Have you ever thought about someone you haven’t seen for years, perhaps had a dream about them and soon afterwards they contacted you? Perhaps following a memorable dream, something strangely similar to your dream occurred the next day. Maybe you have been somewhere and suddenly heard a song that feels relevant to what you are going through. These experiences have a mysterious, numinous quality, enabling us to feel a part of something larger than the everyday. Synchronous experiences take us beyond the rational cause and effect world we habitually inhabit.
What is synchronicity?
Jung defined synchronicity as the ‘acausal connecting principle’, the meaningful connection of two or more events that seem unrelated but are experienced together. Noticing meaningful coincidences can feel like telepathy. Synchronicity is based on the idea that everything is interconnected and beyond time. Indeed, Jung referred to synchronicity as a ‘rupture of time’ and his colleague, Maria Von Franz, described the phenomenon as ‘a window of eternity’.
Why is it important ?
Synchronicity can draw our attention to elements of our lives that we may have neglected. Our attention is limited; we ignore or deny so much. Synchronicity reveals connections that can feel miraculous, almost enchanting. Usually events that are synchronous have emotional resonance.
Important emotionally significant events are demanding our attention.
These co incidences speak symbolically like dreams, describing aspects of our experience that are elusive but gripping, potentially transformative. If we start to notice these meaningful co incidences in our lives, certain themes may begin to emerge. In a rational mechanistic world, we tend to ignore what can be dismissed as mystical. If we want to expand our consciousness and grow, we need to be open to intuitive, affective experiences. Finding imaginative meaning may stimulate creative possibilities that we may not have considered before.
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