Remo F. Roth Dr. oec. publ., Ph.D. dipl. analyt. Psychologe (M.-L. v. Franz)

©  2002-2004 by Pro Litteris, Zurich, Switzerland and Remo F. Roth, Horgen-Zurich. All Rights Reserved. dr.remo.roth@psychovision.ch. Republication and redissemination of the contents of this screen or any part of this website are expressly prohibited without prior psychovision.ch written consent.

With many thanks to Gregory Sova, Ph.D. (LA, CA) for translation assistance

Book Project:

THE RETURN OF THE WORLD SOUL 

Wolfgang Pauli, Carl Jung and the Challenge of the Unified Psychophysical Reality

 © copyright 2002-2004 by Pro Litteris, Zürich. All rights reserved

This book is intended for private use only, and is copyrighted under existing Internet copyright laws and regulations.

back to Chapter 5, part 3

 5. The Seal of Solomon and the unsolved problem of psyche's complementary incarnation

(part 4a)

Contents: 

Part 1:

5.1 Wolfgang Pauli’s “mirror image of the Assumptio Mariae to below“ and the Seal of Solomon

Part 2:

5.2 Wolfgang Pauli’s and Carl Jung’s dispute about the terms psyche, matter and spirit

5.2.1 Philosophical cognition as a creation act

5.2.1.1 The symmetry and complementarity of spirit and matter and of the energy principle

5.2.1.2 Psyche as potential being

5.2.1.3 The separation of psyche and spirit and the superiority of psyche over matter and spirit

5.2.1.4 Carl Jung’s crux with the Seal of Solomon

5.2.1.5 Carl Jung’s approach: Philosophical cognition as a creation act

5.2.1.6 Carl Jung’s antagonistic definitions of the term “psyche”

5.2.1.7 Further clarification and summary

Part 3:

5.2.2 Quantum physical observation as a creation act

5.2.2.1 The quantum physical collapse of the wave function or quantum leap

5.2.2.2 The ending of the Neoplatonic infertility in the collapse of the wave function

5.2.2.3 Carl Jung’s conflict between a causal and an acausal theory of the psyche  

5.2.2.4 Wolfgang Pauli’s approach: Quantum physical observation as a creation act

5.2.2.5 The Nobel laureate’s isolation since 1935 because of his dreams about Eros and radioactivity  

5.2.2.6 Summary and prospects  

Part 4a:

5.3 Synchronicity, the wave function’s collapse and the future incarnatio  

5.3.1 The collective psyche as being and as potential being  

5.3.2 The difference between synchronicity and the collapse of the wave function

Part 4b:

5.3.3 Jung’s and Pauli’s discussion about the future incarnatio

  

Part 5:

5.4 Wolfgang Pauli’s incarnatio synchronicity, the alchemical multiplicatio and psychophysical radioactivity  

5.4.1 Pauli’s nocturnal experience with the bursting meteorite after the discussion with Jung  

5.4.2 The creatio continua out of the unus mundus as the transformation of potential being into actual being  

5.4.3 The coniunctio as the background of the creatio continua  

5.4.4 The inclusion of the creatio continua and incarnatio into the description of the cosmic evolutionary processes

Part 6:  

5.4.5 The bursting meteorite, the alchemical process of the multiplicatio and the red tincture  

5.4.6 The multiplicatio of the red tincture and radioactivity  

Part 7:

5.4.7 Complementary versus psychophysical interpretation of the term “physical-symbolic radioactivity”  

5.4.8 Wolfgang Pauli’s regression into the complementary interpretation of the Taoist Yang/Yin

Part 8:

5.4.9 Carl Jung’s and Wolfgang Pauli’s concept of the complementary relationship between radioactivity and synchronicty

5.4.10 Wolfgang Pauli’s reduction of the multiplicatio to an attribute of synchronicity

Part 9:

5.4.11 Pauli’s and Jung’s dispute about the depth psychological difference between the terms “field” and “radioactivity”

5.4.12 Wolfgang Pauli’s depth psychological interpretation of the radioactive transmutation as a transition of the Self into a more conscious state  

Part 10 (not yet published):

5.4.13 Carl Jung’s and Wolfgang Pauli’s lack of understanding of the acausal transformation out of the unus mundus

5.4.14 Radioactivity as a psychophysical transmutation process in the unus mundus

Part 11 (not yet published):

5.4.15 Summary

5.4.16 Conclusions

5. The Seal of Solomon and the unsolved problem of psyche’s complementary incarnation

(part 4a)

5.3 Synchronicity, the wave function’s collapse and the future incarnatio

5.3.1 The collective psyche as being and as potential being

In order to understand what Pauli means with the two contradictory theories, we must once again go back to his thoughts discussed in section 3.3.7 about potential being, nonbeing and actual being. For the purpose of the reader’s preparation to my psychophysical theory (see Chapter 6), I will now interpret Pauli’s argument, developed there, in my own words:  

Archetypes, and with them also the collective psyche, their background, are neither being, i.e., eternally unchangeable Platonic Ideas projected into heaven, nor nonbeing, i.e. non existent, as science argues, but potential being. In the act of incarnation they become actual being. This incarnation act happens at random in time, in the kairos, and also at random in space.  

