Edward E. Wilson

Synchronicity is like a layer of reality beneath the everyday surface that we interact with in our day to day state of mind.  Jung identified it as an acausal connecting principle between events that are not causally linked in material space/time. The normal experience of synchronicity is that of an irruption of meaning that manifests in reality through coincidental occurrences. The connecting principle is associative as events in space/time are experienced as connected by the human capability of pattern recognition. These associations tend to be highly symbolic revealing the mythic or archetypal nature of the synchronicity experience. They tend to be constructed of unconscious material at the border of the personal and collective.

The consistency and relative universality of the collective unconscious material makes the synchronicity symbolism function almost as a linguistic phenomenon, a conversation between the conscious mind and whatever intelligence it is that produces the synchronous. At times the experience may appear like a conspiracy between your unconscious and the universe. Recognizing the synchronous as, at least potentially, a conversation opens up a new type of experience of synchronicity. There is an opportunity for an active engagement with the synchronous.

Using the basic cybernetic principle that what you feed increases you can encourage synchronicity experiences by paying attention to those that you notice. If nothing else you will be training your brain to notice similar occurrences. As the synchronicities manifest themselves through coincidences, if you want to increase them you should create space in your life that the random or unexpected can happen. The more consistent and habit bound your existence is the harder it will be for the synchronous to break through to you.

One simple technique to create such space is known as the drift. When drifting, you go on a walk in which the route is not pre-planned. You select the direction to travel intuitively. This opens you up to experience things you wouldn’t normally. By choosing your route intuitively you also feed the synchronicities as they influence your path. As the synchronicities multiply in your life you will discover additional ways to interact with this layer of reality.

If you take up drifting, or even if you don’t, the synchronous experience will occasionally be accompanied by a physical object, sometimes natural other times something that has been discarded. You may feel that the appropriate action is to take this freely available object. If so and if it is safe and legal to do so, then I suggest you do so. These objects can be potent power objects or, at the very least, effective anchors of the mental states experienced.

Other times when faced with the synchronous you will get the urge to take some kind of action. Usually this action will be of a ritual or symbolic nature. Within bounds set by safety, legality, and your own common sense, I suggest you perform the action. Often later research has connected the action to traditional rituals related to the mythic content presented by the experience.

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