Is collective memory real?

Absolutely

Every single person on earth and all of their genes can be traced all the way back to one little, microscopic cell. If we all share the same heritage then we should be able to communicate and think in the same way that a bee hive or ant colony reacts to a stimulus.

There is also proof that people think the same ideas at the same time. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and made it to the patent office only hours before two other people came with the same idea. Even movies show the same trends at the same time; something as simple as two computer animated movies about bugs at the same time, or two movies about catastrophic earth collisions with space debris. All over the world, people are inventing the same gadgets and writing down the same novels at the same time. People have memories and dreams which they mysteriously share with other people.

Collective memory definitely exists.

There was a book that I once read by Arthur C. Clarke called Childhood's End. In it, children were able to receive memories not from the past, but from the future. Can collective memory also apply to different times? If so, how?

There was a book that I once read by Arthur C. Clarke called Childhood's End. In it, children were able to receive memories not from the past, but from the future. Can collective memory also apply to different times? If so, how?

I'm fairly sure both of them knew what each other were doing, sure both of them had the initial idea or something closely resembling it, but each expressed it in different and creative ways.



Contrary to popular belief movies aren't a secret before they are released. A script is thrown around the different studios and some accept the project while others pass on it. If they like the idea of the film but want to save money or want more creative rights they will draft a version of their movie but with a slightly different plot.

That is why you see two "bug" movies at the same time, or two "volcano" movies at the same time. It isn't because they are subconsciously sharing ideas.



I don't think there is any scientific foundation for this thought. I mean there is just no mechanism in place within the human cell which would allow for the transmission of thoughts or memories. Sure it's a fascinating flight of fancy but I just don't see it as anything beyond that.

I have yet to find a palpable explanation of this idea. As far as I know, memories aren't genetic....

Rupert Sheldrake is a current major proponent of collective memory within his concept of "morphic resonance". His evidence comes from various species from rats (running mazes) to humans (using qwerty keyboards). We have discussed Sheldrake on other threads and compared his views of memory as a "field effect" with concepts of "multidimensionality" (familiar to particle physicists) which may provide a coherent model of "unseen" connections between superficially separate individuals.

This sounds like Schrodinger's Nostalgia to me.

I'm not familiar with that piece of work...perhaps you can enlighten me.

Didn't Schrodinger have a cat?

Yes, but apparently the original has had extra chapters added to it.

???????????????????

Really!

I must have been absent that day.

Any chance you can back that up?

Fresco

I am not familiar with Rupert Sheldrake's work...however...

...I've devised a little experiment of my own that I'd like to describe to you -- and if you get an opportunity to try it out, I'd love to hear the results. (That goes for anyone else participating here.)

The following situation comes up often:

Two people talking about something -- and a name of someone or something becomes important to the converstation -- but neither can bring the item to mind. Usually there is talk about "...his name is on the tip of my tongue" -- with the other person saying, "...yeah, me too."

At some point -- the lightbulb comes on over one person's head -- and the name comes out.

(Sometimes it is not a name, but a song or book or movie or something of that sort!)

A couple of times when that has happened -- and the other person is the one who came up with the remembrance -- I've felt that I got the name just at the instant BEFORE the other person blurts it out.

Now it is possible that I was just kidding myself -- that the instant the name (or whatever) was revealed, somehow my mind tricked me into thinking that I had thought of the name the instant before.

So I set up an experiment (agreement) with Nancy (my everlovin') that whenever we go through one of these kinds of episodes -- when the name comes to mind -- we don't just blurt it out. Mostly, we just say "I got it!"

It is amazing to me how often the second the other person says "I got it" -- I've gotten it at the same instant. And vice versa. If I am the one who thinks of the thing and say "I got it!", Nancy will suddenly say, "Yep, I got it too."

Not every time -- but often.

If you are ever in a situtaion where you and someone else are trying to bring a "tip of the tongue" item to mind -- tell the other person not to blurt out the item if it comes to mind, but just to acknowledge that the memory has come.
See if you get it at the same time.

Not that any conclusion can be drawn.

Both may "remember" independently.

But it MAY BE that the excitement of the sudden memory recovery does transmit to others in some way.

Lemme know if you try it.

Yes Frank, I think all close couples have similar experiences. Avoiding the parapsychology we could postulate that most memories depend on associations between internal and external events and shared external tracks trigger shared internal tracks. I am often walking with "my better half" who raises an "unusual issue" that was in my mind.
Was it a particular bush we passed etc that provided a common trigger ?...perhaps...but more interesting of course to postulate a little "telepathy" as alleged in twin studies !

But here's a Sheldrake Link if you are interested (and he does reply to emails)

http://www.sheldrake.org/

I think what Sheep is saying is that our entire lineage can be traced back to one cell because evolutionary trails never contain more than one source.

And I have heard the part about Bell beating someone else to the patent office who came up with her ideas completely independently. I would have thought days though…only hours!

As for introducing the same idea or topic into discussion into conversation at the same time, that happens to me and my family all the time.



I have noticed that I won't remember anything until the other person shows an exited face and definitely before they even take in a breath for speech.

One reason why I wrote introduced this topic is because I am constantly completing song lyrics and obscure quotes that I have never read before.

I wouldn't doubt that we might all be psychic on some level but I propose a genetic memory of a different type: suppose that because every single person has just about the exact same genetic material that we all think of the same ideas at some point, and only certain people capture and retain certain thoughts which they are able to place in their long-term memory. Then, when we are reintroduced to the idea we take time to search through our discarded ego fragments and retrieve the idea that we thought was original.

What I mean, is it's from the same crock of mystical postmodern bullshit.

What?

(In respose to fresco)