> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.descentpress.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Synchronicity - URL: https://www.descentpress.com/index/synchronicity/ - Published: 2026-09-05T04:40:52.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-10T02:37:02.000Z - Description: Synchronicity is Jung’s coinage for an acausal connecting principle: a meaningful coincidence of inner and outer events without a causal chain that explains the link. Greek *syn-* (together) + *chrono - Author: Jae Botávn - Tags: #index, #Import 2026-09-04 23:45 ## 1\. Etymology **Synchronicity** is Jung’s coinage for an **acausal connecting principle**: a meaningful coincidence of inner and outer events without a causal chain that explains the link. Greek *syn-* (together) + *chronos* (time)—together-in-time, but the meaning matters more than the clock. Distinct from mere chance coincidence and from causal “influence.” --- ## 2\. Plain summary **Synchronicity** is when something outside lines up with something inside in a way that feels charged with meaning—and you cannot honestly say one caused the other. A dream, idea, or premonition rises; an outer situation matches it. Space and time can feel strangely elastic while the unconscious is in play; when the content is fully conscious, the odd edges often fade. It is not a license for superstition. Jung treated it as a third option beside causality and chance—especially where psyche and matter seem to touch. It sits near the [psychoid](https://www.descentpress.com/index/psychoid/) border and the [collective unconscious](https://www.descentpress.com/index/collective-unconscious/), and it can accompany encounters with [archetype](https://www.descentpress.com/index/archetype/)s or a [god-image](https://www.descentpress.com/index/god-image/) without proving metaphysics. **Examples (exhaustive house list for this Index lemma — common synchronicity-related figures and motifs named across Jung’s essays and standard Jungian lexica; not a claim that Jung’s CW contains only these):** acausal connecting principle; meaningful but not causal relation; coincidence in time/space with psychological meaning; linking psychic and material (often inorganic) worlds; unconscious image entering consciousness (dream / idea / premonition) + objective situation coinciding; relativity of space and time; synchronistic marginal phenomena vanishing as content crosses into consciousness; evocation by lowering consciousness / trance-adjacent states; astrology–marriage statistical exploration (historical experiment, not proof); third option beside causality and chance (1952 essay tradition); [psychoid](https://www.descentpress.com/index/psychoid/) psyche–matter contact; [archetype](https://www.descentpress.com/index/archetype/) constellation as frequent accompaniment; [projection](https://www.descentpress.com/index/projection/) risk (reading meaning into noise); [inflation](https://www.descentpress.com/index/inflation/) risk (ego claims cosmic specialness); relation to [self](https://www.descentpress.com/index/self/) / numinous coincidence; clinical caution vs popular “universe sent me a sign” talk. --- ## 3\. Academic elucidation In analytical psychology synchronicity names an **acausal order of meaningful coincidence** proposed to account for phenomena that obey neither straightforward causality nor pure chance. Lexica list multiple definitional angles (acausal principle; meaningful non-causal relatedness; timed coincidence with psychic meaning; psyche–matter link). Descent Press keeps Sharp and Samuels in §4 so lexicon paraphrase never silently becomes Jung’s voice --- ## 4\. Lexicon **Sharp (1991)** > Synchronicity. A phenomenon where an event in the outside world coincides meaningfully with a psychological state of mind. … Synchronicity … consists of two factors: a) An unconscious image comes into consciousness either directly … or indirectly … b) An objective situation coincides with this content. … Jung associated synchronistic experiences with the relativity of space and time and a degree of unconsciousness. (Sharp, 1991) **Samuels, Shorter & Plaut (1986)** **146–147** (List “synchronicity 146–7”): > Synchronicity … defined in several ways: (1) as an ‘acausal connecting principle’; (2) as referring to events meaningfully but not causally related …; (3) as referring to events that coincide in time and space but can also be seen to have meaningful psychological connections; (4) as linking the psychic and the material worlds… (Samuels, Shorter, & Plaut, 1986, pp. **146–147**) --- ## 5\. CW concordance — sample, not exhaustive > I chose this term because the simultaneous occurrence of two meaningfully but not causally connected events seemed to me an essential criterion. I am therefore using the general concept of synchronicity in the special sense of a coincidence in time of two or more causally unrelated events which have the same or a similar meaning, in contrast to “synchronism”… > (Jung, 1952/1969, CW 8, p. 565, ¶849) > Synchronicity therefore means the simultaneous occurrence of a certain psychic state with one or more external events which appear as meaningful parallels to the momentary subjective state—and, in certain cases, vice versa. > (Jung, 1952/1969, CW 8, pp. 565–566, ¶850) > Synchronicity therefore consists of two factors: a) An unconscious image comes into consciousness either directly … or indirectly … in the form of a dream, idea, or premonition, b) An objective situation coincides with this content. > (Jung, 1952/1969, CW 8, p. 573, ¶858) > … this term has something to do with time or … a kind of simultaneity. Instead of simultaneity we could also use the concept of a meaningful coincidence of two or more events, where something other than the probability of chance is involved. > (Jung, 1951/1969, CW 8, p. 655, ¶969) --- **See also:** [synthetic](https://www.descentpress.com/index/synthetic/); [psychoid](https://www.descentpress.com/index/psychoid/); [archetype](https://www.descentpress.com/index/archetype/); [collective unconscious](https://www.descentpress.com/index/collective-unconscious/); [god-image](https://www.descentpress.com/index/god-image/); [self](https://www.descentpress.com/index/self/); [projection](https://www.descentpress.com/index/projection/); [inflation](https://www.descentpress.com/index/inflation/); [ego](https://www.descentpress.com/index/ego/); [complex](https://www.descentpress.com/index/complex/); [active imagination](https://www.descentpress.com/index/active-imagination/). [transcendent function](https://www.descentpress.com/index/transcendent-function/). ## References Jung, C. G. (1969). On synchronicity. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), *The collected works of C. G. Jung* (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 8, p. 655, ¶969). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1951) Jung, C. G. (1969). Synchronicity: An acausal connecting principle. In H. Read, M. Fordham, G. Adler, & W. McGuire (Eds.), *The collected works of C. G. Jung* (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.) (2nd ed., Vol. 8, pp. 565–566, 573, ¶¶849, 850, 858). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1952) Samuels, A., Shorter, B., & Plaut, F. (1986). *A critical dictionary of Jungian analysis*. Routledge. Sharp, D. (1991). *Jung lexicon: A primer of terms & concepts*. Inner City Books. ---