Synchronicity

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For other uses, see Synchronicity (disambiguation).

Synchronicity is a word coined by the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung to describe the "temporally coincident occurrences of acausal events." Jung spoke of synchronicity as an "acausal connecting principle" (i.e. a pattern of connection that cannot be explained by direct causality). Cause-and-effect, in Jung's mind, seemed to have nothing to do with it.

Plainly put, it is the experience of two or more occurrences (beyond coincidentally) in a manner that is logically meaningful- but inexplicable- to the person or persons experiencing them. Such events would also have to suggest an underlying pattern in order to satisfy the definition of synchronicity as developed by Jung.

It differs from mere coincidence in that synchronicity implies not just a happenstance, but an underlying pattern or dynamic that is being expressed through meaningful relationships or events.

It was a principle that Jung felt encompassed his concepts of archetypes and the collective unconscious [1], in that it was descriptive of a governing dynamic that underlay the whole of human experience and history — social, emotional, psychological, and spiritual.

Jung believed that many experiences perceived as coincidence were due not merely to chance, but instead, suggested the manifestation of parallel events or circumstances reflecting this governing dynamic. [2]

One of Jung's favourite 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 backwards". [3]

Contents

[edit] Examples

A well-known example of synchronicity is the true story of the French writer Émile Deschamps who in 1805 was treated to some plum pudding by the stranger Monsieur de Fortgibu. Ten years later, he encountered plum pudding on the menu of a Paris restaurant, and wanted to order some, but the waiter told him the last dish had already been served to another customer, who turned out to be de Fortgibu. Many years later in 1832 Émile Deschamps was at a diner, and was once again offered plum pudding. He recalled the earlier incident and told his friends that only de Fortgibu was missing to make the setting complete — and in the same instant the now senile de Fortgibu entered the room.

During production of the The Wizard of Oz, a coat purchased from a second-hand store for the costume of Professor Marvel was later discovered to have belonged to L. Frank Baum, author of the original children's book upon which the film is based. [4]

[edit] Study

A recent study within the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab has suggested that there is a small though statistically measurable link between human thought and patterns that occur in random data sets. There is no evidence as to whether this is caused by individuals unintentionally recognizing complex patterns and then moulding their thoughts towards an unconsciously known result or the thoughts of the individual are themselves affecting the random patterns in a manner of individuation. This study's results have not been replicated, and its methodologies are disputed.[5]

[edit] Criticism

Since the theory of synchronicity is not testable according to the classical scientific method, it is not widely regarded as scientific at all, but rather as pseudoscientific or an example of magical thinking. However, it is doubtful that Jung would have considered the theory to be scientifically testable.

A broader objection that is related to science (but not to testability) is that positing an underlying mechanism for meaningfully interpreted correlations is to develop an overly complicated explanation for the phenomenon at hand (meaningful coincidence), which might be better explained by simple coincidence. The suggestion is that given the vast array of observed phenomena, and given our innate interest in and awareness of coincidence, it is inevitable that such phenomena will come about. e.g. it would be bizarre if nobody anywhere ever had three experiences involving both plum pudding and a specific Frenchman. If this is true, the theory is the result of faulty abductive reasoning. [citation needed]


[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Jung defined the collective unconscious as akin to instincts in Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.
  2. ^ In Synchronicity in the final two pages of the Conclusion, Jung stated that not all coincidences are meaningful and further explained the creative causes of this phenomenon.
  3. ^ Through the Looking-Glass, by Lewis Carroll, Ch. 5, Wool and Water.

    'It's very good jam,' said the Queen.
    'Well, I don't want any TO-DAY, at any rate.'
    'You couldn't have it if you DID want it,' the Queen said. '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. 'Inever 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.

  4. ^ Snopes entry
  5. ^ Article on Wired.com

[edit] Trivia

  • John Constantine, the main character in the Vertigo Comics series Hellblazer, is sometimes seen "riding the synchronicity highway," to meet certain goals or even just to one up those around him. This has the same effect as that described in this article, and it is one of John Constantine's more unusual tricks, and part of what makes him so dangerous. He is also seen doing this in Books of Magic, the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman.
  • The phenomenon is also explored, though not named, in "The Red Notebook" by Paul Auster, and is considered a major theme of his entire bibliography, appearing in some form in almost every work.
  • In the 1983 release Synchronicity by The Police (A&M Records), bassist Sting is reading a copy of Jung's Synchronicity on the front cover along with a negative/superimposed image of the actual text of the synchronicity hypothesis. A photo on the back cover also shows a close-up but mirrored and upside-down image of the book. There are two songs titled "Synchronicity I" and "Synchronicity II" included in the album. The latter song contrasts the dangerous breakdown of a desperate family man with the simultaneous emergence of a menacing creature from the bottom of Loch Ness.
  • In the 1976 film The Eagle Has Landed, the character Max Radl (Robert Duvall) asks a subordinate if he is familiar with the works of Jung, and then explains the theory of Synchronicity. He also tells a cautionary tale of not reading too much into supposed synchronicity, commenting that "a wink from a pretty girl at a party rarely results in climax...but a man is a fool not to push a suggestion as far as it will go!"
  • The Dirk Gently series of books by Douglas Adams often plays on the synchronicity concept. The main character carries a "pocket I Ching" that also functions as a calculator, up to a point (see A suffusion of yellow).
  • The concept of ta'veren in Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series functions similarly to synchronicity.
  • In the film Repo Man Miller's famous Plate 'o' Shrimp theory is an exact representation of synchronicity.
  • In the film I Heart Huckabee's, a character hires existential detectives to solve his coincidence. They caution him: "Not all coincidences are meaningful!"

[edit] Further reading

  • Robert Aziz, C.G. Jung’s Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity (1990), currently in its 10th printing, is a refereed publication of The State University of New York Press. ISBN 0-7914-0166-9.
  • Robert Aziz, Synchronicity and the Transformation of the Ethical in Jungian Psychology in Carl B. Becker, ed. Asian and Jungian Views of Ethics. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1999. ISBN 0-313-30452-1.
  • Carl Jung (1977). Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal: Key Readings. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-15508-8.
  • Joseph Jaworski (1996). Synchronicity: the inner path of leadership. Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.. ISBN 1-881052-94-X.
  • Victor Mansfield, (Physicist) (1995). Science, Synchronicity and Soul-Making. Open Court Publishing Company. ISBN 0-8126-9304-3.
  • Elisabeth Mardorf,, Das kann doch kein Zufall sein[1]
  • David F. Peat (1987). Synchronicity, The Bridge Between Matter and Mind. Bantam. ISBN 0-553-34676-8.
  • Richard Wilhelm (1986). Lectures on the I Ching: Constancy and Change Bollingen edition. Princeton University Press; Reprint. ISBN 0-691-01872-3. Note especially the foreword by Carl Jung. (The I Ching is a type of oracle, or 'synchronicity computer', used for divination.)
  • Arthur Koestler (1973). The Roots of Coincidence. Vintage. ISBN 0-394-71934-4.
  • Carl Jung (1981). The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01833-2.
  • Carl Jung (1972). Synchronicity — An Acausal Connecting Principle. Routledge and Kegan Paul. ISBN 0-7100-7397-6.
  • Marie-Louise von Franz (1980). On Divination and Synchronicity: The Psychology of Meaningful Chance. Inner City Books. ISBN 0-919123-02-3.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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