Synchronicity is a word coined by Swiss Psychologist Carl Jung to describe seemingly coincidental, yet meaningful events in the external world that do not have an obvious cause.
Jung defined synchronicity as an “acausal connecting (togetherness) principle,” “meaningful coincidence”, “acausal parallelism” or “meaningful coincidence of two or more events where something other than the probability of chance is involved.”
Carl G. Jung (1960), Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle, Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 44.
Jung believed that many occurrences labeled as “coincidences,” are not actually due to chance. Instead, he believed that these occurrences are directly related to the observer’s mind, and serve to provide powerful insight, direction and guidance.
Carl Jung’s own example of Synchronicity
An example of a synchronistic event in Carl Jung’s life took place during a therapy session with one of his clients.
His client was a highly educated and rational woman with a serious demeanor. Jung knew he would not be able to get through to her on a deeper level unless an irrational event occurred in the form of a coincidence. Jung sought out anything he could use to get through to her.
Shortly after, the woman began describing a significant dream of a golden scarab (a costly piece of jewelry). As she was describing this beetle in more depth, Jung heard a tapping at the window behind him. He opened the window and revealed a live goldish-green scarab beetle, not native to the area.
Astonished, Jung quickly grabbed the beetle, and walked it over to the woman and said, “here is your scarab.” This event was enough to help break the woman from her overly rationalistic world-view and connect her dream world to her waking life– a fundamental revelation in Jungian Psychology.
Signs of Synchronicity
Have you ever been thinking of someone, and they called you the next minute? Or dreamt of finding something precious, and found it a few days later? According to Jung, these are examples of synchronicity.
Examples of Synchronicity can be observed in everyday life, it just takes a keen eye to observe it. For example, if you desire to have a relationship with the love of your life, you may be introduced to people that lead you in the direction of her/him. Each instance in meeting someone, is an event of synchronicity that is pointing you towards your goal.
Synchronicity can be recognized in the following signs:
- Dreams
- Symbols
- Numbers
- “Random” events
- Conversations
- Spontaneous encounters
Synchronicity can also aid in awakening you to your full potential and serve as a guide for getting in touch with your inner self, or in Jung’s words, assist you on your path of individuation.
Developing your awareness of synchronicity
Jung suggests that one’s ability to recognize synchronicity can be trained and improved upon. This comes from heightened awareness, and an ability to catch and analyze different circumstances that you find yourself in.
If you are able to develop an increased ability to recognize synchronicity in everyday events, you will uncover all kinds of motivation to propel you on your path towards success. If you are interested in increasing your awareness of synchronicity and harnessing its power, check out this simple guide on how to get started.
Through synchronicity, it is possible to uncover new ideas, meet significant people and open doors to a happier, healthier and more fulfilled life. With an awareness of Carl Jung’s concept of synchronicity, possibilities for you to come into contact with this magic are limitless.
“Synchronicity is an ever-present reality for those who have eyes to see.”
– Carl Jung
Uses and Purposes
Clinical Application: Carl Jung’s ideas on synchronicity can be used effectively in therapy. If a practitioner is able to help a client derive value from coincidental events, it will help assist the client in overcoming negative thought patterns and self-limiting beliefs. This is done with the fundamental understanding that the mind seeks to heal itself, and will derive direction and meaning from seemingly coincidental events.
Personal Application: If you are interested in witnessing synchronicity for yourself, you can increase the frequency of synchronistic events by setting and pursuing goals. Whatever your goal may be, it needs to be heartfelt, and fully worthy of your pursuit. If you are able to cultivate a burning desire to achieve that goal, you will find that signs will begin pointing you down a path of achieving that goal. This may come in the form of people you meet, unusual but related occurrences, and flashes of insight.
Have you had any profound events of synchronicity happen in your life? If so, it would be interesting to learn about your experience, please share your story below!
References:
Carl G. Jung (1960), Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle, Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 44.
Carl Gustav Jung, Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, English translation: 1955, The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche first published in 1952 as Naturerklärung und Psyche
For the past week I’ve seen 1111, 111, 777, people I’ve thought about or thought about me contacted me. I’ve seen my dream vehicle at least 5-6 times this past week. My manifestation must be near.
