Vedanta - Discussion Forum I (introductory))

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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Is there something like a collective consciousness in the social animal- ant, some spiders or lion or ape? I think answering this issue of collectivity in consciousness is necessary to test if the model of Advaita is ultimately correct or not. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

I must confess that I didn't quite grasp this point. Could you please elaborate? And how would exactly would that relate to Advaita?

Are you referring to instances where the identity of the individual is submerged in the cause of the group? I believe such instances are many in nature -- from insects to primates. For instance, it has been observed that the African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) goes thru an ceremony of "sniffing and licking" before setting forth on the hunt. Males and females, dominant or submissive all seem to muster in a close huddle licking and sniffing each other. Then this flurry suddenly stops and they sally forth across the plain in pursuit of Zebras/Wildebeests. We could speculate that this "incitement of the hunt", if translated into human language, would read something like this: <b>"I submerge my ego for the sake of the pack". </b>
There is a great deal of <b>cohesiveness</b> in the group. Not all mothers bear litter in a given season. All other females in the pack nurse the offspring of the few mothers that have given birth. This kind of cooperation is not surprising considering that they are group hunters; their very survival -- the ability to bring down much larger prey -- depends on the close-knit cooperation among group members.

Thus, consciously or unconsciously there is some kind of social consciousness <!--emo&:lol:--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='laugh.gif' /><!--endemo-->