Synchronicity Cambray

At play in this interface between modern physics and the psyche,
as Jung has come to know it through his observations, is a longing for
insight into creation. Synchronicity as an “act of creation in time” is
another of his ways of aphoristically defining the term. The search for
the origins of creation, of course, is one of the places of great tension
in our society, as between religious and scientific perspectives.
A variety of theories of the origins and nature of the universe were
developed in the wake of Einstein’s papers on relativity. Because the
general theory of relativity leads to either an expanding or contracting
universe, which Einstein considered wrong, he introduced the
“cosmological constant” (in effect a “fudge factor”) to preserve a static
universe. Later he was to regret this, calling it the “biggest blunder” of
his life. I will give a few details of the controversies in cosmology from
1922 through the 1950s (for a detailed study see Big Bang by Simon
Singh, 2004), which would include the time frame for Jung’s formulations
of the synchronicity hypothesis.
In 1922 a Russian mathematician, Alexander Friedmann, published
an article in which he looked at a variety of values for the cosmological
constant including zero. The results without the constant lead to
a dynamic, evolving cosmos, which Friedmann explained as “having
been kick-started with an initial expansion, so it would have an impetus
with which to fight against the pull of gravity;” 40 his view was of
origin from a single point. Einstein retaliated with a letter of complaint
but was forced to retract this when Friedmann’s results proved
to be sound mathematically. Because the journal was not well known,
Einstein’s apology was not widely disseminated, and when Friedman
died several years later his name had slipped below the horizon of scientific
notables. However, affect was building around what vision of
the universe would prevail; complexes were activated in the scientific
community.
The view of a dynamic, expanding universe was next put forward
independently by Georges Lemaître, a Belgian who was both a physicist
and a priest. Lemaître realized that the equations of general relativity
lead to a moment of creation and proposed an extremely compact
starting point he called the “primeval atom.” 41 In sketching out details
as he understood them, Lemaître gave the first scientific description
The History of a Radical Idea ( 7 )