Those are good numbers! You can search for their angel number meaning and see what they are pointing to.
I have experienced what I feel to be profound synchronicity before. I was watching morning TV and there was someone being interviewed about a book they’d written about something called “cosmic ordering”. The basic premise of cosmic ordering was that you could ask the universe for something and you would receive it. I thought nothing more of it until I was driving to work that evening. To give a brief background, I was a university student at the tine. During the summer holidays I worked at a local holiday park called Centerparcs as a waitress. I went to university 2 hours away from where I worked at Centerparcs. During term time at uni I always worked part time. The day that I watched the cosmic ordering interview was my last day of working at Centerparcs for the summer. The next day I was travelling back down to university to start my third year. As I was driving to work I started thinking about the cosmic ordering interview. Whilst being open to spirituality, I was thinking it all seemed a bit far-fetched so decided I was going to test it. I was considering what I needed. As I always worked part time during university and I hadn’t found a job yet I decided to “cosmic order” that someone offered me a job that night whilst I was working. Towards the end of my shift in the restaurant, someone smashed a glass on the table of 16 people that I was serving. As I was sweeping it up, the man who was closest to me at the table told me that he was really impressed with my service and that I was exactly the type of person he would want working at one of their stores. I told him that I was looking for work and asked what they did. He told me that he was the regional director of a retail chain called Comet which sold electrical goods and that the group were all away on a management retreat (this isn’t the normal type of customer at the holiday lark, it was normally families) and asked where I went to university. When I told him, it just so happened that the person who sat next to him – the guy who smashed the glass – was the manager of the store 7 miles away from where I went to uni. He told me to just pop into the store the next week and that I would have a job. So I did just that, I walked into the store a few days later and was given a part time job without even having to have any kind of interview! I definitely believe this was synchronicity rather than just coincidence.
That is a great example of synchronicity. It is magical when you are able to recognize situations like that as synchronicity- interesting it was around the same time you watched the interview. Many blessings, thanks for sharing!
These last few months I’ve been studying and exploring the unconscious passionately.
The number of Synchronous events just keep pilling up and are increasing in a steady rate. The first loud one was when me and my significant other at the time were both drawing simultaneously. I started wanting to depict something like a black hole. She was at the beach and picked up a piece of natural charcoal. We both ended up drawing spirals. She on a physical rock and I drew a rock with a spiral on top. That felt like a sign that I must travel to visit her.
In her home island (Aegina) the events started to escalate. Among the things I took with me were my dream journal, sketchbook and a piece of linocut depicting an olive tree. A few days ago in the final image of a dream I had seen a medieval-looking tower from a specific low angle which I had sketched in my journal. Wandering about in Aegina we came across a historic momument.
The Tower of Markellos.
I was sure that this was the building I had seen in my dream a few days ago and started writing photographing and drawing it. I interpreted this Tower symbol a month later as a way of expressing unprosessed childhood emotions (anger towards father) and finally clicked a couple months later through tarot interpretations (The Tower card) which became the other half of my thesis deliverables (hand drawn tarot cards through personal experiences).
Back in Aegina even the conversations with ‘random’ aquantances that we stumbled on during our beach walks were so specifically current to the ideas and symbols I was trying to understand that nothing felt like it was by chance. The symbols I was desciphering were showing up constanly. The final piece of syncrhonisity was the strongest of all.
Promted from the olive piece I ‘happened’ to bring with me we knew we had to investigate.
We visited Aeginas Ancient Olive Grove.
The journey there felt like a trip to the unconscious, we even got lost as you of course are going to be when journing in that vast unknown sea. Huge boulders inwhich i saw stongehedge-like face characheristics were guiding us to our destination. When we reached a summit, we knew which way to go. Arriving at the grove, we were met with an Ancient olive tree. Its hollow trunk could easily fit five humans in it. Its branches were grotesque and swollen in places. I immediately saw a figure formed by the branches and saw this a sign to start looking for more. After I carefully and respectully approaced and greeted the tree I started photographing more faces in all of them. Pareidolia (tendency to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous visual stimulus) became one of the central axis of my thesis project which was focused on shadow work at the time.
