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C. G. Jung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity
... Jung has been criticized for misunderstanding the nature of the higher states of consciousness (Sen, 1943(Sen, & 1952Jacobs, 1961;Krishna, 1975;Ajaya, 1983;Coward, 1985;Reynolds, 1989;Wilbur, 1990) as trance states (Guenther, 1975;Bishop, 1984), or states in which the ego is dissolved (Parker, 1967;Avens, 1980;Miyuki, in Spiegelman & Miyuki, 1985;Whitfield, 1992) with some attributing Jung's misunderstanding to the inadequacy of his psychological model (Welwood, 1989;Jones, 1989) with which he tried to reduce to psychological understanding what are essentially spiritual states (Jacobs, 1961;Ajaya, 1983;Coward, 1985;Reynolds, 1989;Wilbur, 1990;Aziz, 1990;Leon, 1998). ...
... It has been suggested that Jung might have been too ambivalent towards the Eastern traditions and to its living proponents the gurus, too vocal in his protestations of the appropriateness of Eastern methods for Westerners, too clinging to his own culture, philosophy, psychology, and methods, and too intent on developing his own way to allow the other enough space to speak for itself in the hermeneutical dialogue he sought to engage it in (Clarke, 1994). There have been suggestions that Jung's psychological constructs are inadequate for a proper understanding of Eastern concepts (Welwood, 1979;Jones, 1979) and that Jung, in attempting to understand the East through his psychological framework, engaged in psychological reductionism (or psychologism) of religious and spiritual experiences (Jacobs 1961;Krishna, 1975;Ajaya, 1983;Reynolds, 1989;Wilbur, 1990;Aziz, 1990;Samuels, 1992;Leon, 1998), something he has also been criticized in the West in relation to Christianity as well (Buber, 1957). ...
... Samuels (1992, p. 24) criticizes Jung for trying "to expand his role as a psychologist to the point where he could seem to regard the nation as an exclusively psychological fact to be observed solely from a psychological point of view." Aziz (1990) states that "it is one thing for Jung to say that he is solely concerned with the study of the phenomenology of religious experience, and yet another thing to assert that religious experience ultimately derives from the archetypal level of the psyche" (pp. 48-49). ...
The two primary objectives of this dissertation were (a) an exploration of the difficulty Jung had with Eastern claims of higher states of consciousness, and (b) an exploration of the opinion among some Advaita Vedanta schools that enlightenment cannot be achieved through intrapsychic means alone.
According to Advaita Vedanta, Jung's understanding of the ego as the only center of consciousness (self-awareness) and his difficulty in imagining other centers of consciousness in the psyche are understandable given the inherent tendency in the psyche to super-impose (adhyasa) the subject of all consciousness (the Brahman) on objects of consciousness such as the ego (the ahamkara). An analysis of Advaita Vedanta epistemology does not support Jung's criticism that Eastern epistemology lacks a basis in critical philosophy. Numerous accounts of personal experiences from the East as well as the West that meet Jung's criteria provide adequate empirical evidence for higher states of consciousness. More recent quantum physics theories challenge Jung's view that there is a limit to which the unconscious can be made conscious and support Advaita Vedanta's theory of the conscious nature of the substratum of the universe. Jung's primarily philosophical objection to higher states of consciousness appears to soften when faced with evidence of life after death, re-incarnation, and ego resolution in dreams.
Advaita Vedanta demonstrates a superior understanding of the nature and locus of consciousness in the psyche. Jung's superior understanding of relationships and
communications among levels of the psyche as archetypally driven offers Advaita Vedanta insight on how mediate knowledge for enlightenment could be attainted through intrapsychic means alone. Eastern theories of dreams lack the understanding that dreams could communicate compensatory knowledge from the self to the ego. Limited dream material is presented as evidence that mediate knowledge for enlightenment can be acquired intrapsychically through dreams.
The Jungian self is closer to Advaita Vedanta's Isvara than it is to the Brahman. Advaita Vedanta complements Jungian psychology with another level of self (the
Brahman) and another goal for human consciousness in moksa or enlightenment. Jungian psychology offers Advaita Vedanta the means for acquiring psychological as well as spiritual prerequisites for enlightenment.
... Although they have developed a theory that describes the events as "archetypal" in origin and "acausal" in character, they also maintain that, owing to the events' singular nature, they are decidedly not related to psi phenomena and cannot be subjected to experimental study. [4][5][6][7] To refi ne the synchronicity concept, post-Jungian authors, including Aziz, Mansfi eld, and others, such as Koestler, 8 have critiqued Jung's explication of synchronicity's inherently acausal nature for its vagueness and inconsistency. The core concern seems to be that while Jung continued to stress throughout his seminal synchronicity essay 9 that one can never predict when a synchronistic event will occur, the examples he cites of synchronicity seem to refute this purported quality of irregularity, namely: (a) the I Ching, a divinatory tool, which, Jung acknowledged, regularly yielded answers meaningful to the querent; 10 (b) extraordinary events experienced by people in whom an archetype had been charged with psychic energy; and the anomalous results observed in (c) Rhine's psi experiments; 3 and (d) Jung's own astrology study described in the essay. ...
