FOR THE MOB


For the longest time, this subject has eluded and confused humans. I read a lot about it. And I'm still confused. There is a lot of, and by that, I mean a lot of crap out there, about parapsychology and related phenomenon. Different cultures say different things. Different people in the same culture say different things. Heck, even the same person says different things at different times. A few of these explanations make sense, but mostly its fuzzy.

Why is it so fuzzy?
I guess its mostly because not much of it have been seen by the general population to be proven and repeatable. You believe scientists, because when they say that the apple will fall on your head because of gravity, it will fall on your head because of gravity.
Not on Bob's head who is standing upside down on the lawn, but on your head.
Not because of something else, but because of gravity.
Its clearly stated, verifiable, confirming to experiments - the Newton's First law. "Every object attracts each other with a force..." you know it. But no one has ever stated anything close to a law about parapsychology. Something like if you do this like this, you will get this. Hundreds of dedicated sites, but nothing verifiable by a law. While saying this, I should also mention that there is a lot of evidence, both in the scientific community or otherwise, that these phenomenon exists. I am just observing that there is no law or rule governing it.

Now why is that? Maybe its more than what can be stated by a law. Maybe its something that not everyone can do. Maybe some gifted people can do it outright, but others need practice. Maybe its just different versions of a hoax to make some money. Who knows! There is no certainity or general consensus.

So it seems that the most we can do is to make up thought experiments which can be debated upon. Theorize. Thats what I've tried to do here. Rationalize the works of many scientists around the globe, who try to close the gap between parapsychology and science. There are many scientists and non scientists who extend the boundaries of convectional science.
Again, most of it is crap, and some of it is credible work.

You know, I am not a very convincing writer, but I'll try to make my point. Let's try this approach - first offer a few examples, and then drawing some conclusions.

When you look at a human being, or any complex multicellular organism for that matter, what you normally see is an individual organism. Look around...what you see is some Tom, Dick or Harry walking around. An individual or an animal, a fundamental block of life, a single entity.

Now let's take a more closer look. Break it up into smaller parts. You wouldn't say I'm wrong when I tell you that Tom is indeed a "collection of organs", working in symphony, and very closely together, would you? You have learned that stuff in high school in your biology classes. Human beings are made up of various organs and systems connected to each other...remember? Now what do we get when we divide the organs and other systems further? Tissues and cells?
The point is that every organism is a collection of other organisms working in symbiosis to give an illusion of a higher organism. Sure, what we see are so closely interconnected and intertwined that we cannot visualize them in this way. Lets call them highly coupled multicellular organisms(Yeah, computers is my major).
I read somewhere that the cell is the smallest unit of consciousness. It is aware of its surroundings and responds to external stimuli. Below that is just strands molecules making up the cell. Just a thought.
So I guess you are convinced of "highly coupled multicellular organisms" now.


Now lets look into some other kind of organisms. I call them "loosely coupled organisms". Here is a specific example.

Termite Colonies


Now why would take a jump from Humans to termites? It's to broaden your perspective of what the meaning of organism is.
All of us know termites are very simple creatures with almost no intelligence. But the termite society is very organized.
Different termites have different jobs, there is one queen, one king, many workers and many soldiers.
A single termite is the fundamental building block of the entire colony. It is one of the millions of other termites in the colony.
You should no doubt seen a termite mound. Notice anything special about it other than it looks likes a morphed Mt. Everest? Here's some stuff about termite mounds:

The termite mound is one of the most complicated structural feats ever accomplished in the world. No human have ever developed so intricate, so environment friendly, so interconnected and stable structure.




In fact, the termite mound structures have been so successful as an architectural feat, that many architects have been adopting the model for construction.
Now lets look more into how this mound was constructed. As we said each termite in the mound does not have any intelligence whatsoever, let alone the ability to create the master plan or portions this intricate and complex mound. Even a human being does not have that ability.
So who came up with this grand scheme of things in the mound? A secret meeting of termite agents? Nah! They are dumb, remember? So here the thing scientists found out from years of research - the entire group constructed the mound, as a whole. Yes, the entire group functioned as a single big individual organism, whose intelligence far surpasses the humans, let alone termites!

This phenomenon is called as emergent behavior. Noe this is going to be a bit techie. Here's the formal definition:
Many animal social organizations display the characteristics of complex systems in which the dynamic interaction of individuals both with each other and with the environment give rise to emergent and often stable patterns on a macro level. This is known as emergent behavior.

The phenomenon of emergent behavior is not the result of interaction of any of the traits of the individual units in the group. It is not in their genes, it is not instinct, nor is it learned from experience. It appears out of nowhere. Why it comes into play, what leads to its materialization, why do phenomenon like social homeostasis, stigmetry, emergent behavior etc begin to show its effect, when individual members of the same or different species come together, is yet another mystery for science to figure out.
Have you ever watched a flock of starlings? (No you impicile, its not a dish, its a bird). No? Not even on animal planet? Well its a group of happy birds wandering in random directions without any aim in life(like most of us), eating mostly anything on its way.
What, do you think decides their general direction of motion? Is there a leader among them whom everyone else follows? If you notice carefully, there is no leader. They might be flocking in one direction one second, and a completely different direction the other. Flocking is emergent behavior in birds. Again, there are only simple rules governing the birds, like:


There are various phenomenon like this from different animals.This is not just an isolated phenomenon.

