Synchronicity

 There are very few among us who believe that life is a series of random events.  Different religions and schools of thought call it different things.  I used to hear a lot of, “It’s a God thing!” in my evangelical days.  Spiritual teacher Deepak Chopra believes that coincidences are a gift from the Universe.  As a student of Carl Jung, I tend to like his simple yet effective term at things that are not just random, that seem to be of some sort of higher design.  He called it “synchronicity.”  The definition is very simple, two words that are very powerful-meaningful coincidences.  Carl Jung believed in a level of consciousness which allowed humans to be interconnected with each other and the world around them.  Me personally, I am at the time in my life where I have issues with Christianity but still feel the presence of something.  I like the idea of feeling that there is something operating at a greater level which I do not have to refer to as happening from the Biblical god.  And so, this definition is desirable to me. 

But what really is synchronicity?  It is the idea that two different phenomena-physical (from the world around us) or psychological (dreams, understanding, etc.) collide in someone’s life to bring them some sort of answer, some sort of gift, or in some other way affects their life in a meaningful way.  It doesn’t have to be some life-altering revelation, although you never know what could be.  In fact, he came up with the idea when he was working with a patient.  The patient described having a dream about a scarab-an insect which was more native to the warmer climates than his.  On that same day, a scarab collided with his window, and he found the idea very fascinating.  Apparently, his patient was not responding to her treatment or had somehow become stuck in her progress.  But this prompted Jung to explore the idea, and a positive one, that there are meaningful coincidences in this life that could add enrichment to someone’s life.  Could patients be helped?  Could people find answers to complex problems?  Were things just random on this earth, or was some greater force involved?  Jung believed that such events only helped the person experiencing synchronicity.

Synchronicity can also occur between people.  Some people report “knowing” immediately that they will have a strong connection to another, whether it is a friend, a spiritual person, or romantic partner.  And the ways that those special people come into our lives is not just by mere coincidence.  There was something greater at work.  Some people do have very strong connections to each other and know when the other is having trouble, something might have happened, etc.  People who have strong connections to each other like significant others, twins, longtime friends, family members, can all experience some sort of feeling or knowledge about the other.  They have more than just a basic understanding of what is happening.  They really know deep down on some level not known to most about the one they care about. 

I have had a lot of synchronicity events in my life, probably too many to list on here.  But I will talk about some examples just as recently as the other day.  As far as people, I had an acquaintance of mine who maybe I was not super close to, but I respected tremendously.  This person added something positive to my life.  Unfortunately, they lost their job a few years ago.  When I heard about it, I had this sense that they were going to switch careers and end up in a totally different career.  I even knew what industry it was.  I’ll be damned if it happened, and I wasn’t too far off about the place where they eventually became employed.  I kind of even spooked myself after that because it was way too weird that I had essentially “known” it.  I also had a relative who when they were a juvenile, did something stupid and committed a minor crime.  I was away from home when it happened attending a seminar, but I developed this tremendous headache.  It was painful, and it was like something had come over me.  When I got home, everyone seemed tense, and I didn’t know why.  Nobody wanted to say anything.  Eventually it was disclosed, but my body was apparently sensing something.  And then there were the numerous times which I wrote about in another post where I knew someone was no good, only to have them prove they were indeed no good.  Murderers included. 

As far as myself, I have gotten a lot of wisdom and answers to things that have troubled me, or I didn’t have a good answer for at the time.  But especially of late, I have been shown things that have reflected on how I was feeling at the time.  I have had some very difficult challenges in my life which can sometimes leave me feeling like the future is uncertain, and I was having that feeling very strongly a few months ago.  I journaled about it and the very next night, I watched a television program where another person was struggling with those very same beliefs.  I looked at them and realized that the way they were describing their life was unnecessarily negative.  I could absolutely see no reason for that to be true about this person.  And I realized that what they were saying was a mirror of myself.  I was given that to see that how I was feeling was not based in reality.  But I had to see it in someone else.  That event was given to me, in my opinion, for that very reason.  Just this past week or so, I have had to confront the realities in my life about some of the things I had planned did not happen the way that I wanted them to, and in the time frame I expected.  Some of it was due to bad advice I was given, some was just me making the best choice I thought I had at the time, and it cannot be changed.  As synchronicity would have it, I came across a podcast featuring a famous individual whose life experience had mirrored mine.  And I realized that I was not alone in my experience.  I felt the same way when I saw the aforementioned television program.  If I could sum it up in one sentence, it would be, “You are not alone.”  And how neat is that?  Whoever or whatever had enough compassion to bring me those messages, it sure was appreciated.  Whether that source is the Universe, some sort of loving deity that is not the nasty Biblical god, or something else, I just realized that some force did care to show me things about my life.

