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Pauli on Synchronicity

Teun Lammers

11922583
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Wouter Hanegraaff Second Examiner: Dr. Carolina Ivanescu

Religious Studies Master Thesis
Western Esotericism

August 2019

Index

Introduction Why Pauli?

25
Die Geiβel Gottes The other Pauli The Problem
68
11

The Psychophysical Problem

17
No Scientific Picture The Measurement Problem Detached Observer

The ‘Cut’

Opposites Unite The Psyche
18 20 22 24 25 26

The Cosmic Order

30
The Symbolic Wave Function The Conscious Order Mathematical Reality Archetype
31 32 32 34

Synchronicity

38
Everyday World Pauli-effect Meaning-Correspondence Statistical Correspondence The General Acausal Order
38 40 41 43 44

Conclusion

46 48

Bibliography

1

Introduction

The first poem I ever text messaged my soon to be girlfriend was ‘Roll the dice’ by Charles Bukowski. With its strong appeal on following your own course through life no matter the consequences, and lines like

‘You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire’ it served me as a small mantra when I

was in fact changing my life for the better. On our second date we went to the nearest café from her

house, appropriately named ‘Bukowksi’, when she mentioned there was one poem hanging from an old typewriter next to the bar. Surprisingly it turned out to be ‘Roll the dice’. This remarkable coincidence gave

the poem some special meaning for the both of us. However the climax came, when after some time of proper courtship, we were making love for the first time and suddenly out of nowhere the raw voice of

Bukowksi started reciting our poem with its epic first lines ‘if you’re going to try, go all the way, otherwise

don’t even start’. It turned out that Soundcloud had randomly selected an unknown techno set featuring our special poem the moment we indeed went all the way.

The unlikely appearance of the poem in the middle of a techno set, expressing the poems message in a setting which appeared tailored for it, created a highly unlikely meaningful coincidence that can hardly

be described other than ‘magical’. However in our current time such ‘magical’ coincidences are often

explained by attributing them to pure chance. Given the absence of any direct perceivable causal relationship between the physical event and the corresponding psychological meaning the whole event is seen as a highly unlikely but still probable twist of fate. However it is unfortunate that the strong meaningful content of the coincidence appears to lose all significance when interpreted in this ultimately meaningless explanation of pure chance.

There exists however a concept that does try to capture these meaningful coincidences without relinquishing their apparent meaning. This concept is known as Synchronicity and was developed by the famous Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) and refined by the input of the highly esteemed

quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958). They defined Synchronicity as ‘an acausal connecting principle’ that connects events occurring in the physical and psychic dimension on the basis of a

meaningful connection.1

1 Jung, Synchronicity.

2
In the current scholarship dealing with western esotericism, the theory is either conceived as a new esoteric concept developed in the 20th century2 or seen as a modern expression of the esoteric worldview of correspondences pitted directly against the modern scientific worldview based on

‘instrumental causality’.3 Given the fact that Jung’s theoretical framework has been strongly connected to

older esoteric currents of thought it is admissible to perceive his theory of Synchronicity to be a natural offshoot of them.

However this perspective on Synchronicity appears to focus strongly on the esoteric roots of the

concept and less on Pauli’s influence in its conceptual development. Given the fact that Pauli was

considered one of the highest authorities in theoretical physics this brings up the question how he conceived the theory of Synchronicity to be in accordance with the developments in the field of quantum

physics. Therefore in this thesis we will investigate how Pauli’s conception of Synchronicity falls naturally

in the conceptual framework that he developed from the interpretation of the paradigm-shifting discoveries in quantum physics. The central research question is therefore:

C an we consider Pauli’s conception of Synchronicity to be derivable from his philosophical

interpretation of quantum physics? If so; how?

To be able to answer this question we will first look at how Pauli considered the problem of

observation in quantum physics to force our thinking towards a new approach to the ‘psychophysical’

problem. As we will see, the principle of complementarity, in which opposites are seen as complementary

aspects of a higher order, serves as Pauli’s basic conceptual framework to understand the nature of reality.

