Thursday, February 7, 2013

A Contagion

            The other day I was reminded of the concept that “consciousness is contagious” and started to wonder exactly what this might mean on a global level.  What effect could our collective state of mind have on our world, if any at all, if a collective state of mind could ever exist in the first place? 

Certainly, on an individual one-on-one basis we all know how our moods can affect others.  You find yourself in a bad mood, angry, upset, frustrated, and on some level have decided that if you are angry, upset and/or frustrated, everyone else should be as well.  (I do not buy the pseudo-innocent “Gosh I didn’t realize I was acting that way” excuse.)  On the opposite side of the coin, when we are in a good mood, the sun shines brighter, we smile more, we are more magnanimous in our dealings with others.  When we feel and act in such a way, others catch our mood and start to feel better themselves. 

Without question, we can all do our part individually in purposely elevating the consciousness of those within our surroundings.  Not to be a mindless Pollyanna, blind to the so-called realities in life, but to acknowledge that, you know, sometimes life just sucks and the joke is on us.  We are imperfect human beings living in an imperfect world, and imperfection in our lives is a natural offshoot of that imperfect status quo.  Once you understand that, emotionally and mentally dealing with that imperfect status quo develops its own natural flow.   (Let us not confuse such acceptance with inaction: a person with a serious illness can accept his or her illness while doing everything in his or her power to overcome it.  A person can accept a current state of financial need while doing everything in his or her power to improve it.)

We can all also do our part individually in purposely lowering the consciousness of those within our surroundings.  We can decide that the world owes us what we think we deserve and if we do not get what we think we deserve, well, if we are unhappy then we will pretty much make sure that everyone surrounding us is unhappy as well.

Then we can step into the realm of elevated consciousness which is, simply put, an awareness of how connected we all are.  One basic law of physics is, as explained in a previous blog, that each of us, each of our spirits you might say, through every iota of our energy, is required for the universe to exist and continue.  When you understand this, you cannot help but realize our connection to each other, our connection to all others.  A very simple way of experiencing this elevated consciousness for yourself, if you doubt that elevated consciousness exists, is to take one minute out of your day, only 60 seconds, and think about that connection that physics itself claims we have through the need of our collective energy for continuance.  Do this for a week, and I guarantee your global perspective will be altered.

What can this mean, how can this be applied to the world at large, and is it even feasible for it to be applied to the world at large?  I know that when most people hear any term related to “global” in the context of “global consciousness” or “cosmic consciousness” or “consciousness” in general, their minds immediately run to “oh, boy, there’s that California la-la again” or “that New Age stuff is a pile of  kumbaya.”  And, what is global consciousness? Is such a concept at all tied in with the so-called realities of our everyday life?

            How would these same people respond though if they discovered that actual scientific studies and experiments have been done which prove the existence of a global consciousness?

As it turns out, The Global Consciousness Project (GCP), with logistical support from the Institute of Noetic Sciences, is dedicated to studying the existence of and effects of global consciousness.  The Global Consciousness Project (GCP) is an international effort involving researchers from several institutions and countries, designed to explore whether the construct of interconnected consciousness can be scientifically validated through objective measurement.  According to the GCP, there is strong evidence for an effect of consciousness on events, and they are driven by that evidence to infer that a "consciousness field" exists, and that intentions or emotional states are conveyed as information.  I urge to you check out their website (URL given below) to read the details of this research.

Among common examples of this connected consciousness are the collective grief after Princess Diana’s death and the collective outrage and patriotism after 9/11.  When you think about it, you can find many examples from the past when a “group mentality” took over:  the Salem witch trials, the repression and persecutions of the Dark Ages (for which it can also be said that the bubonic plague was a physical manifestation), the cheering crowds at bloody executions, the hysteria supporting the guillotined executions during the French Revolution.

Wait a minute, though.  Why does it seem that this mass group consciousness only reveals itself through events that are violent, or miserable at best?  I guess you could say that the ecstasy that certain religious events create is positive.  Yes, you could also admit that the “feelings” after a concert, opera or play are positive.  However, why no mass positive events to create a mass positive reaction of good will, equanimity, peace . . .all that good stuff . . . on the level of, say,  9/11 and Princess Di?  Certainly, at the very least, the outpouring of support following natural disasters shows that people WANT to do good for others.  Again, though, this outpouring, this giving, this selflessness, only seems to arise out of disaster, either from nature or man-made.

            So, what do we have:  we do have evidence that consciousness IS in fact contagious even on a wide-spread level.

            I think we need a movement of some sort to direct this strength of consciousness to positive awareness, a positive awareness arising out of nothing other than the positive awareness itself, rather than any awareness arising out of a negative event.  The initial problem with such a movement would be the skepticism from the majority of the human beings on this planet.  I wonder though what would happen if somehow we could get the entire planet to smile and think the words (only think them) “take my hand” for a coordinated five minutes.  I mean everyone, from the U. S. Congress to the Taliban to Wall Street. 

            A contagion of such global consciousness would without question elevate our human species, moving us closer to our ultimate potential of recognized oneness.

            Yeah, it’s a dream, but as Oscar Hammerstein so wisely wrote “You got to have a dream, if you don’t have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true.”

 

            Until next time LLAP!

 

 
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