Carl Jung

The Mirror
Carl Jung
2002-07-20 10:00

Britain’s favourite word, say the polls, is ‘serendipity’ – “thefaculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident,” explains my dictionary. My own favourite word is ‘synchronicity’, coined by the psychoanalyst Carl Jung. It means a “meaningful coincidence”. My life is full of synchronicities, and I believe yours istoo – it is simply a matter of seeing them as they happen, and seeking the meaning.

For a true synchronicity, it is not enough thata coincidence occurs: that might be random. There must be a messagein the moment, a meaning to be unravelled A significant song might float into earshot throughout theday, a strange word might be repeated in shops and on the radio, a number might impress itself like a pattern on everything you do.

Watch for these things, and find the meaningI remember meeting a publisher and explaining to him the significance of the number 11-11 in my life. Wordlessly he led me tothe doors of his 11th floor office, where a massive silver ’11’ oneach door combined to make 11-11. “Synchronicity!” I exclaimed, and within minutes we had shaken hands on a contract.

Last night I received a list of interesting websites about Victorian psychics. One was Daniel Dunglas Home, the greatest of theSpiritualist mediums, and I forwarded the list to a friend whocollects data on Home. My friend rang me in shock a few minutes later. “How did youknow I needed information about Florence Cook?” he demanded. “I wasabout to ring you!” Florence Cook was another, much lesser medium. One of the links on the list concerned her, but I hadn’t even noticed it. I had no idea my friend was about to call me about her, and I sent the information he needed without knowing. There’s no other word for it – this has to be synchronicity.