TABLE of CONTENTS
[click on any heading]
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.
Moving Around This Document. This
Foreword and Overview will give you some brief examples of the research.
If you want to delve into the research in greater detail, you can explore
the longer paper that follows. If you click on a link in the Overview,
it will take you to the corresponding section of the in-depth paper.
It is the most up-to-date and comprehensive – perhaps the only
-- survey of the research on collective consciousness available today.
It represents my perspective on collective consciousness, based upon
my thinking and experience working with collective wisdom in teams and
organizations over more than 30 years. Finally, the paper’s endnotes
will allow you in many cases to link to the original research.
We have also provided additional ways for you to find the sections
of the paper that are most interesting to you. You can click on the
links in the Table of Contents,
above.
We will cover a lot of ground in this paper, addressing a number of
crucial issues involved in the scientific study of collective consciousness:
- Defining collective consciousness clearly and operationally,
in a manner that allows us to conduct effective scientific research;
- Beginning to outline a model of individual and
social development, and to develop a theory and testable hypotheses
regarding collective consciousness, so we can conduct research that
is rigorous, disciplined, interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, and grounded
in human experience and development;
- Drawing upon theory and research regarding consciousness,
fields, subtle energies and tele-prehension, that suggest possible
explanatory mechanisms for collective consciousness; and
- Examining some of the possible implications of
building collective consciousness, based upon the research, in terms
of physical, emotional and mental healing, strengthening and sustaining
our organizations and communities, and facilitating learning and creative
collaboration.
Before moving into the body of the paper, let me briefly summarize
the main areas of research and potential benefits that I will later
address in detail:
What Is Collective
Consciousness? Collective consciousness
is a mode of awareness that emerges at the first transpersonal stage
of consciousness, when our identities expand beyond our egos. A crucial
capacity that accompanies this awareness is the ability to intuitively
sense and work with the interactions between our and others’ energy
fields, physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually. For example,
just as Gene Rodenberry imagined a future where Star Trek’s
Spock could “mind meld” with others, more of us are now
becoming aware of our capacity not only to intuit each other’s
thoughts and emotions, but also to consciously think and create together
without communicating through our five senses.
The Role of Energy Fields.
Most of the researchers below postulate that energy fields
explain the effects of consciousness. Fields are regions of influence.
Examples include gravitational, electric and magnetic fields. Although
invisible, we have learned how to measure these fields. Some of the
research I will now describe, however, indicates that another type of
field may be associated with collective consciousness.
Psi or Tele-prehension.
Psi is extra-sensory perception or influence, perhaps made possible
by the apparent ability of consciousness to operate beyond the constraints
of space and time. Examples include telepathy and remote viewing. The
existence of psi (or tele-prehension, as Ken Wilber calls it) has been
convincingly demonstrated in a large number of scientific studies, carried
out by Marilyn Schlitz, Dean Radin and others. For example, in a number
of remote-viewing experiments people have described a distant location
to which another individual has been sent, with a statistically significant
degree of accuracy, well beyond chance levels. As in other psi experiments,
pairs who had an emotional bond have obtained the strongest results.
These findings suggest that building a sense of connection and trust
in groups may allow members to access and understand each other's perspectives
more readily, to “see through each other’s eyes.”
Biologist Rupert Sheldrake and others have conducted a number of ingenious
experiments that show that psi abilities are widespread, even in animals.
For example, using synchronized video cameras in dog owners’ homes
and workplaces, he has proven that dogs go to the front doors of their
homes to wait, as soon as their owners decide to return home from work,
even though those times are varied daily. Sheldrake, Radin and others
have conducted many other telepathy experiments, showing that people
can sense the thoughts and intentions of others across space and time.
Through tele-prehension, the members of a group may be able to read
each other’s minds and engage in a non-sensory, creative, mental
interplay.
Facilitated Learning
and Creativity. Sheldrake has
also demonstrated that we can assist each other’s learning across
distances. In one of a number of studies, a group completed a newly
created crossword puzzle. It was then broadcast to millions via TV,
for them to complete. Subsequently, a new group, that had not seen the
puzzle, finished it significantly faster than the original group. If
we extrapolate from individual to group effects, these results imply
that a team may be able to help other teams to develop cognitively and
creatively, without any external interaction. Systems theorist Ervin
Laszlo has suggested that such findings may also explain cultural synchronicity
in times past, where a discovery or creative renaissance in one culture
appeared within relatively short timeframes in other cultures around
the world, despite an absence of communication.
