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Post by Blu on Dec 2, 2004 16:32:34 GMT -5
You may have experienced a synchronicity and not had a name for it. If you have, you may have just thought of it as a coincidence. Usually it will occur in 2's or 3's, depending on how fast you catch on to the meaning! I am trying to think of an example, but I am not to good at this. But I bet I can find some cool links! Synchronicity: The Bridge between Matter and Mind and the Resurrection of Spirit in the World F. David Peat May 12-19 2005 (To see David Peat's Course on New Science/New Paradigms) Many of us have experienced a mysterious and inexplicable coincidence in our lives, an event that is charged with deep significance. Such true synchronicities are more than mere chance occurrences. They provide a bridge between inner and outer worlds, between our private thoughts and objective realities. Within a synchronicity patterns of external events and inexplicable occurrences mirror inner experience, and dreams and fantasies can flood over into the external world. To distinguish them from mere chance occurrences Carl Jung stressed that they are "meaningful coincidences", while James Joyce wrote of epiphanies, those moments of illumination when disparate events coalesce into a recognizable pattern. While synchronicities defy any rational explanation, in terms of causal links and connections, they nevertheless reveal to us an underlying world of patterns, forms and connections that transcend any division between the mental and the material. It is for this reason, this intimation of the transcendent, that synchronicities are so fascinating. Synchronicities can also function as transformative meeting points that occur at crucial periods in our lives. As a particular case study the meeting between Carl Jung and the physicist Wolfgang Pauli will be explored. In particular the way Pauli's dreams led him to explore the relationship between psyche and matter and a belief in the "resurrection of spirit within the world of matter". Many of us feel confined to a narrow world of logic and physical law, a world that admits no hint of mystery. We feel isolated within an indifferent universe and an increasing complex society whose members are reduced to ciphers. Synchronicities, by contrast, offer a doorway into a very different world. One that is more in keeping with the deep insights that have been offered, for example, by the new sciences. www.paricenter.com/programs/courses/synchronicity.php
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Post by Blu on Dec 2, 2004 16:38:56 GMT -5
You really have to read the whole article, I only posted part of it here!www.paricenter.com/library/papers/peat24.phpSynchronicity: The Speculum of Inscape and Landscape F. David Peat In exploring the notion of Synchronicity, that remarkable proposal of Carl Jung,1 I will be looking towards a liaison or bridge between two worlds. On the one hand we have the inner world of our direct experiences, of dreams and aspirations, memories and visions; the world of love and loss, of poetry, art, music and of spirituality. And, on the other, the world of matter and energy, the domain of physics and chemistry, the world of black holes, galaxies, elementary particles and quantum fields. And so, in speaking of Synchronicity, one asks if a bridge is possible between these worlds, between mind and body, between matter and spirit. Or perhaps one should go further by asking if the very way the question has been posed already exposes a fundamental fragmentation within our thinking. Are there indeed two such different worlds? Or are there simply two sides to the one reality, two reflections in the one speculum, two modes of experience? Is it perhaps the particular way of seeing and of thinking within our Western society, indeed the reflection of the language we speak, that causes us to speak in terms of two worlds and then to seek to erect a bridge between them. A number of important questions underlie these speculations:- Is the universe built out of what could be termed dead and indifferent matter? Are our lives no more than the result of chance processes? Is the cosmos devoid of all meaning? Or could it be that we inhabit a living universe, a universe that is filled with significance, a universe that is a home for humanity and, indeed, for all life? Are we, in effect, spectators or participators within the universe? Epiphanies Let me begin this exploration not with Jung's synchronicity but with the idea of an Epiphanie as proposed by the Irish writer James Joyce. Each one of us will have experienced, at some point in our lives, a moment of manifestation in which the world, our thoughts and memories, indeed everything becomes integrated and charged in a numinous fashion. It is as if the things around us, the significance of what we are about to do and the pattern of our life becomes unified within a field of meaning, a meaning that is at one and the same time universal, yet highly specific to the details of our own particular history and character. Probably the best known example from Joyce's own work occurs at the end of his short story The Dead (from his collection of stories Dubliners) Gabriel Conway sits in a hotel room late and night, watching the snow falling outside his window. Earlier that evening he had attended a reunion, a dinner and musical evening with old family friends. And now, back at the hotel, his wife has told him of her first love and of the death of the young man. His wife has fallen asleep and as Gabriel watches the snow fall he senses a connection to a much deeper pattern, to the pattern of the lives and deaths of his friends and relatives, to the death of a young lover, and to the snow, the snow that is falling over Dublin, over the countryside, over all of Ireland..... " His own identity was fading out into a grey impalpable world: the solid world itself, which these dead had one time reared and lived in, was dissolving and dwindling....His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead." 2 This sudden clarity of perception, this dissolution of the boundaries between inscape and landscape is also found in a passage from T.E. Lawrence ("Lawrence of Arabia") autobiographical account of his time in the desert. "We started off on one of those clear dawns that wake up the senses with the sun. For an hour or so, on such a morning, the sounds, scents and colors of the world struck man individually and directly, not filtered through or made typical by thought." 