I love synchronicity events, and every time they happen, it makes me feel connected to the world around me.  It does make me believe in a higher power, or some force that cares enough to gift us with bigger things.  Believe me when I say, this doesn’t happen all the time.  One of the reasons that I left evangelical Christianity was because the idea that a god was always answering every prayer, every need, etc. did not even remotely come true.  I think times will come and go where we may not have our needs met by a deity, or too much time will take place between the answers we need and when we receive them.  But I still do believe that things like synchronicity show us that life is not random, and that there are special things in store for all of us.  If you are reading this, I encourage you to reflect on those meaningful coincidences you have encountered in your life with the same wonder I have found in mine.  

The Other Worlds of Night part 2

In the first part of this post, I talked about my own experiences and began to explore different theories of dreaming.  Most dream theorists believe that dreams are either largely or all symbolic.  I agree that a lot of our dreams can be symbolic.  But I also believe, as some other dream theorists believe, that dreams serve to enlighten us and teach us things.  They can hold answers that we may not necessarily be apparent to us in our waking life.  Most dream theorists would tell you that dreams never tell you things you already know.  The reason why is that our dreams originate in our unconscious and subconscious states of mind.  Our unconscious is the part of our either knowledge or intuition that is not quite aware to us.  However, it holds a lot of clues to our understanding, about ourselves, our emotions, and situations in our lives.  Dreams are that almost magical bridge between our not knowing and knowing things.  I knew an individual who began to have reoccurring dreams about driving down their street and seeing a for sale sign on their home.  This person was also telling close friends that they noticed major changes in their spouse.  It was disclosed several months later that the spouse was having an extramarital affair.  The dreamer was aware on some level what was happening but just wasn't quite aware.  But they "knew" and their dream was one of the first voices to say something.  A major change was happening which did affect the happy home (or seemingly.)  After the affair was revealed, the dream made perfect sense to the dreamer.   Many people report having dreams like this. People are perceptive and may not know the truth of everything, but they are good at picking up on clues and things around them that do not seem right to them.  Dreams can hold the answers that elude them in waking life, or they can provide an answer where there does not seem to be one immediately available.   There is also the concept of a "precognitive" dream where dreamers will dream about events that occur in the future.  Infamously, Abraham Lincoln purportedly had a dream about his assassination around ten days before he was shot and killed.  Those to me are out of the realm of science and so I will not focus much on them.  But, I will not confirm or discount their existence.  A lot of dream work and interpretation cannot be measured in scientific terms.  The fact that we do dream and our brain activity can absolutely be confirmed.  So, I will be open to all people's experiences.

How can you use dreams in your favor?  Here are some helpful ideas:

1. Be open to the idea that your dreams are a part of you and exist to help you improve your life.  I have found that it is fascinating to explore this part of my life and appreciate everything that it does for me.  I strongly encourage anyone who might be on the fence, see it as insignificant, etc. to keep an open mind.  

2. Pay attention to your dreams and begin to give thought to them during your waking time.

3. Keep a journal.  Journals are a great way of helping you to understand your dreams.  Sometimes just putting them in written form can help you to understand what might not make sense when you think about them.  It is like when you were in school and had to make a presentation.  Maybe you knew in your head what you wanted to say.  But when it came out, it made sense to everyone you were trying to reach.  Dreams are the same way.

4.  Take a stab an interpreting your dreams.  When you do so, take a long look at your life and what is currently happening.  Are you worried that your job might be going away?  Maybe you lack closure from a failed relationship.  Is your child exhibiting behavioral changes that concern you but you can't put your finger on it?  Pay attention to the people and characters in your dream.  Is there a certain color that jumps out at you?  What about the place?  Is it familiar to you, or is it totally unfamiliar?  Is it a place you know but does not look the way that you know it to be?  

5. Ask for help or do further research if you are stymied by a dream.  There are a lot of great resources online that I am going to post, but those are just a few of many.  If something concerns you, your clergy member or a therapist may be able to help out.  Or, if you have a friend like me who studies dream interpretation, reach out and ask them.  I can confidently say that we all exist to help fellow dreamers.

