Throughout our day, we go through many different emotions. Do you ever wonder if what you feel in a day is reflected in other people also? Do you wonder if how your mood has anything to do with what millions of others feel?
You’d hardly given it a thought. However, your mood is somehow contributing to a larger collective mood. Do you know how?
Well, social media, the Internet, and the daily News cycle offer real-time insight into what is the nation’s mood. Let us take a simple and recent example. Around the same time last year, the world went under lockdown. All the nations were completely closed leaving people helpless.
What did we all do at our homes? We continuously checked the news to stay updated about the changes. Now, even though we could have been happy for the lockdown in the first place because it was the first time we got so much time to spend with our families, we weren’t really glad.
Do you know why? It was because we regularly checked our news feed. As we checked the news, we saw the cases rising, and how the healthcare and all sectors were suffering, we were meant to feel sad.
How could we be happy when people in the world were suffering. They might not be our friends or relatives, but we somehow felt their pain. I hope it gives you an idea about how your feelings on a given day have something to do with what millions of others are feeling or doing.
Moods that Fluctuate
Today, we have access to the entire world through our phones. Gone is the time when we could only collect information about the issues of our own country. People today know worldwide affairs and stand to help fellow people in other parts of the world.
All our moods, from collective happiness, kindness, calmness, vitality, and even alertness are somehow connected to something bigger. When you live in a community, whatever happens to the people around you, somehow reflects on your being. In fact, most of the problems around us are generated by us.
Let us take another example to understand how our thoughts lead to problems on a global level. For instance, stress and aggression are building in the collective consciousness. In simple words, the entire community might be feeling stressed due to their own personal reasons.
As tension builds in the collective consciousness, social incoherence among individuals agitate which leads to sufferings in society. A very famous yogi once said, “ All occurrences or acts of violence, conflicts, crises, or negativity and problems are the direct outcomes of the build-up of stress in the collective consciousness.” Simply said, when the level of stress becomes too acute, it will erupt like a volcano. These eruptions bring crime, violence, social disorders, calamities, or even wars.
What is Collective Consciousness?
When we all suffer collectively, we all need a collective immunity to protect ourselves. Strengthening our collective immune system is the call of the hour.
‘Collective consciousness’ has been referred to as the overall social atmosphere where we live in. It arises from the thoughts and behaviors of each individual member of society.
When the world suffers, we need a more harmonious atmosphere. It might not be in the hands of an individual to create a tranquil world. What we need is greater civility, cordiality and soul searching. If all nations’ collective consciousness remains stressed and tense, nothing can stop the suffering.
How our beliefs align with the beliefs of other people in society is a result of collective consciousness.
Many people keep a mindset where they are often quoted saying, “ I cannot bring a change alone.”
Well, if you’re aware of what collective consciousness is, then you’ll know how an individual can change the entire world. When you start seeing yourself as a part of society and not as an individual, then your transformation journey begins. Collective consciousness is all about understanding how a society works.
While every human has his own individual consciousness, we also share solidarity with one another. The French theorist and sociologist Emile Durkheim suggested how we work together in many ways and how our collective consciousness is what allows it to happen.
How collective consciousness brings transformations?
Collective consciousness has brought many changes in the world. Although, today we’re more inclined towards science, and we trust the scientific results more. We tend to forget that science is a very new concept, as compared to the existence of the world.
There was no science to carry mankind in ancient times. What people believed was yogic culture. It was yoga and meditation that led mankind from ancient times. Have you ever wondered why there were no calamities or crimes in ancient times?
In the older times, people did not have any advancements and led a simple life. They would spend their days amidst the beauty of nature and would do their routine tasks. It was an era where the first humans were yet discovering many things.
There was no competition, no greed for materialistic things, and no desire to interfere in the lives of other people. The only thing the ancient people were concerned about was ‘self-consciousness.’ They would spend days meditating on the banks of rivers to do some soul searching. They would rather stay happy with themselves. Now, when all the people were meditating, they were self-conscious. It created an aura where there was peace. The tranquility and simple-living were a result of collective consciousness.
Collective consciousness has shown many transformation results in history. But, before we move towards them, let us take a glance at how humans can come together to solve many crises.
For those who believe an individual cannot bring change, think about the protests and rallies that had been organized in history.