I even see this writing as a synchronous event. I am close to finishing my thesis and presenting my findings and artworks in two weeks, but i couldn’t seem to write these events down. Suddenly after reading this article, with a simple ‘share your story bellow’ I was able to suddenly express some of the events that happened recently.
Thank you for writing this and taking the time to read.
Kind Regards, Vasilis
@vasilisgalatos on ig, If you’d like to connect and chat at any time.
That is amazing! And a great story knowing that you followed and recognized the signs. Please do share your art work when you are ready, perhaps we could even share your work in article form here on Arts of Thought. Just send a message through the contact page if you are interested. Peace!
Sting of the police introduced me to the concept of Synchronicity, sting was on a book signing tour at Harrods London and wasn’t sure if i wanted to go being a huge fan of his. Anyway morning arrived of book signing still hadn’t decided, there was this faint knocking sound at my window in between the glass and curtains it was a wasp in mid October wow what a coincidence sting got his name from a wasp… Went to the book signing met sting and got 2 books signed fantastic day. Another strange coincidence walking around the countryside on a summers day, listening to the song synchronicity by the police on my ipod, on this country lane this paint delievery truck passed me with 3 stripes on the side blue red and yellow same stripe colours used on the album cover of the police synchronicity album wow i freaked out and started laughing what are the chances of that happening same colours and design… Strange but true….
That is a crazy story! Good job for recognizing it.
I was not aware of the concept of synchronicity until I started experiencing strange coincidences that I could not explain away, one after the next, after the next…This also happened to coincide with my spiritual awakening that started about a decade ago.
One example was when we were going away on a beach vacation as a family. My daughter who was a child at the time was a nature lover who was very focused on studying insects. She was extremely disappointed when she realized right before we left that she could not find her bug watch that she had planned to bring along, like she had many times before. We did not have much time to look for it and had to leave without it, with a very sad child in tow. I was preoccupied with last minute packing so I really did not give it a second thought once we got on the road. On our long drive to our destination, my husband pulled off of the thruway to fill up with gas. I took the kids into the small attached convenient store to use the restroom and as I went to leave, I walked out of the bathroom door and almost bumped straight into a display that was empty except for one item that happened to be at my eye level so there was no way to miss it….The item was a child’s bug watch!
During this same period, I had started to have many questions brewing about psychic phenomena and had taken up an interest in reading about and learning from psychics. One day on my phone screen an advertisement for an event with a psychic close to my house popped up. I was immediately interested but only felt comfortable going with another person with similar questions/interests. I spoke with several people I knew but kept coming up empty. I determined that it was not likely my time, but I privately put out an intention that if it was meant to be, someone would come into my presence who was willing/able to go with me.
Just as time was running out, as the event was rapidly approaching, I was at dinner with family when my husband’s relative asked me if I had been reading any good books lately. I did not want to say outwardly that I had been reading about psychics/mediums, so I put the question back on her. She happened to have a book with her and she pulled it out to show me that she had been reading about a psychic/medium. We got to talking about our mutual interest and the subject of the event came up. She told me she was interested and at the very moment I was thinking about this conversation the next day, wondering if she would follow up, she was leaving me a message that she had bought my ticket and would be there to pick me up and drive me to the event. We did end up going together and it all just felt like there was so much more involved with that “coincidence” than just mere chance.
I THIRST FOR……. Revelation Of My Soul. LIFE… What An Integral Unexplained Journey. The Complexity Factor Of IT. ??????
My husband and I are from the U.S. We visited Scotland on vacation and fell in love with it, so when we retired early 2 years ago we bought a flat in Edinburgh and spend 6 months a year here–the most we are allowed on a visitor’s visa. A few days ago we decided we want to live here all the time, and I will look for a job here. Two days later, a job notice popped up on one of my job search engines. The job is at a university and is EXACTLY the same as my last job at a U.S. university, with even the same job title! I’ve applied and we’ll see what happens. Amazing!
