Psychological scavenger hunt

[gibbsonline]

After having investigated the perplexities of meaningful coincidences (synchronicities) for the past 45 years I Have no doubt that they are coded messages whose source is consciously intelligent. However you should warned that the source has nothing to do with Jung's seductive but I think ultimately wrong partially mystical/magical theory and concepts. It is also important to be aware that I began my investigation as a de-facto Jungian longing to connect with a possible world of absolute meaning and divinity. I hoped that miracles were possible and I longed for divine guidance, protection, wisdom, validation, encouragement, and perhaps most importantly - rescue.

Although I was a philosophy major at Columbia College and a seeker of truth because of what I will refer to as a "hole in my soul" I searched for something or someone that would fill me up and provide a pathway to wholeness. My first attempt to synthesize the disparate parts, voices, in me in the form of a four year psychotherapy experience twice a week failed miserably. I left feeling substantially the same way I felt the first day I entered my therapy.

I was attracted to the esoteric occult and immersed myself in all of the sophisticated literature I could absorb. I took classes in esoteric astrology, tarot, kablalah. I was turned onto the First Universalist Church of New York City where they had the "medium" of the week blindfolded reading questions from the attendees directed to those "on the other side." In this group of remarkable people was a well respected Psychiatrist who privately went into trance and purportedly channeled messages from Jung and Freud which I wrote down in my journal.

Additionally was an 88 year old little woman medium from Rumania who invited me to sit in a spiritual consciousness raising group in which I experienced the first part of what would be the second of 19 major synchronicities I recorded over a period of roughly 20 years. These impacful coincidences along with additional coincidences given to me by some of my synchronicity prone patients receiving psychoanalytic psychotherapy with me became the raw data from which my soon to be published book was derived.

Through the course of my self development I gradually came to doubt Jung's findings replacing resulting in my re viewing both his basic assumptions and the associated organizing concepts he used to order his chaos.

The bottom line is that I found a way to scientifically investigate synchronicities using a method I call contextual analysis. In so doing I have successfully refuted Jung's three anti causal arguments.
The bottom line is that in place of his dubious belief in the ubiquity of the so called collective unconscious - my findings point to the more important contribution of the personal unconscious.

Instead of passively channeling divine archetypal wisdom from an assumed realm of absolute meaning I am more resonant with my direct experience of creating personal meaning by first selecting and then interpreting the raw data of my personal experience and learning the lessons from this on going process.

What Jung refers to as the collective unconscious I am more prone to viewing as selecting and synthesizing from the collective consciousness.

I appreciate the fact that there are numerous theories of synchronicities possible depending on ones first ontological and epistemological assumptions about the nature of reality, knowledge of reality, and accessing that knowledge and the associated organizing concepts used as filters to make sense of the raw data of personal experience.

The bottom line is that for me synchronicities are markers that seemingly problems which initially appear to be unsolvable if actively pursued with a dedication to struggle with struggle - activating one's unique creative process which initiates what I refer to as a psychological scavenger hunt. When enough "clues" are found which collectively add up to an adequate problem resolution they collectively come together in a pattern which is a synchronicity. The pattern is coded and must be decoded as one might interpret a dream or analyze a symptom.

So the bottom line in that synchronicities in my view are self generated messages that provide in coded form the answer to a seemingly unsolvable major life issue. I have further observed that those who are highly interested in sychnchronicities tend to be dissociated personalities (although this is not an absolute fact) who are like playwrites who go to their openings and upon seeing the play exclaim: Marvelous! I wonder who wrote that?

[luke]

The bottom line is that for me synchronicities are markers that seemingly problems which initially appear to be unsolvable if actively pursued with a dedication to struggle with struggle - activating one's unique creative process which initiates what I refer to as a psychological scavenger hunt. When enough "clues" are found which collectively add up to an adequate problem resolution they collectively come together in a pattern which is a synchronicity. The pattern is coded and must be decoded as one might interpret a dream or analyze a symptom.

Hello and thankyou for sharing your thoughts. This is a very interesting take on the phenomenon - synchronicity as a sort of clue in a puzzle that helps one overcome an internal struggle. But sometimes they just seem so bizarre and completely unconnected to anything going on in your life that they are very hard to fit into any pattern that can make sense of them. For example my latest synchronicity:

Many months ago I saw this ad:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw
A few days ago while riding the escalator in a random train station I told my partner about this ad. When we reached the top suddenly within seconds a child runs across our path and starts smacking a piano that had been built into the wall right next to me that I had no idea was there.

What do you think the mechanism for creating synchronicity is? You said a consciously intelligent source, but if so, and if they are for helping people get over internal struggles, then might they not better serve us if they were not so deeply encrypted?

I would greatly appreciate some examples of how synchronicity has helped you or others get over internal struggles, to better understand what you mean.

have further observed that those who are highly interested in sychnchronicities tend to be dissociated personalities (although this is not an absolute fact)

Interesting idea, but synchronicity happens to everyone, just some pay more attention than others. Might it be those who are more drawn to philosophy and wishing to understand the mysteries of the universe are those most attracted to the fertile enigma of synchronicity?

[RobCOA]

If you are still checking in here, I would very much like to hear what led you to conclude that synchronicity are generated from within the personal mind. Do you have any examples that are best interpreted that way?

[Teapots Happen]

I'm not sure there is necessarily much of a distinction between the personal subconscious and the collective unconscious. What if these concepts are just different ways of trying to understand the same thing?

[charlesfrith]

I've been listening a lot to Rupert Sheldrake and his morphic resonance theory recently which is helpful. Then for the real foot soldiers of changing times it's remarkable listening to the post humus Terrence McKenna's podcasts. First because he talks about novelty and habit (as phenomenological terms of nature than their traditional uses) a lot and secondly because it's fairly evident that Mr McKenna would have had no problem explaining increasing synchronicity in these days.

In fact, time and again in the eighties and nineties he said so in his recorded talks. You can listen to them if you wish.

I've no problem with increasing synchronicity. I've long since been inundated with intense data streams of converging data patterns, though it may well be that this is because I think I've hardly a brain at all.

So it all seems like coincidence.

Though of course the easier default would be that nothing would be the same, though that isn't the case though.

I'm not sure if there's anything else I could add here unless there were a way to constructively decipher synchronicity, so that I could make something useful from it all. Instead I'm left with the overwhelming feeling of mocked or humoured. Which isn't undeserved.

[luke]

unless there were a way to constructively decipher synchronicity, so that I could make something useful from it all

I'm not sure deciphering synchronicity is all that important. Certainly there's the temptation for that, but I'm not sure there's a solid foundation to do that from.

What I find most intriguing about synchronicity is what it points to. If we look at it as a window to another paradigm of thought, rather than a mystery to unravel, perhaps it becomes more useful to us as a phenomenon?