Synchronicity and Its Implications

Dr. Richard Tarnas – online Zoom workshop

January 30, 2021
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Description

“The highway’s made for gamblers, better use your sense

Take what you have gathered from coincidence . . .”—Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home

Jung’s concept of synchronicity represents one of the most strenuous efforts of the twentieth century to construct a bridge across the chasm between spirit and matter, self and world, psyche and cosmos. The concept has been widely embraced in popular culture. Synchronicities play no small role in the way many individuals make sense of their lives. In the face of the disenchanted modern world view, the search for a ground of purpose and meaning that transcends human subjectivity has become an urgent spiritual priority. For many today, synchronicities are directly relevant to this search, and are frequently experienced as provocative, though often elusive, signs that such deeper structures of meaning and purpose do exist. Synchronistic phenomena have also had a unique impact in the intellectual world, having been cited by physicists as posing a major challenge to the philosophical founda­tions of modern science, as well as by religious scholars as holding deep implications for the contemporary psychology of religion.

Following from the Friday evening lecture, in this workshop, Dr. Tarnas will summarize the origin and history of the concept in Jung’s work, discuss the experiential and transformative dimensions of synchronistic events, analyze the new understanding of causality they presuppose, and address their larger metaphysical and perhaps evolutionary implications.

About the Presenter

Richard Tarnas is a professor of philosophy and cultural history at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where he founded the graduate program in Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness. He teaches courses in the history of ideas, archetypal studies, depth psychology, and religious evolution; frequently lectures at Pacifica Graduate Institute; and was formerly the director of programs and education at Esalen Institute. He is the author of The Passion of the Western Mind, a history of the Western worldview from the ancient Greek to the postmodern widely used in universities. His second book, Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View, received the Book of the Year Prize from the Scientific and Medical Network, and is the basis for the upcoming documentary series Changing of the Gods. He is the former president of the International Transpersonal Association, and served for many years on the Board of Governors of the Jung Institute of San Francisco.