Synchronicity: Messages from the Universe?

Is the universe responsive to our thoughts and needs? Does a force beyond our comprehension—God, Source, Energy, or whatever you wish to call him, her, or it—send us messages?

Psychoanalyst Carl Jung formed the theory of synchronicity after treating a woman who had recurrent, disturbing dreams about a particular species of scarab beetle. The woman wasn’t making much therapeutic progress, but one day during a session, Jung heard a scratching at his window. Pulling back the curtain, he saw the exact kind of scarab beetle the woman had been describing—only the species wasn’t indigenous to the area. The woman was so impressed that she was finally able to get at the root of her problem. Jung began to speculate on the “non-random coincidence,” in which normal cause and effect doesn’t seem to be responsible for events.

Have you ever met someone from the past after thinking about him or her for no reason? Did he or she have some bit of information you needed to know? Has a song come on the radio (or a movie on TV) that was pertinent to some issue in your life? Have you ever taken a wrong turn in the car, only to find yourself somewhere that is more important than your original destination? Have you ever met someone on an airplane who had the exact same childhood experiences as you?

I once wrote a story that took place in Greenwich Village on Mercer Street. After finishing the story, I received a phone call—a wrong number—from Mercerville, New Jersey. There are about 5 billion telephones in the U.S., counting cell phones and company lines. A week later, I went to a bookstore to buy the Writers Digest Poet’s Market. The book was on the floor, open to the page listing a poetry journal published by Mercerville Community College in Mercerville, New Jersey. One of the poets listed as a past contributor to the journal had the same last name as a character in my story.

Quantum physics says that matter is influenced—or responsive—to the position of the observer. (It’s called Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle.) Physics also says everything is bound together by a single, unifying energy. It’s as if we’re all on a cosmic conference call, but we have to listen carefully to hear the right speaker.

I started keeping a journal of unusual coincidences in my life. Some seemed to point me in a certain direction, while others remained a mystery. My journal is still active.

Do we get messages from the universe? If you wish to test this hypothesis, simply get paper and pen and then start paying attention to the people, places, and things around you.

Picture: Public Domain