Synchronicity, the Law of Attraction & Other Magical Happenings!

Jung's book 'Synchronicity - An Acausal Connecting Principle' - is a fascinating read. It delves into ESP research, Astrology and various other psychic phenomena. Another of his books 'The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious' discusses the probability that during periods where our conscious mind is inactive (for example sleep, coma, meditation), we have greater access to the 'collective unconscious' which knows many things we don't.

He firmly believed in the power of the mind, both conscious and unconscious.

If you're interested in Jung's book on synchronicity, see the Amazon link below.

In summing up his thoughts in his book on synchronicity, Jung concludes that:

"It may well be that the originally magical significance of the word "wish," which is still preserved in "wishing-rod" (diving rod, or magic wand) and expresses not just wishing in the sense of desire but a magical action, and the traditional belief in the efficacy of prayer, are both based on the experience of concomitant synchronistic phenomena."


"I Wish" by Hamed Masoumi. Courtesy of Flickr.


"Wishing Stone" by tsechuen. Courtesy of Flickr.

"Your Wish is My Command" by alicepopkorn. Courtesy of Flickr.

Is there a difference between synchronicity and the law of attraction? They both point to the same thing - the power of the subconscious mind and the 'collective unconscious' to draw physical matter to you.

A synchronistic event is one where a psychic event corresponds to a physical one. A personal example - I was recently sitting in my office wondering how on earth I was going to find an office assistant who had sufficient skill and interest in our rather niche business (private investigation). As I was thinking it an email arrived, accompanied by a resume, from a very experience administrator who wanted to become a private investigator. Problem solved!

The Law of Attraction theory is basically the same - the psychic event (my thoughts) attracted the physical (the job applicant) because I asked for it.

Law of Attraction theory tells you that by asking, and by believing that you will receive something, you are actually manifesting it and drawing it to you.

Jung's partially formed Synchronicity theory is a little deeper and encompasses a wide range of psychic events. It's bigger than the Law of Attraction and more complicated. It's seriously worth a read, but in the meantime, here is a quote I think shows its connection to the Law of Attraction theory -

"Synchronicity is no more baffling or mysterious than the discontinuities of physics. It is only the ingrained belief in the sovereign power of causality that creates intellectual difficulties and makes it appear unthinkable that causeless events exist or could ever occur. But if they do, then we must regard them as creative acts, as the continuous creation of a pattern that exists from all eternity, repeats itself sporadically, and is not derivable from any known antecedents."

One difference between synchronicity and the law of attraction may lie in what causes these events to occur. Jung was unable to identify a cause for events of synchronicity and thought it possible that causeless events could occur - but he also suggested that this may be because our knowledge is so limited we're unable to understand the cause at this time. The law of attraction theory seems to attribute thought and belief with causing physical events. Jung on the other hand was more cautious although he did suggest the possibility that some such events could be "creative acts". But whose?

Whether you're a law of attraction fanatic or a Jung fan, the concepts of synchronicity and the law of attraction are equally fascinating and closely related.

Ref: Jung, Carl. Synchronicity - An Acausal Connecting Principle. Routledge 1955. Reprinted 2006.

About a year ago I was in bed reading Jung's book on synchronicity. I read the comments about the potential magic of a 'wish' and decided that combined with the 'collective unconscious', the best time to make a wish to test the theory was as I was going off to sleep. I intentionally decided to wish for something extremely unlikely. And as I drifted off I wished that a certain gentleman I had met 12 years and lost contact with about 10 years earlier would reappear in my life.

Next morning when I checked my emails, there he was. He'd moved to my state two days earlier and with someone's assistance, found me using the Internet.

Now, wouldn't that make you a believer?

There are currently a number of researchers that maintain an active interest in Jung's concept of synchronicity and some have published articles and books on the subject.

Dr Lance Storm from the Department of Psychology at the University of Adelaide, Australia, has an interest in synchronicity and in conjunction with other researchers has recently undertaken experiments with regard to the 'I Ching' and synchronicity. His publication 'Synchronicity: Multiple Perspectives on Meaningful Coincidence' contains a number of contributions from other researchers with an interest in synchronicity.

Jungian psychotherapist Dr Robert Aziz has also authored a book on the subject - C G Jung's Psychology of Religion & Synchroncity. He has his own website which is worth a look.

I'll be adding a little more to this section as I gather further information. In the meantime, for those who can't get enough information on synchronicity, the Amazon links to the books of Dr Storm and Dr Aziz are below.

