Synchronicity

[MikeWaters]

Jung had this idea that the paranormal could be explained by synchronicity, where you have two events occurring temporally together that seem related.

Religious miracles or faith promoting events could fall under this umbrella. We've all heard these stories, or maybe even experienced something ourselves.

I had such an event occur to me yesterday. Someone at work months ago had suggested I look up the writings of a person from many decades ago. I wasn't familiar with the person, I wrote the name down on a slip of paper. For whatever reason yesterday I decided to take a quick look at what he suggested, mainly so I could throw the slip of paper away, and if I were to see this person again, could say I took a look at it. Well, to my surprise, it happened to be a person that was most famous for his relationship to a famous occultist of the early 20th century.

So I jumped down this rabbit hole a bit on wikipedia and was reading about this occultist. Really weird stuff. I'm not saying the name because I don't favor giving him any further credence or notoriety.

So the rest of the day went by. There was supposed to be rain and thunderstorms that evening. I was outside, by the side of my house, messing with some maintenance stuff that I needed to take care of, and my thoughts turned to this occult figure, and my mind quickly went through a series of impromptu thoughts in just a few seconds, such as did he really believe what he said, what were the experiences like for him, and what it would be like for me to read his writings. Just then a flash of light right over my head, just above my house. Huge lightning and almost instant thundercap. It was shockingly close and instantly frightening putting my nerves on instant edge.

My mind instantly connected my thoughts to the associated temporal event. The near lightning strike.

Later that evening I mentioned the event to my wife. She said "Jung would say that was synchronicity."

Does the universe speak to us through synchronicity? Jung would say yes. I think most religious believers would say yes. Or the ones who are not deists. How do we filter the data that is presented to us on a constant basis? How do we interpret the world? Isn't it written that only the wicked seek signs? But among the religious, only fools ignore a clear message.

And I'm now wondering whether The Police were inspired to name their album after Jung.

[Archaea]

Do you have any further insights on this?

[MikeWaters]

Nope.