Rubbish. I know exactly where it is, I just don’t know how fast it’s going.
I used to believe in synchronicity, until I heard the “green van on the corner” syndrome. MrKnowItAll mentioned it in this thread.
“Is that green van spying on me?!”
It bascially says that you will always notice the green van parked on the corner…ONLY when it is parked on the corner.
When I got a Toyota Tercel I started seeing them all over the road. Recently I got a new Mustang. Guess what? I don’t “see” as many Tercels, but there are Mustangs “everywhere”!
I never believed in speel chekkers.
Three stories:
#1) a friend and I were tripping on acid in the backwoods of Maine, in a house that we had all built over the course of a few drunken and stoned months. We were sitting in the living room, each grooving on our own thoughts, when MY thoughts turned to “Damn! It’s hot in here… maybe we should open the window.” Just as I was opening my mouth to say the same, my friend got up and opened the window!
#2) I was studying Korean, hard! Trying to fit in my new country… one morning, just before I woke up, I was dreaming (I really don’t remember what I was dreaming about). Just as I woke up, I dreamed that I heard a voice saying “Ee-sa!” loudly. ‘Ee-sa?’ I thought blearily as I sat up, preparing to take a shower and get ready for the day, ‘What the f*** is Ee-sa?’ I knew it wasn’t English, so I grabbed a Korean/English dictionary near my bed and looked it up… ‘Ee-sa-ha-da’ (the infinitive form of the verb): ‘to move.’ (a word that I had NOT learned before)OK… that’s weird… As I put the dictionary down, the phone rang. It was my father, enquiring whether I would be able to come home (to the US) that summer, and if so when would I be coming? He was planning to move from Oregon to Wyoming; and was hoping for my help, if the timing was right (it was, and we got him moved into a little valley at the ass-end of the Earth called “Wapiti” pronounced /Whop-it-ee/).
#3) another friend and I were tripping on acid (OK, I did this a lot when I was younger, and I do NOT recommend it to anyone!). We had been out romping around, and were now sitting in the living room with several other friends (who were straight). Friend and I had been in syncronicity all evening long, and still were… Friend had been quiet and withdrawn for several minutes… he was contemplating what a wonderful thing life is (as was I. Remember, we were in syncronicity!). The difference was that in the room, Friend had a Girlfriend! I did not have a girlfrind present (or at all, at the time!)… Girlfriend says, “Hey, are you OK?” No answer… Girlfriend says again, “Are you OK?” No answer… Girlfriend took his arm and shook it slightly, “Are you OK??” Slight annoyance from me and Friend… As Friend opened his mouth, I beat him to the punch and said, “Missy, relax! He’s doing just FINE right now!” Friend smiled at me, and as our eyes met, the acid kicked in with one more explosion from reality to insanity. We both screamed, "ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!" at the same moment. Later (and more sober) investigation revealed that Friend and I had yelled this at exactly the same instant, as far as our friends could tell… one did not lead the other at all, from the perspective of about 5 other people present.
So, does this stuff happen? Yes. (granted, I was on some heavy drugs during two of my stories, but in one of them there were witnesses who were NOT on drugs at the time! I have many other stories (some on drugs, some not), but these three stick out the most.)
What is the explanation? I dunno. But I lean towards the natural explanation, as opposed to the supernatural. Psychology is a still-growing field, and has so far done very little to explain why we behave as we do. Give it a few decades, and maybe we can explain this stuff…
- The more you think about coincidences, the more you will have. The more you think about your dreams in any way, the more you will dream. And in general, the more you think or do anything, the more of that thing will “happen” in some sense (even if only in that you having established a groove, will go on thinking of it). I’m not making this up, I read it in books. Also, the more you go about debunking things, the more things you will think of to debunk!
2) The term SYNCHRONICITY is seldom used in Jung’s strict definition, but loosely is used by people to mean any coincidence that people think is either interesting or significant.
