Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle. (From Vol. 8. of the Collected Works of C. G. Jung) (Jung Extracts) Paperback – November 14, 2010

_Synchronicity_ is one of Jung's longer and better known essays. It contains fascinating accounts of paranormal phenomenon, such as ESP, and Jung provides numerous examples and well-organized scientific data to prove the existence of psychokinesis and telepathy. Such apparently miraculous phenomena are presumably the result of a purely subjective universe, in which seemingly concrete and objective happenings are created and altered within the confines of our individual subjective psyche. Jung provides compelling evidence to prove this phenomenon of subjective psychic control over the outside, physical world; in the ESP experiments he cited, subjects were placed hundreds of miles away from the site of the experiment (in which a sequence of five different images were randomly uncovered and recorded), and asked to guess the sequence of images days and even weeks later. Most subjects were able to guess what the images were at a rate that was statistically determined to be astronomically improbable. By conducting the experiments in this manner, researchers were able to prove that, not only does ESP exist, it is NOT an energetic, kinetic, or physical phenomenon in the traditional sense. The separation in time and space between the experimenter and the subject proves that ESP is not a phenomenon that can be attributed to wave motion or spacial transmission. It is a purely subjective and psychic phenomenon.The highlight of this book, however, is Jung's discussion of Tao. Jung compares his synchronistic theory to the ideas of MEANINGFULNESS and HARMONY in the philosophy of Tao. Ideas like ESP and psychokinesis help bolster Taoism's theory of the inherent harmony and intelligent, purposeful design underlying the universe. Believe what you will, but this is a very interesting and very convincing book. It is somewhat of a departure for Jung, however, and is not exactly his quintessential work; it would be a mistake to judge Jung simply based on this one narrowly focused work. But it is very interesting nonetheless, and I highly recommend it to all readers.Also keep in mind that _Synchronicity_ is reprinted in volume 8 of the Princeton/Bollingen series of the collected works of Carl Jung, entitled _The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche_. Serious Jungians will probably want to go ahead and buy this full-length version, as it contains many other useful essays in addition to "Synchronicity".

.What an awesome book! Our whole civilization is based on Newton's cause and effect and great technological and scientific achievements have been produced from such knowledge. However, it is Max Plank's and Einstein's discovery of quantum physics, that of the atom, where such Newtonian law of cause and effect does not apply. There is a relativity or undetermined, non-causuality of the movement of the electron. It does not operate according to such law and this is a strange thing indeed. It appears to operate in an acausal effect, one that is determined my chance, and by the person who is examining such movements appears to have an effect on such just by his observation! There is an amazing chaotic element of the operation here.And this takes us to the idea of synchronicity, that of events occurring outside of Newtonian's law of cause and effect. In this book, Jung does a detailed analysis of planetary alignment and married couples. Anotherwards this acausal effect takes in astrology and chance. Now come to play the games of chance such as Tarot and I-Ching, both ancient oracles in predicting events of chance.While Jung cannot prove anything measurable in line with science's cause and effect analysis, he does portray a much higher probability in such measurements he records, much more than average chance occurs, relating his argument in the existence of acausal happenings outside of our Newtonian frame of minds. It is an amazing task.What is so interesting is that the motivation and faith of the person partaking in the experiment appears to have a direct effect on the outcome. I've read this before how faith - an inner determined belief - has a creative effect on our destination and karmic outcome. And what is of equal interest is Jung's few accounts, his story of a fish, his story of a beetle - as in the Scarab beetle dream of a patient that synchronized with an event of a beetle and so forth.While astrology and I-Ching and other clairvoyant and telepathic events may be blown off by the Newtonian minds of science and trashed by the religious fundamentalists who superstitiously equate acausal events to demons, the idea of acausal events, synchronicity is a reality to be observed, as in the electron, and yet not proven scientifically.