Beings of a 'common consciousness' should be able to read others' minds!

[Clara Alston]

I think common consciousness is definitely plausible. I believe this because of an experience I had with my abusive ex-spouse. Even though I was in a difficult situation and made to be close to someone dangerous, I still saw myself in him. I was close to him for many years and one day looked at him and shared the thought - you know, when I see you, I literally see Clara. We were both shocked by this because we could feel the distance between ourselves but knew the truth of this statement. I related to him the same exact way I would relate to myself. This caused me to see just his spirit and made me realize that it was just the same as mine. This has been able to happen more often with people I have trouble understanding and agreeing with. I am now safe from my ex, but I am glad I found this ability and have it affirmed by this book.

[Lydia Matson]

Let's consider two different separate bodies in spacetime: (1) the consciousnesses of 26-year-old Scott versus (2) the consciousnesses of 36-year-old Scott.

Concluding there is a fundamental oneness in the consciousness of these two bodies does not mean the two bodies can read each other's minds. Indeed, since this is 36-year-old Scott writing now, I can assure you that to the best of memory 26-year-old Scott could not read my mind, and likewise I am unable to read 46-year-old Scott's mind.

Your explanation makes this concept much easier to understand. I don't think I fully understand it yet, but I'm certainly closer than I was. This was one of the harder topics to wrap my mind around while reading the book.

[Tori_J]

I do agree that we share a common consciousness in the sense that we are started from a blank slate as babies. However, as we grow and have different experiences, this tends to make differences between individuals. So while you may be able to guess what one person will do or say or how they will act, we can often be very surprised by how some others people act. So, this shows that while we may still share a common consciousness with people with whom we have more similar experiences, we may find it more difficult to relate to those whom his experiences completely differ. So I would say there's the shared consciousness and the persona one.

[Anna Hernandez 2]

I do not agree with this, from my perspective.

I think that if we were all the same, one consciousness, we would not have a soul or be individuals. Because if that were the case, upon our deaths, we would all be absorbed into a singular being. Even from a religious perspective, many religions believe that we are all uniquely created by a higher being and only a piece of that being exists within us. Furthermore, throughout history, both religious and non-religious people have identified spirits as individuals.

So yes you can strip away these finite human bodies, but what are you left with? I believe you are left with a unique spirit that is much more than any human could sanely comprehend.

How could a human not comprehend what they are?

Well, take a look at science. Just how much of our material brains do we actually use and have access to? How is it some people are smarter than others? The energy that can never be created or destroyed evolves through the material world and creates a menial capsule that does its best to contain a soul, but the hard-wiring is not adequate to access the entire soul. Instead our mental capacity is limited, and we only have access to a portion of our brain. This has even been seen historically in medical cases. Those who had more access to their brain were not stable and had problems understanding this menial human existence.

I believe we are all unique individuals throughout every dimension of our being, with just enough similarities in our human forms to understand and relate to each other. Although our souls may mind read to communicate, I don't think I have ever heard of a spirit having an active conversation

Finally, my layman's answer that immediately popped into my head on reading the prompt: NO! Trust me, you don't want to be in my mind, and there is no way I WANT to know what is going on in your mind

[Meghan Sica]

I think we are lucky to NOT read eachothers minds. In all honesty, I do believe souls that are connected can sense thoughts, feelings, vibes, but I don't believe every single person is connected in this way.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

If the beings are of a common consciousness, then they should be (or should have the potential ability) to see others' minds. But if everyone just shares a similar thing without any interconnection, then such an ability is not necessary.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I think we are lucky to NOT read eachothers minds. In all honesty, I do believe souls that are connected can sense thoughts, feelings, vibes, but I don't believe every single person is connected in this way.

Yes, we are lucky indeed

I do not think that we can sense anything from our close ones. But we can guess and predict such things because we have learned their ways by being close to them for sone time. And these predictions can be false as well.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I do agree that we share a common consciousness in the sense that we are started from a blank slate as babies. However, as we grow and have different experiences, this tends to make differences between individuals. So while you may be able to guess what one person will do or say or how they will act, we can often be very surprised by how some others people act. So, this shows that while we may still share a common consciousness with people with whom we have more similar experiences, we may find it more difficult to relate to those whom his experiences completely differ. So I would say there's the shared consciousness and the persona one.

I think I can agree with that. Yes, we are born as babies with blank minds and we fill that with various different things as we grow and learn. So, although the core is same we have different mindsets, so different consciousnesses. But they are the same at their cores.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I think common consciousness is definitely plausible. I believe this because of an experience I had with my abusive ex-spouse. Even though I was in a difficult situation and made to be close to someone dangerous, I still saw myself in him. I was close to him for many years and one day looked at him and shared the thought - you know, when I see you, I literally see Clara. We were both shocked by this because we could feel the distance between ourselves but knew the truth of this statement. I related to him the same exact way I would relate to myself. This caused me to see just his spirit and made me realize that it was just the same as mine. This has been able to happen more often with people I have trouble understanding and agreeing with. I am now safe from my ex, but I am glad I found this ability and have it affirmed by this book.

