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Okay, today I’m not in the mood to think too much or come to conclusions. So, I’m going to talk about the least conclusive subject that I know about and yet one of the most interesting I have ever heard about.

As I mentioned in my last post, I delved deeper into this concept in Jung’s books. I had heard the word synchronicity before during a meditation course, but I never really knew what they were talking about until I read Jung’s book specifically about this theme.

Funny thing is, sometimes I hear people commenting that Jung proved the existence of synchronicity. In reality, it’s not quite like that. What he demonstrated was that there are sequences of events so strange and so rare that they would deserve to be studied, when new experimentation technologies become available.

I think the biggest problem with psychoanalysis is precisely the lack of scientific instruments. And, maybe they will never exist. How would it be possible to look into a person’s unconscious mind and evaluate if they really mean what they are saying? How to assess the exact degree of happiness of one person and compare it with another? How to know if a person had any help from the Universe when they won the lottery? All of this is currently “measured” through scales in which the subject of study evaluates its own feelings. In other words, it’s extremely subjective and ambiguous.

Synchronicity is just one of those crazy things that we can say, “I don’t believe in ghosts, but I’m sure they do exist!”

The basic model that Jung tried to describe was that certain “coincidences” are so rare, but so rare that they must mean something.

For example, and the example needs to be long so that each probability is multiplied and the improbability of the fact appears:

It all starts with you being broke and needing to pay for a very expensive surgery for your mom. You are bitter because you have no way to get the money. Then, your friend shows up and asks you to lend him some money… You are broke, but still decide to help and lend him the money. Your friend uses the money to pay what he owes to the Caffe Bar down the street; the Caffe Bar owner didn’t have change and asked if he wanted to receive the change in candies, he accepted it. The next day, your friend went to his girlfriend’s house and brought the candies for her little brother. The little boy had gone to his grandfather’s house the previous week and had received a lottery ticket as payment for mowing the lawn. The little boy was so happy with the candies that he gave you a hug and “paid” you with the ticket that he had won. Then, when your friend was on his way back home, he saw you and came to chat. He told you about the candies and the lottery ticket. He said, “Well, since I was paid with this ticket, here it is, keep it, it is an advance of the money I borrowed from you yesterday!” He gave you the ticket and left laughing. The next morning, the draw takes place and you discover that the ticket is a winner!!! You became a millionaire!!! You can now effortlessly pay for your mother’s surgery…

The probability of all these events happening to bring the winning lottery ticket into your hands is so infinitesimal that many would say it would be impossible. But, it happens. This is the kind of coincidence that impressed Jung so much that he included the subject in his work. Is it the Universe communicating or just randomness? We don’t have the tools to affirm either one, it’s up to whichever you prefer 🙃

Now, I don’t think Jung would have even talked about this if it weren’t for Joseph Banks Rhine. Rhine was the first to attempt using the scientific method to study the paranormal.

Well, now you may agree that Jung was a bit of a hippie, right 😁. The research that inspired everything was one of those that could get into a movie. Rhine conducted experiments with college students. In this specific case, he wanted to test the extrasensory perception of the students. He got a deck of cards, and the students had to guess which figure would be on the card drawn from the top of the deck. He calculated the probability of success, and most of the students guessed correctly or incorrectly as expected.

He continued with the experiments until he found a student who had guessed correctly more than 90% of the cards drawn from the deck. The probability of this happening was so small that it could be considered impossible. This result alone would be impressive. But the experiments continued…

They thought that the student might be receiving some hints from the person drawing the cards. So, they put them in separate rooms… accuracy rate still above 90%.

They thought, “What if it’s the distance? Maybe he’s picking up some cue from the person in front of him or something like that.” They conducted a test over the phone, tens of miles apart… accuracy rate of over 90%.

They tested the factor of time, asking the student to guess which cards would be drawn from the deck the next day. Over 90% accuracy.

And they continued with many other scenarios. Those interested can take a look at the book on Synchronicity or search for Rhine’s experiment on the internet.

Can we call this scientific? The methodology was well-detailed, well-described, accurately reported. However, no one has ever been able to say how the student managed to guess so accurately, nor replicate the experiment with another person. Anyway, this impressed Jung so much that it motivated him to address the topic of synchronicity.

As I said, he didn’t prove anything. There’s no way to say whether synchronicity exists or not. Most of the time, you only see synchronicity after the fact. That moment when you look at everything that has happened in your life and have that realization: Wow, that’s why!

I used to be extremely skeptical about this topic, but I have noticed so much synchronicity in my own life that I no longer know what to think about it.

Today’s post will end somewhat unresolved. I really have nothing concrete to defend or refute synchronicity, but I can say that it makes for an amazing story, one that gives you goosebumps when someone tells it 🫢. As I said to you at the beginning, “I don’t believe in ghosts, but I’m sure they do exist 👻!!”.