Carl Jung on “Synchronicity” – Anthology
We should be particularly watchful when synchronous events occur for a numen is then in sight. In a certain mood one notices that the crows fly towards the left. When an archetypal event approaches the sphere of consciousness, it also manifests itself in the outer life. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 51
Synchronous events are widely accepted in Chinese philosophy and are the basis of astrology. ~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 51.
When someone is under a grave threat, and the archetypes are constellated, synchronistic situations can arise — events that are independent of him, existing in the outside world. ~ Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 51.
My further writing led me to the archetype of the God-man and to the phenomenon of synchronicity which adheres to the archetype. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 479-481.
This means that when we observe statistically we eliminate the synchronicity phenomenon, and conversely, when we establish synchronicity we must abandon the statistical method. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 546-548.
The statistical method of science stands in a relationship of complementarity to synchronicity. This means that when we observe statistically we eliminate the synchronicity phenomena and. . . when we establish synchronicity we must abandon the statistical method. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 548.
Synchronicity states that a certain psychic event is paralleled by some external non-psychic event and that there is no causal connection between them. It is a parallelism of meaning. ~C.G. Jung Speaking, Page 387.
Synchronicity means the simultaneous occurrence of a psychic state with one or more external events, which appear as meaningful parallels to the momentary subjective state. ~Carl Jung, CW 8, Page 441.
Just as a causality describes the sequence of events, so synchronicity to the Chinese mind, deals with the coincidence of events. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Page 593.
The method like all divinatory or intuitive techniques is based on an acausal or synchronistic connective principle. ~Carl Jung, CW 8, Page 452.
The main difficulty with synchronicity (and also with ESP) is that one thinks of it as being produced by the subject, while I think it is rather in the nature of objective events. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 181.
The coincidence of the Fibonacci numbers (or sectio aurea) with plant growth is a sort of analogy with synchronicity inasmuch as the latter consists in the coincidence of a psychic process with an external physical event of the same character or meaning. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 287-289.
Where an archetype prevails, we can expect synchronistic phenomena, i.e., acausal correspondences, which consist in a parallel arrangement of facts in time. The arrangement is not the effect of a cause. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 43-47.
Concerning the omniscience it is important to know that Adam already was equipped with supernatural knowledge according to Jewish and Christian tradition, all the more so Christ. I think that the great split in those days was by no means a mistake but a very important collective fact of synchronistic correspondence with the then new aeon of Pisces. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 163-174
An American pupil of mine, Dr. Progoff (New York), has tried to adapt and to explain synchronicity to the average reader but he landed his ship on the rocks because he could not free his mind from the deep-rooted belief in the Sanctissima Trinitas of the axiomata time, space, and causality. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 215-216.
I have got stuck, on the one hand, in the acausality (or “synchronicity”) of certain phenomena of unconscious provenance and, on the other hand, in the qualitative statements of numbers, for here I set foot on territories where I cannot advance without the help and understanding of the other disciplines. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 351-352.
The principle of synchronicity represents the essential particularity of a non-statistical world, where facts are not measured by numbers but by their psychological significance. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 373-375
I think you are correct in assuming that synchronicity, though in practice a relatively rare phenomenon, is an all-pervading factor or principle in the universe, i.e., in the Unus Mundus, where there is no incommensurability between so-called matter and so-called psyche. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 398-400
With regard to the horoscope I have serious doubts whether it can be understood as a purely synchronistic phenomenon, for there are unquestionable causal connections between the planetary aspects and the powerful effects of proton radiation, though we are still very much in the dark as to what its physiological effects might be. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 420-421
If you give the “synchronistic arrangement” the smallest possible play, the play of chance is obviously restricted and the synchronistic “effect” thereby hindered. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 414-416
I have often found that synchronistic experiences were interpreted by schizophrenics as delusions. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 409-410.
The schizophrenic’s interpretation [of Synchronicity] is morbidly narrow because it is mostly restricted to the intentions of other people and to his own ego-importance. The normal interpretation, so far as this is possible at all, is based on the philosophic premise of the sympathy of all things, or something of that kind. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 409-410.
