THE TIME SPACE
RELATION IN THE JUNG THEORY
By : Fernando R.
Goñi
This work is a dissertation realized during July 1991,
at the O.E.A.’s ex scholarship holders association’s headquarters, remembering
the 30th anniversary of Carl Jung’s death.
Dr. Goñi worked in Molecular chemistry at the New York Hospital (U.S.A.)
and now he’s the director of the area in
"...There is a common way, a common
breath , every things are in sympathy"...
The whole organism and each one of it‘s parts are working
in conjunction for the same purpose...
The great principle are spreading to the most extreme
part , and from the most extreme part returns to the great principle, to the
unique nature, "to be or not to be".
Starting from this thought of Hipócrates, and
summarizing all about the Tao who impressed him, Pico de la Mirándola
and, of course, the Universe itself; Jung expressed:
"The universal principle is even into the
smallest particle, which therefore, correspond to the whole".
This preamble and all the following, takes the purpose
to explain how a biochemist dedicated to the basic immunology, who talks like
an "invited" in a symposium dedicated to the live an works of Carl G.
Jung have arrived until here.
In one way, like an human being , my thought always
became interested in the supposed pass of the time and the man’s transcendence.
I grew with the latin phrase "fugit
irreparabile tempus" (the irrecoverable fugue of the time), whose
concept never convinced me, although, in fact, certainly perturbed and
discouraged me lots of times.
In each life moment I should take advantage of that
fleeting border that was the time. I receives a rudimentary microscope with
which I learned to observe into the little spaces, which I was see them like a
whole; and for not loosing an instant, I lifted my eyes to the sky. I
interested myself in investigate the Universe from the human myopia, feeling
then how small I was, and understanding that I probably occupied an
intermediate position in a physical space that I wasn’t came to embrace in all
its dimension.
I foresaw the Whole, the Universe in general and in
particularly its smallest parts. However with my mind, I could travel and pass
the frontier that even physically could see.
Imagination is, therefore, the first form of
relationship in the universal space, is the bridge between the physic person
compelled to a meager space of the Universe, and the unconscious that embrace
it.
In many ways my imagination, or perception, or
unconscious always could have traveled to a higher speed and farther than
physical senses, helping to explain the perfect physical harmony existing from
the smallest to the bigger.
We could say like a corollary, that in the physical
universe the phase which puts the limits is the space and the time, on which I
could point originally.
I can’t penetrate into the atom, neither have time to
come with my life to supposed confine of the Universe; however I can foresee
all of that because I’m a part of that, and therefore I am and I staying in one
like in the other. This special mind’s paradigm, like a reflection of the
infinite, is really possible if in some level, space and time are relative or
may not exists.
From that the comes my interest in this theme in
which, of course, I’m an "amateur player" and not an expert.
Nevertheless there where some
"synchronistic" facts for me to came until here that led to me to
reencounter, during 35 years, with Horacio Ejilevich Grimaldi, he with me and
both with Jung in a causal form but not casual. Understanding that talking
about Jung and the space-time relation, the term synchronicity emerge as
antonomasy
Jung elaborated his theory of synchronicity starting
from facts that happened and gave to him that pre-knowledge between 1914 and
1921. He said that he had elaborate and foreseen in itself the knowledge or the
learning of what was synchronicity. However he waited for more than 30 years
until arrived to publish it, and he did after lots of lobbies in
This fact takes significance only in the moment I take
conscience of it, and "watching" to the fact, it happens in a near
future, and instantly it becomes the recent past, although in the reality it
has happened in the past, 37 years before. And here certainly starts the
space-time relation in the C. G. Jung’s theory.
He defined synchronicity in this way:
"I chose this term because I find an essential
approach the simultaneous occurrence of two significant events but not
connected accidentally. Therefore I use the general concept of synchronicism
with the special meaning of coincidence in the time of two or more events not
accidentally related that has the same or similar meaning, in contrast with
"synchronism", that simply means the simultaneous occurrence of
certain psychic state with one or more external events that they appear like
parallely significant for the subjective momentary state and, in certain cases,
vice-versa"...
This definition should consider particularly when it
is a question of future events.
They are evidently not "synchronous" but yes
"synchronistic", since they were experienced like images in the
present as if the event already existed".
Jung said that:
"...The synchronicity has to see with the
space-time relation, and time and space are coordinates in order to describe
the behavior of bodies in movement".
