SYNCHRONICITY, SERENDIPITY AND COINCIDENCE...

Anthony Hopkins gained the leading role in the film, "The Girl From Petrovka." Hopkins then ventured to London to purchase the book to study his character but could not find a copy. At Leicester Square station whilst waiting to take the train home he spotted a book laying on a bench. To his surprise, it was "The Girl From Petrovka."

Two years later, during the making of the film, the author of the book, George Fiefer, visited Hopkins. He mentioned that his copy that he'd scribbled notes throughout, was loaned to a friend who had since lost it somewhere in London. Hopkins handed him the book he found at the station and asked, "Is this it?" It was the same copy containing Feifer's handwritten remarks in the page margins.

Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, and Sigmund Freud were well acquainted and often compared notes of their theories and discoveries on psychoanalysis. Their differing opinions and conclusions would eventually end the friendship as Freud became insistent on his idea of the libido controlling the man whilst Jung studied the more spiritual and creative aspects of the mind.

In 1945 Jung wrote: "Physics has demonstrated that in the realm of atomic magnitudes objective reality presupposes an observer, and that only on this condition is a satisfactory scheme of explanation possible. This means, that a subjective element attaches to the physicist's world picture, and secondly that a connection necessarily exists between the psyche to be explained and the objective space-time continuum. These discoveries not only help loosen physics from the iron grip of its materialistic world, but confirmed what I recognized intuitively that matter and consciousness, far from operating independently of each other are, in fact, interconnected in an essential way, functioning as complementary aspects of a unified reality."

Through his many personal experiences and those of his patients Jung named and defined this interconnectedness, "synchronicity", as having three types. The first was when a psychological event and an external event occurred at the same or similar time. For example, a person thinks of someone they haven't seen in a while and then receives a visit from them soon after.

When an external event happens at the same or similar time to a psychological event but is outside of the individuals range of perception this is the second type of synchronistic incident. An example of this is the documented true vision that Swedish scientist, Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) had of a large fire that was occurring 100 miles away.

The third synchronicity is when the psychological event is of the external event that happens in the future. For instance, many of the workers at Chernobyl stated that they had dreamed of the impending disaster some days or weeks before it happened.

Throughout history most cultures saw the universe as having seperate objects connected through patterns, resonances and sympathies which maintained a harmony between the heavens and the earth. Within this view the passing of time is seen as cycles, seasons and an interdependent relationship of individuals and society with the movements of nature and the cosmos, rather than a linear event.

Many of our modern scientists see coincidence of this nature as the result of the "law of probability". Bruce Martin, the Prof. Emeritus of Chemistry at Virginia University stated; "Most improbable coincidences likely result from play of random events. The very nature of randomness assures that combing random data will yield some pattern."

In 1958 K. Conrad created the term, apophenia, which is defined as the spontaneous perception of connections and meaningfulness of unrelated phenomena. The Psychological Institute at the University of Freiburg in Germany places enough importance on these occurrences to have funded and developed a research project to study and create a program for councelling and therapy to help people who have had unusual experiences and are having difficulty adjusting or coping after the event. They insist no judgement be made on the validity of the information stating that the individual believes it to be true therefore it is true.

What makes synchronicity distinguishable from mere coincidence? It is reasonable to state that most people have had a moment in their life where they had an "aha!" sensation or an epiphany. This experience of being connected, of profound recognition and meaning to the specific individual, is the essence of synchronicity. This insight is usually given through image, metaphor or allusion and reminds us of our internal and external connection to the whole. A synchronistic episode will dramatically transcend the limits of time and space and offer significance and a feeling of rightness of a particular situation.

James Redfields bestseller, "The Celestine Prophecy" inferred that the moments of recognition, synchronicity and deja vu were the universe's acknowledgement of being in the right place at the right time. SQuire Rushnell, the Network Television executive, spokesperson and author of a series of books titled, "When God Winks," says; "Godwinks are like the winks you received as a kid from Dad or Grandma across the dining room table. They probably meant, 'Hey, kid, I'm thinking about you, right now.' Similarly reassuring messages are the coincidences and answered prayers coming into your life, at just the right moment, confirming that you're on a universal GPS. God's Positioning System."

Deepak Chopra,M.D. and renowned keynote speaker said, " My own life has been touched often by synchronicity, so much so that now I get on an airplane expecting the passenger in the next seat to be surprisingly important to me, either just the voice I need to hear to solve a problem or a missing link in a transaction that needs to come together....I believe that all coincidences are messages from the unmanifest-they are like angels without wings, so to speak, sudden interruptions of life by a deeper level..."

Jung believed synchronicity related to survival instincts and could bring a sense of healing, illuminate a hard life or a path to follow and act as preparation for a painful event. It most commonly occurs during periods of transition for both individuals and society.

In March 2002 Reuters reported that twin brothers in Finland, aged 71, were involved in identical bicycle accidents, on the same road, two hours apart. They were both killed. It is also apparent from this example that synchronistic episodes do not necessarily have obvious positive outcomes and can be unfathomable in their purpose no matter how astounding.

Serendipity is defined as accidently discovering something worthwhile whilst searching for something else entirely. M.K. Stoskopf,DVM, PhD, Dipl, ACZM wrote; "...it should be recognized that serendipitous discoveries are of significant value in the advancement of science and often present the foundation for important intellectual leaps of understanding." A great example of this is when the apple fell from the tree on to Isaac Newton's head and the concept of gravitational laws was discovered. In order to detect the importance of the revealed information the scientist needs to be prepared and have an open mind. The scientist ponders a question and the universe provides an answer. Although serendipity does not fit the mould of synchronicity exactly it still represents a connection between psychological and external events.

In recognising that occurrences such as these are difficult to measure and test for scientific evidence and knowing that we may never have all the answers, synchronicity, serendipity and coincidence are phenomenon that suggest our lives, the universe, our minds and matter are inextricably connected

and each requires the other to form a harmonic pattern and balance that plays out in perfect procession, to fulfill a destiny that we may never fully comprehend. It is reassuring when searching for meaning that there is a purpose and plan, even if we are not privvy to the details. Albert Einstein said; "Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous."