For the past three years (since I enrolled into college) I have been enthralled by Carl Jung. It was when I had my freshman psych course that I developed a passion for people and their psyche. During my freshman year I was taking quite a load of courses–psychology included. It was when I was assigned an essay in my English course that I became engrossed with Carl Jung. It was up to the individual student to choose a topic to write about. I chose Carl Jung and his theory of the collective unconscious, along with the archetypes. While I was engaged in research, I stumbled upon a theory of Jung’s; it was the notion of synchronicity.
Carl Jung was born in the late 19th century in Zurich. He studied religion, anthropology, physics, metaphysics, and the social sciences. Jung even spoke with Albert Einstein about physics and its correspondence in psychology. He later became a colleague of Sigmund Freud. For quite some time they worked together until Jung introduced his ideas of the occult and theories of the psyche, which contradicted Freud’s beliefs of the psyche; not to mention the notion of the occult upsetting Freud; which in turn, led to their separation.
Synchronicity is the idea of a simultaneous occurrence of events that appear significantly related but have no discernible causal connection. Moreover, it is a coincidence that seems very meaningful to the individual experiencing it. For instance, imagine a man walking through the woods around a green-blue pond; he then finds a large boulder to rest on. As he’s sitting, he’s pondering about a bird he read about in his wildlife book; specifically the Bluejay he saw on page 23. Within seconds, a Bluejay flies in and lands on the bank of the pond, about twenty feet away. A personal experience of mine is when I was on some website when I stumbled upon a picture of Edgar Allen Poe. On the picture was a caption: “I’m just a ‘Poe’ boy from a ‘Poe’ family, nobody loves me””. Now this was obviously a rip-off from the song “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen. But, at that time, I knew it sounded vaguely familiar, but was unsure of where I’ve seen or heard that expression of something like that. Later that night, I was on Youtube listening to old 70′s and 80′s rock when I came to a music video that Youtube suggested in the suggestion column. That song was “Bohemian Rhapsody. I recognized the title, so I pressed play. As I’m listening, I recognize that I’ve heard the song before- just not when- until the lyric “I’m just a ‘poor’ boy from a ‘poor.. family…”” These are just a couple examples of ‘synchronicity’. With a final conclusion, it can be said that synchronicity is the notion that there is a connection with others, which remains invisible to the ‘conscious’ mind, and can be seen by the collective unconscious and/or personal unconscious; but sometimes one of these (or both) will spit some meaningful event up into our conscience, and is usually an event that is in correspondence with another related event; which is what we also may call ‘synchronicity’.
Jung became known by many scientists and psychologists as a crank. Jung became fixated on the topic of synchronicity. Later in his life and career he made a bold move in the world of the sciences. He wrote and published a book on synchronicity. It made an impermanent impact in psychology, but a bigger impact in the area of psychic phenomena.
I understand that there isn’t significant proof of something meaningful or supernatural about these occurrences. Now it’s evident that Jung experienced synchronicity, along with many of his patients. Since he shared his theory of synchronicity, some people have been writing about it (and personal examples of it); and now here I am, writing about it and my experiencing it.
It could be possible that that there hasn’t been a significant or noticeable impact on that of the world population. This can mean that there are only a significant few in the general population that experiences this phenomena. What do the people that experience this, have in common, and what do those who don’t, have in common? Some may have ideas or theories of this, but science has yet to explain, or let alone tamper with it. My theory is this: there ‘is’ a connection among everything and everyone, but can only be perceived by the unconscious mind. Usually, when an occurrence that is meaningful to the entire psyche, especially the conscious life, the unconscious parts of the mind spits these events into consciousness. This usually is instant, causing the thought of the event to race through the individual’s conscience.
So, in closing, it can be said that Jung may have been on to something very… meaningful to our individual self. I don’t believe Jung was a crank and crazy like many scientists then and now believe. It is possible that it is not an organic disorder/disease, nor and other psychological disorder. In fact, there could be something supernatural about this. This would imply that the occult plays the role in this. Some may say this is magical and abstract thinking, with no sufficient evidence to make make it a practiced science. But Einstein once said he never made any of his discoveries through concrete/logical thinking. It is up to our imagination, meditation, and observations to become more conscious of this phenomena.
I’m not too sure how your poe example relates to synchronicity, if at all. I’d elaborate, but I don’t have much time to do that right now. I completely understand the bluejay story and how it relates, but I need more stories to be a believer in this. And not just stories from people who may have some sort of neurological abnormality, or someone who do takes medication that can spur these thoughts. Or just simply someone who likes to tell stories. People have many types neurological issues going on in the brain for many different reasons that probably explain this phenomenon. I’m not saying Jung was a crank, but I’m not a firm believer yet.
Here are a couple personal examples: Two days ago I was watching a film called “Adaptation”. It was a about a successful screen-writer who was dealing with serious social phobias dealing with various social situations. He has a very low self-esteem and feels very little of himself; this all occurs in his life until he finds a story to write. He becomes so enthralled by this ‘true’ story, that he takes leaps to achieve this very story. He becomes more confident at the end; thus making him a new man. Anyways, I was watching when a scene came on, it was Nicolas Cage sitting at a typewriter trying to work on his story, when his twin brother walked into the room speaking of his work on a screenplay. But he informed the protagonist that he was consistently recreating ideas, as if he’s starting a new story with each new idea. The protagonist then replies “Uroboros”. The protagonist then went on to to explain what that was cause his twin brother failed to know what ‘uroboros’ was. But Let’s us get to the point; I recalled from the previous day in Shakespearean literature class, that Patrick, one of the instructors spoke of ‘Uroboros’ for quite some time. Now I felt a strong connection to this occurrence.
Another personal example actually happened last night. I was showing my roommate a song on Youtube. The song is Original Don (Flosstrdamus remix); but that may be irrelevant. As I sat there playing the song, I was looking through the comments. seeing what others thought of the song; it was when I ran across the comment reading ‘Heisenberg’. This was almost immediately followed by the thought of the conversation I had with my grandfather the previous night. He had mentioned to me the ‘Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle’. This may seem very accidental, or even spontaneous. If it was nothing but random chance, then why would they accidentally transform manifest itself into my reality? I’ve read others ideas of what these occurrences could be; and that is that everything we do has a reaction, and each act/occurrence is followed by an event that may be related to the previous event. Sometimes, depending on the individual, these instances become realized through no conscious effort; and others remain unconscious of these, or if they are made aware, they are passed off as coincidence, pure accident.
We should be content with the notion that not everything can nor should be explained by the “scientific method.” Thousands of years before western science and asian science became the dominant force of rigorous “approved” scholarship, humankind was satisfied with their inherent ability to structure their living in harmony with the universe. Our ancestors tapped into their spiritual (NOT religious) energy to explain and cope in their respective worlds. Of course science has, is , and should continue to be a major arbiter of fact and theory in our modern world. I think Jung was a genius and needs to be held up as a model of learning about alternate realities. Just sayin’
Good write on Jung . I also found his theories interesting . If you would believe in the collective conscientiousness then that might bring to mind an old saying ,” There is nothing new under the sun .” I don’t know about synchronicity or magic being involved in Psychology , that’s over my head . Jung’s theories always made me think that possibly our lives , creations , thoughts could be replays of programs , experiences with prehistoric memories , buried in our DNA passed on through endless generations . We are left with the struggle to understand why and how we are what we are . There might come a day when we realize that we are the Supernatural and if we let it , it might come naturally .
As I reread this I’m not sure my comment makes sense . This comment is not meant as anything more than a comment . I did enjoy recalling some of the writings of Carl Jung . Enjoyed your post .