Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle | C. G. Jung

Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle | C. G. Jung | Scientifically Investigating the Unexplainable.

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Synchronicity: An ...

	Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle C. G. Jung Princeton University Press, 1973 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 21 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Extracted from Volume 8. A parapsychological study of the meaningful coincidence of events, extrasensory perception, and similar phenomena.

Beyond Chance, or: Mapping the Etherverse

Just as Oppenheimer's Shiva-jigging atom-stomp codified the nuclear sciences as a force to be reckoned with and redefined the method and madness of the battlefield for the 20th century, so in turn were set in motion a series of sub-atomic particle explorations that would ultimately serve just as destructive to long-held paradigms about the nature of the universe. The contradictory tenants of Quantum Physics desecrated the Newtonian Determinism that had dominated modern thought for some two hundred years: the electron 'cloud of possibility' and the photon wave/particle paradox shattered the comfortable, mechanistic notion of causality (cause and effect), relegating it to historical curiosity. In effect: these rigid clockwork rules, when viewed at the smallest sphere, suddenly turn elastic, "reality" dictated by the will of the observer and/or the constraint of the causal experiment: clockwork causality began to stretch like salt-water taffy before the conscious participant, giving Dali's soft-clock surrealism an eerily prescient scope. For empiricists and hardwired logicians, Quantum-theory was as dangerous and reality-threatening as anything Darwin pulled on the Secular Fundamentalists, and resistance to its baffling, frustratingly unfussy relativity continues to this day - some would rather reject it out of hand, rather than deal with the consequences.

Others, on the other hand, probed the quandary, and found therein substantive material for the more questionable aspects of this existence. Psychoanalyst Carl Jung latched onto the discoveries of his friends Einstein, Planck, Bohr (etc.), saw the correlation with Eastern philosophy and his own studies into the paranormal, and in 1952 published *Sychronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle,* an attempt to condense and conceptualize some very difficult peculiarities/inconsistencies that statistical science neglected to take into account - specifically 'meaningful coincidences', the inexplicable that occurred far too often to be products of chance. Or, as Jung put it: "Sychronicity... means the simultaneous occurrence of a certain psychic state with one or more external events which appear as meaningful parallels to the momentary objective state...(pg. 25)." In other words, the chaotic, malleable elements of the extreme microverse have a representative affect on our causal-ruled macroverse - although the manifestation of it cannot be adequately measured, due to its unpredictable nature - and to Jung's views, this was as a serious venture to be studied rather than outright dismissed.

Essential to this argument is the concept of a 'soul,' or soul-network: 'something' beyond the physical perception, and beyond the spatial limitations of energy, working in accordance to its own plan. Jung envisioned, beyond the mechanistic aspect of the 'normal' world, a broader framework of existence, in which all things are connected via an indefinable ether-verse, encompassing such derided/quizzical concepts as "meaningful coincidences," foreknowledge/precognition/intuition, ESP, telepathy, telekinesis, and so forth. As a human came to channel the Quantum theory, "...we must regard them as creative acts, as the continuous creation of a pattern that exists from all eternity, repeats itself sporadically, and is not derivable from any known antecedents (pg 102)."

Heady stuff! It's interesting to note Jung tip-toe around the `G' word (the thesis would have been outright rejected then and there by self-respecting scientists), instead incorporating the Tao, Schopenhauer's Will & various other cultural representations of an all-pervading force that, as the Chinese sages knew three thousand years before, could not be comprehended consciously, but through meditative "non-being" ... or the ~unconscious state~, Jung is quick to clarify. Integral to this discussion are archetypes, the common models upon which cultural icons/identities are patterned. Jung does not go into specifics here (for he mined archetypes throughout his career) but does pose several interesting notes - the theory of whether numbers actually existed, as archetypes, before human conception (and human existence?) was certainly something to ponder upon.

*Sychronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle* is divided into four sections, being 1) the establishment of the theory, 2) an experiment of statistical randomness to 'prove' Sychronicity by way of astrology, 3) a list of examples of similar concepts throughout the ages (the Tao etc. mentioned above), and 4) a lecture in 1951 wherein the genesis of this book was formulated. As a student of Eastern philosophy, nothing Jung stated here was exactly new or revelatory to my mindset; but when the dominant Western attitude of that period is taken into perspective, it is easy to see why this work would be deemed controversial and, a favored expression of shallow dismissal, "junk science."