Bees swarm.

Ant colonies search for food.

School formation in fishes.


What you see is the result of a wide range of phenomenon occurring in the nature - Phenomenon like emergent behavior, specialization, stigmetry, self-organization, swarm Intelligence, and many more.
If you think its not convincing enough, and want more to read on these phenomenon, checkout this link: Biologically Motivated Systems . Its a seminar by me.
Why do animal herds form certain rules that aid in the delegation of certain duties to certain individuals (for the protection of the whole herd), while no single subject in the herd think of doing so?
What are the explanations of group phenomenon like flocking, swarming etc, in animal groups?
Do you think you can couple these questions with the following one:
Why do humans behave as they do. What gives them their intelligence?

Granted the association is not one to one. Granted the individual units are not the same, and they are not coupled to the same degree. But if you see multi celled organisms in this light, it becomes evident that we are too, a community of cells. Each of them but evolved to different organs, organ systems, working symbiotically to perform a particular function. And together they form the organism. None of the cells know its a part of a bigger organism. As does none of the birds know they are part of a flock. Each of them might be as well thinking "God, let that falcon catch that big fat Bob sterling...he's so mean!"


We may divide a human into different systems - the nervous system, the digestive system etc. Whatever we classify them as, it doesn't matter. What w are interested is, that the interaction between these 'parts' got so harmonious and intertwined that it behaves as a whole. Physical links are existence between the 'parts' . This kind of interaction is more complicated than a termite mound, it is more intertwined, more physical. For example, if you feel prick your finger with a pin, immediately the nerves will transmit that information to your brain through 'physical' paths (nerves).

These loosely coupled organisms also have communication mechanisms. Different colonies use different methods - ant colonies use pheromone to form the shortest path to the food, bees use a form of dancing to convey different information, etc.
Such direct forms of behavior are immediately evident when we consider colonies of simple animals like ants, termites, bees etc. Even though we may decipher the more direct forms of communication, we cannot still decipher phenomenon like emergent behavior.

Now if individual 'elements' at a particular level of organization come together to form a larger organism, why not extend it more? What happens when like human beings - the most intelligent 'animal' on earth, come together to form societies?. What is the emergent organism that we as represent? What kind of emergent behavior do we exhibit? What are our lines of communication besides that provided by out five senses?

The point is different individuals of a species come together to form a colony, the resultant is not the sum of all their abilities. Something more happens. Something else emerges. They all become a part of a new organism, the nature of which is not understandable by each individual units. A new animal is created, its 'organs' being the individual units that coexist, communicate, interact by different mutually benefiting, or mutually destructing ways. Their individual interactions form the basis, the life line of the bigger organism.

Thus, what we see as parapsychology, is a form of communication in the bigger individual, whose motive for it is not clear to any of us. This leads us to conclusion that all of us are a part of whole, all of us are units of a single larger organism. A common force travels through all of us.

Do we say that the communication between our hand and brain is strange? It is perfectly normal to us, since there is a visible physical mechanism of communication. We must understand that the visible physical medium is not the only form of communication. Since we are a part of a bigger organism, communication is possible, through medium we may find strange. Telekinesis, for example, may be (may be) such a mechanism. Out of body experience may be another.
All of us may have the potential of exhibiting all these para psychological phenomenons. But controlling them through our conscious mind might be a totally different affair. As we have seen, each individual unit have no control over the swarms behavior. The subconscious mind, may be a part of the whole of life, the larger organism, which any of us can delve into, and take or put any information into, which is instantly accessible by any other of us. Maybe people are involved too much with the conscious mind in the everyday life. Especially in todays fast paced world. So, all the interaction happens automatically in the background. Since the are with the subconscious with most of their life, they are better tuned into it, and start experiencing such effects.

Keep in mind that these are just a thought experiment, and are not based on any kind of research.

There is another theory from a lower layer explaining parapsychology and related phenomenon. It stems from the quantum world. A lot of explanation have to go into that, but in one sentence, everything in the universe is connected at the smallest level. Time and space are constructs which give an illusion of space and time. A nice movie to watch on that would be "What the Bleep do we know?"























Disclaimer: The above articles are purely my conclusion, based on the facts that I observed. It dosen't, in any way reflect or substantiate the views and/or beliefs of any person or community. Believe it, if you find it convincing as a theory. Like most of the theories in parapsychology, I have not yet found a way to prove it. If this concept, by anyways reflect the views of any individual, its purely a matter of coincidence, maybe because we think similar.

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