No, there's nothing in this newsletter about drugging someone's drink. Rather in memory of this special Valentine's Day, I will attempt to unlock one of the great mysteries of life... and it starts with my old friend Mr. Carl Jung (Pronounced Yung, for those not familiar). One of Jung's most famous works was that on the collective unconscious. Basically, the idea is as follows: Our bodies have organs, which developed over the millennia and have a sort of genetic memory as to their purpose and function. Therefore we can theorize that our brains have the same thing, that behind our thinking is the computer equivalent of a BIOS running site unseen. This BIOS is programmed based on our very evolution, written ages ago. More important, since we all more or less come from the same place, we all share this framework on which our minds are built. This is why certain symbols appear so commonly in dreams despite very different conscious or even ethnic backgrounds.

Following so far? I have a theory that I whipped up for this Valentine's: You meet someone and things just... click. We call it chemistry or love at first sight or any number of things. What is it? What triggers it? Perhaps we would find that it is an intersection of these collective unconscious. You meet someone whose unconscious wavelength is so similar to yours that your unconscious self rises as close to your conscious as it dares and you get a "feeling" that this person is important.

It isn't just love. Friendship also falls into this idea as I see it. My good friend Keith is getting married in June. We've been great friends since 6th grade. Keith is a redneck, a truck driving, gun toting, beer drinking, ex-military (Airborne Division), self proclaimed redneck. I, as you know, am a total nerd. Keith and I have almost nothing in common, yet whenever we get together, even after all these years, we still have tons of laughs and still consider each other close enough that I will be best man at this shindig in June. Perhaps on this unconscious level he's closer connected to me. Perhaps we just like having someone to represent the yin to our yang.

The heart is a mysterious vessel. I don't really pretend to understand it, but it would be nice to think that falling in love is a little deeper than a few pheromones and a common hobby. Mankind is connected through our origin: And that's something we can all share on a day where we're supposed to take a moment and enjoy the company of the ones we love. Chocolates optional.


Tell us about your love at first sight story (and maybe how / if it ended) or give an idea on the collective unconcious and love.

Words from The Fool:

Usually I write about the big debate "Why celebrate a holiday made by corporate America to boost post-Christmas sales numbers?" Well, this time I will simply answer it. It doesn't matter why this holiday came to be in the same way it doesn't matter that Jesus was likely not born on Christmas. The point is to take a day or evening to remove ourselves from the rut our lives tend to fall into and enjoy, really enjoy, the company of someone you love. An opportunity to reaffirm what you felt all those days, months, years ago and maybe for some of you lucky ones, to affirm it for the very first time. So Happy Valentine's Day! No fooling.

I'm learning about the heart in human physiology class and it has little to do with your emotions. The heart is part of the cardiovascular system who's function is to make sure blood is pumped through the body. It's your limbic system in the brain that's mainly responsible for your emotional responses.

So really, it shouldn't be hearts people give to each other but diagrams of the limbic system lol.

What's stranger is considering what on earth is that strange shape of the 'heart' that circulates around valentine's day. It doesn't look like the heart at all. *scratches head all confused*

As for the clicking: hi lust.

Collective conscious: i don't quite get what you're saying here. Are you saying that everyone is subconsciously connected with everyone else?

Love: certain chemical reactions in the body are quite lovely during this time of day isn't it? lol

Quote:


Yup, that was one of Jung's theories: We all have a personal unconscious, which is developed through our own life experiences. But, we also have a shared, collective unconscious, which is developed across the species an is inherited from one generation to the next. So, the source of the collective unconscious could be traced back to wherever we first came from.

Ever been with a friend, say something, and they say, "omg, I was just thinking that!", or you are thinking of a song and then it immediately comes on the radio? Could just be coincidence, but Jung theorized that it was more.

Ever play Final Fantasy 9? There was a crystal at the end of the game that was the root of everyone's thoughts and being: very Jungian.

Naw, never played FFIX.

Gotta say I'm skeptical such a thing exist purely because it sounds like its based on pseudoscience than testing-testing-testing science. Definitely sounds like something that wouldn't make it through rigorous testing.

Well, yeah, it is just a theory and can't really be tested. At the moment, the Theory of Relativity can't really be tested either.

