View source for Philosophy:Synchronicity

{{Short description|Jungian concept of the meaningfulness of acausal coincidences}}
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'''Synchronicity''' ({{lang-de|Synchronizität}}) is a concept first introduced by [[Philosophy:Analytical psychology|analytical psychologist]] Carl G. Jung "to describe circumstances that appear [[Social:Meaning (psychology)|meaningfully related]] yet lack a [[Causality|causal connection]]."<ref name=Kerr2013>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Kerr|first=Laura K.|year=2013|title=Synchronicity|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology|editor-last=Teo|editor-first=T.|publisher=Springer-Verlag|location=Berlin, Heidelberg}}</ref> In contemporary research, synchronicity experiences refer to one's [[Philosophy:Subjectivity|subjective experience]] that [[Philosophy:Coincidence|coincidence]]s between events in one's mind and the outside world may be causally unrelated to each other yet have some other unknown connection.<ref name=Sacco2019/> Jung held that this was a healthy, even necessary, function of the human mind that can become harmful within [[Medicine:Psychosis|psychosis]].<ref name=Campbell2010>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Campbell|first=Frances|year=2010|title=Synchronicity|editor1-last=Leeming|editor1-first=D.A.|editor2-last=Madden|editor2-first=K.|editor3-last=Marlan|editor3-first=S.|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion|pages=888–889|publisher=Springer|location=Boston, MA|doi=10.1007/978-0-387-71802-6_678|isbn=978-0-387-71801-9}}</ref><ref>Robert Aziz, 1990. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=5gKC8utEuAEC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA191&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false C. G. Jung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity]'', p. 191</ref>

Jung developed the theory of synchronicity as a hypothetical noncausal principle serving as the intersubjective or [[Philosophy:Objectivity|philosophically objective]] connection between these seemingly meaningful coincidences.<ref name=Kerr2013/><ref name=Tarnas2006/> Mainstream science generally regards that any such hypothetical principle either does not exist or falls outside the bounds of science.<ref name="TSEOP" /><ref name=JohansenOsman2015/> After first coining the term in the late 1920s<ref name=Tarnas2006>{{cite book|last=Tarnas|first=Richard|year=2006|title=Cosmos and Psyche|publisher=Penguin Group|location=New York|isbn=978-0-670-03292-1|page=50|url=https://archive.org/details/cosmospsycheinti00tarn/page/50}}</ref> or early 30s,<ref name=Bishop2008/> Jung further developed the concept in collaboration with physicist and Nobel laureate [[Biography:Wolfgang Pauli|Wolfgang Pauli]] through long correspondences and in their eventual 1952 work ''The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche'' ({{lang-de|Naturerklärung und Psyche}}) which comprises one paper from each of the two thinkers.<ref name="Synchronicity">Jung, Carl G. [1952] 1993. ''Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle''. Bollingen, CH: Bollingen Foundation. {{ISBN|978-0-691-01794-5}}. (Since included in his ''Collected Works'' 8.).</ref><ref>Jung, Carl Gustav, and [[Biography:Wolfgang Pauli|Wolfgang Ernst Pauli]]. [1952] 1955. ''The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche'', translated from German ''Naturerklärung und Psyche''.</ref><ref>Main, Roderick. 2000. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20061208041508/http://www.essex.ac.uk/centres/psycho/publications/RMpapers.htm Religion, Science, and Synchronicity]". ''Harvest: Journal for Jungian Studies'' 46(2):89–107. Archived from the [http://www.essex.ac.uk/centres/psycho/publications/RMpapers.htm original] on 8 December 2006.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Hogenson|first=G. B.|year=2008|title=''The Innermost Kernel: Depth Psychology and Quantum Mechanics. Wolfgang Pauli's Dialogue with C.G. Jung'', by Gieser, Suzanne|journal=Journal of Analytical Psychology|volume=53|number=1|pages=127–136|doi=10.1111/j.1468-5922.2007.00705_1.x }}</ref> Their work together culminated in what is now called the '''Pauli–Jung conjecture'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA-->.<ref name=AtmanspacherFuchs2014>{{cite book|last1=Atmanspacher|first1=Harald|last2=Fuchs|first2=Christopher A.|year=2014|chapter=Introduction|title=The Pauli–Jung Conjecture and Its Impact Today|editor1-last=Atmanspacher|editor1-first=Harald|editor2-last=Fuchs|editor2-first=Christopher A.|publisher=Imprint Academic|edition=2017|pages=1–6|isbn=978-18454-07599}}</ref>
During his career, Jung furnished several different definitions of synchronicity,<ref>Beitman, Bernard D. 2009. "[http://coincider.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/GibbsPsychCritiques.pdf Coincidence Studies: A Freudian Perspective]". ''PsycCRITIQUES'' 55(49): Article 8. {{doi|10.1037/a0021474}}. {{S2CID|147210858}}.</ref> defining it as "a hypothetical factor equal in rank to causality as a principle of explanation",<ref name=DiaonisMosteller1989>{{cite journal|last1=Diaonis|first1=Persi|last2=Mosteller|first2=Fredrick|year=1989|title=Methods of Studying Coincidences|journal=Journal of the American Statistical Association|volume=84|number=408|pages=853–861|publisher=American Statistical Association|doi=10.1080/01621459.1989.10478847|jstor=2290058}}</ref> "an acausal connecting principle", "[[Philosophy:Psychophysical parallelism|acausal parallelism]]", and as the "meaningful coincidence of two or more events where something other than the probability of chance is involved".<ref name=":0">Jung, Carl G. [1951] 2005. "[https://books.google.ca/books?id=usrGSaO7QosC&pg=PA90 Synchronicity]". Pp. 91–98 in ''Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal'', edited by R. Main. London: Taylor & Francis.</ref> In Pauli's words, synchronicities were "corrections to chance fluctuations by meaningful and purposeful coincidences of causally unconnected events", though he had also proposed to move the concept away from coincidence towards instead a "correspondence", "connection", or "constellation" of discrete factors.<ref name=Main2014>{{cite book|last=Main|first=Roderick|year=2014|chapter=Synchronicity and the Problem of Meaning in Science|title=The Pauli–Jung Conjecture and Its Impact Today|editor1-last=Atmanspacher|editor1-first=Harald|editor2-last=Fuchs|editor2-first=Christopher A.|publisher=Imprint Academic|edition=2017|pages=217–239|isbn=978-18454-07599}}</ref>
Jung and Pauli's view was that, just as causal connections can provide a meaningful understanding of the [[Social:Psyche (psychology)|psyche]] and the world, so too may acausal connections.<ref name=Campbell2010/><ref name=Main2014/><ref name=Bishop2008>{{cite journal|last=Bishop|first=Paul C.|year=2008|title=The Timeliness and Timelessness of the 'Archaic': Analytical Psychology, 'Primordial' Thought, Synchronicity|journal=Journal of Analytical Psychology|volume=53|number=4|pages=501–23|doi=10.1111/j.1468-5922.2008.00743.x|pmid=18844735}}</ref>