... post-Jungians, most notably Aziz 4 and Mansfield, 6 to amplify the role of meaningfulness in a synchronistic event -possibly beyond what Jung had intended -to the point of conflating it with the teleological process they believe energizes every psyche's individuation. This conflation has led these Jungians to posit that, although synchronicities do not involve "some force, energy, or information traveling from one well-defined object to another," 16 they nevertheless arise to specifically serve the growth and development of the psyche (primarily through the mechanism of compensation), and so could be said to be caused in the final sense -an idea specifically rejected by Jung as an overreaching of the concept of causality. ...
... Using an experimental method to investigate AMMCs represents an unequivocal divergence from Jung's seminal theory on synchronicity, especially as it has evolved among the abovementioned post-Jungians. [4][5][6][7] Nevertheless, in his synchronicity essay 9 Jung did not, in fact, categorically dismiss the experimental method's effectiveness in observing "certain regularities and … constant factors," which he admitted seemed to characterize the anomalous effects (such as telepathy) that Rhine studied in his famous 1953 psi experiments. 3 Jung claimed he saw the operation of activated archetypes operating in psi experiments where it was shown to his satisfaction that the level of interest of the participants was directly related to their success: "Lack of interest and boredom are negative factors; enthusiasm, positive expectation, hope and belief in the possibility of ESP make for good results and seem to be the real conditions which determine whether there are going to be any results at all." 35 Even while admitting such phenomena were not only experimentally reproducible but "not unusual occurrences at all," 36 Jung nevertheless distinguished them from synchronistic events per se by defi ning them as instances of acausal orderedness; under this expanded concept synchronistic events were considered one particular (but not experimentally reproducible) example of this phenomenon. ...
... After familiarizing herself with the world around her, she moves to express her thoughts and feeling freely "free! Body and soul free " (2). Mrs. Mallard reaches the climax when she starts to evaluate her marriage and "Love, the unsolved mystery, ... [that cannot] face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being! ...
... Mrs. Mallard reaches the climax when she starts to evaluate her marriage and "Love, the unsolved mystery, ... [that cannot] face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being! " (2). She starts to control herself and decide what she wants. ...
Kate Chopin a famous female writer who wrote about the domestic oppression of woman. She stood up for woman rights through her controversial works. Her works were greatly criticized in her time period. In 1800's the cultural norm was for woman feel tremendously grievous, and distraught over the death of her husband. Because woman’s worth based on who she was married to. The Story of an Hour, Chopin shows us a social situation of times with the woman as prisoner of her husband and the independence was a forbidden pleasure for her. She mentioned that Mrs. Mallards was trapped in her marriage she is coerced by her society to marry despite what she wants to do in her heart and soul. This story of a woman who finds out of her husband has died in an accident, she reacts in sadness at first but then realizes in a rush of emotion and relief that she is free body and soul. Chopin uses special forms of imagery which reveal the psychological strains of someone who is underrated by s social expectations. She shows the gradual transformation from a grieving, repressed wife to a free woman with new mood.
... anthropology, theology, and also in laypeople. It can be said that his psychology had a major influence on culture and sciences in the 20 th century (Atmanspacher, 2014) and laid the foundations for the development of transpersonal psychologies in the broadest sense (Washburn 1994;Aziz 1990). ...
... Jung's synchronicity theory has become an important explanatory model in parapsychology and consciousness studies (Tart, 1981;Aziz, 1990). It has to be noted, though, that his ideas were also misused in New Age ideologies and esoteric circles, in the sense that healing and wholeness are easily to be reached. ...
The aim of this article is to give an introduction to the theoretical model of Jungian psychotherapy (JP) and the role of spirituality in it, with a special focus on the concept of synchronicity (meaningful coincidences), by which the application of a spiritual viewpoint in JP will be exemplified. The paper gives an overview of the empirical studies of the effectiveness of JP and then focuses on the results of an empirical study on the occurrence of synchronistic events in psychotherapy and how they are integrated in the therapeutic process. JP can be called the prototype of a spiritually integrated psychotherapy, since Jung was the first in the development of psychotherapy who put a strong emphasis on a spiritual perspective and who succeeded to integrate spirituality into his psychotherapy approach with a coherent theoretical model in the background. Moreover, Jung's psychology became a major reference point for many other spiritual psychotherapy approaches which developed in the twentieth century. Regarding the studies on the effectiveness of JP it can be said that there is some empirical support pointing to the effectiveness of JP, but there is a strong need for further research, especially with randomized controlled trial designs. The paper presents the results of a study investigating how psychotherapists integrate synchronistic experiences and make use of these to support the therapeutic process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
... Архетипи спонтанно з'являються в пам'яті, особливо на кризових етапах життєдіяльності індивіда. Отже, будь-яка невизначена ситуація або ризик, який загрожує людині, «відкриває двері» у колективне несвідоме й дозволяє архетипам виразити ті глибинні аспекти особистості, які у звичайних умовах ховаються за свідомими процесами [13]. ...
... Авторам У. Леєром і X. Томе вдалося виділити чотири узагальнених типи особистостей, які в ситуаціях невизначеності та ризику по-різному планують своє майбутнє [13]. ...
... Contributing to this body of research using an analytical and scientific approach are publications by Mansfield (1995Mansfield ( , 2002, Storm (2008), and Haule (2011). Mansfield (1995; tended to the religious associations with synchronicity and authors such as Aziz (1990;) offered a psychotherapeutic perspective. Some studies have estimated that 22-84% of the population have reported at least one experience of synchronicity (Fach et al., 2013) and as such, these experiences can positively affect psychotherapy results (Beitman, Celebi, and Coleman, 2009). ...
