Jim, I wrote a book called "The Way," which attempted to map the terrain of contemporary spirituality. I, too, wrote a chapter on Consciousness, and that chapter alone took me a year to write.
I wrote about what you call "Collective Brains" because I became fascinated by "mind beyond brain," which is sometimes described as the akashic record, the collective unconscious, the implicate order, or the sacred archive.
Have you ever read Julian Jaynes? He has a fascinating theory about the convergence of consciousness, culture, and language. He described how our gods became more remote as our self-awareness became more immediate. We walked with gods in the garden, then we consulted gods through oracles, then we read about gods in books, then we almost completely lost contact with gods.
Jim, I wrote a book called "The Way," which attempted to map the terrain of contemporary spirituality. I, too, wrote a chapter on Consciousness, and that chapter alone took me a year to write.
I wrote about what you call "Collective Brains" because I became fascinated by "mind beyond brain," which is sometimes described as the akashic record, the collective unconscious, the implicate order, or the sacred archive.
Have you ever read Julian Jaynes? He has a fascinating theory about the convergence of consciousness, culture, and language. He described how our gods became more remote as our self-awareness became more immediate. We walked with gods in the garden, then we consulted gods through oracles, then we read about gods in books, then we almost completely lost contact with gods.
Interesting stuff.