Are psychedelic synchronicities real? What research reveals about meaningful coincidences
You're three days out from a transformative mushroom journey, still integrating the profound insights from it, when your phone buzzes. It's your estranged sister calling - the same sister you'd found yourself thinking about intensely during your trip, feeling waves of forgiveness and love you hadn't experienced in years. She says she doesn't know why, but she felt compelled to reach out. Your heart skips. Is this just coincidence, or something more?
If you've worked with psychedelics, chances are you've experienced moments like this - during and after your trips. Recent research reveals that psychedelic users report significantly higher experiences of meaningful coincidences compared to non-users, and the phenomenon appears to extend well beyond the acute effects of the substances themselves.
What you're experiencing has a name. Synchronicity. Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung coined this term over a century ago to describe meaningful coincidences that transcend ordinary cause-and-effect. Unlike random events, synchronicities feel profound. Personal. Transformative.
Think of it as the universe winking at you. Moments when inner and outer reality become mysteriously thin.
What is synchronicity?
Jung identified several key characteristics that distinguish synchronicity from ordinary coincidence:
Meaningful connections: These are events that appear to be causally unrelated but are experienced as deeply meaningful when they occur together. It's not just that two things happened - it's that their timing and connection feels significant in a way that touches something deep within you.
Acausal relationship: The events aren't linked by traditional cause and effect, but by meaning or significance. There's no logical chain of events that explains why your sister called - yet the timing feels anything but random.
Psychological impact: The experience often feels deeply personal, significant or transformative to the individual experiencing it.
How synchronicity shows up
Thought and occurence: You're thinking about an old friend. They call that exact moment. Or you're wrestling with a problem, open a book randomly, and find the perfect answer staring back at you.
Symbolic bombardment: Someone considering a career change suddenly sees references to their dream job everywhere. Conversations. Billboards. Random encounters. The universe seems to be dropping hints.
Number magic: You keep seeing 11:11 on clocks. Or the same number sequence appears in addresses, receipts, license plates. Repeatedly. It feels like a code.
Messages in the everyday: A writer stuck on a plot point overhears the exact conversation that solves their problem. A scientist has a breakthrough that perfectly aligns with a random observation from that morning. You're struggling with a decision. Turn on the radio. The first song contains lyrics that speak directly to your situation. Not metaphorically—literally.
Dream prophesy: You dream about your college roommate. Next morning, they message you with big news. Or you dream of a specific animal, then encounter it three times that week.
Jung himself provided a striking example from his clinical work: He once described working with a patient who was telling him about a dream featuring a golden scarab beetle. At that precise moment, a scarab beetle (which was extremely rare in his Swiss office) flew through the window, creating a stunning moment of synchronicity that seemed to bridge the patient's inner psychological state with an external event (and led to her breakthrough).
The neurological gateway: how psychedelics prime us for connection
Modern neuroscience has revealed that psychedelics like LSD, psilocybin, and ayahuasca significantly reduce activity in the brain's default mode network (DMN) - the network associated with self-referential thinking, ego-consciousness, and our usual sense of separation from the world.
This reduction in DMN activity functions as a kind of "rebooting" of the brain, during which there's increased connectivity between previously separate neural networks. Think of it like taking down the walls between rooms in your mental house—suddenly, everything can communicate with everything else in ways that weren't possible before.
Dr. Rosalind Watts, a leading UK psychedelic researcher, notes that "coincidences and synchronicities increase during and after psychedelic trips." These experiences often extend beyond the user - including therapists and others present.
This neurological opening may explain why psychedelic experiences feel like returning to interconnected reality. Boundaries dissolve. Inner meets outer.
“What’s particularly fascinating about post-psychedelic synchronicities is how they serve to extend and deepen the transformative potential of the experience itself. ”
During psychedelic sessions, people often feel a profound sense of connectedness to themselves, other people, nature, and the world. When synchronicities continue after the experience ends, they help maintain that sense of connection.
This isn't just feel-good mysticism - it has real therapeutic value. Feeling connected to self, other people, the world around us, and something greater is vital to the mental and emotional well-being of humans, both individually and collectively. We are all born mystics and synchronicities serve as ongoing reminders of our interconnectedness, helping to integrate insights from the psychedelic experience into everyday life.
When science meets mystery
Mainstream science remains appropriately skeptical. Synchronicity can't be empirically predicted or manufactured. But emerging research confirms psychedelic users demonstrate higher connectedness and more meaningful coincidences.
Jung himself understood the limitations of classical physics when it comes to consciousness and meaning. He wrote: "Natural laws are statistical truths, which means that they are completely valid only when we are dealing with macrophysical quantities. In the realm of very small quantities prediction becomes uncertain, if not impossible, because very small quantities no longer behave in accordance with the known natural laws."
This insight proved prophetic. Quantum physics revealed that reality at the smallest scales defies classical logic. Particles exist in multiple states simultaneously. Observation affects outcomes. Distant particles remain mysteriously connected. Perhaps consciousness and meaning operate by similar non-classical principles.
Some, including Jung, believe synchronicity might be the explanation behind ancient divination tools like tarot, runes, and the i Ching.
Recent clinical research acknowledges that "context is crucial and should be studied directly" rather than controlled away. Jung's concept of individuation is now recognized as "extremely pertinent to modern psychedelic research".
Integration: working with synchronicity
If you're noticing increased synchronicities following psychedelic experiences, here are some ways to work with them constructively:
Stay present: When a potential synchronicity occurs, take a moment to fully experience it. Notice how it feels in your body, what emotions arise, and what meaning it might hold for you.
Resist over-interpretation: Not every coincidence is a cosmic message. Maintain healthy skepticism while remaining open to genuine meaningful connections.
Journal: Keeping a record of synchronicities can help you identify patterns and themes that might be relevant to your growth and healing journey.
Share wisely: Discuss your experiences with trusted friends, therapists, or integration professionals who can help you process their potential meaning without dismissing their significance.
The way of wonder
Synchronicities offer us awe, spirituality, and connection - all of which are therapeutic in their own right. They invite us to consider that there might be more complex connections in our universe than traditional linear cause-and-effect models suggest, encouraging a more holistic, interconnected view of reality where meaning can transcend conventional scientific explanations.
For those walking the path of psychedelic healing and growth, synchronicities serve as gentle reminders that the journey doesn't end when the substance leaves your system.
After all, in a universe where consciousness emerges from matter and psychedelic molecules dissolve separation, perhaps the most rational response to synchronicity isn't skepticism - but wonder.
What’s been the greatest example of synchronicity in your life?
For those curious to explore synchronicity in action, we’re hosting Tarot for Beginners: Introduction to Numerology, the Fool's Journey and Q&A on June 19th in London to explore. how numerology shapes tarot messages and follows The Fool's transformative journey.
