In discussions on group consciousness, the story of “100 Monkeys” that were studied on the island of Koshima in Japan between 1952 and 1958 frequently is a primary example. It’s said scientists there had dropped sweet potatoes in the sand to supplement the diet of the indigenous monkeys. When the monkeys picked the potatoes up to eat, the yams were covered in sand. At first, the monkeys ate the food, sand and all. Then one day, an enterprising monkey decided to wash the sand off before consuming the food, and found the potato tasted much better minus the sand. Soon, other monkeys within the troop started to wash the sand off of their potatoes before eating the vegetable.
Their numbers grew until there were 99 of the monkeys participating in washing the food before consuming the tasty treat. The 99 dutifully washed their potatoes for a time; and the rest of the troop, which must have numbered in the hundreds, kept to the old ways of eating the potatoes, sand and all. Then one day, the 100th monkey started to wash the sand off of his potato, and something miraculously happened. With the addition of the 100th monkey washing his potato, some sort of critical mass had been reached in the collective thinking. Every monkey in the troop started to wash their potatoes.
Other monkey troops, scattered across the island, whether they had contact with the original potato washers or not, all spontaneously started to wash their potatoes. The scientists supposedly reported that the monkeys on neighboring islands started to ritually wash their food before eating at the same time the 100th monkey started his practice of washing. The scientists postulated that when enough monkeys, or yes, people, practice a certain way to perform a task; then at some critical point, everyone will automatically acquire the knowledge through an act of collective consciousness.
A lot of time and energy has been wasted in disputing this report. Most scientists believe that the story is not true, but it does not really matter whether this particular story can or cannot be validated. The question should be, “Is the collective consciousness possible?” And, the answer is that it is not only possible, but it occurs everywhere, all of the time.
The Creator One is composed of the Many Without Count’s individual consciousness that collectively make up the One single Supreme Mind. The Many are free to think on their own. Original thinking is not prohibited, but rather encouraged; but what One knows and thinks, All know and think. They have individual minds and the collective Super Mind acts with a single purpose to be more and grow. They do not have free will because they are a collective consciousness. What One wants, All want the same.
The One extends this singularity of purpose and collective consciousness to mankind; and nearly all of humankind has experienced the collective mind at work in one way or another, and most are completely unaware when this happens.
The Christian Bible teaches that Jesus, before his ascension into heaven, promised his followers that he must leave them and ascend into heaven before the Other could come. When asked what the Other was, he replied that the Other was the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, who comforts the believers with the peace that passes all understanding.
It is the same peace that I shared with you in the third illumination; it is the same spiritual collective consciousness that nearly all have experienced. If you do not believe me, let me offer a few examples to help you understand.
- People of color, especially African-Americans, will immediately understand my first example. Unfortunately, most people of non-color have never experienced the Holy Spirit and the accompanying collective consciousness in church. Catholics, in general, do not have a clue as to what I am about to say.
The black preacher stands in the pulpit, sweating profusely, and starts a chant of repetition; loud Amens ring throughout the congregation affirming his every word, a constant moaning starts with some of the female parishioners. In an almost trance-like state, he starts a singsong cadence of words, “And Jesus said. And Jesus said. And Jesus said.” The organist starts to accentuate every syllable. “And Jesus said. And my blood will wash your sins away! Jesus said, ‘My blood will wash your sins away!’ What did I say? I said that Jesus’ blood will wash your sins away!!!”
Loud Amens are shouted from every corner of the assembly; some women swoon; a lady in a pink dress in the front row starts to sway with the preacher’s every word. Another man comes forward, prostrates himself face down in front of the altar, and starts praying in tongues. Two women start dancing, spinning around and around. People are holding their arms high with their palms open, pointed skyward, waving their arms in time with the organ and the preacher’s words.
Every eye is upon the preacher. Every ear is open to hear his every word. Every heart beats in unison and everything becomes so clear, so perfectly clear, because the Holy Spirit, the great Comforter and the Harbinger of the collective consciousness, is moving throughout the church; and everyone thinks with one mind and one purpose.
What is it like? It is like you have risen out of your body, and you are floating three feet above your head. You are acutely aware of everyone around you, and you can feel the substance of each of their beings merging with yours.
