I was out driving one day, and my mood was spiraling downward. I had begun to doubt myself and to feel that the whole world was against me. But then I remembered that the Universe is always communicating with us. I realized that I can ask for assistance when I feel low, and the Universe will answer. Asking the Universe for a sign I turned on my radio, and the song “Atlantis is Calling” began to play. I’m not sure if it was a sign or if the Universe just decided it would distract me from my low mood, but it worked. For the rest of my trip and the rest of the day I wondered what that sentence meant, “Atlantis is Calling.” Was it a sign or a simple coincidence? Will I answer my call?
Carl Jung, a Swedish analytical psychologist, wrote extensively on the concept of synchronicity, which is defined as a “description of circumstances that appear meaningfully related yet lack a causal connection.” He coined the term “synchronicity” in the late 1920s or early 1930s, following an incident with a patient during a therapy session. The patient in question discussed a dream in which she’d envisioned a golden scarab, and just as she was describing this, a beetle began to make noise at the window nearby. Jung brought the beetle over to her and said, “Here is your golden scarab.” In making this simple connection between the patient’s dream world and reality, he was able to help her make progress in therapy and eventually change her life.
Occurrences such as this take place all the time throughout our daily lives. “Synchronicity” is considered pseudoscience because we don’t like things that we cannot test or control, and which may in fact exist beyond our comprehension. But why would a beetle show up when the patient discussed her dream of a golden scarab? Was it her guardian angel looking out for her, and helping her get “unstuck” through a kind of well-timed omen? Or was this simply a meaningless coincidence, into which Jung mistakenly read connections where none truly existed?
If we accept that we are nothing more than a heaping pile of cells destined to die at some point, then perhaps life is simpler. We used to believe in an archaic concept of a flat Earth, and surely life was simpler then as well. However, our inability to imagine certain things and our inability to test certain things does not mean that these phenomena don’t exist. Science seems to say that if it cannot be tested, then it must not exist… What is it? I believe that it is anything that doesn’t fit into scientific notions – it is magic, it is astral travel, it is our soul, it is God, it is anything that cannot be measured or seen, and yet you know that it exists. Perhaps, once we advance as human beings, we may be able to expand our narrow two-dimensional view of the world, and perhaps we will allow it to exist again.
Ulla Suokko, an international flute soloist and transformation expert, shares her thoughts about signs and synchronicities in a TEDxBigSky talk entitled “Do You See the Signs of the Universe?” She says the Universe speaks to us through everything if we simply choose to listen! The signs are everywhere. She says to be the signs, trust the signs, make them up, and engage with the Universe. In her talk, she shares a quote by the 15th century mystic Indian poet Kabir: “The flute of the infinite is played without ceasing, and its sound is love. When love renounces all limits, it reaches truth.”
Paying attention to signs and synchronicities can help you find meaning in your life, so how can you go about finding your signs? Here are a few tips that will help you find your path:
1. Open yourself up to the idea that coincidences are meaningful.
Trish and Rob MacGregor share this idea in their book, “The 7 Secrets of Synchronicity.” They explain that once we recognize coincidences as meaningful, we open up to all kinds of new information, possibilities, and belief systems. As a little girl playing Barbies with my sister in Poland, we always used to pretend that her doll had a family, and mine was a single businesswoman living in America. We both talk about it now and laugh, because so much of our imaginary play came true! She has a family and children in Germany, and I am a businesswoman in America! Was it a meaningless coincidence, or was it the Universe giving us ideas and propelling both of us along the paths we were destined for in life?
Accepting that there are many such meaningful coincidences in your life can make living easier, because you accept that your existence has a higher purpose. Believing in a meaningful coincidence implies belief in a higher power that loves and takes care of you by providing you with signs and communication. On the contrary, if you endorse the idea that coincidences are pure chance and that there is no meaning in them, you may feel dissatisfied because you believe in a spiritually purposeless world, therefore robbing yourself of any feeling of love from the Universe.
2. Start paying attention to your emotions.
Quantum physics says that everything in the Universe is intimately connected, and in such a way your emotions and your life are intertwined. There are, for example, various statistics linking marital separation and divorce to increased risk for serious car accidents. So are these total accidents, or just bad emotions that lead to bad outcomes? Jungian psychotherapist Robert Hopcke believes, as the title of his book clearly states, that “There Are No Accidents.” So, start paying attention to your emotions! What are you feeling right now? What kind of emotional energy field are you creating? Is this energy field going to attract positive things into your existence, or perhaps negative ones? If your emotional vibrations and thoughts center around being worried that you are not good enough, what kind of relationships do you think you’ll attract into your life? Your thinking is important, but what if your feelings and emotions are just as important in the creation of your life? Did you notice that when you get angry, you’re very likely to get into a conflict with someone? Your emotions can be positively or negatively charged, and you will attract into your existence exactly what you’re sending out.
Negative emotions or feelings can be a sign of a toxic situation. Adopting a positive outlook may seem close to impossible in certain environments. But your emotions may also be a sign that you need to change that environment, which will in turn help to change your emotions as well!
3. Pay attention to signs.
When you got your driver’s license, one of the first things you had to do was to learn signs, and to pay attention to them as you drive. Failing to do this could ultimately cost you your life. It makes sense to pay attention to signs when driving, and most people know how to do that, but they often forget that they can also use the same principle throughout the course of their everyday lives. The Universe communicates with us all the time. For example, global warming is a sign that we all need to make changes in the ways that we live and consume. Allergies are a sign that a product or substance may be unhealthy for you. Fever is a sign that you have a bacteria or virus invading your body. But there are so many other signs for us to look out for as well. Imagine how much happier we’ll be once we learn how to read them!
If you notice numbers, certain birds, or patterns in your life repeating in various situations or over periods of days or months, pay attention. It may be that the Universe is communicating something to you. There are hundreds of possible signs, and they tend to show up frequently when you’re in a strong emotional state. Years ago, in the days leading up to my divorce, I started seeing the numbers 9:11 almost everywhere I went. I felt insane noticing this, and couldn’t decipher why the numbers kept showing up. I kept feeling like they followed me everywhere I went. Soon, I found out that my ex-husband was seeking a divorce, and so I came to connect the numbers with the end of my marriage. Perhaps the Universe was communicating to me that things were happening the way they were meant to be, and was therefore preparing me for an emotional roller coaster. Around the same time, my left-brained ex-husband started frequently noticing white cats. He shared that observation and said that he thought the Universe was telling him he was on the right path to seek divorce. I was shocked to learn he paid attention to these sorts of signs, because he’d never seemed to notice them in the past. However, it may be that “white cats” showed up to provide him with comfort, as well as the knowledge that the path he was taking was meant to happen for both of us. As painful as it was, our divorce ultimately provided us both with opportunities to grow and develop in our lives.
Atlantis is calling! The Universe is smiling at you and inviting you to actively participate. Try it out. Ask for a sign, ask a question, talk, engage, and see what happens. Notice the synchronicities, oddities, dreams, and weird coincidences in your life. Pay attention to your gut feelings. Magic is it. Create it!
You have been cordially invited to dance with the stars and create your own meaning. The Universe is awaiting!