That’s amazing! I’m sure it will work out, sounds meant to be :) please send an update once it plays out!
Hi everyone,
I’m new to the world of Jungian psychology and its concepts. I have an anecdote that I always viewed as an amazing coincidence but now I’m wondering if that wouldn’t be synchronicity?
I made a friend on social media and immediately felt a deep connection to her. Once I was looking for a tattoo idea that would include the number 7, and I thought of an imaginary flower with 7 petals. I thought 7 petal flowers didn’t exist but when I looked it up online, I saw that there is such a flower, called a trientalis (or starflower). I told my friend about my tattoo idea, and she told me the trientalis was her namesake flower.
Would you call this synchronicity or a different concept?
I wrote a song for a famous rock band, based on an earlier association, which they recorded in 1977. In 1985, I was invited by a professor of architecture friend to join him and his graduate students for two weeks in Greece. One day in Athens, I saw a Virgin Atlantic Records store across the street and entered. Knowing that my band friends were popular in Greece, I checked through the racks and found several copies of their albums. Among the familiar titles was one I had never seen before. Upon examination I discovered that it was a compilation album that included my song for which I had not yet received royalties. I made a note to myself to check with Columbia Records about that when I returned to the States. Back in the US, I got in my car to drive from Washington, DC to home in New York when I saw the sign for a diner. Pulling in, I had my breakfast, then headed for the door. On the way out, something told me to turn back toward the diner window. There, clear as day was a guy siting with his back to me wearing a t-shirt on which was emblazoned the album cover I had just seen in Greece. I had an impulse to go back in and ask where he’d gotten it, but decided to let it be.
I call this my Greek Trilogy, the first story of which I just related. I live in a small, Upstate New York town with a famous Ivy League university. I got into the apartment business in 1972, and one of my apartments was occupied by a family of brothers and sisters from Ethiopia. The eldest was a PhD candidate, and the three younger ones attended high school and a community college. In 1985, my friend, the architecture professor in Washington, DC asked if I wanted to join him and his graduate students for two weeks in Greece. The answer was an enthusiastic yes. I had relatives just north of DC, so I asked them if I could leave my car in their driveway. Doing so, I called a limo service for a ride to the airport, about an hour away. A shiny Town Car arrived and the driver ushered me into the back seat. Some silent time passed. Then, I noticed his name on the license. “Are you Ethiopian?” I asked. He said that he was snd we struck up a conversation. It turned out that he was a PhD candidate in mathematics who drove limos at night to make ends meet. Meanwhile, I was racking my brain to remember my tenant’s full name, and about 15 minutes later it came back to me. When my driver heard it he said: “Yes, he is my PhD advisor, now the Minister of Education…in Ethiopia! A series of random coincidences or a visit from Mr. Jung…you tell me.
So, I just related stories One and Two from my Greek Trilogy, albeit in reverse order due to not initially intending to tell all three stories, but here I go. While in Greece, we visited the small, mountainous village of Delphi, famous for the ancient female oracle who foretold the fortunes of many notable historical figures, Alexander the Great among them. The story goes that she would sit in a mountainside stream perched on a tripod that exuded a gas that induced her to enter the realm of visions. A group of priests on the shore would interpret her ravings into a coherent story for the client. One day, I found myself alongside that very stream remembering the stories of old. It was deathly hot and I was carrying a plastic Greek water bottle. Inspired, I emptied the contents and filled the bottle with the mythical, magic water. Back home in NY, I was reunited with my girlfriend at the time. She told me that she’d been seeing “a witch” to work out some personal issues about her future. Never having believed in witches, I asked her to make an appointment for me. I found the woman to be incredibly intuitive and insightful to an astonishing degree. After our session, I told her I’d drop off a gift for her. Did she have a small container? She handed me a perfume bottle encrusted with “jewels.” She had waitressed in a local Greek restaurant for years and the owner had brought the bottle from Greece as a gift. I took it home and filled it with my special water. She was not home to receive it, so I left it on her porch with a note. That night, she called me near midnight, profusely apologize for the late hour, but she just had to tell me. Upon holding the bottle, her brain had exploded with light as she put it, although I had yet to tell her what was inside. And that’s…the rest of the story.