The Creation of
Order or Coherence. Radin, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies
Research (PEAR) Lab, and Roger Nelson’s Global Consciousness Project
have conducted many other intriguing experiments with random-number-generating
(RNG) computers. RNGs are programmed to issue zeroes or ones randomly,
so that each
number eventually appears 50% of the time. Ordinary people, however,
have used intention to create order out of this randomness, causing
RNGs that were sometimes thousands of miles away, to issue significantly
more of one number over many trials. Bonded pairs – couples in
a relationship – produced effects that were six times stronger
than individuals. Like the remote viewing experiments, these results
indicate that people with an emotional connection, when acting in concert,
are more influential than individuals acting alone.
Groups also produce stronger results than individuals. For example,
even when only the attention of groups has been captured by
high-interest events, the RNG effects have been three times greater
than individual-intention results -- despite the fact that
the groups were unaware of the RNGs and therefore did not intend to
influence their output. When groups of people meditated together –
a practice that creates even greater focus by synchronizing members’
brain waves – the effect of their coherent attention
was six times greater than the individual-intention results.
Finally, during certain events that have captured mass attention, such
as Princess Diana’s death and the 9/11 tragedies, the combined
output of 60 RNGs around the world has significantly deviated from chance.
These results suggest that focused collective attention or intention
can create significant order in otherwise random and chaotic reality.
It is precisely this effect – the transformation of randomness
into coherence -- that underlies insight, learning, healing and creative
manifestation.
Interpersonal
and Collective Entrainment. Just as we can create order in
physical systems through focused attention or intention, a number of
experiments have suggested that two or more people can create synchronization
or coherence between their nervous systems. For example, Marilyn Schlitz,
William Braud and others have shown that calm individuals can intentionally
reduce the anxiety of others in distant places, and that focused people
can help others in remote locations to concentrate their attention.
These effects may be explained by other studies, including those conducted
by a non-profit organization, HeartMath, and by researchers at Bastyr
University/University of Washington Consciousness Research Lab. Even
when participants were in separate rooms, their heart and brain waves
became synchronized or entrained, when they had close living or working
relationships, or when they felt appreciation, care, empathy, or love
toward each other. When people meditated together, their alpha brain
waves entrained. And when people were able to internally entrain their
own personal heart and brain waves, they caused the heart and brain
waves of other individuals to entrain with theirs. Entrainment appears
to increase attention, to produce feelings of calm and deep connection,
and to facilitate tele-prehension of each other’s sensations,
emotions, images, thoughts and intuitions. Like Sheldrake’s facilitated
learning experiments, these findings have significant implications,
since chronic stress is a key cause of physical and emotional illness,
and since enhanced attention greatly improves learning and creativity.
Distance Healing.
In another arena – distance healing -- 67% of 150 controlled studies
have shown that individuals and groups can use intention, relaxation,
enhanced concentration, visualization, and a request to a healing force
greater than themselves, to heal others to a statistically significant
degree.
Improved Quality of
Life, Peace and Social Health. On community, societal and
even worldwide levels, more than 20 experiments, published in respected
scientific journals, have demonstrated that Transcendental Meditation
groups, representing 1% of a target population, have caused significant
improvements in social indicators of quality of life, health and mental
health, and have reduced crime, accidents, conflict and war, apparently
by reducing stress in the corresponding population.
Promoting the Common Good.
These and other studies provide strong evidence that, given
certain conditions, we can develop and work with our collective consciousness
to produce a number of important interpersonal, organizational and social
benefits: increased empathy, compassion, understanding, respect, appreciation
and rapport; greater cooperation, creative collaboration, teamwork and
collective wisdom; and enhanced well-being, peace, and physical, emotional,
mental and spiritual health. In our increasingly diverse workplaces,
communities and global institutions, where we are challenged by extremely
complex problems, developing these capacities will not only promote
the common good, but could also ensure our survival.
The Focus of This Paper
How I and you enter into a “we”, and
how you – as an alien object or “it” – become
a “thou”, in a circle of understanding and care, is an
extraordinary mystery. A “we” seems to hold the heart
of the Kosmos3
hidden in its embrace.
–
Ken Wilber4
I have written this paper in order to give scientists and laypeople
alike an overview of the possibilities offered by science and the wisdom
traditions, in terms of investigating and understanding the phenomenon
of collective consciousness. It is alternately referred to as group,
shared, correlated, field, ecological, global, cosmic, or Kosmic consciousness,
although these terms are not always used in the same way. In many instances,
the various terms reflect ever-widening circles of identity and care,
which are correlated with deeper and deeper levels of consciousness.
I have not focused upon collective wisdom for the most part,
since I believe it is necessary to begin with consciousness, which precedes
wisdom, in attempting to conduct a research program. Apart from some
of my own action research, I have not found any research studies on
collective wisdom per se. Nonetheless, much of the
theory and research described in this paper will indirectly apply to
collective wisdom. I do not mean to imply that collective wisdom cannot
be the focus of research. For a discussion of collective wisdom, please
consult my papers listed in endnote 5, especially
those after 2001, including the paper on this website, Calling
Out Our Potential: Developing Collective Wisdom and Team Synergy.