A 2016 study found that two thirds of therapists surveyed agreed that synchronicity experiences could be useful for therapy.<ref name=RoxburghRidgwayRoe2016/> Analytical psychologists likewise hold that individuals must come to understand the compensatory meaning of these experiences in order to "enhance [[Philosophy:Consciousness|consciousness]] rather than merely build up [[Unsolved:Superstition|superstitiousness]]".<ref name=IDoP/> However, clients who disclose synchronicity experiences in a clinical setting often report not being listened to, accepted, or understood.<ref name=RoxburghEvenden2016/> Furthermore, the experiencing of an overabundance of meaningful coincidences is characteristic of the earliest stages of [[Medicine:Schizophrenia|schizophrenic delusion]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Morrison|first1=P. D.|last2=Murray|first2=R. M.|year=2009|title=From Real-World Events to Psychosis: The Emerging Neuropharmacology of Delusions|journal=Schizophrenia Bulletin|volume=35|issue=4|pages=668–674|doi=10.1093/schbul/sbp049|pmc=2696381|pmid=19487337}}</ref> M.&nbsp;K.&nbsp;Johansen and M.&nbsp;Osman write that "prevalent among many scientists, particularly psychologists studying coincidences, is [the view] that the occurrence of coincidences, as psychologically experienced, is induced by noisy chance occurrences out in the world which are then misconstrued via irrational [[Philosophy:Cognitive bias|cognitive bias]]es into unfounded, possibly even [[Unsolved:Paranormal|paranormal]], beliefs in the mind."<ref name=JohansenOsman2015/> One study has shown that both counselors and psychoanalysts were less likely than psychologists to agree that chance coincidence was an adequate explanation for synchronicity, while more likely than psychologists to agree that a need for [[Biology:Unconscious mind|unconscious material]] to be expressed could be an explanation for synchronicity experiences in the clinical setting.<ref name=RoxburghRidgwayRoe2016/>

Jung used the concept of synchronicity in arguing for the existence of the paranormal.<ref name="Roderick">{{cite book|title=When God winks|last1=Rushnell|first1=S.|date=2006|publisher=Atria Books}}</ref> This idea was similarly explored by writer [[Biography:Arthur Koestler|Arthur Koestler]] in his 1972 work ''[[Unsolved:The Roots of Coincidence|The Roots of Coincidence]]''<ref>[[Biography:Arthur Koestler|Koestler, Arthur]] 1973. ''[[Unsolved:The Roots of Coincidence|The Roots of Coincidence]]''. Vintage. {{ISBN|0-394-71934-4}}.</ref> and was also taken up by the New Age movement.<ref name="TSEOP"/> Unlike [[Philosophy:Magical thinking|magical thinking]], which believes causally unrelated events to have some paranormal causal connection, the synchronicity principle supposes that events may truly be causally unrelated yet have some unknown noncausal connection.<ref name=Tart1981/>
The objection from a scientific standpoint, however, is that this is neither testable nor falsifiable and therefore does not fall within the realm of empirical study.<ref name=TSEOP>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Bonds|first=Christopher|year=2002|title=Synchronicity|encyclopedia=[[The Skeptic Encyclopedia of Pseudoscience]]|volume=1|editor-last=Shermer|editor-first=Michael|pages=240–242|isbn=9781576076538|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gr4snwg7iaEC&pg=PA240}}</ref> Scientific scepticism regards it as [[Unsolved:Pseudoscience|pseudoscience]].<ref name="TSEOP"/> Jung stated that synchronicity events are nothing but chance occurrences from a statistical point of view, but are meaningful in that they may seem to validate paranormal ideas. However, no empirical studies of synchronicity experiences based on observable [[Philosophy:Mental state|mental state]]s and scientific data were conducted by Jung in order to draw his conclusions,<ref name=TSEOP/> though some studies have since been done in this area {{see below|{{slink||Studies}}, below}}.

While a given observer may subjectively experience a coincidence as meaningful, this alone cannot prove any objective meaning to the coincidence.<ref name="TSEOP"/> Various statistical laws, such as [[Littlewood's law]] and the [[Law of truly large numbers|law of truly large numbers]], show how unexpected occurrences can be more likely to encounter than people otherwise assume. These serve to explain coincidences such as synchronicity experiences as [[Event (probability theory)|chance events]] which have been misinterpreted by [[Confirmation bias|confirmation bias]]es, spurious correlations, or underestimated [[Probability|probability]].<ref name=Forbes2015/><ref>[[Biography:Benjamin Radford|Radford, Benjamin]]. 4 February 2014. "[https://www.livescience.com/43105-synchronicity-definition-meaning.html Synchronicity: Definition & Meaning]". ''Live Science''. Retrieved 25 June 2020.</ref><ref name=experience>{{Cite book | doi=10.1007/978-3-319-26300-7_9| chapter=The Experience of Coincidence: An Integrated Psychological and Neurocognitive Perspective| title=The Challenge of Chance| series=The Frontiers Collection| year=2016| last1=Van Elk| first1=Michiel| last2=Friston| first2=Karl| last3=Bekkering| first3=Harold| pages=171–185| isbn=978-3-319-26298-7| s2cid=3642342}}</ref>

== Origins ==
[[File:CGJung.jpg|thumb|upright|Carl G. Jung, who coined the term ''synchronicity'' between 1928 and 1930]]

Synchronicity arose with Jung's use of the ancient Chinese [[Unsolved:Oracle|oracle]] ''[[Philosophy:I Ching|I Ching]]''. It has 64 [[Hexagram|hexagram]]s, each built from two trigrams or [[Unsolved:Bagua|bagua]]. A divination is made by seemingly random numerical happenings for which the ''I Ching'' text gives detailed situational analysis. Richard Wilhelm, translator of Chinese, provided Jung with validation. Jung met Wilhelm in Darmstadt where [[Biography:Hermann von Keyserling|Hermann von Keyserling]] hosted ''Gesellshaft fur Freie Philosophie''. In 1923 Wilhelm was in Zurich, as was Jung, attending the psychology club, where Wilhelm promulgated the ''I Ching''. Finally,

{{blockquote|text=''I Ching'' was published with Wilhelm's commentary. I instantly obtained the book and found to my gratification that Wilhelm took much the same view of the meaningful  connections as I had. But he knew the entire literature and could therefore fill in the gaps which had been outside my competence.|author=Aniela Jaffé (1962)|source=''Memories, Dreams, Reflections of C.G. Jung'', page 374}}

