There Are No Accidents: Synchroncity and the Stories of Our Lives

Rating:
Summary: It is easier to wade through molasses...
Review: ... with your hands tied behind your back and your ankles in shackles. ... I had such high hopes for this book and it turned out to be pointless drivel. The examples were repetitious and irrelevant. This would have made a decent magazine article, most certainly not book material!

Rating:
Summary: This book is a dud
Review: Having been introduced to the IChing, an ancient Chinese oracle which is intimately related to synchronicity, I was more than excited to read this book by Hopcke and see someone else's take on this much experienced, yet rarely talked about phenomenon in our lives. Well, what a waste of time this turned out to be. Hopcke starts out his book introducing the reader to synchronicity and Carl Jung, the 20th century psychologist who first grew aware of and then coined the now-famous phrase for those "meaningful coincidences" that we all experience from time to time. (Obviously, you think, the man has done his research.) But then what starts off as a promising exploration into the strange domain of synchronicity becomes a rambling, incoherent, befuddled explanation of what synchronicity may or may not signify. Now I know I'm not the smartest chick in the world, but I think that even with the most abstract writing, one should get even just a gist of what was said, or even the sense that something was said at all. I had no such luck with There are No Accidents. Read the book again and again, try to figure out the central thesis of Hopcke's work, and you will be hard up for an answer. What's he trying to say exactly? That synchronicity is important? That it has a function in our lives? What does he think synchronicity is, anyway? And why did he write this book? These are the questions I asked myself upon reading it. But then I realized, what "There Are No Accidents" really is, is the work of a man thinking out loud about synchronicity without having come to a finished theory about what it could be. (It doesn't even come close to tackling this subject at a respectable depth.) But what Hopcke's work also is, is a book symbolic of an all too familiar trend in New Age literature-- the feel-good, inspirational claptrap that wraps itself up in mystical, esoteric-speak without saying anything in particular. Please, don't waste your time reading it. Save your money.

Rating:
Summary: A clearly written eploration of synchronicity in life.
Review: I enjoyed reading this exploration of one of Carl Jung's central concepts of synchronicity. Hopcke explores the concept in various contexts and situations from love relationships to our spiritual lives. I found his reminder that the meaning we give to synchronicity is after the event and that each of us has a different sense of the importance of a synchronistic happening. I decided to use his book as required reading in a college course on Jung's ideas applied to one's personal life. The students seem to be enjoying his writing as well. The book is very readable and engaging.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting premise...
Review: I had never heard of Jung's theory of synchronicity and found the book intriguing--for the first few chapters. Then it became repetitious. But it is thought-provoking--just know when to quit reading! Actually, it has made me more conscious of coincidences around me (I've had quite a few recently with a name from the past mentioned, then getting e-mail from the person the next day). However, one could take the theory to the extreme and try to find meaning in EVERY coincidence, thus driving themselves and everyone around them crazy. The book never addresses this to my satisfaction.

Rating:
Summary: fantasy is not cyncronicity.
Review: Mr Hopcke is a fine writer and a good scholar of deepth psycology. I read his two previous books with interest and respect. It is a pitty this last one was so superfitial in his treatment of one of the most facinating and complex of Carl Jungs thoughts: cynchronicity. After explaining what cynchronicity is at the beginning of the book we can say goodby to the scholar. R. Hopcke writes (in a readers diggest sugary style) as the tittle says on cynchronicity as an aspect of every day life and that there are no accidents in peoples personal stories. "Well...What could be more flattering to a boring middle age man or women?" This is in deed an intereting hyphothesis and an appealing way to make sence of ones experience. In the 6 or so chapters he goes to show how a facinating concep could become a very simplistic idea. Him and his friends he tell us as a way to prove his point, are full of meaninfull coincedences, from the people they marry to the name they give to the dog! In their love lives and in their work. The more chapters one reads the shallower the wholle concept seems. It will be a pitty if people who read this book will come out thinking that they understand cyncrhonicity. When in fact what they are reading is the tranformation Mr. Hopcke gives to very ordinary and boring events in the lives of his lady friends and mates, into speudo spiritual and trasdendental events. I would be happy to belive it but he doesn't do it very convicingly. Well if so fine writer is doing this type of books and their are selling it says more about him and also about how much people are, now at days, looking for a way to have some meaning in their lives, it would be sad if many of them are willing to belive in such simplistic conception of it.