I may as well enter the third story of my Greek Trilogy. The first two are in reverse order because I did not initially intend to relate all three. In Greece, I found myself in the small, mountainous village of Delphi, home to the famous Delphi Oracle of mythology. The story goes that she would sit on a tripod in the middle of a mountain stream that exuded a gas which caused her to enter the world of visions. Many famous ancient names came to visit her to have their futures told, Alexander the Great among them. A group of priests on the shore would interpret her raving to the client. Finding myself there, I filled a plastic water bottle with the mythical water and eventually took it home. Back in the States, my girlfriend at the time told me that she’d been visiting “a witch,” to work out some career issues. It was nothing I’d ever considered, but I was intrigued. I found the woman to be astonishingly intuitive and really enjoyed my audience with her. I asked her if she had glass container and she produced a small, jewel-encrusted perfume bottle. She had worked in a Greek restaurant for years, and the owner had brought it from Greece for her as a gift. At home, I filled it with my special water and left it on her porch, not revealing what it was. That night, I received a very apologetic midnight phone call from her. She said as soon as she touched the bottle her head had burst with light and she almost fainted. And that’s…the rest of the story.
Sorry for the repetition, but my first attempt to tell the third story did not seem to register with your website. Therefore,I did it again, only to find that my first telling appeared after some delay. Oh, well.
I recently drew an illustration that included a Hawk. I had no idea how the Hawk was to complete the story, but it came to me at the end of the drawing like an aha moment. The illustration was/is to be used in a class I am teaching on how to connect the dots to your imagination. But I had doubts about using the image for the class example – which at first, I loved. So, I pondered what to do. A few days later, I saw a Hawk perched in a tree in my backyard! (No leaves on the tree as it is winter.) It was a breathtaking sight. And when it stretched its wing slightly, just a glimpse of it instilled awe. In the 20 years living here, I’ve never seen a Hawk in my back yard tree! The sight of it also brought out a primal fear to be so close to it. I’d seen Hawks further north in my area flying/gliding high in the sky on rare occasions and always marveled at their elegance and power. I wonder what this amazing synchronization is trying to tell me. How do we use these magical moments to help us gain inner knowledge?
Thank you for sharing your Hawk experience! Your words gave me chills – “…see things from a higher perspective…reminder from God that everything will be alright.” Not only is your thought profoundly inspirational, it reminded me of an old friend/father figure who always said, “Everything is going to be alright.” He would say it aloud sometimes, even if there was no particular reason, like an affirmation. Wow. Thank you.
That’s a great affirmation! I might use that one :)
3/4 coincidences within 9 days. 1. I was at Durham Cathedral and I was talking to a volunteer who turned out to have worked in Shipping Office in Liverpool in around 1970 . My son now owns a apartment in this building but no longer lives there.
2. I was in Liverpool near where coaches stop which visit Paul McCartney ‘s childhood home. A coach stopped and when the people left the coach a man stayed behind who I started talking with. It turned out he lived in the same neighbourhood as my son who lives in Texas. 3. 2 days later I was walking in my local neighbourhood and saw a vehicle which had the name of the business which looks after the rental of my sons apartment. At the same time a man got out who happened to be very person my son and his wife spoke to let the out the apartment 8 years earlier. He knew there names and remembered them well. on the very same evening I was looking at some films on You tube and a film about Carl Jung and synchronicity appeared.
Wow! A wonderful example of synchronicity.
