The Synchronicity Key: The Hidden Intelligence Guiding the Universe and You --- by David Wilcock (2013)

I first learned about synchronicity directly from the writings of Carl Jung. So I never really understood how it has been adopted by mystics, spiritualists, and others as a way to try to explain things that it was never meant to explain. The “Synchronicity Key” is one of those books.

I understand now why Jung is so often accused of being a mystic (he wasn't, he was an intellectually rigid scientist who followed the scientific evidence even when it contradicted common sense, as any true scientist should). This book makes a lot of far-fetched claims that most would consider pseudoscience at best. And it claims outright that synchronicity is “the key that unlocks the greatest mystery of all time”. Jung himself was very adamant about not trying to explain synchronicity, or suggesting that it could be used to explain anything. He simply and meticulously documented what it was, and the evidence of its existence.

Nonetheless, I found this book interesting, even though Jung humself would probably wince at the title alone. It strongly supports my own beliefs in a single Universal Intelligence that is the source of all being, and a coming “Golden Age”. Though I didn't come to these beliefs in anything like the way Wilcock does (i.e. through intellectual analysis of patterns in history). I don't completely dismiss Wilcock's discussion; but I don't think it is as convincing as a simple honest look within ourselves can be.

Waking, Dreaming, Being: self and consciousness in neuroscience, meditation, and philosophy --- by Evan Thompson (2015

I found out about this book from a book review. It appeared to be exactly the kind of book I have been hoping to find for a long time, and it turned out to be better than I hoped. Thompson does an excellent and thorough job of analyzing, comparing, and contrasting modern science with (mostly Eastern) philosophy. He brings out numerous subtle points that will --- I believe --- have a profound impact some day (as more people come to realize the significance of this understanding, and hence "waking up" from the "dream" of self-ish existence) on all aspects of our culture, from crime to politics.

[J.D. Nov. 18, 2015]