3 But perhaps the most celebrated and deeply explored series of epiphanies occurs in Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu as, for example, in the first volume Du cote de chez Swann in which the narrator bringing to his lips the tea sthingy containing a fragment of a "Petite Madeleine", is overtaken with an extraordinary sense of pleasure and joy which then causes him to enquire into the origin of these intense feelings and associations. I have begun with this idea of epiphany because, for me, it focuses upon what I feel to be the essence and the importance of synchronicity - that sense of a unifying pattern of meaning which brings together in a perfectly seamless way the unfolding movement of inner and outer events. Synchronicity The idea of synchronicity evolved after a long period of gestation, a time in which Jung appears to have been concerned not only with structure and dynamics of the unconscious but also with the nature of time and causality. Indeed, for a psychologist, Jung had many contacts with the leading physicists of the day, not only the well publicized collaboration with Wolfgang Pauli but also discussions and exchanges with Einstein, Heisenberg, Pascual Jordan and Markus Fierz. (It is unfortunate that our leading physicists of today are less open minded!) As for definitions of synchronicity, one can find the following within Jung's writings:- "meaningful coincidences" "acausal parallelisms" "creative acts" "the coincidence in time of two or more causally unrelated events which have the same or similar meaning." And as to my own reading of synchronicity it would be to emphasize the sense of pattern and meaning which dissolves the boundaries between inner and outer and transcends our normal orders of space, time and causality. Yes, certainly the idea of coincidence is present, if by coincidence we mean those events which cannot be accommodated into any conventional account of causal relationship. But I feel that an obsession with coincidence alone acts to shift our focus from the deeper sense of transcendent meaning that is equi-present in synchronicities and epiphanies.
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Post by Blu on Dec 2, 2004 16:50:25 GMT -5
www.paricenter.com/library/papers/peat26.phpTo read the whole article click on above link!Divine Contenders: Wolfgang Pauli and the Symmetry of the World F. David Peat This essay was originally published in Psychological Perspectives: A Semi-Annual Journal of Jungian Thought, Spring-Summer 1988 A few years ago while I was researching material for a book, Synchronicity: The Bridge between Matter and Mind, I had occasion to write to a well-known physicist and student of the great Wolfgang Pauli. "Synchronicity," came his reply, "is something which physicists do not know about, nor would they wish to." His implication was clear: synchronicity smelled of pseudo science and loose thinking, so why on earth would anyone choose to get mixed up with ideas like that? Scientists have not always exhibited such a hostile attitude toward Jung's notion of an acausal connecting principle. Jung himself, in a letter to Einstein's biographer Carl Seelig, related how he was introduced to the great physicist by one of Einstein's assistants, Ludwig Hopf. Einstein and Bleuler dined at Jung's house on a number of occasions, and the conversation turned to the physicist's early attempts at formulating the special theory of relativity. It was during these meetings that Jung first began to think about relativity of time and its psychic connections. Synchronicity, as a firm concept, did not really occur to Jung until around 1929. It is remarkable that the development of this idea a year later coincided with the appearance of a new patient, the brilliant young physicist, Wolfgang Pauli. The relationship that grew between Jung and Pauli is remarkable and well worth the telling, for it illustrates how scientists of that period were willing to entertain Jung's ideas about synchronicity, archetypes, and the collective unconscious, and even attempt to extend them into their own fields. That one of the creators of modern quantum theory was also deeply interested in Jung's ideas is not generally known, particularly amongst the scientific community. Indeed, I first learned of Pauli's interests while chatting with the Dutch physicist, George Uhlenbeck, shortly before a radio interview. We had been talking about Newton and his interest in alchemy as well as in the biblical books of Daniel and Revelations. "You would be surprised," Uhlenbeck told me, "but Pauli also had unorthodox interests. In fact, he probably thought more and has written more about such things than about physics, but they have never been published." It was only later, while reading Jung's Psychology and Alchemy, that I learned that Pauli was the author of a series of the remarkable dreams analyzed in that book.
