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Synchronicity Cambray

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the theoretical prediction of existence of antimatter in 1926. There<br />

was presumed to be a rigorous mirror relationship of antimatter to<br />

matter, a form of parity that was felt by physicists to be at the base of<br />

all laws of physics. When this was proven not to strictly hold for beta<br />

decay, it caused such a sensation that it made front-page news in the<br />

New York Times 27 ; as republished in Atom and Archetype. 28 Wolfgang<br />

Pauli was one of the prominent physicists who was most stunned by<br />

this. Pauli at first could not accept the results: “I do not believe however<br />

that the Lord God is a WEAK left-hander.” 29 In communications,<br />

Markus Fierz, twin brother of the Jungian analyst Heinrich Fierz, told<br />

Pauli that he (WP) had a “mirror complex,” 30 noting its appearance in<br />

his dreams as well as in his beliefs about physics. For Pauli the whole<br />

question of the relationship between physics and psychology “is that<br />

of a mirror image.” 31 At first he attempted to seek a restoration of symmetry<br />

by going more deeply into the observations, “parity is restored<br />

when one takes into consideration enough of the variables characterizing<br />

the phenomenon (such as the ‘CPT [charge, parity, and time]<br />

theorem . . .’).” 32 But even this (CPT) has been called into question.<br />

The attempt to restore symmetry becomes linked to synchronicity<br />

for Pauli, as when he writes Jung: “If the parapsychological phenomena<br />

go deeper, then the psyche has to be taken into consideration so<br />

as to be able to see the full symmetry of the phenomenon. . . . The<br />

question of ‘how deep or how broad does one have to go to achieve<br />

full symmetry’ ultimately seems to lead back to the problem—in your<br />

terminology—of the separation of the self from the ego.” 33<br />

Pauli’s speculations in turn provoke Jung to write his last personal<br />

letter to him. 34 Here is a selection of reflections from this letter:<br />

a constellated, i.e., activated, archetype may not be the cause<br />

but is certainly a condition of synchronistic phenomena . . .<br />

occurrences might be expected that correspond to the archetype<br />

as a sort of mirror image . . . the physical problem of symmetry or<br />

asymmetry which coincides so oddly with my own preoccupation,<br />

is something analogous or parallel. Apart from the mirror image<br />

aspect of the phenomenon, the statements from the unconscious<br />

(represented by UFO legends, dreams, and images) point to a<br />

( 58 ) Chapter 3

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