Coincidence? I think not.
- on 03.19.10
- Pondering
- 3 Comments
- Digg
- Del.icio.us
Do you believe in coincidence or in synchronicity? Why?
I have always been suspicious of coincidences. Eventually I stopped believing in them.
I am not clear on how synchronicity works, but I am attempting to figure it out.
This morning on my way to Yoga my car broke down. It is at the garage now. As I understand it some cables in the transmission snapped and need to be replaced.
Back at home I reflected on how the last time the car broke down on me, I was also on my way to yoga.
That was a year ago, and my brakes snapped and failed.
It then dawned on me that both times the car broke down I was at a traffic light.
Now, to put things into perspective I drive the car every day, I go to Yoga on average once a week.
So what are the commonalities here?
1)Something in the car snaps and breaks.
2)It happens at a traffic light.
3)I don’t make it to Yoga.
What is the message? Is there one?
I would love to hear what you think about this and coincidence versus synchronicity in general.
Anna
Hi Anna,
Sorry to hear about the car situation
The problem with synchronicity is that it is not based on any natural laws.
What I mean by this is that it is not based on any scientific understanding of cause and effect.
Rather, it is based on consciousness and the meaningfulness of the coincidence.
One definition of synchronicity could be this: two unrelated events that end up creating a meaningful experience for the person … umm … experiencing it.
In your case, it doesn’t seem to have been experienced as meaningful. Rather, it was a frustration that reminded you of the last time frustrating time your card broke down and you missed Yoga.
Conclusion: My thoughts on synchronicity are, given that it is a completely unscientific theory (it is rather a theory of consciousness) not to get to hung up on it. The only time synchronicity would actually apply is when it genuinely produces a meaningful reaction.
Now here’s the thing: just because it’s meaningful doesn’t mean that it will result in anything occurring in real-life. This theory resides in consciousness and generally doesn’t translate into real world changes (unless, of course, the experience was so powerful that the person changed their lives).
Like you, I’ve always had problems with this theory – when something doesn’t relate to reality (unless we define consciousness as reality) then I tend to find no use for it. But I guess the people who would disagree with me would say that the synchronicity itself can be so powerful as to prompt the individual to change their lives. Either way, it ends up being a frustrating thing to think about
Hi Douglas,
I love your blog!
Welcome to my humble web site.
The problem with my car is in the past, but your comment is still very appreciated. I have read it several times.
“One definition of synchronicity could be this: two unrelated events that end up creating a meaningful experience for the person … umm … experiencing it.”
I don’t know. I am and I have been suspicious of coincidences for a long time. In the case of the car we had several similarities (something snapping, the traffic light and that I was on my way to Yoga.)
Perhaps I shoud add that I don’t like driving and that I limit my self in that regard a lot. I do not drive on major high ways, I will park two blocks farther to avoid doing parallelel parking, I do my best to avoid nasty intersections.
They are all self imposed limits. I have a driving licence and a perfect record. I don’t know if my fears/ resistance come from having been seriously injured in the past when I was on a Vespa and an idiot in a car did something he was not supposed to and almost killed me. Anyway, back to the point. Brakes failing, high on the list of fears of someone who does not enjoy driving. The second incidence it happened as I was stopped at a busy intersection on a steep hill, with a car that is standard. I had avoided that specific intersections for years because of that exact possibility, just when I had got used to it and relaxed about it, my fear took form.
Now, in both cases, I remained calm and I handled the emergencies well. Yoga, which I discovered about four years ago has been very helpful to help me recognize when I tense up, so that I can breath, relax and deal. So, I don’t know, perhaps there was a message there. Two of my worse case scenario came true and I managed. I don’t know. Perhaps it was not a coincidence, maybe it was not synchronicity, but I did learn from the experiences.
Again, thank you Douglas for sharing your opinion.
Interesting!
If you learned from the experience, if it was meaningful for you – then it most certainly was a case of synchronicity … and I got it wrong in the last comment
It’s interesting how on both occasions you dealt with Fear – and dealt with it well.
I’m not sure what it means, but I know the theory of synchronicity would suggest that it does mean something.
Fear is primal. There’s a theory in psychology that states that a person who is afraid can identify with their source of fear – and so have control over it.
In most cases this isn’t a good thing – but it’s meant to be a standard reaction.
Reading your comment though, it seems that you did something completely different – you didn’t identify with your fear, but rather, accepted your fear (big difference).
As you said, if nothing else, it shows how much Yoga has been of benefit – acceptance through experience is a very magickal process!