Have you ever had a dream that came alive in your waking life? Perhaps you dreamed of someone you hadn’t seen in years, only to encounter them on the street corner the very next day. Or maybe you dreamed about missing a bus, only to find yourself running for it in real life the next morning. If so, you likely experienced what Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875–1961) called synchronicity, or meaningful coincidences. This phenomenon occurs when our inner psychological state mirrors our external reality in ways that can feel remarkable, uncanny, eerie, and profound.

Synchronicity can be described as a coincidental meshing of interior psychic events and exterior happenings in the outside world (Coward, 1996; Main, 1997; Roesler & Reefschläger, 2022). For something to be considered synchronistic, it must hold deep personal relevance. It points toward a shared meaning or pattern, suggests a connection to something larger than oneself, and lacks a direct cause-and-effect relationship. Synchronistic experiences invite us to consider the possibility that there is something deeper going on between our inner and outer worlds, and that two seemingly unrelated events can conjure up momentous interconnectedness beyond mere chance.

Fascinated by meaningful coincidences in his own life and those of his patients, Jung recognized and systematically attempted to document the phenomenon. Jung was curious to discover whether synchronicities could be generated with some regularity under controlled conditions. Jung’s investigations did not yield results that met standard scientific criteria for proof. Though the concept is inherently difficult to test empirically because it is defined by a subjective element of meaning.

Tarot cards work in a similar way. When you pull a card, the rich imagery and symbols mirror what is already active in your unconscious mind. The magic feeling of tarot reading often comes down to the cards’ artwork creating synchronistic moments that resonate with your current situation. In the spirit of synchronicity, some Jungian-oriented psychotherapists have been highlighting the potential benefits of tarot-assisted therapeutic practices for over two decades (Olbert, 2018; Rosengarten, 2000; Schaefer, 2021; Semetsky, 2006).

Exploring the Collective Unconscious

Jung linked the concept of synchronicity to the collective unconscious—a deeper layer of the psyche shared by all humanity. This communal reservoir of human experience gives rise to universal archetypes (e.g., the hero, the wise old man), instincts (e.g., survival and reproduction), symbols (e.g., the circle, the tree), and recurring mythic patterns (e.g., the descent into the underworld), all of which are distinct from our individual unconscious. You can think of it as a universal blueprint of human experience, a bedrock of all individual minds. Formed ancestrally, the collective unconscious carries the echoes of countless generations. You might imagine the collective unconscious as an invisible network beneath us, subtly shaping how we feel and make meaning long before we are aware of it. Like the hive mind in the popular TV show Stranger Things, it is not something we consciously see or hear, yet we are all moving within patterns it has been transmitting for eons.

While not currently scientifically validated as a literal structure of the mind, the idea of the collective unconscious remains highly influential in several applied fields including literature and film, business and marketing, religious studies, and psychotherapy. It can be a powerful metaphor for self-discovery and personal growth. Because the collective unconscious is shared across all of us, dreams often tap into universal symbols, offering a glimpse into the deeper parts of our minds.

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) viewed dreams as the royal road to the unconscious, arguing that they reveal hidden layers of the psyche. Freud saw dreams in terms of wish-fulfillment, repressed drives, unresolved conflicts, and instinctual urges. Jung, meanwhile, saw dreams as compensatory messages revealing deeper truths and guiding our path to individuation, balancing conscious attitudes and illuminating hidden properties of the psyche, both personal and collective. In both views, dreams are to be respected and serve as a vital bridge to understanding the deeper workings of the mind.

Training Your Mind to Listen

Learning to observe patterns across dreams and waking life doesn’t come naturally to most people. In fact, many people struggle to even remember their dreams. It can help after waking to stay still, keep your eyes closed, and record any recalled fragments in a dream journal before starting your day. You can also set an intention beforehand, telling yourself “I will remember my dreams tonight,” repeating this phrase as you drift off to sleep. Like a muscle, dream recall is a skill that improves with practice.

Some experienced dreamers train themselves to the point of lucidity, where you become aware that you are dreaming. While lucid dreaming, some people can control the dream’s narrative and manipulate their environment and the characters within it. From a Jungian perspective, lucid dreaming is a potential tool for profound insight if approached with curiosity and care. However, the conscious ego’s attempt to control or hijack a dream can be seen as potentially problematic, as it could interfere with the psyche’s natural processes of self-healing and psychic conflict resolution.