That is quite a revelation. Although I did not fully understand your situation, I sense that your experience is an example for what we consider here as the shared consciousness.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

Let's consider two different separate bodies in spacetime: (1) the consciousnesses of 26-year-old Scott versus (2) the consciousnesses of 36-year-old Scott.

Concluding there is a fundamental oneness in the consciousness of these two bodies does not mean the two bodies can read each other's minds. Indeed, since this is 36-year-old Scott writing now, I can assure you that to the best of memory 26-year-old Scott could not read my mind, and likewise I am unable to read 46-year-old Scott's mind.

Your explanation makes this concept much easier to understand. I don't think I fully understand it yet, but I'm certainly closer than I was. This was one of the harder topics to wrap my mind around while reading the book.

I agree. It was quite difficult to understand when the book was read alone. But when we discussed the book in this forum, with the support of the author, I too could understand the concept better.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I do not agree with this, from my perspective.

I think that if we were all the same, one consciousness, we would not have a soul or be individuals. Because if that were the case, upon our deaths, we would all be absorbed into a singular being. Even from a religious perspective, many religions believe that we are all uniquely created by a higher being and only a piece of that being exists within us. Furthermore, throughout history, both religious and non-religious people have identified spirits as individuals.

So yes you can strip away these finite human bodies, but what are you left with? I believe you are left with a unique spirit that is much more than any human could sanely comprehend.

How could a human not comprehend what they are?

Well, take a look at science. Just how much of our material brains do we actually use and have access to? How is it some people are smarter than others? The energy that can never be created or destroyed evolves through the material world and creates a menial capsule that does its best to contain a soul, but the hard-wiring is not adequate to access the entire soul. Instead our mental capacity is limited, and we only have access to a portion of our brain. This has even been seen historically in medical cases. Those who had more access to their brain were not stable and had problems understanding this menial human existence.

I believe we are all unique individuals throughout every dimension of our being, with just enough similarities in our human forms to understand and relate to each other. Although our souls may mind read to communicate, I don't think I have ever heard of a spirit having an active conversation

Finally, my layman's answer that immediately popped into my head on reading the prompt: NO! Trust me, you don't want to be in my mind, and there is no way I WANT to know what is going on in your mind

I agree that sharing our minds can be a very distressing though, and I do not need it either.

Yes, there are many areas that the science has never touched regarding human brain and the soul. So we can only speak about what we know. And, yes, we are unique in our own ways as well.

[Sushan Ekanayake]

I think we are lucky to NOT read eachothers minds. In all honesty, I do believe souls that are connected can sense thoughts, feelings, vibes, but I don't believe every single person is connected in this way.

We get the ability to sense the thoughts and feelings of our close ones with the time. But that is not the same as reading others' minds. I agree.

And, yes, it would have been a devastating experience if we could read others' minds and vice versa.

[Davy Ifedigbo]

The issue lies adjacent to essential reasoning, as it is impossible to ascertain the contents of someone else's thoughts. Assuming you were increasingly interactive, the structure would become confrontational, and this aids in strengthening the notion that we incline towards our personal kin in addition to our environment.

[Sushan]

The issue lies adjacent to essential reasoning, as it is impossible to ascertain the contents of someone else's thoughts. Assuming you were increasingly interactive, the structure would become confrontational, and this aids in strengthening the notion that we incline towards our personal kin in addition to our environment.

Your response seems to point out the limitations of our cognitive capacities when it comes to fully understanding the thoughts and experiences of others. Indeed, the direct contents of another person's mind are inaccessible to us, and we often have to rely on external cues and communication to get a sense of what they're thinking or feeling.

While we might become adept at reading these cues through continued interaction and familiarity, as you suggested, this doesn't necessarily equate to accessing a shared consciousness. Instead, it might be a testament to our ability to learn and adapt to our social environments, a skill that has been crucial to our survival and success as a species.

That said, your comment about the inclination towards our kin and environment raises an interesting point about the influences that shape our perception of self and others. Could it be that our sense of individuality and separateness is, to some extent, a product of our social and environmental contexts?

If we take Hughes' notion of a common consciousness at its core, it seems to point towards a fundamental unity or interconnectedness that transcends these individual differences. This perspective might prompt us to reconsider the boundaries we draw between ourselves and others, and to explore the possibility that our true selves are more interconnected than we typically perceive.

I'm curious about your thoughts on this. How do you see the balance between individuality and interconnectedness in the context of a shared consciousness? How might our understanding of self and others evolve if we were to fully embrace this concept of a common consciousness?

[Bright U]

Away from our physical differences, at the very core of our being, we definitely have a common consciousness as humans. We like to think we are diverse and so removed from each other but we essentially have similar thought processes, similar beliefs in different supreme beings, and similar feelings to many life situations. Even if we can't know the specifics of each other's thoughts, we have an idea of what goes on in people's heads in given situations.