Synchronicity & The Spiritual Path

I’ve been reading about Carl Jung’s concept of synchronicity again. I’m leading a workshop titled “The Spiritual Path: Understanding Synchronicity” later this week (Thursday, November 13th, 6:00pmET - join us!) so my mind has been aswirl with moments in my life I would describe as synchronistic. What is synchronicity you may ask? Let me start by giving you a few examples that will ground the idea in your own life because all of us, to a greater or lesser extent, have experienced or observed synchronicity.

Have you ever had a moment where someone popped into your mind that you haven’t seen or heard from in a long time and all the sudden they “randomly” call you up? What about a moment where you’re really struggling with something in life and while driving to work, dwelling on that challenge, a song comes on that speaks directly to the problem you're having, giving you insight or a comforting word? 

These are fairly common human experiences of synchronicity - so much so we don’t think much about them after they pass, but we all notice them because these experiences do seem to stand out from all the other moments in the day. Why? Isn’t it because they seem to have a personal and sometimes undeniable spiritual quality?

Another example - you’re sitting in church listening to another what-feels-mundane Sunday morning sermon, and the pastor speaks about an experience that mirrors your own experience in a profound manner. Immediately you’re wakeful, feeling your spirit stirred, turning over the moment in your mind. These experiences seem to suggest that God is with us, sees us, and is at times actively breaking through our everyday awareness to wake us up to the spiritual dimensions of life. Isn’t that what we feel, what we believe? It’s what I believe.

This is what Carl Jung believed too. He described these events as synchronicities - a meaningful paralleling of internal and external events that on the surface seem to have nothing to do with one another, but to you (to those of us who experience them) they are deeply meaningful.

Jung would use really specific psychological language to describe these events. 

One of these words is “acausal” which means the two events (one internal, the other external) are not causally related in a way that one could measure in a science lab. Hence, the subtitle of his book, “Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle.”

Typically, we write these experiences off with the word “coincidence.” We might say something like, “Oh, that was a weird coincidence.” And then we move on with our day without thinking much more about it.

Jung would say that when we ignore synchronicities we endanger our souls by neglecting an opportunity for spiritual growth. Jung was trying to teach us about how God used synchronicities to break through our normal everyday awareness to show us a spiritually alive universe.

Synchronicities are the vehicle and the voice of God. 

We observe these synchronistic signs all through the Biblical texts and other religious texts. We more deeply identify with the movies and shows we watch when these “meaningful coincidences" impact our heroes. I’m thinking here of “The Matrix,” “Avatar,” “A Simple Man,” and so many others; I love the film “Signs” directed by M.K. Shyamalan; “Signs” can be interpreted as an entire meditation on the concept of synchronicity - see for yourself!

I’ll give you a more striking example from Carl Jung’s life. Jung had a very challenging patient in the grips of what he called "domineering rationality.” Her high intellectual skill had become a wall against any therapeutic progress Jung attempted. Jung had about given up on her ability to overcome her suffering when during a session in which she was relating an elaborate dream about receiving a very costly piece of jewelry in the shape of a golden scarab, Jung heard a tap on the window behind his desk. He turned around and opened the window and a scarab beetle flew into the room and Jung caught it. The beetle was iridescent green and sheen gold. He set the beetle down on the desk in front of his patient and said here is your golden scarab. 

Strong synchronicities like this are intensely personal. Jung would say they are “internal” or “subjective.” The event was so personally striking for women to witness that it ruptured her domineering materialistic world view and her resistance. Jung relates that her therapy became unblocked and able to continue.  

So what happened there? There was the personal, internal experience of the woman - her dream. Then there was the completely unrelated “acausal” external circumstance of the beetle flying in the room. The event was deeply meaningful for the woman because it suggested an unknown, mysterious, unknown (yet undeniable) meaningful relationship between the internal and external world. Jung called this world the Unus mundus - One world. 

Jung dives deep into the understanding of synchronicity as the unconscious’ attempts to psychically compensate the conscious ego for the sake of the individuation process. One can study the nuances of Jungian theory for a long time. The point is that if we are awake enough to see - synchronicities are experiences we can learn from and get a better sense of God’s direction for our lives and our fulfillment. Every aspect of life can be understood symbolically. Life is full of meaning; and it is always beaconing us to move into a deeper relationship.