Some keys about synchronicity or significant coincidences
We have all experienced coincidences of facts to which we do not usually give more importance than that of a striking curiosity We are thinking about someone and, just at that moment, we receive a call from them; We remember a person that we haven’t had in mind for a long time and we later meet them on the street, or a song plays on the radio that is closely related to something that is happening at that exact moment. Some people narrate experiences that may seem even more amazing to us, such as dreaming about events that later happen or perceiving an accident or the death of someone close to them in the distance.
From an eminently rational perspective, These events are a matter of chance, coincidences that should not be given more importance than they have. For their part, extraordinary events are considered inventions of people who want to attract attention or erroneous interpretations of objective facts.
However, the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung saw, in the coincidences of highly improbable events, the expression of a phenomenon that deserved to be studied rigorously In this sense he coined the term synchronicity, which he defined as the simultaneous presentation of two events that are not linked by a cause and effect relationship, but by their meaning.
What does synchronicity consist of according to Jung?
The development of the concept of synchronicity arises from the collaboration between Carl Gustav Jung and Wolfgang Pauli, a Nobel Prize winner in physics and one of the fathers of quantum mechanics. It is therefore a concept in which approaches from physics and psychology come together. The collaboration of these authors was reflected in 1952 with the publication of the joint book Synchronicity as a principle of acausal connections. In this book, synchronicity is proposed as a key element for understanding the relationship between the psyche and matter.
Jung describes three categories of synchronicity: in the first, the coincidence between mental content (thought, feeling, a dream) and an external event (you receive a call from someone that you were thinking about) occurs. The second is the coincidence between an internal vision and an event that happens far away (dreaming about an accident or the death of a person that happens in reality). The third is to have an image of something that subsequently happens in the future. It is highlighted that the images on which synchronicity is based are not necessarily presented literally but can be manifested symbolically.
Rational thinking does not accept this type of phenomena, so when developing the concept of synchronicity, Jung resorts to what is often called Eastern thought This type of thinking is related to what we usually refer to when we talk about intuition.
Western thought vs Eastern thought
The rational, mechanistic and materialist thinking on which the Western worldview since the Enlightenment is based, and which is the basis of our beliefs, presupposes the linearity of time and the causality of phenomena.
From this paradigm, science questions the cause of phenomena with the intention of controlling and predicting events In its methodology it is essential to build models and abstractions based on statistical generalities. Isolated cases, those that deviate from the norm, as is the case of synchronicities, are incomprehensible from a statistical approach, therefore they are not contemplated by science, nor by our belief system built under the same logic. and influence.
However, this has not been the predominant way of thinking in the history of humanity, nor is it even today in various cultural contexts. Jung considered that synchronicity was a phenomenon consistent with Eastern worldviews, such as the Chinese one from which Taoism emerged or the worldviews of ancient India, which have a conception of time and space different from ours.
He eastern thought, in which it is also necessary to include many of the indigenous worldviews, considers that all the elements of the universe are linked forming a unity. Concrete reality, that is, what we observe, is considered an illusory manifestation of an underlying principle. Each element of the universe is considered a reflection of something higher that encompasses it. The universe is seen as a great organism in which each element that composes it is intrinsically interrelated and at the same time is a mirror of it. The individual is therefore considered as a microcosm that reflects the dynamics of the macrocosm, of the entire universe
From the logic of a universe seen as a totality, composed of interdependent elements, functioning under the influence of an underlying principle, when an event happens the natural question would not be about its origin or cause, as we usually do, but about what Other events can occur simultaneously.
From the Eastern perspective it is understood that each moment in the universe has a particular quality, with which r all elements sound synchronously This type of logic would be the basis of astrology or oracles. At the moment of an individual’s birth, the stars are in a certain position and symbolically there is a record of this in each person, who is conditioned by it.