This framework ultimately leads Pauli to the postulation of a cosmic order in which Jung’s concept of the archetypes are employed as the basic ordering structures of both the physical and psychological domains. With this in mind we will then consider how Pauli conceived the concept of Synchronicity to be grounded in this archetypical foundation and how the concept of archetype can even be extended to conceptually

capture the ‘statistical laws of nature’ formulated in quantum physics.
However we will begin with reflecting on Pauli’s status as a very well respected theoretical

physicist in order to draw attention to the high level of his conceptual abilities. After that we will shortly reflect on his relationship with Jung. We will end the first chapter with questioning the idea that the

2 Asprem, The Problem of Disenchantment, 139. 3 Hanegraaff, New Age Religion and Western Culture, 501.

3invocation of quantum physics to defend an worldview based on correspondences can be assumed to be

merely the ‘clothing’ of a pre-established belief with a modern scientific ‘garb’. Instead we will bring into

sharp focus how one of the principal architects of the Copenhagen interpretation considered the concept of Synchronicity to be a necessary postulate to conceptually grasp the acausal order of reality that is forced upon our thinking when reflecting on the ontological perspective of dual-aspect monism that logically follows from the observation problem in quantum physics.

4

Why Pauli?

When the layman says ‘reality’ he usually thinks that he is speaking about

something which is self-evidently known; while to me it appears to be specifically the most important and extremely difficult task of our time to work on the elaboration of a new idea of reality. This is also what I mean when I always emphasize that science and religion must have something to do with another.4

Wolfgang Ernst Friedrich Pauli was born on 25 April 1900 in the city of Vienna. His father, Wolfgang Josef Pauli, was a professor of chemical medicine at the University of Vienna while his mother, Berta Camilla

Schütz, worked as a writer and journalist. The Pauli family was completed with the birth of Pauli’s younger

sister Hertha. Although Pauli’s father was a descendent of a well-respected Jewish family he later converted to the Catholic faith to successfully pursue a university career. The famous positivist Ernst Mach (1838-1916), who had a strong influence on Wolfgang senior, took on the role of Godfather when the young Pauli was baptized in his father’s new ‘faith’. This led Pauli in later years to acclaim that ‘I was thus baptized in an antimetaphysical manner rather than in a Catholic one’.5 However the discernable influence of Mach’s positivism on Pauli, found its counterbalance in his exposure to the Pythagorean numerology advocated by his most important teacher Arnold Sommerfeld (1868-1951). After Pauli finished his physics studies in Munich he first became an assistant to Max Born (1882-1970) and later to Niels Bohr (1885- 1962) in Copenhagen. It was Pauli’s collaboration with Bohr, and the latter’s other assistant Werner Heisenberg (1901-1976), that led to the development of the decisive ideas in quantum physics known as the ‘Copenhagen School’. In 1928 Pauli was appointed Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Technical University of Zürich. Given his Jewish ancestry, Pauli left the country at the beginning of the Second World War to work at the intellectual safe haven of Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study. Upon his return in 1946 he reassumed his professorship in Zürich. It was in this city’s Red Cross hospital that Pauli, on 15 December 1958, drew his last breath in room number 137. 6 The symbolism of the number that marked his passage couldn’t be more suited given Pauli’s lifelong fascination for the number 137 as the key to the mysteries of modern physics.7

4 Pauli to Fierz, 12 Aug. 1948, Laurikainen, Beyond the Atom, 153,154. 5 Pauli to Jung, 31 Mar. 1953, Meier, Atom and Archetype, 103.

6 Enz, No Time to Be Brief, 533; Gieser, The Innermost Kernel, 333.

7 In theoretical physics 1/137 is an approximation of the value of the fine structure constant. This constant of nature determines, among other things, the fine structure of the individual spectral lines of atoms. The fine structure constant is a dimensionless constant whose value is determined by the speed of light (c), the charge of the electron

5

Die Geiβel Gottes

Pauli is widely considered to be one the most brilliant physicists of the last century. His genius has been compared in status to that of Albert Einstein (1879-1955) by his senior colleague Born.8 Einstein himself considered Pauli to be his spiritual son, capable of completing the work in physics he had begun.9 Already as a youngster of 21 years old he made a huge impression on Einstein when he wrote an excellent encyclopedia article10 on the then rarely understood relativity theory. In the short review of the article Einstein showed his admiration for the young Pauli:

One does not know what to admire most, the psychological grasp of the development of the ideas, the assurance of the mathematical deduction, the deep physical insight, the capacity for lucid and systematic presentation, the knowledge of the literature, the technical integrity, the confidence of the criticism.11

It is however in the early stage of the development of quantum physics that he made his most important scientific contributions. In 1945 he was awarded the Nobel prize for the discovery of the exclusion principle that bears his name. The Pauli exclusion principle holds that no two electrons can occupy the same quantum state at the same time in one and the same atom.12 This has led to a model of the atom in which electrons form shells around the atomic nucleus, thereby explaining the properties of atoms in the periodic system and the stability of matter.13 Among his other major contributions to the fields of solid-state physics, quantum field theory and quantum mechanics, his proposal of a new particle

called the neutrino stands out. Pauli proposed the existence of this ‘ghost’ particle, given it has no electric

charge and very little mass, already in 193014 while it took more than 20 years for its existence to be experimentally confirmed.