Let’s not forget ‘The Salt March’ organized by Mahatma Gandhi. It all began with a single person and led the entire nation to follow. When Indians were prohibited from collecting or selling salt and minerals were taxed, a collective feeling of agitation arose. It was the courage of Mahatma Gandhi and his style of peaceful protests that the entire nation rallied 241 miles across western India.
When people come together, transformations do occur. All we need is a collective consciousness towards better mankind.
Examples of Transformations Through Collective Consciousness
To further understand the idea of collective consciousness, let us look into some real-time examples that work on this concept to bring about massive changes.
- Let Us Observe Ants
Let us see how collective consciousness works in mother nature. When we look around us, nature offers some of the best examples of this concept. One renowned and universally-accepted example of collective consciousness in nature is that of ants. When you observe ants carefully, you will find that they always live together in colonies. Think to yourself, have you ever seen an ant living on her own in a separate house?
No, because they believe in living in groups and contributing their share in the colony. However, if you remove and relocate a part of their colony they’ll still perform the same tasks that they were doing before. You might think it’s just a coincidence, but I suggest you try it on your own. Drop a food crumb that is large enough for a single ant to carry. Look for an ant that is far from the group and drop the crumb near her. You will immediately see other ants coming to the rescue. Now, you may do it in their colonies as well.
What do you think brings these ants together? Is it the smell of food or telepathy? Well, it is a simple glimpse of collective consciousness in action.
- A Positive Mindset
For another example of collective consciousness let us study the power of positive thinking. One of the laws of attraction states that every moment of every day, each of us adds to and affects the balance of the collective. In simple words, each day our individuality brings a broader change in the group. We all know how we attract what we think, so a negative mind will attract negativity. Negative vibes lead to negative energy, and something negative would definitely happen to you that day. On the contrary, a simple act of kindness will make you happy and positive the entire day. Now, if you’ll stay positive, attract positive energy, and do positive things, people around you would too observe positivity around you. We often say, “I don’t talk to that person, he’s too negative.”
You see, your vibes and thoughts are reflected through your words and caught by other people. In the same way, positivity spreads around collectively and influences people to believe that whatever happens, happens for the best.
- Predictions that Scare Us
You would have quite often observed how many people have a collective feeling about a particular incident. Sometimes, we make predictions and we do not even realize how they come true. You must have heard people saying, ‘I had a very strong feeling this was about to happen.’
Similarly in sports, it is quite often predicted who’d win the match and how those predictions turn true. Many true incidents have been reported by people worldwide about how they had a strong feeling about impending situations and how they came true later. For instance, a famous psychic had predicted the emergence of a life-threatening pandemic in 2020, and it did come true.
Now, you must be wondering if these people want bad things to happen or work towards changing their prophecies to reality. No, no one wants people to die or suffer. It is attributed to a collective consciousness or a strong sixth sense that is shared among people.
- Healing from A Disease
You must have heard about this one before, a positive mindset is going to heal before a negative mindset. When we get sick, we often stuff so much negativity in our heads. We think, ‘ Why am I the only one sick?’ ‘ Will I ever get fine?’ and whatnot. We can truly heal and overcome illnesses by changing our minds. You might think your medicines will work wonders in healing you, but trust me, you cannot heal unless your mind wants to heal. Healing first begins from your mind and then from medications. It might sound foolish, but many people recover with a positive mindset and no medications. While being ill, we can either manifest illness or perfect health. For instance, you are sitting in a room of 20 people. These people have to choose a leader for themselves. Now 18 out of 20 men and women believe that you can be the best leader. The channel ‘collective consciousness’ through their bodies and put it into you. Now, you might not even be considering yourself as a candidate, but now their belief makes you believe in yourself. It is how wonderful collective consciousness is.
- The DNA influence
It is believed that our DNA has a strong influence on the collective consciousness. We all know how genetic memory has a powerful collaborating force. Even the ancient saints believed that our DNA responds to our thoughts and actions. It simply means our thoughts can influence our DNA. But, our DNA can also be influenced by the thoughts of people around us. For instance, when large groups focus on certain effects at the same time, the results become more noticeable. If the entire world manifests peace, the outcome would be felt almost immediately. If you manifest yourself, your DNA can bring change to the people around you. Why aren’t we moving towards World Peace then?
Collective consciousness drives reality. Faith and belief act as a unifying force to understand universal mind connectedness. Once we start practicing this concept in everyday life, we’ll start seeing ourselves as one. There won’t be any discrimination, bullying, crimes, racism, and gender inequalities because mankind is much more than this.
