ʻIT IS ALL SO STRANGELY INTERTWINEDʼ: A DISCUSSION BETWEEN HANS BENDER AND CARL GUSTAV JUNG ABOUT SYNCHRONICITY (1960)

Hans Bender, German parapsychologist and professor at the FreiburgUniversity, met with C. G. Jung on December 8, 1960. The discussion wasrecorded, and the transcribed version is available here for the first time inEnglish. A key aspect of our article is a description of the phenomenon ofsynchronicity based on Hans Bender’s concrete experiences during a drivethrough Switzerland to an Eranos Conference in Ascona and further onto the Côte d’Azur for a workshop of the Parapsychology Foundation inAugust 1960. At the same time, his mother suffered a stroke, which causedher death shortly afterward. Bender was returning to Freiburg at the timewhen she died. He was familiar with the stages of his return trip from earliertrips. He had intensely emotional experiences at certain places, which he, inretrospect, interpreted as synchronistic in connection with his mother’s death.KEYWORDSC.G. Jung, Hans Bender, Synchronicity, Psi experiences.