Dr. Bernard Beitman: Meaningful Coincidences - Synchronicity & Serendipity

Thoughts on Record: Podcast of the Ottawa Institute of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Despite typically being scientifically-minded individuals, many clinicians have often wondered about aspects of the human experience that defy rationale explanation, but yet feel profoundly meaningful. Psychiatrist and author, Dr. Bernard Beitman, joins us for a discussion of many of the core themes in his book Meaningful Coincidences: How & Why Synchronicity and Serendipity Happen. In this conversation we cover:

• what has driven Dr. Beitman's interest in researching coincidence
• the necessary and sufficient conditions or characteristics to call an experience a formal coincidence
• the challenge and opportunity of determining "meaning" in the context of coincidences given the subjective nature of meaning as well as the observation that meaning that change or emerge over time
• a framework for determining meaning in the context of synchronicity & coincidences
• how to navigate the challenge of the potential presence of symptoms of psychosis (e.g., delusions of reference, mania) in the context of appropriately evaluating and integrating meaningful coincidences into clinical work
• how we can sit with the distress & uncertainty that typically comes with powerful experiences of coincidence and synchronicity
• Dr. Beitman's response to those who take a purely “actuarial” or statistical approach to coincidences
• the importance of attuning to the emotional valence of an experience to determine it's form, function & meaning
• how therapists can help their clients leverage coincidences in their day-to-day lives/therapeutic journey
• thoughts on the yet undiscovered psychological substrate or plane/dimension of existence (e.g., field of consciousness) that would need to be in place for coincidences to have maximum meaning
• the potential for psychedelics to be able to expand our capacity to expand our ability to connect seeming unrelated objects or event

Dr. Bernard Beitman attended Yale Medical School graduating in 1964. He did his one-year general medicine internship at Mount Zion Medical Center in San Francisco and then completed the three-year psychiatric residency at Stanford in 1974 after working in the U.S Public Health Service Hospital in San Francisco from 1971-1973 as the hospital’s psychiatrist. He then joined the faculty of the department of psychiatry at the University of Washington in Seattle. After ten years there he then joined the faculty at the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he became a world leader in the study of chest pain and panic disorder which led to his becoming chair of the psychiatry department. Building on his book The Structure of Individual Psychotherapy, he created the book Learning Psychotherapy which was taught to half the psychiatric residency training programs in the United States. In 2006 he started formal research into coincidences and then, in 2009, moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, to join the Division of Perceptual Studies of the University of Virginia, which supported his coincidence work as a non-paid faculty member. As a self-described “recovering academic,” he led the development of The Coincidence Project.
https://www.coincider.com