Jung coined the term ''synchronicity'' as part of a lecture in May 1930,<ref name=Bishop2008/> or as early as 1928,<ref name=Tarnas2006/> at first for use in discussing [[Religion:Chinese folk religion|Chinese religious and philosophical]] concepts.<ref name=Bishop2008/><ref name=cambray/> His first public articulation of the term came in 1930 at the memorial address for Richard Wilhelm where Jung stated:<ref name=cambray/>

{{blockquote|The science [i.e. cleromancy] of the ''I Ching'' is based not on the causality principle but on one which—hitherto unnamed because not familiar to us—I have tentatively called the {{em|synchronistic}} principle.}}

The ''I Ching'' is one of the five classics of [[Philosophy:Confucianism|Confucianism]]. By selecting a passage according to the traditional chance operations such as tossing coins and counting out [[Biology:Achillea millefolium#China|yarrow stalks]], the text is supposed to give insights into a person's inner states. Jung characterised this as the belief in synchronicity, and himself believed the text to give apt readings in his own experiences.<ref name=IDoP/> He would later also recommend this practice to certain of his patients.<ref name=franz_man/> Jung argued that synchronicity could be found diffused throughout [[Philosophy:Chinese philosophy|Chinese philosophy]] more broadly and in various [[Philosophy:Taoist philosophy|Taoist concepts]].<ref name=cambray>{{cite journal|last=Cambray|first=Joe|year=2005|title=The place of the 17th century in Jung's encounter with China|journal=The Journal of Analytical Psychology|volume=50|number=2|pages=195–207|doi=10.1111/j.0021-8774.2005.00523.x|pmid=15817042}}</ref>  Jung also drew heavily from German philosophers Gottfried Leibniz, whose own exposure to ''I Ching'' divination in the 17th century proved to be a major step towards the theory of synchronicity,<ref name=cambray/> [[Biography:Arthur Schopenhauer|Arthur Schopenhauer]], who Jung placed alongside Leibniz as the two philosophers most influential to his formulation of the concept,<ref name=cambray/><ref name=IDoP/> and [[Biography:Johannes Kepler|Johannes Kepler]].<ref name=TSEOP/> He points to Schopenhauer, especially, as providing an early conception of synchronicity in the quote:<ref name=IDoP>{{cite dictionary|last=Beebe|first=John|title=Synchronicity|year=2005|dictionary=International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis|edition=1st|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA|isbn=9780028659947}}</ref>

{{blockquote|All the events in a man's life would accordingly stand in two fundamentally different kinds of connection: firstly, in the objective, causal connection of the natural process; secondly, in a subjective connection which exists only in relation to the individual who experiences it, and which is thus as subjective as his own dreams[.]|author=Arthur Schopenhauer|source="Transcendent Speculation on the Apparent Deliberateness in the Fate of the Individual", ''[[Philosophy:Parerga and Paralipomena|Parerga and Paralipomena]]'' (1851), Volume 1, Chapter 4, trans. E. F. J. Payne}}

As with Paul Kammerer's theory of seriality developed in the late 1910s, Jung looked to hidden structures of nature for an explanation of coincidences.<ref name=JohansenOsman2015/> In 1932, physicist [[Biography:Wolfgang Pauli|Wolfgang Pauli]] and Jung began what would become a long-spanning correspondence in which they discussed and collaborated on various topics surrounding synchronicity, contemporary science, and what is now known as the [[Physics:Pauli effect|Pauli effect]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Zabriskie|first=Beverley|chapter=Jung and Pauli: A Meeting of Rare Minds|year=2001|title=Atom and Archetype: The Pauli–Jung Letters, 1932-1958|editor-last=Meier|editor-first=C. A.|translator-last=Roscoe|translator-first=David|location=Princeton, N.J.|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-06911-61471}}</ref> Jung also built heavily upon the idea of numinosity, a concept originating in the work of German religious scholar [[Biography:Rudolf Otto|Rudolf Otto]], which describes the feeling of ''gravitas'' found in [[Philosophy:Religious experience|religious experience]]s, and which perhaps brought greatest criticism upon Jung's theory.<ref name=Kerr2013/> Jung also drew from parapsychologist J. B. Rhine whose work in the 1930s had at the time {{em|appeared}} to validate certain claims about [[Unsolved:Extrasensory perception|extrasensory perception]].<ref name=TSEOP/> It was not until a 1951 [[Philosophy:Eranos|Eranos conference]] lecture, after having gradually developed the concept for over two decades, that Jung gave his first major outline of synchronicity.<ref name=Bishop2008/> The following year, Jung and Pauli published their 1952 work ''The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche'' ({{lang-de|Naturerklärung und Psyche}}), which contained Jung's central monograph on the subject, "Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle".<ref name=Bishop2008/>

Other notable influences and precursors to synchronicity can be found in: the theological concept of [[Religion:Correspondence (theology)#Correspondence and esotericism|correspondences]],<ref>[[Biography:Wolfgang Pauli|Wolfgang Pauli]] in [https://carljungdepthpsychologysite.blog/2020/01/05/wolfgang-pauli-summer-may-well-be-a-pleasant-time-but-it-is-one-sided-and-incomplete/#.XzccSXVfjmE letter to Jung] 1950</ref><ref>Brach, Jean-Pierre, and [[Biography:Wouter Hanegraaff|Wouter J. Hanegraaff]]. (2006). "Correspondences". In ''Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism'', edited by Wouter Hanegraaff.</ref> [[Social:Sympathetic magic|sympathetic magic]],<ref>[[Biography:Robert Todd Carroll|Robert Todd Carroll]], [http://skepdic.com/sympathetic.html "sympathetic magic"] in [[Philosophy:The Skeptic's Dictionary|The Skeptic's Dictionary]]</ref> [[Unsolved:Astrology|astrology]],<ref name=franz_man>Marie-Louise von Franz, Man and His Symbols (1964), p. 227</ref> and [[Philosophy:Alchemy|alchemy]].<ref name="TSEOP"/>

=== Pauli–Jung conjecture ===
<noinclude>{{Further|#Philosophy of science|selfref=yes}}</noinclude>
[[File:Wolfgang Pauli ETH-Bib Portr 01042 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|Wolfgang Pauli]]

