The Collective: Unconscious and Conscious

“The Collective” is interesting to me. Spiritualism, theology, psychology, sociology, biology, and more have always been of great interest to me. I believe in many things, including ghosts, reincarnation, and I believe the spirits of my ancestors can guide me. I believe that your dreams can interpret your subconscious mind and point you in the direction of things with which you should deal. I also believe in Western and Eastern medicine, including herbal medicine, as well as crystals used in magic and healing, and mind-body exercises for wellness. Also, I am Christian (baptized as an infant, lived throughout my life, and revived with a more clear understanding and feel in middle adulthood). Because of these interests, I have been drawn to Eckhart Tolle and Carl Jung. Both have theories on the unconscious mind which have led me to questions and opinions on the conscious mind. I first learned about Jung while studying Human Development in college (in which I earned a minor) and Tolle through self-education, specifically reading and rereading his book, titled, A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.

In this book, Tolle discusses pain-bodies. To summarize:

Pain-bodies are energy fields (aka partially self-governing energy forms that attract energy that vibrates at a similar frequency). We all have them based on the remnants of pain left behind by every strong negative emotion that is not fully faced, accepted, and then let go of. Children especially find it too difficult to face emotions (especially without an awakened adult to guide them with love and compassion), and the emotions remain in them and sometimes manifest as anxiety, anger, violence, or illness. If this energy can’t grow, if it can’t feed to fulfillment by provoking other people, it focuses on your thinking. Once your mind has been taken over by the pain-body, your thinking becomes negative . . . and, it eagerly devours every negative thought.

Tolle says they are unrecognized and manifest indirectly, so this is unconscious (not conscious). And, drugs and alcohol make things worse. These pain-bodies, I think, can be seen as dark spots or shadows of a person’s aura.

Some people carry more dense pain-bodies that are never completely dormant . . . They magnify the ego’s need for enemies . . . Due to the complete lack of self-awareness, they cannot tell the difference between an event and their reaction to the event . . . Sometimes people with such dense pain-bodies become activists fighting for a cause. The cause may indeed be worthy . . . however, conflict tends to generate increasing opposition to their cause.

In addition to reactivity, negative thinking, and personal drama, the pain-body also renews itself vicariously through entertainment and the media . . . violence is not only all-pervasive but even on the increase . . . The media thrives on negative news—the worse things get the more excited the presenters become.

In a sense, the media controls what some people focus on, and lately, they even lie and get away with it. Nowadays everyone says “Do your own research.” I encourage this. But keep in mind, when looking at statistics, to see the truth it is essential to look at percentages (not just the tallies). The sums need to be in perspective to reveal the truths.

Note also that the pain-body feeds on films, too—films in which violence is portrayed as normal or even desirable human behavior. This makes a lot of sense, but I believe it’s only harmful to you, individually, if you think it’s harmful to you.

Also interesting is that these “pain-bodies” are not just individual. That pain lives in the COLLECTIVE PSYCHE of humanity.

Tolle says the collective pain-body is probably encoded within every human’s DNA, although we haven’t discovered it there yet. He states that newborns come into the world as happy or sad and can cry more depending on their pain-bodies. They may also pick up on their parents’ pain, which I, as an empath, can agree with—and/or, perhaps, they carry weight from a past life.

Carl Jung, influential psychiatrist of the early 20th century, theorized that within your unconscious mind, shadows hide. These shadows are denied attributes such as anger or jealousy. Bringing these feelings to the surface helps alleviate them. He also believed the unconscious mind can be where your intuition comes from. In my opinion, it’s good to follow your intuition, but you must think about from where it might be coming. It could be your higher-self, your inner knowledge, but it could also be from fear or defense mechanisms. Maybe I’ll write a blog on instinct vs intuition.

Jung also touches on the collective. According to him, the collective unconscious is made up of a collection of knowledge and imagery that every person is born with and is shared by all human beings due to ancestral experience.

Whether it’s the history of humanity (be it war, slavery, pillage, etc—ancestral experience) or past lives’ pain, or even empathy, there is a such thing as the collective unconscious. But I don’t think it’s just bad emotions. I believe it includes good things, too (of course, they wouldn’t be called pain-bodies—more like happy-bodies—the same energy, but vibrating at a different frequency—the love frequency, and there would be a brighter aura). I think about the collective unconscious as we are all connected. Throughout the ages, some symbols (like in dreams and across time and cultures) have the same meaning. And, at all times and all over the world the same stories are reported again and again—things like this point to this truth: the collective unconscious. With all this, it would then be true that each awakened person helps the whole. And that, my friends, is good news. If the media would report the whole truth and report more good news, and if films were to show the collective unconscious what lies behind the violence, anger and hatred passed on from generation to generation, perhaps they could help awaken humanity, acting as a mirror in which humanity sees its own insanity. Maybe it is there, hidden in comedies.

So, what’s the difference between the collective unconscious and the collective consciousness?

The COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS is described in Wikipedia as “the set of shared beliefs, ideas, and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society. In general, it does not refer to the specifically moral conscience, but to a shared understanding of social norms.” Some would term the word collective as common to many individuals. But when I have been thinking of the collective, I think of all of us as one, not this collective group or that collective group. However, it does interest me (especially politics as they relate to sociology).

Sociologydictionary.org describes examples of Collective Consciousness—such as gender norms concerning how people dress and act, laws that socialize people into what is right and what is wrong in their society, or rituals such as parades or weddings. This seems so basic to me. I think there is more to it. If this is it, then any group of people, say all white people, or all Jewish people, or an activist movement/organization, or the political parties would each be a collective consciousness. I’m not sure this works for me. Not all white people dress or act or believe the same things, the same goes for the other examples. Black sheep in the family know what I mean. Perhaps there’s a reason they don’t feel like they fit in. They can see. There are ALWAYS shades of gray. When I think of collective consciousness, again, I think of all people as a whole, who are in touch with each other because of their present awareness. However, if a group of people went through the same experience at the same time, I believe they could have a collective consciousness of their own. This brings me to grouping vs the whole.

There’s a lot of push and shove going on in the world right now. We might feel forced to take a side. I think we need to take into account the subliminal messaging of the mainstream media as well as commercials, the crap we see on any screen. Also, there are chemicals we consume unknowingly in our foods and water that have an effect on our brains such as preservatives and added minerals. And, there are things we don’t know—behind-the-scenes actions going on that are slowly being revealed and more will be revealed in time, hopefully.

Tolle touches on some of the darkest chapters in human history: the Holocaust, and the “Holy Inquisition,” stating that the ego took over. Can ego cause such horrible acts!? He says the suppression of the Jewish people and of the feminine have become internalized. Native Americans, whose numbers were decimated by European settlers, and Black Americans whose ancestors were violently uprooted and sold into slavery, have become part of the collective American pain-body.

Then and now so many innocent children are used for pedophilia and other horrors. This is pure evil. What will life be like when they grow up and their pain-bodies grow? They need help and they need it now. These circles of pain need to stop!

Tolle states that it is always the case that both victim and perpetrator suffer the consequences of any acts of violence, oppression, or brutality. He says older nations and countries in which acts of collective violence were suffered, and Communist government that otherwise feels threatened by anything it cannot control, have heavier collective pain-bodies.

However, Tolle also mentions that China’s heavy pain-body is to some extent mitigated by the widespread practice of t'ai chi. I find this extremely interesting:

Spiritual practices that involve the physical body such as T'ai Chi, qigong, and yoga, are also increasingly being embraced in the Western world. These practices do not create a separation between body and spirit and are helpful in weakening the pain-body, they will play an important role in the global awakening . . .

It doesn’t really matter what proportion of your pain-body belongs to your nation or race and what proportion is personal. In either case, you can only go beyond it by taking responsibility for your inner state now. Even if blame seems more than justified, as long as you blame others, you keep feeding the pain-body with your thoughts and remain trapped in your ego.

There is only one perpetrator of evil on the planet: human unconsciousness. That realization is true forgiveness. With forgiveness, your victim identity dissolves, and your true power emerges—the power of presence. Instead of blaming the darkness, you bring in the light.

I believe that yoga and meditation are beneficial to each of us. These practices often involve visualization and breathing techniques or the chanting of mantras. They help keep our spiritual development flowing and in keeping our thoughts positive. I also think that if more people do this, it will affect the whole in a good way. Chi (or Qi, aka Ki, Dosha, Prana, subtle life-force energy) is the vital life-force energy of the universe flowing through all living things.

So, moving thought from the unconscious to the conscious is awareness. But, can this awareness, too, be negative and cause violence to spread? I think, yes, because it’s not enough. There is more work involved. Works of God, not works of flesh (which try to do something only God can do). For instance, you cannot change people. Faith and works lead to awakening. You actually have to work on being present until it becomes natural. Check out my blog, titled, Spiritual Enlightenment: Awakening with Faith and Works for more info.

You have to work on forgiveness. You have to work on change. You have to work on acceptance. You have to work on moving on. But, also, if the people are not awakened, or if they are brainwashed by drugs or too swept up in a “side” where they no longer think from other perspectives, where ego rules their thinking, trouble will follow. Moving from unconscious thought to conscious awareness can be positive and cause love and peace to spread, especially if you are present and aware of the whole (look at what Gandhi did for humanity!).

As more people become awakened, the collective consciousness can become more positive—not filled with hate and ego and evil, but filled with love and compassion and a willingness to understand and work together for good. I believe these are some of the things Jesus was trying to teach us. And remember, there’s always something to learn. If it’s too much for you (some people do not want to do the spiritual work), all you really need to do is believe and depend on Him. God is good. He loves you (even though you don’t do everything right). He is faithful. When you welcome Jesus into your life you will do better to follow the commandments not out of fear, but because you love Him.

Love,

Tracy

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Photo by Nikita Korchagin