Why do you think animals would want to alter their consciousness like this?

Same as us? I mean, as a kid, I didn’t need a reason to spin around in place until I fell over. Besides, it’s healthy — people who can’t dream go nuts and die.

I like the idea that the will to alter consciousness is instinctive. It’s probably fairly recently in history that we started to think up reasons for why we do everything.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6376594

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/30/toad_licking_dog/

In hindsight it seems perfectly obvious that his actions are not random. This post enforces my belief. Almost my nothing my dog does is without reason, purpose or design. He almost never acts randomly, now that I think about it. How absurd of me to think that before. I must have been rationalizing.

This reminds me of that post Tim made some time ago about his disappointment with an academics particular approach to reasoning. I think this example falls into that professor’s idea. Before I felt one way - now I am immediately enlightened and feel differently. I cannot go back to the old way - it seems preposterous. And though this idea of my dog eating healthful foods might change in the future I did take the instantaneous step the Professor talked about.

How’s that for some interconnectedness of all things?

Why would animals do this? I wonder if our cultural taboos, legal system, and our narrow view of consciousness in animals are the only reasons we need to ask the question…