The '''Pauli–Jung conjecture'''<!--boldface per WP:R#PLA--> is a collaboration in [[Metatheory|metatheory]] between physicist [[Biography:Wolfgang Pauli|Wolfgang Pauli]] and analytical psychologist [[Biography:Carl Jung|Carl Jung]], centered on the concept of {{nsl|synchronicity}}. It was mainly developed between the years 1946 and 1954, four years before Pauli's death, and speculates on a {{nsl|double-aspect theory|double-aspect}} perspective within the disciplines of both collaborators.<ref name=AtmanspacherFuchs2014/><ref name=Atmanspacher2012>{{cite journal|last=Atmanspacher|first=Harald|year=2012|title=Dual-aspect monism à la Pauli and Jung|journal=Journal of Consciousness Studies|volume=19|number=9|pages=96–120}}</ref> Pauli additionally drew on various elements of [[Physics:Quantum mechanics|quantum theory]] such as [[Physics:Complementarity|complementarity]], [[Physics:Quantum nonlocality|nonlocality]], and the [[Physics:Observer effect|observer effect]] in his contributions to the project.<ref name=AtmanspacherFuchs2014/><ref name=Filk2014/><ref name=Cambray2014>{{cite book|last=Cambray|first=Joe|year=2014|chapter=The Influence of German Romantic Science on Jung and Pauli|title=The Pauli–Jung Conjecture and Its Impact Today|editor1-last=Atmanspacher|editor1-first=Harald|editor2-last=Fuchs|editor2-first=Christopher A.|publisher=Imprint Academic|edition=2017|pages=37–56|isbn=978-18454-07599}}</ref> Jung and Pauli thereby "offered the radical and brilliant idea that the currency of these correlations is not (quantitative) statistics, as in quantum physics, but (qualitative) meaning."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Atmanspacher |first=Harald |date=2020-01-01 |title=The Pauli–Jung Conjecture and Its Relatives: A Formally Augmented Outline |journal=Open Philosophy |language=en |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=527–549 |doi=10.1515/opphil-2020-0138 |s2cid=222005552 |issn=2543-8875|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Contemporary physicist T. Filk writes that [[Quantum entanglement|quantum entanglement]], being "a particular type of acausal quantum correlations", was plausibly taken by Pauli as "a model for the relationship between mind and matter in the framework [...] he proposed together with Jung."<ref name="Filk2014">{{cite book|last=Filk|first=Thomas|year=2014|chapter=Quantum Entanglement, Hidden Variables, and Acausal Correlations|title=The Pauli–Jung Conjecture and Its Impact Today|editor1-last=Atmanspacher|editor1-first=Harald|editor2-last=Fuchs|editor2-first=Christopher A.|publisher=Imprint Academic|edition=2017|pages=109–123|isbn=978-18454-07599}}</ref> Specifically, quantum entanglement may be the physical phenomenon which most closely represents the concept of synchronicity.<ref name="Filk2014" />

== Analytical psychology ==
In [[Philosophy:Analytical psychology|analytical psychology]], the recognition of seemingly-meaningful coincidences is a mechanism by which unconscious material is brought to the attention of the conscious mind. A harmful or developmental outcome can then result only from the individual's response to such material.<ref name=Campbell2010/><ref name=IDoP/> Jung proposed that the concept could have psychiatric use in mitigating the negative effects of [[Philosophy:Rationalization (psychology)|over-rationalisation]]<ref name=Campbell2010/> and proclivities towards [[Philosophy:Mind–body dualism|mind–body dualism]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Tacey|first=David|year=2009|title=Mind and earth: Psychic Influence Beneath the Surface|journal=Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche|volume=3|number=2|pages=15–32|publisher=Taylor & Francis|jstor=10.1525/jung.2009.3.2.15|doi=10.1525/jung.2009.3.2.15|s2cid=170711587}}</ref>

Analytical psychology considers modern modes of thought to rest upon the pre-modern and primordial structures of the psyche. Causal connections thus form the basis of modern [[Worldview|worldview]]s, and connections which lacks [[Philosophy:Causal reasoning|causal reasoning]] are seen as {{em|chance}}. This chance-based interpretation, however, is incongruent with the primordial mind which instead interprets this [[Categorization|category]] as {{em|[[Philosophy:Intention|intention]]}}.<ref name=Bishop2008/> The primordial framework in fact places emphasis on these connections, just as the modern framework emphasizes causal ones. In this regard, causality, like synchronicity, is a human interpretation imposed onto external phenomena.<ref name=Bishop2008/> Primordial modes of thought are however, according to Jung, necessary constituents of the modern psyche that inevitably protrude into modern life—providing the basis for meaningful interpretation of the world by way of meaning-based connections.<ref name=Bishop2008/> Just as the principles of psychological causality provide meaningful understanding of causal connections, so too the principle of synchronicity attempts to provide meaningful understanding of acasual connections. Jung placed synchronicity as one of three main conceptual elements in understanding the psyche:<ref name=Campbell2010/>

# {{em|Psychological causality}}, as understood in Freudian theory, by which repressed [[Philosophy:Libido|libidinal energy]] is discharged across the psyche in response to principles of cause and effect—though Jung broadened this to a more generalized mental energy that is "particular to the unfolding of the individual psyche"<ref name=Campbell2010/>
# {{em|Psychological [[Philosophy:Teleology|teleology]]}}, by which self-actualisation is an element of the psyche as [[Physics:Potential|potential]]
# {{em|Psychological synchronicity}}, or meaningful chance, by which the potential for self-actualisation is either enhanced or negated

Jung felt synchronicity to be a principle that had [[Philosophy:Explanation|explanatory]] power towards his concepts of archetypes and the [[Social:Collective unconscious|collective unconscious]].<ref group="lower-roman">''Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious'': Jung defines the 'collective unconscious' as akin to [[Biology:Instinct|instinct]]s.</ref> It described a governing dynamic which underlies the whole of human experience and history—[[Social:Social|social]], [[Philosophy:Emotion|emotion]]al, psychological, and [[Philosophy:Spirituality|spiritual]]. The emergence of the synchronistic [[Philosophy:Paradigm|paradigm]] was a significant move away from Cartesian dualism towards an underlying philosophy of [[Philosophy:Double-aspect theory|double-aspect theory]]. Some argue this shift was essential in bringing theoretical coherence to Jung's earlier work.<ref>Brown, R. S. 2014. "Evolving Attitudes". ''International Journal of Jungian Studies'' 6(3):243–53.</ref><ref group="lower-roman">In the final two pages of the Conclusion to ''Synchronicity'', Jung states that not all coincidences are meaningful and further explains the creative causes of this [[Philosophy:Phenomenon|phenomenon]].</ref>

== Philosophy of science ==

Jung held that there was both a philosophical and scientific basis for synchronicity.<ref name="TSEOP"/> He identified the complementary nature of causality and acausality with Eastern sciences and [[Protoscience|protoscientific disciplines]], stating "[[Place:Eastern world|the East]] bases much of its science on this irregularity and considers coincidences as the reliable basis of the world rather than causality. Synchronism is the prejudice of the East; causality is the modern prejudice of the West"<ref name=Kerr2013/> (see also: [[Philosophy:Universal causation|universal causation]]). Contemporary scholar L. K. Kerr writes:

{{blockquote|Jung also looked to [[Physics:Modern physics|modern physics]] to understand the nature of synchronicity, and attempted to adapt many ideas in this field to accommodate his conception of synchronicity, including the property of numinosity. He worked closely with Nobel Prize winning physicist [[Biography:Wolfgang Pauli|Wolfgang Pauli]] and also consulted with [[Biography:Albert Einstein|Albert Einstein]]. The notion of synchronicity shares with modern physics the idea that under certain conditions, the laws governing the interactions of space and time can no longer be understood according to the principle of causality. In this regard, Jung joined modern physicists in reducing the conditions in which the laws of [[Physics:Classical mechanics|classical mechanics]] apply.<ref name=Kerr2013/>}}
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[[Causality]], when defined expansively (as, for instance, in the "mystic psychology" book ''[[Religion:The Kybalion|The Kybalion]]'', or in the [[Biography:Plato|plato]]nic [[Philosophy:Kantianism|Kantian]] [[Philosophy:Universal causation|Universal causation]]), states that "nothing can happen without being caused". Such an understanding of causality may be incompatible with synchronicity. In contrast, other definitions of causality (e.g., the neo-[[Philosophy:Humean definition of causality|Humean definition]]) are concerned only with the relation of ''cause'' to ''effect'', and are thus more compatible with synchronicity. There are also opinions that hold ''cause'' to be internal when there is no external observable cause.<ref>Henry, Rachael, ed. ''Psychologies of Mind: The Collected Papers of John Maze''.</ref>
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It is also pointed out that, since Jung took into consideration only the narrow definition of causality—only the [[Philosophy:Four causes#Efficient cause|efficient cause]]—his notion of ''acausality'' is also narrow and so is not applicable to [[Philosophy:Four causes#Final cause|final]] and [[Philosophy:Four causes#Formal cause|formal]] causes as understood in [[Philosophy:Aristotelianism|Aristotelian]] or [[Philosophy:Thomism|Thomist]] systems.<ref>Arraj, James. 1996. "[http://www.innerexplorations.com/catchmeta/mys8.htm Synchronicity and Formal Causality]". Ch. 8 in ''The Mystery of Matter: Nonlocality, Morphic Resonance, Synchronicity and the Philosophy of Nature of St. Thomas Aquinas''. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150522133804/http://www.innerexplorations.com/catchmeta/mys8.htm|date=2015-05-22}}. {{ISBN|0-914073-09-5}}.</ref> Either the final causality is inherent<ref>Mansfield, Victor. 1995., ''Synchronicity, Science and Soul-Making: Understanding Jungian Synchronicity Through Physics, Buddhism, and Philosophy''.</ref> in synchronicity, as it leads to [[Philosophy:Individuation|individuation]]; or synchronicity can be a kind of replacement for final causality. However, such finalism or [[Philosophy:Teleology|teleology]] is considered to be outside the domain of modern science.

Jung's theory, and philosophical worldview implicated by it, includes not only mainstream science thoughts but also esoteric ones and ones that are against mainstream.<ref>Main R. 2014. The cultural significance of synchronicity for Jung and Pauli. J Anal Psychol. 59(2):</ref><ref>Donati M. 2004. Beyond synchronicity: the worldview of Carl Gustav Jung and Wolfgang Pauli. J Anal Psychol. 49(5)</ref>

== Paranormal ==
{{Paranormal|para}}
[[File:Brescia Piazza della Loggia Torre dell'Orologio Ziffernblatt 4.jpg|thumb|[[Unsolved:Astrological aspect|Astral configurations]] in astrology represent for Jung an example of synchronicity, that is, of a parallel, non-causal relationship between the development of celestial phenomena and those marked by terrestrial time.<ref>Carl G. Jung (1960), ''Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle'', Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 44.</ref><ref>Liz Greene, ''Jung's Studies in Astrology: Prophecy, Magic, and the Qualities of Time'', Routledge, 2018.</ref>]]

Jung's use of the concept in arguing for the existence of paranormal phenomena has been widely considered pseudoscientific by modern scientific scepticism.<ref name=TSEOP/> Furthermore, his collaborator Wolfgang Pauli objected to his dubious experiments of the concept involving [[Unsolved:Astrology|astrology]]—which Jung believed to be supported by the laboratory experiments behind the [[Physics:Uncertainty principle|uncertainty principle]]'s formulation.<ref name=Kerr2013/> Jung similarly turned to the works of parapsychologist Joseph B. Rhine to support a connection between synchronicity and the paranormal.<ref name=Kerr2013/> In his book ''Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle'', Jung wrote:

<blockquote>How are we to recognize acausal combinations of events, since it is obviously impossible to examine all chance happenings for their causality? The answer to this is that acausal events may be expected most readily where, on closer reflection, a causal connection appears to be inconceivable.…<ref name="Jung 1973 8">{{cite book|last=Jung|first=Carl|url=https://archive.org/details/synchronicityaca00cgju|title=Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle|date=1973|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-15050-5|edition=first Princeton/Bollingen paperback|location=Princeton, New Jersey|page=[https://archive.org/details/synchronicityaca00cgju/page/8 8]|url-access=registration}}</ref>

It is impossible, with our present resources, to explain ESP [<nowiki/>[[Unsolved:Extrasensory perception|extrasensory perception]]], or the fact of meaningful coincidence, as a phenomenon of energy. This makes an end of the causal explanation as well, for "effect" cannot be understood as anything except a phenomenon of energy. Therefore it cannot be a question of cause and effect, but of a falling together in time, a kind of simultaneity. Because of this quality of simultaneity, I have picked on the term "synchronicity" to designate a hypothetical factor equal in rank to causality as a principle of explanation.<ref>Jung, Carl. 2014 [1952]. "[https://books.google.ca/books?id=9eY4CQAAQBAJ&pg=PA3373 Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle]", translated by R. F. C. Hull. Pp. 3373–509 in ''Collected Works of Carl Jung'' VIII.vii. East Sussex: Routledge. [https://books.google.ca/books?id=9eY4CQAAQBAJ&pg=PA3391 p. 3391].</ref></blockquote>

Roderick Main, in the introduction to his 1997 book ''Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal'', wrote:<ref>{{cite book|last1=Main|first1=Roderick|title=Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal|url=https://archive.org/details/jungonsynchronic00carl|url-access=registration|date=1997|publisher=Princeton University Press|page=[https://archive.org/details/jungonsynchronic00carl/page/n8 1]|isbn=9780691058375}}</ref>

{{Quotation|The culmination of Jung's lifelong engagement with the paranormal is his theory of synchronicity, the view that the structure of reality includes a principle of acausal connection which manifests itself most conspicuously in the form of meaningful coincidences. Difficult, flawed, prone to misrepresentation, this theory none the less remains one of the most suggestive attempts yet made to bring the [[Unsolved:Paranormal|paranormal]] within the bounds of intelligibility. It has been found relevant by psychotherapists, parapsychologists, researchers of spiritual experience and a growing number of non-specialists. Indeed, Jung's writings in this area form an excellent general introduction to the whole field of the paranormal.}}

