Product Description

Understanding the Moments That Touch and Transform Our Lives

Who hasn't experienced that eerie coincidence, that sudden, baffling insight, that occasional flash of extrasensory perception that astonishes? Can these events be dismissed as mere chance, or do they have some deeper significance for us?

The twenty-fifth anniversary edition of this classic explores the inter-relationship between these meaningful coincidences and our intuitive sense that we are part of some deep oneness with the universe -- a oneness called Tao in Eastern philosophy and synchronicity in Jungian psychology. By relating the concepts of Tao and synchronicity, Dr. Bolen reveals important links between psychology and mysticism, right brain and left, the individual and the external world. The Tao of Psychology provides the key for each individual to interpret the synchronistic events in his or her life and gives fresh insight into the relationships, dreams, and flashes of perception that transform our existence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #325048 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-01
• Released on: 2005-01-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780060782207
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"Successfully presented, with the freshness of a personal response.interesting and very instructive.." (--The Journal of Analytical Psychology )

"Scholarly.fascinating." (Omni )

"[Bolen] charts a path that will lead many readers to the heart of their own emotional and spiritual pilgrimages." (--San Francisco Chronicle on Crossing to Avalon )

"[W]ise and challenging...an absorbing, often uncannily perceptive, and useful companion for the soul journeys of our time...." (--Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple on Crossing to Avalon )

About the Author
Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D., is an internationally known Jungian analyst, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco, and a former member of the board of the Ms. Foundation for Women. She lives in Mill Valley, California.

Customer Reviews

Relating Jungian synchronicity to the Tao, ESP, dreams, etc.
Dr. Bolen describes the nature of synchronicity (Jung's concept of meaningful coincidence) and its relationships with the Tao (the Way), ESP, the occurrences of life, flow, and many diverse wisdom teachings. Her language is straightforward, her book very readable. Within its few, tiny pages, it says quite a lot. The author makes a very interesting observation that there is a strong correspondence between ones inner state and one's outer circumstances. Which is the cause and which is the effect? Maybe, per her book, each is both. This leads her to conclude that we can change both simultaneously. On page 61, she writes: "Synchronicity holds the promise that if we will change within, the patterns in our outer life will change also. If the people and events of our lives are here because we have drawn them here, then what happens in our lives apparently by chance or fortune is not really accidental."

This parallels Jung's view that the therapist and patient become a dyad and progress together. Dr. Bolen quotes Jung on page 51, "'The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: If there is any reaction, both are transformed.' In some instances, each personality at that exact moment in time may be unusually susceptible to the particular "chemical" action of the other." This reciprocity is exemplified in romance. From pages 55-6: "When, in everyday life, a person "falls head over heels in love," the loved one has provided the "hook" that attracts the archetypal projection ...What is seen is an archetypal image that is a projection; put another way `Beauty is in the archetype of the beholder'...That person is then reacted to emotionally as if he or she were one and the same as the image." Indeed, such relationships are internally/externally reciprocal as well. Per page 59, "the projection may have a Pygmalion-like effect...in some way influencing her to take on the predetermined role...Synchronicity suggests that the outer world really does reflect the inner world, not just that it seems to."

In support of her thesis, Dr. Bolen describes the holistic view vs. the limited view using the famous "Dermis Probe" (Idries Shah's term and book title) of the blind men and the elephant (page 102) surmising that no extant religious view has all the answers. She asserts on page 76 that psychotherapy helps us to transcend our self-imposed limitations: "Often people have been programmed by overly critical or rejecting parents to accept a limited or negative view of themselves or to be suspicious or mistrustful of others...In order to grow, the mental limits are the handicaps that must be transcended."

Despite the existence of "Negative" synchronicity" (coincidental events that block, hinder, and frustrate what one is attempting),...when a person is following a path with heart, his or her dreams are usually nourishing...Synchronistically, opportunities seem to open fortuitously" (page 94). This seems to parallel Csikszentmihalyi's concept of flow. She uses Jung's story of the Chinese rainmaker of Kiaochau, on page 98, and Plato's cave story (page 102) to demonstrate the application of this concept. Though, as she states on page 102, "We can never fully grasp what is boundless, infinite, and eternal," she provides an upbeat view of synchronicity and presents it in a manner that supports the use of free will to affect not only our inner selves (Eastern approach) but also our outer selves (Western approach) in an integrative manner-consistent with Jung's views of Individuation.

Great little book on Synchronicity and more....
This is a great little book on synchronicity i.e. meaningful, but non-causal relationships between events both outer and inner. Dr. Bolen knows her stuff and in this text she manages to pack a lot of interesting information on Jung's notion of synchronicity and her own reflections on its relationship to the Tao and paranormal phenomenon.

This is a quick, educational, entertaining and very thought provoking read. While the book is short, there is a lot of good information. It is also easy to read and very understandable. You need to be a Jungian analyst to follow it unlike many other books on Jung's thought.

This book is also written from a personal perspective. I liked this aspect of it and for me it added value. I can't imagine anyone with an interest in Jung, Tao or the paranormal not finding this book interesting reading.

Synchronicity
This book by Bolen reinforced my belief in what Jung talked about regarding synchonicity and circumambulation. A wonderfully written and warm book and easy to read. I learned more about what I already know to be true.