Description

Dr. Aziz was honored with the distinction of being invited by Dr. Lance Storm of the University of Adelaide, Australia to contribute the Foreword to Synchronicity: Multiple Perspectives on Meaningful Coincidence, which is a remarkable collection of scholarly, clinical and experimental research papers.

about the contributors (pp. 297-302)

Robert Aziz, Ph.D., is a scholar, psychoanalytical therapist and executive consultant/mentor within the business sector. He has lectured on depth psychology at two Ontario universities. His first book C. G. Jung’s Psychology of Religion and Synchronicity (1990) is a comprehensive study of Jung’s theoretical and clinical understanding of synchronicity. His second book The Syndetic Paradigm: The Untrodden Path Beyond Freud and Jung (2007) reaches beyond the work of Freud and Jung to explore the theoretical and clinical implications of moving from a closed-system model of a self-regulatory psyche to an open system model of a psyche in a self-organizing totality. Dr. Aziz was one of five scholars invited by The Uehiro Foundation (Tokyo) to contribute a chapter to their commemorative publication Asian and Jungian Views of Ethics (1999). Dr. Aziz maintains an analytical practice, which, as with his business sector consultancy, is North American in scope. He is a Clinical Member of the Ontario Society of Psychotherapists. He is also a member of the Canadian Psychological Association and the Canadian Psychological Association Section on Psychoanalysis. 

Kenower Weimar Bash was a Swiss psychiatrist and Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) in 1973-74. Dr. Bash worked extensively in Iran and is the author of Developing Psychiatry: Epidemiological and Social Studies in Iran, 1963-1976. He passed away in 1986, and left his estate to the NIAS Fellows’ Association, which created a special foundation, the Golestan Foundation, to administer the estate. Golestan is the Persian word for ‘rose garden’, and the aim of the foundation was to provide a stipend for a non-Dutch researcher from the medical or biological sciences, to be selected by the NIAS Scholarship Committee, to conduct research at NIAS.

John Beloff was initiated into parapsychological research through J. B. Rhine’s book Extra Sensory Perception. He majored in psychology at London University, and published the book, The Existence of Mind (1962)—a contribution to the philosophy of mind—with a final chapter devoted to the paranormal. He taught psychology in the Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh. Dr. Beloff made contributions to two edited books by John Smythies, Brain and Mind (1965) and Science and ESP (1967), and co-wrote The Case for Dualism with Smythies. He also authored Psychological Sciences (1973), and edited a volume of solicited papers on parapsychology, New Directions in Parapsychology. He was president of the Society for Psychical Research (1974-76), and twice served as president of the Parapsychological Association (1972, 1982). He was instrumental in setting up the Koestler Parapsychology Unit in the Department of Psychology at University of Edinburgh. Dr. Beloff retired in October 1985, and was made an “honorary fellow” of the department. He passed away in 2006.

William Braud earned his Ph.D. in experimental psychology at the University Of Iowa in 1967. At the University of Houston, he taught and conducted research in learning, memory, motivation, psychophysiology, and the biochemistry of memory. At the Mind Science Foundation (San Antonio, TX), he directed research in parapsychology; health and well-being influences of relaxation, imagery, positive emotions, and intention; and psychoneuroimmunology. Currently, he is Professor and member of the Core Faculty of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (Palo Alto, CA), where he supervises doctoral dissertation and thesis research, and continues research, teaching, and writing in areas of exceptional human experiences, consciousness studies, transpersonal studies, spirituality, and expanded research methods. Professor Braud has published over 250 articles in professional psychology journals and numerous book chapters. He is co-author (with Rosemarie Anderson) of Transpersonal Research Methods for the Social Sciences (1998) and author of Distant Mental Influence (2003). He serves on Editorial Boards of several professional journals and is the recipient of fellowships, travel awards, federal grants, honours and awards, including a university-wide Teaching Excellence Award (University of Huston), Award for Outstanding Contribution (Parapsychological Association), and President’s Award for Outstanding Service (Institute of Transpersonal Psychology).

Joseph Cambray, Ph.D., is a Vice President of the IAAP; consulting editor of the Journal of Analytical Psychology, and faculty member at Harvard Medical School Center for Psychoanalytical Studies. He is a Jungian analyst with private practices in Boston, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island. He is a member of the New England Society of Jungian Analysts and the Jungian Psychoanalytic Association, as well as the author of numerous articles. Dr. Cambray edited a book with Linda Carter, Analytical Psychology: Contemporary Perspectives in Jungian Analysis (2004).

