There is a lot about our consciousness that we do not yet understand. Remaining open to the reasonable unknown is a vital aspect of philosophy, of rationality, and in general of our intellectual honesty and health. Skepticism is necessary and very important, but too often philosophers give in to a skepticism that is overly strong, unfounded and used only as a kind of psychological weapon against themselves for purposes such as ego-boosting, convenient attacks against perceived enemies, mental apathy, or in service to an addition to cynicism all too common today. Doubt, which was first the birthplace of philosophy and reason, has become the very antithesis and grave of these.
Here are some examples of where and why we can remain open-minded to the reasonable unknown when it comes to consciousness and causality. In fact there are no philosophical or rational reasons to discount these sort of things, and we can even formulate rational explanations for how such things may work. Reason must invoke its relationship to its own spheres of possibility and as-yet unknown, in conjunction with its developed and properly skeptical reason, or else these spheres merely implicitly over-determine reason’s action in ways that remain unknown to us.
[size=150]1. Global Consciousness Project[/size]
http://noosphere.princeton.edu
Quantum randomness generators are placed around the world and monitored for their output. It has been noticed that on certain times, days or events which have especially global human significance these numbers display less random patterns.
“When human consciousness becomes coherent, the behavior of random systems may change. Random number generators (RNGs) based on quantum tunneling produce completely unpredictable sequences of zeroes and ones. But when a great event synchronizes the feelings of millions of people, our network of RNGs becomes subtly structured. We calculate one in a trillion odds that the effect is due to chance. The evidence suggests an emerging noosphere or the unifying field of consciousness described by sages in all cultures.”
Note that the spike begins just before the actual 9/11 attacks take place.
[size=150]2. Snowflake formation[/size]
http://www.masaru-emoto.net/english/water-crystal.html
http://www.highexistence.com/water-experiment/
The crystallization of water into fractal snowflakes has displayed responsiveness to things such as human emotion, intention, prayer, pollutants in the water, and even simple words taped to the container of water.
[size=150]3. Plant growth and music[/size]
http://www.ijesd.org/papers/522-CD0162.pdf
There are multiple studies that have shown different kinds of music will affect plant growth. The above study demonstrates how four different kinds of music, along with silence as a control group, affect plant growth in clear ways.
“It is clear that sound and music has a significant impact on
the growth and germination of Rosa chinensis. Whether the
impact is stimulating or detrimental depends on the type of
music being player. It can also be stated that Vedic chants and
Indian classical music are ideal choices while Rock music
creates a havoc thereby preventing the plants from growing
to their fullest. Since the shoot length, internode length,
number and diameter of the flowers increase when subjected
to these types of music, it could be applied in nurseries and
farms to enhance the growth of the plants resulting in a better
yield.”
[size=150]4. The “Hundredth Monkey” factor[/size]
http://www.infinitebeing.com/0507/monkeys.htm
This one has since received a lot of attention in terms of those wanting to discredit it. The original claim of the research was that monkeys on other islands with no contact to the observed group had similar instances of learning the new skill of washing the sandy potatoes in water, after the test group had learned this skill largely as a whole. The new skill starts with the young monkeys until it eventually permeates the whole group, which takes time due to the resistance/inability of the older monkeys to learn the new skill.
"In 1952, on the island of Koshima scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkeys liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant.
An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers, too.
This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists.
Between 1952 and 1958, all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable.
Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.
Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes — the exact number is not known.
Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima Island who had learned to wash their sweet potatoes.
Let’s further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth monkey learned to wash potatoes.
THEN IT HAPPENED!
By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was washing sweet potatoes before eating them.
The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow created an ideological breakthrough!
But notice.
A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet potatoes then jumped over the sea —
Colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of monkeys at Takasakiyama began washing their sweet potatoes."
[size=150]5. Morphogenetic fields/epigenetics[/size]
http://www.sheldrake.org/about-rupert-sheldrake/blog/rat-learning-and-morphic-resonance
"I suggest that morphogenetic fields work by imposing patterns on otherwise random or indeterminate patterns of activity. For example they cause microtubules to crystallize in one part of the cell rather than another, even though the subunits from which they are made are present throughout the cell.
Morphogenetic fields are not fixed forever, but evolve. The fields of Afghan hounds and poodles have become different from those of their common ancestors, wolves. How are these fields inherited? I propose that that they are transmitted from past members of the species through a kind of non-local resonance, called morphic resonance.
The fields organizing the activity of the nervous system are likewise inherited through morphic resonance, conveying a collective, instinctive memory. Each individual both draws upon and contributes to the collective memory of the species. This means that new patterns of behaviour can spread more rapidly than would otherwise be possible. For example, if rats of a particular breed learn a new trick in Harvard, then rats of that breed should be able to learn the same trick faster all over the world, say in Edinburgh and Melbourne. There is already evidence from laboratory experiments (discussed in A NEW SCIENCE OF LIFE) that this actually happens.
The resonance of a brain with its own past states also helps to explain the memories of individual animals and humans. There is no need for all memories to be “stored” inside the brain. "
In fact, just the other day there was a story I heard in which a scientist was discussing recent research that pointed to epigenetics, in so far as how information in the DNA stand of gametes can be changed based on our behaviors and experiences during our lifetimes.
[size=150]6. “Psychic connections”[/size]
Research studies posted in peer-reviewed journals:
http://www.deanradin.com/evidence/Wiseman1997.pdf
http://www.deanradin.com/evidence/Eisenberg1979.pdf
http://deanradin.com/evidence/Duane1965.pdf
http://deanradin.com/evidence/Grinberg1994.pdf
"
Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) correlations between human brains are studied to verify i f
the brain has a macroscopic quantum component. Pairs of subjects were allowed to interact
and were then separated inside semisilent Faraday chambers 14.5 m apart when their EEG
activity was registered. Only one subject of each pair was stimulated by lOO flashes. When
the stimulated subject showed distinct evoked potentials, the nonstimulated subject showed
“transferred potentials” similar to those evoked in the stimulated subject. Control subjects
showed no such transferred potentials. The transferred potentials demonstrate brain-to-brain
nonlocal EPR correlation between brains, supporting the brain’s quantum nature at the
macrolevel."
And,
"When interaction was deemed successful (in about one in four
cases the subjects were able to attain and maintain direct
communication while being apart) and when Subject A’s average
showed a distinct evoked potential (DEP), we found potentials
of similar morphology in Subject B. These last we called
transferred potentials, examples of which are shown in Figs. 1
and 2 for the 02 derivation. The 100-sample average of EEG
activity in both subjects (A and B) shows a remarkable similarity.
It is worth noting that in all our figures, the averages were
calculated out of 100 segments with no arbitrary omissions.
In Fig. 1, the levels of high statistical correlation between
0.700 and 0.929 occurred in the first 132/~s. This corresponds
to a statistical significance at a level where the probability of
chance occurrence is less that 0.009 (p < 0.009). In Fig. 2,
correlation levels were obtained with p < 0.005 between 0 and
73 ~ts. The correlation indexes between the evoked and transferred
potentials fluctuated between 0.62 and 0.92.
In Figs. 3, 4, and 5 it can be noted that without interaction,
in the absence of a DEP, and without stimulus, respectively, no
clear potential signals were found in Subject B, and no statistically
significant value for the correlation was obtained either.
4. DISCUSSION
Our results indicate that after a meditative interaction between
two human beings in which both subjects are instructed to
maintain direct communication (i.e., to feel each other’s
presence even at a distance), in about one in four cases when
one of the subjects is stimulated in such a way that his/her brain
responds clearly (with a distinct evoked potential), the brain of
the nonstimulated subject also reacts and shows a transferred
potential of a similar morphology. The transferred potentials
never occur when the subjects do not interact, when the evoked
potential is unclear, or when a signal (flash) is not applied.
The statistical analysis shows that the transferred potential is
obtained from the moment of stimulation to about 132/~s. The
striking similarity between the transferred and evoked potentials
and the total absence of transferred potentials in the control
experiments leaves no room for doubt about the existence of an
unusual phenomenon, namely, propagation of influence without
local signals. "
[size=150]7. Organ transplants and memory/personality transference [/size]
“Case 2: a foundry worker develops a taste for classical music: A 47 year-old white male foundry worker, who received the heart of a 17 year-old black male student, discovered after the operation that he had developed a fascination for classical music. He reasoned that since his donor would have preferred ‘rap’ music, his newfound love for classical music could not possibly have anything to do with his new heart. As it turned out, the donor actually loved classical music, and died “hugging his violin case” on the way to his violin class (2).”
And,
"In 1994, Dr Armour introduced the concept of a functional ‘heart brain (9).’ His analysis revealed that the heart has an intrinsic nervous system of its own, containing around 40,000 neurons called sensory neurites. The heart acts independently of the brain, sending and receiving meaningful messages of its own through the autonomic nervous system. It is possible that this newly discovered centre of intelligence is responsible for the memory transfer.
Neuropeptide theory: Pharmacologist Candace Pert proposed that neuropeptides which are stored in every cell act as a sort of biochemical correlate of emotion. It was previously thought that emotions resided in the limbic system in the brain. According to Pert, neuropeptides are protein-like messenger molecules released by the brain neurons which flow through the body communicating among the nervous, immune, endocrine, muscle, and skeletal systems via blood, interstitial fluids and the central nervous system, which are all body fluids. At present, about 100 different peptides are known to be released by various populations of neurons in the mammalian brain. Neuropeptides have also been found in the heart, which could explain some forms of cellular memories reported by heart transplant recipients (10).
Magnetic field theory: Cells in the heart have a unique magnetic property and respond to and interact with magnetic fields. There may be an as yet undiscovered electro-magnetic connection between the brain and heart expressed in a form of energy that contains some level of cellular memory. "