Archetypal Synchronistic Resonance

Abstract

This article proposes a new theory, archetypal synchronistic resonance (ASR), to explain ostensible paranormal experiences that can be neither accepted as literally construed nor dismissed as mere artifact or error. Drawing on ideas from Jung, ASR holds that ostensible paranormal experience is the result of archetypal-synchronistic functioning. To illustrate this theory, the authors analyze several mutual, emotionally potent, apparently synchronistic experiences involving the Stoic philosopher and Roman statesman Seneca and the concept of reincarnation. The authors discuss phenomenological features of the theory's resonance component and bring to light nontrivial parallels between ASR and Maslow's account of peak-experience, between ASR and Otto's description of the numinous , and between ASR and Frankl's construal of super-meaning. The authors conclude with a discussion of a competing “error-theory” of the phenomenon, which holds that putative paranormal experiences are products of apophenia, the mistaken attribution of intent or meaning to events that in fact are meaningless or purely chance occurrences.