Still, some reservations should be made here. For one, Synchronicity shouldn't be considered science, rather a metaphysical theory; and Jung falls into the all-to-common trap of claiming his hypothesis as irrefutable, using the higher-than-probable results of his tests and a number of "meaningful" coincidental stories to make his case. I suggest that anyone seriously investigating these theories make the effort to view both sides of the coin - those who support and those who refute the concept of Synchronicity and the innumerable derivations of Quantum possibility, for the following reason:

This thesis can be seen as an origin point for the current market of the New Age: hokum and free-wheelin' misinterpretation take voluminous cues from that established by Einstein et al. Although there are practical alternatives - self-help agencies such as PSI and similar motivational speakers a la Tony Robbins utilize these concept as the base platform of success: "To Think is to Create" - despite this, the more intricate (and exciting) aspects of Quantum Physics are often diluted by some into mass-consciousness vehicles for easy enlightenment - think of Redfield's bestselling poppycock-omnibus *The Celestine Prophecy,* or any number of Quantum-cannibalizing frauds designed exclusively for the bohemian soccer-mom set - and the increasingly nebulous 'pseudo' aspect of it subsequently strengthens resistance from traditionalists and skeptics.

This book is an excellent attempt to map the unknown, the indefinable *Something* so intrinsic with the ongoing process of life. A brave, massively influential analysis of all that 'beyond chance' - five stars.

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Scientifically Investigating the Unexplainable.

_Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle_ is an essay written by the Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung, first published in 1952 and republished by the Bollingen Series of Princeton University Press, translated by R. F. C. Hull. In this essay, Jung proposes the idea of synchronicity, a "meaningful coincidence of two or more events, where something other that the probability of chance is involved". Throughout his life, Jung had been interested in occult ideas and as a youth had experienced several occult occurrences. As a scientist, Jung sought to explain these sorts of occult occurrences through the concept of synchronicity. Jung was influenced by many of the ideas emerging from modern physics at the time, particularly as concerned relativity theory (Albert Einstein had been a guest at his home while staying in Zurich) and the quantum theory (Jung benefited from collaboration with the physicist Wolfgang Pauli and this essay and a related study by Pauli appeared together when originally published).

The first section of this essay is devoted to an exposition of the concept of synchronicity. Jung begins by explaining the concept of natural law for the scientist, noting how natural laws rest upon the principle of causality; however, since natural laws are only statistical proofs this principle breaks down at the microphysical level. To illustrate his idea of synchronicity Jung presents several instances of meaningful coincidences which illustrate the "law of series" as presented by Paul Kammerer. For example, Jung mentions a case in which the symbol "fish" repeatedly occurs in his life and in his relationships with patients throughout the period of two days. A second instance of synchronicity mentioned by Jung later in this essay involves a woman who was prone to an excessive "Cartesianism" (i.e. rationalism) and had a dream of a scarab beetle. Later a beetle was to appear at Jung's window while he was analyzing her freeing her of her rationalism. Occurrences such as these suggest the possibility of an acausal connecting principle. Jung mentions the thinking of Schopenhauer on fate at this point and he shows where Schopenhauer's thinking is wrong in light of modern discoveries; yet, he praises Schopenhauer for suspecting that the scientific understanding of natural law at the time was missing something. Jung mentions the parapsychological work of Gurney, Myers, Podmore, Dariex, Richet, and Flammarion. He notes that Dariex found cases where the probability of a telepathic result being due to chance were 1 : 4,114,545, and Flammarion found similar cases where the probability was 1 : 804,622,222. Jung also mentions the work of J. B. Rhine at Duke University on extra-sensory perception (ESP). He shows how Rhine devised experiments in which the probabilities of results being due to chance were extremely miniscule and furthermore separated experimenter and subject by enormous distances and reproduced similar results. Jung also mentions the work of the Society for Psychical Research in parapsychology and presents a summing up of the results on ESP. Jung mentions the role of the archetypes of the collective unconscious (according to his own theory) as they occur in instances of synchronicity, and suggests that they play a fundamental role in these occurrences. Jung next goes into a discussion of various instances of synchronicity, mentioning the case of the beetle. Jung also notes how in Rhine's experiments the mental state of the subject (i.e. whether he viewed the experiment in a positive light or was bored with it) came to determine the degree to which he indicated correct results. This again offers confirmation for Jung's theory that attentiveness to the collective unconscious is somehow involved in these occurrences of synchronicity. Jung suggests that synchronicity consists of two processes: an unconscious image comes into the consciousness and then an object in the world is discovered which coincides with this unconscious image. Jung relates this phenomenon to alchemy and magic (mentioning the writings of Albertus Magnus). Jung also mentions particularly in this regard the _I Ching_, a Chinese divinatory text used as an intuitive or "mantic" method for grasping a situation as a whole and placing the details against a cosmic background. Jung shows how the use of the _I Ching_ relates to the irrational nature of the unconscious and explains the differences between Chinese and modern Western thought. Jung also examines astrology as part of this discussion.

