___  _ __                                                   
 / _ \| '_ \                                                  
| (_) | | | |                                                 
 \___/|_| |_|                                                 
                                                              
                      _                     _      _ _        
 ___ _   _ _ __   ___| |__  _ __ ___  _ __ (_) ___(_) |_ _   _
/ __| | | | '_ \ / __| '_ \| '__/ _ \| '_ \| |/ __| | __| | | |
\__ \ |_| | | | | (__| | | | | | (_) | | | | | (__| | |_| |_| |
|___/\__, |_| |_|\___|_| |_|_|  \___/|_| |_|_|\___|_|\__|\__, |
     |___/                                               |___/
 
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   /\                                /  \
  /  \       /\               /\    /    \            /\
 /    \     /  \___     _____/  \  /      \       ___/  \
/      \___/       \___/         \/        \_____/       \______
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       ____ /_/_/_/__/____/_____|_____\_____\__\_\_\_\ ____
      /__/_/ / / /  /    /      |      \     \  \ \ \ \_\__\
     /  / /_/_/_/__/____/_______|_______\_____\__\_\_\_\ \  \
    /__/_/ / / /  /    /        |        \     \  \ \ \ \_\__\
   /  / /_/_/_/__/____/_________|_________\_____\__\_\_\_\ \  \
  /  / / / / /  /    /          |          \     \  \ \ \ \ \  \
 /__/_/ / / /  /    /           |           \     \  \ \ \ \_\__\
/  / /_/_/_/__/____/____________|____________\_____\__\_\_\_\ \  \


A summary of Carl Jung's "On Synchronicity" so you can pretend you are an expert on this intriguing subject...

By: Darea L. Spoors

Most people have experienced so-called “supernatural” occurrences, experiences which cannot be explained by causality but are nonetheless meaningful coincidences or of what Carl Jung would term “acausal orderedness”. Jung’s proposed theory – synchronicity – serves as a powerful lens through such occurrences may be explained. He famously laid down one utterance of his theory on synchronicity in a short essay published in 1952 titled “Synchronizität als sein Prinzip akausaler Zusammenhänge”.

In the first part of the book, Jung defines the concept of synchronicity as an acausal meaningful coincidence. A-causality is the main characteristic of synchronicity. Jung goes on to provide some illustrations and examples of synchronicity from his own and his patients' lives. Jung proceeds to detail the historical and philosophical foundations of his theory. He discusses that ancient, medieval and modern philosophers have already conceptualized unitarian theories of the world, which accommodate his theory on synchronicity. He goes on discussing the theories of thinkers such as Lao-Tze (Tao), Keppler (geometry, mathematics), and Leibniz (monads, “pre- established harmony”).

Jung concludes that there is a necessary pre-existing, a priori “harmony”   or what he has termed “absolute knowledge”. Synchronicity confirms the existence of this pre-existing order.
According to Jung, synchronicity must be added to the “trial of classical physics” (space, time and causality), which would then become a tetrad (see fig. 1, below). Adding this fourth category would allow us to understand synchronistic phenomena, as a special class of natural events. According to Jung, synchronicity is transcendental and it is difficult to conceptualize it (because it is contained in an “irrepresentable space-time continuum”) and it often feels like “magic”. We must not, according to Jung, however, think of every event whose cause is unknown as “causeless”.

                               Space

                                 |
                                 |
              Casualty __________|____________ Synchronicity
                                 |
                                 |
                                 |

                                Time
            fig. 1
 
To conclude, Jung describes a near-death example of one of his patients who was in coma as a result of child birth. She could perceive herself and the hospital room as observing from above. Jung uses this as an example to explain that in such circumstances of unconsciousness (ie. coma) perceptions and acts of judgment continue to exist. The sympathetic (nervous) system can produce thoughts and perception, and is a potential carrier of psychic functions.

According to Jung, skepticism towards ESP (extrasensory perception) is unjustified, both from a scientific (ie. scientific theories are constantly being refuted) and a human/instinctive point of view (ie. humans have prayed to gods and deities for millennia). His theory and his criticism of the “sovereign rule” of causality of our time remain relevant today.