synchronicityn.
/ˌsɪŋkrəˈnɪsɪti/ The name given by the Swiss psychologist, C. G. Jung (1875–1961), to the phenomenon of events which coincide in time and appear meaningfully related but have no discoverable causal connection.
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the mind > mental capacity > psychology > theory of psychoanalysis > theories of Jung > [noun] > coincidence of events
synchronicity1953
1953 Jrnl. Soc. for Psychical Res. 37 28 Synchronicity, he [sc. Jung] explains, is not just synchronousness. In a ‘synchronicity phenomenon’, as he uses the phrase, two contemporaneous events are linked together in a meaningful manner.
1955 R. F. C. Hull tr. Jung & Pauli's Interpretation of Nature & Psyche i. 27 I have picked on the term ‘synchronicity’ to designate a hypothetical factor equal in rank to causality as a principle of explanation.
1963 Punch 25 Dec. 910/2 Hauntings..magical coincidence (‘synchronicity’) the lot.
1974 Sci. Amer. Jan. 113/2 The Wilhelm-Baynes volume includes the famous foreword by Jung in which he explains the oracular power of the I Ching by his theory of ‘synchronicity’.
1980 C. Fitz Gibbon Rat Report vi. 112 A thought-transference has also no mass, but very considerable energy and therefore ‘travels’..through the time element called synchronicity.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online September 2018).
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n.1953