Thoughts In The Air
If something is in the air, you feel that it is happening or about to happen. The 'feel' part here is interesting as it suggests that somehow one is able to perceive something extra (extra-sensory?). Even in day to day life, thoughts (& events) are connected and it often is the case that one leads to another in completely observable fashion. The whole world seems to conspire then and bring out the prevalent thoughts. There is a feeling of a “global mind” that is spawned by the interconnections of many individual minds, popularly called Global Consciousness or World Consciousness.
World consciousness is not a new concept and even has its place in many cultures. Here is a quote by Swami Vivekananda from one his talks -
"We are the spider in his huge web, who can go on the varied strands wheresoever he desires. The spider is now only conscious of the spot where he is, but he will in time become conscious of the whole web. We are now conscious only where the body is, we can use only one brain; but when we reach ultra-consciousness, we know all, we can use all brains. Even now we can "give the push" in consciousness, and it goes beyond and acts in the super-conscious."
A scientific take on the topic has produced various research projects and the most prominent one is probably the Global Consciousness Project, created originally at Princeton University, and aims to gather & study correlations between Random Number Generators placed across the world. The data is correlated to specific events, for example, analysis done on the latest earthquake that hit Nepal. There is though some pertinent questions about the basis of choosing events, as pointed out by a critique.
How could we leave out Social Platforms from the Zeitgeist? Now a days social platforms have enabled us to capture the "thoughts in the air" and many services dig live content from various parts of the internet, apply aggregation, co-relations and fancy algorithms to present the current trends or the 'Zeitgeist'. A simple Google search on 'current trends' is sufficient because : INTERNET KNOWS.
Internet might just be our new spiritual belonging and Google Trends being the Collective Consciousness...
World consciousness is not a new concept and even has its place in many cultures. Here is a quote by Swami Vivekananda from one his talks -
"We are the spider in his huge web, who can go on the varied strands wheresoever he desires. The spider is now only conscious of the spot where he is, but he will in time become conscious of the whole web. We are now conscious only where the body is, we can use only one brain; but when we reach ultra-consciousness, we know all, we can use all brains. Even now we can "give the push" in consciousness, and it goes beyond and acts in the super-conscious."
A scientific take on the topic has produced various research projects and the most prominent one is probably the Global Consciousness Project, created originally at Princeton University, and aims to gather & study correlations between Random Number Generators placed across the world. The data is correlated to specific events, for example, analysis done on the latest earthquake that hit Nepal. There is though some pertinent questions about the basis of choosing events, as pointed out by a critique.
How could we leave out Social Platforms from the Zeitgeist? Now a days social platforms have enabled us to capture the "thoughts in the air" and many services dig live content from various parts of the internet, apply aggregation, co-relations and fancy algorithms to present the current trends or the 'Zeitgeist'. A simple Google search on 'current trends' is sufficient because : INTERNET KNOWS.
Internet might just be our new spiritual belonging and Google Trends being the Collective Consciousness...
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