In the same way, when consulting an oracle, the tarot cards, the signs of the turtle shell, etc., are not presented randomly, but rather correspond to the particular moment and situation from which the question emerges; and because of this relationship, a symbolic meaning can be given to each of these facts. In this scheme, synchronicity would be that phenomenon that would allow us to understand this link between the questioning of the consultant and the composition of the elements of the oracle.
The symbolic dimension in synchronicity
Jung highlights how In Eastern thought, numbers are given, in addition to their quantitative function, a qualitative and symbolic dimension To exemplify the above, he tells a short story from Chinese tradition about the history of a kingdom that had to decide whether or not to go to war. As there was no consensus, the council of wise men held a vote; The result was 3 votes in favor and 5 against. However, the king decided to go to war because 3 was the number of unanimity. Numbers, like synchronicity, are considered intermediaries between the everyday world and the spiritual world.
The conception that there is a unifying principle in the universe, a strange force that is the origin and motor of everything, and that provides harmony and structure in chaos, has been present in various philosophies and worldviews. This unifying principle has been called Tao, Logos, Sense and with similar characteristics it is the foundation of the main eastern religions such as Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zen. Although it has been given different names, all of these Descriptions maintain that reality, that is, the concrete and observable elements, as well as our dual abstractions, are the external manifestation of the One. The history of the universe and humanity would be a display of the different aspects of this unifying principle.
It is also considered that The different cycles and rhythms present in nature are an expression of this underlying principle For Eastern thought, time does not pass linearly but circularly, the image of the spiral, like that of the snail shell. Thus, time has been considered to be an expression of the eternal cycles of birth, death and regeneration. These cycles are present in nature, in the history of people and in individuals.
Many of the models and conceptions of Eastern mysticism that have accompanied humanity for thousands of years, began to have resonances and parallels with the descriptions of the composition and dynamics of matter, provided by the precursor physicists of quantum mechanics around 1920. Jung He noticed those parallels and saw it as an opportunity to give solid argument to his observations and intuitions about synchronicity For this reason, he decided to delve into those studies, exchanging correspondence, ideas and findings with several of the physicists who were precursors of quantum mechanics, including Albert Einstein and Wolfang Pauli.
Quantum physics, eastern thought and synchronicity
The quantum mechanics It is that branch of physics that is responsible for describing the behavior of subatomic particles, that is, the smallest parts of which the universe is composed.
A confusion similar to the one we can experience when we experience a powerful synchronicity, that is, our rational and structured point of view is shaken, was what physicists experienced at the beginning of the last century, when they began to discover the strange, or even magical, way , in which subatomic matter behaves.
Albert Einstein himself, who with his theory of relativity revolutionized science and was a precursor of quantum physics, dedicated the last 20 years of his life to trying to highlight the inconsistencies of quantum theory, since It seemed incredible to him that the world worked in such a unique way Subsequent studies showed that, at the subatomic level, the world behaves largely in an unpredictable and paradoxical way, forcefully questioning our common sense.
Experimentally it has been verified that if one of the particles is affected, the other is altered synchronously. If, as it seems, all the elements that make up the universe, including us, are the result of a large explosion of a very dense mass, it can be inferred that at the subatomic level we continue to maintain a link with the entire universe.
Similarities with Eastern thought
The relationship between quantum physics and Eastern cosmology is a complex and controversial topic.
It is well known that subatomic particles can sometimes behave like waves and other times like particles. Perhaps the most surprising thing for our Cartesian mentality are the experimental results in which it is evident that an atom can be and not be in one place, or be in two places at the same time. Also, it can rotate in one direction and at the same time in the opposite direction. All this is reminiscent of the world of mystery that both Jung and the mystics tell us about when referring to the unifying principle and its manifestations.
The physicist David Bohm postulates that an implied order operates in the universe, underlying the displayed order, reproducing the differences that Buddhism makes between the illusory world of maya and the unifying principle Physicists also describe that a large part of the constitution of matter that we observe is empty, this being one of the aspects to which the Tao alludes.