Active imagination is considered a less risky approach to dream exploration. It consists of a conscious technique for dialoguing with the unconscious mind by letting inner images and spontaneous feelings naturally emerge. Like a waking dream in a relaxed state, active imagination is not passive daydreaming but an active, guided conversation with the unconscious, often starting with a strong emotion or a dream image. You are a participant, not just an observer. But crucially, you don’t attempt to control the outcome. Instead, you follow the unconscious’s lead in the goal of wholeness, healing, and self-discovery.

Where Psyche Meets Science

When our inner and outer lives align, we can view it as a conversation between the unconscious and the conscious. Moments of synchronicity that seem too meaningful to be random, Jung believed, are worth paying attention to. Recurring symbols, uncanny coincidences, or patterns that show up can remind us that we are constantly connected to, and interacting with, archetypal energies in daily life. By being open and receptive to these subtle messages, rather than dismissing these events as pure chance, there exists tremendous therapeutic value and potential for personal development.

Dreams and synchronicities operate in a realm that is subjective and hard to test scientifically. While the concept of synchronicity may resist strict scientific validation in mainstream academic psychology, its educational value lies in developing awareness of the interconnectedness of inner and outer life. Positivism and scientism have contributed immensely to our understanding of how the human brain works; however, these philosophies are not the only arbiters of truth and meaning (Ellenberger, 1970). Positivism emphasizes knowledge derived from observable, measurable phenomena. Scientism extends this view to suggest that only science can provide reliable answers. Neuroscience has, to a large extent, pervaded the field of clinical psychology in recent years. Yet, human experience encompasses so much more than what can be quantified or empirically tested.

Neuroscientific advances have undeniably enriched our understanding of mental life. But the relational and lived dimensions of psychological suffering and healing—the aspects of our lives that are hard or impossible to pin down to biological processes alone—continue to be overshadowed, neglected, and misunderstood. Personal narratives, cultural contexts, and existential concerns cannot exclusively be reduced to neural mechanisms. Meaningful coincidences act as part of a much broader map of the psyche, guiding us toward self-awareness and insight into the deeper forces shaping our lives. Paying attention to these moments allows us to playfully engage with the collective unconscious. Observing and reflecting on these patterns can help us live with greater mindfulness, compassionate curiosity, and a stronger sense of connection to ourselves and the world around us.

A Few Personal Synchronicities

Before wrapping up, I want to share some personal experiences that made me curious about synchronicity. I don’t present these as proof of anything supernatural, but these are meaningful coincidences that had a strong psychological impact on me.

Dreamed vividly of someone I hadn’t seen since middle school; the very next morning, I unexpectedly saw them studying quietly in a college campus building I rarely passed through.
During a period of intense anger as an adolescent, I demanded a “sign from the universe”; moments later, a long-deactivated house alarm system suddenly blared and only stopped when I pressed a random keypad button.
Briefly imagined a large, framed picture above my staircase falling as I walked downstairs; a few days later, it fell off the wall.
Dreamed that a new workplace was moving locations; about a week later, I was told the organization was indeed relocating.
While updating my LinkedIn profile to include Jungian coursework, my bathroom mirror suddenly made a loud bang and partially separated from its frame.
Noticed the same number patterns showing up across many different areas of my life.
Imagined people saying or doing specific things, only for them to say or do those exact things days, hours, or even minutes later.

These moments have stayed with me. I share them here in case others are curious about the strange, meaningful ways outside life sometimes merges with our inner world. By studying dreams and coincidences, we gain tools for introspection. We gain a better understanding of how the psyche communicates. Despite all the psychological knowledge we have accumulated, the human brain still holds countless mysteries. The unconscious continues to guard its secrets, reminding us that the mind is far richer and more mysterious than we can ever fully know.

References

Coward, H. (1996). Taoism and Jung: Synchronicity and the self. Philosophy East and West, 46(4), 477–495. https://doi.org/10.2307/1399493

Ellenberger, H. F. (1970). The discovery of the unconscious: The history and evolution of dynamic psychiatry. Basic Books.

Main, R. (1997). Jung on synchronicity and the paranormal. Routledge.

Olbert, C. M. (2018). Divination practices: An empirical psychological investigation (Doctoral dissertation, Fordham University). ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Roesler, C., & Reefschläger, G. I. (2022). Jungian psychotherapy, spirituality, and synchronicity: Theory, applications, and evidence base. Psychotherapy, 59(3), 339–350. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000402

Rosengarten, A. (2000). Tarot and psychology: Spectrums of possibility. Paragon House.

Schaefer, L. K. (2021). Unconscious content, symbol, and tarot (Doctoral dissertation, Pacifica Graduate Institute). ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Semetsky, I. (2006). Tarot as a projective technique. Spirituality and Health International, 7(4), 187–197. https://doi.org/10.1002/shi.252

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