Experience and the
Synchronicity Equation
A synchronicity is a special type of experience; one that is a meaningful
coincidence. Every experience has both a subjective component and an objective
component. An equation for the energy of any external experience can be written
that takes the general form of the standard energy equation of physics as
where
:i is the internal psychic intensity (the degree of
meaning).
:o is the external or outer intensity of the event.
pi is the “psychic probability” (Jung, 1981, p. 515).
po is the probability of an external event being random or
chance.
2 is the angle of consciousness.
Xe is the reality factor; the psychic equivalent of the
gravitational constant. Xe is not universal with all people, but
remains relatively constant for each psyche.
sin 2 Xe is the probability of observing a
real external event.
:/p is our expression for psychic mass. Jung
suggests that this parameter exists not only inside every psyche but outside in
the world as well.
A coincidence occurs when :i
= :o
which expresses an “equivalence of meaning” (Jung, 1981, p. 452) and pi
= po so that the general equation for an experience given above can
be re-written for a coincidence XC as
where
:/p is Jung’s (1981)
“psychoid factor” (p. 481) which expresses a “transcendental
meaning” (p. 482), equivalent to the psychic mass of an external experience
when it is equal to that of the ego (i.e, when the psychic mass ratio is equal
to one).
(tan2)2/2 is the subjectivity factor; a
measure of awareness.
(sin2)Xe is the objectivity factor; the
probability of a real objective experience.
A synchronicity XS can be calculated using the above
coincidence equation because XS = XC for large values of :
and 2 and for a small value of p. A
large XS can perturb the ego into instability. When 2<45 (or when tan2
< 1), a synchronicity may occur and the ego not be aware of it. When 2>45 (or when tan2 > 1), we become aware of
more and more synchronicities in our daily life.
For normal consciousness (i.e, for the average ego after psychic puberty)
the angle of consciousness is about 45o so that its tangent is
approximately equal to one (tan2~1).
If we assume that the coincidence is a real external event, the equation for XC
reduces to one for XS where
or
We can conclude from this that for the average ego which is not
projecting or hallucinating, the strength of a synchronicity is directly
proportional to the degree of meaning and inversely proportional to the
probability of being a random or chance event.