What evidence can you find for synchronicity?
I could offer any variety of cool stories, but I don’t think
they qualify, one by one, as evidence for synchronicity. My background is in Western research,
and although I can see the problem with it and even rail on its shortcomings and narrowness, my paradigm has not yet shifted to such a degree that I would call
anecdotes “evidence” unless they were taken together and examined in some systematic way.
I could also, I am sure, offer some complicated scientific substantiation to support the existence of synchronicity – but I am not well enough versed in that science to do so at this time.
So I will just talk about the habit of synchronicity as evidence for its existence. I was listening to a podcast a week or two ago, and someone was talking about studies on self-described lucky and unlucky people. To sum it up really briefly, the unlucky people habitually honed in on the negative things that happened in a given situation, and the lucky people saw the positive. These researchers had the idea that ‘luck’ could be trained and went about working with people to do so. In a similar way, I think that synchronicity can be a frame of mind – people who practice noticing synchronous and serendipitous events end up experiencing more of them – like Renee and her lucky parking. Is the noticing just like a pair of (rose-colored) glasses? Or does it actually invite more "meaningful coincidences" into one's reality. (Does like attract like?) I suspect that it is a bit of both. Perhaps I'll try my own little synchronicity training experiment and report back at some point.
I could also, I am sure, offer some complicated scientific substantiation to support the existence of synchronicity – but I am not well enough versed in that science to do so at this time.
So I will just talk about the habit of synchronicity as evidence for its existence. I was listening to a podcast a week or two ago, and someone was talking about studies on self-described lucky and unlucky people. To sum it up really briefly, the unlucky people habitually honed in on the negative things that happened in a given situation, and the lucky people saw the positive. These researchers had the idea that ‘luck’ could be trained and went about working with people to do so. In a similar way, I think that synchronicity can be a frame of mind – people who practice noticing synchronous and serendipitous events end up experiencing more of them – like Renee and her lucky parking. Is the noticing just like a pair of (rose-colored) glasses? Or does it actually invite more "meaningful coincidences" into one's reality. (Does like attract like?) I suspect that it is a bit of both. Perhaps I'll try my own little synchronicity training experiment and report back at some point.
I was thinking just the same! Like how much do we fabricate synchronicity out of coincidence because it's desirable and makes us feel good to be connected to others or to have something other worldly to attribute something bad happening. While I don't want to be a pollyanna and see it all as in my favor, the idea of looking for the things that make me "lucky" does sound like it could be rewarding in the end. Hmmm. Food for thought. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteYeah, totally. The rose-colored glasses vs inviting more "meaningful coincidences" is potent: it's asks us to explore intentionality and underlying meanings of passive/dynamic. As I went to see a friend for breakfast yesterday I visualized myself with absolute clarity finding parking right in front of their house. This is in Berkeley at 10th & Heinz, never any parking super busy area... whammo, I got there and there was a spot right in front, the only one for what I could see all up and down the street. Timing, need, mindset? Also, I recall in the request for parking I let go of being attached to the outcome. Did the dynamism of yin/yang manifest? I just had to laugh.
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