== Studies ==

* A 1989 overview of research areas and methodology in the study of coincidence published by the ''Journal of the American Statistical Association'' addresses various potentials in researching synchronicity experiences.<ref name=DiaonisMosteller1989/>

* A 2009 paper found that, clinically, synchronicity experiences seem to cluster around periods of emotional intensity or major life transitions, such as births, deaths, and marriage.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Beitman|first1=B. D.|last2=Celebi|first2=E.|last3=Coleman|first3=S. L.|year=2010|chapter=Synchronicity and healing|editor-last1=Monti|editor-first1=D. A.|editor-last2=Beitman|editor-first2=B. D.|title=Integrative psychiatry|pages=445–483|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>
* A 2016 study found that clients who have disclosed synchronicity experiences in clinical setting often report not being listened to, accepted, or understood. The study also found that for therapists these experiences often come as a shock and a challenge their own worldviews,<ref name=RoxburghEvenden2016>{{cite journal|last1=Roxburgh|first1=Elizabeth C.|last2=Evenden|first2=Rachel E.|year=2016|title=They daren't tell people: therapists experiences of working with clients who report anomalous experiences|journal=European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling|volume=18|number=2|pages=123–141|doi=10.1080/13642537.2016.1170059|s2cid=146921408|url=http://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/34621/1/12116_Roxburgh.pdf}}</ref> prompting researchers to specify a need to provide accurate and reliable information about synchronicity experiences for mental health professionals.<ref name=Sacco2019/>
* Another 2016 study of 226 therapists found that 44% reported synchronicity experiences in the therapeutic setting, and 67% felt that synchronicity experiences could be useful for therapy.<ref name=RoxburghRidgwayRoe2016>{{cite journal|last1=Roxburgh|first1=Elizabeth C.|last2=Ridgway|first2=Sophie|last3=Roe|first3=Chris A.|year=2016|title=Synchronicity in the therapeutic setting: A survey of practitioners|journal=Counselling and Psychotherapy Research|volume=16|number=1|pages=44–53|doi=10.1002/capr.12057}}</ref> The study also points out ways of explanations of synchronicity: {{Quotation|For example, psychologists were significantly more likely than both counsellors and psychotherapists to agree that chance coincidence was an explanation for synchronicity, whereas, counsellors and psychotherapists were significantly more likely than psychologists to agree that a need for unconscious material to be expressed could be an explanation for synchronicity experiences in the clinical setting.<ref name=Roxburgh2013>Roxburgh, Elizabeth. 2013. [https://bial.com/media/2024/21_an-investigation-into-the-prevalence_bolsa8210_07022013.pdf "An investigation into the prevalence and phenomenology of synchronicity experiences in the clinical setting"] Bial.com</ref>}}
* A 2018 study shows that the concept of synchronicity finds clinical application in psychotherapies in form of a Jungian-specific approach to interpretation. Already the conceptual idea of synchronicity offers the therapist an additional therapeutic tool to put potentially meaningful experienced coincidences between him and the patient into a subjective narrative, which can be experienced by the patient as meaningful. If a synchronistic moment is sensitively recognized, thematized and interpreted as such, it can have positive consequences for the therapeutic relationship and therapy.<ref name=Reefschläger2018>{{cite web|last=Reefschläger|first=Gunnar I.|year=2018|url=https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-euv/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/385/file/Reefschlaeger_Gunnar.pdf|title=Synchronizität in der Psychotherapie : Eine quantitativ–qualitative Untersuchung der strukturellen Beschaffenheit synchronistischer Phänomene im psychotherapeutischen Prozess|website=Opus4.kobv.de|access-date=13 March 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2022-10354-001|title=APA PsycNet|website=Psycnet.apa.org|access-date=13 March 2022}}</ref>
* A 2019 study proposed to test whether synchronicity manifests as an objective feature of the physical world. The results of whether [[Fibonacci number|Fibonacci algorithms]] would predict increased synchronicity experiences compared to chance showed "a significant difference (p < .10) between observed synchronicity matches and expected frequencies based on chance for the HM [harmonic model] algorithm, and no significant difference in matches predicted by the GSM [golden section model] algorithm."<ref name=Sacco2019>{{cite journal|last=Sacco|first=Robert G.|year=2019|title=The Predictability of Synchronicity Experience: Results from a Survey of Jungian Analysts|journal=International Journal of Psychological Studies|publisher=Canadian Center of Science and Education|volume=11|number=3|pages=46–62|doi=10.5539/ijps.v11n3p46|s2cid=202248836|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338220655|doi-access=free}}</ref>

== Scientific reception ==
Since their inception, Jung's theories of synchronicity have been highly controversial<ref name=TSEOP/> and have never had [[Philosophy:Scientific consensus|widespread scientific approval]].<ref name=Kerr2013/> Scientific scepticism regards them as [[Unsolved:Pseudoscience|pseudoscience]].<ref name=TSEOP/> Likewise, mainstream science does not support paranormal explanations of coincidences.<ref name=JohansenOsman2015>Johansen, M. K., and M. Osman. 2015. "Coincidences: A fundamental consequence of rational cognition". ''New Ideas in Psychology'' 39:34-44.</ref> A contemporary study by R. G. Sacco states that:

{{blockquote|Synchronicity is one of the most widely known terms of Jungian psychology. Although generations of scholars from various fields have found the concept intuitively appealing and interpretively useful, there has been little agreement among theorists how synchronicity might operate, and researchers have had difficulty providing empirically testable models.<ref name=Sacco2019/>}}

Despite this, synchronicity experiences and the synchronicity principle continue to be studied within [[Philosophy:Philosophy|philosophy]], [[Cognitive science|cognitive science]], and [[Philosophy:Analytical psychology|analytical psychology]].<ref name=Sacco2019/><ref name=Bishop2008/> Synchronicity is widely challenged by the sufficiency of [[Probability theory|probability theory]] in explaining the occurrence of coincidences, the relationship between synchronicity experiences and [[Philosophy:Cognitive bias|cognitive bias]]es, and doubts about the theory's psychiatric or scientific usefulness.