... Acknowledging that inner and outer events can be related acausally led to the notion that meaning exists as an objective principle in nature (Jung and Pauli, 1952). The meaning that is derived from synchronistic experiences is a transcendental objective meaning that occurs within nature itself (Aziz, 1990). This insight can reveal a higher-level structure to reality and locates the individual as part of the very fabric in which nature is organised. ...
When concepts are too complex to grasp using a reductionist approach, they can be labelled as superstitious ideas or not worthy of scientific consideration. This article is an exploration of the transformative implications of noticing and deriving meaning from these so called ‘superstitious’ experiences that often test our notion of common sense. Aiming to address some of the difficulties around the perceived mystical nature of synchronicity, it is hoped that this paper may contribute to a more objective and scientific grounding on the subject. It is asserted that the experience of synchronicity can transform our accepted and limiting boundaries between what is and what can be, guiding us towards a more meaningful lived experience, that lays the foundation for the emergence of the Self.
The theory of Meaningful Mutations of the Psyche is a theoretical framework that describes a five-stage process initiating from the inexplicable experience of our inner and outer worlds merging together in a meaningful way, and the linear trajectory towards psychological evolution and objective, positive outcomes. Just as conversations on the matter of synchronicity were brought to life through a syncretic approach, this paper aims to draw upon a synthesis of perspectives to make the argument for why the phenomenology of meaningful coincidences should be accepted as a relevant and significant component of positive psychology, especially within what could be an emerging third wave.
Key words: Synchronicity; Meaningful Coincidence; Carl Jung; Acausal; Emergence of the Self; Peak Experience; Numinous Experience; Awe; Serendipity; Positive Emotions; Non Locality; Patterns; Circles; Destiny
... Jung's main essay on synchronicity (1952b) draws on a variety of disciplines and perspectives: mainstream sciences such as physics and biology; newer or aspiring enough to detect or extrapolate. Among subsequent commentators the religious implications are especially addressed by Aziz (1990Aziz ( , 2007, Mansfield (1995Mansfield ( , 2002, and Main (2004Main ( , 2007a. Some of the works of these authors focus almost exclusively on religion and spirituality (Main, 2007a), sometimes with a psychotherapeutic inflection (Aziz, 1990(Aziz, , 2007. ...
... Among subsequent commentators the religious implications are especially addressed by Aziz (1990Aziz ( , 2007, Mansfield (1995Mansfield ( , 2002, and Main (2004Main ( , 2007a. Some of the works of these authors focus almost exclusively on religion and spirituality (Main, 2007a), sometimes with a psychotherapeutic inflection (Aziz, 1990(Aziz, , 2007. Others specifically address the dual religious and scientific influences on and significance of the concept of synchronicity (Mansfield, 1995(Mansfield, , 2002Main, 2004). ...
Since C.G. Jung's (1875–1961) death fifty years ago the majority of work on synchronicity has concentrated, like Jung's, either on the connections of the concept to science, religion, and the relationship between science and religion, or, more fully than Jung's, on the clinical implications of the concept. However, Jung also hinted at important social and cultural implications of synchronicity that so far have been little explored. The present paper looks at synchronicity in relation to disenchantment – a theme that connects to both science-religion debates and sociological and cultural debates. Using as a reference point Charles Taylor's characterisation in A secular age (2007) of the transformations that led from the enchanted, pre-modern world to the disenchanted, modern world, the paper considers the extent to which Jung's concept of synchronicity contributes to a re-enchantment of the world. It concludes that the re-enchantment is substantial but avowedly partial, for Jung was attempting not, impossibly, to return to pre-modernity but rather to transform modernity by retrieving important aspects of the pre-modern.
... However, the clause of simultaneity has been criticized. For example, Aziz (1990) and Main (2007) suggested that Jung's emphasis on simultaneity is misleading since, in several instances, Jung himself provided examples of synchronicity where simultaneity is not a necessary feature. Main (2007) has noted that simultaneity might lead to increased clarity and understanding of meaningful correspondence. ...
Recent years have seen an increased interest in journal articles and books on the topic of synchronicity. Such scholarly interest is consistent with increased cultural attention given to synchronicity and changes to the social context in which spirituality thrives as a personal search for meaning, which may or may not relate to religion. Based on a review of the extant literature on synchronicity, this paper proposes a new taxonomy for better understanding and analyzing the growing phenomenon of individual and cultural interest in synchronicity. The taxonomy consists of four dimensions of synchronicity: Context, Process, Content, and Explanation. The primary contributions of this paper are (a) description and definition of the concept of synchronicity, (b) preliminary proposal of a taxonomy of synchronicity, and (c) outline of a research agenda to conduct theory-based studies of synchronicity phenomena.
... If we take a synchronicity approach however we do not attempt at identifying a business case for but argue for the existence of a fundamental and inalienable utility in togetherness and coexistence of people (Cambray & Rosen, 2009). Acausal coexistence which is inherent in synchronicity (Aziz, 1990;Roehlke, 1988) combats the essentialist tendency of intersectional analyses that forces it garner evidence for business benefits of multiple forms of diversity which causes precarity for intersectional interventions as the business case arguments merely work for some categories under certain conditions and at certain times. The planned and essentializing properties of intersectional analyses makes it vulnerable and precarious when diversity and inclusion are contested by business rationales and when intersectional encounters cannot be planned. ...
