Synchronicity has existed for thousands of years but has been given different names: harbingers, portents and omens for example. We humans have been making meaningful connections to events for a long time. Harbingers, portents and omens however all talk of the future. They are signs of a coming event and were typically left to skilled interpreters to read and decide whether they made good or bad news. These days we tend to use all three words with negative connotations. Synchronicity on the other hand is something that tends to be more personal and immediate.
We talk of coincidences and trivialise the meaning of such events. By saying it is ‘just a coincidence’ takes the magic out of two or more events that seem miraculously connected. Co meaning together and incidence – incident simply means two events happening together. Nothing more, nothing less.
It was Carl Jung the Swiss psychiatrist and founder of Analytical Psychology who first used the term synchronicity to explain a acausal connecting principle – meaning that We Are One, and everything is connected, including our minds and inner states and the real physical world around us. Just as the physical world affects us, so we also affect the physical world. Things that happen that seem to have no common cause yet experienced together create a greater meaning than the individual occurrence. Jung was treating a patient in which she had dreamt of a scarab beetle when he heard a noise behind him, like a gentle tapping. He turned to see a flying insect knocking against the window pane from outside. He caught the creature in the air as it flew in and it found it to be a scarabaeid beetle the closest relative to a scarab beetle in Northern Europe which contrary to its usual habits had felt an urge to get into a dark room at the very moment the woman was talking of her dream. 
A synchronous event can mean different things to different people. Whatever happens is how you interpret it that defines the meaning. The beauty of synchronicity is that when you notice it is means exactly what it is supposed to mean, to you. Even if your best friend is stood right beside you when you ‘notice’ something they may interpret it in a different way. They may not see it at all. It’s what makes synchronicity such a difficult concept to prove scientifically.
Once we are aware of the existence of synchronicity, we begin to see it everywhere. We begin to see meaning in coincidences that used to seem like mere chance. We begin to understand that there is a connection between our psyche and the physical world. This is not something that we can explain in terms of cause and effect, and it’s not useful to us to think about in those terms. It is the sheer symbolic nature of the phenomena that is useful to us. Our unconscious reaches out to our consciousness with these symbols, which represent some knowledge contained in the collective unconscious. If we are open to recognizing and accepting these symbols, it becomes possible for us to consciously “experience” this knowledge in a spiritual sense.
My first experience of synchronicity started with a song – I heard it over and over and it heralded the knowledge that there was spirit was around and helping me. It started about a year before my then husband and I split up, at the time I did not know that this would happen but I started to hear a song over and over – it was called Someone to Watch Over me from the musical Porgy & Bess. It was at this period that I became aware that my Dad was trying to make contact with me to help me through this upcoming difficult time, and boy did I receive a lot of help! I went from being a disbeliever to someone who listened and acted on guidance I was given.
While normally synchronicity is a personal experience, as I have mentioned before, the most amazing synchronicity I have experienced is one that is affecting a huge number of people at the same time and these numbers are getting larger all the time. I am referring to the 11:11 phenomena. There are many different theories regarding this phenomena I have some of my own but regarding synchronicity it is proof that we are all one and connected as it is happening to so many of us.
I first noticed 11:11 about six years ago which coincided with my spiritual growth. It started very insidiously and I have no idea how long I saw it until I realised eventually that there was something going on. When I investigated I found that others were having the same experience and now six years on the amount of people this is happening to has sky rocketed. When I see 11:11 I am reminded that I am a spiritual being having a physical experience and that we are all connected, it also prompts me and tells me that I am on the right track. It can also be very reassuring. A number of years ago I suffered panic attacks whilst driving alone and one day I was having particular problems driving to work and on the verge of returning home when a German car pulled out in front of me with the number plate 1111. I was amazed and continued my journey. When I went through a very difficult experience and probably at my lowest ebb I awoke and found that 11 11 had been written on my mirror in the night. I don’t know by whom or how but it gave me the strength to carry on.
I also become bombarded with words, phrases etc. I had never heard of Reiki until the word started appearing all over the place. I would read about it, hear about it everywhere. This led me to enrol on a Reiki 1 class and have been healing ever since.
If you have ever experienced a time when something going on in your mind coincided strangely with something that happened in the physical world, then you have experienced synchronicity. You suddenly think about someone; the phone rings and they’re on the other end. You dream about someone you haven’t seen in years, and discover that they just died. You hear a name that you’ve never heard before, and suddenly you’re hearing it everywhere. You have an idea that you’ve never thought before, and suddenly that idea is everywhere.
I experience synchronicities not only in songs or visually but in words.
When I decided to go into business with my sister, my heart was telling me it was not the right thing to do, however my head was telling me that it was the perfect opportunity. Also as soon as the business started I began to get bombarded with the word Phoenix. At its peak I was hearing, seeing, reading this word several times a day. I remember telling a work colleague about it and she experienced it with me a number of times in just a few days and it completely freaked her out! I knew there was a message in there somewhere for me and ultimately as the business and personal relationship with my sister became fraught and upsetting the message became clear – the death and rebirth of the Phoenix – and my painful process through hurt, upset, forgiveness would all become alright in the end – which it did but was a slow and painful process. Happily that is all behind us and valuable lessons were learned! Always listen to your heart!!
Once we are aware of the existence of synchronicity, we begin to see it everywhere. We begin to see meaning in coincidences that used to seem like mere chance. We begin to understand that there is a connection between our psyche and the physical world.
So the next time you think gosh that was a coincidence, perhaps it was not so coincidental after all – look into it a bit further and see if there is a message in there for you. Synchronicity urges you to become more in touch more receptive and also offers hope and guidance
allaboutninathomas 