But they're both meant to expand your mind and make you wonder if there is more to our universe and more to our selves than what we can just see in front of us.

naw, scientific theories are hypotheses that have a lot of evidence to back it up. Think about evolution theory. One of my science professors was really anal bout word (mis)usage lol. Unfortunately, everyone misuses it to mean 'a guess' or an 'educated guess'. pet peeve of mine now.

As is, it sounds more like a hypothesis/idea than a theory.

A bit like the flying spagetti monster has noodle-y appendages that touches everything. Cthulu meet spagetti.

Though if there's a collective conscious, perhaps that explains why I'm such a gutter brain all the time. Not getting any 'feminine' inputs, just the 'masculine' ones haha.

Well, psychology as a whole falls into pseudo-science space because it is so difficult to test. Worse, in the case of the collective unconscious, because it is not something we are outwardly aware of it's even more difficult to test.

That isn't to say it doesn't have logic behind it. If you pick up a Jung book on the subject you'll see a lot of case studies, examples, and previously held theories involving the human psyche.

That also doesn't mean I am a true believer in collective unconscious; but my idea above is from the standpoint of Jung being correct.

On that note it is likely that the theory of relativity is also wrong, as is the theory of gravity, despite these being so cemented into our lives. As we get more data on the behavior of subatomic particles all these "laws" we created start to bend and break. So it shouldn't come as a shock to us that Jung would be wrong or partially wrong.

Anyway, the very idea you can't disprove it and can find reasons to support it means there's likely something going on. Collective unconscious or correlative response or something more akin to chaos theory. Our dreams are the last sacred place of mystery, perhaps the wisest thing humanity could ever do would be to leave it that way.

@thefool: thinking on it further [when I'm actually awake. last post was when I was very sleep deprived. Near 24-26 hours without sleep], i'm having more difficulty with the concept of collective conscious because according to your post it apparently only developed for the last 1000 years, or when the body developed organs.

Modern homo sapiens have been around for a minimum of 10000 years. The develop of organs have been around for even longer, millions of years, possibly hundreds.

Why is 1000 years ago the magical year for collective consciousness beginning?

adding argoyle's post about collective conscious being species specific makes it even more confusing.

One definition [not going to get into the genetic definition] of species is that the 2 animals in question cannot reproduce and produce fertile offspring. Hence why lions and tigers are different species because they produce sterile offspring.

Generally since most of us aren't bacteria-like, the process is going to a long time and is ~gradual.

So I'm wondering when this collective consciousness is suppose to say "Hey! this is a different species! time to split up now and be unique to this one species only!"

So in a nutshell:
collective consciousness = organ memory, humans as a species, 1000 years

biology confusion =
organs been around for a very long time, certainly longer than 1000 years.
humans have been around for a long time, also longer than 1000 years.
why is it species specific and how would that develop.

No more posting while you're sleepy

I said over the millennia, not over "A" millennium.

It's quite possible that other creatures have this same collective unconscious; they may even be more in tune with it than our over thought instinct-devolved processes are. Perhaps it holds the secrets to the ever classic "Why do birds on a telephone wire fly away at the exact same time?" mystery.

Anyway, so it isn't a 1,000 year thing, that is just your sleep deprivation taking its toll. Sadly I am not an expert on Jung or the human psyche, so take what I say with a bit of leeway as to the science behind it all. The goal here was to think creatively and talk about love!

No love stories? Well I will tell my latest love story:

My current girlfriend and I met while I and a female friend were watching Football in the common area of our apartment complex (where we both live.) We talked briefly during some commercials, she said she was just starting school, was from Alaska (LOL), ect. ect. Small talk. She looks very young, so I assumed she was 18 and therefore off limits.

She texted her sister when she ran into me again at the 7-11 down the road "Hey, I saw that cute guy I was telling you about." (There's no accounting for taste).

It was a few weeks later that our apartment maintence guy was leaving, so they threw him a going away party. She was there, as was I, and we got to talking about literature, science, all those random things I force on you all via these newsletters. Then she grabs a beer and I say "Hey I am all for that, but the apartment manager is watching you." She replies "And?" "Well, aren't you underage?" I ask. "No, I am 25." ... DOH.

So I asked her out

There's my latest "love story" - Sheesh I thought you guys would be more forthcoming with cute stories and less questions concerning the crazy Jung theories!

PS: Get some sleep!

Sleep is such a hard mistress to please. I don't do enough work, She withholds her gifts. I do too much work, She thinks I can work even harder. I do just enough, She gives the 'gift' of insomnia. Such is the workings of Mistress Sleep.