This chapter explores the three challenges of intersectional analyses and offers three corresponding alternative approaches in order to transcend these challenges. First, we explore the challenge of individualisation of diversity. We introduce the institutional approach to intersectionality in order to overcome the individualisation of intersectionality. Second, we identify the challenge of operationalisation of intersectionality. We identify that intersectionality should be operationalised as a relational and multilevel construct at micro, meso and macro levels. Third, the challenge of essentialism is explored. In order to combat essentialist tendency of intersectional analyses we suggest synchronicity which focuses on the value of coexistence rather than the pursuit of utility in supposedly essential qualities of difference among people.
... The idea that people can have revelatory experiences of synchronicity has been echoed by several subsequent researchers and thinkers (e.g., Aziz, 1990;Hardy, 1979;Main, 2007;Mansfield, 1995;Sacco, 2016). Does synchronicity manifest as an objective feature of the physical world? ...
Fibonacci time patterns may predict future synchronicity experiences (SEs) by forecasting nonlinear dynamical interactions. This study examined if there were differences between observed distributions of SEs matching Fibonacci time patterns compared to expected distributions based on chance. An online survey link was e-mailed to a random sample of Jungian analysts drawn from membership lists of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP). Two experiments tested the hypothesis that Fibonacci algorithms would predict increased SEs compared to chance. The two Fibonacci algorithms studied were a golden section model (GSM) and harmonic model (HM). Participants reported a total of 41 synchronicities. Statistical analysis showed a significant difference (p < .10) between observed synchronicity matches and expected frequencies based on chance for the HM algorithm, and no significant difference in matches predicted by the GSM algorithm. Synchronicity dynamics showed a predictability range between ±34 days. The article discusses, among other issues, what these findings might mean for theoretical explanations of synchronicity and clinical practice.
... There is a need for more meaningful rituals. Aziz (1990) presents C.G. Jung's view as the forerunner of ritual in the western psychological tradition, who refers to the preoccupation of ritual with archetypes which helps to free the individual from isolation and restore wholeness. ...
... There is a need for more meaningful rituals. Aziz (1990) presents C.G. Jung's view as the forerunner of ritual in the western psychological tradition, who refers to the preoccupation of ritual with archetypes which helps to free the individual from isolation and restore wholeness. ...
... There is a need for more meaningful rituals. Aziz (1990) presents C.G. Jung's view as the forerunner of ritual in the western psychological tradition, who refers to the preoccupation of ritual with archetypes which helps to free the individual from isolation and restore wholeness. ...
... 33). Aziz (1990) proposed that Jung's writings on synchronicity show that "the individuation process extends beyond the psychological realm and assumes the character of a drama that takes the whole of nature for its stage" (p. 165). ...
As a Romantic poet who was especially interested in the workings of the mind, Coleridge,
in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, has dealt with notions, ideas, and images that lend
themselves to a Jungian reading, specifically from the perspective of the principle of
synchronicity which is to be the focus of this analysis. The theory of synchronicity, being
the principle explaining the concurrence of psychic states and external events which bear no
causal relationship, could be employed to bring up a novel interpretation of the poem. The
causally unrelated but meaningful succession of events in the course of the poem, finding
expression through the archetypes, helps the Mariner get a deeper insight into the universe
and further his movement in the process of individuation—the quest for self-realization. The
synchronistic events of the poem take place on a bed of poetic expressions of the primordial
images mediating between the Mariner’s psyche and the world outside, resulting in his inner
growth through the process of individuation, wherein, the Mariner comes to the realization
that nature and he form an inseparable part of a greater system which is unified through the
flow of an invisible spirit—the collective unconscious.
... Jung's approach to religious experience was complex and continued to develop over his lifetime. In C. G. Jung's Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity, 29 Robert Aziz classifies the religious or spiritual aspects of Jung's psychology into two models: the intrapsychic model and the synchronistic model. Aziz argues that Jung's intrapsychic approach to religious experience does reduce religious experiences to psychological experiences, as evidenced by statements like this one by Jung: ...
... However, this whole line of criticism does not stand up, if the meaning of extraversion is comprehended in light of Jung's late work. As Aziz (1990) states: 'Here, then, with this very significant theoretical step [recognition of the unus mundus], we are indeed carried beyond the projectionism of Jung's strictly intrapsychic model and find ourselves face to face with that transcendent "Thou", the transcendent "Reality" to which Buber referred ' (p. 180). ...
The significance of Jung's notion of synchronicity and its place in the wider scheme of his psychology is readily underestimated. In this paper, the author suggests that the shift heralded by the emergence of the synchronistic paradigm can be understood as a response to theoretical tensions that can be traced throughout Jung's career. These tensions are reflective of the Cartesian assumptions upon which Jung grounded his ideas about typology. By examining the theoretical development of the attitudes of consciousness, the author argues for the necessity of the synchronistic paradigm in establishing coherence in Jung's psychology.
... "The eastern word for non-causality is tao," he said, "and we know that tao can be anything; I call it synchronicity." 5 He first used this word, he says, in his tribute to Richard Wilhelm in 1930. Here is an example of Jung's synchronicity. ...
