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Originally Posted by John Freestone  I'm not sure what you mean. What is synchronicity, moonrambler? How would you define it? |
I would use Jung's definition of synchronicity as meaningful coincidence. When two or more events occur in a certain time frame and are not causally related, and the likelihood of them occurring together is very small. (I think I had read somewhere that he preferred three or more events for definitive significance.) He theorized that these synchronicites point to an underlying pattern to the universe.
This would be opposite of what you've said, about how any of those events occurring together would be random coincidence, and that we only think there's a pattern because humans see patterns even when there aren't any.
But what if Cylon's opposing theory is right? (Cylon's Opposing Theory, that sounds professorial
) That everything is related and reflected in patterns, but we only notice a small fraction of them.
Then when we start noticing these patterns, we find them happening more and more, which some people say is due to the reticular activating system -- like the experience of, for instance, buying a blue Ford Ranger and then seeing blue pick-up trucks everywhere you look. I would say the experience should be more unusual than that.