Synchronicity, fractals and Unus Mundus
Spontaneously, nature forms certain geometric configurations which are present in the shape of leaves, the spirals of snails, in caves, in the shape of bones, hurricanes. This type of configuration patterns, also known as fractals, are sometimes considered a manifestation in matter of this underlying principle. Fractals or archetypal geometric shapes are also present in some works of art and architecture.
The archetypal configurations In addition to being considered a manifestation of synchronicity, that is, a link between the physical and psychic world, they can be an element that affects the aesthetic pleasure generated by both nature and art. Not a few people have experienced that contemplating nature, a painting, or a sculpture, listening to a certain melody has given them something more than an aesthetic pleasure, and has given them a sudden non-rational understanding of the interconnection of themselves with the rest of the elements of the universe.
This type of experience can also be considered an expression of synchronicity, when our everyday physical world is momentarily linked to a transcendent and mysterious reality.
Jung resorts to the term Unus Mundus of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus to refer to this unifying principle that is also somehow present in his concept of collective unconscious The collective unconscious can be understood as that “soul of the world” from which the symbolic patterns present in the mythologies of all peoples emerge, and which, like fractals, tend to configure, not forms but typical modes of action. The so-called archetypes of the collective unconscious. Synchronicity for Jung can be a manifestation of a constellated archetype, a way in which the collective soul affects our life, promoting some experience, some perspective.
For Jung, synchronistic phenomena were related to moments of great affectivity. This is why, he says, they usually occur in moments of transition such as deaths, falling in love, trips, situations in which we are in contradiction within ourselves or in a dilemma when faced with a fundamental decision. They can also be catalyzed by heightened affectivity in psychotherapy, and in altered states of consciousness, generated by natural or chemical elements.
Some people tend to be more prone to experiencing synchronicities or being aware of them, but sometimes present in skeptical and predominantly rational people, opening their perspective and sensitivity to a symbolic dimension of life
For Jung, synchronicities could also be part of collective life, as when scientists, without maintaining any exchange of information, make discoveries simultaneously, the most recognized case being the almost parallel postulation of the theory of evolution by Darwin and Wallace. .
Synchronicity and the “power of the mind”: the rainmaker
Positive thinking and visualizations (through imagination) They can be effective in achieving specific objectives for some people However, neither quantum physics nor synchronicity are in themselves scientific arguments in favor of what is often described as “the power of the mind to create realities”, “believing is creating” and the like, which hold more relationship with an omnipotent infantile thought than with science. The power of prayer and good energies, for their part, still remain in the respectable terrain of beliefs and Faith.
Quantum physics has shown the participation of the subject in the physical reality observed at a micro-physical level, and an interaction of the physical and psychic sphere, but from this it does not follow that this incidence can be manipulated by the subjects to obtain manifestations. in the reality. In the microphysical realm, quantum logic works, but in our observable world, Newtonian physics continues to operate and large dimensions are driven through Einstein’s logic of relativity. These logics are related but cannot be extrapolated. Physics is still in search of a unified theory that integrates and accounts for the different areas.
For its part, synchronicity, as well as the Tao, refers to complex, paradoxical phenomena, impossible to reduce to phrases and recipes from a personal growth manual In any case, they move away from the logic of control, mastery, entrepreneurship and progress with which visualizations for achieving objectives are usually related. The logic of synchronicity is closer to letting happen, resonating and flowing with this underlying principle, and is often best expressed through poetic and literary images.
The following story from Chinese tradition was Jung’s favorite to convey the essence of synchronicity and the Tao.
The rainmaker
In a certain Chinese town it had not rained for several weeks, so a rainmaker When the old man arrived, he went directly to the house that had been prepared for him and stayed there without performing any ceremony until the rains came on the third day. When asked how he had done it, he explained that upon arriving at the town, he had realized the absence of a state of harmony, such that the cycles of nature were not working properly.
As this state of disharmony had also affected him, he secluded himself to reestablish his balance, and when this balance was restored according to the natural pattern, the rain fell.