Perhaps the theoretical formulation on synchronicity
of Jung could varied if it wouldn’t dead before the Big-Bang enunciation’s
theory of Stephen Hawkins, that for most of the human beings, are an enigma
that we could foresee, but not to understand it. This theory can be summarized
as that that in the beginning all the materia of the universe, the real
materia, was compacted. No type of empty space didn't exist, and was occupied a
little space measurable in terrestrial dimensions. From the Big-Bang, initial
explosion, the Universe begins to be formed and expand, which bear a
determinist concept about the events hinds to the limit.
That would be given Jung an important element, because
this introduces the absolute causalism in the physical field, that is to say,
an original cause exists, that original cause is going to give a series of
effects, and each one of those effects will become causes. Each one of the
situations that it is happened from there in more is going to have more causes
to be produce themselves, but they will be predetermined always. When we
talking about a causal event, or like Jung use to spoke about non-causal
events, there is simply that we don't know all the causes that could determine
it. However, all this, although physically we could try to explain, in certain
form, it is relative since although events without causes don't exist, as more
causes produces an effect, their particular influence is made insignificant and
the event happens "at random" and being convert to
"non-causal".
This paradox we will try to explain a little later on.
Jung said then:
"...but if space and time are only apparent
properties in bodies in movement, and they are created from the intellectual necessity
of the observer, then their relativisation for psychic condition, is not more
than a matter in order to be surprised and it could arrive to the limits of the
possible."...
"For the unconscious psyche space and time
pretend to be relative, this means, the knowledge finds itself in a constant
space-time, in which the space is not yet space, neither the time, time".
This is the most important point into the theory of
synchronicity of Jung.
He thought that he had come to understand many further
on, but he didn't want it to describe, for causes that we ignore.
Their justification was that what he had come to
understand about synchronicity was too much perturbant for the Science of their
moment, and it didn't correspond to him, more than have defined what he had
already said, without going further on, since would be able to produce chaotic
effects that he was not able to measure them.
I will try now, after having defined what Jung
described like synchronicity, to destroy or relativise the jungian empiria of
synchronistic facts .And I'll do for a conceptual reason, since his concept is
what should have validity. Let suppose that the synchronicity exists. However
the empiric explanations of Jung only were momentary justifications in order to
try to give validity to a theory that he knew would be questioned. Certainly
several examples could be debated scientifically, with more or less difficulty
according to the case.
For example the famous history in which a patient
related him a dream in which the central topic was the gold scarab, to the time
that Jung felt a noise in their window and upon opening a scarab entered, what
it for him was a great revelation.
I will try it to find related causes so that it stop
being a synchronistic event. Leading to a physical plane the archetypes that
Jung theorized in a psychic plane, we could say that we also carrying
physically everything that precedes us from the first original molecule that
was begun to interpolate and extrapolate in order to produce that that we
called life- the amount of ADN that we have in our cells gives certain validity
to this pre-supposition.
The woman, that in their moment has a dream that for
her is significant, although not arrive to understand, about the gold scarab;
could retrograde physically to a remote situation, in which, she would produce
a certain type of pheromones, hormones of sexual attraction for which we have
lost the consciousness of their smell, but that the others animals and insects
possess. These pheromones could look like the produced by the scarabs. A scarab
has the property, in order to ensure the copulation like a part of their
adaptation for the survival, of could detect a part per millions of that
pheromone from several kilometers of distance and go toward it. If we thought in
this way, we could come to explain causally, in a physical form; the relation
of the two facts until the apparition of the scarab in the window and its
knocking, like on the other hand, they make it at dusk against so much windows
the scarabs of several parts of the world.
Jung includes into the synchronicity examples the
telepathy, proven by
Also the concurrent facts could be questionable.
His example was about a person that received a ticket
of the tram, one of the theater, and a number through telephone with exactly
the same numeration.
Probably in the 30ties, when the event happened, the
numeration of each one of them was not more than four digits. They are gone
giving permanently until in any city, any day are given all in the same
numeration, therefore the conjunction of the three identical facts produces an
event that could be related causally and for which should not be called
synchronistic.
