178. Robert Perry on the Science of Synchronicity (Podcast)

[gabriel]

It certainly resonated with me. When encountering extreme synchronicity I tended to interpret it as the influence of deceased relatives, rather than a deity, because of the personal nature of the information.

A favourite example that made the news about fifteen years ago concerned a guy who had taken a brief vacation. Someone at work was trying to contact him and the secretary phoned his extension believing him to still be at work, but instead of his office she rang his national insurance number or employment code by accident. This happened to be the number of a public payphone in the street he happened to be passing, and as it was ringing he picked it up.

The secretary began her conversation assuming he was at his desk and at the end of it the guy asked how on earth she knew where he was, which is when she double checked the number.

Like so many psi related incidents there's a trickster element that seems to be beyond chance and sensible interpretation.

[David R]

Synchronicity seems to be related to sods law as well. I don't know how but that would be a kind of negative aspect of it which relates to the trickster God idea.

Is this the same Robert Perry who writes about the course in miracles? Totally goofy book that. Tells you that everything bad that happens to you is somehow your own fault even when you are abused and are innocent. Don't like it at all. Too solipsistic.

Another related issue is the supposed law of attraction. Which...doesn't...work. You know that sexy girl who lives opposite you, you really want her, BADLY, and it never arrives. Perhaps you are waiting for a book you have ordered from Amazon and it gets lost in the post after it should have arrived 2 weeks before. Or maybe the synchronicities in your life have nothing to do with desire but everything to do with learning a new word which pops out at you from the side of a truck 2 days later on your way to work. What you want aint what you get...

[anonymous]

Originally Posted by David R

Another related issue is the supposed law of attraction. Which...doesn't...work. You know that sexy girl who lives opposite you, you really want her, BADLY, and it never arrives.

To understand the total force on an object you have to identify all the vectors and add them.

I'm not a big fan of the law of attraction - for me it worked too well and I didn't mean to influence people the way it did, it frightened me more than once. You can mess up your karma doing that.

I prefer two alternatives:

The law of proportional assistance: the amount of spiritual assistance you are entitled to is proportional to the effort you make.

Praying to be shown how to do something is much, much more effective than praying to be given something.

[Raimo]

I bought Perry's book and I was disappointed. Usually when I buy a book and read it, I think that I made a right decision and I have added a very good book to my book collection. For example, I was glad that I bought Haraldsson's and Carter's new books.

When I had read Perry's book, I felt that I have wasted my money on an inferior book. I didn't find Perry's CMPEs convincing. I also dislike God explanation.

[alextsakiris]

Originally Posted by platobird

This topic hits very close to home for me. When I initially started to question scientific materialism, it was synchronicity that confirmed my doubts. It became an easy means of testing out reality for what it truly is. I'll quickly tell you a few instances.....

amazing... thx for sharing this.

[alextsakiris]

Originally Posted by David R

Is this the same Robert Perry who writes about the course in miracles? Totally goofy book that. Tells you that everything bad that happens to you is somehow your own fault even when you are abused and are innocent. Don't like it at all. Too solipsistic.

welcome David R. Yes, Robert Perry is associated with the Course in Miracles. I have some concerns about the way it's presented as well... and did a show with Robert about it. That said, I don't think any of that has anything to do with the research he's presented in his book Signs.

[David R]

Originally Posted by alextsakiris

welcome David R. Yes, Robert Perry is associated with the Course in Miracles. I have some concerns about the way it's presented as well... and did a show with Robert about it. That said, I don't think any of that has anything to do with the research he's presented in his book Signs.

Hello Alex, it's a good forum and i am glad to be here.

It would be unfair to criticise Signs because the author is into something else a bit goofy. But i have also read a book critical of "new age" topics by a Christian and i can't help but feel a little apprehensive about that kind of thing. It's just a side note in any case so there's no need to derail this thread.

I don't know what the God of Robert is though. The God of ACIM seems to be the Christian God, a kind of personal Father figure somewhere off in the clouds, remote etc. Since i haven't read the book i wonder what Robert's idea of God is and how it mediates synchronicities. jung's collective unconscious is impersonal but manifests to the human mind as personal archetypes. I'm much more comfortable with God being a force, something like gravity, rather than a Being resembling the Old Testament God, since i would hate to contemplate the idea that such a Being sits in Judgement of humans dispensing punishments and so on.

