Synchronicity
Review of The Tao of Psychology by Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1982, pp. 103.
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| My copy of this book with the actual blog post in the background |
I have written about synchronicity elsewhere in my blogs: See Synchronicity. Here, in this short but scholarly book, Dr Bolen explores the intriguing interrelationship between this phenomenon of "meaningful coincidences" (as Jung described synchronicity) and the intuitive sense that we are all part of some deep oneness or pattern or unity with the universe itself. In the East, this phenomenon is called the Tao, while the founder of Analytical Psychology, Carl Gustave Jung calls it synchronicity. While Dr. Bolen does not mention it, the theology of more orthodox Christian Churches would call this phenomenon the Providence of God. However, what makes this book all the more interesting is that its author is acquainted with Western orthodox psychiatry, Jungian analysis and Eastern mysticism. This broad and erudite background makes for a delightfully interesting read.
We Irish love our ancient lore, which we tap into through our knowledge of and readiness to quote old proverbs that are replete with wisdom - in Gaelic these proverbs are known as seanfhocail, literally old (and in virtue of being so, wise) words. Bolen begins her book with a suitably wise Chinese proverb: "When a pupil is ready, the teacher will come." (Op. cit., p. xi). This reminds me of an apt quotation from King Lear. Act V. Scene II : "Men must endure// Their going hence, even as their coming hither: Ripeness is all." I have "bolded" the last phrase as it ties in with our ancient Chinese piece of wisdom. Everything comes in its own good time, just as it is natural for the ripened fruit to fall from the tree. This harmony or "connectedness" or deep unity within nature that we are all part of is what the Easterns call the Tao.
Bolen speaks of her learning about the Tao through her own experience. In Wellsprings I am currently writing about the validity of the turn to experience in philosophy, psychology, psychotherapy and theology. (See Experience and previous posts):
My own introduction to the Tao was through personal experience. For those who find most meaning in ideas, I present the explanations that evolved from my experience - the concept that synchronicity is equivalent to the Tao, and the reasons why we Westerners have had trouble appreciating this Eastern concept of underlying reality. (Ibid., p. xii)
Bolen speaks of a "a feeling of reverence" for the "patterned universe" or the "primal source" of all experience. (ibid., p. 2). She also lists some of the other names offered by Eastern and Western traditions for the Tao: "Primal Unity," "Source," "Cosmic Mother," "the Infinite," "the One," "the Good," "Truth," and "God." (ibid., p. 3) Other more secular terms, or at least less spiritual ones, for this same principle or reality would be "meaning" which, Dr. Bolen points out, is related to the Greek term "logos." Indeed, the Greek logos of the Johannine Prologue is translated into the Chinese by the word "Tao."
It is no wonder, given the title of her book, that Dr. Bolen refers directly to the book with a similar name to hers from the pen of Dr. Fritjof Capra, namely, The Tao of Physics, from which she more than likely took inspiration for naming her own short work. In that book, the internationally famous Dr Capra postulates that modern atomic physics leads us to a view of reality very similar indeed to an Eastern mystic's intuitive vision of it. The whole idea underpinning both Capra's and Bolen's vision of reality is that we are all an integral part of an interconnected cosmic web. The human observer, they argue, is always part of the reality s/he observes. In all of this, moreover, both authors would subscribe to a unified and unifying theory of reality and indeed of humanity that avoids the traditional dualistic split of mind from matter/body a la René Descartes.
What is inspiring about this little classic of a book is that it is rooted in Dr Bolen's lived experience which she shares generously and authentically with her readers. While there is some theorizing and speculation, they are both based on reflections upon her lived experiences. One can ask for no more. She reminds this reader of that other great late psychiatrist Dr. Ronnie Laing, where she writes with respect to her psychiatric patients:
I found that I could understand their situation and that I cared about them. Rather than treating a disease, I was now treating a whole person, not merely a "case of" something. (ibid., p. 12)
Bolen's sympathy with the creative impulses within the human person drew her to Jungian rather than Freudian analysis. While Freud, and indeed those who followed in his tradition of analysis, would have emphasized the aggressive, active and sexual instincts, Jung would have promoted ideas that humans were motivated by creative, reflective and spiritual drives.
