The unique contribution of this work is essentially threefold. First, it provides a theoretical framework for the study of synchronistic phenomena—a framework that enables us to view these phenomena in relation to Jung's model of the psyche and his concept of psychic compensation. Second, this book explores the significant role that these events played in Jung's life and work. And third, by way of a careful examination of the synchronicity theory in relation to the process Jung terms individuation, an examination in which considerable case material is presented, the specific import of this seminal concept for Jung's psychology of religion is disclosed.

Jung was intrigued from early in his career with coincidences, especially those surprising juxtapositions that scientific rationality could not adequately explain. He discussed these ideas with Albert Einstein before World War I, but first used the term "synchronicity" in a 1930 lecture, in reference to the unusual psychological insights generated from consulting the I Ching. A long correspondence and friendship with the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Wolfgang Pauli stimulated a final, mature statement of Jung's thinking on synchronicity, originally published in 1952 and reproduced here. Together with a wealth of historical and contemporary material, this essay describes an astrological experiment Jung conducted to test his theory. Synchronicity reveals the full extent of Jung's research into a wide range of psychic phenomena. This paperback edition of Jung's classic work includes a new foreword by Sonu Shamdasani, Philemon Professor of Jung History at University College London.

Explores our answerability and responsibility to the world.

To Jung, synchonicity is a meaningful coincidence in time, a psychic factor which is independant of space and time. This revolutionary concept of synchronicity both challenges and complements the physicist's classical view of casualty. It also forces is to a basic reconsideration of the meaning of chance, probability, coincidence and the singular events in our lives.

Dr. Carl Gustav Jung, author of some of the most provocative hypotheses in modern psychology, describes what he regards as an authentic religious function in the unconscious mind. Using a wealth of material from ancient and medieval Gnostic, alchemistic, and occultistic literature, he discusses the religious symbolism of unconscious processes and the possible continuity of religious forms that have appeared and reappeared through the centuries. "These compact vigorous essays constitute Dr. Jung's most sustained interpretation of the religious function in individual experience."-Journal of Social Philosophy

Jung's principle interest was in the psychology of Western men and women. The son of a pastor, he was also deeply interested in their religious life and development. This selection of his writings enables us to understand his interpretation of Western religion as central to his psychological thought. The topics he covers include the Trinity, transformation symbolism in the Mass, the relationship between psychotherapy and religious healing, and resurrection.