Do you guys believe in serendipity or synchronicity?

Question

If so, do you make easily things happens in your life (or come your way when your in need)?
"Synchronicity" is a jungian term for acausal coincidences.

Answer 1

Hi, while I believe in "happy coincidences" and "causal coincidences" I do not believe in the metaphysical explanations assigned to them partly by their authors and much more by the intellectual folklore beyond them.

In my opinion, these processes, serendipity and synchronicity, while coincidences occur" they are not originated by higher nor paranormal sources, whatever these are and therefore don’t need to be uncontrolled processes.

As many other processes related to creativity one can control them and use them for learning and creating.

Basically, for me, its answers that somehow we have learned or acquired through implicit learning. This is the type of learning that occurs outside a formal learning environment and hence it poorly structured on memory so that access to that implicit knowledge becomes quite difficult to recall voluntarily. That is why, any coincidental external clue or external stimulus, suddenly might provide us with the answer or missing piece that bring about the following and consequential enlightening. Some people like to think that there are "muses" flying around or some preordained powers that whisper solutions at our ear but I rather think that if we know how to access does "subconscious memories" - which according to Jung’s knowledge pyramid, constitute a 70 % of our knowledge, then we would not depend on external events, stimulus or coincidences, to reach a solution to whatever creative task we are at hand.

If we could picture for a moment the subconscious memories as fish flowing freely, independent, in a huge sea, (unconscious mind) how can we trap the meaningful fish? Well we can start by fishing out everything related to that fish (using our knowledge of favorite food, swimming depth, prey type etc). However, the problem is that we do not know what fish are we looking for so, how can we get hold of it?

Therefore we have some knowledge inside our mind, which is not properly structured and hence lacks clear conceptual and neuronal connections that provide a search path to be readily accessed, so what we need is to find all those memories and structure them to make them easy to recall in the future.

This can be done several ways, besides a creative control of the environment, creating an environment which has a complete sensorial relation with the issue or task in question, but that would just improve our chances that the coincidence happens, we still would not control it.

However, if we concatenate all the memories (connect all possible related knowledge independent of how that connect) we have without any conscious editing (something similar to stream of consciousness) and bring them into an exterior medium, like paper, computer, sand in the beach, whatever that permits us to just add almost limitless connections to the issue, then we would have a very reach medium full of relative memories, which we can proceed to categorize, name, order, classify, in one word: structure, then we can find the solution without having to wait for that coincidence. The reason is that the amount of memory we use to operate data (let us call it STM or Short Term Memory) is limited 5 - 9 units or bits of information (according to most memory research (-2 +5 +2)) and hence is quit limited but if we have it in an exterior medium we can manage as much data as we want because in any single moment we don’t need to maintain all the data accessible since it is already outside in the paper, or medium.

So by externalizing all the connected or relative memories, without previous edition, selection or discarding anything (this is very important since if we edit our externalization of memories we might leave out and often do the most relevant piece) then we have a very complete memory bank, of memories that we can process without any limits imposed by our STM short term memory. Short term memory also has been proven to be limited concept since if we add meaning to the units or bits of information we can process more that 5- 9 pieces of memory. E.G. we have to remember and recall a 12 digit code 2355CG467734, its quite hard but if we give it meaning E.G. 23 is my cousin’s birthday, 55 is sister’s birth year, CG is a name of a friend or whatever etc then it is much easier and hence this a strategy to memorize.

Therefore, through a strategy we are enabling ourselves to overcome the limits of STM. Much in the same way, if we use a medium to record those meaningless yet relative memories and then perform operations on them, uniting them separating them, grouping them giving them names and structuring them then there are no STM limits.

This process of fishing out memories, by concatenation, and restructuring them is quite similar to what computers do when you defragment a disk. The computer identifies memory units that are related and orders them by grouping them and creating links that make search feasible and easier, and the memory disk becomes organized and not a mess of related yet unconnected memories.

This is why I call this process Defragmenting my mind. After I do this, in relation to specific topics or tasks I need at that point, ten I am covering the coincidences and am not anymore dependant on external events to find my solution. There is also sufficient proof that this organization of knowledge not only takes place at a conceptual level, but also at a biological one, since once we order and structure this meaningless memories into meaningful ones, we learn, and due to the concept of brain and neuronal plasticity, a new neural connection will actually develop, i.e. a neuron /r group of neurons will develop in the brain, with axons and terminals connection etc that will make that we have easy access to the previously unreachable or inaccessible memories, that used to depend on external stimulus to be rediscovered, and have them clear and ready to access.

This is a process with a clear algorithm of action that results in discovery without having to depend on "outside sources" be they coincidences, or "powers" "spirits or wich´m-a-callits.

In conclusion, while we still depend on coincidences and many important discoveries have been based upon that, I believe, and have exercised and obtained my own proof, that we can generate the needed data through certain operations of information if only we permit a free flow of information, provide a medium to record it and a series of latter operations to the data that gives as permanent access to it and hence we become aware of things we did not know we know.

As Polyani said "We know much more than we can tell" - I have just found a way to reacall it and tell it that at least works for me, and apparently also worked for others who tried it.

Hope someone can get this and sorry for the BLA-BLA-BLA. Best regards

S

Answer 2

If you imply a serendipity is a discovery virtually via threat, then surely. Serendipity might also check with: * Serendipity three, a restaurant in New York City - on no account been there, however I feel it exists * Serendipity (movie), a romantic comedy movie starring Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack - on no account noticeable it, however I feel it exists Not definite approximately those others * Serendipity (blog application), a running a blog procedure * Serendipity Dog, a robotic puppy that seemed on BBC Children's tv within the Sixties * Serendipity (ebook sequence), a sequence of kid's books approximately fictional animals * Serendipity, an accidental bottling of very ancient Ardbeg with 12 Year Old Glen Moray

Answer 3

Serendipity is "a happy accident", which just means that I don't see the connections. *smile* It doesn't mean that they are not there.

Same thing with "synchronicity".

As an example - every time that there has been an unexpected large expenditure needed, the money has been there for it, although it wasn't there until just before I needed it. This happens time after time for me. Because of that, I'm learning to listen to that quiet inner voice that tells me when it's OK to spread money around and when it's best to not touch it. And sometimes the money shows up in unexpected ways - through the decisions of *other* people (who, I'm pretty certain, can't predict these sudden expenses any more than I can).

Sometimes I get annoyed at the fact that I have to spend these windfalls on things like car repairs or other non-fun things...and then I recover my sense, and am delighted and appreciative that when I needed the money, it showed up.

There are times when I don't listen to that quiet voice, and those have been the only times in which I've had to struggle to have things work, financially.

It does seem to be a lesson that I have to learn over and over. *rueful smile*

But there is more to it than this example.

Overall, what seems to happen is that when there is something I need to be doing, and I don't listen to the whispers about it, the universe makes it impossible for me to do anything else, by taking away my options until I 'get it".

My desire is to develop the ability to listen to the whispers, so that the universe doesn't have to shout at me or bonk me on the head. *smile*

Answer 4

I believe in both, but I also understand why people would not.

Both ideas suggest being 'helpless' to forces greater than oneself, and such an attitude can lead one to take no action, or to feel that one's actions have no meaning and/or purpose.

To control one's destiny, while at the same time to be helpless/receptive to its unwinding, is to walk the razor's edge. The razor does not hurry to meet one's feet, so one's feet do not need to hurry to walk the razor.

Answer 5

Yes I believe in both... I particularly like serendipity :-)

Answer 6

Yes to both questions.

Answer 7

yes we live in a parallel world

Answer 8

No