The topic of synchronicity, or meaningful coincidences in the context of our lives, appears especially timely in 2015. On 11th November, a new film was simultaneously released around the world called Time is Art: Synchronicity and the collective dream. This took place one day before my public book launch for Synchronicity: Empower your life with the gift of coincidence, on 12th November in Geelong.
It seems striking that a concept developed by Carl Jung from 100 years ago, and something which he first published in the 1950’s, seems to be so currently relevant. In my view, this is because of increasing recent interest in further developing creative and intuitive modes of inquiry to understand the world, and to not be so restricted by an overemphasis on the rational. There is an increasing recognition of the need for more spiritual awareness, related to our sense of life purpose and meaning.
This does not need to be inconsistent with a scientific view, as I have described in previous Linked In blogs. After all, as Einstein said, religion without science is blind, but science without religion is lame. Our whole western education system including the field of psychology and cognitive-behavioural therapy, has at times been restricted by an overly empirical and rationalistic focus, ignoring aspects of life experience which are deeply meaningful to people. There is little current discussion in psychology and CBT about the soul. This is ironic, as the root term, psyche, relates to the soul. The term psychiatry means soul-doctoring, but there seems to be very little acknowledgement of considering the soul in modern psychiatry. There appears to be too much reductionistic emphasis on healing people’s ills using medication, much of which has precious little theoretical science justifying its application.
Increasing our awareness of and responsiveness to synchronicity can be a further window to the soul. Some uncanny happenings seem to give us a greater appreciation of our sense of connectedness to others, lead us to unexpectedly helpful ways of addressing a problem, or nudge us toward our perceived destiny. Repeated synchronistic experiences commonly feel like a “tick from the universe” that we are on the right track in the path we are pursuing.
Some of these, and related, themes are explored in a recent radio interview with Mitch Foy on Byron Bay FM, on Friday, 13th November (access via link below).
The book, Synchronicity: Empower your life with the gift of coincidence is now available in many bookstores in Australia, UK and US, but also can be pre-ordered or purchased online.
Chris Mackey is a Geelong-based clinical psychologist with 35 years’ psychotherapy experience and a Fellow of The Australian Psychological Society.