PART TWO - SYNCHRONICITY

(Read this work or return the Many Things Index or Asbury Index)

I had always been interested in psychology, so I had been familiar with the concept of synchronicity before I became interested in quantum physics. As I read about the latter, I found myself wondering if there was any connection between the two. Sure enough, on my next visit to the library, I found books on quantum physics that did indeed mention Carl Jung's mysterious concept (boy, did I feel smart). However, they really didn't make a detailed connection between the two. Eventually you will see that my application of it to Cecil De Sanctis' theory goes right to the heart of the matter. Not only that, but it DOES something remarkable (or, at least, appears to do so).

Who is Carl Jung? What is synchronicity?

Jung (1875-1961) was a psychologist, and, as such, probably is in a tie with Sigmund Freud in name-recognition among the public that is interested in psychology (but don't tell this to Freud; he'll give you the "talking cure"). Jung is famous for having coined the words introvert and extrovert (he was both, the latter on weekends); he is also responsible for the popularity of the terms collective unconscious and archetype (the latter at first having to do with shoe styles). He, like Freud, has had enormous impact on modern thought (but don't hold this against them).

Because of disagreements over the nature of the libido (i.e., modern thought) and the unconscious, Jung branched off from his teacher Freud and founded his own school of psychology. (It was called "School of Psychology.")He also had a bone to pick with Freud regarding the cooking-time of certain brands of bratwurst. Jung's interest was in the collective unconscious, which is the unconscious that is inherited by all people (especially those who habitually consume bratwurst). He believed that myths were like collective dreams: just as the dreams of an individual can be analyzed, so can myths be examined to describe the unconscious of a whole tribe or society - or, more hugely, the entire human race. Each one of us, when we dream, expresses a myth-world in universal symbols (archetypes) that have developed as a basic part of the mind. Our religions and arts, for example, are two powerful expressions of this. So are the various exotic mystical systems, many of which Jung studied in his attempt to learn more about the larger structure of the mind. Jung found that the ingestion of lightly braized bratwurst before going to sleep was a real boon to the development of this theory.

But the collective unconscious as "myth-maker" is not our interest here. What is important to us is a concept that Jung came up with later in his career. It is called synchronicity.

Without telling you what synchonicity is, I will give you a few examples of it. You probably will recognize what it's about.

Example 1: You are talking to a friend. In the course of the conversation, for whatever reason, you mention Roger, a mutual friend, whom you haven't seen or thought about in years. "I wonder what ever happened to Roger," you say. "Gosh - I haven't seen him in ages. I wonder what he's doing." Well...the next day you happen to be walking downtown, doing some errands, and who do who bump into? - ROGER!

Example 2 (provided by Jasper Blip, who lives in Nowever Then): Jasper was looking for a certain book on the subject of Boethius, a medieval philosopher (he lost his own copy two years before, while on a trip). The problem was that the book was out of print (and Jasper had forgotten the title and the author's name). No library in the area had anything that looked like it; and Jasper was unable to find it listed in any bibliography. He returned home after a his first day of searching and sat down to relax. He opened the newspaper. When he got to the obituary page he noticed, "L.P. Widder, Author, Dies at 87." A short list of his books was given - one of them was The Life and Times of Boethius - the book Jasper was looking for! He now was able to have a book-searching service find a used copy for him. After three weeks the book arrived. Imagine Jasper's astonishment when he saw his own name written inside the front cover. It was the very copy he had lost two years before!

Example 3: In the morning, at work, you are introduced to a new client, who's name is Dagmar. You had never met a person by that name before. Later that evening, while socializing with some friends at a local restaurant, you are introduced to another person - who's name is also Dagmar!

Example 4: While driving to work, you see a cat and a dog fighting by the roadside. Later, two of your co-workers, Patty Katrina and Ralph Dogwood get into a serious argument. Later, at home, your spouse comes in from outside and says, "It's going to rain cats and dogs," an expression you've never heard him or her use before!

Example 5. You read a newspaper story about a person who was killed when his car was struck by a train. You find yourself wondering what it is like to be in a car that is hit by a train. Next day, your car (or the car of someone you know) is hit by a train!

Example 7: Gertrude Nubblecake (of Nowever Then) had told her mother not to move some very heavy old books without assistance. Her mother did not listen, however, and dropped one of the books on her arthritic foot, which soon became quite swollen. The book was The Works of Sophocles and Other Greek Playwrites. A bookmark had saved the place where Gertrude had been reading - it was the classic play Oedipus Rex. The name Oedipus means swollen foot.

Example 8: This is an incident that happened to Peter Lucia. Two young cousins of his had hamsters. Within two week's time both hamsters (which were rather mature) died, much to the sorrow of the children. Peter did not realize it until a few weeks later, but it was at this time that his computer mouse went on the blink and eventually became unusable. (I might add that the expression "death comes in threes" was fulfilled, even if for "rodents.")

I'm sure the reader grasps the idea. Synchronicity has something to do with coincidence. But these are not ordinary coincidences, which often have a discoverable cause and do not hold your interest for very long; they seem to be prophetic and meaningful, even if we cannot always figure out what the meaning is.

Look at Example 2. Jasper was actually assisted in the discovery of information that he needed.

Look at Example 4. Some kind of sense that has to do with cats and dogs seems to be clinging to your day.

Look at Example 6: Were you getting information about your friend before he told you what had happened?

Certain subtle situations (examples 4 and 8, for instance) may have gone forever unnoticed. Indeed, I believe many synchonicity events are so fragile (and often complex) it takes a literary mind to spot them.

