I have learned over the years, from my own experiences and those of my clients, that when an individual starts moving from a reactive perspective to one of self-focus, something magical can happen. Unexplainable coincidences can pop up that seem to unite the inner world of the mind with the outer world of the universe, as if the inner and outer are entwined.
The psychiatrist, Carl Jung, encountered these kinds of coincidences with patients as he worked with them. He named this phenomenon synchronicity. His most famous example is about a woman who related a dream to him during a therapy session. The dream was about a scarab beetle.
Jung believed the scarab beetle came into her dream from her collective unconscious. He surmised that the collective unconscious is inborn in all of us; yet we are unaware of it as we go about daily life. He reached the conclusion about the scarab in the woman’s dream because this beetle was a symbol of transformation for the ancient Egyptians, thousands of years ago. The beetle lays it’s eggs in dung. Out of the dark dung springs new life, born into the light of the sun, For the ancient Egyptians, this became a metaphor for how the dark dung, life’s misery, can push an individual towards the light and rebirth to experience a new sense of self and perspective on reality.
As his patient was describing the dream, Jung heard tapping at the window. He opened it and what flew in was a scarab beetle, For the rest of his life, Jung tried to solve this riddle: What is the relationship between the scarab beetle in the woman’s dream and the one that flew in the window. He finally concluded that some day physicists would solve the mystery.
In my psychotherapy practice, I have noticed that the synchronicities occur during the period of psychological transformation. Once the process is completed, they slow down or stop. Yet, the process is never really
Chapter 34: The Phenomenon of Synchronicity.
completed because we get off track and need to realign ourselves. As one tries to realign, the synchronicities start up again,
Synchronicities are very personal. They are experienced and have meaning for only you.. They can be small events or big. The common denometer is the mind/outer world connection. Introverted intuitives seem more likely to experience the coincidences, because introverted intuitives are so focused within. Extroverted sensates are more focused on physical reality, so may miss the inner cue that creates the synchronicity.
A woman, respected in the field of education, came to see me because her marriage had failed. She was depressed, anxious and having trouble balancing single parenthood with the demands of her job. After she told me her story, we began reading OVERCOMING aloud, taking turns as readers. We paused throughout the readings to discuss how each chapter might apply to her life. For homework each week, she would put effort into incorporating the chapter skill into her daily life: Live in the Moment, Don’t Say “Yes” When You Want to Say “No,” and so forth. As she psychologically moved from being reactive, toward authentic guidance from within, the synchronicities began. She reported:
“I was typing on the computer. The television was on. As I typed the word ‘forever’, the same word was spoken on the TV.
“I was sitting by an open window, looking out, thinking about my relationship as a human being to nature. I thought, ‘I am a species like a bird, deer, squirrel or bear. Suddenly, a squirrel jumped onto the window screen and ran around it in circles. This went on for a minute or so. I sat still, astonished.’’’
As we progressed through the book and she tuned in more and more to herself, the synchronicities kept coming. She became pretty cocky about her ability to manifest them. As
she was leaving my office one September she said, “I’m going to see a bluebird before I go to sleep tonight.”
I thought, “Good luck with that. Not many bluebirds in Maine this time of year.”
She related to me later that, as she left my office, she scanned the fields around my house and the neighbor’s yards - no bluebird. She drove to pick up her two daughters at school, searching - no bluebird. Once home, she and her girls took a walk around their neighborhood - no bluebird.
“I gave up then,” she said.
She fixed supper, read to the girls and put them to bed. Her last chore was to go through the children’s backpacks to reorganize them for the next day. As she was checking their daily papers, she discovered that one of her daughter’s had drawn a bird and colored it blue.
My own experiences with synchronicities, and those described by others, leave me wondering: Do we each have a unique inborn essence or vibe so distinct that it is akin to DNA? As we grow away from birth-time, we interact with societal norms and other people’s beliefs about what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, and who others think we should be. These influences create doubt about self-worth. Anxiety, depression and other harmful emotions creep in, because we feel like we don’t measure up. We become estranged from the babies we once were who laughed so infectiously and cried when something was wrong.
Our birth vibe becomes distorted over time—mixed up, no longer recognized by ourselves, nature or the universe. Yet, as we begin to realign, the synchronicities appear, revealing the inner/outer connection, and one’s unique place in the complex tapestry of the natural world.