Synchronicity & Mimsy Jabberwocky

Synchronicity or chance? Are the fates conspiring for me, or is this just dumb luck? I've been fascinated lately with a pyramid-shaped green crystal I have in my gemstone and crystal collection, so drawn to it that I found myself ignoring the Friday night movie so I could inspect it. I suppose you could say I was being drawn to it. Mind you, I'm not "into" crystal power, but I admit I couldn't keep my eyes off it for a few days now. I Googled it and found its name is Pargasite, and these are it's metaphysical properties: "Pargasite works with the Heart chakra to slowly and gently break down those “walls” that we have built up over time to protect ourselves from hurt. Pargasite is your gentle support in this healing process. The pale green of Pargasite's energy will surround your heart with empathy and compassion for self and others." I grinned when I read its meaning because for weeks I've been blogging about vulnerability; opening the heart, and breaking down walls. Hmm. Synchronicity or chance? And how does synchronicity work, exactly? Psychiatrist Carl Jung coined the term. Basically, a meaningful coincidence.

In 1952 Jung published Synchronicity, claiming a series of random events can express a deeper order, and that the realization of this was more than just an intellectual exercise, but also had elements of a spiritual awakening for him. Because I have studied psychology far too long, my analytic left brain cautioned me to be skeptical about synchronicity, because of a phenomenon known as Confirmation Bias. Confirmation Bias is a tendency to interpret new information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions. Was I irresistibly drawn to the gemstone because I knew it had a metaphysical meaning and was hoping it would fit my circumstances, or was it truly synchronicity-some unexplained, unconscious vibration that drew me to the Pargasite? Fifty years after Jung wrote about it, synchronicity is still a mysterious controversy. Contemporary spirituality attributes these surprising and often delightful occurrences to a divine connection. Psychoanalysis attributes them to the all-knowing unconscious mind. And science would say I simply found what I was looking for (Confirmation Bias). While the hard-boiled social scientist in me would like to explain it away, I have noticed synchronicity beginning to pop up more frequently. Or am I just paying better attention now...perhaps remarkable coincidental occurrences were happening all along and I was simply too busy to notice.

One of my favorite literary classics is Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. I have always both understood and pitied Alice; she trapped, and trying earnestly to make sense of a nonsensical world of upside down and backwards. In it, the White Queen explains to Alice how to live backwards, to which Alice replies, "I don't understand you-it's dreadfully confusing!" The Queen says kindly, "That's the effect of living backwards...it always makes one a little giddy at first." Giddy-that's what I feel when I've stumbled into synchronicity. The distinct yet vague feeling of being exactly in the right place at the right time. Perhaps there is something beyond human bias; maybe a "deeper order" as Jung surmised. For those of us who dare to believe in synchronicity, we live in an enchanted Wonderland where it's all mimsy jabberwocky, but frabjus, too.    

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