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Post by Blu on Dec 2, 2004 17:40:13 GMT -5
This is an article in the Veneture Inward, not written by ME!Several years ago I discovered that when we need help, it is available from angels and spirit, and we find their gifts just by paying attention. By noticing. Twice within a year I received unexpected and surprising messages – gifts of synchronicity – that gave me reassurance and comfort at a time I most needed them. Both events centered around my mother. After Dad passed away, she suffered a series of small strokes that triggered the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. She worried a lot about making mistakes. I tried to reassure her, but it was difficult to alleviate her anxiety. She began to have trouble manipulating anything mechanical or technical, even her stove, telephone, and door locks. She was often confused and forgetful. We all (my brothers and my husband) agreed it was best to move her from Illinois to Dallas, where she would have full-time care at a nursing home. Although I had a busy counseling practice, I would be able to visit her daily. Over the years she lost her ability to walk and the use of one hand, then the other. It was disheartening to watch her steady decline, and to be able to do so little for her. Mother became depressed about her inability to do anything for herself or for others, and I was growing depressed myself. One Saturday afternoon I attended a lecture-discussion about the connection between science and spirit. Afterward, the guest speaker, a young psychic, told me he could see that I was a caring person with a great deal of empathy, but that this was becoming a problem – that I was taking on other people’s negative emotions. He was right. Besides my worry about Mom, I seemed to have forgotten how to leave my clients' problems at the office. The young man said that I would soon hear something that would help me if I listened. When I nodded, he repeated, “Really listen.” I nodded again. “I will.” A short time later I left, got into my car to drive to the nursing home, and turned on the radio. I heard a man's voice say, “Now listen to this.” That got my attention! Then a song, one I’d never heard before, filled the car. “If I Could,” by Regina Belle, related, in a powerful way, the message that we can't remove another's pain by taking it on ourselves. It was exactly what I needed to hear. I felt lighter, less burdened, and I thought the song had been a wonderful gift from my angel. “Thank you!” I said. Glancing at the radio dial, I made a mental note to tune in to that station again. The next afternoon, on the way to see Mom, I thought about how sad and worried I'd been the day before, and how the coincidence of hearing the word “listen“ from the young man at the meeting, then again in the car, focused my attention fully on the beautiful song that had calmed my troubled emotions. Even if it hadn’t been played especially for me, I thought, it had been a wonderful coincidence. Then I turned the radio on, and was jolted by the beginning notes of “If I Could.” The healing music filled the car once more. I laughed out loud: “OK, I get it.” On the way home I stopped at a store and bought the CD, so I could not only listen to the song whenever I wanted, but also share it with others. A few days later a new station occupied that spot on the dial. The other station was gone, right after I received a message I needed to hear – twice. That experience helped me cope with my concern for Mom. But a year later, as her condition worsened, it was hard for her to respond to the simplest questions or even to speak at all. Mother almost seemed to be disappearing, bit by bit. I was already grieving. I prayed for help. Not long after, a friend brought to my attention an A.R.E. research project on synchronicity. I decided to participate. I listened to the tapes and for three weeks wrote down any coincidences I noticed. I was stunned to see how many there were. It seemed as if every time I thought of getting in touch with someone, they would call immediately – a few of the callers were people I had not talked to in months. Coincidences popped up on the radio, TV, in the mail – everywhere. When I finished the study, I filled out the requested report and put it in an envelope for mailing. A week later it was still on my desk. I thought there must be a reason I had not yet sent it, and I left it there. The next morning I took a long walk, the whole time thinking about Mom's decline, pondering whether there was anything more we, her family, could do to help her. She had nearly lost the ability to communicate verbally. I finally admitted to myself that our relationship would never again be as it had been. I always treasured her wisdom and the example she set. Now she had to struggle to