I have organized this summary according to various lines of research
and practice. In each section, I propose one or more intriguing and
important questions, which might help us to study and understand collective
consciousness. I also provide links for readers who wish to pursue some
of the information in greater detail. I have placed these links in the
endnotes, so that I would not clutter or complicate the main text.
Due to space limitations, I will not be able to describe the work of
some of the individuals or organizations that have conducted research
in the research areas described below. Rather, I have referenced those
whose work I believe to be central and critical to the research area.
Although I periodically mention critiques and problems, space limitations
prevented me from discussing these critiques in detail. Finally, I cannot
cover all the arenas of potentially relevant research. For example,
the extensive research regarding intergroup relations and regarding
teamwork would be very productive areas to explore. My overall intention,
rather, is to provide references that will allow readers to consider
the debates and controversies in greater detail and to engage in dialogue
through this website. If you would like to obtain addition information
regarding relevant researchers, whether cited here or not, please consult
the articles, chapters, audiocassettes, and book that I have published
regarding collective consciousness.5
A number of researchers are now investigating collective consciousness
per se,6
or phenomena that may be related. I will refer to the key theorists
and researchers below. I recently interviewed or corresponded with most
of them (about 20 individuals), to discuss their latest thinking and
questions regarding collective consciousness. I also updated my knowledge
of the field by reading a number of the latest articles and books. As
a result, this paper should give you a fairly comprehensive overview
of research that may be relevant to understanding collective consciousness.
I realize that the research questions I have presented will have to
be explored in a certain order and over at least the next 20 to 30 years.
If one examines the history of the propagation of novel ideas and phenomena,
pioneers can wait decades before their ideas enter the mainstream and
become eligible for research funding. My hope is that this paper will
stimulate interest in research regarding collective consciousness and
wisdom. In my conversations with the researchers doing pioneering work
in these arenas, one theme emerged consistently: they believe, as I
do, that learning to develop collective wisdom may prove extremely helpful
in dealing with the complex social and cultural issues that we face
as a globe.
The Strengths and Limits of Science
I am delighted that this website is opening a dialogue with the scientific
and academic communities regarding collective consciousness. Scientific
inquiry can bring disciplined thinking to the exploration of any phenomenon,
can unearth unexamined assumptions and beliefs, and can clarify confusing,
redundant, and unnecessarily complex terminology and concepts. When
novel ideas begin to spread through societies, they often progress from
the original innovators and pioneers to the academic and scientific
communities. By bringing rigor and discipline to the study of collective
consciousness, these communities can help build bridges to organizational
and community leaders who might otherwise dismiss the phenomenon out
of hand. If scientific investigation validates the reality of collective
consciousness and its effects in society, the phenomenon will begin
to receive serious, more widespread and mainstream consideration and
application over the next 10 to 50 years. If the potential benefits
of collective consciousness are demonstrated, in areas such as creativity,7
leadership,8
health and mental health,9
problem solving,10
and sustainability,11
these aspects of our lives may well be transformed and the common good12
may be advanced significantly.
On the other hand, traditional science may be limited in its ability
to examine all aspects of collective wisdom. As Ken Wilber has noted,13
science excels in examining sensory experience (via empiric-analytic
science) and phenomena that can be understood through reason, logic
and concepts (via phenomenological philosophy and psychology). Understanding
some aspects of collective consciousness, however, may require the practice
of contemplation and meditation, and access to knowledge via gnosis,
i.e., direct knowing or realization, which is transrational, translogical
and transmental. Such experiences have been elucidated by the world’s
wisdom traditions.
In the last case, scientific rigor may still be brought to bear (and
speculative, often culturally conditioned metaphysics14
avoided), since claims can still be tested through the essential components
of all forms of knowledge validation, including review and consensual
proof by a community of trained peers who have practiced the specific
approach being used (in this case, introspective phenomenology). Nonetheless,
to the degree that the study of collective consciousness requires examination
of the higher developmental stages of human consciousness, and the direct
experience of Spirit, or infinite, nondual Emptiness, that experience
can only be expressed by poetry and metaphor, not by finite and dualistic
categorizations and descriptions.
Einstein warned us that science without religion is blind and that
religion without science is lame. Since the split has always appeared
nonsensical and strange to me, I have chosen to use Wilber’s integrative
model as a framework for discussing the research and wisdom traditions
presented.
The Challenge of Clear Definition
If we want to approach collective consciousness scientifically, we
must first develop a clear definition of what we believe it uniquely
is, based upon our experience and observation. For me even to write
this paper, I have had to do so. Otherwise, I cannot suggest the areas
of research that may be relevant and fruitful.
