Some error occured while loading the Quick View. Please close the Quick View and try reloading the page.
Explores the plausibility and value of viewing synchronicity as a form of spiritual experience.
In this fascinating book, Roderick Main examines meaningful coincidence or what Swiss psychiatrist C. G. Jung called synchronicity. Moving beyond Jung's psychological theory, he explores the plausibility and value of viewing synchronicity as a form of spiritual experience and clarifies connections between the phenomenon and a range of traditional spiritual concepts, including numinosity, miraculousness, transformation, unity, transcendence and immanence, providence, and revelation. Through the detailed analysis of two remarkable series of synchronistic events, Main illustrates and further develops these connections. He also includes an examination of the alleged synchronistic basis of the ancient Chinese Oracle of Change, the I Ching.
"This is a valuable contribution to our thinking and mission in the churches, as the idea of 'the spiritual' is becoming more and more accepted as a mark of the human being, and a bridge between Christians and the secular … I strongly recommend this book." — Revd William A. Simons, The Christian Parapsychologist
"Main's presentation of the existing literature on synchronicity is nearly exhaustive. He explicates the varying positions held by others and then proceeds to criticize all of them. His criticisms of others, especially Jung, are unfailingly logical, precise, and fair. He then lays out his own views systematically and illustrates them in an array of venues, each of which he analyzes methodically and open-mindedly. Bold and original, this is an important work." — Robert A. Segal, University of Aberdeen
"By breaking synchronicity out of the cage of psychological study into the larger world of religious and spiritual concern, Main addresses an important topic that has not been adequately treated despite the recent torrent of writing on synchronicity. The care and thoroughness of his analysis is impressive. Mature, authoritative, and interesting, this is Main's best work." — Victor Mansfield, author of Synchronicity, Science, and Soul-Making: Understanding Jungian Synchronicity through Physics, Buddhism, and Philosophy
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
2. Synchronicity and Spirit
3. The Spiritual Dimension of Spontaneous Synchronicities
4. Symbol, Myth, and Synchronicity: The Birth of Athena
5. Multiple Synchronicities of a Chess Grandmaster
6. The Self-Revelation of Synchronicity as Spirit: A Modern Grail Story
7. Synchronicity and Spirit in the I Ching
Notes
References
Index