We had lots and lots of long discussions and arguments about this here about eight years ago. I wasn't on the site before that, but my impression is that there was even more active shared dreaming activity connected to this site prior to that, but it tended to have a manipulative, personality cult kind of twist to it, and was unhealthy for many of the people involved.
I think that there are no theories about how it is possible that make any sense. Some psychologist researchers at Berkeley suggested it works through electromagnetic fields, but I think that any physicist would consider this idea ridiculous. One poster on this site suggested that premonitions work through temporal entanglement, and if that's true, then telepathy would have to work in the same kind of way. Maybe that idea is ridiculous too, but its less obvious because we understand quantum theory less well than electromagnetics? Forming a 'scientific theory' about something like this requires being able to control it well enough to perform precise experiments, and shared dreaming does not lend itself to that.
Proving that it exists would be vastly easier than coming up with a plausible description of how it works. Working on that would be career suicide for a number of reasons though. I also think that the bad effects of proving it would likely outweigh the benefits. I don't think there's a risk of 'solving' it in the sense of determining a mechanism, I don't think that's remotely within reach.
Being aware of the bad results that would follow from proving it don't make me stop wanting to prove it, they just make me not want to push very hard. I guess it will happen when it is time, more like a flower opening and less like taking a crowbar to one's third eye.
As a related side topic, I've been interested in finding some updated metaphors for 'spiritual' topics in general, since New Age ideas and lingo are mostly based on misapplications of 19th century science, and I find them to be grossly lacking. Maybe this goal isn't very important either though.
I think that telepathy is a natural effect of empathy. I don't think we're desperately in need with ideological help with that. Everyone already knows how to do it, and ideologically motivated 'love' is screwed up anyway. I'm also skeptical of the idea that empathy is an unmitigated good. I don't think that it is. Too much empathy creates a lot of problems that we are unable to resolve, at least in the near term. That's part of why people shut themselves off. Selfishness and greed are big reasons for a lack of empathy, but they're not the only reasons. And if people were able and willing to give up the greed, that part of the problem solves itself. If they're not willing to give it up, then having more conscious power to bully and manipulate other people would not be a good thing.
|
|
Bookmarks