Although he belonged to the principal architects of the Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum
Mechanics, his role in the development of the most successful theory in the history of physics has been

(e) and Planck’s constant (h). In other words it is a pure number that in ties together the fundamental constants of the theory of relativity, electromagnetism and quantum physics. Given the fact that it is impossible to theoretical derive this number from the existing theories it embodies one of the greatest mysteries in physics. Laurikainen,

Beyond the Atom, 2; Miller, 137.

8 Laurikainen, 4.

9 Enz, No Time to Be Brief, 394.

10 Pauli, “Relativitätstheorie.” 11 Einstein, Born, and Kopff, “Besprechungen,” 184.

12 Enz, No Time to Be Brief, 122. 13 Gieser, The Innermost Kernel, 17. 14 Enz, No Time to Be Brief, 215.

6less well emphasized than many of his famous contemporaries like Bohr, Heisenberg and Erwin

Schrödinger (1887-1961).15 However according to Victor Weisskopf it was Pauli’s creative and critical mind

that was involved in every crucial step in the development of the emerging quantum theory. Weisskopf expresses this in the foreword to the collected correspondence of Pauli in the following manner:

Es gab kaum einen Schritt, kaum eine neue Einsicht, kaum eine Gedankenentwicklung, an der Pauli nicht kritisch oder schöpferisch beteiligt war. Die vorliegende Briefsammlung zeigt dies viel klarer als ein Studium der publizierten Literatur. Pauli hat unzählige Male in den Entstehungsprozeβ der Quantenmechanik eingegriffen. Er hat Ideen kritisiert, die auf Abwege führten, er hat Anregungen für neue Ansätze gegeben, ohne je auf ein Urheberrecht Anspruch zu erheben. Im Gegenteil, er war oft froh, seine Anregungen nicht selbst ausführen zu müssen. Als Kritiker und Warner gegen irreführende Gedanken war er wohlbekannt und weit geschätzt. Er wurde "Das Gewissen der Physik" genannt.16

The influence of the brilliant mind of Pauli on the paradigm shifting quantum physics of the last century was thus far more invasive then one can deduct from his official publications.

One reason for this lack of publication should be sought in the fact that Pauli appeared not to care much for recognition of his work. He lacked the competitive streak of other physicists like Werner Heisenberg. What counted most for Pauli was the clarification of the greater picture of reality and he devoted his work to obtaining a consistent and coherent description of it for himself.17 Another

explanation for the lack of public recognition in the form of publications must be sought in Pauli’s

hypercritical attitude which he also applied to his own work. The description of Heisenberg of the difference between them both illuminates this character trade of Pauli:

Pauli’s whole character was different from mine. He was much more critical, and he tried to do

two things at once. I, on the other hand, generally thought that this is really too difficult, even for the best physicist. He tried, first of all, to find inspiration in the experiments and to see, in a kind of intuitive way, how things are connected. At the same time, he tried to rationalize his intuitions and to find a rigorous mathematical scheme, so that he really could prove everything he asserted. Now that is, I think, just too much. Therefore Pauli has, through his whole life, published much less than he could have done if he had abandoned one of these two postulates. Bohr had dared to publish ideas that later turned out to be right, even though he couldn’t prove them at the time.

15 Faye, “Copenhagen Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics.”

16 Hermann, Meyenn, and Weisskopf, Wolfgang Pauli, V-VI.

17 von Meyenn and Schucking, “Wolfgang Pauli,” 46.

