Soul Moments: Marvelous Stories of Synchronicity-Meaningful Coincidences from a Seemingly Random World

by Phil Cousineau

Synchronicity--the occurrence of meaningful coincidence--has fascinated scholars and ordinary folks alike for centuries. While Carl Jung and others have dealt with the theory of synchronicity, until now no one has highlighted the stories themselves. Phil Cousineau has put together a fascinating collection of these intriguing stories from wellknown authors such as Huston Smith and Larry Dossey, as well as people from many other walks of life. Borrowing examples from literature, poetry, myths, and movies such as Casablanca, Cousineau shows that synchronicity is an unfolding, a sudden connection to our soul and destiny. Recognizing these soul moments help us follow the thread of our lives and sense the invisible bonds that connect us.

Genres: Psychology, Spirituality, Inspirational, Memoir

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 1997

About the author

Phil Cousineau is the award-winning author of The Wisdom of the Odyssey and over forty other books, including the bestselling The Art of Pilgrimage, The Hero’s Journey, and Once and Future Myths. With more than 40 books and 25 scriptwriting credits to his name, the "omnipresent influence of myth in modern life" is a thread that runs through all his work.

A writer, filmmaker, storyteller, and cultural historian, Phil has consulted on mythology and story for major studios including Warner Brothers, Pixar, and Lucasfilm. A protege of mythologist Joseph Campbell, Cousineau began his career teaching screenwriting classes on Myth and the Movies at the American Film Institute in the 1980s.

He was co-writer and host of Link TV/PBS-TV's Global Spirit, the "inner travel" television series, which Bill Moyers called "more important than journalism today." His documentary films have won more than 25 international awards, including the Academy Award-nominated, Forever Activists.

Born in an army hospital in Columbia, South Carolina, Cousineau grew up in Detroit, Phil Cousineau has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 40 years. All of his grandparents were French-Canadian.

Reviews

[Keri]

Read this book and you may just conclude "there are no coincidences"- the auther compiles a number of short stories of people's amazing syncronicities.

[Christie Munson Muller]

I had this on my shelf all year to read and finally completed it! It's a beautiful anthology of stories about happenstances, chance meetings and wonderful (and sometimes weird) coincidences from people around the world.

Was a bit dated (came out in 1997) but really enjoyed reading from different authors. I flagged several stories and the book has inspired me to read some of Jung's work around religion and synchronicity, as I have my own story of a chance meeting that changed my life! :)

I wonder if there's a current edition with new stories? Will have to check that out.

[Erin Book Nerd]

There was too much talk and deliberation in a boring academic way about the idea of synchronicity. I ended up skipping a lot of discussion after getting lost on the page. Once the actual stories were told, the book became much better!

[Lo]

Stories of coincidences’ from around the world that are meaningful, comforting and inspiring. So many things happen in our lives that appear to be coincidences’ but are they?

[Dennis Berard]

The more I read Phil Cousineau's book, the more thought provoking the book became and I became. I started providing feedback to Phil on his book. Now I've gone on to read "Soul an Archeology".

Soul Moments introduced me to this concept of soul. Everything that happens in life can be considered as having an impact of your soul. Not just the important things, not just life changing events, but any random occurrence. You soul is affected by nothing, if you will. When nothing is happening but you choose to reflect on even nothing, even that becomes significant.

Try to describe the soul. Your soul will be affected by any contemplation even if you are considering nothing at all. How was your description? Does it have anything to do with the way your parents regarded the concept of soul? Did you mention God? Did you not mention God or some other diety?

How deep have I made you think? The center of our galaxy has a black hole that is emitting such great amounts of energy that we push the borders of our imagination just to graphically visualize what I just wrote. There is no sound in the vacuum of space. Consider how I just affected your soul.

I would recommend this book to everyone who has the ability to read. If someone doesn't have that ability, read the book to them, please.

[Julie Schuster]

Astonishingly good -- a joyful read!

The stories included in this book were compelling, intriguing, complex and vibrant. I loved the way they were presented and grouped together throughout the book. A delightful, heartfelt presentation on a significant subject.

[Conrad Haas]

This includes lots of intriging stories about synchronicity - Meaningful coincidences from a seamingly random world we live in.