Yeah, I think collective consciousness has many proponents in science, at least among open-minded scientists. In his recent book Science Set Free Ruppert Sheldrake notes studies that showed that when rats in one region of the world learned how to efficiently navigate a water maze, rats elsewhere in the world were able to learn to navigate the same maze faster, which allowed subsequent study groups of rats to learn the maze faster still. The various groups of rats never saw each other, nor were they related.
A friend, naturalist Jon Young, told me a story of a trip he'd made to Africa to spend time with the San Bushmen in the Kalihari. One of the tribe's hunters had been successful on a persistence hunt, and Jon was aboard a jeep that was following along filming the hunt. Once the kudu fell the hunter wanders off to stand by himself, and Jon asked the guide if he was alright. The guide said he was fine, that he was 'calling home' to tell those in the village they would return with a kudu. When the jeep (carrying the kudu) reached the village, the villagers were singing the kudu song having known in advance the hunter had killed one. According to Jon they didn't have walkie talkies and there was no cell phone coverage at the time out in the Kalihari desert, so aside from telepathy there was no way the villagers could have learned about the kudu in advance of the jeep returning to the village.
