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Synchronicity, Meaning & Significance
“I want each of you to tell us something that’s beautiful to you. It can be anything, as long as you find it absolutely beautiful.”
The conversation drifted lazily around the circle of students sitting on the floor. People offered answers like “sunsets” and “flowers” and feelings associated with specific moments in life. I remember very distinctly the answer giving by one guy named Stephen, who was really good with wood-working:
“When my girlfriend and I are holding hands, the way that our hands fit together so perfectly.”
Something in me was panicking. At the time I’d never had a girlfriend and even worse, I couldn’t think of a single thing that I thought was beautiful. At the last possible second, I blurted out something along the lines of:
“Well, I always thought that meaning was beautiful…”
My teacher nodded solemnly and the next person offered their response. But on some level I felt ashamed, like he could tell that I didn’t really even know what beauty really was, or how to find it in life.
This moment has stuck with me – gnawed at me - ever since my first year of art school, some seven years ago. It’s one of a million examples in my life of my own intellectual self-absorption, of my inability to access my heart beneath the shield of my mind.
The problem has dogged me for years, and is most likely what drew me into studying meaning-rich semiotic fields like religion, the occult and conspiracies. Though not everyone uses them in this way, for me, these areas have given me an outlet for my mind to run rampant and learn and explore. I wouldn’t have that any other way though – because, fortunately, at the heart of all these fields are unknowable mysteries, points where meaning breaks down and the mind comes to nothing.
I reach those moments all the time nowadays, where I’ve got to leave what I know, and just go. Just accept it and move along. This is the stance that I’ve been coming to lately with a number of things, but in particular with that bugaboo of modern spirituality and consciousness exploration, synchronicity.
Synchronicity is loosely defined as meaningful coincidence. It’s when two events are clustered together in time, but which by all explanations couldn’t possibly have a cause-effect link between them. And yet they seem to follow some kind of common thread of shared meaning or purpose.
After years of such experiences in my own life, I find myself no closer to understanding them though. After years of trying to find the “beautiful meaning” within them, I’m about ready to give up on that line of approach altogether. Lately, I’ve found myself exploring the distinction between meaning and significance. The dictionary definition of the two words seems to be tied together quite closely. Each refers to the other. Meaning is something that carries significance and something that’s significant is something laden with meaning. My own use of the two terms is something more in line with what David Lynch is expressing in this very simple quote:
“I don’t think that people accept the fact that life doesn’t make sense. I think it makes people terribly uncomfortable. It seems like religion and myth were invented against that, trying to make sense out of it.”
So I guess I’m moving away from the notion that life makes sense - that when synchronicities occur, we can sit down and “read” their meanings. And yet they are significant. They are packed with something: energy, power, information, the “numinous”. I don’t know what to call it. And it probably doesn’t matter. What I’m learning to appreciate is that there are moments in life that are simply beautiful - and important for that reason only. Or better yet, for no actual reason.
I wonder too if that’s what the Singularity or the Apocalypse is like: meaning falls screaming from the sky on fire. Every moment is deja vu combined with a psychic premonition, a past life regression, a web of shimmering synchronicity folding in on itself and you. Maybe all synchronicities really “mean” is that you’re approaching your own death, your own apotheosis. Time speeds up. Thoughts slow down until all the universe vibrates together on one harmonious note. Maybe synchronicity is just the notes wafting towards us down the hall from that dress rehearsal. If my girlfriend were here, I would hold her hand and feel the way we fit together to find out, and stay in the beauty of that moment forever.
February 26th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
i make jokes at times about the apocalypse. i say to my baptist friend that maybe it`s already passed and we are here left behind.
it`s the rational mind`s will to name and own spiritual concepts that can, at times, lead to torment. like the artist chasing the ultimate colour combination on the canvas and becoming enraged out of frustration. we see these artist`s work in museums and are in awe of such talent………so where is the frustration in the artist coming from?
you know beauty. it stimulates you deep inside. a sunset. a sudden insight, a piece of music, a woman`s glance.
what someone else thinks of these things is immaterial to how you feel.
your gnosis is as valid as the next person`s.