It is not unusual to find conceptual unclarity and confusion when
the dimensions of a phenomenon are first being explored. But if we wish
to observe and measure relevant variables, conduct methodologically
sound research, and develop findings and conclusions that are valid
and reliable, then we must define collective consciousness in a way
that is clear, that is as simple and parsimonious as possible, and that
can be operationalized (i.e., contains variables that are measurable).
I will present my working definition of collective consciousness,
and will situate it within a model of human development, in the next
section.
A Model of Human Development
In an online draft of his latest book,15
Wilber continues to lay out an integral model of human development,
which is thoughtful, clear, rigorous, interdisciplinary, and grounded
in a cross-cultural survey of scientific research and texts from humanity’s
age-old wisdom traditions. Because his model is so comprehensive, it
provides an excellent overall framework for defining collective consciousness
and synthesizing the relevant research. It helps us avoid conceptual
confusion and the narrow lacuna and unwarranted absolutism, in which
single-discipline theory and research often get trapped. By stripping
metaphysical concepts that are culturally conditioned from the transpersonal
stages of development, his model allows us to study collective consciousness
scientifically.
Wilber portrays his integral model via a comprehensive psychosociograph
of individual and collective development. He draws upon theory and research
from the wisdom and scientific praxes and proposes correlations between
levels of consciousness and types of development.16
The vertical axis of his graphic model represents the overall level
of consciousness for an individual or a collective (10 levels are suggested).
The horizontal axis displays 12 types of development, which include
cognitive (Piaget, Aurobindo), self-sense/identity (Loevinger, Cook-Greuter),
moral (Kohlberg), needs (Maslow), values (Graves, Spiral Dynamics) and
interpersonal (Gardner) development.
To lay some groundwork for my later discussion of collective consciousness,
let me give a brief example of individual development, taken from an
essay I wrote.17
At a certain point in their lives, individuals may begin a series of
transpersonal stages of development, wherein their “sense of identity
or self extends beyond the individual…to encompass wider aspects
of humankind.”18
Wilber labels the first of these levels “higher mind (vision-logic)”,
on the cognitive developmental line. Here individuals -- having transcended,
yet incorporated, their previous identities (e.g., ego-, family-, membership-group-,
ethnic-, and nation-centric) -- now consciously choose a world-centric
identity, “not just with all humans, but with nature.”19
They go beyond mutual recognition, the “free exchange of…actualized
self-esteem needs”20
to mutual identity,21
whereby individuals now recognize themselves in each other, “beyond
the illusions of separation and duality.”22
Individuals begin to make organizational decisions, for example, from
the perspective of a common good, that transcends, yet embraces, the
boundaries of ego, family, tribe, city and nation.
Moreover, whereas individuals on the previous level add up the diverse
perspectives in a collective, in order to arrive at integration, individuals
working at the vision-logic level “directly see the integral [through]
intuition.”23
The development of this intuitive ability may play a crucial role in
the development of collective consciousness. Research indicates that
members of a group may be able to directly apprehend the unexpressed
thoughts and feelings of each other, and perhaps the intelligence of
Spirit. If this is so, teams can engage in a relatively fast, nonverbal
interplay between their hearts and minds. In my experience, teams and
organizations can access a level of wisdom that surpasses, yet incorporates,
the individual perspectives of their members.
In terms of collective consciousness, the developmental and spiritual
literature describes an evolutionary progression, leading to ever widening
circles of identification and care: from a particular group (marriage,
family, organization, etc.), to a community (geographic, interest group,
etc.), to a society or culture (national, ethnic, tribal, etc.), to
all sentient beings, to Nature (ecological consciousness), to the globe
(global consciousness), to the cosmos (cosmic consciousness),24
and to the Kosmos (Kosmic consciousness).25
The wisdom traditions assert that, ultimately, an individual “realizes
a Self-identity with Spirit.”26
A Working Definition of Collective Consciousness
The circular ripples that radiate out from a pebble thrown into a pond
can metaphorically represent our sense of ever widening identity. In
Wilber’s 10-level model of consciousness, transpersonal development
spans levels six through nine. I believe collective consciousness begins
to emerge at level six. I define it as:
A mode of awareness, in which we directly experience, through
an intuitive felt-sense, our union with the interconnected wholeness
of life, and recognize ourselves in others. Our identity extends beyond
our individual boundary and embraces the collective, through a free
and conscious act of identification, rather than through definition
by convention or external authority.
Once this awareness develops, individuals – because they now
perceive themselves as mutually interdependent parts of a larger whole
-- develop an authentic, abiding and primary concern and care for common
good and for the well being, health and productive functioning of the
communities to which they belong (including organizations and, eventually,
the global community).
