Introduction of Necessary Chances
The world of dream and that of reality certainly share more thanappearances would suggest. In the first year of the last century, Freud, inThe Interpretation of Dreams, showed us how symbolic messages from theunconscious unravel themselves during sleep. But does the unconsciousoperate only at night and through dreams? Can we also assume that oursymbolic life may also extend into waking reality in the form of significantcoincidences?
This possibility of symbolic extensions into external reality is at theheart of what the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung introduced withhis concept of synchronicity. This concept, worked out jointly with the1945 Nobel laureate in physics, Wolfgang Pauli, suggests that mind andmatter are two aspects of the same tree and that symbols can bloom onthe branches of our dreams as much as on those of waking reality.By pushing the exploration of these links between mind and mattereven further, can we suppose that these symbols may at times be manifestthrough a relationship with another person? The astrophysicist HubertReeves, in his book La synchronicité, l’âme et la science, asks the question:‘Does an encounter with someone who changes your life have a symbolicmeaning?’ Can we apply the concept of synchronicity to the small detailsthat lead us to such a person? What would life be like if we hadn’t met thatparticular professor, that author, that man or that woman? What wouldpsychology be like if Jung had not met Freud? What would philosophy belike if Sartre had not met Simone de Beauvoir?
History is filled with thesehighly significant encounters that change a person’s life and sometimesthe life of a community as well.We may take a book with us when we go on a trip, but in other casesit is a book that will give us the experience of a major voyage. Likewise,some people may be our companions on our journey through life whileothers may impact on our life so as to take us on a voyage. Such people areencouraging us to travel to the deepest part of ourselves. They open doorsfor us. However, as a rule, the most important doors of our existence areopened by those people who will themselves not go through them withus. We probably can all think of someone who suddenly appeared in ourlife and left an indelible mark. Our relationship with this person mayhave lasted only a short time. However, we could say that the flutter ofhis or her wings have set off storms that will determine the course of ourexistence. Following this encounter, we will never be the same personagain.
In this book, I will explore synchronistic encounters; encountersthat allow persons, books or other works to enter our lives at determiningmoments, thus acquiring a symbolic value of transformation. I will alsoexamine symbolic micro-processes. These take the form of thematicpatterns or paths that attract and lead us imperceptibly towards a certainperson, job, author or country. These patterns unveil themselves in subtleways. They require the flickering light of our intuition to recognize themand allow us to admire the beauty and uniqueness of life.The story of how symbolic patterns can unfold within everydayevents is one of Jung’s major contributions. Given its spectacular andunusual nature, this contribution was unfortunately rejected by scientistsor awkwardly simplified by New Age followers. According to the Swisspsychiatrist, it is hard for us to perceive these symbols because ourrationality is too bright, just as it is hard for us to perceive stars duringthe day because the sun is too bright.
However, we have a better chanceof noticing these stars when we are going through transition periods orwhen we are entering a chaotic phase in our life. Then the darkness allowsthese symbolic stars to shine in the form of mysterious synchronicities.Synchronicity occurs more frequently during periods ofpsychological tension when the normal symbolic form of the dream hasnot managed to make itself heard. The psyche must be very ‘disturbed’to draw upon an exterior symbol and communicate with us using thismedium. Moreover, the message must be particularly important forour development. Synchronicity seen from this angle is not necessarilya ‘magic gift,’ as it is sometimes described in everyday language, eventhough suffering can be perceived as a grace. I am always amused whenI read the following phrase in a book or article: ‘Trigger synchronicity inyour lives!’ In fact, synchronicity eludes the control of the ego. All youcan do is make yourself available to the messages of the unconscious thatuse this avenue. In a determining phase of our existence, something triesto express itself through synchronicity and we take over from that pointin order to hear and decode it.I will try, using various examples, to illustrate how we can deepenthe meaning of a synchronistic event in the same way that we can do sowith a dream. I will try to describe how to prepare the ground, especiallyby developing intuition.
