Dear Friends,

Recently we had come across a news where an American Soldier was
sitting on top of a Iraqi prisoner in Abu Ghraib Prison. A sculptor
also depicting the same format was found somewhere.. and in the news
the two of them were shown... so now what I am looking for is whether
this incident adheres to some already existing principle of physics.
If yes then kindly would the reader put in a brief description.

---

Clarification of Question by choudhary-ga on 25 Jun 2004 16:33 PDT

What we mean to ask is say someone creates a sculptor at some time x
and similar situations matching the sculptor which involve us living
beings evolve at some time y. Say if we wish to explain this phenomena
through physics  or mathematics how could it be done ? To be more
precise, I prefer knowing whether the explanation already exists ?

There may not be an explanation for such phenomonon in hard physics,
but the situation could be the result of what psychologist Carl Jung
would call "synchronicity". Jung's theory was heavily influenced by
the work of Noble prize winning physicist Wolfgang Pauli.

He wrote a book about it:

Synchronicity -
An Acausal Connecting Principle
by Carl G. Jung

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0691017948/jedigirl/102-6796292-8654502

"The concept of Synchronicity indicates a meaningful coincidence of
two or more events, where something other than the probability of
chance is involved.

Synchronicity elucidates meaningful arrangements and coincidence which
somehow go beyond the calculations of probability."

http://www.schuelers.com/ChaosPsyche/part_1_28.htm
"I chose this term because the simultaneous occurrence of two
meaningfully but not causally connected events seemed to me an
essential criterion. I am therefore using the general concept of
synchronicity in the special sense of a coincidence in time of two or
more causally unrelated events which have the same or a similar
meaning, in contrast to ?synchronism,? which simply means the
simultaneous occurrence of two events. Synchronicity therefore means
the simultaneous occurrence of a certain psychic state with one or
more external events which appear as meaningful parallels to the
momentary subjective state--and, in certain cases, vice versa.?

He argues that "acausal phenomena must exist...since statistics are
only possible anyway if there are also exceptions" He also asserts
that "...improbable facts exist--otherwise there would be no
statistical mean..." and that "the premise of probability
simultaneously postulates the existence of the improbable".

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THE PHYSICS/SCIENCE OF SYNCHRONOCITY

Transcends space and time:

http://www.schuelers.com/ChaosPsyche/part_1_28.htm
"The self does not become conscious by itself....Since it stands for
the essence of individuation, and individuation is impossible without
a relationship to one?s environment, it is found among those of like
mind with whom individual relations can be established. The Self,
moreover, is an archetype that invariably expresses a situation within
which the ego is contained. Therefore, like every archetype, the Self
cannot be localized in an individual ego-consciousness, but acts like
a circumambient atmosphere to which no definite limits can be set,
either in space or in time (Hence the synchronistic phenomena so often
associated with activated archetypes)."

The nature of "synchronocity" makes it very hard to prove or study however.

http://vocationalpsychology.com/term_synchronicity.htm
"In other words, and as Jung discussed the construct, even if you
think an synchronistic event has occurred, it is almost by definition
not repeatable in a controlled fashion; this presents a problem in the
scientific study of synchronicity, as replicability is traditionally a
central feature of scientific research."

It is scientifically feasible- but near impossible to study:

http://www.interpc.fr/mapage/westernlands/synchro.html
"The thing with synchronicity as opposed to other "paranormal"
phenomena,is that synchronicity in theory is not paranormal. It is a
scientifically possible factor, although it's well on the outside of
traditional science, and of course it's never been proved to be real.
In fact, it would probably be impossible to prove that synchronicity
really is an existing phenomenon, at least by using the normal methods
of scientific deduction. This is because synchronicity operates
completely outside the current laws of physics as defined by
scientists."

Events connected acausally:

http://www.interpc.fr/mapage/westernlands/synchro.html
"The theory is that events (and thoughts) are connected in other ways
than causally. "Causally" meaning by the law of cause and effect. In
traditional physics all events have a cause, something that made
exactly that event happen ("The clockwork universe"). This would mean
that if we had all the existing factors, we could calculate exactly
what would happen in any given system. For instance, if somebody kicks
a ball up in the air, if we know the weight of the ball, the exact
angle of impact by the foot, the force with which the foot hit the
ball, the shape of the tip of the shoe, the wind velocity and
direction (and all factors about the wind currents), and so on... then
we could in theory say exactly where the ball would land."