Note that I am speaking about a mode of awareness that may exist in
an individual, not a collective. The phrase, “group mind”,
that is sometimes used to refer to collective consciousness, gives the
impression that a new mind and, therefore, consciousness emerges as
a collective entity, a position that is speculative at present.27
I am therefore simply holding for now that the reported experience of
connection, of communion, and of direct apprehension of the thoughts
and feelings of others is due to some form of invisible interaction
between the members of a group. The research cited below will outline
some possible explanations for the nature of that interaction.
Note also that I am not using the term coined by Carl Jung, the “collective
unconscious”, which he used to describe the phenomena of universal,
archetypal and mythological images and symbols which appear across cultures.28
Although collective consciousness involves ever widening circles of
identity, and therefore an awareness of the many essential and universal
ways in which we are profoundly connected to other humans and to all
manifestations of life, building collective consciousness and wisdom
is primarily a conscious act – one that explicitly nurtures diversity
as the key to reaching true wisdom.29
Developing A Theory, A Model and Testable Hypotheses
To my knowledge, no one has yet developed a theory, a model or testable
hypotheses regarding collective consciousness. One productive way to
do so would be to use a qualitative research method, such as grounded
theory,30
to interview individuals who believe they have experienced collective
consciousness. Such a research method allows a theory and hypotheses
to emerge from the perspectives and experience of those who possess
knowledge of the proposed phenomenon. In other words, the data of people’s
experience shapes the theory, rather than it being imposed upon data.
It is common for scientists to first experience or observe a phenomenon,
to notice and study correlations between apparently relevant variables,
to speculate about and to investigate possible cause-and-effect relationships,
and to search for and postulate explanatory mechanisms. The first two
activities may take place before scientists formulate a theory or model.
To my knowledge, this is the situation today regarding collective consciousness.
On this website,31
in my own writing,32
and in the work of others,33
the qualities or dimensions of collective wisdom, the correlations among
variables, and potential cause-and-effect relationships have been postulated.
Essentially they include:
• Qualities of the felt experience
of collective consciousness, including resonance; communion; sense
of community; interconnectedness; mutual understanding, respect and
support; concern for the welfare of each other, others and the common
good; precognition of each other’s thoughts, words and/or actions;
love; intuition; openness and receptivity; synergy; coordination;
being heard and seen fully; shared, correlated, or unified consciousness;
and sense of a group field;
• Effects that may be
correlated with, and possibly caused by, collective consciousness,
and/or focused group attention or intention, including increased personal,
group and social creativity, collaboration, conflict resolution, wisdom,
health, mental health, and effectiveness; and improved decision-making.
• Conditions that may support
the emergence of collective consciousness and its presumed benefits,
including creating a sense of sacred space and time, good listening
and communication, openness, receptivity, trust, emotional bonds (warmth,
love, care, etc.) between participants, intuition, tolerance, respect,
inclusiveness, clarifying purpose and intent, meditative and contemplative
practice, and development of higher levels of consciousness.
Collective consciousness is a very complex phenomenon. There are many
aspects and dimensions, which might be examined. For example, one might
focus upon the qualities of the felt, inner experience of collective
consciousness. Or one might focus upon the observable, exterior manifestations
and effects of collective consciousness, the behaviors of group members
that express concern for the productive functioning of the collective.
(I and Julie Glover have considered some of these dimensions in another
seed paper on this website,34
such as the distinction between the felt inner sense of communion with
others and the exterior processes and interactions which contribute
to building and sustaining community.)
Our model should reflect the complexity and wholeness of individual
and collective development. The number of interactive variables will
therefore make research challenging. On the other hand, well designed,
cross-cultural, longitudinal, hermeneutic and structural research35
would honor, rather than reduce, the complexity of human development,
would enable us to study the relationship between individual and collective
development, and would provide a profound understanding of the nature
of collective consciousness.
In the following sections, I will describe theory and research that
may be relevant, in order to build an adequate model of collective consciousness
and to examine collective consciousness scientifically.
The Felt-Sense of Collective Consciousness:
Tele-Prehension
The extended mind is a scientific hypothesis that
leads to testable predictions. It is already supported by a large
body of evidence, both from people’s spontaneous experiences
and from controlled experiments.36
–
Rupert Sheldrake
When asked in interviews to describe the features of collective consciousness,
a common response concerns the felt-sense of extrasensory perception
or communication, of being able to anticipate another’s words
or behavior, of reading another’s mind,37
of seeing through another’s eyes, of feeling another’s feelings,
and of a harmonic resonance of heart and mind.38
Consequently, people speak about a sense of deep connection. This may
be due to telepathy, the exchange of information between two or more
minds without using ordinary senses.