On the other hand, it is obvious to me that synchronicity is the indispensable counterpart to causality and to that extent could be considered compensatory. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 425-426
The archetype, then, is a modality that represents visual forms, and synchronicity is another modality representing events. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 445-449
With regard to the dynamic processes of the unconscious, he can also determine that the further characteristic of synchronicity exists; in other words, that archetypes have something to do with synchronicity. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 445-449
In so far as both modalities, archetype and synchronicity, belong primarily to the realm of the psychic, we are justified in concluding that they are psychic phenomena. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 445-449
So your question concerning the “freedom” of the unconscious is easily answered: the freedom appears in the non-predictability of synchronistic phenomena. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 445-449
Synchronicity is not a name that characterizes an “organizing principle,” but, like the word “archetype,” it characterizes a modality. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 445-449
It [Synchronicity] is not meant as anything substantive, for what the psyche is, or what matter is, eludes our understanding. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 445-449
The ‘absolute knowledge’ which is characteristic of synchronistic phenomena, a knowledge not mediated by the sense organs, supports the hypothesis of a self-subsistent meaning, or even expresses its existence. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 445-449
In so far, however, as synchronistic events include not only psychic but also physical forms of manifestation, the conclusion is justified that both modalities transcend the realm of the psychic and somehow also belong to the physical realm. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 445-449
It is legitimate to ask yourself what it is that carries the qualities of the archetypal and synchronistic, and to pose the question, for instance, of the intrinsic nature of the psyche or of matter. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 445-449
In some cases of psychotherapeutic treatment, contact with the sphere of the archetypes can produce the kind of constellation that underlies synchronicity. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 498-500
In this chaos of chance, synchronistic phenomena were probably at work, operating both with and against the known laws of nature to produce, in archetypal moments, syntheses which appear to us miraculous. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 493-496
Since the laws of probability give no ground for assuming that higher syntheses such as the psyche could arise by chance alone, there is nothing for it but to postulate a latent meaning in order to explain not only the synchronistic phenomena but also the higher syntheses. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 493-496
I should not wonder at all if synchronistic phenomena would manifest in the form of physiological effects. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 576-577
The “absolute knowledge” which is characteristic of synchronistic phenomena, a knowledge not mediated by the sense organs, supports the hypothesis of a self-subsistent meaning, or even expresses its existence. ~Carl Jung, CW, Para 948.
It may be said in passing that Chinese science is based on the principle of synchronicity, or parallelism in time, which is naturally regarded by us as superstition. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 178
The essential thing about these [Synchronistic] phenomena is that an objective event coincides meaningfully with a psychic process; that is to say, a physical event and an endopsychic one have a common meaning. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 27.
He [Jung] said this work with the physicist on synchronicity was the last of such writing he would do; it required tremendous concentration and took too much out of him. ~E.A. Bennet, Meetings with Jung, Page 62
I asked him [Jung] again about the carving of the face of Mercury on the stone at the side of the Tower. He said, ‘I got terribly stuck when I was working on synchronicity, in the part about statistics. Then I saw that face in the stone and put my papers away and got my tools and carved it. It was the impish Mercury. ~E.A. Bennet, Meetings with Jung, Page 298
… number and synchronicity… were… always brought into connection with one another,… both possess numinosity and mystery as their common characteristics. Number has invariably been used to characterize some numinous object, and all numbers from 1 to 9 are ‘sacred,’ just as 10, 12, 13, 14, 28, 32, and 40 have a special significance. ~Carl Jung, CW 8, Para 870.
In order to give our judgment.. on the character of wholeness, we must supplement our time-conditioned thinking by the principle of correspondence [between outer and inner events], or as I have called it, synchronicity.” C.G. Jung, Aion, para 409
When I enter the sphere of physical or mathematical thinking sensu strictiori, I lose all understanding of what the term synchronicity means; I feel as though I am groping my way through dense fog. ~Carl Jung, Atom and Archetype, Page 68.
In my view, the discussion of Matter must have a scientific basis. That is why I pressed for [Answer to Job] and[Synchronicity]to be published at the same time. ~Carl Jung, Atom and Archetype, Pages 97-101
Carl Jung Depth Psychology Blog
