This post is intended to prove that insects are not just robots but living beings with awareness. The following experiments took place after I let a Hornet roam around my porch, trapped, for three days (till it had calmed down). The experiment surprised even me.
One of the ideas in Zen is that all living beings share the same ground of being, i.e. zen comes naturally to all animals since all of life is just awareness with other fixings (thoughts/beliefs) added to it. Given this idea, if we treat all living being as "consciousness" (i.e. life is life), we can figure out how to communicate with animals... is the idea that started me down the path of stalking animals to see how far I could go (basic scientific experimentation). I discovered people can communicate with hornets (well, at least I can)...
Insect Intelligence: A Hornet Accepting Help To Escape Being Trapped On My Porch!
My first attempt went unrecorded as I was just experimenting. Above was my second attempt when I was still wary of being attacked by an angry hornet (like in the cartoons or like the Green Hornet) thus the video is shaky. The following was my third and final attempt (as I got it all on tape).
Intelligence Of A Hornet Proven:
Note: You may have to wait up to 3 days until the hornet calms down enough to "listen".
I was able to drive the hornets away with mosquito coils and cutter candles without killing any. Understandably, I have an aversion to killing any insect unnecessarily unless I or my pets are threatened. I think this is the sort of discovery the founder of Jainism encountered which led to a cult who carried brooms with them... so they could brush away insects from their path so they wouldn't actually step on them. Our modern perspective of insects as robots is the complete opposite of that view. Zen Buddhism would say the truth lies somewhere in the middle. The founder of Jain must have encountered an insect of the variety that has the ability to exhibit some intelligence and then he freaked out. Or maybe his followers did. It was so long ago we have no actual records of what happened just the, slowly diminishing, cult of Jainism.
Maybe myths of a time 'when man talked to animals' was a time (hunter-gather age) when humans simply spent more time around animals and insects to have become aware of their levels of intelligence. Primitive cultures do have a tendency to see animals as siblings and guides. This sort of experience is where this myth of an age of 'talking animals' may come from. (The Bible only has a talking snake and a talking donkey so it is easy to assume that this culture was already very removed from it's hunter gatherer past with just remnants from the past ex. bar mitzvah is like an initiation ceremony but without the stress to be overcome).
There is often an idea embedded in our thoughts or our behavior which suggests that man is alive and the rest of the living beings on this planet are inferior beings of consciousness (there is no proof of this since consciousness hasn't actually been found). In our modern age this has adapted to our technology to the point where we see other living beings as nothing more than robots (including humans). Thus an insect is just a robot of nature. I hope this post disproves that. The videos are on youtube so they are easily downloadable to check for fraud (Warning: You won't be able to debunk me. :)).
Closest theory I have to how the harnet may have responded to me;
Ant Intelligence
Some reminders of animal intelligence;
A parrot who has spent a hell of alot of time with humans seeking to communicate with it;
Poppy the African Grey's best talking video
Ants supernatural intelligence
Animal Intelligence
The aptly named Dr. Chris Bird discovers the remarkable problem-solving abilities of birds like crows and rooks
PSY 1000: Animal Intelligence
How Smart Are Animals - Documentary
BTW, this one is totally hilarious! I wish someone would verify this!
Evidence of Insect Intelligence
