Thursday, February 12, 2009

Synchronicity


Do coincidences and accidental meetings occur for a purpose? That's the conclusion of the principle called "synchronicity." I first discovered the principle (originally developed by Carl Jung), when I saw the spirituality book The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield in my sister's bathroom reading pile. I had seen the book in stores, but never read it. I thought it strange that she had the book because neither she nor her husband are religious. So I got the book from my library and read it. I found the story (the book is in the form of a novel) engaging and the message interesting.

Since reading the book, I've tried to stay much more open to listening to "messages" from chance meetings and to understanding the opportunities they contain. Some of the messages have been powerful. One last summer - a chat with a good friend and neighbor - told me I should sell all my stock and keep it in cash for a while. 

Alas, I've also learned that getting messages and acting on them are two different things. Both being open to receiving messages and acting on them take work. (My friend sold his stock; I didn't.) Fortunately, the chance meetings and messages keep coming, as do the opportunities. The message of synchronicity seems somewhat related to Malcolm Gladwell's less mystical Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Oh, I asked my sister about the book I found on her bathroom pile. It turns out the book was a gift from a friend and she never read it. Was my finding the book there another example of a chance meeting, waiting for me to be open to its message?

8 comments:

  1. Unfortunately, we are in the same boat.

    I just read the letter from The Rotary Foundation to their Major Donors. It said that through the end of October 2008, the Foundation has experienced unrealized losses of more than US$140 million. It also said that fortunately their cash flows remain strong such that they have not had to liquidate any of their holdings and therefore realize losses. But, they are exploring all means of reducing expenses.

    At this point, I am refraining from buying bargains including stocks.

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  2. (The following is a message I received last year after the stock market crash.)

    The man who predicted the 1987 stock market crash and the fall of the Soviet Union is now forecasting revolution in America, food riots and tax rebellions - all within four years, while cautioning that putting food on the table will be a more pressing concern than buying Christmas gifts by 2012.

    Gerald Celente, the CEO of Trends Research Institute, is renowned for his accuracy in predicting future world and economic events, which will send a chill down your spine considering what he told Fox News this week.

    Celente says that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.

    "We're going to see the end of the retail Christmas….we're going to see a fundamental shift take place….putting food on the table is going to be more important that putting gifts under the Christmas tree," said Celente, adding that the situation would be "worse than the great depression".

    "America's going to go through a transition the likes of which no one is prepared for," said Celente, noting that people's refusal to acknowledge that America was even in a recession highlights how big a problem denial is in being ready for the true scale of the crisis.

    Celente says that by 2012 America will become an undeveloped nation, that there will be a revolution marked by food riots, squatter rebellions, tax revolts and job marches, and that holidays will be more about obtaining food, not gifts.

    Celente, who successfully predicted the 1997 Asian Currency Crisis, the subprime mortgage collapse and the massive devaluation of the U.S. dollar, told UPI in November last year that the following year would be known as "The Panic of 2008," adding that "giants (would) tumble to their deaths," which is exactly what we have witnessed with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and others. He also said that the dollar would eventually be devalued by as much as 90 per cent.

    The consequence of what we have seen unfold this year would lead to a lowering in living standards, Celente predicted a year ago, which is also being borne out by plummeting retail sales figures.

    The prospect of revolution was a concept echoed by a British Ministry of Defence report last year, which predicted that within 30 years, the growing gap between the super rich and the middle class, along with an urban underclass threatening social order would mean, "The world's middle classes might unite, using access to knowledge, resources and skills to shape transnational processes in their own class interest," and that, "The middle classes could become a revolutionary class."

    In a separate recent interview, Celente went further on the subject of revolution in America.

    "There will be a revolution in this country," he said. "It's not going to come yet, but it's going to come down the line and we're going to see a third party and this was the catalyst for it: the takeover of Washington, D. C., in broad daylight by Wall Street in this bloodless coup. And it will happen as conditions continue to worsen."

    "The first thing to do is organize with tax revolts. That's going to be the big one because people can't afford to pay more school tax, property tax, any kind of tax. You're going to start seeing those kinds of protests start to develop."

    "It's going to be very bleak. Very sad. And there is going to be a lot of homeless, the likes of which we have never seen before. Tent cities are already sprouting up around the country and we're going to see many more."

    "We're going to start seeing huge areas of vacant real estate and squatters living in them as well. It's going to be a picture the likes of which Americans are not going to be used to. It's going to come as a shock and with it, there's going to be a lot of crime. And the crime is going to be a lot worse than it was before because in the last 1929 Depression, people's minds weren't wrecked on all these modern drugs – over-the-counter drugs, or crystal meth or whatever it might be. So, you have a huge underclass of very desperate people with their minds chemically blown beyond anybody's comprehension."

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  3. If I had not met with Gina 25 years ago on a flight from Hong Kong to Beijing, my life would be totally different today. One year before that flight, a friend of Gina showed her a photo and tried to introduce a man to her while she was divorcing her husband, and she turned it down. She said the man on the photo looked like a Mafia. When she met me on that flight, she had absolutely no idea I was the man on that photo. I had never met Gina before also, not even had a chance to see her photo. Is this story qualified for the magic word synchronicity?

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  4. To me, it is a good example of symchronicity is a scientific way. In Chinese thinking it is FATE. You two are perfectly matched.

    I hope Gerald Celente's prediction is wrong. I bought some Alcoa couple of days ago, but it has been going down more. I will not sell but I better not buying any more stocks even at bargain prices.

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  5. The word yuanfen in Chinese is defined by Wikipedia as follows:

    In common usage the term can be defined as the "binding force" that links two persons together in any relationship. The concept of synchronicity from the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung can be seen as similar to yuánfèn, which Chinese people also believe to be a universal force governing the happening of things to some people at some places. Yuánfèn belongs to the family of concepts known in theology as determinism.

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  6. I think synchronicity is a little different from fate/determinism. Its principle is that one should stay open to receiving messages from those one encounters. Free choice is involved; one can chose not to talk to those around you, or not receive messages, or not act on them. There's also something very optimistic about The Celestine Prophecy's synchronicity: The universe is working to provide messages and opportunities to you. It's a very hopeful sense.

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  7. At first Gina turned down a chance, so it was fate that made them meet again on a flight and they took the second chance. I had chance over chance, and advice over advice telling me to sell my stocks but I just won't let go. If I have to be the poorest millionaire then it is fate, and so be it. I just hope that I won't become a refugee or a poor soul in a developing Country like what Celestine predicts. I just don't want to believe that all those blue chips can turn into nothing. If Roddy’s interpretation about synchronicity is correct, then really synchronicity doesn't mean anything to stubborn people. And whatever happens, we just call it fate. Do you understand my logic?

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  8. Should we listen to Gerald Celente? Yes. Should we believe what he said? No!

    When the oil was up to $145, these people predicted that it would reach $200. When it was down to $50, they predicted $30. When we had a stock market crash, they predicted that the USA would become a developing country......

    I heard these predictions all my life and I did not give a ......

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