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The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 2002, Vol. 21, 153-168 153 2002 by Panigada Press
I.Introduction:OnMindandMatter
PUBL ICATION OF the Pauli -Jung co rre-
spondence(Pauli&Jung, 1992)leavesno
doubtthatWolfgangPaulidevotedmuch
thought to theconceptof synchronicity, or the
acausalsynchronicityofmeaningfulevents. This
concept was introduced byC. G. Jung (Jung&
Pauli, 1952/1973)ina bookthatalsoincludesPau-
lis contribution. Despite many discussions of
synchronicitythatPaulihadwithscientistswork-
ing at the Institute forAdvanced Study in
Princeton, USA(wherehespenthiswaryears),
theideawassomehowabandoned.Physicistswere
notreadytodiscussacausalcoincidences between
eventsdistantintimeandspace, mentalexperi-
ences(dreams, intentions, thoughts), andmean-
ing. Paulihimselfwasfamousforcreatingtrou-
bleinlaboratorieshevisited, andapparentlyhe
Synchronicity, Mind, and Matter
Experimentswithremoteperceptionand RandomEventGenerators(REG)performedover
thelastdecadesshowsmall butsignificantanomalouseffects. Sincetheseeffectsseemto
beindependentofspatialandtemporaldistance, theyappearto beindisagreementwith
thestandardscientificworldview. Averysimpleexplanationofquantummechanicsispre-
sented, rejectingallunjustifiedclaimsabouttheworld. Aviewofmindinagreementwith
cognitiveneuroscienceisintroduced. Itisarguedthatmindandconsciousnessareemer-
gentpropertiesofthe brainandareunderstandablewithoutanynonphysicalassumptions.
Aplausibleexplanationoftheresultsofanomalousexperiments, basedontheconceptof
synchronicity, introduced byC.G. Jungandadvocated byW. Pauli, isoffered. Aproof is
given thatstrong correlations should exist betweenany systems thatonce interacted.
Synchronicityevents betweenpartsofthe brainandphysicalobjectsmay besufficientto
explaintheresultsofanomalousexperiments. Standardphysicsissufficienttounderstand
thesephenomena.
regardedthisPaulieffectasamanifestationof
synchronicity. ThewishthatPauliexpressedmore
thanfortyyearsagotoseephysicsandpsycheas
complementaryaspectsofthesamerealitymay
slowly becomemanifestnow, thankstoourdeep-
erunderstandingofthefoundationsofphysicsandthedevelopmentofthecognitivesciences.
Perceptualand cognitive processesarenot
passive butinvolve fittingthe bestmodelstothe
incomingdata. Perceivingthree-dimensionalob-
jectswithcolorsthatarealmostindependentof
illuminationrequiresmanyassumptionsthatthe
brainhaslearnedtomakeinthecourseofevolu-
tion. Activeperceptionleadstothemetaphorof
the brainasthemachinegeneratingmeaning
(Freeman, 1996), discriminatingandevaluating
everything froma subjective perspective. It is
sufficienttos
eeon
lythos
easp
ectsofr
ea
litythat
may influenceour decisions, so we donot see
more. Looking formeaning isa great strategy
facilitatingsurvivalintypicalsituations, butit
alsoleadsto findingmeaningfulpatternsinran-
domdotsorshapesoftheclouds. Atthecogni-
tivelevelthesituationisanalogous.Weassume
thatweknowourselves, buthowcanwereal-
lyknow?Weknow byobservingandmakingthe-
oriesaboutour own behavior (Gopnik, 1993).
Motto:
Itwould be mostsatisfactory ifphysicsand psyche
could be seenascomplementaryaspects
ofthe same reality.
W. Pauli(InJung&Pauli, 1952/1973)
Wlodzislaw Duch
Nicholas Copernicus UniversityTorun, Poland
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Synchronicity, Mind, and Matter 165
Appendix
THISAPPENDIXprovidesa technicalproofshowing the inseparabilityofsubsystems in quantummechanics. Statevectorsrepresentingobjects belongtoaHilbertspace. OperatorPrepresentinganobservable(property, thatmay beobserved)appliedtosomearbitrarystatevectorconvertsitinto
anotherstatevector. Quantummechanicsisaholistictheoryanddoesnotallowforawell-defined
wa
yofdescribi
ngth
eseparat
ion
ofsyst
ems. T
hisfactga
verisetoalternat
iveformu
lat
ions
ofmath
-ematicalfoundationsof quantummechanics(Piron, 1985;Aerts, 1982), butsofarallexperiments
showthatstandard quantummechanicsiscorrect. TheHilbertspaceofantisymmetric, manyparti-
clefunctions, describingthetotalsystem, cannot bedecomposedintoseparatesubspaces.
Considertwophysicalsystems,SAandS
B, withN
AandN
Bparticles(electronsorotherfermions),
respectively. Eachsystemisdescribed byitsownfunction, ^Aantisymmetricforpermutationsofall
NAparticlesand^
BantisymmetricforN
Bparticles. Assumingthat bothfunctionsarenormalizedto
unity, itiseasytoshowthattheproductfunctionAB
=A
Bisalwaysfarfromtheantisymmetric
function =A^AB
, whereAistheantisymmetrizationoperator. Thedistancemay bemeasured byan
overlap^AB
| ^or bythenormofdifference:)
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InthetextbookofA. Messiah(Messiah, 1976, ChapterXIV, 8)itisproventhatthisnonseparability
shouldnotmatter becauseprobabilitiesofdifferentstatesofaspatiallyisolatedsubsystemdonot
dependontheantisymmetrizationofthefunctionofthissubsystemwithfunctionsofallotherparticles
in theUniverse. Butwhatabout theresultsofjointmeasurements, that iscorrelations between
observations?ConsiderthesystemsSAandS
Bandtwoindependentmeasurementsofobservables
correspondingtotheoperatorsOAandO
B. Thewavefunctionsofthesesystemsmay beexpandedin
theeige
nbas
isof:
Messiah(1976)provesthattakingthetotalfunction &insteadoftheproductfunctionsI J
&doesnotchangetheprobabilities | C
a
A| 2. However, hedoesnotlookatthepossiblecorrelationsofjoint
measurements.Assumingthatthetwosystemsareseparated, theresultofthejointmeasurementis:
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&^A&^
B| O
AO
B|^
A&^
B&'&^
A|O
A|^
A&^
B|O
B|^
B&'&O
A&O
B
DefinenowacoefficientCABmeasuringthedifference betweenthisresultandtheresultobtainedwithoutassumptionofseparability, calculatedwiththetotalwavefunction^:
Ifthereisnodifference betweenthesetwocasesthiscoefficientshould bezero. However,
sinceallmatrixelementsforpermutations(P,Q)&(I, I)vanish byvirtueoflocalizationoftheSAand
SBsubsystems. Thisleadstothefollowinginequalityforthecorrelationcoefficient:
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&,&*CAB
*&-%.
Thusthereisahugedifference. Usingalocaldescriptionforisolatedsubsystemsleadstocorrect
localresults, butcorrelationswithothersystemsarealwayslarge, approachingperfectcorrelationfora largeN. Theseresultsdonotseemtodependondecoherenceof largesystems. For further
discussionofseparabilityandtheroleofsymmetry breakingseeDuch(1988).
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