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Collective Consciousness Questions

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Hello, I have a few questions about collective consciousness for anybody who has looked into this. I have a "friend" (he's sitting on my couch talking to me about himself at this very moment, hahahahaha)! who says that 'collective consciousness' has seen new vigor in the past few years in terms of empirical grounding. Personally, I think 'collective consciousness' is a kind of useful fiction, such as a 'soul' (wherein I could say for instance, "that man has a kind soul," but I'm not really talking about some ethereal being floating near him). Collective consciousness probably refers to similar phenomena that people feel just because we all have brains that are built in pretty much the same way. I think the 'immaterial connectedness of mind' that he spouts on about is probably not something that exists.

He goes on about this P.A.R.E. institute for psi research, and specifically a man named

Dean Raden.

I think if empirical evidence were strong in these regards, parapsychology programs across the board wouldn't be getting cut, but they are. Anyway, does anyone know how legitimate this man's research is? Any other info? Thanks.
 

INTP

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ollective unconscious comes from the parts of our brains that were developed before we got out fancy cerebral cortex, from our "lizard brains".

Things like falling in love at first sight, acting heroic etc are impulses coming from our collective unconsciousness, to be more exact these archetypes are structures within the collective unconscious that give us instincts to act in certain way(or at least guide us towards doing certain things).

In modern psychology the concept of collective unconsciousness is seen as a fact by most, simply because there has been studies don that show this in both humans and animals and they have found out brain structures responsible of those actions.

Birds being able to build nest on their own is one form of manifestation of collective unconscious, this nest building behavior could be seen as an instinct coming with the mother archetype.

This collective unconscious is basically an genetic memory that builds your brains(some also count the body) in a certain way, that leads to certain type of behavior due to instincta coming from those brain structures predermined by parts of dna which are shared by all people.

Never heard about that guy, but i dont think that guy is essential to the question wether collective unconsciousness is an valid theory or not.
 

skylights

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i echo INTP in that the collective unconscious largely comes from our "lizard brain" and pre-determined brain-function patterns which create "archetypes" for how we operate.

i am personally also a gentle supporter of the idea that there is also some kind of gathered, collective energy that happens to influence humanity in certain ways and is impacted by and impacts the collective unconscious... in other words, there are certain major forces that act upon humanity to influence us in certain ways. each individual contributes to those forces and is affected by them. it's essentially the effect of widespread behavior... for instance how the harry potter books are said to "define" my generation. it's not just that a domino chain of millions of people in the right place at the right time bought the books (though that is certainly true), it's also that the books captured something essential about humanity and the current condition of the world that caused them to catch fans like wildfire.
 

citizen cane

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This all sounds like pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo to me.
 

Mole

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Neuro science is making it plainer by the day that our consciousness is a function of our brain.

There is no need to think of our mind as separate from our brain.

And there is no evidence of our consciousness is separate from our brain.

And collective consciousness is a religious invention of gurus like Carl Jung.
 

AphroditeGoneAwry

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I think I just read an ep article that asserted our mind and our brain were evidently separate...Hmm. I'll have to look that up again, V. Later

~A
 

Savage Idealist

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There no such thing as a Collective Consciousness or Collective Unconsciousness. In fact, I actually think that Consciousness may not be real at all.
 

xisnotx

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Define the term more precisely.

Collective consciousness (ie, our consciouses experience the exact same thing in the same way) is something I think is pretty evident..though proving it is seemingly difficult. But I think the "red" I see, and the "red" someone else sees, is the same "red".

Collective consciousness (ie our consciouses somehow communicate with each other without us being aware of it) isn't possible..due to the definition of consciousness (ie to be aware..)

I do think our subconsciouses communicate with other subconsciouses...body language, tone of voice etc...are evidence of that.

Define the terms.

And why is he just a "friend", but not a friend? Just curious...
 
V

violaine

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Interesting. I've been reading about quantum mechanics/entanglement in relation to humans and relationships. (Seems redundant to say that as of course human beings are quantum beings). There is some parallelism with the idea of a collective consciousness, though I think that is peripheral and almost a consequence rather than a centerpiece of the way things apparently work.

(I'm not deep enough into my reading to detail further how these concepts are related and may be aspects of one and the same thing. As kooky as it may sound, I've always suspected that there is such connection.)
 

INTP

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Define the term more precisely.

Collective consciousness (ie, our consciouses experience the exact same thing in the same way) is something I think is pretty evident..though proving it is seemingly difficult. But I think the "red" I see, and the "red" someone else sees, is the same "red".

Collective consciousness (ie our consciouses somehow communicate with each other without us being aware of it) isn't possible..due to the definition of consciousness (ie to be aware..)

I do think our subconsciouses communicate with other subconsciouses...body language, tone of voice etc...are evidence of that.

Define the terms.

And why is he just a "friend", but not a friend? Just curious...

Its kinda hard to give a short definition that would cover all aspects. Read my previous post and ask if you dont understand something about it or have other guestions.
 

