Collective Consciousness 2.0
The Sequel
My own human intellect limits my capacity for understanding the complexities and capabilities of my mind.
This mystery is my favorite thing to explore.
It’s somewhat paradoxical, isn’t it?
The human brain is a physical organ that can be dissected and explained to a certain extent.
I’m referring to the mind as a metaphysical element that perceives consciousness, unconsciousness, and our reality.
The psyche, the very essence of the mind, is not a physical part of the brain. Imagine it as an entity, spirit, or soul through which we experience life.
Does the psyche create consciousness, or simply perceive it?
How does individual consciousness influence the collective?
How does collective consciousness influence individual purpose?
Comprehending all aspects of consciousness may be impossible, but considering these existential mysteries allows for self exploration and therefore personal enlightenment.
If you haven’t read my first article on Collective Consciousness, here it is!
How do we know we are unconsciously connected?
There are certain aspects of life that all of us experience regardless of age, culture, background, or place in society:
- Love — Our first experience of love comes from family or caretakers who ensure that we survive the helpless stage at the beginning of life. Our perception of love evolves throughout childhood and adulthood, but it is a fundamental part of being a human.
- Pain — We also experience pain from the beginning of life until the end. Whether it’s the regular pains of growth or hunger, physical ailments, or the insufferable pain of loss and heartbreak, we all learn to cope with different levels of pain. Some more than others.
- Purpose — There are various beliefs regarding our purpose as a species, but finding individual purpose is a personal endeavor that all of us go through. Whether you find self-fulfillment from your career, family, other pursuits, or all of the above, achieving what you believe to be your purpose is a gratifying accomplishment.
We have individual perceptions of each of these consequences of the human experience, but ultimately we have more in common than not; that alone creates connection.
There are established social belief systems that influence society and our behavior more than we may realize.
Success in society is often determined by accumulation of money and possessions; to be financially wealthy is to be successful, right? This idea shapes our interpretation of purpose as well as our definition of failure.
Specific expectations based on traditional gender roles have a huge influence on how we interact with each other.
Ideally, we would all be accepting of people with various presentations of masculinity, femininity, and everything in between; changing these societal norms that have been in place for lifetimes will require a significant amount of intentional (and collective) evolution.
Think about crowd mentality in which individuals are influenced by the majority, even at the expense of their better judgement. The idea that we will conform to almost primitive actions in uncertain situations says a lot about our general dependence on social validation and guidance.
For more on social representations and their relation to collective consciousness, please read this fabulous article by Dr. Alex Steinberg:
Conscious vs. Unconscious
In Buddhism, the mind is considered a sixth sense; feelings and thoughts are perceived separately from the rest of the senses.
Without the mind the other five senses are irrelevant.
Is consciousness irrelevant without unconsciousness?
Modern science estimates that 95% of brain activity is beyond our conscious awareness. (A statistic worth repeating.)
“Everything of which I know, but of which I am not at the moment thinking, everything perceived by my senses, but not by my conscious mind, everything which, involuntarily and without paying attention to it, I feel, think, remember, want to do; all the future things that are taking shape in me and will some time come to consciousness, this is the content of the unconscious.” — Carl Jung
Our individual emotions, future desires, and instincts seem to come from the unconscious, while the conscious mind is very much in the present; perceiving thoughts and sensations.
The subconscious mind communicates (vaguely) with the conscious mind through dreams, but we still have very limited ability to interact with the unconscious directly.
Carl Jung considered active imagination to be the best way to access unconscious realms. Exploring this realm is comparable to meditation, but with a focus on internal dimensions and dialogue.
Confronting autonomous inner figures can be intimidating, but allows for immense self discovery.
As far as we know, the exploration of consciousness is unique to our species; shouldn’t we at least attempt to understand our existence?
(That is, until AI becomes self aware; imagine if technology developed collective consciousness somehow. Yikes. Somehow a lot of my articles relate to this topic…)
Shoutout to Joshua maos for writing this wonderful philosophical love letter:
(If this doesn’t inspire you to explore I don’t know what will)
Our Very Existence is a Mystery
There is an enormous amount of conflict and division in the world, as there always has been, but we are more aware of the constant crises than any other time in history.
How will this affect collective consciousness, specifically long term? (I don’t think we know yet.)
Because we are more connected than ever, hopefully we will prioritize using the resources available to us to help each other.
I continue to be presented with existential questions as I delve into topics about consciousness and psychology.
I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to contemplate life with any and all of you that engage with my exploration in the form of writing.
Please share your thoughts and/or theories!
This is the part when I Thank you for reading! and ask for attention:
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