express even her most basic needs. She'd spent her whole life giving to others. It was time for us to take care of her. Although I had not, in word or actions, expressed my hope that she might, even briefly, be “herself” again, we were so tuned in to each other emotionally and spiritually, I knew she could feel how much I missed her "old" self. I let go. It left me feeling sad, but strangely relieved. Mother would sense this release of my need, and it would help her. Later that day, driving to work, I noticed a bank ad on a large billboard. It said “Success Is the Journey, Not the Destination.” Ten minutes later, walking down the hall to my office, I nearly ran into the open door of supply closet. Inside, facing me, was trash can with a bumper sticker across the front proclaiming: “Success Is in the Journey, Not the Destination.” Interesting coincidence, I thought. A couple of hours later, when a client told me about changes he wanted to make in his life, I said that was reminded of a saying. He interrupted. “Yes. Something like, Success is not the destination, but the journey. “ “You saw that bumper sticker too!” “No.” He didn't know what I was talking about. He had seen neither the bumper sticker nor the bank ad. He said, “I’ve been thinking about the importance of appreciating and learning from the struggles in life's journey, not wishing them away.” Mere coincidence, I thought. Driving home that evening, I shifted Dmy thoughts to dinner, and the paperwork I wanted to get done. When I walked into the kitchen, I dropped my purse and briefcase on the table, then noticed several pieces of notebook paper on the edge of the counter. Even without my reading glasses I recognized mother's Palmer Method handwriting. Since she hadn’t been able to read or write for some time as a result of the strokes, nor had she ever lived in our home, I wondered where the scraps of paper had come from. They hadn’t been there that morning. When I asked my husband later, he couldn't explain it either. I dug my glasses out of my purse, and saw four pages of notes, each written a month apart, 12 years earlier. The first page, dated December 5, riveted my attention. Mom began: “Thoughts while sitting, waiting in the dentist's chair: “There is a plaque on the wall that reads, ‘Dental health, like success, is not a destination but a continuous journey.’ I like to be observant of my surroundings.” I was shocked and thrilled. Each page was special. The second, dated January 1, described a bit of her childhood. ”I wake up this morning thinking of New Year’s day at home. Happy New Year was the good word of the morning. Everyone wanted to be first saying it. We had a small house but it was full of everyone talking – noise. I now wonder at the patience of my parents. Mother was always interested in all of the chatter. You had to talk loud and fast to be heard. One thing, life was never dull.” Reading this gave me a warm feeling about what a long, loving life Mom had. The third page, dated February 7, began like a journal entry, but at the end it seemed like a letter, as if Mom knew I would be reading it someday. ”Today we received a beautiful book that Marilyn wrote. Such pride and joy Dad and I felt, reminiscing about our daughter's birth, growth, and development. I remember the day she was born. It was hot as blazes. Dr. Hurd and his wife were at the theater and you were in a hurry to be born. The nurse told me to hold my breath! Wait for the doctor! When he arrived he rolled up his sleeves and said everything is all right. That's all I remember till I saw you. You were beautiful.” Finally, on March 10, Mom's birthday, she wrote: ”I'm 73 years old and am wondering where the time went. My wish is for health and the courage to grow old gracefully and happiness for all our dear family. Our children are our pride and joy and their children are so precious.” he message I received that day, over and over, about the importance of our journey, was so unusual, such an amazing coincidence, that it made Mother's notes even more meaningful to me. Because of the synchronicity project I had just completed, I had been paying more attention than usual to coincidences. I added a few lines to the A.R.E. report and dropped it in the mail. When I read those notes Mom had written 12 years earlier, I learned that can always benefit from her wisdom. Even after her death, at the age of 89, her love, blessings, and guidance continue to flow. Now, any time I feel anxious, worried, or discouraged, I remind myself to pay attention, to observe my surroundings. Gifts of serendipity from spirits and angels are all around us, waiting to be noticed. To read the entire article go to: www.edgarcayce.org/venture_inward/01022003/article.asp?ID=The_Gift_of_Synchronicity
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Post by Blu on Dec 2, 2004 18:02:27 GMT -5
