| This dissertation has as its purpose research into the interdisciplinary connections between synchronicity and the miraculous on the interface between depth psychology and religion. This research process is conducted through a hermeneutic of integration which embraces sacred texts and experiences of divine healing, as well as deliverance in relation to the psychology of oppression.; The method of integration used in the dissertation is applied to three levels of depth psychological theory—the intra, the inter, and the trans levels of theory—to explore the relationship between synchronicity and the miraculous in the following areas of focus: (1) a depth psychological focus to address synchronicity; (2) a focus on theology to address the miraculous; and (3) a focus on African American social cultural formation with regard to the Bible and biblical psychotherapy.; The thesis of this dissertation is that synchronicity and the miraculous are best approached simultaneously and enrich one another tremendously when this is done. Although synchronicity and the miraculous are related phenomena, understandings about the relationship between them are relatively unexplored by scholars and healers in the various fields of depth psychology and theology in particular. More specifically, synchronistic events possess their own gently marvelous effects, and prepare us to sense the more powerfully transcendent dimension of life, which miracles so brilliantly display.; One of the major conclusions of the dissertation is that although trans elements of psychological reality are embraced in certain important approaches of depth psychology, theology, and African American approaches to the Bible and biblical psychotherapy, the fuller reporting of synchronistic and miraculous phenomena (and the relationship between these phenomena) in these various approaches appears to be rejected, ignored, or muted. The study concludes by proposing a number of exciting and challenging new areas of research to explore. |