Although investigating the causal relations, more or
less obvious, of the rest of the jungian casuistic, could be debate their
scientific validity; it is undeniable that Jung was able to extrapolate from
the background of certain facts --so that is to say, produced a cognitive
deeper effect in him that in their patients-- what we could call the absolute
knowledge that exists in the Universe on the synchronicity.
However there is Jung himself who methodologically
tried to adapt the non-causalism of his casuistry to the non-causalism of his
theory, because its validity in front of the rest of the scientific world, was
depended on this so like he expressed it upon saying that:
"...no could be everything causal, neither
causalistic, because if not, the synchronistic facts would not exist."
From all of that it comes off that the important
matter is the non-causal perception of the fact and not so much that it could
be.
From another point of view could be said that if all
the facts are totally causalistic and everything is totally predetermined, the
time like such it doesn't exist.
If an event is going to happen in the future, and it
really is going to happen, through the absolute determinism, it stops being an
event and becomes a fact that actually, it already happened in another plane of
what we called time. It would also be part of the past since the present is
just a nexus between both.
This sophism, so it is not more than that, would be
used to recognize that the concept of time if could take it from a dual form,
would be in harmony with the rest of the universe.
The synchronicity acquires more importance since
become a non-temporal relation. We must look for the nexus that relates the
synchronicity with the dual character of the time giving meaning to it.
The concept that would introduce is that we in fact
have two parallel universes, one physical on which we know certain laws like
for example the causation or non-causation and the linearity of the time; and a
psychic universe on which we don't still know the laws that govern it although
these laws are governing.
If we perceived some of the elements that conform this
psychic universe like the willingness and the meaning; and through the concept
of time's definition, in psychic aspect, this would not exist.
Like corollary we could say that the non-temporal
relation between the psychic universe and the physical universe would produce
the synchronistic events.
In the last paragraphs of the book "About the
Synchronicity," Jung writes that:
"...Against of this should keep in mind that the
synchronistic events, that one could verify empirically, far from building a
rule, they are so exceptional that most of the people doubt of their
existence."
Probably Jung was not able to verify logic and
scientifically these facts, but for the above, we should suppose that the
synchronistic facts happens, in the reality with many much frequency of what
one could check.
Even more:
We don't know if they happen frequently and regularly in any field of the
experience like in order to talk about they conforming a law.
I owe to emphasize again the possibility that the
facts of relation between "the body and the soul" should be
understood like synchronistic, and in fact, the synchronicity is the
non-temporal relation and therefore, non-causal between that psychic universe
"the soul" and the physique universe that is "the body."
Robert Aziz in his book about Jung "Synchronicity
and Religion" says that:
" The problem is that Jung treated the thematic
of what they were the archetypes, the archetypal images, creating a confusion
in certain form; but he never expressed with words that exist the synchronicity
and the synchronistic facts, and that is very important to make the difference
between the one and the other."
On the other hand Jung says:
"...If this conjecture comes to be eventually
proven, my current vision of the synchronicity like rare phenomenon, should be
corrected. We only knows that should be an underlying phenomenon that possibly
could explain these related phenomenons."
In fact Jung already foresaw the relativity of the
time, and of the space in one of the universes, in both or in their
interrelation. He wrote this like an admonition. But an admonition in certain
form contains a certain principle. Jung was sure of what he was saying, he
simply lost much time trying to explain to the scientific world of the moment
the synchronicity through certain examples. Therefore Jung didn't come to give
scientific and rational form to what supposedly he conjectured in the end of
his life.
The synchronicity so will be the non-temporal relation
between the psyche and the physique, and therefore most of the facts should be
synchronistics. However the relation becomes synchronistic when we could
understand it and give us a meaning. There is that when we takes the synchronicity
concept in hands although the synchronicity already exists. Non-temporally and
therefore non-causally we explain the synchronistic fact.
Arriving to the end wants to try to sketching the
reason, the what, the importance and the meaning of the synchronicity and the
synchronistic facts.
The synchronistic facts that takes place being the
non-temporal relation of psyche - physique, are the norm of our lives although
we seldom recognize them like such.
The synchronicity is our relationship with the total, Psychic and Physical
Universe and therefore it connect us with the unconscious.
The synchronicity and the synchronistic facts give us
the opportunity to understand the way to putting us in balance with the
symmetry of the Universe, and therefore with ourselves and with the environment
that surrounds us. The meaning of the synchronicity is that the universal
homeostasis is non temporal and non spatial.
Thanks
