Sense8: A Sci Fi Exploration into Collective Consciousness

Just wanted to plug the show Sense8 (available on Netflix).  It’s an entertaining show, but also an interesting exploration into what we might call collective consciousness.  Produced through a collaboration between the Wachowsi brother and sister and J. M. Straczynski (Babylon 5), the story focuses on a group of 8 people on disparate locations of the planet who we (and they) slowly discover have a telepathic (or empathic) connection.  Here is a trailer:

One of the interesting things about the show is that in crucial situations, any one of the eight might link with one of the others in order to draw on their ability in a crucial situation.  For example, one of the characters, facing thugs in Africa, is able to (much to his surprise) access the martial arts abilities of another character in South Korea.  It’s quite an exciting scene.  Of course, there’s nothing in the literature on telepathy that could suggest a possibility.  It’s just a rather fun scene (like many Sci Fi shows).

But Sense8 does explore psi in more subtle ways.  Occasionally, a song will emerge in all the minds of the characters simultaneously in ways that are relevant to the characters in their lives at that moment.  It feels an awfully lot like a real synchronicity.  At other moments, a character will feel emotions from what another character is experiencing (and they don’t know why).   At other times, another character will have a strong empathic connection and actually experience a memory of some event as if they were actually the one having it. 

During the titles and credits at the beginning, you see a beautiful, world-wind tour of scenes all over the planet, evoking the sense that somehow, we really are connected.

If you’re interested in ideas like synchronicity or explorations into collective consciousness, you might want to check out the show.  Here is a (mostly positive) review I found online.