Carl Jung, Part 1: Paranormal, Coincidences and Synchronicity

June 29, 2012 by Doug Dillon 5474 0 0

I find it fascinating that one of the founders of modern psychiatry was personally and professionally involved in the paranormal. Over the years, I read bits of Carl Jung’s writings and heard stories from others about how strange experiences tended to follow the man.

Only recently though, did I actually delve into Jung’s background and philosophy. This came about because increasingly in my life, I’ve observed how “coincidences” at times tend to happen way beyond mere chance. Who better to study on this subject than Jung, the man who coined the term “synchronicity” and promoted the view that certain coincidental events have origins far beyond the physical world we know.

A Swiss citizen, Carl Jung’s life spanned the period between 1875 and 1961. Founder of Analytical Psychology, he developed the ideas of the Complex, the Archetype and the Collective Unconscious.

The man’s efforts inspired the Myer’s Briggs Personality Test and Alcoholics Anonymous. In his day, Jung associated with the likes of Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Wolfgang Pauli and William James. Not a bad list of scientific and philosophical connections if you ask me.

Even so, Jung was fascinated by events we would call paranormal today and believed that understanding such things were a natural part of our heritage as human beings. He also believed that using such knowledge in psychotherapy was beneficial to his patients. The man was a pioneer that today’s mental health experts would do well to revisit.

In reading about Jung’s background, I discovered his interest in the paranormal sprang not just from his studies but from his own personal experiences as well. In fact, the man had so many such events, that it looks to me like they occurred during his entire life.

I found those unusual events in Jung’s life so interesting that I developed a series of blog postings where I retell each one of them in simpler terms. Jung’s own writing is a little intricate and dense so I thought this method would make for easier reading.

Those blog postings became so popular that I created a book using them as the basis for particular explorations of the paranormal. Titled, Carl Jung, Hauntings, and Paranormal Coincidences, it combines the Jung material with supporting information from my own experiences and those of others.

If you are interested in reading that book, you can find it in most online bookstores. Listed below, however, are direct book links to some of the larger retail outlets in the English speaking world: