In terms of how intuition and dreams work, we can use synchronicity theory to further our understanding of how we relate to the awareness that falls outside of ourselves. By incorporating Jung’s ideas, we can understand that certain things are accessible by anyone, because we all share the same collective unconscious. Since the definition of the unconscious mind, proposed by Sigmund Freud, is the portion of our awareness that we cannot access, this suggests that somehow, we are able to break past the barrier in our own mind to access this information. This is where the question of consciousness enters back in. Without the ability to change our consciousness, is it possible to actually entertain the ideas of the unconscious mind? Or, do more unexplainable phenomena give credence to the idea that consciousness can change, and even perceive things which are beyond the self?
Telepathy: Can Two Consciousnesses Communicate Directly?
In the realm of unexplainable paranormal events, few ranks higher on the list of freaky occurrences than telepathy. Telepathy refers to the experience of communication between two people through thoughts or mental pictures, exclusively. Meaning, that you can essentially read the other person’s mind, or vice versa
Being connected via Jung’s collective unconscious makes this conceptually possible. However, many anecdotal experiences suggest that telepathy is a naturally occurring phenomena, if only in rare cases. A more common experience that many people share, are texting or calling someone just as they were thinking about the caller. You may have been thinking about someone you haven’t spoken to, or even thought about in a long time, and the following day you run into them at the grocery store. While this isn’t backed by science, it is a common experience, and scientists are looking to find out just how far they can push this notion.
Scientists are working hard to engineer telepathy via computer conduits that let study participants speak to people in other countries using solely the power of their brains. The research is geared towards people with severe limitations who can’t speak, and test trials have been successful.[i] This landmark study has made it possible for participants to not rely on the power of their voices to convey thoughts and even words through direct brain-to-brain communication. This proves the concept is possible, via a technological intermediary. Much like how a dream enters your brain and comes and goes, this type of communication is very rapid, and takes no effort on the part of the recipient.
While it may sound like the pipe-dream of science fiction enthusiasts, the simple fact that telepathy is worth the investment of leading researchers, means that perhaps our ability to know more than just our own thoughts and feelings has some validity. The fact that thoughts and ideas may be “shared” in a collective unconscious, or other similar type of ethereal field, has also been promoted by science. Countless times throughout history, breakthroughs in technological discovery or inventions have occurred by similar people, all at the same time. While it would be logical to assume that multiple people are working on theories at the same time from around the globe, it seems highly impractical that repeatedly, innovators, inventors, and theorists would finish similar feats within months, weeks, or even days of each other. This is called “multiple discovery” theory and it has happened numerous times throughout history. The most famous example being when both Newton and Leibniz found Calculus about the same time. Similarly, Einstein’s theories were also discovered by multiple scientists just years later.[ii]