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Midterm Paper: Synchronicity



Synchronicity is “the coincidence in time of two or more casually unrelated events which have the same meaning” ("Carl Jung"). This description of synchronicity was given by psychologist Carl Jung to describe occurrences such as: having a thought about someone you have not spoken to in years, and then minutes later running into them on the street.  The characteristics of a synchronous event are that there is a “meaningful connection between the outer event and the person’s inner psychological state,” and this connection is without a causal connection (“Carl Jung”). 

This question of causality is what defines Jung’s phenomenon of synchronicity as a Western concept. Jung describes a patient who was “psychologically inaccessible” due to her “extremely Cartesian rationalism” (“Carl Jung”).  This patient held a prevailing tenant of Western thought, Rene Descartes’ concept of dualism, which holds that the mind/soul and the body are two separate entities ("Cartesian Dualism"). In a counseling session, a powerful synchronous event occurred with this patient that “broke the ice of her intellectual resistance” by clearly connecting her psychological realm to the physical world (“Carl Jung”).

In Eastern thought it is well understood that everything is interconnected in a web of existence, without the need for physical or mathematical proof using rational thought. The mind, body, spirit and soul are “the same field, one non-dual consciousness that simultaneously creates both the subjective world and the objective world” (Chopra and Flesher, “Synchronicity”). Awareness of a synchronous event illuminates connections that until that moment were unknown but always existed; these experiences expand our level of consciousness (Chopra and Flesher, “Synchronicity”).  There is no question of causality; Eastern thought knows no creator that causes events to occur. There is an understanding that all aspects of the universe work in cooperation. Knowledge is derived from becoming attuned to invisible connections which need not be defined by time or space (Kaptchuk, 14-15).

Carl Jung’s explanation of Synchronicity is an attempt to use the language of the West to illuminate an Eastern truth, that reflections of our internal state in physical occurrences are not “a question of cause and effect, but a falling together in time, a kind of simultaneity… equal in rank to causality as a principle of explanation” (“Carl Jung”).  Jung used synchronicity to reveal that there is a “collective unconscious”; a concept which stands opposed to the compartmental nature of Cartesian dualism (“Carl Jung”). Chopra and Flesher elaborate on this concept from an Eastern perspective when they acknowledge that human knowledge “is a single outcropping in an infinite field of intelligence.” When we encounter a moment of synchronicity “we are looking into a mirror.” Within us, trillions of cells are constantly working together in synchronicity to create and perpetuate life. Outward experiences of synchronicity deepen our understanding of the intrinsic connections we have with the conscious universe. (Chopra and Flesher, “Synchronicity”- Part 2)

References:
"Carl Jung." Week 3: Synchronicity (2017): p.6. Article in ACCHS Physics, Summer 2017. Comp. Larry Spears. Print.
"Cartesian Dualism." AllAboutPhilosophy.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 9 July 2017.
Chopra, Deepak, and Jordan Flesher. "Synchronicity, Evolution & Your Genes." Collective Evolution. 30 Mar. 2015. Web. 9 July 2017.
Chopra, Deepak. "Synchronicity, Evolution and Your Genes (Part 2)." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 06 Apr. 2015. Web. 9 July 2017.
Kaptchuk, Ted J. The Web That Has No Weaver: Understanding Chinese Medicine. Chicago, Ill: Contemporary, 1983. Print.

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