Synchronicity and the spiritual revolution
Excerpt - Roderick Main - The Rupture of Time: Synchronicity and Jung's critique of Western Culture
Synchronicity and the spiritual revolution
Having seen that the theory of synchronicity is an integral, even pivotal, part of Jung’s critique of science, religion and society we will now look in more detail at some aspects of his critique of religion. Of the three areas previously discussed, this arguably is the one that concerned Jung most intimately. It is also the area that contains most of the positive content of his overall cultural critique. For, while his main task in relation to rationalistic science and mass society was to seek ways to undercut their power, his task in relation to experientially based religion was to seek means of validating it. Experiential religion was for Jung a large part of the antidote to the modern problems spawned by rationalistic science and mass society. Furthermore, Jung’s critique of religion, more than his critiques of science and society, continues to have conspicuous relevance in contemporary culture. Above all, both as an influence and as an exemplary or parallel instance, it is relevant to the increasing interest in holistic, alternative, or ‘New Age’ forms of spirituality.
A widespread shift away from traditional religion towards detraditionalised forms of spirituality has been monitored and discussed by sociologists and historians of religion (York 1995; Heelas 1996, 2002; Hanegraaff 1998, 2002) and has recently been dubbed ‘the spiritual revolution’ (Heelas 2002; cf. Tacey 2003). This ‘spiritual revolution’ is not one that threatens to overthrow existing social or even religious structures but, like the counter-cultural movement of the 1960s, is nevertheless significantly affecting mainstream culture in a continual dialectic of challenge and assimilation. The distinction between religion, which people are allegedly turning away from, and spirituality, which they are allegedly turning towards, is explained by Paul Heelas as follows: ‘“Religion” can be defined in terms of obedience to a transcendent God and a tradition which mediates his authority; spirituality as experience of the divine as immanent in life’ (2002: 358). He then characterises the widespread contemporary understanding of both terms: