Hans Bender, a German parapsychologist, met with C. G. Jung in December 1960, and their recorded discussion is presented in English for the first time. The article describes synchronicity through Bender's personal experiences during a drive to an Eranos Conference and a Parapsychology Foundation workshop in August 1960, while his mother suffered a fatal stroke. Bender, familiar with the route, had intensely emotional experiences at certain places that he later interpreted as synchronistic with her death.
C.G. Jung's ideas significantly shaped how death and dying were understood and treated in the United States between 1960 and 1980. This article examines how psy practitioners in thanatology, palliative care, suicide studies, and near-death studies adopted Jung's concepts. After tracing Jung's 'Americanisation' in the 1950s and the reception of his commentaries on death alongside The Tibetan Book of the Dead, the author analyzes four examples: a psychiatric comparison of Jung's near-death experience account with William James' mystical states; LSD therapies provoking symbolic dying processes; studies of suicide survivors; and parapsychological investigations of near-death experiences. Jung's work proved pivotal, linking psychology to terminal illness approaches and positive or transpersonal psychology, and must be understood alongside the broader reception of James' psychology of religion.