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SYNCHRONICITY
"Faith is to believe what we do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what we believe." Saint Augustine
Our lives are filled with strange and amazing stories of coincidence. They're recounted by people whom we know and often trust, discussed on television shows, and written about by entertainers and scholars alike.
M. Scott Peck, in "The Road Less Traveled," recalls a dream he had one night that consisted of a series of seven images. He later learned that a friend who had been sleeping at his house two nights previously, had also had a dream in which the same seven images appeared following the same sequence as in Peck's dream. Neither Peck nor his friend could figure out why they had experienced such strikingly similar dreams. Peck attributes this and other such experiences to the principle of synchronicity. Synchronicity refers to "those highly improbable events which occur in our lives to which no cause can be determined within the framework of established natural law." The principle of synchronicity states that unlikely conjunctions of events in time occur more often than would be caused by mere chance. While it doesn't explain miracles Peck points out, it does make clear that miracles appear to be a matter of timing and circumstances and are remarkably common. Each of us has experienced the miraculous. We may however, fail all too often to recognize it.
Further, Peck notes that Webster's Dictionary defines Serendipity as, "the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for." According to Peck, this definition defines serendipity as a gift, and thus implies that some people receive it while others don't. Peck maintains that this gift (which he refers to as grace) is available to everyone. The difference is only that some take advantage of it, while others fail to. A primary reason for one's failure to take full advantage of this gift, says Peck, is that he or she is not fully aware of its presence.
There's an often-told story that I believe effectively illustrates both serendipity and synchronicity. The famous psychiatrist Carl Jung had been working with a woman whose highly rational and pragmatic style was increasingly difficult for him to relate to. One day she was recounting a dream she had in which a scarab (golden beetle) had appeared. Jung was aware that these beetles were symbols of rebirth according to the ancient Egyptians. As the woman continued to describe her dream, Jung noticed a tapping at the window behind him. He opened the window and in flew a beetle. Jung presented the woman with her "scarab." From this point on, the work of Jung and his client reached a far greater depth as the result of their wondrous experience.
According to David Peat, author of "Synchronicity: The Bridge Between Matter and Mind," synchronistic occurrences are often more common for people who are going through periods of transition such as deaths, births, a change of profession, marriage, divorce, etc. My husband and I certainly experienced this. In retrospect, a synchronistic event served to usher in our own period of transformation, and many other synchronistic events continued to occur during our period of transition. For example, during the time we were both unemployed, we were often tempted to compromise our joint vision in order to regain a sense of financial security. One day while driving in the car, we began to reminisce about a job opportunity we had turned down several months before. All of the sudden the job seemed very attractive to us. While it did not meet our ultimate needs, it would have offered us an opportunity to contribute to the welfare of others, while at the same time providing us with a paycheck and medical benefits. Oh, well, the opportunity was long past we wistfully acknowledged. The following day, we came home to discover a message on our answering machine. It was from a representative of this particular organization asking us if we were interested in taking another look at the job we had previously turned down, as the position had unexpectedly just reopened!
An enormous amount of evidence exists which supports the phenomenon of synchronicity. Peat points to facts that mirror earlier fiction as one form of evidence, such as Morgan Robertson's 1898 novel about an ocean liner named the Titan. The Titan was the largest liner ever built, considered unsinkable, and sailed the Atlantic with rich and famous passengers on board. Like the real life Titanic, the Titan also sailed under the British flag, began it's maiden voyage in April, had a top speed of 24 knots, and hit an iceberg on the starboard side. And because it too was equipped with an insufficient number of lifeboats, many lives were lost. Thus a work of fiction told a story amazingly close to what would occur in real life fourteen years later.
Peat also directs our attention to the simultaneous discoveries of such scientists as Darwin and Lyell, Newton and Leibnitz, etc. who were not in contact with one another and yet whose work produced remarkably similar results.
Peat associated Jung's belief in the collective unconscious (the notion that we are each unconsciously linked with all of humanity) with synchronicity, pointing to the uncanny occurrence of such images as the hero, the twin brothers, the underground journey, etc. which are found in cultures all over the world.
THE SUPER MIND
"When I observe the marvelous human intellect, I know it was designed for something much greater than mere survival." Abraham Twerski
Dennis Willard, computer genius, described his creative process to D. Scott Rogo in "New Techniques of Healing: Conversations with Contemporary Masters of Alternative Healing," as one in which he reaches out to the "Super Mind" via meditation. Willard suggests that we think of our brains as receivers for a giant computer and that the neuron chains in our brains and spine are part of the giant computer's tuning system. This giant computer system possesses infinite wisdom and intelligence. Willard suggests that in tapping into this Super Mind, we are able to tap into a vast intelligence source.
How did Willard arrive at this belief? One day while discussing the workings of the brain with a neurosurgeon, Willard wondered about the process behind thought itself. He and the neurosurgeon then began calculating the number of neurons in the brain. Neurons are cells that comprise the basic unit of the nervous system. They typically collect signals from various sources, integrate the information, transform and encode it into output signals, and then distribute the signals to other cells. Once Willard and his companion had arrived at a total number of neurons, they then subtracted the number of neurons required to regulate the body. They were not surprised to find that the brain did not possess enough neurons to encode and explain memory; however, they were shocked to discover that there were not even enough neurons in the brain left over to allow for the fundamental process of thinking! This experience, in addition to other lessons, led Willard to eventually conclude that the mind is different from the brain, and that there exists a guiding intelligence that we are able to communicate with unconsciously. He cites the occurrence of two people independently inventing the same product from different locations as an example of how the Super Mind operates.
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