Synchronicity is a word created by the Swiss psychologist
Carl Jung to describe the alignment of "universal forces" with the life experiences of an individual. Jung believed that many experiences perceived as coincidences were not merely due to chance, but instead reflected the creation of an event or circumstance by the "co-inciding" or alignment of such forces.
1 The process of becoming intuitively aware and acting in harmony with these forces is what Jung labeled "individuation." Jung said that an individuated person would actually shape events around them through the communication of their consciousness with the
collective unconscious.
2
Jung spoke of synchronicity as being an "acausal connecting principle" (ie. a pattern of connection that is not explained by causality).
Notes
Note 1: In Synchronicity in the final 2 pages of the Conclusion, Jung stated that not all coincidences are meaningful and further explained the creative causes of this phenomenum.
Note 2: Jung defined the collective unconscious as akin to instincts in Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.
Further reading
- Jung, Carl (1972). Synchronicity -- An Acausal Connecting Principle. Routledge and Kegan Paul. ISBN 0710073976.
- Jung, Carl (1977). Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal: Key Readings. Routledge. ISBN 0415155088.
- Wilhelm, Richard (1986). Lectures on the I Ching: Constancy and Change Bollingen edition. Princeton University Press; Reprint. ISBN: 0691018723. Note especially the foreword by Carl Jung. (The Yijing 易经) is a type of oracle, or 'synchronicity computer', used for divination.)
References
