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Matthew "Matt" Bell's online persona is "The SynchroMystic." But, what does *that* mean?
SynchroMysticism can be thought of in relation to *synchronicity.*
In simple terms, "synchronicity" -- a term evidently coined by Swiss "depth-psychologist" Carl Gustav Jung -- refers to "meaningful coincidences." Jung was focused on events that were somehow connected in human experience, but that didn't appear to be related to one another causally.
In our wide-ranging discussion, Matt and I discuss Jung's "canonical example" of synchronicity -- the beetle. The story goes that during one of Dr. Jung's therapy sessions a young lady disclosed a dream she had in which an Egyptian scarab figured prominently. Legend has it that, at that moment (or close to it), a beetle appeared outside of Jung's office window.
If we assume that the story is veridical, then Jung thought the arrival of the insect -- occurring so soon after his patient's dream summary -- was a meaningful coincidence, thus... a "synchronicity."
As a first pass, a "SynchroMystic" is a person who looks for, notices, and reflects on these kinds of occurrences.
One of the cases that impressed Matt early on was that of convicted "Unabomber," Theodore John "Ted" Kaczynski. As initially pointed by contrarian Michael A. Hoffman, Kaczynski was ultimately arrested in or near the Scapegoat Wilderness, ten miles north of Lincoln, Montana.
An worry is: Just what does this say about the Kaczynski case? As the fictional "Commissioner Jim Gordon" (portrayed by actor Gary Oldman) says in Christopher Nolan's 2012 film, "The Dark Knight Rises": "You're a detective now, son. You're not allowed to believe in coincidence anymore."
A number of more general questions also present themselves. Is synchronicity a genuine phenomenon? Is it just happenstance, as Carl Jung seemed to think? Or are some synchronicities caused after all? In short: If there are synchronicities, then how do we explain them?
Matt recommends that interested listeners might what to familiarize themselves with examples;
Places to begin include the following.
- The JFK assassination. James Shelby Downard and Michael Hoffman's book "King Kill 33" is a sustained investigation of the synchronicities swirling around the brutal murder of 35th U.S. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, November 22, 1963.
- S. K. Bain's "The Most Dangerous Book in the World" is, as its subtitle discloses, a study of the synchronicities surrounding the attacks on the World Trade Center (in New York City) and the Pentagon (in Washington, D.C.) with an eye toward establishing that the event can be understood as a "Mass Ritual."
- On his YouTube channel, "The SynchroMystic," Matt himself has original presentations cataloguing synchronicities in such events as the COVID pandemic, the so-called "Capitol Riot" (of January 6, 2021).
https://matthewjbell.substack.com
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