Synchronicity, a concept first proposed
in the scientific literature by Carl Jung in the 1920s, is the
'experience of two or more events that are apparently causally
unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance but which are observed
to occur together in a meaningful manner.'
It is an idea that has been claimed by
some to be superstition, by others as describing scientific connections and
still by others as proof of an 'otherworldly' power in the events of our lives.
Synchronicity is an idea that may be difficult to understand but, according to
Jung, 'the idea of synchronicity is that the conceptual relationship of minds,
defined as the relationship between ideas, is intricately structured in
its own logical way and gives rise to relationships that are not causal in
nature. These relationships can manifest themselves as simultaneous occurrences
that are meaningfully related.
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| Karma |
Synchronicity, is it 'karma'? Not
quite.
The idea of 'karma' in Hinduism is one that explains cause and
effect through a system where beneficial effects are derived from past
beneficial actions and harmful effects from past harmful actions, creating a
system of actions and reactions throughout a soul's life (or lives)
forming a cycle of rebirth. The causality is said to be applicable not only to
the material world but also to our thoughts, words, actions and actions that
others do under our instructions.
To qualify as synchronistic, the two or
more events involved must be temporally coincident (taking place at or about
the same time) and must be mutually acausal (not related one to the other in
any causative way).
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| Jung's Concept of Synchronicity |
Jung believed that events which we often
see as coincidence, events due to a chance happening, have a causal
relationship 'in the greater scheme of things'. Jung discussed this concept of
synchronicity with renowned physicists such as Albert Einstein and Wolfgang
Pauli, suggesting a relationship between synchronicity and the theory of
relativity as well as quantum mechanics. Jung and Pauli thought that there was
a unifying 'idea' in life, an underlying unified reality from which
everything emerges and returns to, the 'unus mundus'.
In the world of quantum physics, there
are indeed strange things that take place:
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| Albert Einstein |
'Spooky (at a distance) physics' or 'interaction
at a distance' is the effect or interaction of two objects which are
separated in space with no known mediator of the interaction. This goes
against the ingrained human idea that objects must touch (physically or through
a magnetic or gravitational field) in order to interact.
The theory of quantum
mechanics predicts that two or more particles can become 'entangled' (quantum
entanglement) so that even after they are separated in space, when an
action is performed on one particle, the other particle responds immediately.
Scientists still don't know how the particles send these instantaneous messages
to each other (instantaneously, faster than the speed of light), but somehow,
once they are entwined, the two (or more) particles retain a fundamental
connection.
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| Quantum Entanglement (Spooky at a Distance) -Separated Ions Affect One Another |
Synchronicity is distinct from apophenia which
is the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in
random or meaningless data. An extreme form of apophenia is paraidolia which
is the perception of a sound or 'image' as being significant. An excellent
example of 'hopeful over-reading' of information was the perception of a
photograph of the Martian surface taken by one of the Viking missions in 1976
showing a face staring into the cosmos.
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| A Face on Mars |
This was later shown to be an aberration
of the light on the top of a high Martian plateau. Other more common examples
of paraidolia are the perception of faces in cloud formations, coded messages
on musical recordings and most popularly religious paraidolia, such as 'Jesus
on toast' or 'Mary on a sandwich'. The most well-known case of religious
paraidolia was the sighting of the Virgin Mary on a grilled cheese sandwich
found by Diana Duyser of Florida. Mrs. Duyser claimed to have kept the sandwich
on her night stand for over 10 years, during which time she had excellent luck
at the casinos. The fact that the sandwich had remained mold-free was
considered, by some, to have been proof of the sandwich’s miraculous nature.
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| Virgin Mary (Jesus?) on a Grilled Cheese Sandwich |
These cases often prove, in the end, to
be quite profitable. In 2004 the grilled cheese sandwich was listed for sale on
Ebay, where the (partially eaten) sandwich was bought by Golden Palace Casino
for $28,000.
Is there really some 'unifying' force or
influence in our world that we are unable to see? Are we so deeply immersed in
our own space that we cannot 'see the forest for the trees'?
Is the idea of synchronicity similar
to fractals, the repeating patterns that are ubiquitous in nature. Fractal
patterns are obvious when examined from afar but easily overlooked when viewed
from up close.
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| The Repeating Pattern of Fractals |
Some researchers argue that synchronicity is much more common than we appreciate, that it occurs every day and everywhere and that these synchronistic events tend to become obvious to us only in the case of the most startling coincidences. Are the events in life 'cause and then effect' or is there something more? Is there an 'overseeing' rule of (quantum?) law which says that everything is related? Can there be effect and then cause?..Or is that even stranger, even more unimaginable than 'spooky at a distance'?
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| Alice Through the Looking glass |
'That's the effect of living backwards. It always makes one a little giddy at first...It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards!' said the White Queen to Alice. ('Alice Through the Looking Glass' - Lewis Carroll)
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