Carl Jung was the founder of analytical psychology. He was a brilliant man with insightful understanding of the personal and collective psyche, and he coined the term “synchronicity“. He gave a definition as “two seemingly independent things experienced together in a meaningful way”. Coincidences do happen, but that is not what he was talking about. He was referring to things that he experienced that were clearly not random, and that would only be refuted as being mere coincidence by people whose minds are closed to the idea that coincidences that are not random are possible. Because if things happen that are not random, it implies that there is an organizing force that sometimes causes things to happen the way that they do.
I don’t know why so called synchronicities happen when they do. But some are weird enough to really get your attention. I started noticing them in my life around a time when I started getting into meditation. Whether meditation had anything to do with “why” I was experiencing them, or whether it just made me more aware of them, I have no idea. But they make very interesting little stories.
The first one I recall that really got my attention was when I was alone in my apartment and picked up a book among several on a table, and a couple minutes later a song came on Pandora/internet radio that had the name of the book in the chorus. The book was the “Bhagavad Gita”. The timing was remarkable, as it also was that I had never heard that song before since Pandora typically repeats music that it has played before. I remarked aloud that I could not think of another book that this would have been possible with, and the next song that came on was very close to one of the other few books on the table. The song was called “Shaman Fever”, and the other book title was “Way of the Shaman”. The music was spooky and gave me goosebumps, and was also a song that I had never heard on Pandora before.
The second one of these instances that I remembered was one night I was looking on the website of a spiritual teacher and author and saw that he was having a spiritual retreat in Hawaii. The next morning, a song came on Pandora that I had never heard, that had something about going to Hawaii in the lyrics. I thought perhaps the universe was nudging me to consider going. But the kicker was that when I went to download the song, the name of the album it was on contained the name of the hotel where the retreat in Maui was being held. That was too weird for me not to go to Hawaii!
Another instance that happened a few years later was when I picked up my parents 50th wedding anniversary gift, a beautiful picture frame with an engraved caption of “then, and now”, and pictures of them on their wedding day and 50 years later. It was beautiful, and I was in a very positive state of heart felt warmth, feeling blessed to have gotten them a gift they would love, and grateful that I would be able to give them something as a tribute to all the love and support they had given me that I could never repay them for. After picking up the gift, I went for a walk around a nearby lake, and saw something very strange… like all the ducks around the lake had gathered in one yard for some reason. I was curious and began counting them… I got to 45, and then saw there were 5 more. So there were exactly 50 ducks, corresponding in perfect synchronicity to the timing of picking up the gift for my parents 50th.
Another happened at Heathrow airport when I arrived in London for a meditation retreat. Right before the plane landed, I was flipping through a magazine that had a story about a father/son going on a trip to Jamaica, which happened to be where the meditation teacher I came to see was from. The caption of the story was “Jammin‘ in Jamaica”. When I got to customs, they asked me for greater proof of my trip itinerary than I had… what I had was not sufficient for proof of payment to the hotel or something. I wound up getting detained for a couple hours, sitting there outside of customs by myself at like midnight. The agent I spoke to was a total hardass, asking me all sorts of questions about my work, wanting to see bank statements, all kinds of invasive crap… just trying to bully me, basically. There was nothing I could say, I was in no position to confront him or stand up for myself. When I was sitting there alone, I tried to let go of thoughts of worry I would not get in the country. Finally they let me in, and when I went to the restroom, the song that came on in the restroom was the Bob Marley (who is Jamaican) song “Jammin”… “We’re jammin, and I hope you like jammin, too”. Just like the caption of the magazine story. I was in London, not Jamaica! Another remarkable coincidence, also suggesting that with the timing, in some way it was as if I was meant to experience being detained like that.