Even the idea of Maya of the Hindus, the illusory nature of reality created by magical measuring, is impersonal and this kind of magic idea would verify the nature of this Force as being somewhat like a kind of trickster, rather than a personal Being somewhat human-like tinkering with people's lives and punishing them for their misdeeds, even punishing them by claiming that bad things happen to innocent people through bad thoughts in their mind like ACIM, is much more palatable to me.

If we are interested in reality and truth (i trust we all are) then we need to question the assumptions and beliefs we hold about ultimate reality to try to uncover what the nature of it is more accurately with regards to meaningful coincidences intervening in our lives. If it turned out that God was actually something similar to a judgemental punisher I, for one, would not want anything to do with it. My interest would shift completely to afterlife beliefs.

[David R]

Originally Posted by anonymous

To understand the total force on an object you have to identify all the vectors and add them.

I'm not a big fan of the law of attraction - for me it worked too well and I didn't mean to influence people the way it did, it frightened me more than once. You can mess up your karma doing that.

I prefer two alternatives:

The law of proportional assistance: the amount of spiritual assistance you are entitled to is proportional to the effort you make.

Praying to be shown how to do something is much, much more effective than praying to be given something.

This is very interesting.

I don't believe it is humanly possible to know the complete details of the karmic forces at work, so i wouldn't agree with that idea.

But after a bout of prayerful meditation the other day something very interesting happened to me although it isn't very spectacular. I felt hungry so i got a carrot from the fridge and started to eat it while walking to the shop, something i have never done before in my life. When i got to the shop there was a man outside asking the shop keeper if he had any carrots. I go to this shop every day and this has never happened before. I thought that maybe it was related to thinking and meditating on God somehow, that when you do that kind of thing regularly it sets in motion synchronous events in your life like you are some kind of magnet or something. So i agree with you that this kind of experience would be scary.

I guess what all this comes down to is prayer really. You have to know how to pray and what to pray for so that your expectations are realistic. If you prayed to become a Bill Gates, for example, the chances against that happening would be greater than a metanalysis of the Ganzfeld! But this begs the question: how are you supposed to know what a legitimate prayer is? Moreover, is there some kind of right way to pray and how do you do it?

[platobird]

Thanks for your reply Alex.

As for Perry's 'Christian' take on this phenomenom ...I think he's absolutely right....for him!

What he's not factoring in, is that each one of us have developed their own belief systems. It is the belief itself that manifests the sychronicities. If instead Perry believed that fairies were causing these things, then voila...reality would present him with evidence that fairies were in fact the cause. Perhaps he'd see an abundance of literature on fairies, or statues of fairies, or see hints of floating winged little fair-ish creatures about him. The ultimate cause of sychronicity comes down to your own beliefs!

This is THE critical key to reality! No one is either right or wrong, because each person on the planet manifests their own beliefs. Ufo fan's see ufo's....people who believe crime runs rampant, will be victims of crimes...people who focus on illness may become ill.

It's not often an immediate creation, but an overall theme in someones life. Even upon death your consciousness carries into the 'next dimension' your inner most beliefs. So if you're an avid Christian and feel you feel that you have followed the tenants of those beliefs, you may have Jesus and/or Angels greet you on the other side. However if you feel you have not...then you're in for quit a terrifying transition. Belief in hell is not a very beneficial belief! This explains why some nde'rs have horrific nde's!

No belief however is set in stone...ever! Change your belief, change your experience.

Just my take. And it's an surprisingly easy hypothesis to test out. Watch for, and more importantly acknowledge to yourself, sychronistic events appearing to you. Your beliefs are being manifest about you, even the ones you don't even realize you have!!!

[David R]

Platobird, i agree with you in the main. I don't agree though where it comes to consensus reality or objective reality. That is something each of us shares in common. If your theory was correct there would be 7 billion people with reality tunnels seeing a completely different universe and there would be no consensus at all.