February 26th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
I find a lot of beauty in synchonicity. I find that beautiful awe-inspiring “magic” happens when you first let go of simple observation and approach the coincidences with unexplainable belief first. Belief is difficult for extreme intellectual types, but it is really quite easy when you let go of intellect and know that you can believe something for a short time and allow yourself to update your beliefs based on new incoming information. An example of belief and synchonicity in my life: I was watching a Seahawks football game with my ex-boyfriend halfway through the season. John was getting pessimistic about the outcome of the game even though it was only the second quarter and we were only 3 points down. He said “I don’t think we’re going to win this one.” I said “I wouldn’t say that, we still have a lot of time.” He said, “I don’t know - they’re just not showing me anything.” Just then I went outside for a cigarette. I looked up in your tree in front of the house, and up high sat a Hawk. I thought that was a fortunate coincidence. I read animals. The Hawk looked straight down at me, so I yelled up “Hey Hawk - are the Seahawks going to win today.” The Hawk bobbed his head up and down, which I interpreted as a positive affirmation. That is the BELIEF. I went back in the house and told John about the Hawk. He didn’t believe it and ran outside to see for himself and sure enough the Hawk was still there. I told him “the Hawk says we’re going to win.” As we watched the last half of the game, it was very close. At the end of the fourth quarter we were tied in overtime. The other side failed to complete three embarrassing field goals in a row. We then kicked a field goal to win the game. I was filled with awe and giddiness. I believe I can read animals. My interpretation of the Hawk’s presence in that very moment and his looking at me and then responding to my question with an affirmative head bob, and the eventual winning solidifies my belief and fills me with a sense of “magic” at work in the world. Until my experiences make me believe a different way, I’m going to keep on believing and keep on experiencing these moments of coincidences or synchronicity.
February 26th, 2006 at 9:48 pm
Anna, that’s a wonderful story…
February 26th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
I think intricacy alone is beautiful. I think if we traced back any moment in our lives, that particular moment is accountable to trillions of variables compounded and multiplied, and if one of those variables happened to be missing along the way, then that moment to which you are referring may never have occurred.
Perhaps that C- you got in Algebra II in 9th grade was a requirement for completing the scenario of meeting your future husband/wife by chance when you’re 28. That is absolutely beautiful to me, and if existence itself is some sort of non-linear thing, then it would make perfect sense to me that we lean towards those preferable variables, perhaps even the seemingly miraculous and astonishing ones, that challenge our “fates.” So, maybe there’s something to spotting those signs. Of course, will we ever know if that’s true? Probably not, but it’s so… fascinating, whichever direction you decide to follow in the path of a life variable.
February 27th, 2006 at 12:22 am
I just had an interesting thought after remembering talking to my aunt this past week about oversaturation of information/options in present American society.
For this thought, let’s suppose for a moment that “following signs” and “fate” and “omens” and all of that… is/are genuinely real.
In our oversaturated society, wouldn’t it make sense that signs would be so much harder to see, or believe in, unless you were really in tune with them?
And wouldn’t it make sense that the generally simple (maybe I mean “more straight-forward”) life-plans of the Ancient Greeks or the Native Americans would be more in tune with seeing and following “signs” given that they didn’t have as many distractions from those signs in their daily lives?
I mean, if you think about all of the goals that we impose upon ourselves in our daily lives, and all of the things we strive to be, it would really make a lot of sense that signs might not always relate to what we are often most thinking about… And maybe it’s perfectly normal for an Epic character to see an omen and understand what it means right away, but for a typical over-immersed American, a bird eating a snake sitting on a flagpole might only make “ironic” sense in retrospect.
So, when we have hundreds of goals, plans, and strive-to-be’s, then what the heck kind of signs do we get? And do we even see them when they’re there, if they are?
February 27th, 2006 at 6:42 am
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February 27th, 2006 at 8:20 am
Seems to me this is exactly the case. Instead of taking our cues directly from the world we evolved for, we now take the majority of our cues from mediated sources, for instance, this conversation is highly abstract and mediated on several levels.