I have only scratched the surface of this fascinating world of dreaming.  I might post more specific topics related to this in future posts.  But for now, happy dreaming!  I wish you the best in this wonderful unique world that we experience every night.

 For more information:

This site has a lot of everything from symbols, a dream dictionary, even forums to discuss dreams:

Your Online Source For Dream Interpretations (dreammoods.com)

A comprehensive look at color in dreams:

The Meaning of Colors: Color Symbolism in Our Dreams (journeyintodreams.com)

Here is an extremely comprehensive list of books about dreaming:

Resources - Professional Dream Interpretation LLC

This is a very comprehensive website devoted to all things about dream interpretation:

Dream Interpretation | Jungian Analysis

An interesting article on the difference between the U.S. and other cultures and how dreams are viewed:

Opinion | To Dream in Different Cultures - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

The Other Worlds of Night part 1

 I was walking down the alley as a child of around eight years of age on a warm, sunny afternoon.  The walk was very casual and uneventful.  I was looking into people's yards as I passed through.  Everyone had their doors open, and I could see different people's kitchens.  I looked into one kitchen, and there was a display of kitchen knives on a wooden block, hanging on the wall.  A man who seemed to be in his 50s saw me looking in, grabbed one of the knives and started chasing me down the alley.  I just outran him before I got to my yard and quickly shut the gate.  I was safe.  And obviously I am safe, because this was just a dream.  It was a reoccurring dream, actually, and I had this several times over throughout my childhood.  I suppose the die was cast with that.  I have always been interested in dreams, the analyzing of dreams, and dream work.  In fact, I participate in a group of wonderful ladies where we meet regularly and help each other and ourselves discover what our dreams mean to us.

Dreams are not just powerful to me.  They have been written about as long as human history has been recorded.  Every major religion has stories in their holy books about dreams, interpretations of dreams, and the role that they play in our lives.  Spirituality in its various forms also sees dreams as spiritual exercises given either by our conscious or some sort of external loving force for our good.  Ancient societies as well as modern indigenous groups have strong beliefs and practices regarding dreams.  Some of our most creative and influential minds have relied on things revealed to them in dreams.  For example, Albert Einstein dreamed about his Theory of Relativity and then explored it in waking life.  The rest is history.  Dreaming can be very simple, or it can be very complex.  Some people have the ability to "lucid dream"- dreaming while being aware that one is in a dream.  I have that ability and had my first lucid dream in June of 2018.  It was a dream where I was in an active shooting situation in a church.  Yes, weird why I would feel the need to stick with it, but I did.  I was aware that I was dreaming but I chose to stay with the dream until a telemarketer called me at around 8:45 a.m. and woke me up.  I have had numerous lucid dreams after that.  What is interesting about them is that I have also decided that I did not want to participate in the dream and wake up.  For example, I was walking down the hall of a hospital wearing a hospital gown and (thank god!) a robe.  A nurse showed me to a room with a sick older woman laying in the bed of the room that I was supposed to stay in as a patient.  I was aware of it and decided that I did not feel like continuing in a dream where I was sick.  Some people have written about the ability during lucid dreams to problem solve or direct the dream in the direction they want it to go.  I am not one of those people.  My abilities with lucid dreaming is just to be aware of the fact that I am dreaming and whether or not I stay with the dream and for how long.  

Sometimes people fear dreams because they are scary, as in the case of my childhood dream.  But, it is important to remember that they should not be considered as scary.  Most dream theorists, including pioneers like Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, believe that dreams are largely symbolic.  Whereas we may be fearing that we are being chased by a criminal or a snake in a dream, we are not literally being chased by them.  Instead, we are being faced with a nefarious person or situation in our lives.  The snake may be a toxic job or coworker; the criminal chasing you might be a bad situation in your life.  It may be increasing debt, the deterioration of a relationship, or a medical issue which may be deteriorating.  Or, there might be other people in the dreams called "archetypes"- people who signify a general concept.  A warrior, the hero, a king or queen, a bully, a goddess, an idealized partner, all of these people you might dream about are reminiscent of tales you heard growing up, fables, mythology, or the like.  Someone you may know in waking life may remind you of a romantic partner, or a fearless soldier.  And, according to a lot of dream theorists like Carl Jung, that person is indeed yourself!  There is a belief that every individual character in a dream is a part of yourself or your subconscious or your personality.  

So, how can you know what your own dreams are trying to tell you?  They are definitely trying to tell you something, of that you can be certain.  Since that could be a very long answer, I am going to answer that in part 2 of this topic.