Carl Jung and the Collective Unconscious,,Myths and Archetypes.

frankiespeakin

Leolaia...recomended to me Carl Jung so I did a little search,,I find his theory of the collective unconscious fasinating here is a neat essay on the subject:

http://lcc.ctc.edu/faculty/dmccarthy/engl204/seven-lecture.htm

frankiespeakin

I don't think this should get burried so quickly.

The Jungian concept of archetypes is important for the cross-cultural study of religion and mythology; it helps explain why there are seemingly universal concepts or motifs in certain myths all over the world. Some of it could be epiphenominally rooted in the organization of the brain and mind, others relate to core constituents of human society (e.g. the parental relation between fathers and children), and others relate to near universal fears and problems (i.e. fears of floods, fires, wild animals, the unknown). Jung characterized it in terms of universal symbols, but this is semiotically questionable since in nearly all domains the link between the signifier and signified is subject to disruption and does not exist apart from context. In later work, Jung focused on "acausal coincidences" which are meaningful to their experiencers, but the notion of synchronicity reified the interpretive relationship between two meaningful events into an actual external relationship that the unconscious taps into. There is real "synchronicity" in quantum events which have been scientifically established, but the psychological synchronicity of Jung seems to take this notion too far. On the other hand, much of the processing in the neurons and synapses of the brain does occur pretty close to the quantum level (or so it seems), so who knows, but most of apparent synchronicity appears to just be a combination of constructing meaning through interpretation and ordinary plain statistical chance which guarantees the not-too-infrequent occurrence of "remarkable" coincidences.

Anyway, I think it would be great if people could mention in this thread some of the most weird examples of synchronicity from their own lives. Toward the end of my Sophomore year of high school, I talked to my friend Jimmy (who was moving to Nevada) about my upcoming trip to California and how I looked forward to going to Disneyland. Then, when I'm at Disneyland, whom should I bump into but ... JIMMY. And this was after he had moved away and I thought I would never see him again.

TheOldHippie

All thru high school, I used to hang out with two or three close friends, we spent MUCH time together. I then went to the university, then got involved with JW, married, and moved to a very rural area. Some 10 years elapsed since my leaving high school. I then at work one day suddenly started to think about my friend and thought that "why don't I call him?" I picked up the telephone, but there was no dial tone there - just a sort of "sound" as if somebody was at the other end. So I said, "Hello?", and - yes, you've guessed it correctly, my friend's voice saying "Hello? Is that you?"

So at precisely the same fraction of a second had he had the same thought and made the same call - so exactly syncronized that neither of the phones had "time enogh" to send out the calling signal. We spent a couple of minutes marvelling at this before we were able to start the conversation.

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I'll give you another one: I spent four years together with a girl friend from another country, we visited each other during loong and frequent vacations, wrote letters, called, we were "bound for marriage". Then, primarily because of my getting involved with the JW, we split. I moved, and she moved to another town in the opposite part of her country without my knowledge. 4 years elapsed.

I and my wife then go by car for a vacation thru that country headed for another country. We spend a night in a hotel in the Northern part of that country (she, when I was together with her, lived in the South), and late that evening I suddenly feel this urgent need to run to the railroad station which was a mile or so away, because if I did so, she would be there. It was close to 10 at night, and I made some pretext that I wanted to buy a newspaper and a beer. And off I ran.

At the same time, my earlier girl-friend who is now living in that same town without my knowing it, suddenly feels the urge to take the tram to the city center and railroad station because I would be there. She runs to the tram, she has to make a change to a new tram, and at that change spot she meets a friend who engages her in a conversation, so she misses the next tram. And while she is waiting for the next tram, she feels 100 % that now it is too late, now the chance went by.

I roam the railroad station from 10 to 10:15 at night, find nobody - buy a newspaper and a beer and depressed and upset at mind walk back to the hotel.

She enters the railroad station at 10:20 and stays there till 10:45, walks around crying, and when a friend sees her and asks what is the matter, she responds to him that "he was here, but now he has left - forever!" and then takes the tram back home.

How do I know? Because she was so upset that she the next day wrote me to my old address telling this, and when I arrived back home from my vacation, the letter was there waiting for me, after having been redirected and redirected to my new address.

No wonder I started reading Jung and piles of books on the supernatural after that .................

Sirona

Hippie,

Great stories!

I don't have any one story, although I have had wierd coincidences happen.

My cousin on the other hand has this story:

He was adopted by my aunty when he was about 9 years old. He was separated from about 3 siblings then, aswell as one of his parents (I think the other died). Anyway, he lived up in the lake district and never knew where his family had been sent to.

So years go by and he is about 38 years old, sitting in a pub in London. He meets a guy and gets chatting to him (he didn't know him prior to that day). For some reason he decides to tell him about his discontent about not being able to find his family - which is uncharacteristic of him to share that with a stranger. Well the guy asked him for a name, and when he gave it, the stranger said "Oh, I know them....I know where they're living, lets check it out". It turns out that the people he knew were actually my cousins long lost family. What are the odds?

He now keeps in touch with all of them.

Sirona

Leolaia

OldHippie....That is truly a remarkable story. It reminded me of something that happened to my parents not long after they first met when she was on a trip to his town. My dad had given my mom his phone number at a party, but she forgot it, and could only recall the first number. And he told her that no one could reach him because his phone was on a 12-member party line and so the line was always busy and other ppl always picked up. Well, when she was leaving at the bus depot, she called on a pay phone, randomly dialed the number and on the third ring he picked up, and said, "I was just thinking about you".

Leolaia

And remember the news story about the woman who recognized a girl as her baby daughter that someone had snatched, on a chance meeting? Not really synchronicity, but a cool coincidence.

peacefulpete

These type of occurances, when not the result of subconscious manipulation of events or memories, are rare. This is why our pattern seeking mind takes special note of them. The infrequency is just what is statistically anticipated in a world of quasi-randomness and not evidence of any yet un discovered "Quantum synchonicity". Even a 'million to one' long shot happens to 6,000 people each day.

Leolaia

I agree. That's what I meant when I said that "most of apparent synchronicity appears to just be a combination of constructing meaning through interpretation and ordinary plain statistical chance which guarantees the not-too-infrequent occurrence of "remarkable" coincidences." That doesn't detract in the slightest from the personal meaning such an experience can have; through the emotional power of such an experience, the mind resists integrating such a departure from the ordinary ho-hum of everyday life with everything else that has happened to the individual. Even someone versed in statistical probability can still marvel at the remarkableness of the experience.

peacefulpete

Hey, I've said, "Man that's WEIRD!" a few times too.

But it was the :"so who knows" that I was responding to. I loved and agreed with the rest of your comment (at least that parts that I could understand).

Carl Jung and the Collective Unconscious,,Myths and Archetypes.

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