Synchronistic events offer us perceptions that may be useful in our psychological and
spiritual growth and may reveal to us, through intuitive knowledge, that our lives have meaning.
Carl Jung has been associated with the concept of synchronicity, and no wonder, he created
the term and gave form to the concept. What we often commonly tend to call a coincidence, is in those
terms a mysterious same-ness of two or more occurrences, which happen at or around the same
time, or have
a same-ness for other reasons.
Often examples of synchronicity are brought forward in relation to comparable events or
linked events within the same time frame. That does not necessarily have to be the case.
Below is a fine - and very different - example of synchronicity, with thanks to Nancy
Hankin, the Mayor of Manitou Springs, Colorado, USA, who sent it to me. The example gave me to think about
the learning cycle of life, concepts of past lives and karma rebalancing through living a similar pattern
in a next life....
Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to
Congress in 1946.
Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860. John F. Kennedy was elected President in
1960. The names Lincoln and Kennedy each contain seven letters.
Both were particularly concerned with civil rights. Both wives lost their children while
living in the White House.
Both Presidents were shot on a Friday. Both Presidents were shot in the head.
Lincoln's secretary
was named Kennedy. Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln.
Both were assassinated by Southerners. Both were succeeded by Southerners.
Both successors were named Johnson.
Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808. Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded
Kennedy, was born in 1908.
John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839. Lee Harvey Oswald, who
assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.
Both assassins were known by their three names. Both names are composed of fifteen
letters.
Lincoln was shot at the theater named 'Kennedy'. Kennedy was shot in a car called
'Lincoln'.
Booth ran from the theater and was caught in a warehouse. Oswald ran from a warehouse and
as caught in a theater.
Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.
A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland. A week before Kennedy was shot,
he was with Marilyn Monroe.
[Shinoda Bolen, MD, The Tao of Psychology, p.7)
