Theos-Talk Archives (July 1997 Message tl00490)

Tangential to the subject ...

There is an interesting book by Victor Mansfield, titled "Synchronicity,
Science, and Soul-Making" that deals with a psychological and Tibetan Buddhist
view of things such as action at a distance and synchronicity. Very readable,
and he has enough Physics credentials at least.

I have a little problem, though, with the interpretation of synchronicity
common in the psychological community.  Meaningful coincidences are viewed as
totally acausal connections.  Quantum Mechanics is used to justify the idea
that causality is just a prejudice of consciousness to tie events together.
I think it would be a theosophical view to say that meaningful coincidences
operate through higher causal laws.

It seems to me that Quantum Mechanics only does away with determinism as it
relates to individual events. The wave function itself that governs
probabilities of individual events strictly obeys causality. This jives with
the impression I get from theosophical literature that the broad-brush overall
plan of our world is determined, but that details are dependent on free will
choice.  It has been likened to a ship on a journey. Your destination is
determined, but your experience is conditioned by what you do on the ship
during the journey.  You can make it harder, or delay it for a season or
cycle.