This paper developed from a series of lectures and seminars given in London and Cambridge, England, in early 1999 and takes into consideration participants' comments. In it, Dr. Karcher looks at the connection between Jung's psychology and the Chinese oracle book called I ChingorYijing,usually translated as Classic of Change.This connection centers on a mysterious symbolic awareness that Chinese philosophers call tao or way. This symbolic awareness involved both Jung and his psychology in a very special “orientation,” a Journey to the East.
... For a well-researched case against the use of 'New Age' as an umbrella term and against identifying the 'New Age' as a movement, see Sutcliffe (2003). 4 For critical discussion of Jung's theory of synchronicity, see Aziz (1990), Mansfield (1995) and Main (2004). ...
Journal of Alternative Spiritualities and New Age Studies 8 New Age thinking in the light of CG Jung's theory of synchronicity 1 Roderick Main The existence of important connections between Jungian psychology and New Age thinking is widely recognised, even though the precise historical relationship between the two fields is not always clear. The present paper examines a selection of prominent New Age themes in the light of Jung's late theory of synchronicity (meaningful acausal connection). The selected themes are the attempt to integrate religion and science; the notion of correspondences in revived practices of magic and divination; the assumptions of holism and an interconnected universe; the re-enchantment of nature; the desire for direct spiritual experience; the location of authority in a spiritual self; and the loss of objective symbolism and mystery. Through explicating these thematic connections the paper aims to enrich understanding of the conceptual and historical contexts of New Age thinking.
... vidual's journey toward growth, individuation, and transformation (Jung, 1952;Keutzer, 1984). Furthermore, synchronicity may serve compensatory functions by alerting one to unintegrated areas of the self, where consciousness is low, or by invoking connections with the numinous that is manifested through the archetypal foundation of the synchronistic event (Aziz, 1990;Edinger, 1972;Samuels, 1985;Young-Eisendrath & Dawson, 1997). ...
Within analytic and psychoanalytic psychotherapies, the unconscious process and communication between patient and psychotherapist is central to the therapeutic work. Unconscious communication may manifest in a variety of ways including through synchronicity. Synchronicity is an acausal yet meaningful connection between an internal mental object and an external event originally described by Carl Jung and his contemporaries. Previous literature has discussed the relationship between synchronicity and psychotherapy but there has been limited attention to synchronistic events linking the patient and psychotherapist. Relational viewpoints that emphasize the therapeutic dyad and the creation of meaning in the therapeutic context provide a contemporary framework for understanding and utilizing synchronicity as it surfaces in psychotherapy. Concepts from psychoanalytic psychotherapy including intersubjectivity, the therapeutic container, transference, and countertransference are explored in relation to synchronicity. Guidance for integrating and utilizing synchronicity in relationally oriented psychotherapy is provided. A clinical case study is presented to illustrate these ideas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... of the other examples of this trend of growing scientific interest in human subjectivity is the revival of the Jungian approach to psychotherapy (Aziz, 1990). For a long time, Jungian psychology was not taught at major universities and training programs. ...
For almost three hundred years since its birth in the seventeenth century, modern science did not have an epistemologically legitimate space for the study of religion. The study of religion did not fit into the positivist perspective of modern science based on the notions of truth and certitude. Social and human sciences, particularly medicine, psychology, and psychiatry, under the veil of positivism, did not regard religion as a serious topic for scientific investigation. However, there is a new conception of science today. In the new conception, Heisenburg's principle of uncertainty is basic to human knowledge. Human knowledge now is seen as inherently limited, uncertain, and probabilistic. This new notion of science has created a new era of relations between science and religion. In medicine and psychiatry, there is growing today a new movement for the scientific study of the relevance of religion and spirituality in health and healing. There is growing an epistemologically legitimate space within medicine and psychiatry for serious investigation of the role of human subjectivity. This new epistemological turn, however, is also socially constructed in the context of postmodern discourses on the limits of human rationality and the role of subjectivity in the construction of human knowledge.
... The second reason for us to be interested in the depths of depth psychology concerns the biographical and autobiographical. Depth psychology increases our capacity to understand and respect the psychological experiences common to the lives of the talented and gifted, namely those heights and depths of mood, inspirations, dreams, oceanic and transcendent moments, insights, intuitions, spiritual visitations (Aziz, 1990), the slings and arrows of outrageous mental states, even unto bouts of unexplainable somatic symptoms, of mental illness, of compulsiveness, hyperdriven self-destructiveness, bipolar disorder and suicide attempts (Piirto, 1998a(Piirto, , 2002(Piirto, , 2004(Piirto, , 2005. In our test-driven and socially constructed definitions of who is or who is not gifted and talented, we lose sight of the mystery of exceptionality in people. ...
While the field of gifted education has relied on educational, cognitive, counseling, behavioral, developmental, and social psychology, the domain of depth psychology offers special insights into giftedness, especially with regard to individuation. The notion of passion, or the thorn (J. M. Piirto, 1999, 2002), the incurable mad spot (F. C. Reynolds1997, 2001), the acorn (J. Hillman, 1996, 1999), the daimon (C. G. Jung, 1965); the importance of integration through the arts and through dreams; the existence of the collective unconscious; the presence of archetypes; and the transcendent psyche—all have resonance with the binary etymological idea of "gift" as both blessing and poison. Depth psychology offers a way of understanding that is physical, psychological, and spiritual. F. Christopher Reynoldsis a teacher and singer-songwriter. He teaches French and creativity in Berea public schools and creativity studies for teachers of the gifted as an adjunct professor at Ashland University. He specializes in creativity, spirituality and culture. He has released 13 original CDs and tapes and is the founder of the Urrealist art movement (www.urrealist.com).
Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung had a lifelong interest in the I Ching after discovering it in 1919. Jung’s interest in the I Ching is arguably more practical than purely theoretical or intellectual, and references to I Ching divination appear frequently in his various publications, seminars, letters and clinical practice records. After a few observations on the history of the study of the I Ching in China, the author categorizes Jung’s three uses of the I Ching as physical use (to preview future potentials of outer reality), psychological use (to reveal one’s psychological state), and psychical approach (to engage with the divine through “神”[“shen”, spiritual agencies]). Finally, the author discusses the current Jungian engagement by demonstrating clinical cases in contemporary times. Some Jungian analysts practise I Ching divination to obtain insights into the physical and psychological state of therapeutic relationships and for personal development. This paper is a historical and critical engagement of the Jungian practice of I Ching divination.
This article is a survey of psychological and scientific developments following upon C. G. Jung’s stunning theory of synchronicity. Attention is given to the nonlocally entangled worlds of psychotherapy, theoretical physics, number theory and sacred geometry, laboratory research in human psychic abilities, and the spiritual implications of humanity’s current stage of collective consciousness. In the course of the article, the author raises questions to help readers define for themselves what might be the right use of these extraordinary human abilities. The author’s lifetime experience as a professional esotericist and psychic reader informs her work. A bibliography and list of resources are offered to support readers in their personal explorations.
In the mid 20th century, the physicist Wolfgang Pauli and the psychologist Carl Gustav Jung proposed a conceptual framework, not more than speculative at the time, which may help us to clarify psychophysical phenomena beyond what our knowledge about the mental and the physical in separation are capable of achieving. Their conjecture of a Dual-Aspect Monism, with a complementary relationship between mental and material aspects of an underlying, psychophysically neutral reality, is subtler and more sophisticated than many other attempts to discuss the problem of how mind and matter are related to one another.
El desarrollo de este trabajo se centra en el estudio de la Segunda Parte del volumen II de las Obras Completas de Jung, que lleva por título “Acerca de la psicología de la religión occidental y de la religión oriental”, publicado en su traducción castellana en 2008. En este volumen, se recogen seis interesantes estudios de Jung sobre algunos textos y tradiciones de la India y de China, que representan un ejemplo excepcional del encuentro de un occidental con las sabidurías de Oriente. En concreto, la lectura de textos orientales le ofrece a Jung el apoyo de tradiciones milenarias, de doctrinas muy sutiles y elaboradas, y de métodos privilegiados de toma de conciencia con los que miles y miles de individuos han intentado, a lo largo de los siglos, alcanzar un cada vez mayor conocimiento de sí y estados de superación cada vez más altos de sus limitaciones materiales y ordinarias, en contraste con los diferentes métodos psicológicos, psicoanalíticos y espirituales que han sido propios de la tradición occidental.[1] Cfr. Jung, C.G., Acerca de la Psicología de la religión occidental y de la religión oriental: Obras Completas II, Madrid, Trotta, 2008, Segunda parte.
The psychological framework of Swiss psychiatrist C.G. Jung offers a dynamic system approach to understanding the complex concepts of ego identity and personal transformation. It also offers a compelling conception of meaning associated with the phenomenon of synchronicity with ramifications for individuals and organizations. Organizational dynamics are notoriously messy and complex and require approaches that recognize the interconnectedness and interrelationships of the nested systems inherent to human situations. Synchronicity and objective meaning are phenomena that are best understood within a much larger psychological framework. Leveraging Jung’s perspective as a foundational framework for organizational transformation yields insight and value because it incorporates within its paradigm a fuller spectrum of reality in which human systems occur. Specifically, a Jungian understanding of organizational structures includes what is visible and invisible, conscious and unconscious, and individual and collective.
"Synchronicity, Intentionality, and Archetypal Meaning in Therapy" addresses the frequent occurrences of synchronicity in psychotherapy and their potential influence on the therapeutic relationship. Such synchronicities can take the form of biographical parallels, shared dreams and images, and striking astrological correlations, with a specific focus on the first session, marking the initiation of the therapeutic relationship. The research was based on interviews with thirty therapists. The presented case examples demonstrate how the observed synchronistic connections generated for the therapeutic couple a greater sense of connection, efficacy, growth, and healing, with often a profound sense of a greater intentionality informing the shared process of transformation.
This paper explores connections between the psychic anthropology of C. G. Jung and that of Maximus the Confessor, a 7th-century Eastern Christian philosopher. Both saw the ability to fully bear one’s experiences without avoidance through fantasy as a key to human health and the target of therapy. Maximus understood avoidance of experience as a partly conscious turning of the self away from God in order to create fantastic fields of control, and Jung understood the phenomenon as a movement of the unconscious motivated by involuntary reactions to shadow material. Both encouraged humans to fully embrace reality in each moment.
