Collective Conscience continued.

Collective Conscience.

Studies and scientific theories of the collective conscience.

     I thought I would write a bit more on this collective conscience theory. The collective conscience is defined in several different ways, but collective still means: forming a whole; combined and Conscience means: The complex of ethical and moral principles that control or inhibits the actions or thoughts of an individual.
     I still don't know where I stand in regards to this widely believed idea that all our thoughts combined create the world we live in and that we could possible make a change for the greater good of the people, but I think it is worth a try. Of course, making our world a better place by any means is always worth a try. 

     There are several people who have written about this subject, many scientists who are studying it, and many people who read about it, but are not sure, just as I am, as to the validity of the claim.

As written by: Robert Kenny, MBA

© 2004 Robert Kenny and Leaderful Teams Consulting

This is only a small bit from Robert Kenny, but a link to his well written and informative article follows.  

Foreward and Overview

     A growing number of people are discussing collective consciousness and wisdom. When I first published an article about these topics in 1992¹, my literature search turned up only one line of related scientific research, begun in 1979, regarding the social effects of “unified field” consciousness, accessed through group practice of transcendental meditation (TM).² A year later, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) lab began studying how focused group intention and attention – or “field consciousness” -- brought order to random computer output. In 1995, Roger Nelson and Dean Radin began researching similar effects that occurred when mass attention was captured by events like the O.J. Simpson trial. In 1998, the Fetzer Institute and the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) co-sponsored two national dialogues exploring group consciousness and synergy, which my wife, Julie Glover, organized. Fetzer published a report,Centered on the Edge: Mapping a Field of Collective Intelligence and Spiritual Wisdom, three years later, and supported creation of this website in 2002. The following year Rupert Sheldrake published a book about “extended mind”, and IONS and the Association for Global New Thought co-sponsored the first conference on collective wisdom, which was attended by 2,500 participants. When I did an Internet search regarding collective consciousness in October 2003, I got more than 64,000 hits. In its May-July, 2004 issue, What Is Enlightenment? magazine ran a feature article on collective consciousness. Clearly, the topic has been increasingly infiltrating our social discourse.

     Is There Scientific Evidence? If more and more people are talking about collective consciousness, is there any scientific evidence to back it up? Yes – and that’s important. Rigorous science helps us avoid the fuzzy thinking and unquestioned assumptions that too often characterize spiritual and New Age discussions. Moreover, science may ultimately introduce mainstream society to collective consciousness and demonstrate how it can benefit us all.

Over the past 12 years, I’ve studied a good deal of intriguing research about collective consciousness. It suggests that we influence each other in many subtle, yet powerful ways, and that our collective wisdom and creativity can be harnessed for the common good much more than we do presently.

To read the rest of this terrific and insightful article visit: What Can Science Tell Us About Collective Consciousness?

Durkheim's Collective Conscience:  
   
     If we can say that in some sense collective representations exist outside of individual consciences, it is because they derive not from individuals taken one by one, but from their interaction, which is very different. No doubt each one brings his own share in the elaboration of the common result; but private sentiments become social only in combining under the pressure of sui generis forces that this association develops. Following these combinations and the mutual alterations that result from them, they become something else. A chemical synthesis occurs which concentrates and unites the synthesized elements and, by this very process, transforms them. Since this synthesis is the work of the whole, its stage will also be the whole. The resultant that comes out of it thus extends beyond each individual spirit, just like the whole extends beyond the part. ... It's in this sense that it is outside particular individuals. ... To really understand what it is, we have to take into consideration the aggregate in its totality. It is it that thinks, feels and wants, although it can only do this through particular consciences. That is also how we can see that the phenomenon of society is not dependent on the personal nature of individuals." (Sociologie et Philosophie, Presses Universitaires de France, 1963, p. 35-36 - my translation)

Here is a great article that further explains Durkheim:  

Durkheim

     Check out these and other articles on the collective conscience then come back and read the previous posting here.  
What do you think?  Should we try this out or not?  What could it hurt to simply try to make a better world?