Synchronicity, Causality, And Acausality

Examples of Synchronicity and Coincidence

At this point it may be necessary to illustrate the concept of synchronicity, and Jung gives an example in his essay Synchronicity (1960, para. 912, 915). In 1759, while in Gothenburg, Swedish religious leader and scientist Emmanuel Swedenborg had a vision of a house on fire hundreds of miles away in Stockholm. He gave the Gothenburg city authorities an account of this fire, including such details as the owner of the house, and the time the fire was put out. Jung writes, "When... the vision arose in Swedenborg's mind of a fire in Stockholm, there was a real fire raging there at the same time, without there being any demonstrable or even thinkable connection between the two" (para. 912). Jung makes a point of this "fire burning in him [Swedenborg] too" as being the prime determinant of the synchronistic event: two events, one physical, one psychic, and this was born out in Swedenborg's biography, whereby his psychological state gives indication of the likelihood of an "inner fire." That is, Swedenborg's inner fire is of particular psychological (meaningful) significance, and is not simply a typical psi phenomenon, although Jung believed that ESP and PK share the same phenomenology as synchronicity (para. 840, 863, 977-979).

Another example is the phenomenon of clocks stopping at the time of the clock-owner's death. It has also been reported that an individual (a family member, friend, or caregiver), who has unilateral or mutual emotional ties with someone (i.e., a loved one), may be "contacted" or "visited" by the loved one at the time of the loved one's death. This is another form of synchronicity, and is similar to precognitive dreams and visions, which involve foreknowledge of events.

Wilmer (1987, p. 171) gives an example of synchronicity as related by Arthur Koestler of the London Times in 1974: After landing the leading role in the movie The Girl from Petrovka, English actor Anthony Hopkins tried without success to find a copy of the book in London. Then one day as he was passing through Leicester Square he noticed a book lying discarded on a bench. It was The Girl from Petrovka. During the movie's filming Hopkins met the book's author, George Feifer, who mentioned in passing that he no longer had a copy of his own novel. Feifer said he had loaned his last copy to a friend who had lost it in London. Hopkins showed Feifer the book he had found. Feifer looked inside and discovered notes in his own handwriting. It was the same book.

Wilmer (1987, p. 169) also relates an example of coincidence as told by Jung:

A wife gives a man a new pipe for his birthday. He takes a walk and sits under a tree in a park. Sitting next to him is a man smoking the same kind of pipe. He tells the man his wife gave him his pipe for his birthday. The man says, "Mine did too." It turns out that they both have the same birthday. They introduce themselves. They have identical Christian names. This is not a synchronistic event because there is no simultaneous, inner-meaningful, subjective event.