Social work students experience emotional stress while having to perform and meet expectations from both academy and field. They may often feel physically and emotionally overwhelmed while struggling to make the time and space to fully process the varied experiences involved. There seems to be an unmet need for an ‘accompanying place’ where thoughts, feelings and dilemmas can be observed in a non‐evaluative way. Mindfulness has evolved lately as an efficient therapeutic technique in therapy. This paper describes a technique that applies mindfulness meditation in a group format in order to create a broader and richer learning experience that answers students' emotional needs. The group met for eight weeks. Its goals were to enhance self‐awareness and increase emotional support in handling field and academic stressors while experiencing different states of consciousness. Findings show that students were able to acquire new knowledge about themselves, experience autonomy in learning self‐containment and regulation, and gain insights regarding their professional self‐concept. Significance for social work training is discussed.
Although he was a psychiatrist and psychotherapist, C.G. Jung (1875–1961) did not extensively present his novel concept of synchronicity (meaningful acausal connection) in terms of clinical observations and reflections. It remained for subsequent analysts to follow Jung's pioneering work with more clinically focused discussions. In order to take stock of some of the main trends within this work, this paper reviews, first, the examples of synchronicity and related comments that Jung does give in association with clinical contexts; and, second, a selection of mostly clinical papers that discuss the relationship between synchronicity and analysis, written throughout the period between the 1950s, when Jung's essays on synchronicity appeared, and the present. The review of the later clinical discussions focuses on questions of how frequently synchronicities occur in analysis, what dynamics of the psyche are principally involved in synchronicity, what are the clinical value and uses of synchronicity, and what is the relationship between clinical and theoretical reflections on synchronicity.
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American Imago 59.4 (2002) 409-434
Introduction
Scientific reconsideration of C. G. Jung's difficult,
fascinating, and peculiar idea of synchronicity, which he believed
to represent an acausal connecting principle, has become possible
with the advent of recent developments in understanding the
self-organizing features of complex adaptive systems (CAS). In
particular, the question of acausality in "meaningful"
coincidences, especially those observed in the clinical setting,
can be reassessed in terms of the concept of emergence, which
explores holistic phenomena supervening from interactions among
component agents.
That the present moment is a timely one for reexamining
synchronicity is borne out by the response of Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer
to a questionnaire published in the January 2002 issue of the
Journal of Analytical Psychology (JAP). The
questionnaire is part of an ongoing dialogue between psychoanalysts
and analytical psychologists that JAP has fostered for the
past six years. Designed for comparative purposes, this
questionnaire bears some resemblance to one published in
Psychoanalytic Dialogues (Fosshage and Davies 2000), which
consisted of responses by analytical psychologists, though the
subject of synchronicity was not addressed there. For the
JAP special issue, arrangements were made with eight
psychoanalysts, representing a spectrum of orientations, who agreed
to prepare answers for publication. Mayer, a training analyst in
San Francisco, was the only respondent to express an interest in,
as well as knowledge of, Jung's writings on synchronicity.
In her article, Mayer (2002) suggests that Freudian and Jungian
views of reality are well-poised at this juncture to enter into "a
wider scientific and cultural conversation . . . where some of the
most lively and critically important questions about people and
their relationship with the world are currently being asked" (92).
In her view, this dialogue centers on the way that an extensive
range of phenomena—both physical and psychological—are being
reconceptualized as "separate and separable versus connected and
inseparable." She goes on to suggest that "Freudians have developed
a view of the mind which . . . elaborates implications of its
separateness and its unequivocally boundaried character," whereas
Jungians have "elaborated implications of the mind's connectedness:
the nature of its quintessentially unboundaried
character."
In articulating what she believes to be the core elements of
these distinctive approaches to the mind, Mayer singles out the
understanding of the transference, which, "perhaps more than
anything else, dramatically manifests the individual boundaried
mind in action," as the clinical tool par excellence of
psychoanalysis. In contrast, she locates the genius of the Jungian
school in its attention to "the collective mind and what we might
call the profoundly connected mind" (92).
An interest in the limits of connectedness leads Mayer to the
notion of synchronicity, which she aligns with the contemporary
turn in many disciplines to revalue the subjective, relational, and
intersubjective aspects of reality. As she notes, "the concept of
synchronicity emerges from a model of the mind characterized by a
radical connectedness between minds and also between minds and
matter, placing the human mind in a field characterized by
interactive possibilities that simply occupy no conceptual place in
Freud's psychology of the individual" (93).
Although Mayer in other papers has written on seemingly
anomalous mental effects in clinical encounters (1996a; 2001) and
changing scientific paradigms informing psychoanalysis (1996b;
2000), she has not explicitly reassessed synchronicity in light of
these concerns. Her focus has been on models of interaction in
science, philosophy, and medicine that argue for the mind's role in
shaping reality. On the other hand, most efforts by Jungians to
consider synchronicity from a scientific perspective have been
closely tied to Jung's own examinations of the interface between
twentieth-century physics and his psychological theories. In short,
despite occasional remarks suggesting links between synchronicity
and chaos theory (e.g., Main 1997, 26), no one from either the
Freudian or the Jungian side has systematically pursued this line
of inquiry. Even more productive considerations can be derived from
a reconsideration of the intersubjective aspects of the
synchronicity hypothesis in light of the present understanding of
CAS. Application of the findings from these converging areas of
research, I believe, offers a new framework for comprehending
meaningful coincidences associated with the analytic encounter.
Coincidence
Although the subject of meaningful coincidence...
