a question on destiny

[amanda_isabel]

lately this thought crossed my mind.

is there really such thing as destiny?

and, if there is....

do the choices we make everyday alter it, or fulfill it?

[blondeatheart]

does it really matter? you're just going to die...gah that other thread has made me depressed

[Bandini]

I don't believe in Determinism - we have free will. Otherwise it would be depressing wouldn't it? Course certain social/psychological factors make us more predisposed to act in certain ways - but many of those factors can be overcome.

[Gallantry]

If there was such a thing as destiny your choices would be fulfilling it not altering it. Altering your destiny is something that would belong to like a greek mythological hero or something.

EDIT: I too do not believe in determinism.

[Xamonas Chegwe]

I too do not believe in destiny. This is my sad fate. ;)

[Geoffrey]

Determinism exists I believe, but only in certain scenarios of very poor social and economic conditions. Is that an excuse for poor/bad actions? I'm not sure...
But destiny, it seems, is just an idea thought up so that we need not feel guilty ourselves about where we end up. Sort of the easy way out. Whether or not one believes in a destiny though, seems to be the determinant in whether or not one has a 'destiny.'
Me, I'm stuck with no destiny - and its just great!

[woeful painter]

What's the point in the mystery of living if all are just written out before hand in this so called "destiny"? I don't know what to feel knowing if ever I am just an actor in this life of mine and I'm just playing out what my script says and eventually achieving the prewritten end of the story...how sad... Nope! No destiny for me! Though I say, I can fairly predict mine eversince, even though how odd it may appear to be at times...

[Union Jack]

I do not believe in "destiny." I feel that our lives are directly shaped by our choices and actions we make everyday.

[lavendar1]

Anyone here believe in synchronicity?

[IrishCanadian]

what is synchronicity?

[lavendar1]

what is synchronicity?

It's late, and my thoughts are loose rather than lucid...

Psychologist Carl Jung believed in 'meaningful coincidence;' that if we are in the 'flow,' we may experience situations/revelations that point us toward the answers we seek, which may, in turn, propel us to fulfil our 'destiny.'

It is significant that Jung deferred publication of his essay entitled Synchronicity until he was in his twilight years; he felt he would be mocked because of his views.

I've experienced 'synchronicity' at times... let me get back to you tomorrow. I'm too tired now to articulate my thoughts.

[lavendar1]

Here's an example of Jung's "meaningful coincidence" taken directly from Synchronicity (I'm paraphrasing):

Psycholanalyst Jung was having difficulty making progress with a young female patient who had a "geometrical" idea of reality. Jung's attempts to sweeten her rationalism with a somewhat more human understanding consistently failed. He kept hoping something unexpected and irrational would turn up that would shatter her "intellectual retort."

One day during a session while she was conveying a dream she'd had wherein someone had given her a golden scarab, Jung heard something tapping at the window. It was a large insect. Jung opened the window and let it in, and promptly caught it. It was a beetle -- a scarabaeid beetle -- one that closely resembled the golden scareb the young woman had just described from her dream. Jung handed it to her, saying, "Here is your scarab."

The experience "punctured the desired hole in her rationalism," broke the ice of her "intellectual resistence," and enabled Jung to help her.

Once when I was trying to help a family member with a problem (and I was going nowhere fast), I picked up the phone to call what I believed was a business (on a matter that was totally unrelated to the situation with my family member). The voice on the other end sounded familiar, and after several minutes, I realized I had inadvertently dialed the wrong number. But over the course of the conversation with a friend I hadn't spoken with for years, I gained information that enabled me to help my family member.

I know this sounds weird, and it is. But it really happened. And that's what Jung called 'synchronicity.' Interesting, isn't it?

[Xamonas Chegwe]

Synchronicity is merely coincidence. Coincidences happen every day. If no coincidences ever had a semblance of significance, this would be incredible and unbelievable; that some do have that semblance is neither - merely a normal result of probability.

Today I posted a '50 words or less' story about all colour dissapearing from the world. Immediately after this, I searched for new posts and saw that someone had posted a poem with an eerily similar theme at very close to the same time.

This is far too weird to be a coincidence, right? I mean, what are the chances of that happening? It must be God trying to tell me something! Is it, do you think? Is it ****!

[Juarez Fialho]

It is rather notorious for the well knowladged that simple things are sometimes less suceptible of beeing understood. Ractifying my assertive, Allan Poe once said that "(...)the higher powers of the reflective intellect are more decidedly and more usefully tasked by the unostentatious game of draughts than by a the elaborate frivolity of chess". The ignius fatui of life are probably more likely to be described as a chess game than simply draughts, however, life is indeed a draught game: simple and complex. Whereas the common/popular speach, there is no destiny, no determined path to make the complexity of our actions contend with the simplicity of the decisions we take (v.g. decisions that are considered as being tooken through a simple process as in M.D.Spencer Johnson's "yes or no" decision taking method). It is, moreover, impossible not to mention that synchronicity (Jung) is present and in most times mistaken for signs of "the only possible path". I undertake this as one of the great falacities of our day's understanding of the world. My life is driven by my own actions since God has bestowed me life and free will. Finnaly, there is no maktub!

[lavendar1]

This is far too weird to be a coincidence, right? I mean, what are the chances of that happening? It must be God trying to tell me something! Is it, do you think? Is it ****!

I chose not to bring 'God' into my post because 'God' isn't an issue -- I simply find Jung's ideas a fascinating view into other areas of our existence that fall outside the realm of the explicable. It's just interesting 'stuff' to ponder.

[Xamonas Chegwe]

I am not sure that there is anything that falls into the realms of the inexplicable. The realms of the currently inexplicable certainly; but the monarch of those particular realms must be getting concerned with his rapidly shrinking demesne.

I do not concede that synchronicity and the examples of it that you have stated fall into either of these realms. As I said above, they are coincidences; all meaning in them is merely apparent, not factual - serendipity, nothing more. Throw 5 dice and the chances of them all coming up 6's is 7,776 to 1 - but it happens from time to time. And every week somebody wins the lottery, were they all destined to?

This is my opinion. I am well aware that others do not share it. That is their prerogative.

[lavendar1]

XC, I respect your opinion. But if anyone's interested, Austrian physicist Wolfgang Pauli actually collaborated with Jung in studying synchronicity. You can read about it in Atom and Archetype, an interesting blend of psychology and physics.

[amanda_isabel]

thanks everyone....

[Kardis]

I belive that everyone has a destiny. Like a farmer that stays a farmer after knowing that his family has been farmers for generation! Destiny is found in the choices that make. Fate is what other people tell you about yourself... so if you choose to follow, than by all means. Just have faith.