Synchronicity and Flow 2

“ … our tongues grew tired and running out of things to say. She gave a kiss to me as I got out and I watched her drive away. Just for a moment I was back in school. And felt that old familiar pain. And as I turned to make my way back home, the snow turned into rain.” Dan Fogelberg - Auld Lang Syne

As an amateur songwriter, a lover of music and a great fan of Dan Fogelberg, I’ve always wondered whether he missed a synchronicity in this event that he describes – something that was designed to be a wake-up call for him.

In this song (which was based on an actual event), he writes of very unexpectedly running into an old love at a grocery store one winter evening. They hadn’t seen each other in many years but their continued attraction could not be denied and they spend a quiet evening together reminiscing and talking about their lives. She was in a marriage that hadn’t worked well for her in many years. He talked of traveling the country playing concerts where “the audience was heavenly but the traveling was hell.” Finally, it was time for them to say goodbye as described in the verses above. And, with an ache in his heart, he watched her drive away and out of his life … once again.

The power of this event reminds me of a story I once read of a man who had been dating two women – Judy and Pamela – and felt strongly about them both but could not decide which he should pursue in earnest. Troubled by this conundrum, he hopped in his car for a ride to clear his head and think about his situation. As he was traveling down the road, he noticed the license plate on the car directly in front of him. It was a vanity plate that read, “Its Judy.” It hit him like a sledge hammer. Indeed, it was Judy. They lived happily ever after.

Synchronicities are coincidences that are so improbable and rich with meaning that they could not be attributed to chance alone. Many times synchronicities occur during periods of emotional passion, struggle and transformation; illnesses, death, birth, epiphanies, shifts in belief structures and changes in professions or relationships. They tend to cluster or peak when a person is about to experience a significant new insight or an expansion in consciousness.

They are evidence of the implicate order. The celebrated physicist, David Bohm, has stated that the separateness of consciousness and matter is simply an illusion in which we believe and that occurs when consciousness and matter unfold into the explicate world of bits and pieces and sequential time. If consciousness and matter are unified in the implicate order – the basis for all reality, however interpreted – then we should expect that our reality would be peppered with traces of this profound connection.

Physicist David Peat takes it one step further suggesting that synchronicities are “flaws in the fabric of reality” that create temporary splits permitting a brief peek into the enormous and unitary order that supports the entire cosmos.

They reflect the connection between the physical world, our psychological reality and our higher self. They are the whispering voice that comes from behind us and tells us to turn right or turn left when we stray off our road.

“Perhaps you would be happier if you moved on to another profession. Here’s a suggestion.”

“Is this the relationship you are really supposed to be in? Or do you need to move in another direction?”

“This person has entered your life for a reason. Pay attention.”

“You are ready to take your consciousness to the next level. Here’s what you need to do.”

“Your belief structures are suffocating you. It’s time to stretch.”

Frequent synchronicities reflect a connectedness with our larger reality – the implicate order. They act like maps. They tell us when we’re headed in the right direction, when to think carefully about a decision facing us and when we’ve gotten off our road and are instead following someone else’s.

They tend to cluster during challenging times in our lives because we find ourselves, during those times, intensely searching for answers, continually reflecting on “why this happened” and what we need to do to get back on our path. Intense focus can tear the veil between the implicate and explicate orders. When that happens, your reality is briefly unified and synchronicities slip through the opening.

An absence of synchronicities in your life can reflect the extent to which you have fragmented yourself from the larger field of consciousness and from your higher self – that part of you that helped build the plan for your life here on earth.

Practice looking for synchronicities in your life. Sometimes we are so busy with other matters we do not recognize them when they occur. Sometimes we are so disconnected from our larger realities that it’s difficult for them to manifest. Sometimes we are simply in denial.

Spend reflective time thinking about whom you are, why you are here and what you are supposed to be doing. Meditate on the nature of your life, your level of happiness, your vocational calling and your relationships. Engage in practices that make you feel whole – art, music, reading, meditation or walking through the woods or along the beach. Then practice patience … and listen for the whispered voice to guide you.