SPoR Quarterly Newsletter – Sept 2025

Several research papers have been released recently to demonstrate that we can be influenced to change our decision making, judgments and perspective unconsciously.

The first of interest comes from Aeon: Divine Dividends (https://aeon.co/essays/how-chinese-religious-traditions-shape-corporate-generosity). In this research we find that religion and proximity to a temple, changes how companies relate to shareholders. The simple visual presence of a temple serves as a semiotic that influences the unconscious and collective unconscious.

Whether we like it or not, semiotics, language, metaphor and signs influence us unconsciously with great power, that we cannot see.

In a second research paper we find that extreme heat makes people more negative (https://neurosciencenews.com/neuroscience-heat-negativity-29647/). We are NOT a computer on a body but rather are embodied persons and all matters external and internal to us resonates with our being. In the case of the weather, we know that is strongly affects our emotions.

The third area of research demonstrates how indifference and moral meaning is eroded when we use machines or agents like AI as intermediaries in communication. The research shows that we are more likely to be unethical with others when we use AI (https://neurosciencenews.com/beahvior-morality-ai-neuroscience-29696/).

When we think of the ‘unconscious Mind’ we must not think of the brain but rather need to think of the whole person. In Social Psychology we look at how humans are affected by all social circumstances (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2440575/). The best way to understand how we can be collectively influenced by social context we need to better understand the ‘Collective Unconscious’. Jung discovered that there are many values, practices, habits, myths and beliefs that we all share across civilizations, societies and cultures (https://www.jungiananalysts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/C.-G.-Jung-Collected-Works-Volume-9i_-The-Archetypes-of-the-Collective-Unconscious.pdf). These are perceived in common archetypes that are also shares across civilizations, societies and cultures.

Jung’s research looked at many civilizations, societies and cultures and asked the question: why do they share the same practices, rituals, myths, sacred objects and symbols having never met each other? Just one of many examples of this is the shared use of the Turanga (bullroarer) as an object in rituals practices (https://www.vectorsofmind.com/p/the-bullroarer-much-more-than-you). The research shows that the bullroarer has been used in various ritual and sacred practices between various remote cultures for over 3000 years. How are these things shared in common across so many remote societies having never communicated with each other? Jung’s answer was the Collective Unconscious. That is, there are powerful energies, drivers and forces in human societies that seek the same thing, such as: the search for meaning and purpose, religious meaning and sacred practices. The most common are associated with life passages such as: birth, death, initiations, seasons, life stages and marriage.

An interesting theory that enters into this discussion is in the work of Rupert Sheldrake (https://www.sheldrake.org/research/morphic-resonance/introduction). Sheldrake proposes that there are ‘energies’ and ‘forces’ in the world shared unconsciously through ‘morphic resonances’. In some ways these energies work like electricity and gravity. You can download his free book here: https://ia902806.us.archive.org/9/items/edgar_cayce_mega_collection/Rupert%20Sheldrake-Morphic%20Resonance_%20The%20Nature%20of%20Formative%20Causation.pdf

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