THE SOCIOBIOLOGY OF SYNCHRONICITY

What I'm doing here is a form of holistic science, or at least
holistic philosophy of science.  Notice that I'm using "holistic"
in a different sense than it often is used, ie, to promote "natural
foods" and vitamin supplements that, for the most part, do nothing
much in actual physical terms.  Most holistic science is actually
"complex reductionism:"  teasing apart all the interactions taking
place between lower-level systems becomes impossible as the system
becomes more and more complex, so you're forced to look at the
entity as a whole.  As Herbert Simon says in THE SCIENCES OF THE
ARTIFICIAL, "in the face of complexity, an in-principle
reductionist can also be a pragmatic holist."

I first got started thinking about "magical causality" while
reading an issue of ANALOG science fiction magazine.  They quoted
Arthur C. Clarke's statement:  "any sufficiently advanced
technology is indistinguishable from magic."  It occurred to me,
in terms of effect, this may be true--much modern technology seems
"magical" to so-called primitive peoples--but there's nevertheless
a fundamental difference in ideas of causality in the two systems
of thought.  This is the difference between rational, logical
thinking and what I shall hereafter refer to as "synchronicity,"
following the term coined by Jung, but not to denote an actual
ontologically existent entity, merely an epistemology.  (When I was
still in the dorms at the University of Chicago, the acid-heads
were all passing around Jung's book SYNCHRONICITY.  The problem,
though, with altered states, is that it's difficult to determine
what is a natural part of the system, and what a mere artifact of
the drug-state.  The same applies to hypnotism.)

I define synchronicity as events being perceived as having a causal
relationship due to metaphoric similarity, often involving "action
at a distance," so that, for the modern eye, there is and can be
no causal connection.

A good example is astrology:  the stars and planets supposedly have
an effect on Earth--Hermes Trismegistos' maxim:  "as above, so
below."  But there is no cause for these systems to behave this
way--or at least, none known to modern science.

Another example:  in alchemy, the crystalline form of antimony is
known as "the star Regulus" due to its star-like shape.   There is
an actual star Regulus in the constellation Leo, which is a green
star, hence, the symbolism of "the green lion from the star
Regulus."  Green was also chosen for the color of the lion as
antimony is an "unripe" form of the Philosopher's Stone, and unripe
fruit is green.  Her we clearly see "metaphorical causality" taking
place.

Let me describe the biological roots of what I believe to be among
the causal forces creating one of the central archetypes of
religion:  the death-rebirth experience, or near-death experience. 
Belief in life-after-death is central to all religion, though there
is often no agreement on the form it takes, whether it be a heaven,
reincarnation, or reunion with the Godhead.

One possible explanation of the near-death experience is thru
neural nets, which are basically an attempt to mimic in silicon
what the brain does as a "wet computer."  A brief piece appeared
on the subject in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN's SCIENCE AND THE CITIZEN
column awhile back.  It was about a guy named Steven Thaler, who
was attempting to simulate death by short-circuiting neural-nets
at random, until the inevitable final total breakdown.

He found that the system became extremely creative.  For example,
he fed in 20 years of top-twenty songs, and the machine spat back
out 40,000 of them, all of which he has copyrighted, and which, he
says, makes him "the most prolific song-writer in history."

The other causal factor I see in the near-death experience is the
effects of inclusive fitness, or "kin selection," on the system,
especially as they enhance altruism.  Given the initial premise--
dying is a form of creativity--the forces I'm describing here act
as a selection-process over the pure randomnity of short-circuiting
brain cells.  This over millennia produced the familiar universal,
archetypal visions of the long, dark tunnel, the guide figure, &c.

Kin selection heightens altruism thru inclusive fitness, which
simply means that the genes you share with kin act as a sort of
form of "group selection," in which the unit of selection is
something larger than the lower-level, purely genetic component of
a single individual.

