I may have blogged about this idea once before, I don't remember. But the dream I just woke from illustrates the phenomenon too clearly to pass up a chance to document it.
The idea is that the mind somehow has the ability to create and animate distinct complex and individually motivated characters that can act and think for themselves. The following methinks clearly illustrates this:
I dreamed I was at an academic social function. Rather than a greeting line at the entrance there was a gauntlet of distinguished college officials that had to be passed through like a “farewell line”. I had to leave early for some reason and after moving through the farewell line nodding to and shaking hands with the men and women who I did and didn't know, the last professor in the line, who recognized me as one of his better students, asked me if I liked to watch movies as I shook his hand to say good-bye.
I replied that I did like movies, and he then indicated that he had some movies that I might be interested in. My mind at the time was on the reason that I was leaving early (my father, who was also at the function, asked me to come with him because he had something important to show me – I never found out what it was in the dream). So the professor's offer was a mere distraction that I countered politely by telling him I would be interested and I would stop by his office after classes started. Then I moved away from him and toward the exit where my father was waiting outside. As I moved away, by way of further expressing my interest in the professor's movies, I commented, “I hope they have lots of action in them”.
Here's where it becomes clear that the professor was acting and thinking completely independently from me (or rather, the “me” I seemed to be in the dream). He said, “Well, actually, they are more of the information sort of movies”.
I considered this, and realized that the professor had currently assumed that I would be interested in such “movies” (I love documentaries). So I said, “Great! I'll e-mail you!” To which he replied, “Good, just remember that you only have until midnight”.
I at first did not understand what he meant. I thought he was making a personal offer to share some “movies” that he thought I'd find interesting. Then I realized that when he said “midnight”, he was refering to the school's registration deadline, which meant that the “information” movies he was refering to must be part of a new course he was offering that semester, and he was pitching me the class!
He obviously did not know that I was no longer a student (in the dream I somehow still realized that I had abandoned college for my “rampage against society” and would be locked up the rest of my life, even though I was not locked up in the dream – a dream think thing).
This dream interaction demonstrates completely independent and complex, even manipulative, thinking on the part of the professor. He behaved and spoke in ways that indicate an ulterior motive; hense independent will and consciousness!
This raises some important questions. If my mind (presuming that dreams are exclusively the product of an isolated brain) has the ability to represent complex thinking and independent motives in my dreams, then why couldn't that ability be exploited unconsciously while I am awake. And in fact, through mental focusing exercises (i.e. meditation) I have determined that my unconscious mind is in fact made up an entire community of these independently thinking, and independently conscious entities, even while I am fully awake! Though I typically do not become directly aware of them unless I am asleep (or drifting ott to, or on from, sleep).
So my brain not only can and does think on its own regardless of my conscious consent, but it must do so in order to function (for a less phylosophical and more scientific discussion of this phenomenon read the book Society of Mind by Marvin Minsky). And if this is true (and I absolutely believe that it is) then the whole idea of independent free will needs to be reconsidered.
I am made up of independent entities that somehow function together to form “me”. And since that is demonstratably true, then why might not the so-called individuals of human society really be the independent entities that make up the unconscious mind of Gaia (the World)?
This would explain a lot, and gives us a new way of thinking about ourselves as not so independent after all! For example, wouldn't we, as parts of a larger mind, necessarily reflect and ultimately conform to the purposes and experiences of the greater mind? Was the last century nothing more than literally a Gaiaian nightmare? If so, then how can we wake her (Gaia) up? Or will she “wake up” on her own? Or is she already awake?
These are the kinds of questions that I think about all the time. So now you know.
P.S.: I should address one major criticism of my “mind of Society” idea. Someone might think that there is a huge difference between how the “ entities” in our mind interact (biologically) and how people interact in human society (physically). And in fact there is a “huge difference”, but primarily in scale alone, but not methodology. Let me explain:
We know that ultimately our brain is made up of billions of individual cells called neurons. Neurons ultimately communicate with each other not by direct contact, but by chemical signals (neurotransmitters) that are sent and received from one neuron to the next across tiny but distinct spaces that seperate the neurons (synaptic gaps).
And we know that the ability of our neurons to communicate with each other is highly dependent upon the chemical environment of the brain, which directly effects the chemical signalling process.
So our mind, ultimately, is in fact made up of billions of individual neuronic “entities” that somehow form conscious thought (but I would argue, not consciousness itself) and function (i.e. by having sensual experiences) by merely communicating with each other via chemical signals that also depend on the environment in which they are sent.
This is exactly, sans scale, how people communicate as well!The only difference is that the synaptic gaps and environment is extended out into the World.
For example, the neurons in my brain right this moment are interacting indirectly with the neurons of your brain. The added step of having the chemical messages translated to physical signals (in this case light, which is what your neurons are responding to as you read), is no more than an extension of the chemical signalling process in our brains.
So if our neurons can form a “mind” for us through indirect communication within our brain, then why shouldn't our brains be able to somehow form an even greater mind via the extended indirect communication throughout the world? There is no reason why not presently known to science. And if such a Gaia-Mind does exist, we could never interact with her directly... or could we? Or, even, are we already and just don't realize it? Who are “we” anyway? Are “we” Gaia? Why not? No, I mean really think about it; why not?