In books such as this, it is often in the "throw away" remarks that the author offers that the reader finds little gems. One such gem is where Bolen tells us, in a rather conversational fashion, that synchronicity is more about the association between two or more things through related meaning rather than anything to do with cause and effect, a principle dearly loved by empiricists and scientists.
Bolen proceeds to describe Jung's concept of synchronicity in detail that is best left to the reader to ponder in his or her own time. What interests this writer here is her equating the Self (in capitals as was customary with Jung himself in his many writings) with the Tao. Jung was at all times most creative and open to all experiences, no matter what their provenance, and he himself worked through his own mental breakdowns at his self-built castle home in Bollingen by painting mandalas and by building in stone. Here is what Bolen writes about Jung's concept of the Self:
The idea gradually emerged that the mandala represented a meaning-giving center (sic) of the personality - which Jung called the Self and which was for him, the goal of psychic development... I think of Jung's circumambulation of the Self as paralleling the Eastern mind's effort to be in relationship with the Tao. Think of consciousness circling around a center, never being the same as the centre, but being touched by the energy or divinity of it, as a planet circles the sun... and the image, once more, is of the dance around the still point. "At the still point of the turning world" where our consciousness or the worldliness of the ego, circles, turns, circumambulates - or dances around the eternal, infinite, inexpressible, indescribable, centering, meaning-giving principle. This still point is the center of the dance, is the Tao of the East and is the Self of Jung's psychology. (Ibid., pp. 21-22)
There is much of value for any reader interested in what our human identity may be, and in how we come to fashion our own identity. There is much, much more of interest within its covers for psychotherapists and for any reader with a deep interest in the Jungian concept of the Self. Further, if the reader is an avid fan of T.S. Eliot s/he will find many quotations from his poems within these pages. Moreover, Bolen treats the reader to insights into the I Ching as well as other insights into Eastern traditions of meditation, along with alluding to and describing events attributed to ESP and parapsychology. She also describes our experience of synchronicity as being akin to that of experiencing a waking dream. Like dreams, synchronistic events "are the clues that point to the existence of an underlying connecting principle." (Ibid., p. 36 ff.)
The final chapter of this book is entitled, rather revealingly, and perhaps a little provocatively, "The message of the Tao experience: We are not alone." For readers of a more scientific bent, especially one that might have an atheistic turn to it, this chapter would perhaps be off-putting. Even for a more open-minded reader, the title chapter is perhaps a little too didactic in tone. However, as I am wont to point out, Freud and Jung both considered themselves scientists - after all both were well-qualified psychiatrists, with Freud having qualified as a neurologist before he took up psychiatry and psychoanalysis. Again, they were both good clinicians who gave good accounts of their therapies and practices. Further Bolen can also be considered a well-trained and well-educated psychiatrist with deep clinical experiences. Perhaps her evaluation of her clinical experiences might not match up with the particular psychological or cognitive biases of individual readers, but her views deserve reading and a deeper reflection than a casual perusal might allow. However, Bolen's chapter title perhaps undermines what she actually does express within those particular pages, namely that the "Other" is not so much God as the Collective Unconscious or a greater Conscious Energy into which we, when we die, merge. And so to finish my review of this fine book, recommending it heartily to any pilgrims of the way, searchers of meaning or devotees of the Self/Tao, let me quote Dr. Bolen's concluding words:
This is what is so deeply moving in experiences of synchronicity and is why these events are so often felt as numinous, religious, or spiritual experiences. When we feel synchronicity, we feel ourselves as part of a cosmic matrix, as participants in the Tao. It gives us a glimpse into the reality that there is indeed a link between us all, between us and all living things, between us and the universe. (Ibid., p. 103)
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