7
Others have done a lot by rational methods and good mathematics. But the two things together, I think, are too much for one man.18

Although his need to assert new ideas with both experimental proof and mathematical insight might have withheld himself from publishing, it did earn him the unofficial title of ‘the conscience of

physics’ or more eloquently put by Paul Ehrenfest: ‘Die Geiβel Gottes’19. It was his critical mind that was

sought whenever an ultimate decision about the correctness of a disputed hypothesis was being called for. As such he functioned as a superior judge in all matters of theoretical physics. His qualification as such sprang from the fact that he was seen as the last Universalist in physics, whose competence in every fundamental area of physics was asserted.20

The other Pauli

The picture thus emerging is that of a brilliant and hypercritical scientist whose intellectual grasp of fundamental theoretical issues in physics has been scarcely rivaled in history. Given his impeccable status

as a scientist, it might come as a surprise that there is another ‘esoteric’ side to Pauli that has only gained

sufficient recognition in recent years. To invoke once more the words of his close colleague Heisenberg,

there laid concealed behind Pauli’s outward display of criticism and skepticism

a deep philosophical interest even in those dark areas of reality or the human soul which elude the grasp of reason. And while the power of fascination emanating from Pauli's analyses of physical problems was admittedly due in some measure to the detailed and penetrating clarity of his formulations, the rest was derived from a constant contact with the field of creative spiritual processes, for which no rational formulation as yet exists.21

Keeping in mind Heisenberg’s other comment on the reasons for the spare amount of publications at the

hand of Pauli, his published historical analysis of the polemic between Johannes Kepler and Robert Fludd forces our attention to the importance of this other side of the famous physicist.

18 von Meyenn and Schucking, 44.

19 Pauli, Wolfgang Pauli: Wissenschaftlicher Briefwechsel mit Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg u. a Band I/Volume I: 1919 - 1929, 473. 20 Gieser, The Innermost Kernel, 72.

21 Heisenberg, “Embracing the Rational and the Mystical,” 169.

8

This paper titled The influence of Archetypal Ideas on the Scientific Theories of Kepler22 examines

how archetypes function as ‘primordial images’ in the development of new scientific concepts with the

historical case of Johannes Kepler as an example. It was published alongside an essay of the worldrenowned psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung called: Synchronicity: an acausal connecting principle in the joint publication titled: The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche.23 Only thirty years after its publication in 1952, it was Robert S. Westman who first drew attention to the remarkability of this joint publication and asked the questions why nobody appeared to have bothered to ask why Pauli encoded his historical analysis in Jungian terms and what the relationship between the two men was.24

Part of the answer is that the influence of Jung on the scientific worldview of Pauli has been suppressed in the first years after his death by his widow Franca Pauli. When the extensive correspondence of Pauli,25 consisting of a huge amount of letters with virtually all the important physicists of his time, was still under her supervision, she explicitly forbade the publication of his correspondence with the Swiss psychiatrist, out of fear that this would damage the public image of Pauli as a great man of science.26

However after Franca’s death the complete correspondence between the two men, a total of 73 letters

written in the period between 1932 and 1957, has been publicized in English under the title Atom and Archetype edited by C.A. Meier.27

Their correspondence starts with some practical matters around the psychotherapy Pauli received under the supervision of Jung. At the age of thirty Pauli was suffering from a severe depression partly caused by the suicide of his mother and his own difficult relationship with women. Jung concluded that Pauli’s ‘dark’ feminine side (called the ‘anima’ in Jungian terms) was underdeveloped in stark contrast to

his ‘masculine’ intellectual side, which thus formed an explanation for his already immense success in

physics at that time (Pauli had already become one of the youngest physics professors ever at the tender age of 26). Treatment consisted mainly of the analysis of the dreams of Pauli, which provided access to his unconscious and his underdeveloped feminine side.28 However Jung found Pauli’s dreams to be ‘chock-full of archaic material’29 and decided to let Pauli be treated by the young and inexperienced Dr. Erna

22 Original Publikation: Pauli, “Der Einfluss Archetypischer Vorstellungen Auf Die Bildung Naturwissenschaftlicher Theorien Bei Kepler.”

23 Jung and Pauli, The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche.

24 Westman, “Nature, Art and Psyche: Jung, Pauli, and the Kepler-Fludd Polemic,” 177. 25 “The Pauli Letter Collection.”

26 Gieser, The Innermost Kernel, 4. 27 Meier, Atom and Archetype. First publication in German: Meier, Wolfgang Pauli und C. G. Jung. 28 Gieser, The Innermost Kernel, 142–44. 29 Meier, Atom and Archetype, xxxii.