Oh man, Tim, that’s perfect. That perfectly captures an idea I haven’t been able to express at all! Remember how McKenna said “History is the shockwave of the Eschaton.”? He meant that the future Singularity is the cause of all past events, and he was correct, if you mean your personal Eschaton, and your personal history.
If there is indeed an Urphanomen, a First Principle, then everything else is an effect of that cause. If it is possible in this life (getting fuzzy with words, sorry) to meet Unity, to apprehend that One Thing, then that thing cannot be other than our First Principle.
If you have yet to encounter the Ultimate Reference Point, the magnetic monopole, then the ultimate cause of all events is in your future. The cause follows the effect in what we think of as linear time.
Compare Dick’s “Counter-Clock World.”
Now, all that makes sense, but gets harder to imagine when we realize that every human life has at least TWO endpoints that terminate in that coincidentia oppositorum: birth, death, and maybe that time you fell into the yawning chasm that lies behind your interior space…
In the Tuba language, the future is spoken of as being ‘behind’ you, and the past ‘in front of’ you. This is because we can see in front of us, but never behind us.
[url]http://www.enformy.com/dma-time.htm[/url]
It’s so hard to speak of it, because as you approach the Center, all conceptions of it are annihilated. This may be exactly what “approaching the Center” is.
February 27th, 2006 at 9:37 am
I have to comment on the above quote! I can totally relate, as can many friends who I’ve discussed this matter with. I’m not sure if this is the same for eveyrone, but one of the absolute worst things “schooling” did to me was give this “mind” of mine a blank check with which it could assume power, dominance, and superiority over anything truly from the heart (or “inside”). In high school English class, for instance, I remember getting A+’s on a few timed-writing essays, but feeling empty inside, for deep down I had no connection with the “truth” that I had been so-well trained to reproduce and present to the teacher on that sheet of paper. I was trained to write that which would get me a good grade, and so I did, and I was rewarded. And with my reward (of “good” grades -> “good” college -> “good” job -> “happiness”) this was all re-inforced. Luckily, at some point along the road, enough whispers got through the defenses to jolt me awake and to life. Did/does school do this to everyone? I cannot know.
February 27th, 2006 at 12:57 pm
I have something to add, but first can anyone tell me if they have some experience with 11:11?
February 27th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Chars and Lauren - thanks for your note. Next time, I’d much prefer it if you posted self-promotional items in my forum as I like to keep comments topical:
http://www.timboucher.com/forum
Thanks!
February 27th, 2006 at 1:42 pm
SubstanceM, I’ve had plenty of 3:33 and 4:44 experiences, and I’m sure I’ve had a few days of 11:11 ones. But there were definitely a few seasons worth of the 3:33 and 4:44 ones. For a really long time, I’d find myself going to bed at 3:33 or waking up randomly and noticing that the clock said 3:33.
February 27th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
Ant, thanks for responding.
I get plenty of the 11:22, 3:33, 4:44’s as well.
Also x:11 (11 mins past the hour)
Also, it often has nothing to do with actual time
(i see 11:11 on a digital recording device timing,
or on a clock that is not displaying the correct time, etc)
I know this is a phenom that is somehow shared, although I don’t know why or what the fuck it might possibly mean (despite the explanations found on the internet…)
Any ideas?
My signifant story is this: after seeing 11:11 constantly over a period of years (since ‘91 - some time periods more regularly than others, in fact I had written off at some point a year or so ago, but it came back with a vengeance…)
Over the last couple months or so, I had noticed a movie advertised on the movie channel “Hell’s Gate 11:11″. Of course, I wanted to see it and see what kind of explanation the movie cooked up, but usually I had just missed it or it was at a time when I wouldn’t be available to watch. Well, yesterday all the stars aligned, I was home alone (family out for a few hours), smokables tucked away inside my brain, turn on the TV and - there it is, starting in 30 mins. So I am laughing out loud at that point, seeing as how it seems synchronistic that it planted itself in a good scheduled time for me…and by god, I am expecting some fucking meaning out of it.
