Synchronicity and the Unus Mundus

The acausal ordering principle underlying both, the psychical and physical worlds is regular and preset everywhere as Jung’s Unus Mundus. The synchronistic events are those instances in which this acausal order becomes visible to consciousness, i.e. it breaks into consciousness. Naturally, the question arises why we could not always experience the world in its acausal reality.

As von Franz puts it: “Obwohl diese Akte wahrscheinlich ständig in der Natur geschehen, werden sie nur zu sinnvollen Zufällen, wenn ein Individuum sie als solche erlebt” (von Franz, 2003, p. 342). The answer can be found in our previous discussions on consciousness and its interaction with the unconscious. While - as we have just further solidified - both are united, there is a tension between them that arises from the properties consciousness has developed in differentiating the view Jung has on the development of consciousness from the unconscious is decompositional, that is, the whole constituted by the collective unconscious is decomposed to become consciousness.

It is broken up, we may say, into a multiplicity the further we move towards the individual subject. As von Franz puts it: “die Synchronizitätsphänomene weisen somit auf einen bewußtseinstranszendenten Einheitspakt des Seins hin, den Jung als unus mundus bezeichnet hat” (von Franz, 2003, p. 55). In synchronistic events, the fictionality of the split between the unity of the physical and psychical world in the archetype becomes visible for in these instances a connection between them arises that could not be explained with any causal, scientific means.

In terms of the “meaning" connecting synchronistic events Jung posits that meaning has the potential to transcend the boundaries of individual consciousness and exist independently outside of humanity. He described it as self-subsistent and characterised it as a transcendental force (Main, 2014, p. 11). Despite the inherent challenges in substantiating this claim, Jung reiterated the notion that meaning possessed a reality that extended beyond the confines of the human psyche.

As Roderick Main (2014, p. 14) puts it: “The deep unity of psyche and matter was suggested to Jung by the way, in synchronistic events, the same archetypal pattern of meaning could be expressed in both psychic and physical contexts”. This obviously points towards a dual- aspect-monist conception of reality where there is an underlying oneness that connects and structures mind and matter.

Sources

Main, R. (2014). The cultural significance of synchronicity for Jung and Pauli. Journal of Analytical Psychology, 59(2), 174–180.

von Franz, M.-L. (2003). Psyche und Materie. Einsiedeln: Daimon Verlag.