissed as “nothing more” [not that that isn’t enough, so to speak] – you’re so right – they are real and meaningful – and i personally could not care less as to those naysayers – mine is not to convince anyone of anything – i simply share my own experiences – as do you – and others here –
again, thanks so much for your always thoughtful comments, mike!
I’m sorry to hear about your sister as well,Gypsy.
A death in the family is never easy,whatever your beliefs.
But my experience is that if you open up to the synchros that are presented to you…especially after a loved one passes,life will take you on some exhilarating rides.
Just follow you heart,and tell the head to hop into the backseat for a while and enjoy the journey down life’s synchronistic highway as the signs pop up in front of you.They will guide you to amazing places you never would have got to by using your head alone.
And who cares what the naysayers think anyway…let them have their dull life to live…give me the synchro life any day.