In Search of Nikola Tesla Page 140

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Sigmund Freud was shaken at the time, but soon gained his composure and, in a letter to Jung, joked about his credulity. He also warned Jung against the 'black tide of mud' of occultism. In the above incident, a psychic crisis was paralleled by two loud reports in Freud's room. It is clearly a case of synchronicity. For a moment the flow of thought and the events of the physical world exhibited a similar face, the two worlds coalesced and a physical event was flooded with deep meaning. The rational mind may well feel itself to be in rebellion with such far fetched ideas as synchronicity and find itself agreeing with Freud that the whole thing is coincidence. Yet the concept of a parallel nature between mind and matter is not new; indeed, it is found in alchemy, the kabbala and in classical Indian and Chinese philosophy. In essence, all these cosmologies speak of a parallelism between the world of physical events and some ‘higher' plane. This higher world contains its patterns in some simultaneous or, rather, timeless sense as equally present. In the world of matter, however, patterns are revealed sequentially as they unroll in time. The higher plane, therefore, contains all past, present and future situations of our universe but in some simultaneous presence. It is the belief of these philosophies that, through some symbolic ritual or action, it is possible to mirror the eternal patterns in our own world, and, by implication, gain a deeper understanding of the meaning of our lives – past, present and future. For example, divination is not a method of predicting the future or even influencing it. Rather, it presents in microcosm a pattern which surrounds our present consciousness and carries with it intimations of past and future. Casting a hexagram for the I Ching in no way influences our future or establishes a causal connection which must be followed. No deterministic path is laid down for us to travel once the oracle has been consulted. Rather a synchronicity is presented between our own world and this supposed higher plane. The information, moreover, is not presented in any explicit form, as in a horoscope, for example, but is symbolic and enfolded as a pattern of numbers, an arrangement of symbolic forms or in some other fashion which requires deciphering. 140