Thread: Shared Dreaming Counter-Argument

Originally Posted by sivason

And yet, we went from day 1 for say 100,000 years with out figuring out radio waves, which were passing through our bodies every second of every one of those 100,000 years.

Yes. But humanity wasn't confronted with strange phenomena, which's explanation would turn out to be about radio-waves.
They don't affect us, passing through us - they do not beg for an explanation, they didn't cause unusual, inexplicable results, let alone held a conceivable promise of potential benefit.
While in the case of supernatural abilities - we are talking about something, which should have been eliciting actual noticeable effects for those 100.000 years. And unlike other relevant "mysteries" - we wouldn't have needed any technology to go after deciphering it, learning it, developing an art out of it. We only needed our minds for it, and that would have been possible right from the start.
Lets say physics and neurobiology would indeed allow for this sort of phenomenon - it would present an evolutionary benefit, I don't think, it'd stay occult for the vast majority of people, but rather develop into a common ability, at least a commonly known about ability over those thousands upon thousands of years.

So what I'm saying is - if humanity would have been confronted with the mysterious results of those activities, our curiosity and resourcefulness would have been sparked in such a way as to develop a whole culture around it, teachers, experimenters, you name it. A really widespread up to universal culture, because the potential of it would be immense. A scenario like in fantasy fiction, maybe, with magical schools and adepts and stuff*, but part of the normal world and undoubted. And in such a scenario, I would expect proper scientific proof by now as well, that's rather an afterthought of the before mentioned, though.

Of course you could say - naa - these abilities are too rare, or weak, or hard to master, or being too purposefully and skilfully hidden to really produce an observable fallout.

So hence this view of mine is not a real argument, it can be shot down from several directions at once, I'm aware of that.
It's just my personal opinion, that if there was such a potential in principle - then it would have put it's stamp on human history and culture.


I'm not in the mood to argue, actually, I was just perking up at the OP, because this point is only seldom brought forward by somebody else, that's why I chimed in and agreed.
Peace!


*One of my personal favourite desires, that it would be so. All my childhood, and beyond - and yes, it was sort of sad to come to the conclusion, that this indeed is but a dream. After getting into lucid dreaming, this sadness has been countered in my mind, though. Even while magic isn't something I will ever encounter in real life - I can have as much of it as I want in my LDs. This is consolation for me. Maybe it is very well hidden, how much attraction all of this once held, and still holds for me, since I'm always arguing against it these days, against the reality of it. But make no mistake, I was into stuff like this a lot, up to wanting to believe in elves in my adulthood. I still love art of the "spiritual kind", and I still crave such experiences, but I'm expecting them only in my dreams.