You missed the train and on the quay you met the love of your life. You received money at the exact moment you needed it. This is the magic of synchronicity: they are coincidences that sometimes leave you speechless and let you see a new path.

What Is Synchronicity?

Psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung brought us the term “synchronicity,” which literally means “falling together in time.” Synchronicity describes the surprise that occurs when a thought in the mind is mirrored by an external event to which it has no apparent causal connection.

Read this story told by Jung to understand what synchronicity is about.

A young woman of high education and serious demeanor entered Jung’s office. Jung could see that her quest for psychological change was doomed unless he was able to succeed in softening her rationalist shell with “a somewhat more human understanding.” He needed the magic of coincidence. He asked for it, searched his surroundings for it. He remained attentive to the young woman, while hoping something unexpected and irrational would turn up. 

As she described a golden scarab—a costly piece of jewellery—she had received in a dream the night before, he heard a tapping on the window. He looked and saw a gold-green glint. Jung opened the window to coincidence. He plucked the scarab beetle out of the air. The beetle, closely resembling the golden scarab, was just what he needed—or just what she needed. “Here is your scarab,” he said to the woman, as he handed her a link between her dream and the real world.

A synchronic event goes beyond mere coincidence because it has a transforming power, which marks a before and after in your personal history.

In order to notice synchronicity, you need to develop attention and spirit of observation.

If you begin to notice with curiosity what happens to you during the day, your everyday life would become a joyful space of possibility and opportunity.

Hidden or obvious, these ephemeral messages are so precious that they deserve our full attention. Then you will see that the more you notice these significant coincidences, the more they multiply and will help you get out of your routine. Moreover, you will be headed for something new. By changing your perspective, you will also be able to make your reality move on.

Try one of these games and see what feelings you get.

Here is the first one that is called Bibliomancy.

1. Write down a question in a notebook or a sheet.
2. Pick up your favourite book, or the book that is nearest to you. Note down its title.
3. Close your eyes, and open up the book randomly.
4. Before opening your eyes, run your hands along the page and point with one finger at a random line.
5. Open your eyes and read the sentence or paragraph. Note down the page number and line number.
6. Consider what implication the passage you pointed to has on the question you posed, and write down some reflections.

Here is another one that I call “The Sidewalk Observation Game”. Even with this game you can get an unexpected message by putting you in touch with a symbol or situation.

Start by writing down a question. Walk with your senses in full alert and notice all the details. For example, catch some elements of a conversation between two people you cross during your walk, read an advertisement, look at a graffiti or a newspaper left on a bench. These are signs that can help you find the answer to your question.

Even slips or dysgraphia can be a clue to explore. For example, I often write massage instead of message. I think I may need a massage …

These tips come to you so that you can open doors and not close them. They offer you the opportunity to enjoy meaningful experiences with enthusiasm and enjoyment and abandon the plans established by your ego.

In this way, you have the opportunity to connect to the collective unconscious because you adhere to positive and non-blocking beliefs. The more you pay attention to synchronicity, the more your neurological and emotional circuits are positively stimulated and they create new behavioural patterns, install beneficial habits that connect you with the consciousness of the universe.

The Time of Synchronicity

As the Greek root of this word shows, synchronicity refers to time (syn means meeting and chronos means time). The ancient Greeks conceived synchronicity in three distinct ways: the chronos, which corresponds to a linear flow; the aion, or the endless cycles; the kairos, that is the right moment to act.

In the Greek mythology there is the winged god Kairos. When Kairos passes by there are three possibilities:

1. You don’t see him;
2. You see him but you do nothing;
3. In the moment he passes by you give him your hand to grasp the chance he is offering you.

In practice, synchronicity is telling you carpe diem, namely seize the moment.

What do you do when Kairos passes by next to you?