You sense a euphoric feeling of bliss that you know is shared by every other person present. One thought, one mind, one purpose! And, you can feel it; it is akin to being high, not from drugs, but high on the wonders of life and the beauty of God’s creation and His word. You are in an altered state of consciousness. - Another example. You go to a jazz concert. On stage, is a five-piece combo. They start to play; usually a saxophone player leads off and the rest of the band follows. As they play, something strange happens. They are no longer playing for their audience, but are playing strictly for themselves.
As the piano player takes over, you look at the faces of the bass player, the saxophonist, and the guitar player, they have an other world look on their faces and a slight all knowing smile as they play and look at one another. They are cooking; no longer playing as individuals, but playing as one with a collective consciousness and purpose to the music that they are making. - A football team has less than a minute to play, and is down by five points. In the huddle, the quarterback looks each man in the eye, and tells them with a serene confidence: “We have got 70 yards to go and 59 seconds on the clock. All of the time in the world! Let’s get a touchdown and win this game!”
They break huddle and line up against the opposing team, not as individual players, but as a team with one collective consciousness and one purpose, to score the winning touchdown. They know with absolute certainty that they are going to win the game, and there is nothing that the other team can do about it.
The collective consciousness can work for good or evil; unfortunately, most of the time, it works for evil. Mankind, as always, prefers living in darkness rather than in the light; but instead of being a collective mind of uplifting euphoria, it is the destructive mind of chaos. There is no beauty in these manifestations; it is like an ugly swarm of locusts seeking to devour everything in its path.
Every American is or should be aware that the government’s policy through the beginning of the twentieth century was genocide to the Native Americans because they wanted all of their land. Photographs abound depicting the massacres of these people. To this day, they remain the poorest of the poor in these United States of America with little or no hope of advancement; and the collective will of the Anglo people, who dominate the American system, chooses to ignore their plight.
Nations are attacked and destroyed without any rational reason; and the blood lust of the collective mind sends their children off to die for absolutely nothing, while being lied to that they are fighting so we can be free. The blood of the innocent cries for justice from the sands of time, and the collective conscience of the majority is deaf to their screams of anguish, and spends its time preparing the nation for the next kill.
Since the beginning of our recorded history, we have spent fortunes past imagination, studying our environment and the creatures that dwell within it. We can tell the world about the mating habits of nearly every animal. We can look at the night sky and explain the origin of the universe, or so we think. Anthropologists can explain the cause and effects of our civilization and its relationship to human behavior; and yet, we leave the most important aspect and explanation of our being to a mystical interpretation by religions that have miserably failed us.
And every religion has one thing in common; everything in your life that is not right can be directly attributed to your individual shortcomings. It is all your fault! And the only way to straighten out the mess, that you find yourself in, is to get right with God. They never have you consider that most of your problems stem from things that you do not control and have absolutely no say so about.
- You do not determine whether you will be hired or fired. You have no say about when your taxes will be raised and you are forced into poverty. You have no input whom the next war will be with and if you or your children will be drafted. No one asks you if you want your social security benefits cut.
- You cannot stop your husband or wife from having an illicit affair. You are forced to put your retirement into a 401k savings account, tied to the stock markets, so that you can achieve some kind of growth. Then the market crashes, and now you have to continue to work until you drop dead. Was this your fault or the fault of a group of greedy Wall Street gangsters or power beyond your control?
Yet, religion would have you believe that, if you had not sinned, you would not find yourself in your present predicament. No one dares tell you the truth because there is too much money to be lost if you open your eyes and see what is really going on. The truth is that we, all of us, are the living personifications of the most powerful force that has ever existed — the Creator One. We are more than Its children; we are the essence of It. Within each of us, dwells a piece of Its being. As a result, we possess the same powers that It has, and we have been lied to about this fact. Therefore, we are totally ignorant of the potential that we possess and our ability to put this power to work.
Jesus once said, “The kingdom of God dwells within each of you.” The early Christian Gnostics believed this to be so. As a result, they were discredited and driven out of the Christian Church. If you believe the kingdom is within you, why do you need an organized church to guide you to God’s kingdom?
If you are wondering how you can ascertain this power, you have already taken the first step by reading these pages. If they have opened your eyes to some alternative possibilities, then get your trusted friends and neighbors to read these words. Form small groups to study the truths in this text; and collectively, your consciousness will start to expand and even more answers will be revealed. Learn to listen and communicate with your guiding Soul, and you will be surprised at what will be given. Your Soul has been knocking at the door of your Self all of your life. Just open the door and let It in.
(This is an excerpt from Awakening. If you like this message, click here to see the selection of stories available on this website)
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