Psychologist Fritz Levi, a contemporary of Jung, criticised the theory in his 1952 review, published in the periodical {{lang|de|Neue Schweizer Rundschau}} (''New Swiss Observations''). Levi saw Jung's theory as vague in determinability of synchronistic events, saying that Jung never specifically explained his rejection of "magic causality" to which such an acausal principle as synchronicity would be related. He also questioned the theory's usefulness.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bishop|first=Paul|title=Synchronicity and Intellectual Intuition in Kant, Swedenborg, and Jung|location=Lewiston, New York|publisher=Edwin Mellen Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-7734-7593-9|pages=59–62}}</ref>

In a 1981 paper, parapsychologist [[Biography:Charles Tart|Charles Tart]] writes:

{{quotation|[There is] a danger inherent in the concept of synchronicity. This danger is the temptation to mental laziness. If, in working with paranormal phenomena, I cannot get my experiments to replicate and cannot find any patterns in the results, then, as attached as I am to the idea of causality, it would be very tempting to say, "Well, it's synchronistic, it's forever beyond my understanding," and so (prematurely) give up trying to find a causal explanation. Sloppy use of the concept of synchronicity then becomes a way of being intellectually lazy and dodging our responsibilities.<ref name=Tart1981>{{cite journal|last=Tart|first=Charles|year=1981|title=Causality and Synchronicity – Steps Toward Clarification|url=http://www.roma1.infn.it/rog/group/frasca/b/synchtart.html|journal=Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research|volume=75|pages=121–141|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924091916/http://www.roma1.infn.it/rog/group/frasca/b/synchtart.html|archive-date=2015-09-24}}</ref>}}

[[Biography:Robert Todd Carroll|Robert Todd Carroll]], author of ''[[Philosophy:The Skeptic's Dictionary|The Skeptic's Dictionary]]'' in 2003, argues that synchronicity experiences are better explained as [[Apophenia|apophenia]]—the tendency for humans to find significance or meaning where none exists. He states that over a person's lifetime one can be expected to encounter several seemingly-unpredictable coincidences and that there is no need for Jung's metaphysical explanation of these occurrences.<ref>{{cite web|last=Carroll|first=Robert T.|title=Synchronicity|website=[[Philosophy:The Skeptic's Dictionary|The Skeptic's Dictionary]]|access-date=September 26, 2021|url=http://skepdic.com/jung.html}} Last updated October 27, 2015.</ref>

In a 2014 interview, emeritus professor and statistician David J. Hand states:

{{blockquote|Synchronicity is an attempt to come up with an explanation for the occurrence of highly improbable coincidences between events where there is no causal link. It's based on the premise that existing physics and mathematics cannot explain such things. This is wrong, however—standard science can explain them. That's really the point of the improbability principle. What I have tried to do is pull out and make explicit how physics and mathematics, in the form of probability calculus does explain why such striking and apparently highly improbable events happen.  There's no need to conjure up other forces or ideas, and there's no need to attribute mystical meaning or significance to their occurrence. In fact, we should {{em|expect}} them to happen, as they do, purely in the natural course of events.<ref name=Forbes2015>Navin, John. 2014. "[https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnnavin/2014/02/18/why-coincidences-miracles-and-rare-events-happen-every-day/3/ Why Coincidences, Miracles And Rare Events Happen Every Day]" (interview with David Hand). ''{{wipe|Forbes}}''. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170729205721/https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnnavin/2014/02/18/why-coincidences-miracles-and-rare-events-happen-every-day/3/|date=2017-07-29}}.</ref>}}

In a 2015 paper, scholars M. K. Johansen and M. Osman state:

{{quotation|As theories, the main problem with both synchronicity and seriality is that they ignore the possibility that coincidences are a psychological phenomenon and focus instead on the premise that coincidences are examples of actual but hidden structures in the world.<ref name=JohansenOsman2015/>}}

== Examples ==
{{Importance section|date=September 2021}}
[[File:Cetonia_aurata_MF.jpg|thumb|A gold-coloured {{lang|la|Cetonia aurata}}]]

Jung tells the following story as an example of a synchronistic event in his book ''Synchronicity'':

{{Blockquote|text=By way of example, I shall mention an incident from my own observation. A young woman I was treating had, at a critical moment, a dream in which she was given a golden scarab. While she was telling me this dream I sat with my back to the closed window. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me, like a gentle tapping. I turned round and saw a flying insect knocking against the window pane from outside. I opened the window and caught the creature in the air as it flew in. It was the nearest analogy to a golden scarab that one finds in our latitudes, a scarabaeid beetle, the common rose-chafer (''[[Biology:Cetonia aurata|Cetonia aurata]]''), which contrary to its usual habits had evidently felt an urge to get into a dark room at this particular moment.<br /><br />
It was an extraordinarily difficult case to treat, and up to the time of the dream little or no progress had been made. I should explain that the main reason for this was my patient's animus, which was steeped in Cartesian philosophy and clung so rigidly to its own idea of reality that the efforts of three doctors—I was the third—had not been able to weaken it. Evidently something quite irrational was needed which was beyond my powers to produce. The dream alone was enough to disturb ever so slightly the rationalistic attitude of my patient. But when the "scarab" came flying in through the window in actual fact, her natural being could burst through the armor of her animus possession and the process of transformation could at last begin to move.<ref>{{cite book |last=Jung |first=C.G. |title=Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle|year=1969 |publisher=Princeton University Press|location=Princeton, New Jersey |isbn=978-0-691-15050-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4pSiCPS0q2MC&pg=PT27}}</ref>}}

French writer Émile Deschamps claims in his memoirs that, in 1805, he was treated to some plum pudding by a stranger named Monsieur de Fontgibu. Ten years later, the writer encountered plum pudding on the menu of a Paris restaurant and wanted to order some, but the waiter told him that the last dish had already been served to another customer, who turned out to be de Fontgibu. Many years later, in 1832, Deschamps was at a dinner and once again ordered plum pudding. He recalled the earlier incident and told his friends that only de Fontgibu was missing to make the setting complete—and in the same instant, the now-senile de Fontgibu entered the room, having got the wrong address.<ref>Deschamps, Émile. 1872–74. ''Œuvres Complètes'': Tomes I–VI, Reimpr. de l'ed. de Paris.</ref>

After describing some examples, Jung wrote: "When coincidences pile up in this way, one cannot help being impressed by them – for the greater the number of terms in such a series, or the more unusual its character, the more improbable it becomes."<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|91}}

In his book ''Thirty Years That Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory'' (1966), [[Biography:George Gamow|George Gamow]] writes about [[Biography:Wolfgang Pauli|Wolfgang Pauli]], who was apparently considered a person particularly associated with synchronicity events. Gamow whimsically refers to the "[[Physics:Pauli effect|Pauli effect]]", a mysterious [[Philosophy:Phenomenon|phenomenon]] which is not understood on a purely [[Philosophy:Materialism|materialistic]] basis, and probably never will be. The following [[Social:Anecdote|anecdote]] is told:

{{Quotation|It is well known that theoretical physicists cannot handle experimental equipment; it breaks whenever they touch it. Pauli was such a good theoretical physicist that something usually broke in the lab whenever he merely stepped across the threshold. A mysterious event that did not seem at first to be connected with Pauli's presence once occurred in Professor J. Franck's laboratory in Göttingen. Early one afternoon, without apparent cause, a complicated apparatus for the study of atomic phenomena collapsed. Franck wrote humorously about this to Pauli at his Zürich address and, after some delay, received an answer in an envelope with a Danish stamp. Pauli wrote that he had gone to visit Bohr and at the time of the mishap in Franck's laboratory his train was stopped for a few minutes at the Göttingen railroad station. You may believe this anecdote or not, but there are many other observations concerning the reality of the Pauli Effect! <ref>Thirty Years That Shook Physics – The Story of Quantum Theory, George Gamow, p. 64, Doubleday & Co. Inc. New York, 1966</ref>}}

=== Cultural references ===
[[Biography:Philip K. Dick|Philip K. Dick]] makes reference to "Pauli's synchronicity" in his 1963 science-fiction novel, ''The Game-Players of Titan'', in reference to [[Precognition|pre-cognitive]] [[Engineering:Psionics|psionic]] abilities being interfered with by other psionic abilities such as [[Unsolved:Psychokinesis|psychokinesis]]: "an acausal connective event".<ref>Dick, Philip K. [1963] 1992. ''The Game-Players of Titan'' (1st ed.). New York: Vintage Books. {{ISBN|0-679-74065-1}}. p. 128.</ref>

In 1983 The Police released an album titled ''Synchronicity''. A song from the album ''[[Unsolved:Synchronicity II|Synchronicity II]]'' simultaneously describes the story of a man experiencing a mental breakdown and a lurking monster emerging from a Scottish lake.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

[[Biography:Robert Anton Wilson|Robert Anton Wilson]] covers the topic in his 1988 book ''Coincidance: A Head Test''.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

Rising Appalachia released a song titled "Synchronicity" on their 2015 album ''Wider Circles''.<ref>{{discogs release|9452128|Wider Circles}}</ref>

== See also ==
<!-- Please keep entries in alphabetical order & add a short description WP:SEEALSO -->
{{cols}}
* {{annotated link|Physics:Coherence}}
* {{annotated link|Correlation does not imply causation}}
* {{annotated link|Unsolved:Egregore}}
* {{annotated link|Philosophy:Emergence}}
* {{annotated link|Medicine:Ideas and delusions of reference}}
* {{annotated link|Look-elsewhere effect}}
* {{annotated link|History:Multiple discovery}}
* {{slink|Paul Kammerer|Seriality theory}}
* {{annotated link|Philosophy:Post hoc ergo propter hoc|''Post hoc ergo propter hoc''}}
* {{annotated link|Social:Propinquity}}
* {{annotated link|Unsolved:The Roots of Coincidence|''The Roots of Coincidence'' by Arthur Koestler}}
* {{annotated link|Stigmergy}}
* {{annotated link|Unsolved:Synchromysticism}}
{{colend}}
<!-- please keep entries in alphabetical order -->

== Explanatory notes ==
{{Notelist-lr}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|30em}}

=== General sources ===
* Aziz, Robert. 1990. ''C.G. Jung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity'' (10th ed.). Albany: [[Organization:State University of New York|State University of New York Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-7914-0166-8}}.
* Aziz, Robert 1999. "Synchronicity and the Transformation of the Ethical in Jungian Psychology". In ''Asian and Jungian Views of Ethics'', edited by C. Becker. Greenwood. {{ISBN|978-0-313-30452-1}}.
* Aziz, Robert 2007. ''The Syndetic Paradigm: The Untrodden Path Beyond Freud and Jung''. Albany: State University of New York Press. {{ISBN|978-0-7914-6982-8}}.
* Aziz, Robert 2008. "Foreword". In ''Synchronicity: Multiple Perspectives on Meaningful Coincidence'', edited by L. Storm. Pari Publishing. {{ISBN|978-88-95604-02-2}}.
* Carey, Harriet. 1869. "Monsieur de Fontgibu and the Plum Pudding". In ''Echoes from the Harp of France''. p.&nbsp;174.
* Cederquist, Jan. 2010. ''Meaningful Coincidence''. Times Publishing Ltd. {{ISBN|978-0-462-09970-5}}.
* Combs, Allan, and Mark Holland. 2001. ''Synchronicity: Through the Eyes of Science, Myth, and the Trickster''. New York: Marlowe. {{ISBN|978-1-56924-599-6}}.
* Jaworski, Joseph. 1996. ''Synchronicity: the inner path of leadership''. Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc. {{ISBN|978-1-881052-94-4}}.
* Gieser, Suzanne. 2005. ''The Innermost Kernel. Depth Psychology and Quantum Physics. Wolfgang Pauli's Dialogue with C.G. Jung''. Springer Verlag.
* Haule, John Ryan. 2010. ''Jung in the 21st Century: Synchronicity and science''. Routledge. {{ISBN|978-0-203-83360-5}}.
* [[Biography:Arthur Koestler|Koestler, Arthur]]. 1973. ''[[Unsolved:The Roots of Coincidence|The Roots of Coincidence]]''. Vintage. {{ISBN|978-0-394-71934-4}}.
* Main, Roderick. 2007. ''Revelations of Chance: Synchronicity as Spiritual Experience''. Albany: State University of New York Press. {{ISBN|978-0-7914-7024-4}}.
* {{cite book|last=Mardorf|first=Elisabeth|title=Das kann doch kein Zufall sei|language=de}}
* Mansfield, Victor. 1995. ''Science, Synchronicity and Soul-Making''. [[Company:Open Court Publishing Company|Open Court Publishing Company]]. {{ISBN|978-0-8126-9304-1}}.
* Peat, F. David. 1987. ''Synchronicity, The Bridge Between Matter and Mind''. Bantam. {{ISBN|978-0-553-34676-3}}.
* Progoff, Ira. 1973. ''Jung, synchronicity, & human destiny: Noncausal dimensions of human experience''. New York: Julian Press. {{ISBN|978-0-87097-056-6}}. {{OCLC|763819}}.
* Sneller, Rico. 2020. ''Perspectives on Synchronicity, Inspiration, and the Soul''. Cambridge Scholars. {{ISBN|978-1-5275-5505-1}}
* von Franz, Marie-Louise. 1980. ''On Divination and Synchronicity: The Psychology of Meaningful Chance''. Inner City Books. {{ISBN|978-0-919123-02-1}}.
* Wilhelm, Richard. 1986. ''Lectures on the I Ching'' (Constancy and Change Bollingen ed.). Princeton University Press; reprint. {{ISBN|978-0-691-01872-0}}.

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* [http://www.carl-jung.net/synchronicity.html Carl Jung and synchronicity]

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