3) SYNCHRONICITY is applicable to all the so-called superstitions to get guidance from the universe or God or whatever that Jung was also interested in. The I Ching, for instance (which I think he wrote an introduction to a translation of) requires that the following synchronous
(AROUND the same time, not necessarily simultaneously) things must go on: a. having a question, such as when should I marry Fu Manchu, b. positioning the I Ching book so that it faces south (as I remember anyway), and doing other careful ritualistic things having to do with respect, such as passing sticks or coins through incense, c. taking a respectful attitude, NOT one of testing the I Ching or one involving mere fortune telling or one having to do with gain, d. throwing the sticks or coins d. looking up the pattern in the I Ching book, e. interpreting what it says in the book for that pattern that you threw with the right attitude. By this time the person consulting the book for guidance has put a lot into this activity. And since you get out of something what you put into it, whether the I Ching really works becomes not a matter of truth or falsehood, but irrelevant. But it doesn’t mean not to bother with these forms of augury like astrology and the I Ching. It means you get out of something only what you put into it, and this means concentration, sincerity, character, and so forth. Misuse of augury is not allowed by augury itself. IN the course of doing the I Ching or other methods of obtaining guidance from the Tao of the flow of the universe, a person also finds out about himself. What some people find out is that they are basically insincere users, for instance, or that they are especially fearsome (ie., they become aware that they are afraid of the results), or they find they are too impatient to go through all the prescribed steps and want a shortcut. No doubt most people fall into one or more of these three categories or some other un-nice grouping. Whoops I forgot the category of People Who Try to Disprove Everything. Some of these skeptics should read Ibsen’s WILD DUCK play I think it is where there is a character who goes out of his way to bring to people’s attention what he calls their “life-lie”–what keeps them going, for the sake of the truth I guess. This would include the woulda coulda shoulda people but also just those with some innocent belief like someday they are going to write poetry, etc., or that after all they will go to heaven in the end or the Lord will be merciful, and so on. There is his opposite, Dr. Relling, who jollies people along in their beliefs and thinks the other character is a fool and a busybody. Even more interesting, the Norwegian word translated “life-lie” doesn’t really mean life lie in English.In Norwegian the word is much less judgmental, as is Dr. Relling, the character Ibsen clearly favors. Not that I would encourage people who think they’ve been abducted to go get hypnotized or anything. There’s no use going out of your way to Dr. Relling everybody around you! Anymore than there is any reason to do what the other character does.
I don’t know if its synchronicity or not, but I can think of a couple of occassions in the last few months where I came across the definition or explanation for a term I’d never seen before and then, within a day or two, saw that term used in some other context. I remember thinking each time, “Isn’t that funny; yesterday I wouldn’t have known what that meant and I would have had to look it up.”
Syncronicity doesn’t neccesarily mean that two related events happen at the same time; just that they are related in an ironic or meaningful way.
For example, I’m sure you’ve heard the “Dark side of the moon”/“Wizard of Oz” thing where when you start the classic Pink Floyd album on the third roam of the MGM lion at the beginning of Wizard of Oz, that miraculous “syncs” occur between what is shown on in the movie, and what’s heard on the album. (It’s been awhile, but I did this once, and there are striking matches - that I can remember.)
How can one explain this? Roger Waters of Pink Floyd claims not to have considered the movie when making “Dark side” but still these two works of art MAY be related through the chasm of time. It’s fun to think so anyway.
Nothing is too meaningful or unusual to be chance alone. There are six billion(ish) people on this planet. There could be hundreds or even thousands of potential coincidences every day for every one of them. Is it really that strange that sometimes they happen to you? It would be stranger if they didn’t.
How many times have you learnt a new word and then never heard it again? You probably couldn’t say, you wouldn’t notice.
How many times have you been thinking about a friend and they don’t call you that day? Again, probably hundreds of times but you don’t remember them because they don’t seem significant.