Point taken about the millenia. Though I wonder when does such a consciousness is suppose to start because life took a very long time to develop. For example, you talked about organ memory. however for a very very long time, the only lifeforms on earth were prokaryotes and very simple eukaryotes (who are probably prokaryotes 'absorbing' each other). No organs for a long time.

As for love stories: I only of love stories in fanfic and movies.

Though I do know two couples. Not sure how they met but they are very cute together.

Couple 1:
Person "L" is together with person "E". E always seems very serious and has a natural frowny face. L is very perky and fun. Both are very nice.

Couple 2:
Person "P" is together with person "R". They are always teasing each other. P seems a bit louder and 'out there'. R seems quieter. Both are nice and watching them is like watching a RomCom. Fun stuff.

Found this cute geek story:

(I was at work and I saw two girls from my college I knew as acquaintances, but not as much more than that. I had a crush on one of them as she was really pretty and seemed nice for the most part. I watched as she and her friend approached the register.)

My Crush: “No, you’re wrong! I’m telling you, he never said that!”

(I assumed they were gossiping about something until I listened a little more to the conversation.)

Her Friend: “No, he did! He totally did! We watched it last night, stupid!”

My Crush: “Obi-Wan never says, ‘I love you, Anakin’. The line is ‘You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you!’.”

Her Friend: “No!”

My Crush: *turns to me* “Oh hey [my name]! What’s up?”

Me: “Not much. I’m good. And you’re right; Obi-Wan’s line was ‘You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you’.”

My Crush: “Oh, my God, thank you!” *turns to her friend* “And you call yourself a Star Wars fan.”

(Her friend scowled, but they paid and said goodbye. I watched as they got to the automatic doors. Her friend pretended to use ‘The Force’ on them. Suddenly, my crush jumped in front of her.)

My Crush: “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!”

(I walked over and asked her out. We got married a month ago.)


Awwwww.

@ktc: not as cute as this one :-

In a biology lab years ago at the University of Central Florida, the teacher demonstrated how an electrocardiogram works. He tried it out on a sophomore – a fellow student I had a crush on – and asked him to sit, walk and run in place, to show the changes on the heart rate.

Having observed that I had a romantic interest in his “guinea pig”, the teacher instructed me to whisper something in the young man’s ear that would make his heart race.

I nervously approached him and softly said, “I love you. Will you marry me?”

He turned to me excitedly, with the EKG scribbling rapidly, and replied, “You can bet on it!”

We went on a date that night, got married four years later, and now have two kids.


^ And this incident actually, truly, in reality happened xD Someone wrote about it in a magazine I happen to come across.

Bahahaha. Nice going with the EKG. I wonder how high it jumped. XD

Teacher being teh matchmaker = lol!

I have a true story similar to that one... and I know its true because it happened to me

I met this girl, super hot, a bit older, in acting for non-majors my sophomore year at University of Florida. We'll call her V. We sat near eachother and had light conversation, but through a random draw I ended up performing a two person production with her, a scene from Private Lives - which if you don't know, is about love, marriage, lost love, and betrayal. Anyway, it was a romantic scene and true enough I followed through and we went on a few dates for real also. Nothing serious, nothing came of it (No 2 kids and a dog) ... but it doesn't end here.

I was late to my first day of accounting class, so I sat at the nearest seat I could find so I didn't look like an idiot wandering around; In the front row in fact.

A few minutes later in walks the teacher and it is none other than V. She began her pre-arranged introduction and about a paragraph into it she spots me staring at her from the front row with a smile was wide as the nile. She stopped mid sentence, just dead stopped, and then forgot what she was saying. The look on her face was priceless.

I got a C in that class.

lol at the C!

were you too busy making oogly eyes at her or something? XD

@thefool: A C’s what you get for crushing on a teacher. xD

Btw, is the University of CF some kind of matchmaking chamber or something? O.o

University of CF is different from University of F One is in Gainesville and the other is near Orlando.

Bulls and Gators respectively... I think CF is the bulls anyway...

Accounting was really hard guys! And she was SOOOoooo HOT.... And... I'm not crushing on a teacher ... if you do it before she's your teacher... like... uh... Leave me alone Im still heartbroken... about that C... It was my lowest grade I got in college.

-Fool

@thefool:
you were so crushing on your teacher. ;P

As for the C: haha XD

@thefool-
Guess she didn't like you back The C is so lols