Acausal connections are consistant with the findings of quantum physics:

http://www.interpc.fr/mapage/westernlands/synchro.html
"But as quantum physics proved, this causality (and ORDER) only
applies on certain levels. (Remember, all laws of physics are simply
statistical.) In the microverse, i.e. on a sub-atomic level, all the
laws of physics are out the window. Chaos rules. Particles can be on
two places at the same time. Particles can travel back in time. Things
happen for no reason, i.e. the effect has no cause. The very particles
that make up the physical world as we perceive it, do not follow the
laws that they create by their "behavior"! One cannot predict where a
particle will go next, or even the behavior of an atom. In fact, also
outside of the microverse it is now understood that a given cause does
not always produce the same effect, although it might SEEM that way in
most instances. (Laws of physics are statistical.)"

The possibility of acausal connections means that the situations like
the one you have mentioned may be meaningfully connected not just
coincidences:

http://www.interpc.fr/mapage/westernlands/synchro.html
"If causality does not govern everything, then there could
theoretically exist an ACAUSAL connecting principle. Two events which
are somehow connected, but neither of them caused the other one to
happen. This is synchronicity. If synchronicity does not exist, then
the world is just full of strange coincidences. But if it does, then
the world is filled with MEANINGFUL coincidences. Telepathy,
divination, astrology and such are potentially possible under the
theory of synchronicity. But they don't occur for the traditionally
believed reasons. Telepathy, meaning that one could "read" another
person's mind, suggests some sort of thought waves, and this is not in
accordance with physics. But it's possible that two people can think
of something at the same time. Under the theory of synchronicity, all
such events would be synchronistic. If a person is more inclined to
certain synchronistic phenomena than others, she/he could be perceived
as a telepath. Similarly, an event in the future or the past could be
connected with an event in the presence; and the constellation of the
stars and planets could be connected with elements in human's lives.
(Of course, this is all very difficult to chart, and I believe that
the "science" of astrology is too specific to have the possibility of
being accurate.)"

Jungs theory could have a basis in modern physics:

http://www.dreamscape.com/morgana/naiad2.htm
"The result of these strange experiences was that Jung ceased to be
concerned about whether his contemporaries regarded him as a mystic
rather than a scientist, and he ceased to make a secret of his
lifelong interest in the occult. In 1949 he wrote about the "acausal
connecting principle" called synchronicity. In the following year he
wrote his paper On Synchronicity, later expanded into a book.
Unfortunately, Jung?s fundamental premise in both these works is
basically nonsensical. Western science, he says, is based on the
principle of causality. But modern physics is shaking this principle
to its foundations; we now know that natural laws are merely
statistical truths and that therefore we must allow for exceptions."

http://www.innerexplorations.com/catchmeta/mys3.htm
"He was encouraged along these lines because it seemed that modern
physics, in developing quantum theory, had broken with causality, and
"shattered the absolute validity of natural law and made it relative..
The philosophical principle that underlies our conception of natural
law is causality. But if the connection between cause and effect turns
out to be only statistically valid and only relatively true, then the
causal principle is only of relative use for explaining natural
processes and therefore presupposes the existence of one or more other
factors which would be necessary for an explanation. This is as much
as to say that the connection of events may in certain circumstances
be other than causal, and requires another principle of explanation."
(1)

Pauli supported these claims:

http://www.innerexplorations.com/catchmeta/mys3.htm
"Jung's association with Pauli would have only strengthened this
impression of the meaning of quantum theory because Pauli was a firm
believer in the conventional Copenhagen interpretation. Therefore
since causal connections in these meaningful coincidences seem
inconceivable, Jung wants to move in the direction of an acausal
principle, a kind of "meaningful cross-connection" between causal
chains of events. (2)"

The psychological basis of sychronicitic connections:

http://www.innerexplorations.com/catchmeta/mys3.htm
"The psyche cannot be reduced to the ego. It embraces a much wider
reality that Jung called the collective unconscious, and the lowest
level of that unconscious is nature. Therefore, when the deep levels
of the unconscious become activated, it is not surprising that
synchronistic events would occur. These events, in turn, could be
looked upon as empirical evidence that there is a unity underlying
psyche and matter, a unity of existence that Jung called the unus
mundus. (18) The world of the physicist and the psychologist is
ultimately the same world, and the empirical world around us is
somehow based on a "transcendental background." (19) Matter and psyche
are rooted in this unus mundus which is a "potential structure" which
becomes activated in synchronistic events which connect the inner and
outer worlds by way of meaning. (20) Synchronistic events are, as we
have seen, manifestations of the wider principle of acausal
orderedness."

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I hope this helps. Obviously there isn't hard evidence that the two
events you mentioned were linked through physics. But this theory does
provide an interesting hypothesis to explain such a connection.

Best regards,
Anthony