Your mention of apartments reminded me of this. There’s even a Paul McCartney connection, too. Years ago, my daughter attended acting school in NYC. I reluctantly set her up in a ground floor apartment and sadly kissed her goodbye. Meanwhile, back home in Central New York, my girlfriend told me that an old friend was coming to visit her from NYC. They had met years before and became friends when he and his boyfriend stopped into her Upstate tile studio on a whim. After the visit, my girlfriend suggested that we take him out to dinner, and then put him back on the road. At dinner, my first good look at him, I said that he looked rather swarthy, perhaps Italian or Arab. He said, yes indeed, he was half-Syrian. I told him that I was, too. When he told me his last name, it was very familiar. A long story short, a great uncle of his had married my grandmother’s sister and took her home to Minneapolis, where she had endured an abusive marriage. This, mind you, was in the 1920s! I, then, asked him what he did. In the winter, he organized band tours, and in the summer…he was the organic gardener on John and Yoko Lennon’s Upstate farm. He and his now deceased partner owned an apartment in an old New York brownstone. When he told me the address, I freaked. It was dead next to my daughter’s apartment, in fact, they shared a common exterior wall! So, that one spans 100 years and multiple degrees of separation.
I wonder why these coincidences happen and what there meaning is ?
Hello Ray, nice to “meet” you! From my perspective, a good analogy might be with quantum physics. We experience the world of everyday objects through the limited spectrum of light that is visible to us. But, in reality, at the atomic level, matter obeys often inscrutable and counter-intuitive laws, like wave-particle duality. When we see individual mushrooms growing in the forest, we don’t see the intertwined root system that makes them essentially one. Is there life after death? At 75, I will find out sooner than later. But, of course, analogies are just speculation. Why did I meet my next-door neighbors in a tiny inn on the outskirts of Kyoto? A few seconds either way and we would have missed each other never knowing our proximity. I don’t believe in “Fate,” or that things were meant to be, but like a 100 pound mother who can lift a truck off her child, some things defy explanation. Also, you can be standing next to a total stranger, and unless you ask the right questions, you might never know that you both know a certain person, or have any number of hidden relationships. I was talking to a young neighbor a while back for the first time who had memories of playing pool with my father at my parents’ home. You’re guess is as good as mine, Ray!
Thank you for thoughtful response , Ray
If words could express the divine presence in my life and how much it freaks people out with the synchronicity in my life. Everything from car tags and street signs, numbers and Pictures, birds and spirit (what most call the wind). I talk with Father God constantly and my journey started small. Asking for something in return I would face any obstacle or hardship I had to overcome from then on. I was blessed with that. My journey was not easy at first or exactly me keeping my end of the deal. But as time went on and my relationship grew, I found myself just chatting with the divine. The conversations led to a language of abstract communication that has never failed me. It has lead me to wisdom and knowledge that shocks me. I can’t say I use the advice but it just comes out of my mouth like water over the side of a cliff. The conversations evolved to me asking what knowledge or wisdom Father God would like for me to know. Once that’s obtained I then ask what to do with said information. My responses are not voices in my head or even that amazing to someone else. To me however it is Divine language. For example dragonfly’s are the one of the oldest living species on the planet. 200 million years I think with minimal evolutionary changes. I see it as a symbol of the divine presence in your life. Others may go “oh a dragonfly” and that’s it. Face value. Now with nothing but a small pool on our property out back I see abnormal amounts of dragonfly’s everywhere I go. At stop lights the store etc. Or the mouse with a bread crumb in it’s mouth at the train station last night when I was stressing about the intense amount of prejudice I receive for being such an oddball who prefers to hang out with his best friend Father God as I refer to our creator. Idk if I’m his best friend but I tell him he is mine and I won’t allow him to say no about it either. Haha. The mouse represented to me that I am, like a mouse, able to over come the most extreme circumstances without changing who I am overall. Sometimes I get an answer so fast it’s funny. An example is spirit airlines when the wind hit the chime on our house out back and I like always response “hey, spirit.” Similar to the word breathe in Latin meaning spirit. At that same moment I laughed and laughed noticing that a spirit airline plane was flying directly over me at lower altitude than usual. I could not stop laughing. It’s odd yea. The message is for the individual to understand and learn from a Divine place as Christ came before us from that place. It changed the world. You the individual have to be the one willing to open up to it as carl Jung explains. In my words take offthe blind fold and stop seeing everything for just face value. I’m 32. And spiritually sound with unbreakable faith and enlightened spiritually which many never get to accomplish. It is beautiful. Imagine feeling comfort from everyday stresses just by noticing a bird (falcon my favorite) or hearing a wind chime. so many actually most people discriminate me for my beliefs in every way possible constantly. Cyber harassment in all forms(no joking), constant surveillance (no privacy laws in America), workplace harassment and sabotage (it is almost impossible to get a good job despite my associate in psychology and 1.5 of psych bachelor’s I did not finish and a visual design certification. Oh and gang stalking and other forms of terror. But my faith is unbreakable. And I know that it’s part of what my life path is. People say crazy. I say get your own synchronicity and you will see it and I’ll look at you with no judgement bc it’s not my message to interpret. So anyways I hope this was not to wordy, confusing, and had grammar you can understand. Thanks so much! I do have a blog I just started but I started writing bc of people attempting to take credit for my information and it cost to to run in it. However I do occasionally post so please follow and encourage me if you enjoy. Thanks!