Rating:
Summary: fantasy is not cyncronicity.
Review: Mr Hopcke is a fine writer and a good scholar of deepth psycology. I read his two previous books with interest and respect. It is a pitty this last one was so superfitial in his treatment of one of the most facinating and complex of Carl Jungs thoughts: cynchronicity. After explaining what cynchronicity is at the beginning of the book we can say goodby to the scholar. R. Hopcke writes (in a readers diggest sugary style) as the tittle says on cynchronicity as an aspect of every day life and that there are no accidents in peoples personal stories. "Well...What could be more flattering to a boring middle age man or women?" This is in deed an intereting hyphothesis and an appealing way to make sence of ones experience. In the 6 or so chapters he goes to show how a facinating concep could become a very simplistic idea. Him and his friends he tell us as a way to prove his point, are full of meaninfull coincedences, from the people they marry to the name they give to the dog! In their love lives and in their work. The more chapters one reads the shallower the wholle concept seems. It will be a pitty if people who read this book will come out thinking that they understand cyncrhonicity. When in fact what they are reading is the tranformation Mr. Hopcke gives to very ordinary and boring events in the lives of his lady friends and mates, into speudo spiritual and trasdendental events. I would be happy to belive it but he doesn't do it very convicingly. Well if so fine writer is doing this type of books and their are selling it says more about him and also about how much people are, now at days, looking for a way to have some meaning in their lives, it would be sad if many of them are willing to belive in such simplistic conception of it.

Rating:
Summary: An assist for the search for meaning in life.
Review: Synchronicity is well described and illustrated by examples in this book. Hopcke defines synchronistic events as being acausal, symbolic, emotional, and transitional. He gives not only the examples of various types of synchronicities but goes on to explore the meaning of the synchronicity.

The book can function for the reader on two levels.

First, on a personal level, individuals may seek to examine their own lives for synchonicities which will assist them in their own transitions and personal growth.

Second, on a generalized level, a reader can begin to understand the behavior of others as related to the phenomena. Understanding the meaning of other's life events, etc. is a very rich source of interest. To wit, note our practical mania for movies, TV, books, articles, and music. In the time of a day's work, we often find many people constantly developing personal themes of synchronicity. We can be supportive as they develop their own meaning from these life events and we can enjoy the sharing of their stories.

This little book is thought provoking and interesting.

Rating:
Summary: An assist for the search for meaning in life.
Review: Synchronicity is well described and illustrated by examples in this book. Hopcke defines synchronistic events as being acausal, symbolic, emotional, and transitional. He gives not only the examples of various types of synchronicities but goes on to explore the meaning of the synchronicity.

The book can function for the reader on two levels.

First, on a personal level, individuals may seek to examine their own lives for synchonicities which will assist them in their own transitions and personal growth.

Second, on a generalized level, a reader can begin to understand the behavior of others as related to the phenomena. Understanding the meaning of other's life events, etc. is a very rich source of interest. To wit, note our practical mania for movies, TV, books, articles, and music. In the time of a day's work, we often find many people constantly developing personal themes of synchronicity. We can be supportive as they develop their own meaning from these life events and we can enjoy the sharing of their stories.

This little book is thought provoking and interesting.

Rating:
Summary: This book is a dud
Review: This book did not even have any application exercises. I expected following each chapter some exercises or affirmations I could use to turn my life around and have someone tap me on the shoulder for a job interview. I thought this book book was aimed at the general psychiatrist instead of the average layman. I would of liked to see a suggestion in this book to keep a journal. For this book keep, your money in your wallet. It is not even worth $13.00 plus tax. Show me how to improve my bottom line income and you got my interest.