Synchronistic mind‐matter correlations in therapeutic practice: a commentary on Connolly (2015)

Abstract

This commentary adds some ideas and refinements to the inspiring discussion in a recent paper by Connolly () that makes use of a dual-aspect framework developed by us earlier. One key point is that exceptional experiences (of which synchronicities are a special case) cannot in general be identified with experiences of non-categorial or acategorial mental states. In fact, most exceptional experiences reported in the literature are experiences of categorial states. Conversely, there are non-categorial and acategorial states whose experience is not exceptional. Moreover, the psychodynamics of a synchronistic experience contain a subtle mesh of interacting processes pertaining to categorial, non-categorial and acategorial domains. We outline how this mesh may be addressed in particular cases of synchronicity described by Connolly.

Research on synchronicity

“…Interesting attempts have already been made to apply the model to illuminate the states of mind involved when synchronicity occurs in psychotherapy (Connolly 2015;Atmanspacher & Fach 2016). However, the model has also been criticised: for example, from an emergentist and phenomenological perspective for retaining epistemological dualism and relegating 'the living reality of an unus mundus […] to a far-off abstract hypothetical domain removed from the world of knowledge and experience altogether' (Colman 2015: 320-21).…”