Everything that I thought was clear, was now becoming blurry. The more certain I became about something, the less I seemed to remember it, and the more uncertain and confusing it seems. I find myself having difficulties in even describing the basic definition of synchronicity, because for once I realize how much there really is to consider and how much more there is to it than that simple definition. But the one thing that I struggled most with, was setting apart synchronicity from pure psychological and paranormal phenoma. I had come up with this clear and narrow definition of what exactly synchronicity was, and had ruled out everything that did not fall into this definition as something that wasn’t synchronicistic. And so I googled the term “Synchronicity misconceptions”, and the first thing that popped up was a book called “Synchronicity, Science, and Soul-Making”, by Victor Mansfield. And I began to read the first ten to twenty pages of this book, searching for that clear definition of synchronicity that would enable me to rule out everything that did not correspond to it.
It was then that I realized, that I was not the only one who was plunged into this state of confusion. I was reading the book aloud to my mom, when I came across the following quote: “Jung never gave an adequate sense of what meaning was for individual synchronistic events”. She immediately stopped me, and told me that it was important to underline the meaning of meaning. I dismissed her suggestion and continued reading, but could not get what she said out of my mind. The book then quotes a book, which quotes a book. Victor Mansfield, quotes Robert Aziz, who quotes Michael Fordham’s discovery, that “His (Jung’s) examples do not always make it evident of in what his idea of meaning consists”.
Mansfield then continues to talk about how Jung interlaces paranormal phenoma, such as extra-sensory perception, into his examples of Synchronicity. Mansfield then proceeds to conclude that these ESP events are not usually meaningful connections or correlations, for Jung defined meaning as an expression of the self, as an unconscious compensation propelling individuation. Mansfield then suggests that the word synchronicity be reserved only for those acausally connected events that express some specific meaning, and some particular display of unconscious compensation. He then says that Jung’s categorizing of paranormal phenomena as synchronistic is not fully consistent with Jung’s own definition of synchronicity as acausal connection through meaning, where Mansfield then defines meaning as an expression of the self directing of individuation (wholeness).
Completely thrown off by what I had just read, I realized that the key to understanding what was being said, was to understand the term “unconscious compensation”, and so, I opened a glossary of Jungian terms. As I was scrolling through the glossary, I decided to scroll down to the “M” section, in order to be able to understand what Jung meant by the term meaningful.
It was then that I realized, that the term “meaning” and its derivatives were not in the glossary. Completely shocked by this discovery, I scrolled up to see who had created the glossary, and found that it was a psychologist who had extracted these definitions from all of Jung’s works. I then proceeded to open Google, and searched the term “meaning definition Jung”, and to my surprise, I got no results.
Questioning my ability to enter correct search terms into Google, and the reliability of the glossary I came up, I opened one of Jung’s most famous works, “Man and His Symbols”, and turned to the glossary, only to find out, that the term was absent. Frantically, I opened Claire Dunne’s biography on Jung and searched the index for the word meaning, which again was nowhere to be found.
Then the irony struck me. Jung defines synchronicity as “a meaningful coincidence”, and uses it to convey what synchronicity is. He places so much emphasis on this word, and uses it to differentiate synchronistic events from non-synchronistic ones. Yet, if we try to understand the meaning behind “meaningful”, we are left with nothing.
Perhaps it is because meaningful is a word subjective to personal interpretation. On one hand, meaningful at a personal level is difficult to define, but on the other hand, I cannot seem to digest the fact that Jung uses the term “meaningful coincidence” to generalize a synchronicity and make it so specific, when he leaves the term so general and undefined.
Therefore in conclusion it is no surprise so much meaningful confusion has arisen within such a meaningful topic that seems to be so meaninglessly defined. (Sorry Jung).
A study of Synchronicity 