9

Rosenbaum, so that Jung could collect the dream-material ‘untampered’ and use it as the basis for his own

research into alchemical symbolism in a modern psyche.30

Pauli turned out to be an audacious student of Jung’s psychology and quickly assimilated the latter’s theoretical framework to analyze his own meticulously kept dreams. Coinciding with Pauli’s marriage in 1934 to Franca Pauli, the treatment came to a halt and Jung declared Pauli to be ‘a perfectly normal and reasonable person’.31 Although the extent of Pauli’s return to normality is somewhat disputed

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  • Reincarnation and Life After Death

    Reincarnation and Life After Death

    THE LONG TRAJECTORY: REINCARNATION AND LIFE AFTER DEATH DR. ERIC WEISS, © 2009 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 0. Introduction - 1 00. Preliminary Definitions - 6 01. Challenging Evidence - 20 02. Science and Metaphysics - 43 03. Actual Occasions, As Above So Below - 61 04. From Possible to Actual - 79 05. Rethinking Causality - 106 06. The Creative Advance - 119 07. The Waking World and its Transphysical Dimension - 145 08. The Transphysical Worlds - 179 09. Mandalas of Time-Space - 188 10. Transphysical Humans - 223 11. Reincarnation - 243 12. Concluding Reflections - 269 2 0. INTRODUCTION I would like to begin by saying a few things about the origin and purpose of this book. These chapters began as a series of lectures organized and sponsored by the Esalen Center for Theory and Research, founded by independent scholar Michael Murphy, author of The Future of the Body.1 Mike likes to convene groups of passionate and competent scholars to discuss issues and themes that are not being addressed anywhere in academia. One of these conferences— begun in 1998—focuses on the topic of reincarnation and life after death. The core of this conference consists of a group of scientists from the University of Virginia who have been studying the question of survival of consciousness after death and the evidence for reincarnation since 1968. Their research continues a long scientific tradition going back to William James and Frederic Myers in the nineteenth century. Since that time, a large amount of hard scientific evidence has been documented that strongly suggests we do not die with the death of our bodies, and the evidence also makes a very powerful case for reincarnation.
  • Is the Scientific Study of Religious Activity Compatible with a “Religious Epistemology”?

    Is the Scientific Study of Religious Activity Compatible with a “Religious Epistemology”?

    Scientific Models for Religious Knowledge: Is the Scientific Study of Religious Activity Compatible With a “Religious Epistemology”? by Andrew Ralls Woodward A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Divinity of the University of Trinity College and the Theological Department of the Toronto School of Theology In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology awarded by the University of Trinity College and the University of Toronto © Copyright by Andrew Ralls Woodward 2016 Scientific Models for Religious Knowledge: Is the Scientific Study of Religious Activity Compatible With a “Religious Epistemology”? Andrew Ralls Woodward Doctor of Theology The University of Trinity College and the University of Toronto 2016 Abstract Epistemologies of tested beliefs (knowledge claims) in scientific practice and non-tested yet faith-imbued beliefs (belief claims) in religious life are compared and contrasted. A study of models of rationality in contemporary philosophy of science and religion is completed with the purpose to assess possible compatibility systems in “science and religion” literature. Myths are re-contextualized in the modern scientific cosmos via the igmythicist conception of myths—myths are neither mere delusions nor reflections of an ontological reality for the gods, but myths are the application of meaning-enclaves enclosed in the world of natural human experience. It is argued that, if a compatibility system is successful in mapping shared epistemic territory between knowledge claims and belief claims, the compatibility system will be based on a theory of rationality which consistently tests knowledge claims and belief claims. While the cognitive values of a scientific epistemology provide an epistemic benchmark for testing many beliefs, the problem of constructing a “religious epistemology” in a modern, Western university is analyzed.
  • The Problem of Mind-Body Dichotomy: a Critique of the Cartesian Approach

