“So, are we the makers of time?”
“In a sense… It’s the emotion you feel towards time itself — towards the flow of events, the memory that binds you to the past, and the anticipation of the future — that gives birth to the very concept of time.”
(Il ponte vermiglio, Chapter 11: The Fabric of Time)
Sometimes reality folds unexpectedly, as if the seams of time were coming undone. A symbol reappears again and again. An encounter seems to arrive a few steps before you. A dream reveals something you haven’t yet dared to think.
When coincidence finds a voice
When coincidence finds a voice
It happens to everyone, at least once: you think of someone you haven’t heard from in years, and moments later, their message appears. Or — even more astonishing — you meet them by chance, far from home, in a place you could never have planned. You dream of a place you’ve never seen, and weeks later, find yourself standing there.You overhear a stray sentence that answers a question you hadn’t yet found the courage to ask.
It’s not magic. It’s not illusion.
It’s an inner event — a thought, a dream, an emotion — mysteriously woven into an outer occurrence, with no apparent causal link, yet holding deep personal meaning for the one who experiences it.
Psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung called this phenomenon synchronicity:
“A meaningful coincidence of two or more events, where something other than the probability of chance is involved.”
(Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle, 1952)
Synchronicity defies linear logic and the modern scientific notion of causality. It belongs to that liminal space where the individual unconscious opens into the collective one — as if the psyche were in direct conversation with the universe itself.
The collective unconscious, a cornerstone of Jungian psychology, is a shared psychic field housing the archetypes — the primordial images and universal symbols that surface in dreams, myths, and spiritual experiences across cultures. Jung believed that synchronistic events arise from this deeper layer of the psyche. They do not originate from the rational ego, but from a broader reality that contains us. Synchronicity thus becomes a language — the way the collective unconscious reveals itself through the material world, guiding us toward a larger meaning.
The Neuroscientific View
Perception as Inference: The Predictive Brain
Modern neuroscience tells us that the brain is not a passive receiver of reality, but an ingenious simulator. We do not see the world as it is — we see it as we believe it to be.
Anil Seth and Karl Friston, leading theorists of predictive perception, propose a radical idea: consciousness arises from a continuous flow of hypotheses that the brain generates about the external world and about itself, constantly updating them based on sensory input.
In this model, perception is inference: a silent negotiation between expectation and evidence. The brain constructs the most plausible version of reality it can, given its internal state and the signals it receives.
This means that deeply internal elements — emotions, latent memories, desires, and fears — can all influence what we perceive externally. In seeking coherence, the brain projects its internal structures onto the world, recognising patterns of meaning where none seem to exist.
This creates a kind of symbolic coherence — an alignment between what happens outside and what resonates within. It’s in this intersection that synchronistic experiences may arise, when reality appears to respond to something we haven’t yet spoken aloud.
Could it be that the brain, operating beneath conscious awareness, processes subtle signals or “almost imperceptible” cues — allowing it to anticipate events before they reach the surface of the mind?
Or perhaps, no matter how sophisticated predictive models become, they can’t fully explain those coincidences that seem to emerge beyond our will — yet resonate profoundly with our inner state.
Synchronicity, Resonance, and Attraction
Looking beyond neuroscience, certain metaphysical perspectives expand this view further. According to the teachings of Abraham-Hicks, what we experience is not merely a response to external stimuli, but a reflection of our dominant vibration — an inner frequency that attracts events aligned with what we truly feel and are.
In this framework, we are constantly — and often unconsciously — drawing to us the experiences we think, imagine, or desire. Events take form within us first, as vibrational states, and only then appear in the physical world. Synchronicity thus becomes a confirmation of alignment — the moment when what vibrates inside finds its echo outside, and the world responds with uncanny precision.
From this perspective, the brain is not merely an organ of perception, but a vibrational translator — converting inner states into outer configurations, serving as a bridge between psyche and reality. And in doing so, its relationship with time changes: it no longer functions along a simple linear chain of cause and effect, but dances between anticipation, resonance, and possibility.
It’s as if, at certain moments, we can feel the future before it unfolds — recognising in the present the subtle signals of what is already taking shape.
A Cautious Note on the Quantum World
Many link synchronicity to quantum entanglement — the phenomenon in which two particles, once connected, remain correlated across distance, influencing one another with no apparent communication. It’s a powerful image, often invoked to describe deep human connections — as happens in Il ponte vermiglio (see Chapter 8!) — though applied to consciousness, it remains speculative and without firm scientific grounding.
Yet as a metaphor, it retains remarkable power. Perhaps, once a profound bond has been formed between people or emotions, a subtle resonance persists — resurfacing through time and space when least expected.
After all, we too are made of quanta. And perhaps, in ways we are only beginning to glimpse, consciousness itself belongs to that mysterious fabric that interconnects all things.
Modern physics reminds us that we are not separate from the subatomic world — we are part of it. So perhaps it’s not so far-fetched to imagine that certain inner resonances might, under particular conditions, mirror the dynamics of the deepest layers of matter.
Even biology is beginning to explore how quantum phenomena might operate within living systems.
Recent studies — including those by Betony Adams — suggest that quantum effects such as entanglement and coherence may play roles in complex biological processes, from migratory birds’ navigation to, more speculatively, aspects of consciousness itself. This field, known as quantum biology, explores how the principles of quantum physics may influence the living fabric of reality.
For readers wishing to explore these topics in an accessible yet scientifically grounded way, I recommend
Jim Al-Khalili’s Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology (2014) — a key text for understanding how quantum mechanics may shape life’s deepest processes.
Vr.
Note: The English edition of Il ponte vermiglio will be released by the end of 2026.
Additional References
Carroll, S. M. (2016). The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself. Dutton.
Hicks, E. & Hicks, J. (2004). Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires. Hay House.
Seth, A. (2021). Being You: A New Science of Consciousness. Faber & Faber.
Friston, K. (2010). The Free-Energy Principle: A Unified Brain Theory? Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11(2), 127–138.
Jung, C. G. (1952). Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle. Princeton University Press.
Jung, C. G. (1954/1959). The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. Princeton University Press.
