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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A scientific approach to Jung's concept, 18 Jan 2010

By

Dr. H. A. Jones "Howard Jones" (Wales) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Synchronicity (Paperback)

Synchronicity: The bridge between matter and mind, by F. David Peat, Bantam, 1987, 256 ff.

A scientific approach to Jung's concept
By Howard A. Jones

F. David Peat is a physicist who, earlier in his career, worked with another holistic visionary, David Bohm. This book is an exploration of the significance of synchronicity in contributing to the order of the universe.

Chapter 1 provides examples of synchronicity in physics (as in the quantum interaction of subatomic particles) and personal psychology (some of the seemingly inexplicable but significant coincidences we find in our everyday lives). Chapter 2 outlines the Newtonian mechanical world-view and shows that, even here, there are many instances where the itemized, reductionist approach is not sufficient to describe the behaviour of all systems. This is where things could get scary, but Peat glides smoothly over the surface of the variational principle and the Hamilton-Jacobi equation by saying merely that these are theoretical techniques for studying the optimization of whole systems. In Chapter 3 he moves on to the living universe where coordination or synchronicity between different components of a system is an essential element of their function. Synchronistic thinking amongst the individuals in a population gets governments elected - or revolutions started! Synchronicity is also to be found in the behaviour of flocks of birds, schools of fishes or social insects. Physical phenomena like turbulence and superconductivity and the dissipative structures suggested by Ilya Prigogine are also described here because they involve the same kind of coordinated behaviour of constituent particles.

Chapter 4 on Patterns of Mind and Matter alludes to a creative consciousness that participates in the symmetry of geometrical and natural structures, in that such symmetry is both constitutive of the object and descriptive as part of human perception of the object. Structures of atoms and their constituents are also described here, after Heisenberg, as material realizations of such underlying symmetries. Our human propensity to seek out symmetries and patterns in the world are seen as archetypes within Jung's collective unconscious. Chapter 5 expands on the reductionist scientific world-view by considering how synchronicity emerges in the way that the ancient Shang people of China and the contemporary Naskapi Indians of Canada view their world. Chapter 6 explores resonances between these world-views and the morphic field of Rupert Sheldrake and the implicate order of David Bohm, both of whose theories are expanded on in a little detail. Peat has the advantage of having worked with Bohm and, as a physicist himself, is in a position to explain Bohm's quantum theories simply. Karl Pribram's theory of brain function, referred to here, was also heavily influenced by Bohm.

The remaining two chapters deal with The Creative Source and synchronicity in relation to cosmology, philosophy and religion. There are reference notes at the end of each chapter and a good index at the end of the book. This book is an excellent read on various aspects of synchronicity in the world.

Dr Howard A. Jones is the author of The Thoughtful Guide to God (2006) and The Tao of Holism (2008), both published by O Books of Winchester, UK.

Looking Glass Universe: The Emerging Science of Wholeness
Science, Order and Creativity

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10 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Extremes of redundant redundancy, 11 Feb 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Synchronicity (Paperback)

I have this strange compulsion: once I start a book, I must finish it. Even if the book drones on and on, I have no choice but to read every word. Sometimes this compulsion pushes me into a quite uncomfortable corner. This book put me there quite early, and kept me pinned for a couple of weeks. If I were extremely masochistic, I would read it again and highlight identical themes. Never in my life have I read anything more redundant. It seemed as if, at the onset, the author outlined his major points, and then thought of ten ways to say each point. Then, each of the ten variations for each point were repeated two or three times. I won't go on and on about this book. It was somewhat interesting, but it was entirely subjective, every point that the author was trying to disprove could very easily be seen from other points of view, and it was about 100 pages too long. The editor on this one really fell asleep on the job.

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47 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars To Make the Spirit, Matter. . ., 6 Aug 1998

By Michael J. Redding - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Synchronicity (Paperback)

All of us at sometime have had the experience of a "coincidence" which seems to odd to be random. This conjunction of co-incident encounter is explored brilliantly by the author from the early collaboration of Pauli and Jung to modern day expositions of quantum theory the non-physicist can understand. For anyone seeking the origin of currents surrounding our intuitive rock in the River, this book is a must read. Or, as Mark Victor Hansen warns, "Whatever you want, wants you;" This book helps explain, Why. MR

52 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best and most Helpful books I have ever read, 2 Feb 2001

By Joel Brown - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Synchronicity (Paperback)

Synchronicity shatters causality as being capable of applying to the entire macrocosm. It demands that we progress on from the Newtonian worldview. Though the explanations for synchronicity might seem just as incomprehensible, with this book synchronicity won't seem as impossible. We get the bridge between an artistic and mechanistic universe. Linearity and Nonlinearity, mind and matter, Acausality and causality are to be complimentary, not isolated dualities. With synchronicity we will variegate, but not transmogrify, the mechanistic Kosmos. He thoroughly examines two valuable sources of synchronicity work: Carl Jung and Wolfgang Pauli. Perhaps as Pauli believed, an integration will occur with synchronicity by bringing the objective into pyschology and the subjective into physics. In our universe, which is more of an organism than a machine, "everything is the cause of everything." We cannot observe phenomena without disturbing it, by being an integral participator in phenomena itself. With the development of the illusions of our distinct selfs and our Newtonian strict mindsets, a synchronicity can be the only moment in which we can see transcendant eternity. But if we are willing to break down these walls, we will be submerged in eternal creativity, and stop seeing life as linear in time and causality. Another thing, at some points in this book, it almost seems as if Peat was directly writing about God. I don't mean an anthropomorphised jealous demiurge, but rather, as I quote from his own words, "an eternally creative source that lies beyond the orders of time." pp. 195 Or how about pp. 88 "What if the laws of nature---the ones that really fly---are not simply abstractions of experience but are realization, within the world of mind, of something that is creative, generative, and formative, of something that lies beyond mathematics, language, and thought?" If he realizes this, I cannot say. But later he does speak of how the ancients described this same thing as the Tao. So I think he does, but that using a word with such a negative connotation as G-d would be misleading. But when I hear him say "objective intelligence" it seems like nothing less than being politically correct talking about the Supreme Personality of the Godhead.

Or perhaps he was expecting a white beard.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bridge Between Matter and Mind, 10 July 2009

By Rezinous Glaze - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: Synchronicity (Paperback)

I bought this book many years ago and it opened up my inner vision.
Many years later, and several moves and major changes later, I found myself wondering about personal introductions and synchronicity.
This book bridged the gap, and simplified the riddles.
The subject of Synchronicity was presented to me through the early years.
Pondering's of personal Psychic senses gave way to a different level of speculation on the natural world around, then this book entered into my path.
Synchronicity- The Bridge Between Matter and Mind for me is a re-purchase.

Experience a reunion.

~V.

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