Jung called synchronicity "acausal coincidence." In other words, there seems to be a relationship between occurrences that cannot be accounted for by ordinary cause and effect. We cannot come up with any causal relationship between the two or more events, events that nonetheless seem tied together in some sensible way.

If you think back, you probably can remember one or more synchronistic experiences of your own. The more you are in tune with the idea, the more you will know what to look for. The more you'll become preoccupied with them. The more you will visit your psychiatrist. Often there is a delay between your having such an experience and your realizing it. I am sure that, quite often, synchronistic events, in the form of small esoteric coincidences, go completely unnoticed.

I really must tell of a very interesting synchronistic experience that happened to one present-day resident of Nowever Then (you know who). It occurred back in the late 1970s, in New York City, not long after he had enrolled in Columbia University as a music major. Music had been (and still is) a life-long interest of his; but when he found himself in the university environment, the exposure to a great many other subjects moved him to consider changing his major from music to philosophy. He had come to realize that his fascination with music was closely linked with ideas.

This would be quite a big move for him, and he really had a crisis of conscience about the whole change. He had always thought of himself as a musician - and now suddenly he'd turned into Socrates! The relationship between music and ideas held him in its grip. Outside the work of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, he knew of little else that had been written on the subject - and he was quite a bookstore- and library aficionado. It was around this time that he had his great experience. He had gotten off the bus in the West 80s and was walking toward the block he lived on. When he reached the curb he saw an old paperback book lying on the sidewalk. he picked it up. It was titled Philosophy in a New Key. The author was Susanne K. Langer. He flipped through it. The pages were yellowed and a bit brittle but still readable. To his great surprise, one of its chapters was titled "On Significance in Music." Naturally, he took his find as some kind of omen regarding my change of major.

Now listen to this: A couple of days later, he was walking a few blocks from where he lived AND HE SAW ANOTHER OLD COPY OF THE SAME BOOK LYING ON THE SIDEWALK! This startled him, so he left it there without touching it. One of the remarkable aspects of this experience is that the books were old and weathered (and probably out of print, or at least not available in any store). Since then he has never come across another copy of the book, though he has seen it mentioned in a couple of other books and in bibliographies.

I will not go into the thesis of Philosophy in a New Key, but the author's definition of music was - and still is - very attractive to my friend: "Music is unconsummated symbol." He has done a lot of thinking on this idea; it has led him to philosophic avenues he had never dreamed of and has assisted him greatly in his work.

It is important to know that the more intensely involved one becomes in an endeavor, the greater the chances are that positive synchronicity will occur. My writer friend (you know who) has always had good luck with research; even in libraries he often finds the desired book waiting for him, lying flat by itself, separated from the other books.

I will cite one other example of synchronicity, a charming one that Carl Jung relates in Synchronicity, An Acausal Connecting Principle a scholarly treaties that Jung composed late in life:

As a boy, a certain Mr. Deschamps, of Orléans, was once given a plum pudding by a man named Mr. de Fortgibu. Ten years later Mr. Deschamps came across another one of these delicious rarities in a Paris restaurant and ordered it. Unfortunately, the plum pudding had already been requested. Who had ordered it? It was Mr. de Fortgibu! Many years later, Mr. Deschamps was invited to sample another plum pudding at the house of some acquaintances. As he was eating it he said to the others that "the only thing missing is Mr. de Fortgibu." Just then the door opened and in walked Mr. de Fortgibu, very old and rather senile. He had the wrong address.

What possible causal link exists between Mr. de Fortgibu, Mr. Deschamps, and the desert? Somehow, one person and another person have been linked together via a plum pudding! (Of course, he may have been a plum puding-fanatic and wanted to gobble up every single one of them on the planet, but this is unlikely.)

Jung thought that synchronicity may be a fourth element in the equation, space-time-causality. (Next would come "acausality" or "synchronicity." After that would come eternity followed by bouts of extreme boredom). He believed that synchronicity was primarily connected with psychic (mental) conditions that are involved in unconscious processes. Often a mind in crisis, or one that is about to undergo a change or renewal, will become synchronistically sensitive. Sometimes the conscious or unconscious importance of an event can produce synchronistic phenomena. As in literature, one may find a metaphorical relationship between a person's encounter with an object (an image) and that object's fulfillment in some event. (E.g., an omen, such as a flock of birds, may foretell a death). When symbols are involved, the same symbols often can be shown to have had significance throughout the ages in many different societies.

What we have encountered above is a brief introduction to synchronicity. (Hey, find me a briefer one!) Clearly, synchronicity suggests a psychic connection between mind and world. How different Jung's mind-world connection is from that of quantum physics! The first seems much more "warm and fuzzy" (to use a vulgar description), the latter cold and clinical. Jung is primarily concerned with a person's personal life - thoughts, dreams, emotions - and external representations of the soul's inner workings. Quantum physics, on the other hand, in its most basic element, is an "off-on" (or "wave-particle") phenomenon. However, as we have seen, it does seem to involve the consciousness of the observer.

In the following section, I will unite the two subjects and relate them to my great-grandfather's theory. As the reader will see, we are dealing with a usable system that brings deliberate awareness into play - a method of acknowledgment in which the observer assumes the role of coincidence- or possibility-deflector/attractor.

I'LL BET YOU THINK I'M KIDDING, HUH? WELL, JUST WAIT (AND READ).

Please go to Part Two to touch "The Living Roots of Possibility" (or return to the MT Index if you're fed up).

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