POST III
Jung describes synchronicities as follows:
Synchronistic events rest on the simultaneous occurrence of two different psychic states. One of them is the normal, probable state (i.e., the one that is causally explicable) {A}, and the other, the critical experience is the one that cannot be derived causally from the first.{B} ... An unexpected {mental} content which is directly or indirectly connected with some objective external event coincides with the ordinary psychic state: this is what I call synchronicity.
This means that while all synchronicities differ they have the same structure. Subjective Event {A} is connected to an objective event {A'}.Even though there is no apparent causal connection {Jung refers to this as the principle of acausality} there is an undeniable link of meaningful connectedness. For an overview of the Jung's perspective see my article "A Theory and Use of Meaningful Coincidences".
For example - if we look at the Lazarus Rising synchronicity - {comprising a run of meaningful coincidences culminating with the telephone call to Diane}, the following is noted. The subjective event A was my sharing with Diane the Bible's display of Lazarus rising as an answer to the question as to whether or not miracles actually happen. Event A {the objective event} was Diane's totally unexpected response that she had been told by her Psychiatrist the previous day that he had attended the Raising of Lazarus in a past life. {For more details see my article on synchronicity.}
Clearly I had no influence on Diane's Psychiatrist to reveal to her the specific details of his past life and to do so the day before I spoke with her; nor, did she have any apparent influence on my attending the group meeting, seeing a vision I attributed to her grandmother, spurring me to ask the question to myself about the reality of miracles, and certainly not determining that the bible be opened to a page that described an answer in the form of remarkable content about a noteworthy miracle understandably rich in meaningful significance.
Thus this coincidence, comprising two events, A and A', are seemingly uncaused but decidedly linked by an undeniable and impressive resonance of parallel meaningfulness.
Jung's conclusion is that such events are evidence of the reality of and connection with a common 'spiritual' realm of transcendent 'absolute' meaning. The bridge to a connection with this realm of absolute meaning is, according to Jung, via the collective unconscious. The collective unconscious is assumed by Jung to be a realm of reality shared by all human beings. Further, this realm of reality cannot be represented in words, but is instead, known by intuition and feelings in the form of archetypal symbols - the basis for the world's various mythologies.
Jung believes that synchronicities occur when human beings are at pivotal turning points in their lives such as those associated with birth, death, marriage, divorce, and other significant change points.
He believes that synchronicities occur in response to a person's having made an intimate connection via the collective unconscious with transforming archetypal energy. Thus the Lazarus Raising Coincidence might well have been interpreted by Jung as a confirmation and encouragement of my need to actively pursue a dedicated connection with and actual connection with my split off religious or transcendent function.
Indeed, in my journal, in response to the Lazarus Rising synchronicity, I wrote:
I have {experienced} a major synchronicity, Lazarus Rising. Coincidences appear to be connected with an unseen world that is the essence of spirituality. Whatever else these events add breadth and depth and point to something higher and MORE MEANINGFUL THAN ORDINARY LIFE. I wish to codify occult laws.
Thus initially I was a de facto Jungian with respect to my understanding the nature of synchronicities. So why not let well enough alone? Why press on and try to scientifically explain what Jung had concluded: that a rational explanation of these perplexing events that seem to defy conventional notions of time and space is "not even thinkable in rational terms."
My answer is that while I was (at the time) consumed by doubt and hoping to believe in something transcendent that would provide me with absolute answers to my big ultimate questions, I was also stuck with the Keats's proclamation: "To thine own self be true." Try as I might the Jungian non explanation explanation did not resonate with my direct experience.
What had appealed to me most about the Jungian position was the promise of wholeness and unity through a direct connection with divinity - spirituality - the transcendent or religious function {call it what you will}. I knew that I suffered from feeling un whole. I was divided in deep conflict with myself thus the appeal to unity and peace was highly seductive. The reason I went to the spiritualist gatherings in the first place was to see if I could find a pathway to wholeness. At first I was enthralled with what initially appeared to be a return to a true Garden of Eden on this earth plane.
