by R.E. Slater and ChatGPT
Meaningful coincidences involve both people and events, the cosmos and life around us. Carl Jung took the phrase and coined the word "synchronicity" to describe acausally related connecting events that may be mere curiosities or highly significant when noticed by the affected observer.
In simple terms, synchronicity happens when two or more events occur together in a way that feels purposeful or symbolically resonant, even though there’s no direct cause linking them.
As example: You think about an old friend you haven’t spoken to in years, and they call you that same day. Or, you dream about a symbol, and later that day you see it repeatedly in unexpected places.
Jung saw these moments as expressions of an underlying order of an acausal connecting principle where the inner world (mind, psyche) and outer world (events, reality) are mysteriously aligned.
Jung defined synchronicity as “meaningful coincidences that cannot be explained by cause and effect.” He believed that these events were not just random occurrences, but rather manifestations of a deeper order in the universe.
Carl Jung’s Synchronicity:
Meaningful Patterns in Life
Nov 17, 2024
Synchronicity was coined by psychological pioneer Carl Jung. Its meaning is simple: a "synchronicity" is a “meaningful coincidence”. But it seems that there has been a lot of misreading of Jung going on. In this episode we are going back to Jung’s original definition of Synchronicity in his 1952 work “Synchronicity: An Acausal Principle” to see what he really meant by the term.
📚 For Further Reading:
- Atmanspacher, H. “The Pauli-Jung Conjecture and Its Impact Today”
- Cambray, J., “Synchronicity as emergence” in “Analytical Psychology: Contemporary Perspectives in Jungian Analysis”
- Cavalli, C. “Synchronicity and the emergence of meaning”
- Jung, C.G. and Pauli, W., “The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche”
- Jung, C.G. and Jaffé, E., “Memories, dreams, reflections”
- Jung, C.G. “Letters of C. G. Jung vol.1”
- Shinoda Bolen, J., “The Tao of Psychology”
- Main, R., “Synchronicity and analysis: Jung and after” http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13642530701...
- Main, R., “Revelations of chance: synchronicity as spiritual experience”
- von Franz, M. L., “On divination and synchronicity: the psychology of meaningful chance”
Who was Carl Jung?
According to Wikipedia - Carl Gustav Jung (26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of over 20 books, illustrator, and correspondent, Jung was a complex and convoluted academic, best known for his concept of archetypes. Alongside contemporaries Freud and Adler, Jung became one of the most influential psychologists of the early 20th century and has fostered not only scholarship, but also popular interest.
Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philosophy, psychology, and religious studies. He worked as a research scientist at the Burghölzli psychiatric hospital in Zurich, under Eugen Bleuler. Jung established himself as an influential mind, developing a friendship with Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, conducting a lengthy correspondence paramount to their joint vision of human psychology. Jung is widely regarded as one of the most influential psychologists in history.
Freud saw the younger Jung not only as the heir he had been seeking to take forward his "new science" of psychoanalysis but as a means to legitimize his own work: Freud and other contemporary psychoanalysts were Jews facing rising antisemitism in Europe, and Jung was Christian. Freud secured Jung's appointment as president of Freud's newly founded International Psychoanalytical Association. Jung's research and personal vision, however, made it difficult to follow his older colleague's doctrine, and they parted ways. This division was painful for Jung and resulted in the establishment of Jung's analytical psychology, as a comprehensive system separate from psychoanalysis. Scholar Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi believed that what he claims to be Jung's antisemitic remarks may be a clue to the schism.
Among the central concepts of analytical psychology is individuation—the lifelong psychological process of differentiation of the self out of each individual's conscious and unconscious elements. Jung considered it to be the main task of human development. He created some of the best-known psychological concepts, including synchronicity, archetypal phenomena, the collective unconscious, the psychological complex, and extraversion and introversion. His treatment of American businessman and politician Rowland Hazard in 1926 with his conviction that alcoholics may recover if they have a "vital spiritual (or religious) experience" played a crucial role in the chain of events that led to the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous. Jung was an artist, craftsman, builder, and prolific writer. Many of his works were not published until after his death, and some remain unpublished.
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| Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung |
Let's Review
> What is Synchronicity?
Synchronicity is a concept developed by Carl Jung to describe the occurrence of meaningful coincidences that are not causally related but seem to be connected in a deeply significant way.
In simple terms, synchronicity happens when two or more events occur together in a way that feels purposeful or symbolically resonant, even though there’s no direct cause linking them.
For example: You think about an old friend you haven’t spoken to in years, and they call you that same day. You dream about a symbol, and later that day you see it repeatedly in unexpected places.
Jung saw these moments as expressions of an underlying order or acausal connecting principle—where the inner world (mind, psyche) and outer world (events, reality) are mysteriously aligned.
> How is causality opposed to acausality in Jungian terms?
In Jungian terms, causal refers to events that are connected through a linear cause-and-effect relationship—one event directly produces another, as in classical science.
For example: If you drop a glass, it breaks. The falling caused the break. This is causality.
Jung argued that not all meaningful events follow this pattern of cause-and-effect. This is why he introduced synchronicity - to explain events that are not causally related but are psychologically meaningful. He called this an acausal connecting principle.
In short:
- Causality = one event causes another (e.g., physics, biology)
- Synchronicity = there is no cause but there is a (mysteriously) meaningful connection (e.g., an inner dream matches an outer event)
> How are synchronicity and coincidence are similar?
- Coincidence - is a random occurrence of two events at the same time. It carries no inherent meaning. Example: You and a stranger wear the same shirt on the same day.
- Synchronicity (Jung) - is a seemingly random meaningful coincidence. Events are not causally related, but feel psychologically or spiritually significant. Example: You dream of an owl, then the next day someone gives you a gift shaped like an owl and it feels deeply relevant to your emotional state or life question.
Jung’s key point:
- Synchronicity is a coincidence imbued with personal or archetypal meaning.
- While all synchronicities are coincidences, not all coincidences are synchronicities.
This is central to Jung's idea of synchronicity. In his view, meaningful coincidences are:
Acausal, but not random.
🔹 Not Causally Linked. Jung used the term synchronicity to describe events that coincide meaningfully but have no apparent causal connection.
🔹 Not Purely Random. Though there’s no physical cause, Jung insisted the event isn’t just a fluke. It carries psychic or archetypal meaning—especially when it aligns with an emotional or spiritual state of the person experiencing it. The inner world (psyche) and outer world (event) align in a way that feels deeply personal and significant.
🔹 Though Seemingly Random on the Surface they are Not Non-Random in Depth. On the surface: it looks like coincidence. But under analysis: the person experiencing it feels it as a “message” or moment of transformation.
Summary
