Human Spiritual Structure: Group Mind
Notes in progress © 1998-2002 Alan McAllister  


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There are many levels and types of group mind. Any time two or more human beings (or other animals) come together for a shared purpose they begin to form a group mind. This is a psychic structure that contains all the common thoughts, attitudes, pictures, and samskaras of the members of the group. If the group is large enough, or aggressive enough, there will be a tendency for individual minds to yield and conform to the group, even in the absence of overt coercion. The pressure of a strong group mind can be quite painful. [AHM]

The relationship between the individual mind and the group mind varies from culture to culture. In the U.S. the individual mind is supposed to dominate, and yet one still finds strong group minds in families, churches, sub-cultures, etc. In fact the lack of a clear social group mind (due to the breakup of families and other traditional social structures) is being filled in a great variety of ways. The banding together in groups of all sorts suggests that the participation in group minds is a fundamental part of the human experience. Very few are strong enough to remain completely apart, and it is possible that in the extreme this is an essentially unnatural state of existence. [AHM] The relationship between the of the individual to the group mind is said by some to be a function of the first chakra.[AtS]

On the other hand in Japan the group is dominant over the individual, and many people have no clearly developed individual mind (at least not expressed). The group mind is strong and coherent, and requires the adjustment of individual minds within its scope, by shear weight if nothing else. There are actually many group minds, of family and village, male and female. These can feel supportive or suffocating depending on the perspective of the individual. When they wish to go in a different direction, it can be hard. In relation to this is may be that it enhances the exploration of ones spiritual self. There being no room for an external, or psychic individuality, one is forced to go inside to create personal space, perhaps on a spiritual level. [AHM]

In this type of society the relationships are not so much those between individual people, as they between group minds expressed through certain individuals. This a marriage is not as likely to form a partnership, or a new group mind of two, as it is to represent a social contract between two representatives of the male and female group minds, or two families, etc. [AHM]

There may be cases in which one, or a few strong individuals can take over the control of the group mind. Perhaps at first they embody various unexpressed desires and emotions of the members of the group, but once in control they may direct the evolution of the group mind in directions, or to extents, that are beyond the bounds of the original individual minds. It is an interesting question to what extent this can be done, if there is not at least some resonance in the individual minds? This leads to the extremes of mob behavior, in which a primitive, emotional group energy overwhelms the individual consciousnesses, to extreme social movements (sort of group psychoses), or to cults (in the negative, injurious sense). [AHM]

The relationship between the individual and the group is not simple, however. Group mind can support the individual to go beyond his or her conscious capacity, and can produce amazing results for the individuals and the group as a whole. As the group conscientious grows strong in a particular direction, however, it becomes harder to question, or to vary from the norm. If the individuals become engulfed in the group, i.e. cease having contact outside of the group, then there is no longer any reference, or independence. What was originally a mechanism to promote growth or evolution, can slip into being a mass delusion, or a constrictive and confining domination. This is the benefit of Satsanga, and the danger of the cult. [AHM]

In yogic terms group minds are a major source of imposed samskaras. [AHM]

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Last updated September 20, 1998. AHM.
© Alan McAllister

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