The swing of the pendulum, alternately emphasizing individuation and group consciousness, has been in motion since mankind first set foot on planet Earth. As human beings develop and consciousness evolves, this needs to happen. We’re emphasizing during one period people’s need to get their personal ducks in a row. This is followed by their need to walk in a straight line with others in their community….During each phase, we move to a higher level of development, leveraging what we have learned from the previous phase…
When humans first arrived on the scene, we were scattered hither and yon across the face of the globe. And everyone was pretty much keeping to themselves. We lived in so much fear we could barely cope with the environment, much less deal with unruly neighbors. We each fought the elements on our own…Later, as populations grew, humanity got better at coping with the elements; we became more efficient at taking care of ourselves. So we applied what we had learned about playing well with others, allowing us to widen our circles of human relationships…
Once people learned to cooperate in larger communities—following the growth created by the oscillating pendulum—family clans grew into tribes, and much later, whole nations came into existence. Back and forth, down through the ages we have grown…Here we are today, with much of humanity not yet willing to play well with all our brothers and sisters who inhabit the planet….
Over the past few hundred years, the emphasis has been on the individual…We were learning certain lessons related to individual rights. Like we have the right to be ourselves, to be different, to not conform, and to become more self-responsible…As we turned the corner into the current century, this phase approached its end…
This doesn’t mean the individual is no longer important, but rather the emphasis must now shift once again to the group…The more fully we develop ourselves as individuals, the better will be our integration into the greater group…Being a strong individual allows us to love our neighbor…
It is important to distinguish between the healthy development of group consciousness and the blind movement of creating a mass consciousness. In the latter, people feel disconnected from themselves, from nature and from each other. Whereas group consciousness honors and supports individuals, mass consciousness eliminates them. Mass consciousness not only doesn’t require individuals to stand in their own right, it thwarts this, imposing conformity and blind following…
Unlike mass consciousness which attempts to snuff out uniqueness, group consciousness furthers it…Such a highly functioning group, made up of autonomous members, can then function as a free agent…
Since the movement is continuous, what’s right at one point in time may be totally wrong at another. When we reach the switchover point—whether we’re talking about a person or the whole planet, doesn’t matter—strong new energies will come flowing in from another sphere. If we attempt to halt this movement—by not feeling, not trusting or not following our own inner movement—a painful crisis will erupt instead. The energy has to go somewhere…
The energy-and-consciousness stream flooding the planet since the turn of the century is the Christ force. It transforms negative material and stagnant attitudes, carrying us along in this process of awakening; but we need to wake up more. We need to come out of our numbness. This is the path to creating a new world in which community living blossoms and individuals can thrive.
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Read Original Pathwork® Lecture: #225 Evolutionary Stages of Individual and Group Consciousness