Wilber finds the evidence for psi to be “very compelling”,
as do a number of researchers.39
Sheldrake has noted that much psi research has been “scientific,
open-minded, and experimental,”40
with research protocols that have typically been more rigorous than
those used in mainstream research, even in the hard sciences and with
results that often exceed chance by huge margins.
Wilber calls this ability to feel another’s feelings or know
another’s thoughts in an immediate and direct way “tele-prehension”.41
He identifies three ways in which tele-prehension may occur:42
1. Psychic or psi phenomena. A
key example is telepathy, or prehension (feeling, perception or awareness)
at a distance.
2. A transcendent Self (Spirit).
Wilber believes “the same nondual and nonlocal Subject inhabits
all subjects, such that an instantaneous intersubjectivity from within
connects holons43
prior to any [communicative] exchange.”44
3. Harmonic empathy or resonance. In
exterior resonance or vibration, a note struck on one string instrument,
e.g., causes the same string on another nearby string instrument to
vibrate. Harmonic empathy is the “interior equivalent between
two sentient beings: a type of felt resonance or mutual prehension
– an immediate, nonreflexive, intersubjective presence or resonance
with another holon at a similar level of depth.”46
The second proposed source of tele-prehension brings us back to the
limits of traditional science, as discussed above, and to the importance
of meditative practice and direct awareness, in terms of developing
a true and full understanding of collective consciousness.47
Of course, traditional science can be used to study the first and third
phenomena, since they may be exterior manifestations of the second.
Ralph Waldo Emerson seems to have described the experience of collective
consciousness, even though he did not use that term. He attributed his
experience to the presence of the divine, similar to Wilber’s
second explanation of tele-prehension. Emerson described his discovery
of “an identical [common] nature appearing through all”,
which
is God. And so, in groups where debate is earnest, and especially
on high questions, the company becomes aware that the thought rises
to an equal level in all bosoms, that all have a spiritual property
in what was said, as well as the sayer. They all become wiser than
they were. It arches over them like a temple, this unity of thought….
All are conscious of attaining to a higher self-possession. It shines
for all.48
Emerson referred to God as the Over-soul, “that common heart
of which all sincere conversation is the worship.”49
Similarly, Friedrich Holderlin said, “…We calmly smiled,
sensed our own God amidst intimate conversation, in one song of our
souls.”50
The potential trap is that groups may become caught up in extrasensory
phenomena per se, or to become primarily focused upon re-creating,
over and over, a wonderful feeling of connection – rather than
developing and using the expanded capacities of collective consciousness
for the sake of serving the common good. If collective consciousness
indeed involves the direct and intuitive sensing of tele-prehension,
the implications for mutual understanding, empathy, compassion, mutual
support, effective decision-making, creativity, conflict resolution
and collaboration are profound. For these reasons, the research on tele-prehension
is important to consider. We may be able to identify the key factors
or variables that would enable groups to derive the above benefits for
the sake of their communities, organizations and societies.
Sheldrake has suggested a number of simple experiments that ordinary
folks can conduct, to help scientifically explore and document tele-prehension,
which he calls “the seventh sense” (a term designed to distinguish
it from the “sixth sense”, a term biologists have already
applied to the electrical and magnetic senses of animals).51
He believes that these phenomena are explicable. Rather than suggest
research questions for this segment of the seed paper, I refer you to
Sheldrake.52
I will outline some questions in the sections below, regarding subtle
energies, fields and psi phenomena.
The Role of Subtle Energies
Based upon contemporary research regarding brain functioning and neurophysiology,
Wilber considers matter (mass) and energy – or matter-energy –
to be two of the exterior, physical forms53
of consciousness (prehension). As life evolves, the states or forms
of matter-energy reflect each level of consciousness and become more
complex. Wilber views matter-energy as intra-physical: not beyond matter
(meta-physical), but interior to it, not above nature (super-natural),
but within it. According to this model, matter-energy exists at all
levels of evolution.54
What a number of researchers refer to as subtle energy (“prana”),
therefore, can be found at all levels. Wilber distinguishes three types
of energy: gross, subtle55
and causal, each corresponding to certain states and stages of consciousness.
Wilber proposes four hypotheses, which he believes will clear up much
of the conceptual confusion and culturally conditioned thinking regarding
subtle energies, in both the wisdom traditions and science:
1. Increasing evolution brings increasing complexity of gross exterior
form.
2. Increasing complexity of form is correlated with increasing interior
consciousness.
