Coincidence, happenstance, serendipity, fate, or the hand of god: Case studies in synchronicity - Article

Career Development Quarterly, March, 2002 by Mary H. Guindon, Fred J. Hanna

Billie planned to attend a college career fair that attracted college personnel recruiters in the region. She and her counselor developed a resume targeted toward a position as a college financial aid officer. She now understood that in any location, her son could have the high school experience that she had never had and, in fact, when she discussed it with him, he was willing and excited at the prospect. Her biggest concern, however, was that a salary in financial aid would not allow her to save enough to send him to college in just 41/2 years.

As a result of the fair, she interviewed at a college on the other side of the region's main river and was made an offer that included a benefit that would pay her son's college tuition at that institution. She was delighted with the job and relieved and grateful for this benefit. At the last meeting with the career counselor, she said her dream had come true. The colors of her current college were blue and white; the mascot was a knight on a horse. When she interviewed for her new position, she could not help but notice that the mascot was a black stallion and the school's colors were red and black. She said her dream had been pointing her in the right direction all along. She knew now that she was never meant to stay at this college--with the man on the white horse--that they would have only "a nodding acquaintance." She knew she was meant to take the job at the new college--to "ride the black stallion."

In Billie's case, each of her dreams is an example of the third form of synchronistic event: a coincidence of a subjective psychic state about a dream or vision (i.e., her belief that each version of the dream was profoundly significant) with a dream or vision in which the "synchronistic," objective event takes place in the future and is represented in the present by the corresponding dream or vision. In the first dream, Billie believed that the white horse and mascot colors symbolized her future college experience; in the second and altered dream, Billie believed that the black horse and mascot colors symbolized a future change in direction corresponding to the actual offer of a position "across the river." Billie attributed this to more than coincidence. She believed the direction for her life had always been there in these dreams; she only needed to learn to be true to herself to discover it. She attributed this to her destiny and fate and to a belief in a god that watched over her.

Common Themes

Although synchronicity manifested slightly differently in each of these cases, there were some commonalties. These clients presented with self-imposed limitations, had spent part of their work lives in jobs unsuited to them, felt a sense of meaninglessness in their lives, and saw themselves as blocked in their efforts to find meaningful careers. They felt strongly connected to significant others in their lives and faced the dilemma of a dichotomy between their own needs and the needs of these others. To varying extents, they had not fully individuated, as evidenced by their inability to recognize and act on an authentic sense of self. Although the career counseling process differed, each one was able to clarify interests, skills, values, and personality traits, leading to a stronger sense of authentic identity. They all reported a sense of transcendence over their previously self-imposed limitations. Each then made a decision to seek meaningful life's work, although they could not see how that might happen wi thout severely disrupting family obligations. At this point, each seemed to manifest a leap of faith, and second-order change occurred. It was then that an unexpected, synchronistic event transpired. Formerly unopened and undiscerned opportunities matching their desires were somehow "mysteriously" opened to them. Whereas finding meaningful work previously had seemed insurmountable, prospects beyond each client's expectations presented themselves. Each attributed the seemingly effortless, coincidental finding of suitable life's work to some aspect of a spiritual, although not necessarily religious, belief. Elements common to Jungian analysis, specifically used to elicit synchronistic events, operated in each of these cases. The use of fantasy exercises, meditation, and dreams assisted these clients in reaching the transcendental "aha" experience, after which meaningful coincidences occurred.