Why Relationships Matter

Take our Can You Spot Red Flags In A Relationship?

Find a therapist to strengthen relationships

Meaning arises from relationships, not isolated events.

Synchronicity is coherence across semi-independent systems.

Shared constraints can organize events without direct communication.

Coincidences can reveal hidden patterns in complex systems.

by Rob Sacco and Bernard Beitman

Most people have experienced it.

You think about someone you have not seen in years, and they call that afternoon. A stranger says exactly what you needed to hear during a difficult week. A chance encounter changes the direction of your career or relationship. The timing feels so improbable that it is difficult to dismiss as simple chance.

Carl Jung called these experiences synchronicities, meaningful coincidences that seem connected without an obvious causal explanation. Some people feel deeply spiritual. Others explain them as selective attention or confirmation bias. But perhaps there is another way to think about them.

One of the most striking features of synchronicity is that it rarely appears randomly across the lifespan. Meaningful coincidences often seem to cluster during periods of grief, illness, career change, divorce, retirement, becoming a parent, or other moments that reshape identity. Why might this happen? Several explanations have been proposed, ranging from changes in attention and pattern recognition to deeper processes of biological and psychological reorganization.

Synchronicity and Life Change

Over many years of studying meaningful coincidences, we have noticed that they frequently arise during periods of emotional intensity, uncertainty, and major life transitions. These observations suggest that synchronicity is not an isolated curiosity but a surprisingly common human experience accompanying psychological change (Beitman, 2022).

Psychologists have long known that uncertainty changes perception. During unstable periods, people become more attentive to patterns,........

© Psychology Today