17 Signs You're Experiencing A Synchronicity (And Not Just Coincidence)

The term synchronicity was coined by Carl Jung—the famous Swiss author, thinker, and psychologist—as “a meaningful coincidence of two or more events where something other than the probability of chance is involved.”

The event is meaningful because what happens in the external world is mirroring something happening in your internal world. An example would be cleaning out a closet and finding pictures of an old friend from college whom you haven’t connected with in ten years—and days later, getting an email from that same old friend.

From a psychological viewpoint, synchronicities might help us notice the power of our minds beyond our understanding, like the ability of our minds to speak to us in dreams or connect with the minds of others across time and space.

According to author and Jungian magician Melissa Tipton, when you unexpectedly get that message from your old friend just when you were thinking of them, ideally “this ‘coincidence’ inspires you to take the occurrence seriously and devote time and energy to reconnecting with this person from your past.”

Summary

The term synchronicity was coined by psychologist Carl Jung, and it occurs when our brains make connections across space and time.

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From a spiritual perspective, synchronicity is a tangible form of divine guidance. “To me,” Tipton explains, “synchronicity suggests that there is something in the cosmos that is interested in our development, something that understands what is lacking in our conscious view, and the entire universe then becomes a beautiful mechanism for reminding us of our wholeness.”

Spirit, or any of your guides, will regularly send synchronicities as helpful nudges about your destiny and as invitations for healing and personal growth. Spiritual guides assist you in navigating every aspect of earthly life, so you can receive practical guidance about anything and everything via synchronicity.

Intuition expert and author Sonia Choquette reminds us that external synchronicities can also come from our own soul or internal intuition. “Your intuition doesn’t speak directly into your face…it’s your energetic essence, so it communicates differently,” she says.

Summary

Spiritually speaking, synchronicities occur when an external force (like spiritual guides or angels) or internal force (our intuition) wants to send us a message or provide guidance.

Regarding romance, synchronicities can lead you to a potential romantic partner, like meeting a lover because you were sitting next to them at a sporting event cheering for the same team or stuck together chatting in a long line at the concession stand.

Synchronicities can also provide helpful guidance at crucial points in a romantic relationship or show us where we could develop intimacy skills that lead to different, more fulfilling romantic relationships. Romantic synchronistic guidance is rarely about riding off into a Hollywood sunset, whether you’re currently partnered, happily single, or looking to mingle. As coach Dain Dunston writes in Being Essential, “Synchronicity is being intensely open to what wants to happen next.”

Summary

Synchronicities can lead us to new relationships, or deepen our existing ones.

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Like synchronicity, the law of attraction is a complex subject—and you do attract synchronicities. For years I’d wanted to write an oracle deck, but couldn’t find the right opportunity until it found me when an editorial director of a publishing imprint contacted me to write not one but two oracle decks. This editor had been searching the internet for people to partner with and kept being directed to books and articles written by me—a synchronicity for that editor.

For my part, I’d had a psychic tell me almost two decades previously that I would have twins, “Irish twins,” she’d said, “one right after the other. Although you won’t gain any weight.” Not being a parent, I was always confused (though tickled as someone of Irish descent) when I thought back to this guidance from a well-respected psychic…until I received the offer to write two oracle decks, which will come out one right after the other in 2023.

The psychic’s premonition about twins let me know this partnership was attracted to me by my destiny to help people better understand sensitivity and intuition. In this case, two people’s opposite yet matching desires attracted them to each other to create the oracle decks. While like can attract like, we can also attract lessons or people and situations that encourage us to change, heal, and grow.

Summary

You can use the law of attraction to bring more synchronicity into your life. (Though there are other ways to do this, too.)

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What about when you’re not sure if something is a synchronicity or a mere coincidence? Consider the example of pulling up to a packed grocery-store parking lot just as someone in the front row is leaving, helping you score a prime spot. You might park, high-five your passenger, and tell them, “I’ve always been lucky!” It’s a fun moment that lifts your mood.

This is very different than if you set out for the grocery store feeling low and wanting reassurance that your guides are watching over you as you navigate life challenges. You pull up to a packed parking lot and have a car leave the front row. And you notice that not only is this an amazing spot, but the car leaving is a red VW bug—the same car your mom always drove. You consider it a sign that your mom is winking at you from above. The moment is followed by chills or goosebumps; a message from your own intuition that the event is indeed a true synchronicity.

It’s often through your intuition that you recognize the difference between a meaningful coincidence or sign from the universe and a random event. Your internal intuition can speak to you in many ways, primarily through the four psychic pathways: hearing guidance (clairaudience); seeing mental images (clairvoyance); knowing guidance as epiphanies, breakthrough thoughts, and mental downloads (claircognizance); and feeling guidance as emotions, energy, gut instincts, and even physical sensations like chills (clairsentience).

Clairsentience, or feeling guidance, is one of the most common psychic pathways and a great tool for sniffing out true synchronicities. As Choquette says, intuition involves “listening with your entire body.”

Use these benchmarks to discern synchronicities from coincidences in the moment:

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We can sometimes mistake our own strong emotions or desires for genuine guidance. If you feel you keep getting the message from your internal intuition—like through dreams—to quit your full-time job and go back to school to train for a new career, pay attention to external synchronicities, like receiving a flyer in the mail about a college offering part-time study with flexible pacing for professionals with full-time jobs. Or being seated next to a stranger at a dinner party who shares that they just transitioned careers after putting themself through school while working 30 hours a week.

It would seem you should indeed go back to school to switch careers, yet doing so by quitting your full-time job altogether may not be the most optimal choice.

Also consider Tess Whitehurst’s advice in her book Holistic Energy Magic, reminding us that the clue to a true synchronicity can be what we are thinking about right when it happens: “[An] important key to discerning a valid symbol…is to be alert and awake to your own inner thought process... For example, if you notice that you're feeling unsure about whether or not you should go ahead and invest in that trip to Hawaii, and right then you happen to glance ahead of you in traffic and you notice a Hawaii license plate or a license plate frame that says Aloha Spirit, go ahead and receive that message from the Universe: Hawaii, here you come.”

Synchronicities are a beautiful way that the universe communicates with us, and paying attention to them can help you access personal and spiritual growth. When we want guidance from Spirit, noticing synchronicities provides that deeper confirmation our soul craves, like a spiritual GPS system gently navigating us through life.

As I always remind clients, it's best to marry intuitive guidance with your own due diligence, like empirical research and the advice of experts. But when you do notice synchronicity in your daily life, it's something to pay attention to, celebrate, and learn from.