Myth Theorized - Robert A. Segal
Does Synchronicity Bring Myth Back to the World?
Myth Theorized - Robert A. Segal
Robert A. Segal [+]
University of Aberdeen
Description
In chapter thirteen I consider the concept, developed by Jung and the physicist Wolfgang Pauli, of a noncausal relationship between humans and the external world. According to this notion, what is going on in our unconscious matches but not causes what is going on in the outer world. Synchronicity is not the projection of dreams or fantasies or archetypes onto the world. Synchronicity is, rather, the sheer parallel between our unconscious beliefs and the world. It is coincidence, but it is more than coincidence. The question I ask is whether synchronicity thereby brings myth back to the outer world. I review the differing relationships between humans and the world espoused by theorists of the last two centuries. Where all prior theories assume that myth means the causing of events in the world by a personal god, in synchronicity there is no god and no causality. What part myth thereby plays is discussed.