Then there is the story about getting my dog a few years ago. I went to a dog adoption event at a pet store the day before my birthday, and saw this beautiful, sweet dog. I had been looking for more than 6 months, and I just had to take this one home, spur of the moment decision. I picked her up on my birthday, and my dad came over, not knowing anything about me getting a dog. He gives me a birthday card, and on the front of the card is a picture of a dog… that looked exactly like the one I got! I mean the coloring and face were a perfect match. She is a white Rhodesian ridgeback, not your typical looking dog at all. I’ve shown a picture of this card to people, who think it is a picture of her!
The idea of the card being a random coincidence is laughable to me. It was a picture of a new family member and friend, something that came into my life through the energy of love. I believe wholeheartedly that peace and love are often common ingredients to these sorts of contrived coincidences. Although the last few years I have had coincidences that can only be called dark, and that could not be farther from having been inspired by peace or love, but that is another story.
And lastly, a couple instances with more of a spiritual theme. Years ago I got a book that recommended using the mantra “I am that I am” periodically throughout the day (words Jesus once spoke). I prayed and asked the Holy Spirt if this would be an appropriate mantra for me. A few minutes later I checked the weather online, and there was a video advertisement of a little boy and his special relationship with a cat, which was very sweet. The advertisement was for pet food, and the brand was “Iams”. I was very moved to have gotten such a seeming reply to my prayer!
On a Sunday morning in the summer of 2021 I was still in bed and for some reason the piano music from the 80’s movie Chariots of Fire came into my head. I don’t think I have ever even seen the movie, or heard the music in probably a couple decades, so hearing it in my head got my attention as very odd. I got out of bed and went right to my computer, and to the website of a church I used to go to (closed due to Covid). And the first thing I saw on the screen was the pastor as he was reading from 2 Kings 6:17, with the text on the screen: “Then the LORD opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” I don’t think I need to elaborate on how weird that was! But it at least made me feel like I was still connected to something while mass hysteria and paranoia still had a strangle hold on the world with Covid.
One other rather odd incident that I recall happened well before any of those stories, when I was about 25. I was in Chicago, having lunch with a friend of mine. He started to ask me something about a crossword puzzle he had been doing. After mentioning the crossword puzzle, the only part of his question that he got out was “what do you call…” and I immediately, without any thought at all, blurted out “albino”. The way I said it and the feeling I had was weird… with conviction and excitement, as if I knew it was the answer. He looked like he had seen a ghost, as he was about to ask me “what do you call a person who lacks pigment”. Now this was just bizarre… no thought, no guess… no time to do any of those things. And goes far beyond telepathy guessing what playing card someone might be thinking of or something like that. I don’t know where that came from! Years later when we hung out together, once in a while I would randomly break a moment of silence with “albino” and he would respond “dude, stop, you’re freaking me out!”. I saw a play while in Toronto a few years ago about Pope John Paul 1, who was Pope for exactly 1 month before he died. The play was about his alleged murder by the church, rather than the narrative given by the Catholic church as to his death. Basically I would describe him as the JFK of Popes, because he was incredibly progressive and wanted to humanize the status of the Pope and reduce the perceived power of the position. Interestingly, his birth name was Albino Luciani, so had he been named the Pope of his birth name, he would have been called Pope Albino. I sometimes wonder what happened to my friend, who I have not spoken to in many years… and wonder what his thoughts on that would be. I hope he reads this and reaches out. If you are out there, I hope you are well in all aspects of life, old friend. Albino! : ))
Another category of human experience that is quite common is “out of body” experiences. I have had a couple brief ones myself, as well as talked to several people who have had very profound instances of this. One in particular was a gentleman who shared with me an experience from childhood, where he was playing with a bunch of other kids, and suddenly was watching the whole scene – including his own physical body continuing to play – from the standpoint of the ceiling of the gym high above. He had one later in life when he was in a car crash, seeing himself getting worked on by the paramedics, as well. These experiences completely invalidate the idea that we are purely physical beings “contained” within our bodies, as well as creates a problem for science to try and explain how physical sight is experienced without using the body’s physical eyes. There are those who deny that such experiences are possible claiming that people who have had such experiences were in all cases “imagining it”. I do not accept that, given my own experiences and those of people I’ve talked to. I’ve talked to people who have “astral projected” as well. They are simply a different category of experience that reveals a very mysterious aspect of ourselves.
