Individual consciousness is a simple concept. Just one individual and one consciousness.
But Collective Consciousness gets more complex, and is something that few people truly understand.
The Collective consciousness is the grand sum of the common understanding of reality, morals, values, and the unifying force behind human behavior.
Collective consciousness is like a network of values and common understanding between human minds.
Those who truly understand the power behind the collective consciousness have a huge edge when it comes to understanding reality, and what is true in the world.
Because of advances in technology, advances in communication, and advances in information sharing, (the internet), humankind is at a turning point where we have the ability to share knowledge, values, and common understandings in ways never before possible.
With technology leading the way in the 21st century, We have rapidly become a connected global community.
With the connectivity of the internet, the growth and speed of our connected ‘collective consciousness’ has grown with-out bounds.
Collective consciousness doesn’t have to be global and can occur at any scale. You can have a collective consciousness of a room, city, country, or of course worldwide.
The bigger the group, the bigger the collective consciousness. The bigger the collective consciousness, the more perspectives are added to the group. The more perspectives that are added to the group, the better and more accurate the collective consciousness will be.
How can you use the collective conscious to your advantage?
Let’s dive in.
What is Collective Consciousness ?
Collective consciousness, also known as collective conscience, is a set of shared beliefs, ideas, knowledge, morals, and attitudes common among a group, community, entire population, or species .
Most of our internal reflections, preconceptions, and internal thoughts come from a common understanding of societies norms known as the collective consciousness.
Collective consciousness acts as a unifying force within society, family, and social groups. The network of collective consciousness informs us of our sense of belonging, identity, and behavior.
The reason you don’t wake up to a society of violence everyday is because “as a group” our global society agrees that violence is against our collective values as human beings.
The collective consciousness challenges us, motivating us, and pushes us work towards a life of being a good person. The collective consciousness sets an underlying tone to do good to others, become our best versions of ourselves, and empower others to do the same.
Explored initially by great thinkers and writers like Sigmund Freud, Emile Durkheim and Carl Jung in the late 19th and early 20th century, Collective Consciousness refers to a shared understanding of social norms – something that binds society together.
The good thing is, technological advancements and social media are catalyzing collective consciousness, pushing us to widen our perspectives and reshape our belief systems on more significant levels.
But we need to make sure we’re using technology and technology is not using us. Here’s a guide I wrote to help use technology (social media) more consciously.
Collective Consciousness & Wisdom Of The Group
A great example of collective consciousness would be a school of fish swimming in unison.
One of my favorite examples of collective consciousness is the “”gum-ball experiment””.
Brain Games did an experiment where they had a group of 20 people estimate the number of gum-balls in a machine…
All 20 guesses were wrong, but the average number of the groups collective guesses was dead on!
2,425 gum-balls
That’s the power of collective consciousness !!
Why is Collective Consciousness Important?
Here’s how the collective consciousness impacts all of us humans.
Dr. Durkheim studied, wrote about, and concluded that, as humans, we often create the illusion of separation amongst ourselves.
This is called an “Us vs. Them” mentality.
Society itself, as well as individual social groups, exists because of unique individuals feeling a sense of solidarity, community, and collective consecutiveness.
Collective consciousness has the capacity to influence solidarity, common ground, common morals, values, and can influence social groups, cities, states, countries, and entire species.
You can benefit from understanding the collective consciousness as long as you understand it and work with it.
Collective Consciousness Is Like A Civilization of the Mind
What makes humans unique is our capacity to imagine, design, and believe in ideas that otherwise appear fictitious.
Collective consciousness is the ability to collectively believe in ideas. This allows us to collaborate and work together towards common goals.
Collective consciousness creates a reality and the social openness of infinite ideas and collective opinions which lead to the clearest understanding of reality.
The open-mindedness allows flexibility in experimenting and extensive inclusion of alternative views to finding a real solution to common problems that we face.
Understanding and using the collective consciousness is our superpower as humans.
Collective Consciousness Decentralizes Decision Making
The ability to participate and be included in the ‘culturally-enabled perception of reality’ is fundamental to the survival of mankind.
Humans have the capacity of consciousness, and if we tap into our interconnected reflective power, social systems like social groups, and society,
in general, we will transform our understanding of what is actually true.
This is because collective conscience awakens the human within, allowing people to hold themselves accountable since they feel a greater sense of ownership and responsibility.
Is the Internet The Collective Consciousness
the Internet and Social Media
The source and origin of our collective consciousness are changing as the world becomes more digitized.
With the internet now broadcasting down from space, and with the widespread use of mobile devices, we can say that humankind is now more connected than it’s ever been in history.
The internet has become a global collection of our psyches, intuitions, beliefs, feelings, and inner most values.
There’s no doubt that the internet has become a new source for collecting the collective consciousness of the human race.
With humanity’s innermost desires, wants, secrets, and insecurities emerging to the forefront, the internet proves that humanity is emerging beyond individualism and evolving into one global mind.
Perhaps, through this virtual collective consciousness, society is beginning to think and contemplate more about our species as a whole and less about individual greed.
The internet has allowed individuals who were otherwise voiceless to find communities and social groups with shared traits and circumstances.
These communities have come together to allow humans to share light and empower each other, leading to a greater social consciousness amongst ourselves.
Conclusion
Human evolution depends on more of us expanding our awareness to understand ourselves not as individual group affiliations, but as members of the human race.
Dividing ourselves into intergroup, clans, nations, religions, and tribes makes us weaker as a species.
However, we all benefit by developing a deeper understanding for collective consciousness – an aspect that will allow us to start thinking of how we can work together.
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