3. Increasing complexity of gross form is correlated with increasing
subtlety of exterior energies (energy patterns or fields).56
4. Complexity of gross form is necessary for the expression or manifestation
[not the existence] of higher consciousness and subtler energy.57
Wilber believes that the “real test case of any theory of subtle
energies is whether it can adequately explicate the chakras.”58
I will discuss this issue in the “Practice, Development and Character”
section, below.
Researchers have been attempting to understand the nature of the subtle
energies (such as electromagnetic fields or photon emissions)59
harnessed by non-conventional healers. The explanatory mechanism for
this type of healing is still unclear.
Field Effects
Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing
There is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
The world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
Doesn’t make any sense.
- Jelaluddin Rumi
A number of researchers have argued that individuals and groups can
influence each other outside of modalities of communication that use
the five senses, through some form of field effect.60
This is not a wild or unfounded suggestion: magnetic, electrical and
gravitational fields are all “invisible, yet capable of bringing
about effects at a distance.”61
In biology, the concept of morphogenetic fields, underlying the form
of a growing organism, is widely accepted, yet scientists don’t
“yet know what these fields are or how they work.”62
Successful sports-team members refer to a “sixth sense”,
empathy, and an ability to “anticipate the moves of the other”63
; or to a “click of communality,” an almost audible shift
whereby sports participants “react as a…unit, rather than
as an aggregate of individuals.”64
In my consulting experience, I have found that, if the members of a
group or team have established a sense of trust, a warm emotional connection,
and an inspiring, shared purpose, they can perform tasks fluidly, efficiently
and in a highly coordinated state, with minimal verbal communication
or visual contact.65
Under his hypothesis of formative causation, Rupert Sheldrake has postulated
that morphogenetic fields are part of a larger family of fields called
morphic fields.66
Morphogenetic fields are a new kind of field, unrecognized so far by
physics, and are “not just a way of talking about standard mechanistic
processes.”67
They evolve, have a history, contain an inherent memory, are created
by morphic resonance (a nonlocal influence of like upon like, a transfer
of information or an activity pattern, across space and time.) They
are regions of influence, located in and around the self-organizing
systems that they organize into “spatiotemporal patterns of vibratory
or rhythmic activity.”68
They work probabilistically, imparting characteristic properties, wholeness
and order upon the “inherent indeterminism of their systems”
and make them “more than the sum of its parts.”69
Sheldrake suggests that attention creates perceptual fields, which connect
us to what we look at; that mental fields may help explain tele-prehension
and the experience we have of “extended mind”; and that
a social field “organizes and coordinates the behavior of individuals
within a social group, for example, the way individual birds fly within
a flock.”70
Sheldrake has suggested that morphic resonance (“resonant connections”)
might enable us to perceive each other’s images, thoughts, impressions,
or feelings, even if thousands of miles apart. Such a phenomenon “may
be similar to, if not identical with…telepathy.”71
Sheldrake and his colleagues have conducted a number of experiments,
which so far seem to indicate that his hypothesis is valid.72
Sheldrake believes that attention and intention are the means by which
our minds reach out and connect with other members of social groups.73
In fact, the research that I describe in this paper generally examines
the role of attention and intention in creating or utilizing mental
fields to tele-prehend.
Sheldrake’s work is congruent with Wilber’s model and
his hypothesis 3 (above), according to which the subtlety of fields
increases as material bodies (or morphic forms) become more complex
and the degree of consciousness grows. Wilber suggests the following
schema:74
1. “Gross energies surround their associated material bodies
in physical fields.”75
Corresponding level of consciousness: sensorimotor or material.
2. The etheric energy field, according to the wisdom traditions,
surrounds the physical fields as a more expansive sphere. Vital consciousness.
“Dreaming” state of consciousness may begin.
3. The astral (powerful emotional) energy field, in addition to enveloping
the two prior fields, passes through the acupuncture meridians of
living organisms. Emotional-sexual (emotional-pranic) consciousness.
Subtle body-energy begins.
4. Psychic (thought) field 1 is caused by sustained mental activity,
according to the wisdom traditions. Mental level of consciousness.
5. Psychic or thought field 2. Higher mental consciousness.
6. The causal field emerged after development of the complex neocortex.
Overmental (nearly formless) consciousness. Causal (very subtle) body-energy.
Formless state of consciousness.
7. Nondual. Supermental consciousness.
The more complex the form, the greater number of energy fields around
it. Wilber believes that these seven, major levels of matter-energy
approximately correlate with the qualities that the wisdom traditions
have associated with the seven chakras. His synthesis is extremely valuable,
in terms of simplifying what is often a bewildering array of seemingly
different terms used by researchers and the wisdom traditions.
To give a sense of how part of Wilber’s schema can be related
to existing scientific knowledge, the family of gross-energy, for example,
contains genus gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear and weak
nuclear energy fields. The genus electromagnetic contains species cosmic
rays, gamma rays, x-rays, visible light, infrared, microwaves, etc.
