Dear Friends,
It seems to me, it might be wise to break up Jung’s “collective unconscious,” into the species unconscious, animal unconscious and the greater unconscious. Traditionally, we think of the collective unconscious as being a species unconscious, but what of it extends much deeper than that? If we accept the research of Rupert Sheldrake, then we have to consider such possibilities. Whether or not we accept his conclusions. What if there were some deeper way humans, animals and even all life itself communicated? The implications are astounding. One of which is intelligent design… by the species itself. Pandas for example. Another is that we are all connected to everything, as the shaman, seers and priests say. If true, it implicates us in a scheme that is far greater than anything we can conceive of.
There is anecdotal evidence that ideas sweep the world at the same time, regardless of place, culture and even communication. An early example would be Mencius’ Golden Mean and Aristotle’s Golden Mean. They are amazingly similar, even when translated into English, although they came from opposite sides of the planet, from different cultures and peoples, at roughly the same time… ~350BC. That is but one of numerous examples in the annuls of human history. Which implies, to anyone with an open mind, that there is indeed some connection between people. To name it, one could call it collective unconscious, as Jung did. To produce such examples though, it must be someway contemporary, making that connection less likely to be some form of instinct.
Unless it is a form of instinct. A form that evolves across people, cultures and place. Implying again, that it is not local, cultural or race related, but a species wide phenomenon. However, Rupert Sheldrake has cited some experiments that claim, if a rat is taught a maze… and the learning curve is plotted. Subsequent rats of the same species will learn that maze faster. Not a generation later, but in real time, apparently disqualifying instinct. He further asserts that a rat of the same species will learn the maze faster even on the other side of the planet. He even went on that rats of different types will learn it faster albeit at a diminished rate. Further implying that there is a connection across species. (Within rats anyway). I should think this would be a rich field of research, if our philosophy allowed it.
What is the likelihood, that all members of a species are psychically connected, but species are not interconnected in the same way? I would say if the one is true, the other is probably true as well. Then, if species are interconnected, wouldn’t that add up to a greater unconscious? There is ample evidence that people of the same family, even when distant, know when a loved one is in distress. Most families have such lore. This suggests the closer we are, in spirit, the more powerful the interconnection, and the further we are apart, the weaker the interconnection. My beloved dogs were shot once, because they ran off and strayed onto a psychopath’s land. That day I knew something bad had happened. I felt it in my heart. Then Lily showed up with a bullet in her… That was not a species but a spirit connection.
If there is such a thing as a collective unconscious, species unconscious and greater unconscious, I would think it would behoove us to discover the mechanism for it. Maybe such knowledge is outside the sphere of our ability but perhaps not. When man first considered how to understand the natural world, he was dismayed at the complexity, opaqueness and subtlety, as we are the complexity, subtlety and mystery of consciousness, unconscious and waking… let alone a collective or greater unconscious. Nevertheless, our fortunes advanced along with our understanding of the natural world, imagine how much our fortunes would advance, if we started to understand the “supernatural” world. The trouble is, we don’t know, what we don’t know, so how our lives would improve, is unknowable. Until we learn.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