However, I would be hard pressed to say howthese symbolic flowers can be made to grow faster, as I am not an expertin psychological fertilizers!Because synchronicity is an abstract notion that points to severaldimensions of our existence, I will explore the concept in a specific realm,the interpersonal realm. Since our relationships to others in these timesdo seem to be particularly ‘chaotic,’ they may be more easily influencedby disturbances that will bring out symbols in the form of synchronicities.Indeed, issues around relationships are the primary reason for consultinga psychotherapist and the principle factor bringing about a change.Since synchronicity is a complex notion, I will use metaphors takenfrom the science of complexity and chaos theory to produce hypothesesthat may help us in the understanding of these concepts. The definitionof synchronicity given in the first chapter assumes a very narrow conceptof creative chaos found in the recent discoveries of chaos theory. Forpurists, the term chaos has only a mathematical meaning. However, theetymological origin of the world is linked to the greek verb to ‘gape’ or‘yawn’. It is a gulf or abyss. As I conceive it, in terms of interpersonalsynchronicity, chaos is this opening, this spontaneous stretching towardsanother person. It provides oxygen to the soul when boredom begins toset into our lives.The novel of our lifeThe determining encounters that mark our personal story or ‘novel of ourlife’ do not only happen with people in the flesh. They may also occurin ideas, i.e. the symbols that are part of culture. We have all discoveredbooks, music or movies that changed our existence.
These encountershappen at key moments and can resonate with our own personal issues.Synchronistic patterns emerging out of our culture will be examined interms of the meanings and circumstances that surround the introductionof works that disturb us and at times find a mysterious echo in our ownlives.The placeAn encounter inevitably happens within a place. At one level we encounterpeople throughout our life, but the most significant encounters are withourselves. This is why special attention will be paid to the places that markour existence. Places very often symbolize the process of encounter. Theytake the form of the settings designated by the unconscious in order toindicate coming transformations. We can often read who we are and whatwe may become in the place where we encounter someone of significance,as well as in the place where we live.Meaning is the main component of synchronicity. It is an impulse,a direction to give to our own voyage. The metaphors of voyage containedin the present book display the main idea of each chapter and remind usthat synchronicity and meaning are intimately linked to the journeys andguidelines that mark our existence. A voyage marks the major changes ofour lives as well as it marks each chapter of the present book.Synchronicity through the generationsThe main patterns and themes of our personal novel will very oftenfind their origin in the family novel. The chapter covering life themesthat extend over several generations and the analysis of the patterns thatmaintain themselves over time will complete the present work. We alsoaddress the mysterious coincidences of the ‘other inside the self ’ whichappear across generations as if they exhibited a strange unconsciousloyalty.Le VisiteurWhat space do we make for synchronicity when it suddenly occurs in ourlife?
Even though this book explores a new realm of study—relational synchronicity—it is nonetheless an attempt to understand such amystery.Sometimes we face encounters that overwhelm us, that disturb usand lead us to revise our conception of the world. This is expressed inthe character of Sigmund Freud in the excellent play written by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, Le Visiteur. This play features Freud who, at theend of his life, is visited by a mysterious stranger. We don’t really knowwhether the visitor is a former patient escaped from an asylum or God.This impromptu visitor, who defies all categories, apparently comes out ofnowhere, questions Freud on the meaning of his work and disturbs himby relating stunning revelations pertaining to his own life. Among otherthings, the visitor leads Freud to examine the impact of his pessimismabout human nature. He suggests that logic is not the only means toapproach reality, which can sometimes be both beautiful and irrational.Freud, at the time of this visit, is himself very ill. The Gestapo haveinvaded Vienna and kidnapped his daughter Anna; and he is therefore ina very deep state of vulnerability. Unable to explain this visit rationally,he then accuses both the visitor, and irrationality of any kind, of alwayspresenting themselves in the same way—in other words in moments ofgreat weakness and instability. After the visitor performs a magic trick, inwhich Freud’s cane is changed into a bouquet of flowers, the psychologistis at first amazed, then exasperated, and tells him: ‘Leave immediately!Not only are you a mythomaniac, but you are suffering from sadisticneurosis. You are a sadist! A sadist enjoying a troublesome night! A sadistwho is taking advantage of my weakness.’ Then the visitor remarks toFreud:
‘If it were not for your weakness, how else could I come in?’