I was on this path for two years. But as my experience had repeatedly demonstrated I once again ran up against the inevitable woeful contradictions between the fantasy of accessing and sustaining {idealized}perfection versus butting up against realistic limitations of imperfect people, places and things including myself.
Among the reality blows I suffered was internecine warfare among some of the key members of the spiritualist group I had then attended on a regular basis. As typically happens in groups of people, sooner or later factions began to form. It reached a peak when I was courted by two sides to either accept or refuse to accept an invitation to be a member of a newly forming Order of St. Germaine. {I am uncertain as to whether or not the link to this order points to the same organization I am describing happening decades ago}. Both sides dissed each other insisting each was the one and only ray of light. I found both sides to be petty, insincere, and phony. A quote from Montaigne made absolute sense out of my topsy turvy experience: "Super celestial thoughts breed sub subterranean conduct."
The effect on me was to rekindle a familiar feeling of pervasive doubt and suspicion. In short I suffered a crisis of doubt. What was preached was unity and peace. What was practiced was the same old politics's of experience. So even in spirit land there was back biting and dissension.
Although synchronicities kept occurring my attitude towards them began to turn. I reawakened my philosophy training while at Columbia College. This training enabled me to view Jung's perspective as having been derived {as are all speculative theories and philosophies} from his first assumptions {believed to be absolutely true} concerning the nature of reality {ontology}and the knowledge of reality and its acquisition {epistemology}.
So, taking seriously my undeniable experience of imperfection, I reconsidered taking the pathway of the philosopher, William James. Thus instead of blindly following the leader I would, instead, rely on my divided self to try to make a personal synthesis of the intellectual, spiritual, philosophical psychological parts of myself. Thus, in philosophical talk, I shifted from being a Platonist to an Aristotelian. That is I went from accepting Jung's word on faith as the final and last word on the nature of synchronicities to a dedicated search for the truth of the matter starting with my own direct experience.
Gradually this shift took the form of moving away from an almost exclusive reliance on knowledge gained by feelings and intuition {deduction - unquestioning faith and religion} to knowledge supported by my intellect as well and by feelings and intuition { induction - the way of science and reason}. In short I was moving towards understanding synchronicities from what Jung said is an impossibility -searching for a rational understanding of them through the pathway of reason and scientific method.
Having failed spiritualism as my answer to transformation I once again felt sucked back into an all too familiar psychological black hole. I felt increasingly trapped in a job in Civil Service that I was good at but felt as if it was a dead end. What to dedicate my life to was as elusive as ever. Doubts, internal splits, gnawing feelings of emptiness and meaningless were increasingly all pervasive. I identified with Gulliver pinned to the earth of Lilliput held captive by a million threads.
In this unjoyful psychological atmosphere I discovered one of those voices in the wilderness that occasionally speak and resonate with ones most direct experience. Such a voice was Sigmund Freud's via his first book, (1907): The Interpretation of Dreams
In this connection I wrote the following journal entry:
{In the attempt to rationally understand the nature of synchronicities}...key concepts for me are simultaneity, synchronicity, inertia {positive and negative},con census, the wheel, psychoanalysis and process.
Suffice it to say that I began to become interested less in the concept of the collective unconscious and the feelings surrounding it but, rather, on the concept and experience of the personal unconscious - most particularly my own personal unconscious.
Later I would come upon another one of those seminal works that was transforming by its impact on my understanding. Such a work was a monograph authored by T. Kuhn: "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." Kuhn's thesis is that scientific revolutions begin with the identification of scientific anomalies. An anomaly is something that defies explanation utilizing conventional theoretical and conceptualizations of a given period of time.
Whatever else can be said of the Jungian point of view concerning synchronicities is that it poses a direct and powerful frontal attack on conventional laws of cause and effect - broadened and deepened by Freud's conceptualiztion of Freudian psychodynamics {commonly referred to as the theory of Psychoanalysis}.
It is this anomaly of how to make sense out of the apparent non-sense of acausality that is at the crux of the intellectual challenge that synchronicities stir up.
It was at this time in my life (late twenties) when I had another major synchronicity that marks this significant shift in my perspective. Details will follow in the next post.
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