Can you make synchronicity happen? I think so. If it brought about allowing yourself to access the "collective unconscious" then it could pay to think about the things you want when you have the best chance of tapping into that field - like when you are drifting off to sleep. Meditation is another way of quietening the conscious mind so that information from the unconscious can slip through. Perhaps it works the other way around too - and you can influence events by putting your thoughts into the collective unconscious.

Feng Shui is worth a thought too - if inner psychic events can be a reflection of outer physical events or vice versa, then surely the things you have around you and their symbolism might just play a role. For example, perhaps leaving empty glasses everywhere isn't a good idea if you want your glass to be full! I had an in-law once who wouldn't have broken things in her house because she thought it had some sort of influence on the future. Anything with a chip or a flaw in it went straight in the bin.

Does anyone have any ideas on that sort of thing?

Photo by brain_blogger. Courtesy of Flickr.

In his book on synchronicity, Jung points out a number of factors that suggest that other parts of our body have the ability to process information.

He gives examples of people in states considered to be 'unconscious' where upon waking it's been discovered that the person was aware of certain events that occured whilst they were unconscious.

He mentions the research on bees and their amazing communication abilities, despite having no cerebral cortex. He suggests that this is evidence that "a nervous substrate like the sympathetic system...can evidently produce thoughts and perceptions..." In humans, during coma states, this system is apparently not paralysed and so could be "...a possible carrier of psychic functions."

Jung's work is not always easy to read, but for anyone interested in 'psychic function' and the Law of Attraction, it's well worth the attempt!

Photo by HaPe_Gera. Courtesy of Flickr.

It's fairly clear that the amount we don't know about the subconscious and the collective unconscious, far exceeds that which we do know.

As Jung suggests, states where the conscious mind is quiet seems to link us to valuable information that we have no conscious access to. This is perhaps because our conscious mind is just too busy!

Meditation quietens our conscious mind, opening a doorway to this information.

During sleep, our conscious mind rests, affording another opportunity for information from elsewhere to slip through, and at times be present when we wake.

Other research suggests that we can intentionally input information to our subconscious* during hypnosis that may benefit our conscious lives.

*The 'subconscious' is closer to our conscious state that the 'collective unconscious'. It's more personal, whereas the material in the 'collective unconscious' appears to be almost unlimited and much of it may be information passed genetically from generation to generation.

Are dreams little psychic synchronicities that parallel our physical reality? Is dreaming the collective unconscious' way of dropping a hint or shedding light on something that is happening in your life? According to Jung, dreams love to speak in puns and I have to admit, since reading his thoughts on dreams, I've noticed this too. I forget more dreams than I remember but I've had some interesting ones, including pun dreams.

The most recent dream pun:

I dreamt that I went to get in my car and found that all four tyres were flat. The pun - everybody is going to let you down. I was moving house at the time and had many positive expectations. All the best laid plans seemed to fall apart and moving turned into a nightmare through people breaking arrangements and the like. Within a week of having the dream, the pun was quite evident. And in fact,the day after driving to the new location, the car actually had one flat tyre which I had to replace. Now there's a dream that kills two birds with one stone.

Here is another that could have a variety of interpretations. I'm waiting to see which one:

I dreamt that I had loaned my small bottle of hot chilli oil to someone. They handed it back to me in a grand manner, thanking me profusely - but I noticed the bottle was now empty. Now the bottle is one I've had in my cupboard for a couple of years after buying it at a market. I used it once and thereafter forgot about it. It is filled with bright red chilli oil. I was so intrigued by the potential meanings of this dream I've spent hours thinking about them. Here are a few:

1.It could mean simply that someone is going to give me something that appears to be of value, but is an empty gesture.

2.Another possibility is that people are draining me.

3.Given that the contents of the bottle was bright red, the contents could have represented debt. From that point there could be two meanings - either someone who owes me money isn't going to repay it; or someone is going to give me something that will eliminate my debt. Of course, the latter interpretation might be a little wishful thinking on my part!

In my current situation, any of those meanings could fit. They say that the 'feeling' associated with the dream in quite an important indication of its meaning. But in this instance the feeling is hard to match to any of the interpretations - I felt slightly surprised and amused at the grand gesture of returning the bottle when it was in fact, now empty. The people were unknown to me and they seemed to be very pleased with themselves for returning the bottle to me.

The dream could also imply that someone is giving me something they see of value but I'm not recognising the value.