    The Problem of Mind-Body Dichotomy: a Critique of the Cartesian Approach

    GNOSI: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Human Theory and Praxis, Vol. 1(2) (2018) (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/10.5281/zenodo.3463785) O R I G I N A L A R T I C L E The Problem of Mind-Body Dichotomy: A Critique of the Cartesian Approach John Gabriel Mendie | Udofia, Stephen Nwanaokuo 1P.hD Candidate, Department of Philosophy, University of Calabar, Cross River State. 2 Department of Philosophy, University Of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. Abstract: The mind-body problem is a perennial philosophical problem that seeks to uncover the relationship or causal interaction that exists between the corporeal and incorporeal aspects of the human person. It thrives under the assumption that the human person is made up of two distinct entities, that is, mind and body, which explains their assumed causal relation. As attractive as this may seem, not all philosophers agree to this feigned idea of interaction and bifurcation of the human person. One philosopher of note, who sorts to address this problem in the 17th century, is René Descartes. For Descartes, minds and bodies are distinct kinds of substance, where bodies are spatially extended substances (a res extensa) and minds are unexpended substances characterised primarily by thought (a res cogitans). But, if minds and bodies are radically dissimilar, how could they causally interact? This paper therefore attempts to examine the philosophical foundations of Cartesian dualism. It also articulates the major arguments adopted by Descartes through his methodic doubts to address the mind- body problem. The paper concludes by highlighting some fundamental criticisms of Cartesian Interactionism in the light of recent trends in parapsychology and neuro-scientific research.
  • Religion, Science and Synchronicity by Dr. Roderick Main

    Religion, Science and Synchronicity by Dr. Roderick Main

    Religion, Science, and Synchronicity Dr Roderick Main Lecturer in Psychoanalytic Studies University of Essex, UK [email protected] [Originally published in Harvest: Journal for Jungian Studies 46, no. 2 (2000): 89-107; reproduced with permission for www.jungianstudies.org] In this paper, I examine the role C. G. Jung’s (1875-1961) theory of synchronicity played in his attempt to come to a satisfactory understanding of the relationship between religion and science. First, I briefly explain the theory of synchronicity. Then, I sketch Jung’s lifelong preoccupation with the relationship between religion and science and note some of its implications for his general psychological theory. Jung’s emphasis in this theory on the primacy of psychic reality provided a ground on which religious (spiritual) imagery and scientific (material) imagery could interact. However, it also left him open to the charge that he was reducing spiritual and material phenomena to psychic phenomena. Next, I show the influence of Jung’s understanding of religion and science on his theory of synchronicity. After that, I note some influences that the theory of synchronicity, reflexively, had on Jung’s understanding of religion and science. With the theory of synchronicity, Jung achieves even closer interaction between the domains of religion and science and in a manner that is less dependent on the notion of psychic reality. In the last main section, I suggest how the theory of synchronicity supports some of the more spiritual emphases within analytical psychology. I conclude by noting a more general implication of this overall discussion for the status of depth psychology in relation to religion and science.
  • Can Synchronicity Be Invoked? Synchronistic Inquiry and the Nature of Meaning Crane, Gabriel S

    Can Synchronicity Be Invoked? Synchronistic Inquiry and the Nature of Meaning Crane, Gabriel S

    Journal of Conscious Evolution Volume 13 Article 3 Issue 13 Issue 13/2017-2018 June 2018 Can Synchronicity be Invoked? Synchronistic Inquiry and the Nature of Meaning Crane, Gabriel S. Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/cejournal Part of the Clinical Psychology Commons, Cognition and Perception Commons, Cognitive Psychology Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Family, Life Course, and Society Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons, Liberal Studies Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons, Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education Commons, Social Psychology Commons, Sociology of Culture Commons, Sociology of Religion Commons, and the Transpersonal Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Crane, Gabriel S. (2018) "Can Synchronicity be Invoked? Synchronistic Inquiry and the Nature of Meaning," Journal of Conscious Evolution: Vol. 13 : Iss. 13 , Article 3. Available at: https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/cejournal/vol13/iss13/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals and Newsletters at Digital Commons @ CIIS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Conscious Evolution by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ CIIS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. : Can Synchronicity be Invoked? Synchronistic Inquiry and the Natur SYNCHRONISTIC INQUIRY Journal of Conscious Evolution Issue 13 & 14, 2017-2018 CAN SYNCHRONICITY BE INVOKED? SYNCHRONISTIC INQUIRY AND THE NATURE OF MEANING Gabriel S. Crane1 California Institute of Integral Studies ABSTRACT This paper examines synchronicity, the concept first proposed by Carl Jung, of an “acausal connecting principle” (Jung, 1952), or, a meaningful coincidence linking inner and outer events, from three distinct angles. First, it reviews the theoretical framework for synchronicity, and specifically explores the nature of meaning as an arbiter of synchronicity.