C.G. Jung, who began exploring synchronicity in the 1930s, described three types of synchronicity. The first is a coincidence between a thought or feeling and an event. The second type of synchronicity is when a person has a dream that coincides with an event that is taking place at a distance--for instance, you have a bizarre dream about an airplane crashing and you wake up in the morning to learn that an airplane did, indeed, crash halfway around the world. The third type of synchronicity is when a person has a dream or premonition about something that will happen in the future, and then it occurs.

The shuttle explosion could be an example of the first type of synchronicity. Under this theory, the "collective unconscious" of the world's people sensed foreboding about Americans' march to war, and that feeling was manifest in the disaster over Texas. "Collective unconscious" can be understood as a sort of repository of all of humanity's religious, spiritual and mythological symbols and experiences. Each of us shares in this unconscious mind; the energy we use to think, dream, pray, and meditate--based on these deeply held human images, which Jung called "archetypes"--powers events both small and large.

The image of an exploding "star" in the sky over a mighty nation is an archetype--a deeply human symbol--for the entire world. That is why the entire world resonated with the disaster, according to Jungian analysts.