Update: I was doing a little reading on Tao this morning when another possible interpretation came to me. In a way, Tao is all about the importance of emptiness (call it having a void, or silence or stillness within, if you prefer), suggesting that it is this emptiness that allows the right things to flow towards you; emptiness that allows you to be filled and to gain wisdom. Reading it gave me a valuable insight and a nice feeling of well-being. Perhaps the dream was a little synchronicity to go with the insight I was to find shortly after the dream - the value of the empty space.

Any thoughts? Have you had any similar dreams? If so, did you identify the meaning? Do share on the I Dreamed a Dream guest book below!

Jung's 'synchronicity' is a meaningful coincidence in which a psychic event (such as a thought or vision) corresponds to a physical event. In his book on synchronicity, Jung touches briefly on magic theory that suggests a correspondence between strong emotional desire and manifestation.

Magic (or Magick) spells generally use items that correspond with the desired outcome - for example, if it's money you seek, you would use items that are green, or gold or silver, rather than red, because of the strong association those colors have with money. Naturally, a spell involves thought and words as the spell caster petitions for their desire - so there is the potential for synchronicity to occur without the use of candles, colors, herbs, and other items. Perhaps the use of such items serve to strengthen the thoughts and desire of the spell caster and provide a clearer link between their thoughts and the desired outcome - bringing them closer to a result.

But where does the phase of the moon come into it? Magic practitioners suggest that certain spells should be conducted at certain times of the moon's phase. Again, correspondence is the factor at play here - if you want more of something, the spell is cast when the moon is waxing (growing) and if you want to rid yourself of something, the spell is cast on the waning moon or a new moon. Important spells can be cast during the full moon for added potency.

Correspondence seem to be central to play in magic, synchronicity and the Law of Attraction, with emotion and belief also playing a central role. Feng Shui has similarities too, particularly in regard to the correspondence of items with future outcomes.

If you're interested in the theory of Magic, here are some links to the Wikipedia pages to get you started.

Now if you're into the Law of Attraction and Synchronicity and you haven't heard of Robert Lanza and the theory of Biocentrism, you're in for a treat. Lanza is a US scientist who was at the forefront of stem cell research. He was also the first to clone an endangered species, and in 2003 he cloned one from the frozen skin cells of a zoo animal that had been dead for nearly 25 years - so he's a pretty switched on kind of a guy, which gives substantial credibility to his thoughts and theories!

Lanza points out what is becoming obvious to many thinkers - that life creates the universe it lives in, not the other way around. Here is just a small part of his explanation:

"A particle cannot be thought of as having any definite existence - either duration or a position in space - until we observe it. Until the mind sets the scaffolding of an object in place, an object cannot be thought of as being either here or there. Thus, quantum waves merely define the potential location a particle can occupy. A wave of probability isn't an event or a phenomenon, it is a description of the likelihood of an event or phenomenon occurring. Nothing happens until the event is actually observed. If you watch it go through the barrier, then the wave function collapses and the particle goes through one hole or the other. If you don't watch it, then the particle detectors will show that it can go through more than one hole at the same time."

Lanza's ideas are a very interesting reading indeed. His thinking is going down the same track as Jung's was. Lanza says we "generate spheres of reality, individual bubbles of existence." He suggests that only when we can accept that time and space exist only in our minds, will we proceed to greater understanding.

He's brave like Jung was too - he'll have a large proportion of the scientific community suggesting he's an idiot, which clearly he is not! Let's hope Lanza is right when he says "We are living through a profound shift in worldview".

Lanza's book on Biocentrism is available from Amazon.

Photo by WalkingGeek. Coutesy of Flickr.

How ironic! Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity came from a dream insight according to biographer Denis Brian in 'Einstein, A Life'. His revelation was not unlike Yung's thoughts, only it related to the physical world. Einstein woke understanding that "...events can only be regarded as simultaneous in one's own immediate environment." He apparently commented that "By a revision of the concept of simultaneity into a more malleable form, I thus arrived at the special theory of relativity."

According to Denis Brian, Einstein believed that ideas "came from God" although Einstein did not believe in a 'personal' God, but understood that ideas came from elsewhere.

It's interesting to note that Einstein dined with Carl Jung on at least one occasion.

How marvelous it would be if these two amazing men were with us today. With the information now available, these two would make some discoveries!

The biography 'Einstein, A Life' is well worth a read. It gives an insight into the mind of a genius. Like Jung, Einstein refused to rule out things considered scientifically impossible, because he understood that it impossibility was a human perception and not a universal law! See the Amazon links below for the biography, written by Denis Brian, and for Jung's books.

Jung suggested that the belief in the power of prayer may be based on experiences of synchronicities - prayers being answered, or appearing to positively influence a situation. But is it all really a matter of meaningful coincidence or something more powerful? If we look at the scriptures and texts of different religions, we can see that some state very clearly that thought and belief influence physical matters.

