I believe synchrony is a mark of the development and existence of a national consciousness. We imagine that things happen simultaneously and therefore feel a connection with others participating in (or those we imagine to be participating in) the same activity. The whole idea of synchrony is really a modern phenomenon resulting from print capitalism. Okay, that's the end of my two cents of post-colonial theory, but if you found that interesting, I suggest Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities. His theories are a little incomplete, but later theorists (especially Homi K. Bhabha and Partha Chattergee) fill in the gaps.

Wow. That's a toughy. Guess what I'm going to be stewing and brewing on for probably the whole night.

I actually know what I would LIKE to think, but I don't think it's what I really think. Got that?

LOVE YOU

it was a really, really great album.

Words grow elusive and elastic on this topic...what we experience as synchronicity is an attribution problem. To some, by definition it's all God's hand, because everything is, and sometimes He's less subtle about it, is all. Some define all order as godly, and so every perceived pattern is by definition superhuman.

I would define synchronicity as the experience of recognizing a pattern whose origins, whether authentic or not, are not initially evident. The different methodologies we apply to probe the origins and nature of synchronistic patterns say more about us than about the patterns; sometimes someone applies rigorous scientific method to a synchronicity and discovers a new active principle; or one could apply psychological method and see the synchronistic phenomenon as revealing about the observer; or one could attribute it to astrology, or a deity, or a conspiracy, etc. The experience of perceiving a pattern where one was not expected is synchronicity; the act of pursuing and/or creating an explanation tends to be a cultural choice.

I personally believe there is plenty of scientific evidence (from UVA's reincarnation research, the Global Consciousness Project, the whole realm of quantum physics, etc etc etc) suggesting there are nonlocal, nonhuman forces that act in our lives that we do not yet fully understand, and many synchronous phenomena point us in the direction of greater understanding or appreciation of these forces...while others are just totally random shit that happens to appeal to the human drive to perceive patterns EVERYWHERE and the human need to think the world's a less random place than it really is.