The Rhine-Jung letters: distinguishing parapsychological from synchronistic events - J.B. Rhine; Carl Jung

Von Franz (1992) supports our conclusions about laboratory measurements: "Since synchronistic events seem to be irregular, they cannot be grasped statistically; nevertheless acausal orderedness can be investigated experimentally, because it is something general and regular" (p. 237). Although she does not classify parapsychological phenomena as an example of general acausal orderedness, success in the laboratory shows it is "general and regular." In harmony with our remarks in the proceeding paragraph, she then describes a synchronicity experiment Jung proposed at the end of his life. He suggested that once it was clear that an archetype had been constellated--because of some serious psychological stress, for example--then several divinatory procedures whose functioning depends upon synchronicity could be employed. For example, imagine if the man in "Healing Old Wounds" were in analysis so that his dream life and active imagination could be carefully observed and simultaneously he could cast the I Ching and have skilled practitioners read his Tarot cards and horoscope. Then the results of all these procedures should converge to the same archetypal meaning.

Such an experiment fits our description of not being forced, controlling, or manipulating, but it presents its own difficulties. How, for example, can we convincingly show that the divinatory procedures in fact converge, that appropriate subjects were chosen when an archetype was actually constellated, that the data was taken without biasing the interpretation, and that other extraneous factors are not distorting the outcome? These problems are not insurmountable, but to do more than "preach to the converted," this experiment or any other must be done with sufficient rigor that the larger scientific community would be satisfied with all aspects of the data taking, analysis of the data, and so forth. This is a formidable task, but learning from the successes in parapsychology, it would be done most convincingly if, at the beginning of any synchronicity experiment, a group of outside skeptics were extensively consulted to help with the design of the experimental protocols. They could also be consulted regularly to ensure a high level of integrity throughout the experiment.

Depth psychology teaches us not to project the Shadow (the Jungian archetype of negative or repudiated qualities denied in ourselves, but unconsciously attributed to and criticized in others) on our skeptical and critical colleagues. Instead, right from the beginning of our studies we can learn from them and integrate them into our efforts to understand the mysteries of synchronicity. If, with their help, we do this well enough, then we have a chance of experimentally establishing synchronicity and thereby moving toward reinstating repressed issues like teleology into science. Even more importantly, we might make progress in overcoming the Cartesian fantasy which, despite its early success in guiding science, is now a burden in many areas of science. This would truly honor Rhine and Jung, who both strove mightily to expand the scientific view of mind.