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The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21, 153-168 153 2002 by Panigada Press

I.Introduction:OnMindandMatter

PUBL ICATION OF the Pauli -Jung co rre-

spondence(Pauli&Jung, 1992)leavesno

doubtthatWolfgangPaulidevotedmuch

thought to theconceptof synchronicity, or the

acausalsynchronicityofmeaningfulevents. This

concept was introduced byC. G. Jung (Jung&

Pauli, 1952/1973)ina bookthatalsoincludesPau-

lis contribution. Despite many discussions of

synchronicitythatPaulihadwithscientistswork-

ing at the Institute forAdvanced Study in

Princeton, USA(wherehespenthiswaryears),

theideawassomehowabandoned.Physicistswere

notreadytodiscussacausalcoincidences between

eventsdistantintimeandspace, mentalexperi-

ences(dreams, intentions, thoughts), andmean-

ing. Paulihimselfwasfamousforcreatingtrou-

bleinlaboratorieshevisited, andapparentlyhe

Synchronicity, Mind, and Matter

Experimentswithremoteperceptionand RandomEventGenerators(REG)performedover

thelastdecadesshowsmall butsignificantanomalouseffects. Sincetheseeffectsseemto

beindependentofspatialandtemporaldistance, theyappearto beindisagreementwith

thestandardscientificworldview. Averysimpleexplanationofquantummechanicsispre-

sented, rejectingallunjustifiedclaimsabouttheworld. Aviewofmindinagreementwith

cognitiveneuroscienceisintroduced. Itisarguedthatmindandconsciousnessareemer-

gentpropertiesofthe brainandareunderstandablewithoutanynonphysicalassumptions.

Aplausibleexplanationoftheresultsofanomalousexperiments, basedontheconceptof

synchronicity, introduced byC.G. Jungandadvocated byW. Pauli, isoffered. Aproof is

given thatstrong correlations should exist betweenany systems thatonce interacted.

Synchronicityevents betweenpartsofthe brainandphysicalobjectsmay besufficientto

explaintheresultsofanomalousexperiments. Standardphysicsissufficienttounderstand

thesephenomena.

regardedthisPaulieffectasamanifestationof

synchronicity. ThewishthatPauliexpressedmore

thanfortyyearsagotoseephysicsandpsycheas

complementaryaspectsofthesamerealitymay

slowly becomemanifestnow, thankstoourdeep-

erunderstandingofthefoundationsofphysicsandthedevelopmentofthecognitivesciences.

Perceptualand cognitive processesarenot

passive butinvolve fittingthe bestmodelstothe

incomingdata. Perceivingthree-dimensionalob-

jectswithcolorsthatarealmostindependentof

illuminationrequiresmanyassumptionsthatthe

brainhaslearnedtomakeinthecourseofevolu-

tion. Activeperceptionleadstothemetaphorof

the brainasthemachinegeneratingmeaning

(Freeman, 1996), discriminatingandevaluating

everything froma subjective perspective. It is

sufficienttos

eeon

lythos

easp

ectsofr

ea

litythat

may influenceour decisions, so we donot see

more. Looking formeaning isa great strategy

facilitatingsurvivalintypicalsituations, butit

alsoleadsto findingmeaningfulpatternsinran-

domdotsorshapesoftheclouds. Atthecogni-

tivelevelthesituationisanalogous.Weassume

thatweknowourselves, buthowcanwereal-

lyknow?Weknow byobservingandmakingthe-

oriesaboutour own behavior (Gopnik, 1993).

Motto:

Itwould be mostsatisfactory ifphysicsand psyche

could be seenascomplementaryaspects

ofthe same reality.

W. Pauli(InJung&Pauli, 1952/1973)

Wlodzislaw Duch

Nicholas Copernicus UniversityTorun, Poland

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Synchronicity, Mind, and Matter 165

Appendix

THISAPPENDIXprovidesa technicalproofshowing the inseparabilityofsubsystems in quantummechanics. Statevectorsrepresentingobjects belongtoaHilbertspace. OperatorPrepresentinganobservable(property, thatmay beobserved)appliedtosomearbitrarystatevectorconvertsitinto

anotherstatevector. Quantummechanicsisaholistictheoryanddoesnotallowforawell-defined

wa

yofdescribi

ngth

eseparat

ion

ofsyst

ems. T

hisfactga

verisetoalternat

iveformu

lat

ions

ofmath

-ematicalfoundationsof quantummechanics(Piron, 1985;Aerts, 1982), butsofarallexperiments

showthatstandard quantummechanicsiscorrect. TheHilbertspaceofantisymmetric, manyparti-

clefunctions, describingthetotalsystem, cannot bedecomposedintoseparatesubspaces.

Considertwophysicalsystems,SAandS

B, withN

AandN

Bparticles(electronsorotherfermions),

respectively. Eachsystemisdescribed byitsownfunction, ^Aantisymmetricforpermutationsofall

NAparticlesand^

BantisymmetricforN

Bparticles. Assumingthat bothfunctionsarenormalizedto

unity, itiseasytoshowthattheproductfunctionAB

=A

Bisalwaysfarfromtheantisymmetric

function =A^AB

, whereAistheantisymmetrizationoperator. Thedistancemay bemeasured byan

overlap^AB

| ^or bythenormofdifference:)

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166 The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21

InthetextbookofA. Messiah(Messiah, 1976, ChapterXIV, 8)itisproventhatthisnonseparability

shouldnotmatter becauseprobabilitiesofdifferentstatesofaspatiallyisolatedsubsystemdonot

dependontheantisymmetrizationofthefunctionofthissubsystemwithfunctionsofallotherparticles

in theUniverse. Butwhatabout theresultsofjointmeasurements, that iscorrelations between

observations?ConsiderthesystemsSAandS

Bandtwoindependentmeasurementsofobservables

correspondingtotheoperatorsOAandO

B. Thewavefunctionsofthesesystemsmay beexpandedin

theeige

nbas

isof:

Messiah(1976)provesthattakingthetotalfunction &insteadoftheproductfunctionsI J

&doesnotchangetheprobabilities | C

a

A| 2. However, hedoesnotlookatthepossiblecorrelationsofjoint

measurements.Assumingthatthetwosystemsareseparated, theresultofthejointmeasurementis:

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&^A&^

B| O

AO

B|^

A&^

B&'&^

A|O

A|^

A&^

B|O

B|^

B&'&O

A&O

B

DefinenowacoefficientCABmeasuringthedifference betweenthisresultandtheresultobtainedwithoutassumptionofseparability, calculatedwiththetotalwavefunction^:

Ifthereisnodifference betweenthesetwocasesthiscoefficientshould bezero. However,

sinceallmatrixelementsforpermutations(P,Q)&(I, I)vanish byvirtueoflocalizationoftheSAand

SBsubsystems. Thisleadstothefollowinginequalityforthecorrelationcoefficient:

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&,&*CAB

*&-%.

Thusthereisahugedifference. Usingalocaldescriptionforisolatedsubsystemsleadstocorrect

localresults, butcorrelationswithothersystemsarealwayslarge, approachingperfectcorrelationfora largeN. Theseresultsdonotseemtodependondecoherenceof largesystems. For further

discussionofseparabilityandtheroleofsymmetry breakingseeDuch(1988).

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