The second section of this essay consists of an astrological experiment conducted by Jung. In this experiment, Jung used statistical methods to examine the occurrences of astrological correspondences in married couples. Jung found evidence for the traditionally regarded "sun conjuncted with moon" and "moon conjuncted with moon" occurrences among marriage partners that exceeded those suspected due to chance. In this regard Jung again mentions the experiments of Rhine, as well as an interesting story regarding the Swedish seer Swedenborg whose dreams foretold a fire in Stockholm.

The third section of this essay consists of a discussion of forerunners of the idea of synchronicity. In this regard, Jung begins with a discussion of Oriental thought, mentioning both the idea of the Tao (translated as "God" or "Providence" by the Jesuits) of Taoist thought and the mantic procedures involved in the _I Ching_. Jung relates this to the theory of "correspondentia" in the thinking of medieval Europe. Jung mentions such thinkers as Hippocrates, Philo, Theophrastus Paracelsus, Pico della Mirandola, and Zosimos of Panopolis. Jung also mentions Kepler and his remarks on astrology and finally turns his attention to Leibniz, going into a fairly thorough discussion of his "monads". Jung also notes the role of number (which has real existence according to the Platonists), mentioning for example the comment of Gauss that "God arithmetizes" and a dream involving a geometrical square occurring in nature. Jung concludes this essay remarking on the role of modern physics in explaining synchronicity, emphasizing a "quaternion" with "space" and "time", and "causality" and "synchronicity" occupying opposing sides.

This book also includes the lecture given by Jung, "On Synchronicity" (1951), which appeared before the essay was written and essentially goes over the same material as present in the essay.

This book offers an attempt by Jung to scientifically explain the unexplainable. His discussion here is sure to not please the so-called skeptical rationalists. However, Jung uses the very methods of science to show that his idea of synchronicity has validity. For the discerning reader, this book and essay is sure to offer much food for thought regarding the nature of reality.

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Scientifically based validation for many unexplained phenomena

This is the first written material that I have been exposed to that actually attempts to quantify (not just qualify) the possibility of unexplained phenomena in a truly scientific manner. It's the most depth I have seen any psychologist reach while studying the difference between the internally self-generated/projected vs. the possibility of externally autonomous psychological occurrences. For one who is involved in self-exploration, this particular work can be the catalyst for much inner growth & development. Be ready for Jung's abstract writing style, & have a dictionary & highlighter on hand for some fun & enlightening reading!

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occurences linked together in meaningful ways

where something other than the probability of chance is involved.

I've found this to be true in my own personal experience over the years but had never heard the terminology used to explain this phenomenon. Once I discovered it, I began looking up books on the subject and, to my surprise, discovered Jung. Since I had never had a psychology class this was my first direct exposure to him and I was very impressed.

I particularly enjoy the episode in the book where he is speaking with Freud and they both experience the synchronization of the book case event.

Highly recommended. Enjoy!
I think it is a terrific book overall.

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Well-Received

This product was delivered in a timely manner and was just as the description had listed... Positive purchase experience.

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