Bruce, Ray, and Josh,
Crazy coincidences! Or, as William James might call them, wild facts. I’ve been trying to understand James, Charles Fort, and Jung on synchronicity against the backdrop of developing relativity theory and the responses that branch of physics generated across a wide public. Bruce, your take on quantum physics might be extremely fruitful. The intertwined mushroom image parallels James’s writing at its most heartfelt as he neared death, never having succeeded in explaining to his own satisfaction certain events called paranormal. Though trained as an MD, he never lost sight of the limitations of the purely scientific. I just wish he’d had another ten years here.
Hello Peter: Given that Dark Matter and Dark Energy make up 90% or more of the Universe’s mass, that means we experience only 5-10% of the universal presence. Evidence of its existence is only indirect, of course, being that our matter and its “matter” don’t interact. Further, we experience only a fraction of the electromagnetic spectrum, while other species may or may not have extended capabilities, the eagle’s eye, par example. So, do the laws of physics constructed for our 5% of the Universe apply to the other 95%? We may never know. As for “strings” being the ultimate constituents of matter, which may never be experimentally verified, it’s hard for me to imagine how minuscule dancing filaments ultimately magnify into a brain, the Sistine Chapel, or a sunset. Food for thought…. Speaking of which, my wife and I shared a pizza after visiting the Vatican a while back, while looking at the Vatican’s walls from the pizza shop window. Now, that’s what I all Simultaneity!
I’ve posted a lot on this site, and I thought that my synchronistic experiences had dried up recently. But, today proved me wrong. Last year, I was doing some leaf blowing when a guy in his 70’s like me came running out of the house across the street. He was fuming. I was making too much noise. We traded sharp words for about five minutes, then he walked away. Today, I was sweeping the curbing on our street when he approached me again. This time, he wanted to apologize for causing the fuss son
some months earlier. I accepted his apology. He then told me that he’s a musician, guitar and bass, who was making a recording at the time and that the noise from my leaf blower had interfered. I told him that I had played bass for a college band that had since become world famous. When I told him the name, he told me that he used to jam with the very same guys in my band and others after they had a contract with Electra Records. In short, we knew about 10 of the same people back in the 70’s. So, this inexplicable interlude spanned 50 years!
OMG, here comes another one! When my kids were young, I’d take them to the Mall game room and give them each ten bucks to knock themselves out. I went straight to the Twilight Zone pinball game. It had all the classic sound effects that I remembered from the TV show. An hour later it was bedtime, so walking out of the game room we walked dead into Rod’s daughter and her architect husband. In all fairness, Rod grew up an hour south of my home town, and taught a college writing course at a local college, But still, I submit this for your approval!
This is great, all your examples have been wonderful. You have a good eye for synchronicity!
