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..:: Synchronicity ::..
By
Alan Schneider
How does God speak to human beings here on the
physical, material plane of expression? I personally believe, as do so
many others, that He speaks to us through what C. G. Jung referred to as
synchronicities – meaningful coincidences. In fact, Jung was the first to define and
use this term as a descriptor of one of several ways that the contents
of the unconscious mind emerged into conscious recognition. The key
to understanding this process lies in examining the nature of meaning in
our human perception of the external world, dependent as it is on the
action of the physical senses.
Human experience of the “world” is dependent on the action of the
senses. All that we perceive, in the external “sense” of that term,
comes to us through this source – what we see, hear, taste, smell, and
feel. Many authorities in the field of psychology maintain that this is
the complete extent of our ability to perceive – that we are solely
dependent on this mode of perception to assess the condition in which we
find ourselves. Other authorities will allow for the existence of a
largely unconscious sphere of instinctual “activity” that influences
behavior, and is also largely perceptible through the experience of that
activity – both many of the physical drives and the primary emotional
states are presented as belonging to this realm of manifestation.
A select group of
other authorities has suggested that the unconscious mind of human
beings contains more than instinct, emotion, and certain repressed
personal memories. They have suggested that what the senses experience
as the finite and limited condition of our existence (the physical body)
is in fact the distil end of the extensive manifestation of a virtually
unlimited field of Consciousness, and that we float on the surface of
that infinite field like the little experience of an island of the
senses, surrounded by a coral reef of personal unconscious expression,
and unknowing of the vast expanse of expression that lies beyond the
physical realm.
For Jung, the
action of the unconscious was not relegated solely to instinct, emotion,
and personal repression. He strongly suspected that information was also
filtering through the “coral reef” of the personal unconscious from the
vast ocean surrounding the island of personal recognition – the ego –
and that this information was of far more than idiosyncratic
significance for the Psyche – the total Self of all conscious
expression. Jung had begun to suspect that the ego, which frequently
tends to occupy center stage on the “island”, was in fact a relatively
minor player in the pageant of life, and that the extended Psyche
contained intelligent expression organized on a level far beyond the
linear data processing of cause-and-effect associative principles seen
in the ego.
And he identified
and defined the synchronicity as the medium of transmission for the
information being transmitted through the personal unconscious from the
extended field of the psyche beyond the physical boundaries of the
senses. What is implied by “meaning” under this condition is frequently
more than the simple, trite definitions of mechanical operations seen in
the ego. In the terms of the total psyche, we are dealing with an
extended panorama of meaning that connects the limited ego perception
with the psyche as the source of all implication, and redefines the
limits of perception in terms of the most expansive expression of
meaning attainable – essentially, God. For Jung, God was the Self, was
the core of consciousness, the ultimate driver of all perception
occurring on any level of expression. In this context, all meaning
derives from the Self as the source of all purpose everywhere.
In the case of the synchronicity, an initial “trigger concept” is “sent”
to the conscious mind (where it is eventually noticed by the ego) from
the Self. The mechanism of this process is the occurrence of the
perception of this trigger concept in a chain of seemingly unrelated
environmental conditions with the passage of time. These triggers are
frequently manifest in the form that Jung referred to as “archetypal
symbols” – perceptible expressions generated by more generalized states
of expression that he labeled as “archetypes”, and were presumed to be
emerging from beyond the range of any perception of any kind, at any
level. Jung postulated the archetypal symbols as having the property of
“numinosity” – the tendency to stand out in the personal consciousness,
apart from the more mundane impressions of the senses. It is noteworthy
here that presumably anything could assume the significance of an
archetypal symbol in conscious awareness – even common dirt – but the
Self decides what is of numinous character for a given individual ego.
The emergence of a synchronicity is frequently perplexing, even
disturbing, for the ego. The ego may attempt to dismiss the synchronous
information as simple coincidence, and carry on “business as usual”.
But, the genuine synchronicity will persistently recur until it is
acknowledged as being well out of the ordinary range of experience. It
simply will not be ignored or rationalized out of existence. It is at
this point that the individual begins to seriously address the meaning
of whatever symbol is being transmitted by the Self. Many people will
seek therapy at this point, if they are sufficiently disturbed by the
symbolic content presented. Other will begin a less “illness-oriented”
investigation, inquiring among their friends, or will begin to search
for literature giving information about the symbol(s) in question. The
mechanism of response is of less significance than the fact that the
response has occurred, and a search for a new level of meaning has
begun. If such an inquiry is carried far enough by a sufficiently
determined individual, the Self – God – can even be attained and
experienced directly, not just as an intellectualized thought construct,
but as the existential and experiential root of all creation at the core
of the Psyche.
There are many,
many archetypal symbols. As has been said herein, anything could
conceivably assume archetypal significance. One could conceive of the
archetypal symbols as the (frequently preconscious) building blocks of
the forms that we eventually perceive in the physical universe. Whether
they remain preconscious depends on whether God chooses to speak to us
through synchronicity, thus calling our conscious mind and ego away from
the ongoing din of sensory distraction that otherwise occupies our
waking attention.
When the synchronicity is finally noticed and accepted by the ego as a
legitimate expression of consciousness, it can be followed along an
often very protracted course of ongoing manifestation, much like ripples
spreading out from the point of impact of a stone tossed into a pond in
which there are many intervening objects at fixed points in the water –
logs, boulders, branches – that interfere with an orderly dispersion
pattern. This is why life seems to be so filled with obstacles – they
act as harmonic balancers for God’s Words. Without the obstacles to
be overcome, the achievement of listening successfully is meaningless,
and meaning is what God is all about. So, every investigation of any
synchronicity will invariably yield a deeply meaningful discovery about
life and living that would probably never be suspected otherwise, and
ongoing investigation will reveal extensive and interrelated families of
meaning, as all the ripples in the pond are followed through the
intricate path of all the obstructions. As the ego passes through this
process of discovery, it becomes, and we become, more and more like the
Self that initiated the process – filled with grace and reverence for
the Creation all around us, and aware of the supraintelligence that
achieved all that we experience.
Synchronicities are occurring around, and to, us continuously as we
progress through life. God is always speaking to us. The significant
issue here is whether or not we are listening! (3) The action of the
senses creates an ongoing level of pronounced distraction in the
conscious mind. And the ego, as an integral part of our physical
survival mechanism, has an inherent tendency to delegate sensory input
as the highest priority of waking consciousness (1). So it is little
wonder that we frequently either fail to notice, or chose to ignore, the
“still, small voice” from beyond the boundary of all that we know as
familiar and, most importantly, comfortable. More often than not,
confronting synchronicity forces us out of our comfort zone into what
can be very confusing and disturbing terrain as we deal with the moral
implications of these messages from the Self.
One of the most difficult conditions to accept for the otherwise
uninitiated in this life is the morally valenced character of all
action. When the consequences of our actions (or lack of action) are
viewed from the perspective of God, everything that we do, feel, and
think has either helpful – positive – or harmful – negative – effects on
the other inhabitants of our physical, material plane of expression. We
do not exist in a vacuum of any kind – we are all linked together in the
great web of life, and what we do as individuals has far reaching impact
on the human collective of our fellow creatures, great and small. Thus,
it becomes particularly important to act with compassion as the central
feature of consciousness. If I can maintain this focus in my daily
activities, I have succeeded at life’s most important challenge under
God...
- With Love, Alan -
(CR2007, Alan Schneider)
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