Chris Mackey - Synchronicity: Empower Your Life with the Gift of Coincidence

A clinical and counselling psychologist and Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society, Chris Mackey has 35 years psychotherapy experience in public and private mental health settings. He is the principal psychologist at Chris Mackey and Associates, his private psychology practice in Geelong. He was previously the senior clinical psychologist at the Geelong Hospital and at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital, where he helped establish a group programme for veterans of the Vietnam War.

Chris has presented at numerous national and international scientific conferences over the past 20 years on such topics as the assessment and treatment of psychological trauma and the evaluation of effectiveness of psychological therapy for anxiety and depression. He has a particular interest in positive psychology and has offered free public talks in this area over the past ten years. He also consults on applying positive psychology strategies to enhance business and organizational success. Chris is particularly interested in promoting more optimistic approaches to mental health. Throughout his career, and in his everyday life, he has been fascinated by synchronicity and the opportunities for personal development offered by this phenomenon.

For more about Chris, as well as extensive information about a wide range of mental health issues, visit:

www.chrismackey.com.au

Empower Your Life with the Gift of Coincidence

Chris Mackey

To Ross, my dear spiritual friend and mentor.In appreciation of your exceptional guidance and support over all these years. You truly are one of a kind.

Firstly, I would like to thank Sandra Rigby, my commissioning editor at Watkins Media, for contacting me out of the blue to ask whether Id like to write a book, convincing me to write about synchronicity, and helping guide me through the first draft and into the second. Thanks also to Melissa Faulkner, my sister, who helped make writing this book seem less daunting from the outset.

I am indebted to my friends and colleagues whose feedback on the manuscript, from parts to full drafts, was invaluable, including Megan Henderson, Emily Hill, Amber Denehey, Rod Carne, Charlotte Kerr, Sue Mackey, Margie Beasley, Andrew Bigelow, Ken Jarvis, Kerry Gemmell and Denise Cromer, among others. I also especially thank my spiritual friends, Trent Barry and Danny Taylor, whose wise comments helped me negotiate the most challenging sections to write.

Many people helped me tell my personal story more than they might realize, including Laura Capitanio, Mary Dimovski, Clare Heaney, Les Duck, Rod Jones, Craig Mackey, Alison Jones, Liz Barson, Andrew Fuller and Vicki Jones.

Thank you to Andrew Griffiths for his ever-generous writing guidance, my writing buddies, Gerard Spriet and Maree Herath, and Mick Ragg for his Nirvana advice.

I am especially grateful to the Watkins editors Fiona Robertson and Bob Saxton for their key role in guiding the manuscript to its final shape. Bobs editing was always thoughtful and often inspired in paring and clarifying the text and in helping integrate my personal story with other material. I also thank John Tintera and all other Watkins staff for their valuable contribution at various stages in producing this book and bringing it to others attention.

I thank my clinical and administrative colleagues at Chris Mackey and Associates for their active support throughout this project and for helping make work a joy.

I am indebted to my family Rowan, Joanna, Ellie and especially Sue, my wife, friend, colleague and soul-partner for their love, forbearance and encouragement. I am blessed to have my life path intertwined with theirs.

Finally, I should like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my clients, who have provided me with a most satisfying career and taught me the vast majority of what I truly understand.

Have you ever been astonished by a striking coincidence? Indeed, so awestruck that you cant help wondering whether theres some kind of hidden order or organizing force at large in the universe? You might be a very rational-minded person, but this thought strikes you nonetheless. Id call that kind of coincidence synchronicity.

Synchronicity is an uncanny timing of events that seems to go beyond pure chance, in a compelling way that seems mysteriously meaningful, or numinous. I believe theres more to it than coincidence. In my view, synchronicity is a gift from the universe: a most valuable one. Synchronicity is often a helpful pointer, affirming that youre going in the right direction in your life. Its a bit like coming across a marker on a lengthy bush track indicating that youre on the right path.

But Id go further than that. I believe that theres meaning within the mysterious gift of synchronicity, and that if the meaning is missed, the present is left unwrapped. Patterns can emerge in uncanny coincidences, especially over time. And patterns have messages for us. A pattern, at the very least, can make you stop and think. It invites you into a mental space in which to consider one or more aspects of your life. More than that, you might be prompted to consider the possible implications of the coincidence: if it were a message of wisdom from a source of external wisdom, what would that message be saying to you? Would it be affirming some decision youd taken or were thinking about taking? In my experience, synchronicity often does that.

This book is designed to help you uncover the symbolic meanings behind uncanny coincidences, and especially the ones you experience personally. It takes a bit of work, though. Its like cracking your own personal Da Vinci Code. You have to be prepared to struggle with uncertainty. You need a little knowledge, and skill, and practice, and persistence. But the effort can be well worthwhile. This book is written to help you navigate the path of synchronicity in your life.

Since synchronistic messages tend to be affirmative, they can help us to correct imbalances in our lives. They can restore our belief in ourselves when that belief has been damaged by painful experiences. They can make us feel more vital, more energetic, more determined, more hopeful. They can reawaken us to what it really means to be ourselves, alive in the present with prospects for the future, following a path we believe is right for us.

Actually, Im not the kind of person youd expect to find writing about synchronicity. Im mainly known as a clinical psychologist who uses mainstream cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT). This discipline follows a scientist-practitioner approach: we always aim to objectively test our beliefs. I love the rigour of CBT. I love the commitment the field shows to demonstrating the effectiveness of its interventions. So its probably not surprising that when I first came to explore synchronicity, a paranormal phenomenon, it was from the position of a committed sceptic.

I first encountered the term synchronicity after attending a Wellness seminar with Dr John Travis of Johns Hopkins University. To my rational mind at the time, Dr Traviss claim that a transpersonal, or spiritual, dimension underpinned our health and wellbeing seemed wildly extravagant. However, he made a convincing case for his ideas. It was shortly after that experience that I read about synchronicity, and then, soon afterwards, as youll discover, experienced an explosion of remarkable coincidences that stopped me in my tracks!

Today Id consider synchronicity to be as valid an influence as any upon the course of my own life, and the lives of many others, including my clients. This book is full of examples of synchronistic experiences, many of my own among them. I hope to show how such incidents establish meaningful patterns across a lifetime. This will also, I hope, encourage others to be open in relating their own synchronistic or other unusual experiences, since its only talking about such things that will bring about greater acceptance of them.