How To Interpret Synchronicities Step By Step

Do you keep seeing coincidences? Do you wonder ‘what do they mean’? Let’s have a look at how to unravel these synchronicities and find their possible meaning…

Coincidences that seem out of the ordinary yet meaningful are intriguing, amusing, and mystical even. They can make us question our very existence in this human plane. For real life examples of synchronicities, see my article: Signs of Synchronicity.

Here I share a step-by-step approach and insights from expert writers on the subject of explaining coincidences. It includes information to interpret synchronicities, starting with the concepts of psychiatrist and psychotherapist, Bernard Beitman MD (1942–).

Note: You’ll find I use the terms ‘coincidences’ and ‘synchronicity’ interchangeably to mean the same thing.

How to interpret synchronicities?

Synchronicities are subjective. The best way to interpret them is to record the details in a special journal. Then later, with objective eyes, see if you find common threads or patterns between the journal entries that invoke significance for you.

Here are some prompts for your synchronicity journal:

1. Who or what was involved in your meaningful coincidence
2. What sort of connection did you sense spiritually or otherwise
3. What emotions did you feel
4. Describe how the situation unfolded, include the before and after
5. What was the outcome (benefits or drawbacks) and how is it relevant to the past, current, or future you

Don’t forget to add the date, time, and place and who you were with or what you were doing at the time of each uncanny experience.

For more in depth prompts, keep reading…

Keeping a diary or journal for interpreting synchronicities

The idea of keeping a diary or a journal to record your experiences is that it helps you introspectively. You can be objective about the experience and look for emerging patterns without raw emotion or bias.

It allows you to take a step back from the experience and let the free flow of ideas emerge – guided by your intuition.

For what to journal about to find meaning in the synchronicity, Beitman (2015) recommends four areas to concentrate on, which I’ve listed in the following step by step guide to understanding synchronicities.

1. Ask yourself, what took your initial interest

What was it that made you wonder and resulted in a feeling of it being meaningful? This is where you note the following:

• What it meant to you (why it caused you to wonder)
• What you sensed (by smell, sight, hearing, taste, or touch) or intuitively sensed
• What you felt (your emotions)
• How it happened
• Who or what was involved
• Anything else strikingly important

2. Degree of parallels between things

Rate the degree of similarity (e.g. low, medium, high) between factors within or between experiences.

Reflect on common threads and note these down.

This could be as simple as colors, names, places, designs, numbers, timing, etc.

3. Brainstorm explanations

The event triggered you to ponder on it. Are there logical explanations or not?

Could it be a shared consciousness, between two connected people?

Was there something that made you feel you manifested it or attracted it through thought or actions?

4. Using your notes

Look back over your notes at later times as an objective observer. What insights do you get? What are the possible meanings or messages?

Examples: Is it about strengthening bonds or about listening more to your intuition, or resolving some personal implications for the future.

Is it to do with a decision, a new possibility, or a course of action?

The psychophysical event includes the observer just as much as the reality underlying the I Ching comprises subjective, i.e., psychic conditions in the totality of the momentary situation.

~ Carl Jung, Foreword to the I Ching

As Beitman points out, you are the expert and only you can explain the meaning of coincidences happening to you.

It’s your destiny to discover it. But still, talking to a third party as a ‘sounding board’ may help you with self-reflection.

Beitman’s theories are among those I cover in Theories About Synchronicity (From Weird To Probable) on how people generally explain synchronicities.

See also: How Synchronicity Works. Can Science Explain it?

To interpret synchronicities try meditating

Meditation might help you when you reach a block. Getting into a deep, relaxed state of mind is where you can ask your intuitive self for answers to help solve the mystery of meaningful coincidences.

Don’t expect the answers to always come immediately but be prepared for when they do pop into your head or appear out of the blue.

Interpret coincidences as waking dreams

Then, there is the work of psychoanalyst, Gibbs A. Williams,² PhD, who believes we unconsciously create meaningful coincidences to solve our problems.

Williams considers synchronicities to be waking dreams and that interpreting them is similar to that of analyzing dreams.

This means picking out and finding the associations between the key elements of the synchronicity and how the elements connect to solve the mystery.

Interpret coincidences using your intuition

Paulo Coelho³, the author of The Alchemist, regards coincidence a language. And, the key to understanding this language is intuition.

I wrote about ways to spark intuition in a previous article that could help here. Interestingly, one way I mentioned was to keep a diary of events, similar to those suggested by Beitman.

Final thoughts

This has been brief, but it gives some basis to start your own analysis of signs from the universe vs pure coincidence.

Having a ‘coincidence journal’ appears as a key approach recommended by professionals towards unraveling any obscure meanings. I’ll give updates here as I find more professional wisdom and progress in my journey of discovery.

For more depth on the effect of synchronicity in your life, Beitman offers a coincidence scale to rate your connection to it in his book Connecting With Coincidence, available at Amazon (affiliate link).

References

1. Beitman, B. 2016. Connecting With Coincidence – The New Science For Using Synchronicity and Serendipity in Your Life. Health Communications Inc. Florida.
2. Williams, Gibbs A. 2010. Demystifying Meaningful Coincidences (Synchronicities): The Evolving Self, the Personal Unconscious, and the Creative Process. Lanham, Md. : Jason Aronson.
3. Coelho, P., Clarke, A., & Smith, J. N. (2014). The Alchemist. Harper Collins.