INTP

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Interesting. I've been reading about quantum mechanics/entanglement in relation to humans and relationships. (Seems redundant to say that as of course human beings are quantum beings). There is some parallelism with the idea of a collective consciousness, though I think that is peripheral and almost a consequence rather than a centerpiece of the way things apparently work.

(I'm not deep enough into my reading to detail further how these concepts are related and may be aspects of one and the same thing. As kooky as it may sound, I've always suspected that there is such connection.)

I really doubt that brains would work with quantum mechanics any more than other things on earth. I have read quite alot about those quantum mind theories and how brains physically work(about what we know of it) and the way brains work only resembles a quantum mechanics due to its large amount of neurons and how they function with each others.

What part of the collective unconsciousness to you has something to do with quantum mechanics? This collective unconsciousness isnt something that we actively share, we just got the same building blocks because we are all humans.
 
V

violaine

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Hmm, I'm reading quite the opposite. It's along the lines of being participants and not observers and separate. Not far enough into it to discuss on the fly though.
 

INTP

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Hmm, I'm reading quite the opposite. It's along the lines of being participants and not observers. Not far enough into it to discuss on the fly though.

Then you arent reading jung or are misunderstanding him.

Jung said that collective unconscious is genetic and we all share it because its coming from stages of evolutionary development on becoming humans. So basically its an product of evolution that helped humans to develop this far and still helps/guides us towards certain directions like mothering, mating etc..
 

INTP

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I just noticed this topic is about collective CONSCIOUSNESS, not unconsciousness :D

Or did the op mean unconsciousness? Collective consciousness is bit different thing
 
V

violaine

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Then you arent reading jung or are misunderstanding him.

I'm not reading Jung. (Nor did I misunderstand Jung when I did read him.) I'm reading about new physics. I think you may have misunderstood my original post.
 

INTP

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I'm not reading Jung. (Nor did I misunderstand Jung when I did read him.) I'm reading about new physics. I think you may have misunderstood my original post.

Well you didnt say what you were talking about on previous post, so i assumed you were talking about the collective unconscious.
 
V

violaine

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My post related to the thread topic. Which you misunderstood. I got it the first time.
 

Santosha

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Hello, I have a few questions about collective consciousness for anybody who has looked into this. I have a "friend" (he's sitting on my couch talking to me about himself at this very moment, hahahahaha)! who says that 'collective consciousness' has seen new vigor in the past few years in terms of empirical grounding. Personally, I think 'collective consciousness' is a kind of useful fiction, such as a 'soul' (wherein I could say for instance, "that man has a kind soul," but I'm not really talking about some ethereal being floating near him). Collective consciousness probably refers to similar phenomena that people feel just because we all have brains that are built in pretty much the same way. I think the 'immaterial connectedness of mind' that he spouts on about is probably not something that exists.

He goes on about this P.A.R.E. institute for psi research, and specifically a man named

Dean Raden.

I think if empirical evidence were strong in these regards, parapsychology programs across the board wouldn't be getting cut, but they are. Anyway, does anyone know how legitimate this man's research is? Any other info? Thanks.

Collective unconscious. the way that I understand it, specifies something that is symbolic to many or all humans, but its origins are impersonal. For instance, according to many studies, surveys, stories, etc. it is not uncommon for a woman to have dreams of water when she become pregnant. This water may seem insignificant to her on a personal level as she doesn't live near any water or recall any significant experiencing involving water, or even think of water very much, but notices a pattern in becoming pregnant and water dreams fueled with a sense of meaning. (This is actually a pattern with many women I've known who become pregnant.) Anyhow, yes I do believe a collective unconscious exits.

I've never heard of Dean Raden. Maybe I'll google him later.

I would also not view the cutting of programs to equate any type of non-truth. Funding is often decided by little status-driven men with very specific agendas that have little concern for truth or meaning.
 

INTP

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Collective unconscious. the way that I understand it, specifies something that is symbolic to many or all humans, but its origins are impersonal. For instance, according to many studies, surveys, stories, etc. it is not uncommon for a woman to have dreams of water when she become pregnant. This water may seem insignificant to her on a personal level as she doesn't live near any water or recall any significant experiencing involving water, or even think of water very much, but notices a pattern in becoming pregnant and water dreams fueled with a sense of meaning. (This is actually a pattern with many women I've known who become pregnant.) Anyhow, yes I do believe a collective unconscious exits.

I've never heard of Dean Raden. Maybe I'll google him later.

I would also not view the cutting of programs to equate any type of non-truth. Funding is often decided by little status-driven men with very specific agendas that have little concern for truth or meaning.

Those symbols are manufactured by archetypes, structures in collective unconscious.

What comes to that water pregnant thing, pretty interesting and could see that happen. I suspect its because you were developed in womb, which is basically a chamber of water, so you unconsciously associate the water on baby. Or then you just know how baby developes in water and unconsciously associate those two together.
 
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