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Conference hydra::dejavu

Title:Psychic Phenomena
Notice:Please read note 1.0-1.* before writing
Moderator:JARETH::PAINTER
Created:Wed Jan 22 1986
Last Modified:Tue May 27 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2143
Total number of notes:41773

1921.0. "Evidence of a Collective Unconscious?" by ELESYS::JASNIEWSKI (Why not ask why?) Wed Mar 02 1994 13:47

    
    	Has anyone seen, however strange, evidence of a "collective
    unconscious" in themselves or other beings?
    
    	Just the other night, my dog, a doberman, started barking in a
    defensive manner when a doorbell on a TV show chimed. We've owned this
    dog ever since he was a puppy and there are no doorbells that chime
    in our house!
    
    	I asked my wife "How the heck does he know that sound is a
    doorbell and associate that there's someone outside? *We* dont have a 
    doorbell that sounds anything like that!"
    
    	She said: "He must get it from his 'collective unconscious'" 
    
    	Share your stories of seeing evidence of a collective unconsious
    here.
    
    	Joe
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
1921.1Yes, I believe in it....but first, some psychological explanations.........BOSDS1::CONNORThu Mar 03 1994 15:1232
I do believe in the the collective unconscious...linking all living things...
together.  Although I don't have alot of "book knowledge" in this area, my 
experiences have convinced me of this "non-verbal communication" that occurs 
constantly....and that we all have the ability to tap into it. Unfortunately,
with the constant "busyness" and preoccupation with productivity and "doing"
all the time ...that the mainstream of our society seems to have, it makes it 
somewhat challenging for the interested to make time to just "be" and experience
this "collective unconscious."

Regarding your dog however, there could be a few different reasons for why he
responded to this chime.....

....possibly just the sound of an unknown stimulus frightened him and his 
natural defense mechanism kicked in...so he barked.

.... or maybe he was exposed to the sound of a type of "bell" as a newborn pup,
could have been a kitchen timer or a clock or a door bell.....a great amount of 
behavioral conditioning begins in the womb and in the first few months after
birth.

. ...or maybe this sound-response was passed down to him genetically...some 
pretty incredibly studies have been done on specific species in nature that 
have shown how behaviors just exist within a species from the time of birth 
(behaviors that can not be explained through the ordinary learned, conditioned-
response explanation). Perhaps, over the years as humans have used various types
of whistles and bells to train dogs, this sound has been genetically ingrained
in the mind of the dog and therefore the response (barking) is elicited. 

Lastly, maybe it was his collective unconscious....although I'd tend to believe
one of these other explanations first.

Heather C.
1921.2pointersDWOVAX::STARKTodd I. StarkThu Mar 03 1994 16:058
    
    I forget the author, but I read a very interesting book called
    "The Soul of the White Ant" last year overlapping this idea.
    
    The "hundredth monkey" is often cited with respect to the
    collective unconscious.  We had a past discussion around this
    in note 1869.*
    							todd
1921.3Marais (?)DWOVAX::STARKTodd I. StarkFri Mar 11 1994 15:488
    re: .2,
    	I believe I may have remembered the name of the author of
    	the Soul of the White Ant book as Eugene Marais, but I 
    	can't seem to find it to verify.  I guess since I got
    	lost in my own home in the attempt, maybe I have too many
    	books.  ;-)
    
    						todd