24.5.2009

Collective Thinking

    Collective Thinking

http://www.netsaga.is/media/files/Absolute.mp3


    Jung with his interest in synchronicity would have loved all this. As we saw saw in Chapter One he believed many coincidences were the work of a universal force seeking to impose some kind of order. One part of that force was what he called the collective unconscious - that is in addition to our individual unconscious we are all tuned into a collective unconscious. He wrote: We may think we are following our noses and may never discover that we are for the most part supernumaries on the stage of the world theatre. There are factors which although we do not know them, nevertheless influence our lives, the more so if they are unconscious.

    Of this collective unconscious economist John Maynard Keynes said:

    - Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. 'Economist' can be substituted by any ither occupation-such as author. It must be evident by now that the creative process stirs coincidences in the most unexpected ways. It may be through such experiences that those who have to use their imaginations to create attempt to harness the phenomenon to aid that process. to begin my research into the relevance to writers of coincidences, I selected a work at random from my bookshelves. My intention was to study it closely for any hint of coincidence. After dithering for some minutes-I did not want to waste my time with a dull book-I chose Buchan's novel The Power-House. It was first published in 1916 and republ. in 1984 by Dent & Sons.

    I was barely into it when bingo! the hero Sir Leithenm, a barrister and MP runs across his first villain and finds himsel examining him in a court case on a matter unrelated to the plot. In pondering this incident the hero says: Have you ever noticed that when you hear a name that strikes you you seem to be constantly hearing it for a bit? Once I had a case in which one of the parties was called Jubber, a name I had never met before, but I ran across two Jubbers before the case was over.

    In invoking the 'everything happens in threes' coincidence entrenched in many societies Buchan is working on the empathy of his readers by reminding us of something we believe we have experienced or witnessed. The -threes-assumption arises largely from the Clustering Effect which itself is a rich source for coincidences. L. coincidences are only just beginning. His car breaks down in the English countryside, in an area that is unfamiliar to him and he goes in search for accomodation for the night suitable to one of his status. He finds it offered at the first gentleman's house he comes to. It's occupant turns out to be the arch villain. Until then the 2 men had not met. B. has L. roundly endorse coincidences: The amazing and almost incredible thing about this story of mine is the way clues kept rolling inunsolicited...I suppose the explanation is that the world is full of clues to everything and that if a man's mind is sharp set on any quest, he happens to notice and take advantage of what he otherwise would miss. All those who have ever conducted any rigorous study would entirely endorse the sentiments...

    (If you'd like to read more on the subject please read Ken Anderson's Coincidences (published in the UK in 1995 by Blandford)

 

    Policeman Arrests Himself

    In early March1987, Constable Douglas McKenzie was sent with his partner, Constable Gary Thomas, to arrest a man being held in a central Sydney chemist's for using false prescriptions. At the shop, Constable M. asked the accused man to identify himself. 'Douglas McKenzie', said the man, who produced a birth certificate, university card, 2 bank books and a Health Care card, all in the name of McKenzie.

    - I said to him, you can't be Douglas McKenzie-because that's me, the McKenzie recalled.

    The identifying items had disappeared from the constable's car about 2 years before, while it was parked in Sydney's night-life district, King's Cross, a haunt of criminals, addicts and pushers, prostitutes and pimps. When I said the items were mine, he knew he was gone, said constable McKenzie. His face went stone cold and his jaw almost hit the ground. Finding someone who has taken over your identity leaves you with a pretty strange feeling. -It's the strangest arrest I have ever made. At the time of the incident the constable had been stationed in Central police station, the busiest in New South Wales, with hundreds of police on duty at any one time.