What is Synchronicity and How to Keep it Coming
If you do a web search for synchronicities you will receive over a million results. There are many opinions, stories and theories to explain these quirky and amazing life events. There are also arguments and explanations that attempt to dismiss these mysterious occurrences as coincidence or happenstance. While all of the theories may be true, none of them are complete.
We are like the six blind men in the Indian fable who were brought together for their first encounter with an elephant. They stood around the elephant, and, because none of them could see, they reached out to touch the animal to get an understanding of what it was like. The first man touched the tusk of the animal and decided that an elephant was like a spear, sharp and smooth. The second man reached out to feel the elephant’s ear. He described the elephant as being very like a palm leaf. The third fellow found the elephant’s tail. He thought the animal was like a rope. Each man described the animal as best he could based upon his own experience and where he was standing at the time. So, too, are the explanations of synchronicities based upon personal experience and where the examiner is in terms of psychological, scientific or spiritual understanding.
Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist, first used the word synchronicity to describe similarities between two acausal events. Acausal means that the first event does not cause the second event so that cannot be the explanation for their shared characteristics. Jung’s most famous example of synchronicity involves a patient he was treating who described a very vivid dream she had in which a golden scarab was featured. Just as the patient was recounting her dream, a large beetle appeared in the room. This was a remarkable occurrence because that particular type of beetle was not native to their geographic location, but it was the type of beetle generally represented in scarab carvings. Jung believed that synchronicities were related to dreaming and served a similar purpose. He considered that the inner world (the mind) could influence the outer world (the material). Beyond that, he considered that aspects of the outer world (the universal energy, or collective unconsciousness) could influence the mind.
Jung also believed that synchronicities had parallels to the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. His discussions and interactions with Wolfgang Pauli and Albert Einstein opened the study of synchronicities to serious scientific consideration. Scientists have considered synchronicity in relation to chaos theory, fractal geometry and quantum physics.
Since Jung’s work in the early years of the 20th century, the understanding of the nature of synchronicities has evolved due to input from many spiritual, psychological and scientific examiners.
Spiritual thinkers have focused on synchronicities as direct messages from deceased loved ones, spirit guides or angels.
Early on, students of synchronicities thought that they were rare and profound occurrences. Profound? Yes, they can be stunningly profound. Author, Ray Grasse, offered that synchronicities are pervasive, not rare, and that it is the pervasiveness that is the great profundity.
This is precisely where we want to begin our work with synchronicities. While we will need to be mindful of the science and the theories and the work of others, it is the pervasiveness we seek. We need to see the whole elephant. This is where we find the power in synchronicities. Once we learn to focus our eyes and see all that occurs around us and within us, then we can begin working the Universal Laws. Recognizing the immensity and the interconnectedness of all things is the first level of spirituality. When we are familiar with this we can move on to Attraction, Healing and Manifesting.
*Expect Synchronicities to keep them coming
Paying attention to your synchronicities makes them happen more often.
Start journaling your occurrences. Don’t rely on your memory because you will miss some of them. Some people keep dream journals and just post their synchronicities in them. It may be more helpful to keep a little notebook in your pocket or purse to jot things into. Many incidences will seem very minor and insignificant. You may be walking through the mall and remember a favorite plaid dress you had as a child. You look up at the next store display window and it is full of mannequins wearing plaid dresses. This does not appear to be a life-altering event, and chances are, if you don’t record it quickly, it will pass you by. If you do record it and do remember it, then two days later when your co-worker asks you to join her for dinner along with her husband and her husband’s friend who is visiting from out of town, you will accept the invitation because it seems like the right thing to do. Normally, it may be your practice to avoid blind dates, but there she is standing right in front of you, smiling sweetly and wearing her new plaid dress. Perhaps meeting the out of town friend was the goal of this set of experiences and you are able to recognize the opportunity because you have been paying attention.
*But seriously, why are these things happening?
So, you have been keeping track of your synchronicities, and yes, there are lots of them.
There are far more than you realized and you seem to notice more every day, but the truth is they just aren’t very interesting. You haven’t been able to follow a trail of plaid dresses to a hot date with a new man. You haven’t remembered a set of numbers from a dream and then played them on the lottery to win a pile of money. There is no flash and dazzle. There is nothing to brag about. You don’t even have really good stories to share with your friends. It just seems pointless. It almost looks like the Universe is just playing with you. Well, maybe it is.
Remember, the more your level of awareness increases the more you will begin to experience occurrences and see with increasing levels of clarity. Such clarity may not always come from things that happen to you, but from things that happen within you. When it looks like things are stalling and you think that nothing exciting is happening, that may mean that you are headed for an attitude adjustment. You may be transitioning to a new level of awareness and even more amazing synchronicities. Try not to trip on the elephant.
This article is written by Beverly Mayo for Mind Power World: http://www.MindPowerWorld.com