Marialuisa Donati holds a degree in Philosophy (Università degli Studi of Milan, Italy, 1995), a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Science (Università degli Studi of Genova, 2001), and a second degree in Psychology at Università degli Studi of Pavia (2005). Currently, she attends the Italian Center for Analytical Psychology where she is a psychotherapist in training. She is interested in the history of ideas and collaborates with the chair of History of Psychology at Università degli Studi of Milan. She has published a number of articles about C. G. Jung and Wolfgang Pauli in journals such as Studi Junghiani and Complessità. Her book about Pauli and Jung’s collaboration, entitled C. G. Jung, W. Pauli e il principio di sincronicità, is going to be published by Armando Siciliano Editore, Messina.

Lila L. Gatlin, B.S. (University of Tulsa), M.S. (Pennsylvania State University), Ph.D. (University of Texas), is a biophysicist with related interests in information theory and parapsychology. She is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has conducted considerable research in the fields of genetics, chemistry, molecular biology, psychology, and parapsychology. She was a Fellow of the National Institutes of Health (1963-64). In the 1970s, she served as a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Molecular Evolution. She has authored a number of books including Information Theory and the Living System (1972), The Plowman and his Daughter: Sharing the Spirit of Simple Wisdom (1990), and Eternal Marriage (1987)—an autobiography begun by Carl Gatlin, edited and completed by Dr. Gatlin. She has contributed about twenty articles to scientific journals.

James HallClinical Uses of Dreams: Jungian Interpretations and Enactments (1978), Jungian Dream Interpretation (1983), and Clinical Hypnosis: Principles and Applications (1986). He is a founding member and first president of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. He served on the board of the Rhine Research Center before he became disabled in 1991 from a brain stem stroke that left him quadriplegic and mute, but with functioning sensory modalities and intellect. He is now retired.

George B. Hogenson earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yale University and his M.A. in clinical social work from the University of Chicago. He is a Senior Training Analyst at the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago and has a private analytic practice in Chicago. He is the author of Jung’s Struggle with Freud (1994), and numerous papers on Jung and analytical psychology. He is particularly interested in the application of non-linear dynamic processes to the development of theory in analytical psychology and the implications of non-linear processes for analytic practice.

Roderick Main has an M.A. (Oxford) and a Ph.D. (Lancaster), and his primary research interests include the philosophical, religious and cultural contexts of analytical psychology; depth psychology; religion and modernity; synchronicity, and myth. He is Senior Lecturer and Deputy Director at the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies, University of Essex, UK. He is the editor of Jung on Synchronicity and the Paranormal (1997), The Rupture of Time: Synchronicity and Jung’s Critique of Modern Western Culture (2004), and Revelations of Chance: Synchronicity as Spiritual Experience (2007).

Victor Mansfield has a B.A. in Engineering Science, an M.S. in Engineering Science, and a Ph.D. in Theoretical Astrophysics. He has conducted a considerable amount of research in various disciplines including theoretical astrophysics, science, philosophy and psychology. He has lectured worldwide on these topics, and taught courses in physics, Jungian psychology, Buddhism, computer science, and mathematics. Professor Mansfield is author of Synchronicity, Science, and Soul-Making (1995) and Head and Heart: A Personal Exploration of Science and the Sacred (2002), and numerous articles on physics, astronomy and computer science. He has had industrial experience at institutions such as Digicomp Research Corporation and Odyssey Research Associates in Ithaca, New York. He is associated with various professional organisations, including the American Astronomical Society, American Physical Society, and the International Astronomical Union. Professor Mansfield has received several research grants from the Colgate Research Council.

John A. Palmer graduated from Duke University with a B.A. in psychology and received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Texas in Austin. After spending two years on the psychology faculty at McGill University, he entered parapsychology on a full time basis. He headed the graduate program in parapsychology at John F. Kennedy University, and has held research positions at the University of Virginia, University of California at Davis, and the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands. He has served twice as President of the Parapsychological Association, and is presently Director of Research at the Rhine Research Center in Durham, North Carolina, where he also edits the Journal of Parapsychology. Dr. Palmer has published over 100 scientific articles and book chapters, and he is co-author of the book Foundations of Parapsychology: Exploring the Boundaries of Human Capability (1986). His primary research interest is discovering the psychological and neurological processes associated with extrasensory perception and psychokinesis as manifested both inside and outside the laboratory.

