On Synchronicity, or Meaningful Coincidences
Synchronicity is a concept I knew nothing about before watching Hellier, a documentary show about a several years long investigation of Kentucky goblins and other strange events. According to the investigative team, synchronicity is what drew them to the investigation and provided an impetus to keep going, even as they faced challenges along the way. In fact, the word “synchronicity” is mentioned so often on the show that my friend and I once joked about turning it into a drinking game.
Hellier has renewed my interest in the paranormal and the weird, leading me to want to explore more about the concepts and books discussed. Diving into the concept of synchronicity and trying to better understand it seemed like a good place to start.
The term “synchronicity” was first coined by Dr. Carl Jung to describe the concept of meaningful coincidences. Inspired by classical Chinese texts (such as the Tao Te Ching), Gottfried Leibniz’s monadology, astrology, and quantum mechanics, Jung introduced the concept in the 1920s. Over his years of research, he continued to refine the concept and published a paper on the subject in 1952, titled Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle. This…