This reminds me of an article I read in a dentist office in Time magazine many years ago, about a Dr Eben Alexander. He is a neuroscientist, who had a rather remarkable experience while being in a coma. His experience during the time when the part of his brain that would be active while dreaming was completely offline was very interesting. He had an extensive experience of an entire other world, something very different from any other dream he ever had, he used the words “piercingly real”. He believes he experienced a world that was very real, but very different from our own. And being a scientist, his field of expertise being brain function specifically, he had to conclude that what he experienced was beyond what science could explain, since the part of his brain that would have been active during dreaming was completely shut down. One night a few years ago I thought about that article for some reason, and later that night someone I knew texted me about a place near me that hosted a lot of spiritual type events. I went to the website, and saw that this Dr Eben Alexander was going to have a speaking engagement at this place in the coming weeks. It really makes a person wonder where our thoughts come from… why would I think about Dr Alexander and this article out of the blue, a few years after reading it, and then a couple hours later be directed by a text message to a website pointing out a speaking engagement he would have, 30 minutes from where I lived no less?
And lastly, something that happened to me recently (April 2024). When I logged on to Netflix it showed the movie The Matrix at the top, so I decided to watch after not having seen for many years. I noticed during the scene where it showed the name of the ship (the Nebuchadnezzar), it said “Mark III, no. 11”. So I decided for kicks to look up Mark 3:11 in a Bible, and God as my witness, I opened it exactly to Mark 3, which is pretty low probability to say the least. The verse was “And unclean spirits when they saw Him fell down before Him and cried, saying Thou art the Son of God.” This had a deep meaning for me actually, for reasons I will not elaborate on here.
The point of these stories is not that they prove anything specifically about God or religion… only that these happenings illustrate quite clearly that there is more going on in our seemingly mundane lives than on the surface, and that is creating and aligning things, people, and events for and around us. Science does not need to try and explain these things… they are of a different category. This is not to say that nothing is random, only that there are clearly things that are not… even if many people might disagree with that. If you look at nature, it is quite clear that all its beauty and diversity is not the result of random, chaotic processes. This does not mean that religion has not misunderstood, misinterpreted, and distorted much of what it teaches with misguided motives of superiority, exclusion, and control. But there are very positive aspects of religion as well. Among them are pointing to something greater than what we take to be ourselves and our world, and a greater sense of connectedness, meaning, and purpose. And realms and beings that are beyond our awareness.
Closed mindedness can be a barrier to new and true understanding where all strongly held opinions on any subject are concerned. Or experiences that go beyond opinion, to knowing. If any atheist got into meditation for a while, studied and explored spiritual teachings, talked with spiritual people… and did this over a longer time frame, with an open mind, I believe without doubt that in addition to acknowledging greater peace than they are used to experiencing, it would be nearly impossible to come away with reinforced beliefs that deny the existence of God or any kind of spirit realm. A cynic will not be proven wrong immediately with signs and wonders, it takes a while. But it is entirely foolish to hold tightly to a belief about something and then let the belief itself prevent you from exploring or understanding. Nobody knows everything; absolutely everybody is wrong about something they believe to be true, sometimes very deeply. It would be foolish for a person who has never danced to pick up a book on dancing, and develop strong opinions on the subject, or the value of dancing. You can’t read about dancing to know what it is, or its value… you have to experience it. It is a felt experience that cannot possibly be put into words, or explained to someone who has not danced. As an analogy for those who have not had spiritual or mystical experiences and would dismiss other people’s accounts of them. Perhaps synchronicities are a way that the creator of this universe lets us know that even with how tiny we are in comparison to the vastness of the universe, that does not mean that we are not significant, or have been forgotten.
Asymmetrical Awareness 