F. David Peat obtained his Ph.D. at Liverpool University and carried out research in theoretical physics at Queens University (Canada) and the National Research Council of Canada. He is the author of over twenty books on science, consciousness, society, and spirituality. All his books examine the social implications of science. He has dialogued with everyone from philosophers and Native Americans to artists and composers. He became a close associate of the physicist David Bohm, of whom he wrote a biography, Infinite Potential: The Life and Times of David Bohm (1996). In addition to scientific research, Peat took a deep interest in the approaches of C. G. Jung and has given workshops at many Jungian conferences and centres. While in North America, Peat organized a series of circles of Native American Elders and Western Scientists. In 1996, Peat moved to Pari in Italy where he established the Pari Center for New Learning to run conferences, courses, and research projects, and host an active program of visitors. The Centre’s main focus is on science, art, community and the sacred.

Sally Rhine-Feather is the eldest daughter of Dr. J. B. Rhine, who founded the Rhine Research Center. She has a Bachelor Degree in Biology, and conducted a considerable number of ESP experiments in her father’s lab. She holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, and she gained a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical psychology at the University of North Carolina. She is founder of the Psychic Experience Group (PEG) at the Rhine Research Center, which is a support group for people troubled by their psychic experiences. Her current focus is on psychic healing at the Rhine Research Center.

Shantena Augusto Sabbadini worked as a theoretical physicist in the 1960’s and 1970’s, first in Milan on the foundations of quantum physics, then at the University of California on the first identification of a black hole. After leaving academia in 1976 he worked as a farmer for a few years, and with a group of friends, he founded a spiritual-ecological farming community in Tuscany. In 1991, he got involved in the Eranos I Ching Project and helped organize the Eranos conferences in Ascona, Switzerland. Working with the Dutch sinologist Rudolf Ritsema, he produced two innovative works: I Ching: Il Libro Della Versatilità (1996), and The Original I Ching Oracle (2005). For over ten years he has been conducting seminars on the I Ching as a tool for introspection. Through all these activities, he never completely lost sight of his initial interest in the philosophical aspects of physics, of which he occasionally lectures in Italy, Switzerland and the USA. Since 2002, he has been Associate Director of the Pari Center for New Learning, where many of his essential interests naturally converge.

Berthold E. Schwartz, M.D., is a psychiatrist and advocate of parapsychology. He is author of key texts that attempt to integrate mainstream psychiatric and psychological thought with controversial sciences such as parapsychology and ufology. He has authored a number of books in this area including Ufo-Dynamics: Psychiatric and Psychic Aspects of the Ufo Syndrome (1983), Psychiatric and Paranormal Aspects of UFOlogy (1999), and Into The Crystal: The Miracles of Peter Sugleris (1992), which documents Schwartz’s investigations into the paranormal ability of a New Jersey psychic, Peter Sugleris. He has written many papers on paranormal issues including, “The Telepathic Hypothesis and Genius: A Note on Thomas Alva Edison” (1967). Dr. Schwartz has been in semi-retirement since 1994.

Lance Storm earned a B.A. (Honours) in psychology (1998) and a Ph.D. in parapsychology (2002) at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. He has published in Psychological Bulletin, the Journal of Parapsychology, Journal of Scientific Exploration, the Jungian journal Quadrant, and elsewhere. He is a full member of the Parapsychological Association, and the Australian Institute of Parapsychological Research, Inc., of whose journal the Australian Journal of Parapsychology he is current editor. He is co-recipient with Dr. Michael Thalbourne, of the D. Scott Rogo Award for Literature (2002). In 2003, he was awarded the Gertrude R. Schmeidler Student of the Year Award for work in parapsychology, and he was awarded the Frances P. Bolton Fellowship in 2007. He is co-editor of the books Parapsychology in the Twenty-First Century (2005), and The Survival of Human Consciousness (2006), and author of the book The Enigma of Numbers (2008). As a research fellow, he regularly conducts psychological and parapsychological research at the School of Psychology, University of Adelaide.

Charles T. Tart has been involved with research and theory in the fields of hypnosis, psychology, transpersonal psychology, parapsychology, consciousness and mindfulness since 1963. He has authored over a dozen books, and more than 250 articles, including lead articles in such prestigious scientific journals as Science and Nature. His two books, Altered States of Consciousness (1969) and Transpersonal Psychologies (1975), are widely used textbooks and have contributed to broadening the scope of modern psychology. He is a member of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, California, and a senior research fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Sausalito, California. He is also Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. Professor Tart was the first to hold the Bigelow Chair of Consciousness Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and he has served as a Visiting Professor in East-West Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He is also an Instructor in Psychiatry at the School of Medicine, University of Virginia, and is a consultant on government-funded parapsychological research at the Stanford Research Institute International. 