This will probably be my last post for a while because how many wacky coincidences can one guy have? Anyway, I’ve mentioned a band I formed in college a couple times already that went on to fame. Meanwhile, in the early Seventies, I came back to my Upstate home town after I finished college in NYC. That’s when I met the owner of an ad agency, and we became lifelong friends. When his daughter was born, I was there in the nursery window witnessing her first hours of life. After college, the gorgeous woman she’d become moved to Utah to work. There, she eventually married her high school sweetheart. In the summer of 20, they announced that they were having a reception for family in our Upstate NY town and they posted their guest list and updates on a website. Checking it out, I kept seeing the same last name as the drummer in my college band 50 years earlier. As it turned out, her groom was no less than the drummer’s nephew! Mr. Jung was on the guest list that day! The drummer’s home town is a three hour drive north of ours, so how his nephew ended up in high school with my best friend’s daughter is still an inexplicable mystery.
Lying is bad, but I just did…one more. My bride in 1980 wanted us to honeymoon in Aruba. How could I say no? Rewind 25 years and I bought a single: “All Shook Up,” of course by Elvis. Years later, I bought the second single I’d ever buy: “Reelin’ In The Years,” by Steely Dan. The guitar work was so impressive! Back in Aruba, my wife and I were having a lazy swim at one end of an Olympic-sized pool. At the other end was another couple. We ignored each other for about an hour, but eventually drifted close enough to converse. The guy was the soloist on “Reelin’, and his girlfriend’s name was Marilyn, as was my wife’s! We decided to explore the island together for the next couple days, and it turned that the guy was the band leader for SNL at the time. He invited us to the after-party if we ever visited NYC. About a year later, we did, and got to meet most of the original cast!
Okay, since you asked, one last post. Long ago, I entered a local pawn shop in my hometown, just out of curiosity. There, I saw a beautiful marble-like casting of a sculpture by Antonio Canova (circa 1787) entitled: “Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss.” The sucker was heavy, but I lugged it into our house and placed it in our living room in a prominent location. Probably, five years later, my daughter turned 16. I had promised her a trip to Paris, so there we were. At the Louvre Museum one day, we mounted the steps to the third floor, walked into our first room, and there, the first thing to our left was the original Canova! Maybe not pure synchronicity, but more like a premonition?
Last year I have passed a building where there was a van that helps people move furniture and stuff . On the moment I thought: Oh, it would be nice to find an apartment in this building ! One month later , there it was , bought an apartment in the building ( I was searching for something in the neighborhood for 2 or 3 years ) . Still haven’t started the full renovation , I must manifest it differently ? :)
A stray kitten was in the engine of our vehicle and we could not get her out. We tried everything. Finally we resolved to buying a trap to catch it when it came out. After catching it, we decided to keep it. It was a girl and I was thinking of names to call her. Layla was one of three names I had narrowed down to. I had pulled some tiny ramekins down from the cupboard to serve as feeding and watering dishes for the kitten. As I was drying them, after I washed them, I noticed the name on the bottoms, LAYLA! I was so shocked! It was like a sign. Later I had logged into YouTube and Eric Clapton’s song LAYLA was in my feed! That settled it for sure! Layla was definitely her name.
Back when I was a kid I used to play flag football in a sports league called I9. I live in Florida and have for all my life. One year my dad coached my football team and if you don’t have enough players on your team they will give you random players who don’t have a team. Usually you can pick your friends. So the league gave us this kid named Marcus. I never really became friends with Marcus we were just acquaintances. So maybe like a year or two later (after the football season) my family and I took a trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota and went to the mall of America one day. They used to have an amusement park in the middle of the mall. I had just ridden a ride and I am standing outside the line to the ride with my family. Then I notice Marcus from my football team standing in line for the ride. I was so shocked and this wasn’t just someone that looked like Marcus. We actually talked to him and his mom who was waiting outside the line also. I was so shocked. Then maybe like 6 months later my family and I were back in Florida. One day we decided to go to Disney world Epcot for the food and wine festival. We were about to get in line for a food kiosk and again I see Marcus and his family standing in line at the food kiosk. We stopped and talked to them and talked about how weird it was that we met again. Now we had no plans to meet him and I didn’t have his phone number and this was before social media. Thought I should add those facts.
Great story! I wonder where Marcus is at now.