Like this, the contradictory theories of Carl Jung can be understood as follows: In the first theory, the world of the “psyche” is causal, i.e., being, and their contents, the incarnated archetypes are supposed to “behave” somehow in the manner of Newton’s and Einstein’s deterministic physical laws. In it we can therefore recognize a continuous causal development.  

In his book Aion, Carl Jung – educated in a time before the findings of quantum physics were known - applies such principles. Like this he tries to show the causal development of the inner God-image, the so-called Self, during the period of the Christian eon.  

However, on occasion, in this causal or deterministic world acausal “quantum leaps”, so-called synchronicities, happen. Because of their acausality we must look now at the world of the psyche from the standpoint of quantum physics. We must therefore consider the archetypes not as being, as in the causal theory, but as potential being.  

In certain moments of the kairos, “the right moment,” “the critical time,” or “the time when things might happen,” in a spontaneous and indeterministic way this potential being becomes actual being and the incarnation of new aspects of the collective psyche has happened. Such an incarnation we can call a “psychic quantum leap”.

It is the nexus of such spontaneous acausal acts the description of which Pauli calls “Jung’s second theory”[1], and it is of course the phenomenon of synchronicity, which is assumed to behave in such an acausal manner. Thus, it contradicts the causal theory of the archetype’s development in the course of time.

5.3.2 The difference between synchronicity and the collapse of the wave function  

Now, the question arises: “Does the synchronicity principle, defined by Carl Jung with the help of Wolfgang Pauli, correspond to the quantum physical acausal creation by observation we discussed above?” Or asked in another way: “Is synchronicity an act of incarnation into the world of matter, analogous to the collapse of the wave function in the moment of its observation?”  

Therefore, we have to answer the following questions:  

A) Is synchronicity an act of observation? If yes: How does this process differ from the observation of the quantum leap?  

B) Is synchronicity an acausal act? If yes: How does the synchronistic acausality distinguish from the collapse of the wave function?  

C) Is synchronicity an act of creation or incarnation? If yes: Where is this creation observable?  

Synchronicity is defined as the relatively synchronous appearance of an inner and an outer energetical phenomenon, of a dream from the inside and an event in the outside, which coincide by their meaning.  

The perception of the two events of a synchronicity is in fact an act of observation. It is the observation of an inner energetical change (or leap?), and of a more or less simultaneous outer one as well.  

Then, however, a meaning is extracted, which is an act of cognition. Therefore, we can state that synchronicity exists in an act of observation, followed by an act of cognition. It seems to be a hybrid of the two ways of creation we have developed above.  

Is synchronicity acausal, like the quantum leap? In the definition of Carl Jung it is, because the two events cannot be connected in a causal way[3], the dream cannot be the cause of the outer event.  

The difference to the quantum physical event is, however, that the acausal aspect of synchronicity is the non-causal connection between an outer and an inner event, whilst in quantum physics the acausal quantum leap that interrupts the causal law is an act that happens exclusively in the outer world, in matter.  

The third question is: “Is synchronicity really an act of creation?” It is, if its meaning is realized by a cognitive act. Therefore, the incarnation act that happens when a synchronicity is interpreted, is a mental-psychic or a spiritual-psychic creation: The ego has – after Jung with the help of the Anima - extracted new ascertainable knowledge out of the nonascertainable psyche.  

A further difference between synchronicity and the quantum leap is therefore a discrepancy in the observability: The former is observable in the psychic realm, i.e., in one's own consciousness, the latter is observable in the behaviour of outer matter.  

There is however yet another difference, which is of crucial importance: The quantum physical observation or act of measurement is executed in a moment of time and in a specific space, determined by the conscious will of the physicist. Synchronicities, however, happen spontaneously in time and space; we cannot produce – and therefore neither reproduce – them.  

The differences between the acausal quantum physical collapse and the acausal phenomenon of synchronicity we can therefore define as follows:  

The initial synchronistic observation act happens spontaneously without any inclusion of the conscious will, its resulting creation is, however, an effect of an act of cognition. The act of creation happens therefore exclusively in the mental-psychic or spiritual-psychic realm. This means especially, that the result of a synchronicity is not at all a creation act in matter, as is the quantum leap caused by the conscious will in physics.  

As an act of consciousness, the collapse of the wave function during the quantum physical observation has, in contrast to synchronicity, no connection with the collective psyche, but it is, after Pauli, an act of creation in matter.  

We can conclude that both, synchronicity and the quantum leap, are acausal creation acts, however the former misses the incarnation act in matter, and the latter – as a conscious act of the physicist - is not related to the collective psyche.  

Therefore the question arises, whether there could exist a type of event, in which the collective psyche as well as matter are included, i.e., does a process exist in which a spontaneous incarnation out of the collective psyche into matter happens; a type of events, in which the psyche's potential being – defined as the (metaphysical) superior ligament between matter and spirit (see section 5.2.1.6) – is spontaneously and acausally transformed into actual being in matter, and like this becomes observable; an event we could call a collapse of the collective psyche’s ‘wave function’ that leads to an observable incarnation in matter. Only such an event we could really consider a spontaneous creation and incarnation act in the material world of the universe.

Chapter 5, part 4b

See also further articles about Wolfgang Pauli in

http://www.psychovision.ch/rfr/roth_e.htm

back

11.7.2004