Alex S:
> Trygve's comment on "a planetary common consciousness" is
> thought-provoking. I'd be interested in learning what you, Fuzzy (and
> other readers), think of this idea.
> Me? I reckon it's an idea worth pursuing.

Thanks, I'd be glad to elaborate a bit.

Mainly it's based on the simple question 'How can we know for certain that we are the highest order of embodied being?' Take a look around and see how all of Earth's organic life-forms, geological and metrological events are in some way interconnected. (Lovelock's Gaia theory). It's no stretch of the imagination to view it as one organism. At least that's how I see it.

Consciousness is not an exclusive human trait. We clearly observe it in our fellow animals, and numerous scientific experiments have demonstrated that plants seem to communicate in some manner (One plant reacting if a nearby plant is hurt). Could it then be that our planet, given that we see it as an organism also have a sort of 'collected self-awareness' rather than just only trillions of completely separate more or less aware beings.

Being a bit 'chauvinistic' :-) I like to think of the humans as playing a special role here, being the organic inhabitants, or 'body cells', that produces the most high frequency form of consciousness. From there springs my notion of us all being connected in a neural network. Young as we are seen from an evolutionary viewpoint it might be that the job of waking the planet to self-awareness has only just started. (Electronic communication might be a step?)

Interestingly enough it looks like our forefathers all focused their religious practice towards worship of nature or the heavenly bodies, Mother Earth in particular, if we are to believe the archeological interpretations of the earliest findings (20k+ years). Could it be that the evolvement and strengthening of the analytical layers of consciousness for a period has made us more narcissistic? Suddenly the gods became embodiments of ourselves.

I think a Common Consciousness model can encompass many of the phenomena we as of today have no scientific terms for; e.g. ghosts (condensed imprints), prayers (synchronized consciousness energy), telepathy (link between closely related nodes), simultaneous scientific discoveries (overflow), and of course reincarnation (access to stored imprints).

I aim not to offend practitioners and believers in more traditional wisdom, I only seek to apply the last couple of millennia's knowledge to the classic metaphysics of man.