Koestler - The Roots of Coincidence

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4 жыл бұрын

An intelligent and scientific discussion of meaningful coincidence provided by Arthur Koestler.
Koestler highlights the research done by Viennese biologist Paul Kammerer, in his book published in 1919, entitled, “Das Gasetz der Serie” (translates as “The Law of Seriality”), in which, Kammerer postulates, “A lawful recurrence of the same or similar things and events - a recurrence, or clustering, in time or space whereby the individual members in the sequence - as far as can be ascertained by careful analysis - are not connected by the same active cause.”
Koestler writes, “The first half of Kammerer's book is devoted to the classification of coincidental series, which he undertook with the meticulousness of a zoologist devoted to taxonomy. There is a 'typology' of non-causal concurrences related to numbers, names, situations, etc. After this comes a chapter on the 'morphology' of Series, which are classified according to their "order" (the number of successive coincidences), their "power" (number of parallel coincidences) and their "parameters" (number of shared attributes)... In the second, theoretical part of the book, Kammerer develops his central idea that coexistent with causality there is an a-causal principle active in the universe, which tends towards unity. In some respects it is comparable to universal gravity [theory] - which, to the physicist, is also still a mystery; but unlike gravity which acts on all mass indiscriminately, this force acts selectively on ‘form and function’ to bring similar configurations together in space and time; it correlates by ‘affinity’, by which means this a-causal agency intrudes into the causal order of things - both in dramatic and trivial ways - we cannot tell, since it functions ‘ex hypothesi’, outside the known laws of physics. In space it produces concurrent events related by ‘affinity’; in time similarly related series."
“We thus arrive at the image of a world-mosaic or cosmic kaleidoscope, which, in spite of constant shufflings and rearrangements, also takes care of bringing like and like together.” - Paul Kammerer
Koestler also looks at the work of psychologist Carl Jung, in particular Jung’s explanation of the term, “synchronicity", and physicist Wolfgang Pauli, with respect to their paper: 'Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle'.
Koestler writes, "Althugh Kammerer's "Seriality" and Jung's "Syncrhonicity" are as similar as a pair of gloves, each fits one hand only. Kammerer confined himself to analogies in naive physical terms, rejecting ESP and mentalistic explanations. Jung went to the opposite extreme and tried to explain all phenomena which could not be accounted for in terms of physical causality, as manifestations of the unconscious mind:
"Syncronicity is a phenomenon that seems to be primarily connected with psychic conditions, that is to say with the processes in the unconscious." - Carl Jung.
Koestler notes, "Its deepest strata, according to Jungian terminology, are formed by the 'collctive unconscious', potentially shared by all members of the race."
Of Pauli, Koestler also includes an excerpt of his essay, “The Influence of Archetypal Ideas on the Scientific Theories of Kepler”, which originally appeared in a series of monographs published by the Jung Institute in Zurich. Towards the end of his essay Pauli says: “Today we have the natural sciences, but no longer a philosophy of science. Since the discovery of the elementary quantum, physics was obliged to renounced its proud claim to be able to understand in principle the ‘whole’ of the world. But this predicament may contain the seed of further developments which will correct the previous one-sided orientation and will move towards a unitary world-view in which science is only a part in the whole.”
This narration is an exerpt from 'The Roots of Coincindence, Chapter 3, “Seriality and Synchronicity”; a choice composition on a rarely studied subject under the microscope of a poetically-scientific mind.
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Пікірлер: 21

@dvogirma 3 жыл бұрын

thanks for taking the time to read this out loud and share it. One of the most underappreciated books and this chapter was a good one to choose to read. Paul Kammerer gets little to no mention anywhere today, but what he started deserves to be looked at in more detail than was ever allowed by those who steer the direction of the sciences today. Perhaps in the future generations may come back to check out his work in more numbers as the disillusionment with the errors they've chosen to believe about reality escalate. And if that happens, then this video could be 1 of the few valuable resources available to them to access any information about him. Like Heinlein said, "Being right too soon is socially unacceptable."

@JosephVoelbel 3 жыл бұрын

Thank you for your thoughtful reflections on this matter... The Heinlein quote is so on the mark. Also, in the spirit of Goethe, Steiner, and other forethinkers, I was honored to add Koestler's analysis of Kammerer's great work to the philo-spiritual-scientific milieu of digital audiobooks. Would love to read Kammerer's book Das Gesetz Der Serie "The Law of the Series" but is has never been translated from German. If some great thinker who is fluent in German and English should stumble across this comment in the future, consider it a humble request (and farewell, it was noted in The Case of the Midwife Toad that the book was rather dry).

@dannyboyc 10 ай бұрын

The concepts raised in this book make me feel more sane. Had an experience of major trauma through a mystery illness. The trauma came from the lack of belief from everyone around me that what I was saying was happening was happening. For the years between then and recovery life was completely different. I was living life through its undercurrents instead of by its projections. So I could see how ones words affected their consequences, and also the effects of bad language and lies on environments and well being. Sensual perception was constantly through the roof and I could not work and had to keep It was quite clear of large groups of people. Instead learned to live by these principles and one day I hope to be a help to others that do not understand certain circumstances. Despite being mostly clear of the illness I have still carried this type of mindset. So now it makes a little more sense and I'm grateful for this upload. Anyone else with a similar experience?

@-mindscapes-5557 4 ай бұрын

When i was 8/9, i realized what i would think would happen, would happen. Sometimes i was say in a car with someone else, both silent, and suddenly the other person start a discussion about something i was thinking moments before. This started my inquiry in various fields to find an explanation, from science to magic

@tendraftsdeep 3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for posting this. "Synchronicity" by The Police is my favorite album of all time, it was heavily influenced by this work.

@JosephVoelbel 3 жыл бұрын

You're welcome. Huh, didn't know that. Thanks for the info!

@missinformation4843 Жыл бұрын

Really interesting will have to look for the book. The ghost in the machine is great and darkness at noon is worth reading.

@petermcgrandle8298 Жыл бұрын

Thank you for this. I've recently taken an interest in quantum mechanics and the weird behaviour of atoms called quantum entanglement - this 'behaviour' apparently does not obey any 'laws' of causality and as such may be analogous to whatever unseen factors 'cause' coincidence.