Synchronicity : Through the Eyes of Science, Myth and the Trickster

Rating:
Summary: The return of human meaning to the cosmos
Review: I read the first edition of this book years ago and the concepts in it have haunted me ever since. Then, I bought my own copy of this second edition and found that the ideas contained in it had lost none of their power and were every bit as profound as I had remembered.

Briefly, this book deals with the concept of synchronicity or meaningful coincidence. It deals with it on two levels, the level of science and the level of myth. Indeed, it is shown that synchronistic events in themselves demonstrate the interpenetration of matter (the realm of science) and mind (the realm of myth.) Synchronicity is shown to leap the gap between not only the conscious and unconscious aspects of the mind, but between the world of mind and the world objective events. In this way it corresponds very well to the myth of Hermes, the god of boundaries, and the messenger between the world of the gods and the world of men.

The greatest strength of this book over other treatments of the topic is the clear and up-to-date manner that it addresses the possible scientific explanations of synchronicity. It draws primarily from the world of the new physics. Here is an extremely clear explanation of Bohm's theories on a holographic universe with explicate (physical, day-to-day) and implicate (hidden and fundamental) orders. In spite of the references to the modern world of subatomic physics, it struck me that this sounds remarkably like the hidden currents of the cosmos that occultists have always alluded to. The pattern based theories of Sheldrake, Laszlo, and Chester are also examined and compared. Indeed, the concepts of morphic fields and resonance seem to uncannily resemble the old magical principles of sympathy and correspondence between our own world and the world of archetypes. Indeed, it is shown that a balanced mind (both hemispheres at the same frequency) in deep meditation or prayer may be able to "range" the implicate order and bring about increased instances of synchronicity. Since it is suggested that synchronicity is the real basis for all ESP phenomena ( telepathy, precognition, psychokinesis, etc.) it could be said that this is an effective explanation for the concept of sympathetic magic.

The use of the concept of the mythological trickster is especially appropriate and effective. Many times synchronistic coincidences seem to exist for no other reason that to shatter our preconceived and ossified concepts of the universe. That was also the function of Hermes/ Mercurius/ Coyote in mythology. It is also the function of this book in a world still mired in the dogma of materialistic scientism.

Rating:
Summary: let go of your 'life' line
Review: The previous reviewer ("Throw out a life line") - who seems to be trying to sell an unpublished science fiction story to Hollywood - is typical of the mental-rational minded types who see the Universe as a big clockwork toy, a camera, a sewing machine and other metaphors governed by his own unique take on Planck's theory (see his website). Whatever. Such hyper-rationalist always miss the point of such informative, playful and subtle books as Comb's and Holland's "Synchronicity".

Maybe the point is indeed to drown - the rational ego that is - which is continually trying to wrap the Trickster up in neat mechanistic metaphors. This book is a wonderful introduction to the archetypes and psychological and scientific theories constellating around the acausal realm of 'coincidences.' I feel in good company with Georg Feuerstein, the late Willis Harman, David Loye and Guy Burneko in recognizing that this book speaks to us at the mythic, mental and integral or intuitional levels of consciousness and holds them all together with a light eloquent style that belies it's intent - as the authors say at the end: "Dance, like play, is a metaphor for a state of being that is both relaxed and disciplined.Both are open and responsive to relaxed intuition... To dance is to move in the rhythm of this entire orchestration. And so we must learn to dance."

Along with many other excellent books on the Trickster - including Lewis Hydes' "Trickster Makes This World", Antoine Faivre's, "The Eternal Hermes", and two classics, Norman O. Brown's "Hermes the Thief", and Raphael Lopez Pedraza's "Hermes' Children," this book reveals a powerful yet hidden god for the Western mind which needs no lifeline back to the leaky ship of rationalism.

Rating:
Summary: let go of your 'life' line
Review: This book must have had a stormy editing life. I see no mention of one listed author, a Robin Robertson, on my copy. Also, the CONTENTS list doesn't even mention the sometime added Appendix III which is a piece, titled The PSI-FIELD HYPOTHESIS, written by E. Laszlo, (by far the most interesting piece in the book). Laszlo is identified only in the foot note.

The correct title for this piece should have been THE TRICKSTER'S MANY FACES. Chapter Six which it titled The Meaning of Synchronicity is again all about Hermes (one form of the Trickster), The Trickster at Play, and The Divine Trickster. Their thesis is another attempt at presenting a secular Deity by authors who have all but run out on the rational. Read some of their curtain call: "Like the flea, we must eventually give up our effort to penetrate the impenetrable and surrender to a reality which we cannot master but to which we must submit. In the end, to be honest to our exploration of synchronicity we must ourselves surrender to it. ... Through surrender we learn to move with the rhythms that flow through our existence and in so doing open ourselves to the wellsprings of life that are the gift of the divine Trickster." (P 144). Thankfully, this was the end of their work. All that was missing was an "Amen." Read this book with diminished expectations. The Authors were almost DROWNED by such materials as they dared to swim in. I felt like throwing them a life line.

Rating:
Summary: Throw Out a Life Line
Review: This book must have had a stormy editing life. I see no mention of one listed author, a Robin Robertson, on my copy. Also, the CONTENTS list doesn't even mention the sometime added Appendix III which is a piece, titled The PSI-FIELD HYPOTHESIS, written by E. Laszlo, (by far the most interesting piece in the book). Laszlo is identified only in the foot note.

The correct title for this piece should have been THE TRICKSTER'S MANY FACES. Chapter Six which it titled The Meaning of Synchronicity is again all about Hermes (one form of the Trickster), The Trickster at Play, and The Divine Trickster. Their thesis is another attempt at presenting a secular Deity by authors who have all but run out on the rational. Read some of their curtain call: "Like the flea, we must eventually give up our effort to penetrate the impenetrable and surrender to a reality which we cannot master but to which we must submit. In the end, to be honest to our exploration of synchronicity we must ourselves surrender to it. ... Through surrender we learn to move with the rhythms that flow through our existence and in so doing open ourselves to the wellsprings of life that are the gift of the divine Trickster." (P 144). Thankfully, this was the end of their work. All that was missing was an "Amen." Read this book with diminished expectations. The Authors were almost DROWNED by such materials as they dared to swim in. I felt like throwing them a life line.