Jung's most obvious time-related concept is synchronicity. Yet, even though 'time' is embedded in it (chronos) there has been no systematic treatment of the time factor. Jung himself avoided dealing explicitly with the concept of time in synchronicity, in spite of its temporal assumptions and implications. In this paper the role of time in synchronicity is examined afresh, locating it in the context of meaning and relating it to the psychoid archetype. Synchronicity is viewed as an expression of the psychoid; the vital parameter for the elucidation of this link appears to be time. The author argues that the psychoid rests on relative time which Jung deemed transcendent. The existence of two different uses of the word 'time' in Jung's opus are emphasized: fixed time that dominates consciousness and relative time that exists in the psyche at large. Since consciousness cannot grasp the psychoid's temporality it de-relativizes time; examples of this 'behaviour' of time can be observed in instances of synchronicity. It is thus argued that synchronicity demonstrates by analogy the nature of the psychoid archetype. Jung's quaternio, as it developed via his communication with Pauli, is also examined in light of the above presented 'time theory'.
This panel is a series of presentations by a father and his three sons. The first is a critique of the concept of theUnus Mundus, an idea that goes back at least as far as Plato's Cave in western intellectual history. A longing for unchanging foundational ideas lies at the core of much of our culture, psychology, and theology. The subsequent presentations describe various unforeseen, destructive results stemming from the perspective of theUnus Mundus. The first example is of persons with Alzheimer's disease, whose singular subjectivity is often ignored because they are seen as a category. They are 'Alzheimer-ed', subtly enabling those around them to avoid an anxiety-producing encounter with their enigmatic otherness. Another important perspective is the modernist re-construction of city spaces that has resulted in the loss of an organic sense of containment. The lengthy horizon of the grand boulevards seemed like openings upon infinity, often provoking panic and agoraphobia, as seen in the work of Edvard Munch. Lastly, the genocidal tendencies of modern times epitomize the dangers of totalizing, Utopian ideas. Violent elimination may be visited upon groups or peoples who are deemed 'impure', as besmirching idealized social visions. Such examples illustrate some of the ethical dangers of conceptualizations related to theUnus Mundus.
This panel is a series of presentations by a father and his three sons. The first is a critique of the concept of theUnus Mundus, an idea that goes back at least as far as Plato's Cave in western intellectual history. A longing for unchanging foundational ideas lies at the core of much of our culture, psychology, and theology. The subsequent presentations describe various unforeseen, destructive results stemming from the perspective of theUnus Mundus. The first example is of persons with Alzheimer's disease, whose singular subjectivity is often ignored because they are seen as a category. They are 'Alzheimer-ed', subtly enabling those around them to avoid an anxiety-producing encounter with their enigmatic otherness. Another important perspective is the modernist re-construction of city spaces that has resulted in the loss of an organic sense of containment. The lengthy horizon of the grand boulevards seemed like openings upon infinity, often provoking panic and agoraphobia, as seen in the work of Edvard Munch. Lastly, the genocidal tendencies of modern times epitomize the dangers of totalizing, Utopian ideas. Violent elimination may be visited upon groups or peoples who are deemed 'impure', as besmirching idealized social visions. Such examples illustrate some of the ethical dangers of conceptualizations related to theUnus Mundus.
This panel is a series of presentations by a father and his three sons. The first is a critique of the concept of theUnus Mundus, an idea that goes back at least as far as Plato's Cave in western intellectual history. A longing for unchanging foundational ideas lies at the core of much of our culture, psychology, and theology. The subsequent presentations describe various unforeseen, destructive results stemming from the perspective of theUnus Mundus. The first example is of persons with Alzheimer's disease, whose singular subjectivity is often ignored because they are seen as a category. They are 'Alzheimer-ed', subtly enabling those around them to avoid an anxiety-producing encounter with their enigmatic otherness. Another important perspective is the modernist re-construction of city spaces that has resulted in the loss of an organic sense of containment. The lengthy horizon of the grand boulevards seemed like openings upon infinity, often provoking panic and agoraphobia, as seen in the work of Edvard Munch. Lastly, the genocidal tendencies of modern times epitomize the dangers of totalizing, Utopian ideas. Violent elimination may be visited upon groups or peoples who are deemed 'impure', as besmirching idealized social visions. Such examples illustrate some of the ethical dangers of conceptualizations related to theUnus Mundus.
This panel is a series of presentations by a father and his three sons. The first is a critique of the concept of the Unus Mundus, an idea that goes back at least as far as Plato's Cave in western intellectual history. A longing for unchanging foundational ideas lies at the core of much of our culture, psychology, and theology. The subsequent presentations describe various unforeseen, destructive results stemming from the perspective of the Unus Mundus. The first example is of persons with Alzheimer's disease, whose singular subjectivity is often ignored because they are seen as a category. They are 'Alzheimer-ed', subtly enabling those around them to avoid an anxiety-producing encounter with their enigmatic otherness. Another important perspective is the modernist re-construction of city spaces that has resulted in the loss of an organic sense of containment. The lengthy horizon of the grand boulevards seemed like openings upon infinity, often provoking panic and agoraphobia, as seen in the work of Edvard Munch. Lastly, the genocidal tendencies of modern times epitomize the dangers of totalizing, Utopian ideas. Violent elimination may be visited upon groups or peoples who are deemed 'impure', as besmirching idealized social visions. Such examples illustrate some of the ethical dangers of conceptualizations related to the Unus Mundus.
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