The Christian Bible for example, suggests that if a person has enough faith in the outcome, they could tell a mountain to move and it would do so. Interesting. There are plenty of references along the lines of "as a man believes in his heart, so he is" and that sort of thing.

I recently scanned through the Buddhist text "Understanding the Mind" written by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, and found the following on page 3:

"When we are awake many different things exist, but when we fall asleep they cease because the mind to which they appear ceases. During our dreams we become a dreamer, and at that time, the only things that appear are dream objects. Later, when we wake, these dream objects cease because the mind to which they appear ceases. Other than this there is no specific reason why they should cease. If we think deeply about this we shall understand how all phenomena are mere appearances to our mind, just like objects in a dream. Then we shall realize that we can cause all the unpleasant things that we dislike to cease simply by abandoning impure states of mind, and we can cause all the good things that we desire to arise simply by developing a pure mind. In this way we shall be able to fulfil all our wishes."

The Buddhist text mentioned is quite a complex book and I can't say I would recommend it to anyone who hasn't already familiarised themselves with Buddhist concepts and beliefs. I have a relative who is a practising Buddhist, which is how I came by the book - and even she was having difficulty with it. Regardless, I'll put the Amazon link to it below for the more academically minded.

I'm sure there are many more examples and I'll try to expand on this section after a little more research. I would also like to point out that in my mind, spirituality isn't exclusive to organised religion - I believe one can be spiritual without it.

Can you think of any other examples of religious writings indicating that beliefs and thoughts influence physical events? Please contribute to the guest book below!

Jung's book on synchronicity is so fascinating that I keep re-reading it hoping some new insight will emerge. This week I stopped in my tracks when I re-read one section. Perhaps I did not read it thoroughly on previous occasions but Jung almost seems to be suggesting that physical matter may have meaning attached to it. I'd better explain that!

Jung states that if a meaningful coincidence can't be explained as 'cause and effect' then the "connecting principle must lie in the equal significance of parallel events..." He goes on to remind us that we're so used to seeing 'meaning' as something in our psyche that we don't consider the possibility that it could exist "outside the psyche". He knows that the suggestion that meaning "might manifest itself simultaenously in the human psyche and in the arrangement of an external and independent event" would be shouted down by the majority of the scientific community - but he refuses to rule it out as a possibility.

Perhaps it's time to begin paying much more attention to what is going on in our psyche - it certainly seems as if it can sometimes mirror the circumstances we find ourselves in. Of course, the big question (for me anyway) is whether this is a two way flow. In other words, can your physical surroundings influence your psyche and your psyche influence the events around you? It's quite common for external circumstances to influence how a person thinks and feels, but can the way you think and feel change your external circumstances? The law of attraction fans certainly think so.

Assuming it works both ways, it clearly doesn't work all the time, or in all circumstances - otherwise the whole thing would be more obvious. Perhaps one day we'll work out exactly what circumstances bring about synchronicity.

I've found some really great lenses while looking around this morning. There's one in particular I'd like to share with you .Grannysage's lens "Words Have Power - Be Careful What You Wish For" tells the lens owner's story of wishing herself into a new job. She talks about the power of the spoken word and includes a fascinating segment on some research that was conducted with water. The research found that words uttered influenced the water molecules in a most fascinating way. I won't give too much away here - the lens is worth a visit so I've lensrolled it here. Visit and enjoy. Meanwhile, off I go to do some more reading about words and water...

Do we get what we think (or worry) about when it comes to our health? Can positive thinking, happiness and love aid recovery? Whether you call it synchronicity or the law of attraction, there are plenty of people who believe in the power of thought when it comes to staying healthy and recovering from illness. Believers come from inside and outside the medical and scientific communities.

US surgeon Bernie Siegal recognised a correspondence and went on to devote much of his life to spreading the word to the public via books on the subject.

There is plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest a link. Perhaps some of the best known of these connect laughter with recovery. There is the tale of Norman Cousins, who believed that laughter cured him of illness. He went on to write books on the topic. The laughter for healing movement- laughter therapy - remains in full swing.

But what is the connection? If watching comedy movies and laughing your head off can potentially cure you, is it the laughter or the fact that you are not focussed on your illness while doing so? If you don't believe cancer exists, or you don't ever think about it, can you get it? The problem is, we don't know what other people are thinking or worrying about so it's difficult for science to research these topics.

Do you have any experiences with thought and healing? Add your anecdotal evidence to the guestbook!

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