This heightens altruism because you share half your genes with your
parents, a quarter with your siblings, an eighth with your cousins,
&c.  So suppose your father falls in a lake and starts drowning. 
You immediately jump in to save him, even at the risk of losing
your own life.  But you die in the process.  However, you're
indirectly passing along your own genes, as your father can produce
more offspring, assuming he's still fertile.

Given the above example, if you jump in to save him, nearly die,
and at the same time, have a near-death experience, you'll come to
the conclusion that you are immortal.  This conclusion reinforces
kin altruism, hence, is selected for.  Such a system is doubtless
very ancient, beginning with the first animals that were able to
recognize kin, and contains a great deal of background noise from
the environment.

Also, the material suggesting life-after-death as being "scientif-
ically proven" because of people returning from clinical death to
life is probably false, due to the very fact that they've been
"dead" a long time; in a short time period, elaborate visionary
sequences probably do not occur.

The long, dark tunnel &c, obviously requires more elaborate
interactions between brain centers than what should be required by
short-circuiting neural nets, as larger brain-center interactions
have to take place in a near-instantaneous shut-down.  Thus, the
amount of time they spent "dead" is more likely a proof of a
material explanation than a spiritual one.  Those who argue that
coming back from clinical death is scientific proof of "life after
death" neglect this.  Their idea is false precisely because it does
require a long period to have a complicated experience, in terms
of interactions between several brain-centers being necessary to
produce this.  Quick shut-downs are most likely purely random.

Returning to group selection, there is a hierarchy of selection-
processes at work on the genome, all of which reinforce altruism
on their own level:  sexual selection, kin selection, and group
selection operating on social systems larger than familial ones.

"Sexual selection" merely refers to selection-processes used in
picking one's mate, which in turn suppress and amplify certain
features of the body and courtship rituals.  This is often in the
form of what I call "the photocopy effect:"  take a photograph,
photocopy it, repeat the procedure several times, the image
eventually becomes distorted, where chance mutation creeps into the
system.  As an example of this kind of force, consider this:  Men
like women with large breasts, so breast size eventually becomes
more and more exaggerated.  Many of these selection processes are,
in turn, influenced by the biases of the components of the neural
nets as they affect determination of beauty.

Let us move on to the final category of the hierarchy of selection
forces, the effects of group selection--inclusive fitness we have
already discussed.  If one of the biological purposes of religion
and the near-death experience is to heighten altruism, albeit kin
altruism, then the effect of group selection on the system is to
heighten reciprocal altruism.  "Reciprocal altruism" refers to
acting altruistically, expecting a reward.  The Christian Heaven
is an Eternal Reward for a virtuous life, and karma in Eastern
religions also betrays a type of cosmic justice.

Viewing this from the standpoint of group-selection, reciprocal
altruism acts holistically to heighten the fitness of the group,
so that synchronicity appears as a means of determining appropriate
links between divergent systems in order to foster this form of
behavior.  Group selection being an even weaker force than
inclusive fitness, the system contains even more background noise,
reinforced and suppressed again by the photocopy effect.

Besides this, perceptions of cause-and-effect also evolve, as
systems move from the less to the more complex.  In order to
successfully deal with its environment, an animal has to be aware
of cause-and-effect.  However, simpler brain-systems often miss the
true conception, so that synchronicity, innate metaphor, creeps
into the system.

The first perceived causes observed by primitive life-forms is
often in the form of relational properties; metaphors are a
phylogenitically ancient system of thought which precedes "ratio-
nal" thought.  I believe synchronicity may have an epistemological
validity, but that doesn't necessarily imply an ontological
validity.  And archetype are in-built metaphors.  Freudian
psychology is reducible to universal sexual metaphors, which occur
when innate sexuality is projected onto the environment.

To conclude, then, there is a sociobiological explanation of life-
after-death, and this is due to brain biology.  It doesn't
necessarily relegate "spirit" to a non-existent status, it merely
reduces it to a weak force.  God is the infinitely small as well
as the infinitely great, and the action of spirit is perpetually
at an infinite distance,

(C) Copyright 1998 by Jim Bauer