Regarding the three Skeptiko guests (that I have encountered) where synchronicity is the focus, Robert Perry, Dr. Kirby Surprise and Trish and Rob MacGregor, and throw in a few shows (that I have encountered) where synchronicity has been touched on (Grant Cameron for example), for me, the contributions made by Dr. Surprise have merit. And I say that based on my own extensive experience with the phenomena. I avoided getting turned off by his dive into "brain science." I also have the ability to understand, based on what he has shared in his book as well as in other interviews, why he has drawn some of the conclusions he has drawn where he makes statements such as - "the universe is inherently meaningless... it's just a bunch of energy systems. Meaning is something human beings give it."
I am able to accept that this was his opinion (and may still be) but that's all it is. Though I want there to be meaning, and though I would promote to another the benefit of finding meaning in their life, meaning for their life, meaning for the life experience, doesn't make me right and him wrong. Maybe the meaning he wishes to create for himself is meaninglessness.
But saying that I chose a different view doesn't cause me to conclude that some of the other ideas and opinions he shared are worthless. Understand, he treats people with serious issues related to things like schizophrenia. And I have experience with the same things that are symptomatic to schizophrenics... that being the experience of mind blowing synchronicities. And so I can see a serious benefit in learning that I can actually create synchronicities (and I have proven this to myself well enough) and thus, perhaps, some of... maybe all of the synchronicities I have experienced arise in conjunction with something deeply meaningful to me personally and not "signs from God." Of course, there could be far more to it... like BOTH, if there even be such a thing as some "third party God thingie" whatching over us all (or at least me!) But the point I am making is that my own experience led me to the truth (after years of thinking otherwise and to my own peril), that I can create these very synchronicities... and the messages that are suggested do not necessarily have to be true.
In fact, (and I can only speak for myself), I discovered that regarding the most profound synchronicity experiences, by looking deeply into them, I discovered the deeper motivational components of my own being as I live a life experience. And, in my case, much of this is dark stuff like... narcissism, megalomania, savior complex, the ability to lie pathologically, perhaps some sociopathy, etc. You might think I am kidding, but understand, I am 62 years old now... perhaps that I have survived this long and perhaps because I am able to share what I just wrote, tells you these things have been reasonably identified and dealt with. And why this fits into this particular episode is that Dr. Kirby Surprise is a strong proponent that this form of functionality within the greater reality experience acts like a mirror. In my case, it has.
In addition, in my case, there have been times where I can state with 100% honesty, I interpreted a synchronicity to means something where I acted upon that conclusion which led to some amazingly good results. But also! There have been times I did so and the results were almost deadly. So how does one know which synchronicities are mirrors of our own personal being (and thus, if handled healthily, could result in a being making personal changes at the deepest levels of their individuated being or, and in part because of the sheer impossibility of the timing and content of a synchronicity (especially synchronicity strings) are messages from something one might "think" is external to them... something like "God" as only God could possibly perform such an arrangement? And thus it must be a message, yes?
So for me, its impossible to know which may be which, which may be a combination of the two, which may be utter, pure coincidence, or something else I have yet to consider... maybe I will never know! Can I handle that? Can I remain open minded to the point this one life fizzles out? Anyways, I drifted.
Surprise points out one of the functions of the phenomena is "as a mirror" and what I think bugs people is that he seems pretty adamant that is the only function. But I a dive into more of his material and interviews reveals he has struggled with depression and he has engaged in all sorts of "shamanic plant" type journeys, psychedelics, etc. and having had some of the same foundational experiences as he has shared about himself, I can see why he would conclude as he has because it is possible that if there be more too it than just "a mirror function" that which is reflected to him might be more than he wished to consider as possibly true.
Understand, he treats his depression with a very small dose of ayahuasca on a daily basis. He also has stated that an individual can become so deeply into synchronicity, they can be overwhelmed, become so consumed they cannot function practically... and my guess is that he states this from personal experience. I make that guess because I have been there too!
Anyways, there's plenty of "baby" in that interview besides bathwater... I am learning more and more not to throw out the gold in all of these Skeptiko interviews other than the few pure materialists. I just can't bring myself to listen to those anymore as there's nothing in them that I feel I get anything out of. I am settled on my metpahysical, cosmological world view explanation of anything other than pure, raw, cosmic accident materialism. That view is nothing but a "dead world" to me. Uninteresting, unexciting, worthless...