Clash of the Collective Consciousness
It’s hard enough to get people to take a hold of their own consciousness. Most aren’t interested, it seems. Becoming aware that you even have a consciousness is a first step. You are not your body. You have a body. Observing you consciousness at work, in real-time, is a good second step. I’ve found people are more concerned about paying bills, retirement accounts, and their favorite football team though. Nothing wrong with that at all. Those are important in one way or another to most people. Why is that? If your consciousness is in the background twiddling its thumbs, what’s in the foreground? What’s taking priority? Donald Trump’s court dates? Let’s dig in!!!
For the sake of this post, I won’t get too complex with the term consciousness. I won’t reference the variety of conscious states you have running at once. I won’t even refer to your consciousness as “self-consciousness.” I want to focus and tackle this problem statement: Why is the collective consciousness so hard for a typical person’s consciousness to overcome? And I don’t mean overcome as in fight and war against. I mean overcome as in get away from.
Let’s get on the same page with a potential definition of collective consciousness here:
a shared set of beliefs, values, and societal norms that bind communities together
Communities seem like a generic term. I can see that a family plus extended members has a collective consciousness. Every family has an over-arching “spirit.”
I can see and observe that a land mass has a collective consciousness. What makes Hawaii such a envious destination but not Haiti? Haiti is beautiful as well.
I can see and observe that a school system or district has a collective consciousness. Do all Ivy League schools carry a “prestige” about them? Why? Isn’t Phoenix University prestigious too?
I can see and observe that a sports franchise has a collective consciousness built by its followers. Do Duke basketball fans have to be so arrogant? LOL. Are they really though?
I can see and observe that a religion has a collective consciousness. There are a few that dress a very specific way, sun up to sun down. Are those just rules and regulations or is there more to it?
Is It A Spirit?
I like this definition a lot here:
The collective consciousness is the spiritual equivalent of cells forming a body. Every individual — at a fundamental level is just a little part of a much more expansive consciousness.
In this example, I would point to the Spirit of Freedom. This idea would be the body. Those that operate under this idea are the cells. Everyone is not a part of this collective consciousness. Those opposite of this do not believe you should have choices. They believe in captivity, enslavement, and imprisonment. That is a collective consciousness as well. Neither is right nor wrong. They just are. They exist. I’ll restate my question though. If you are a part of the enslave-them-all mindset, why is it that your own consciousness cannot overcome this collective consciousness? Fear? Retribution? Have you identified with that collective consciousness so long that you feel this is who you are? No, you’ve suppressed who you actually are and gave up your sovereignty to that specific collective. You’re still in there somewhere though.
Is There A Hierarchy?
Who is spear-heading a collective consciousness? Does it have a ring leader? I think it must or else that energy would die out over time. Someone has to carry it. Someone has to carry the idea.
When you think of traveling to Mars or outer space in general, who comes to mind? Elon Musk comes to mind for most. There is a collective consciousness that believes traveling to Mars is possible. The idea of leaving Earth and starting over is fascinating, indeed. If Elon Musk dropped the whole notion of traveling to Mars, someone else would carry that torch. Why? Because that collective consciousness exists. It’s a real entity now and it can grow with the more people who buy-in to the thought.
If you are one that believes populating Mars (or any planet) is possible, is it possible for you to NOT think that’s achievable? Can you abandon that thought at will or do you need to be convinced? Can your own consciousness supersede the mass thought? Can you rise about the leader of that collective, if you chose to?
How To Enter a Collective
Let’s look into operant conditioning:
This type of learning involves using rewards and punishments to create an association between the behavior and the consequences of that behavior.
A key word to this concept is “voluntary.” Voluntary behavior gets you into a collective consciousness. Making that choice for yourself results in some reward. No one is forcing you to think a certain way. No one is forcing you to adhere to a belief, but your behavior is resulting in a reward or punishment which influences your decision making.
You’ve been a Christian your whole life. Now, at the age of 30, you’ve become lukewarm on religion in general and have stopped going to church every Sunday. Your grandmother has made mention to other family members that she misses seeing you at Sunday service and wants to know where have you been. You’ve had a few relatives text you, weekly, asking “Are you coming to service today?” You’re starting to feel guilty. You feel like you’re letting people down.
Leaving a collective consciousness is not easy.
How Many Are There?
Millions and I’m thinking of the “active” ones. I’m not even considering the ancient collective mindsets that are lost and forgotten. Need some examples?
Global warming is real.
The Earth is flat.
Abortion is wrong.
Donald Trump is racist.
The government is run by aliens.
Jesus is returning.
Women deserve equal pay.
Marijuana is good for your health.
You cannot go to war against a collective consciousness. The few I’ve mentioned haven’t been conquered. They cannot be conquered. Remember, it’s a body with many cells. That being said, you can escape it or at least try to if you haven’t already been consumed.
Exiting
Do an experiment. Most people are flag bearers for something. It’s usually a good cause or something that benefits others. What’s yours? What do you hold up above yourself? How did you get introduced to it? Could you abandon it, if you tried? I’m not advocating for you to leave a collective consciousness. I’m bringing into awareness your power or lack of power to choose. It’s worth pondering. As stated earlier, if you entered voluntarily can you not leave voluntarily? I think you know the answer.
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