Heady days
WRITING a book about synchronicity is like going on a magic carpet ride. The magic of meaningful coincidences happens more often and confirms the very phenomenon you're writing about. Recently going to London to launch the book at Watkins bookstore was bound to bolster the magic. It did.
I’m on a mission to point out how synchronicity is relevant to our lives and particularly our mental health and wellbeing. Our health professions are much better at recognising the link between mind and body but have a long way to go in appreciating the links between mind, body and soul.
When people acknowledge a spiritual dimension in life they tend to have a greater sense of purpose, satisfaction and resilience in pursuing their goals. We can tap into a soul dimension through experiencing frequent or profoundly meaningful coincidences.
Such synchronicity can affirm our sense that the universe might provide whatever we need at the time. This can guide and embolden our efforts. This happened on my UK book launch tour.
Whereas events at Watkins bookstore are almost always scheduled for a Thursday, a timetable clash led to my talk being scheduled on a Friday in September, at 6pm on the 6th. Unknown to the organisers, this is such an auspicious date for me that I wrote a chapter around it. The scheduling itself gave me confidence about how things would unfold.
More intriguingly, while visiting a pub in Oxford to watch a soccer match with my son, I investigated which of the marvellous refreshing ales were available.
The bar was crowded and I could only see one tap. It was labelled The Hoptimistic Monk.
This immediately resonated — I was in England to talk about the link between positive psychology, a study of optimism and spirituality, which might be represented by a monk. Indeed, my book referred to a central figure: “a psychic monk”.
The ale was made by the Flying Monk brewery. I commonly used the metaphor of flying, or of having wings, to represent a psychic dimension. For example, I refer to therapy that incorporates a psychic or transpersonal dimension as “therapy with wings”.
The reference to hops, or beer, seemed like a playful message from the universe. I felt that the universe had crafted a specific message for me at Oxford, a seat of advanced learning, where I presumably belonged. The reference to hops seemed to be a playful tick from the universe that I was on the right track. It gave the additional guidance that I could have fun with my ideas and not get caught up in taking things too seriously. This helped me adopt a more confident and relaxed approach when delivering my book launch talk.
The most striking synchronicity came soon after the talk.
In the talk, I hadn’t had the time to describe how four key areas of knowledge I unconventionally relate to each other — namely mainstream psychology, psychic phenomena, quantum physics and shamanism — are all uncannily linked to the Greek letter ‘psi’.
As I went to sign books after the talk, I privately lamented not being able to mention this synchronistic link to ‘psi’, a trident-shaped symbol. My disappointment was shortlived. The first person who asked me to sign a book was named Shiva. When I asked whether she was named for the Indian god, she explained she was not but that she nonetheless identified with the god Shiva owing to that god's association with a trident. She then showed me the veins on the back of her right hand — they stood out as forming an unmistakably prominent trident shape. She had no idea of the importance of that symbol to me. “Ah, there's the trident — it did come up after all,” I thought. It’s difficult to put into words how powerfully motivating and fortifying such coincidences can be. Two weeks later, I was gratified to win the 2019 Australian Allied Health Impact Achievement Award for my work on the book, in mainstream media, and in clinical research. That was motivating too, but not nearly so much as the trident. That endorsement came from somewhere beyond my peers. I’ll also be holding a public book launch at Melbourne University at 6.30pm on Wednesday, October 9, in the middle of Mental Health week. Information and RSVP details are at my Chris Mackey, Psychologist and Author Facebook page or at my website below. Chris Mackey is a fellow of The Australian Psychological Society. See www.synchronicityunwrapped.com.au.