My philosophy on life is a unique one. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been dedicated to developing my own ideas on life, as opposed to adopting the ideas of others. While I can appreciate various theological perspectives, I have never considered myself a religious person.

I tend to view life from a holistic perspective and often have a difficult time seeing only one side of a debate. Everything and everyone is connected, even if only subtly. If you watch for signs, you’ll see that nothing occurs independently, and every life impacts another. I'm a person who believes in signs and connections, and this forms the foundation of my life perspective.

Back in the 1920's (and later first published in 1952), Carl Jung proposed the idea of synchronicity - the experience that two events are related when no underlying causal connection exists or is likely to exist. Within this framework, logic, reason, and science are not the only possible means of linking events. Jung added to this list the concept of meaning - the interpretation of causality due to the individual perception of a meaningful relationship.

My own experience with synchronicity has been this: If you keep your mind open, the signs are everywhere. Now, being of a research and science background, this notion can be very problematic, as it essentially creates an experimenter bias within this massive study that is THE WORLD. However, I am not convinced that these signs - these acausal connections from which we can potentially extract buckets of meaning - would not be provided had we not "looked" in the first place. It is not a matter then of biasing the experiment by expecting particular outcomes. Rather, it is a matter of opening one's mind in a way that allows one to perceive all possible results - to experience connections of all kinds. It seems to me that it would be a shame to only perceive those connections that can be reasoned, studied, and thought away.

From a scientific perspective, everything is connected anyway: electrons which interact stay connected always, over vast distances; we all evolved from the same primordial soup; everything in the universe originated from the same 'big bang'; we all live in and affect the same complex ecosystem that is the Earth; and when I stop at a red light, others accelerate - while spinning their tires on rain water that is the same recycled water in which life first evolved billions of years ago. The list of course goes on, but when my mind reasons with the thought of synchronicity, I see only possibilities, no matter the edge of my sword. Perhaps believing in signs is really about believing in possibilities. No one can dictate what is meaningful in our lives, and by extension, no one can dictate what is connected - nor can they tell us whether a particular combination of numbers is a sign that we are on the right path or simply random noise in a random and otherwise meaningless universe.

No matter the origin of these signs, they should be embraced, interpreted at will, and preserved for hindsight. There may indeed be a fine line between faith (in anything) and insanity, but I for one am relieved to have found a little guidance - be it from acausal coincidence or the meaning and purpose gained therein.

Purpose is something I contemplate frequently. I suppose most do, at some point in their lives. There have been distinctions made between global purpose and incidental or event-specific forms of purpose. I think this distinction is important, semantically, for many people confuse the two in conversation. If I try hard enough, I can find meaning and purpose in pretty much anything and everything that occurs in my day. Some of these things, of course, are bordering on ridiculous - if I were to explore them to such an extent (for example, the purpose of taking out the garbage). But generally speaking, I believe purpose and meaning are all around us. Whether purpose exists independently of our psyche, to be “sensed” and perceived by us, I’m not certain. And I’m not certain if it’s a question that can be answered. Nor does it really matter at the end of the day. What matters most is that we are able to grasp it, whether or not it first has to be “created” in our minds. The biggest question, of course, is if there is a purpose to all of this; if life holds some greater meaning for us all.

The question essentially assumes a collective species-level purpose. It’s an interesting question, and one that seems to forever haunt us intellectually. If I had to pinpoint a purpose or meaning to life, based on my own experience, it would be this: Find what moves you, what resonates deep inside you (a path, if you will, or a calling), and what speaks to you in such a way that you cannot imagine living without it, or living without doing it. Do that, be that, and in the process you will further elevate the consciousness of our species and the universe at large.

In the end, I believe that the universe harbors an unseen intelligence or consciousness. I believe that we are all driven and connected by an intricate web of energy, at both micro and macro levels, and that our connection to the beginning of time suggests that this energy is not random and without purpose. Our own consciousness is just that – energy. What happens to this energy when we die, I’m not entirely sure, but I believe that its influence reaches farther than we could imagine, through space and time, and somehow helps to hold all of this together.

Quantum physics has offered us many new and exciting insights into the possible ways in which everyone and everything is connected. The role of the observer, non-locality, parallel universes – it all points to a layer (or layers) to this existence which are beyond our daily comprehension or perception, but which somehow speak to spiritual and purposeful attributes of life. I would highly recommend reading Goswami’s “The Self-Aware Universe.”

My advice? Be good. Follow your heart. Never take yourself too seriously. Laugh. Love. Leave a footprint (on humanity, not the environment). And think about it all. Question it all. Get bothered. As Ray Bradbury so eloquently put it, "We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?"

For more of my thoughts on life, check out my blog, David Bothered.