Quantum cats and the death of synchronicity
Quantum cats and the death of synchronicity

Quantum cats and the death of synchronicity

Quantum theory might have killed off Jung’s theory of divination which was based on the random nature creating a “meaningful coincidence” or synchronicity 

If you go online you will find lots of sites that will do you a tarot, geomancy, rune, or iChing reading at the touch of a button. There used to be software to do the same thing, but the code was so basic you can fit it into a webpage without too much difficulty.

I don’t mean sites that do the donkey work out of calculating a geomancy reading, or tell you what each card might mean, I mean sites that generate a reading using its own random code and presents it as a reading for the user.

Besides the convenience, using such sites seems curiously unsatisfying and when I have done comparisons between readings from sites and ones I have done using the traditional way the computer version seems way off.

Computers can’t do divination

CG Jung Harry Potter has let himself go a bit

This is illogical if you follow Jung’s theory of divination which was based on the random nature creating a “meaningful coincidence” or synchronicity. Synchronicity describes circumstances that appear meaningfully related yet lack a causal connection. Meaningful coincidence has been used to justify divination for decades.  If Jung is correct, the generation of the figures is not important, just that the result has a meaning to the observer.

So a computer spitting out a reading should be just as good as a traditional method of shuffling or poking holes in the sand, what matters is the meaning to the observer.

In principle, you could just get a computer with a random generator to spit out four mother figures and not have to engage any effort at all. But for some reason, Geomancy spirits do not appear to like that sort of thing and tend to give indifferent Oracles. In fact, the more effort you spend trying to create the mother figures the better. In Geomancy the “traditional” method of drawing dots in the sand, or dotting or crossing a piece of paper is the best followed by consecrated dice, coins or rocks.

I have noticed the same thing with Tarot Cards and runes. In theory, you can use a computer to randomly provide cards and put them in the correct order on the screen, but the readings never tend to be accurate.

Quantum Theory and the Diviner

Quantum theory says some interesting things about the observer. There is an idea that reality does not happen unless someone observes it and it just remains in a chaotic state of probability.  So rather than the reader looking at the result of a generated reading and finding synchronicity they are observing chaos and making reality from it.

When the observer or the reader is involved they are framing the chaos towards the creation of an answer, drawing it into an order.  There is no synchronicity because order is created by the observer, not by the observer’s reaction to a previously defined meaningful state.

As a counterpoint to the idea, you could argue that you are just using a computer as an instrument to measure reality, just like a scientist would measuring a photon. But in divination, there needs to be an involvement by the operator to frame a question and seek an answer to pull out an answer from the quantum state, measure it and then read it.

My theory is that the observer has to be physically involved in some way with generating the figures.  While a computer might select numbers, or tarot cards for you, it makes no connection between you and the result. It is just a projection of randomness from the chaos which cannot be accurately interpreted.

So when you are rolling dice or shuffling cards you are becoming your own measuring instrument which is connected to your intention and creating Order.