Hand of God: Synchronicity or Coincidence?

What’s the difference between random coincidence and synchronicity?

Is there a difference? In this article Yoga U Contributor David G. Arenson explores synchronicity and how to invite it into your life.

Out of the blue, something catches your attention, a blinding flash seemingly answering an inner calling or question.

Have you ever met someone one day and bumped into them “randomly” the following day or soon thereafter? Or have you seen a word that answers a question you’ve been meditating on? Or have you ever found a strange connection appear before you out of nowhere?

A voice from the divine, or just coincidence?

Recently, I’ve been dating someone who showed me her vision board, and on the top, she had unknowingly placed a cut-out of one of my articles, “Choosing Love,” from a local magazine. I was speechless. She had no idea that it was written by me, as she had taken it from the front cover and didn’t even know I was an author.

Some stories I’ve heard recently:

Andy was searching for a copy of The Alchemist, a book she had lent to her cousin and it had got lost. That day her housemate was spring cleaning the house, throwing out old books in a box and dropped off a copy of The Alchemist on her desk, thinking she may like it.

Paulo was sitting at his computer writing an email when his cat Milo jumped onto his keyboard. On the screen, appeared the letters “JFK.” Paulo had been studying political history for a project at college.

These seemingly random encounters seem to be “signs” that something significant is at work. Recently, many people have been acutely aware of synchronicity occurring in their lives. Let’s further explore the dance of synchronicity and what it may mean in our lives.

Synchronicity is a concept originally coined by Carl Jung to describe meaningful coincidences—the “acausal connecting principle” that links mind and matter and supersedes cause and effect. At many times in history, there has been a case of the simultaneous discovery of the same thing. This is well documented in science.

I was first introduced to the concept of synchronicity years ago when I read James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy. Redfield theorizes that all coincidences are important because they direct the way to an unfolding of our personal destiny.

I have been through periods heavily influenced by the concept that synchronicity was meaningful. Many of the major events of my life have been guided by synchronicity—relationships beginning and ending, work, career paths, etc. I’ve had moments where I’ve been a Celestine prophecy “devotee”—seeing meaning in every event. I would caution people that there needs to be a caveat: Not all synchronicities are meaningful!

I’ve come to see that not all coincidences and events in our lives mean something. Bumping into the postman when he’s delivering the mail doesn’t necessarily mean anything beyond him doing his job, and you doing yours, and those events coinciding for a moment. The problem with relying too much on synchronicity is that it can take away your own free will or intention out of your life, and rely too much on “acts of God”—promoting reactivity (waiting for God) instead of promoting being proactive (taking action).

Sometimes one can search too hard for spiritual meanings in daily events that may really just be co-incidents. Since we live in a conscious universe, no events are actually accidental. However not all events are equally meaningful or significant.

The lines between synchronicity, precognition and clairvoyance are blurred. For example, have you ever thought of a friend, and then received a phone call from them, or seen them later on?

Just last week, I was chatting to a friend about catching up with her in the morning, and that night bumped into her at an isolated restaurant. How did that happen? Of all the thousands of restaurants how could we both end up at the same one? Surely such an event is unlikely to occur by random chance. My friend later mentioned she had seen me walking in the park earlier. Maybe there was a message or transaction that we needed to communicate to each other, or perhaps our earlier communication had connected our energies and aligned our paths.

Synchronicity can hint at destiny, or it can come via dipping your feet into the divine matrix, or field of consciousness. Jung pointed to an underlying field of consciousness, which he called underlying connectedness. It can also be a message or sign sent from angelic beings or spirit guides, if you believe in those.

I recall the day after my grandmother dying seeing an old graceful lady waiting with me at a tram stop, and feeling that it was a message from my grandmother that she was with me still.

Sound familiar? Remind you of something? Perhaps it’s a synchronistic moment reading these words. Would you like to awaken and activate synchronicity?

7 Ways to Open to Synchronicity

1. Be open to receive the wisdom of each moment as it unfolds.
Synchronicity reveals an underlying pattern in the universe, a large guiding framework that organizes our lives.

2. Know what you want.
Having a clear idea of what we want to create in our lives, what we want our lives to be like, encourages synchronicity.

Redfield’s seventh insight is, “Knowing our personal mission further enhances the flow of mysterious coincidences as we are guided toward our destinies.”

Synchronicity can hint at our life path, or remind us of where we are headed, or guide us to change direction. Synchronicity brings us relationships and love. There are so many stories of mysterious coincidences that bring two lovers together. Synchronicity brings gifts to be treasured.

3. Synchronicity is an energy.
Change your energetic or vibrational frequency to reflect the feeling or reality you wish to embody. For instance, if you want to feel more love, be loving.

Changing our frequency will change the people we attract into our lives. We are all communicating with the field of energy around us. Who we are being and how we are feeling affects this field.

4. Be in service of the people in your life and all humanity.

Redfield’s eighth insight is, “We can increase the frequency of guiding coincidences by uplifting every person that comes into our lives.”It is our responsibility to others to be awake and aware of the potential of each moment to touch and help another.

5. Let go.
I have found that synchronicities occur when I am active in the world, being and feeling more than just doing—when I am more in the “zone” in terms of awareness and consciousness. Surrender to this field.

6. Relax!
Synchronicity requires being relaxed. It cannot be willed or forced.

Expanding our awareness within the infinite sea of consciousness is tapping into possibility. When you access this field of energy—call it the universal field or the divine matrix—you are tapping into a field which is loving, abundant, and in which nothing is impossible. Stress or unease breaks our natural communication with this field. It also obstructs our ability to “see” beyond the obvious, to go deeper into awareness.

7. Embrace the mystery!
Synchronicity is about being awakened to the infinite possibilities available to us within the divine matrix of perception. Have fun with it, embrace it, and let it flow to you like the pure water of a spring. Allow the mystery to unfold. As the White Queen said to Alice, “It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.” (Lewis Carroll)

You can be the director and star of your own film. You decide how it is.

David Arenson is a Transformational Healer and Soul-Coach actively seeking partners to co-create his vision of an enlightened and unified planet of choice. He is working on a book on self-empowerment, and developing journey retreats to places of spiritual activation.