Paying Attention to Signs Some people ignore these synchronistic things, but they are signs to remind you and guide you. Leaving Hong Kong, Steve Angona walked through the airport and broke his usual pattern of exchanging his foreign money or bringing it home for his kids. Instead he emptied his pockets into a children’s donation jar at the airport. Then the chemical engineer, who travels the world for his job, sat down to wait for his 13- hour flight home in coach class, the ticket he had to buy on his business budget. He pulled out some books on Edgar Cayce to fill the waiting time, a habit he began two years before. Then he heard his name called over the loudspeaker being asked to report to the ticket counter. He had been selected to be upgraded to first class. “I was shocked. I wondered, ‘Why me?’ I had been told that I couldn’t upgrade the ticket even if I wanted to pay for it myself,” Angona said. He had a fleeting glimpse of dumping his change into the children’s donation jar. At home in Florida, he continued to send a small amount of money to a woman in Colombia he and his wife met during the adoption of their daughter from that country. The woman, Martha, had been kind enough to share her modest home with them during the process. In August, Angona’s business partner called him about boat for sale that sounded perfect. It was just what Angona was looking for and for much less than he expected to pay. The name of the boat was the Santa Martha. “That’s the one. I know it,” Angona told his partner. Then Angona heard about another Colombian family in desperate need of help. Guerrillas had kidnapped the mother and were pulling her teeth out, one at a time, and sending them back to the family with ransom notes. The family sold their home, but still didn’t have enough to pay the ransom. Angona helped them out. Angona continued to read every book about Cayce he could get his hands on, then sent in his A.R.E. membership form in November. “I noticed that there were just too many things in my life that can’t be just coincidence,” he said, making the decision to look more deeply into the meaning of these occurrences. After six weeks, he began to wonder if his membership form was received, when he opened his mailbox to find his first copy of Venture Inward. As he started looking through the magazine, he wondered if there were any A.R.E. people near his home in Boca Raton. Browsing through the January/February issue, he read my column, titled “Living Proof, ” and found that I had recently moved to Boca Raton. He sent me a letter, via A.R.E. headquarters in Virginia Beach, saying that “this was too synchronistic not to tell you about it.” Angona’s letter was proof to me that my move, which had caused some consternation and doubt, as does any major life change, was the right decision. We are now in the same study group with some wonderful South Florida A.R.E. folks. Angona has found that being in a likeminded group has made his awareness of synchronicity greater and more frequent. In March, he was sending a small amount of money to the family in Colombia. He realized that in addition to paying a $23 Western Union fee to send the money, the agent on the other end took another 15 percent. “That’s taking a lot of money away from people who are desperate just for food,” Angona said. He wrote a letter about his concerns to Western Union, saying that if they couldn’t find some better agent to handle things in Colombia, he would contact the newspaper about what he saw as an extremely unjust situation. He realized that he didn’t know anyone at the newspaper to contact about the issue. The next morning he woke up and read an article about fees taking a big bite out of the money families send home to Latin American countries. He had a reporter’s name, e-mail, and phone number and made the contact. “Some people ignore these synchronistic things, but they are signs to remind you and guide you. “I take it as a sign that I’m doing the right thing in trying to help,” Angona said. “I think somebody else is trying to help me out. Somebody who can pull a lot of strings." Since meeting Angona, others who want to help have crossed my path. A single mom visiting Colombia met a shoeless boy who wants to be a doctor. She bought him shoes and made a commitment to have him go to college. A professor from Ireland who lived with war is devoting his life to creating peace through art, education, and music. A woman from Israel speaks out on politics and peace. I'm not sure yet how these people fit together, but as a writer, my job is to pay attention. These meetings are signs that somebody else is trying to help me out. Somebody who can pull a lot of strings. www.edgarcayce.org/venture_inward/05062002/transformed_lives.htm
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