Turns out - cheesy horror movie with not much to say about 11:11 itself except to give it some mystical place in the otherwise run of the mill movie. There were some interesting parts and references (including to schizophrenia) and in particular there was a calendar showing 1969 that seemed to have nothing else to do with the movie, which for me personally is a significant year. However, overall a big letdown on the “meaning” I was looking for (although I wasn’t too crushed by any means - I have long since noticed and accepted this phenomenon without getting any real good explaination as to why or even expecting any good reason as to why)
Sooo. To bring it back to the topic of the post, am I wasting my time trying to find some meaning in that, or even encouraging it by remaining interested, OR - is it something significant that should be pursued…
February 27th, 2006 at 3:10 pm
The apocalypse idea sounds really dramatic.
I see synchronic moments as blemishes or wrinkles or whorls in the seamless fabric of the great Universe. The Big U is always there, we’re so deep in it, we can hardly see it. Then some ripple comes along (caused by someone’s thought? a butterfly flapping its wing 2000 years ago?) and we say, “oh, wait, everything really is connected to everything else!”
So, basically, all synchronicity does is show us how disconnected we all really feel.
February 27th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Substance M: I have been having the 11:11 and 1:11 sitings for years! At first, I thought it should hold some sort of significance, and did some research on the web. The closest thing I found that I could relate to is that 11:11 represents a door to high consciousness. The idea being, that when you see 11:11, examine what you were doing or thinking in that moment. And see if there is any way you could take those thoughts or events to a higher evolution via the available doorway. It’s conscious evolution. That’s all I’ve been able to come up with on it.
February 27th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
I just saw the 11:11 above, and am now choosing to use it as a doorway for higher evolution! I often lurk around reading these comments pages, but now I will respond. I wonder why I have never noticed the 11:11 before? Perhaps it is because I was not looking for it. Hello.
February 27th, 2006 at 5:07 pm
Anna, yes. Also 1:11. Like I said, I first noticed this in 1991, so there have been so many of those I can’t even count them. When I first go myself hooked up to the internet in around ‘94 /95, I somehow thought to search 11:11, and lo and behold there were OTHER PEOPLE EXPERIENCING THE SAME THING!!! At the time, blew me right the fuck away. But, then I read what was being proposed as the “answer” to this strange phenom, and I found it to be a lot of new age hewey (from my perspective, at the time and still today). The Solaris doorway or whatever - my next question was, well how the fuck does Solaris know what it means? then I found a lot of other people’s explanations, which differed from Solaris (or Solara, whatever that main site that pops up when u search 11:11) - so, no one really knows. I am sure I could make up a cool reason, teach myself to buy it, and then try to sell it to others who really want an answer… but I ain’t doing that. So it leaves me back at square one. And it’s become so well known, there are now movies popping up with 11:11 in the title. It’s kind of like having your favorite club band that u know is great finally getting out to the point that they are filling stadiums…
Anyway - my 2 cents on what it might be are:
a: because of the nature of those numbers look on a digital display, your peripheral vision catches it and makes you look before you consciously register the time. But - I am not too sold on that as, like Ant said above, often I wake up from dead sleep and look at the clock displaying 11:11, 1:11, 3:33, 4:44…
b: someone played a mass sugesstibility experiment of some kind at some time in the past, and I was exposed to it as others. I don’t know…just a none too mystical explanation. One thing I have noticed is that when I mentioned to others (my girlfriend, my brother) they also started to catch 11:11 regularly. But I seem to be the longest running / most consistent with it….
Saigon: I don’t know what ur talking about. I don’t know if you see 11:11 regularly, but whether or not you can “use it” as a “doorway” - maybe, I dunno. You need to understand then HOW you are supposed to use it. I don’t.
February 27th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
Today, as I was pulling out of my parking space at the grocery store, just thinking about what I had to do next- take my daughter to the dentist, feed the dog, etc.; I had to come to a complete stop in my attempt to leave the parking lot because a car was blocking me from making a right turn. I was on the verge of tooting my horn and silently cursing him, when I saw that he had stopped to let a duck cross safely in front of him. As I watched the duck waddle cluelessy across the road, I couldn’t help but look at the man in the car and smile. He smiled back and gave me a little wave. This stranger and I shared a moment in time where our busy, important worlds had to come to a complete standstill because of this incredible duck. The encounter left me with a warm feeling and the momentary awareness of what is important in life.