Post 5

Coincidence, Happenstance,

Serendipity, Fate, or the Hand of

God: Case Studies in Synchronicity:

Well to start, I was not really an advocate of this article but I do find parts of it to be interesting.  I am a true believer in events or certain things happening for a reason.  If you are to look at coincidences in this light, then yes you can find meaning in them.  For example, I sometimes run into someone I know while running errands that I was not expecting to.  Afterwards, I usually find myself saying that that was meant to be, because some purpose came out of that meeting in a positive way. 

When reading through these case studies, I don’t see how these clients were ignoring their needs for personal meaning in life.  In terms of their career, yes they might have been ignoring their true desires and potential, but in the overall schema of life, I think they were doing what they felt was right and necessary.  They may have been stuck in a career that was unsuited to them, but that is life.  There is always going to be an imbalance in level of satisfaction and satisfactoriness in the workplace.  In the case of Dan, he believes his situation to be a mere “coincidence.”  I feel that this happened to him because of his decision to commit to his dream and passion.  Once a person knows what they want, and has a positive attitude towards reaching that goal, it will likely happen.  I think there is a theory known as the laws of attraction theory, where positive thinking or behavior attracts other positive results. 

I do agree that finding meaning in one’s life correlates with a high sense of well-being.  When searching for a career over the span of your life, an individual is searching to find some sense of meaning in both their career and personal life.  One part of the article I found to be somewhat alarming was the idea of Individuation.  I never really thought about this idea of risking becoming who we truly are.  “The aim of individuation is to remove from the self the false wrapping of the persona” (Guindon & Hanna 2002).  I am not really sure what exactly this entails to be honest.  I understand the concept of finding yourself within, and discovering what your interests, skills, and values are.  Although, I think this is taking it a step beyond spirituality as we discussed in the last blog.      

            The author states that, “At the point of transcendence, clients gain insight, trust their authentic self, and decide to seek congruent life’s work, thus meaningful coincidences tend to occur” (Guindon & Hanna 2002).  I would disagree with this statement because I believe that an individual can have these so-called meaningful coincidences without being at the point of transcendence.  If it is perceived as pure chance, then how could one argue that these mysterious opportunities can only arise when you have transcended? 

            “It involves thinking in terms of the whole.  In any organism or system, the whole and each of its parts work in conjunction for the same purpose; as in a living body, the different parts work in harmony, so events in the world stand in meaningful relationship” (Guindon & Hanna 2002).  This reminds me of the movie Avatar, and how nature plays a large role in our world, in the sense that everything is interconnected with each other.    

             Overall, I am not sure how I feel about this article.  I can buy into it somewhat, but then the other part of me wants to say these scenarios are basically pure luck.  A realist would laugh at this article and say this is stupid.  Meditation and dream analysis were mentioned in the article which sparked some curiosity in me, but other than that, I am undecided about this article. 

Reference:

Guindon, M. H., & Hanna, F. J. (2002). Coincidence, happenstance, serendipity, fate, or the hand of God: Case studies in synchronicity. The Career Development Quarterly, 50(3), 195-208.