Excerpts

"I am most grateful to Dr. Lance Storm for having invited me to contribute the Foreword to this impressive compilation of papers on synchronicity that are here brought together in book form under his direction and editorship. It is indeed an honour to be a participant in a project of this scope and significance.

The contributions selected for this project come from a group of individuals with highly specialized yet diverse professional backgrounds linked first and foremost by their respective scholarly, clinical and experimental research interests in the subjects of meaningful coincidence and synchronicity. Moving through the material and chapters of this work, one will have the feeling of being an attendee at an international conference on synchronicity, perhaps the first international conference on synchronicity. A circle has been drawn and a roundtable discussion has been convened.

Now something about which one should be forewarned, especially newcomers to this subject area, is that cohesive, group conclusions will not be forthcoming, much as would be true of most professional conferences. Perhaps making matters worse, one will at times observe amongst contributors difficulties in not only determining how operative factors are to be studied, but no less which ones are to be pursued. For some readers this will be the disappointment of the work; for other readers it will constitute its beauty. The beauty of the work is that academics, clinicians and experimental researchers are sharing their personal, clinical and research experiences of the problems under consideration and they are for the most part doing so, moreover, not with the intention of providing answers, but within the spirit of creating the space in which such answers might appear." (p. xix)

"It is imprudent to conceive of individuation in the new paradigm as a strictly individual journey. That is true of anyone’s individuation, not to speak of the individuation journeys of cultural luminaries such as Jung and Pauli. In the new paradigm, as noted above, we move from a closed-system model of a self-regulatory psyche to an open-system model of a psyche in a self-organizing totality. All of life, in other words, which is also to say, all individuations, is bound together in a highly complex whole through an on-going process of spontaneous self-organization. It is the case, accordingly, that those problems and questions by which the lives of Jung and Pauli were at times so violently seized now come to us by way of self-organizing nature as the problems of our respective journeys. That which was unresolved and unanswered still cries out for redemption. It is up to us now by way of self-organizing nature to act." (p. xxii)

Reviews

"Here is a truly groundbreaking anthology. Professor Storm brings together the foremost scholars of synchronicity in a rich dialogue between traditional thought and modern science the likes of which have not been seen since the famous friendship between Carl Jung and Wolfgang Pauli. It is a book that will be the fascination of both casual and scholarly readers from many backgrounds."

"The term "synchronicity" is thrown around casually in occult, musical, and "new age" circles despite the sophistication reflected in the book by Jung and Pauli that popularized the term. In this collection of provocative essays, the reader will find applications of so-called "meaningful coincidences" to such disciplines as religious studies, quantum physics, Eastern philosophy, parapsychology, mathematics, and information theory. The editor, Lance Storm, has rescued the term from the derision it has received in contemporary intellectual circles, demonstrating its utility in expanding our understanding of the fabric of nature and the inadequacy of Western notions of cause-and-effect to explain both cosmic and everyday phenomena."

"As we explore the macro dimensions of the universe, bringing into question the reality of space and time, as we delve into the micro workings of the brain, the topic of synchronicity becomes both more relevant and more mysterious. While Jung's notion of synchronicity gains more weight in scientific circles, and is also more misused in popular parlance, Lance Storm's volume of essays by authors from diverse disciplines asks the significant questions about the interactions between the human mind and the world it seeks to engage and understand."

"Meaningful coincidences have captured the public imagination, reflected in a growing number of new books on the subject. Many of these books consist largely of anecdotal accounts that make for interesting reading but do not directly contribute to the advancement of scientific thinking in this area. In contrast, Storm's book is a treasure trove for those with a serious scholarly interest in this topic. In his foreword, Robert Aziz notes that "moving through the material and chapters of this work, one will have the feeling of being an attendee at an International conference on synchronicity, perhaps the first international conference on synchronicity. A circle has been drawn and a roundtable discussion has been convened" (p. xix). Aziz's comments are right on the mark. The collection of essays in Storm's book tackles the very bones of Jung and Pauli's conceptualizations of synchronicity, addressing such fundamental issues as the role played by archetypes, explorations of the concepts of causality and acausality, and perhaps of most interest to parapsychologists, the relationship between psi and synchronicity. The different perspectives offered by the various contributors blend to form a rich mix. However, potential readers should be forewarned that this is not an "easy read." This book demands to be read slowly, in order to fully appreciate the scope of each contribution."