The taxonomy of his schema is extremely helpful, in terms of framing
research on subtle energies and the fields of collective consciousness.
The local aspects of these energy fields, according to Wilber, are
the areas of highest density or of greatest probability of being detected.
Many can be detected physically with certain instruments76
and can be perceived by highly respected psychics and non-conventional
healers.77
Even the most basic types of fields, such as electromagnetic fields,
seem to be able to influence objects at a distance, with no observable
material traveling between them.
Is There A Field Created by “Group Mind”?
I mentioned earlier that theorists and researchers have sometimes speculated
that collective consciousness reflects the existence of “group
mind”. Just as we colloquially say, “We are of one mind,”
is there a unified mind associated with any coherent collective? As
an individual has a mind, does a group have one, too? At this point
in time, we don’t know.
From a theoretical perspective, Wilber does not believe that the members
of a collective are “like” or “are” an individual
or an organism – viewpoints that are called the “organic”
model, in the former instance, or the “organismic” model,
in the latter case.78
An individual has a center of prehension, which controls and coordinates
the parts.79
But in a collective, members are not parts, or subholons, completely
subservient to the control and direction of the group or a “Super-I.”
Rather, they are co-creative partners, who choose to come together as
an association or network because they feel that their interiors (individual
values, intentionality, etc.) resonate mutually and empathetically.
They then together fashion and agree upon a set of goals, norms,
etc., through which they can act in coordination.80
Wilber believes that many proponents of system theory, eco-philosophy,
the Web of Life,81
and Gaia as a superorganism, adopt either an organic or organismic model,
which reduces the interior of the collective to an exterior system or
form and eliminates the freedom and rights of the members. In this sense,
Wilber argues that a group mind does not exist.
However, Wilber does believe that the internal and defining aspects
of a collective holon or network – the sum total of its interior
intersections (shared, cultural-pattern feeling-meanings) and exterior
intersections (shared social-behavioral rules) -- are carried in the
sum total of its members, including in a morphic field, in (not as)
the group’s collective prehensions, and in the members’
genetic inheritance. He calls this “solidarity”:82
the cultural backgrounds, the interior culture, and the intersubjective
dimensions of the Kosmic habits of the collective holon; and the interior
feel correlated with the collective, exterior morphic energy fields,
ecosystems and social systems.83
If we therefore do not see group mind as a conscious entity that controls
or dictates the thinking and behavior of the members of a self-aware
collective (in contrast to the control and extreme influence exerted
by the leader of a cult or a mob), perhaps we can postulate the creation
of a group field that represents the conscious and reflective interaction,
consensus and shared intentions of the members of a collective –
the influence and power of which may wax or wane, based upon a number
of dynamic factors. This perspective fits my experience of collective
wisdom. Although at times group members seem to simultaneously access
the consciousness of Spirit within them (Wilber’s second mechanism
of tele-prehension, above), at other times they seem to access –
through their explicit and implicit interactions – the wisdom
that arises from considering and embracing the diversity and wholeness
of their individual perspectives. The interplay of their hearts and
minds perhaps creates a group field. Some of the rare research on group
effects that I will cite below suggests that groups may create fields
that are more powerful and influential than individual fields.
Nonlocal Field Effects
According to the Vedanta-Vajrayana model presented briefly above, which
Wilber has incorporated with refinements into his model, subtle matter-energy
(bodymind) can exist without gross matter-energy (bodymind), and the
causal bodymind can exist without either.84
When you dream during sleep, or during some nonordinary waking states
– such as out-of-the-body experiences (or ‘astral travel’)
-- you “reside primarily as a subtle bodymind”, according
to Wilber. When you are in “dreamless-formless sleep”, or
in formless meditative states, or have a near-death experience, you
reside as a causal bodymind.85
If true, this may explain how certain nonlocal field effects can occur,
since certain energy fields would no longer be tied to a particular
form. For example, in the psi research that I report in this paper,
distance did not diminish the accuracy of results.86
Although more research is needed, it appears so far that electromagnetic
field effects, including those associated with the heart, may operate
within relatively circumscribed regions. Fields associated with consciousness,
especially mental activity, do not appear to be bounded by space or
time.
Wilber believes that the above assertions are “open to a fair
amount of empirical and phenomenological testing” of their validity.
The subtle energies, in Wilber’s model, are “postulated
as real, concrete, detectable, often measurable.”87
Research Regarding Nonlocal Effects
88
I will now review the research regarding field effects.
Insect and Animal Coordination and Nonsensory
Communication. Sheldrake considers animal
societies to be social morphic units, which “provides a way of
understanding the coordination of the behavior of individual organisms
within the social unit: the colony, school, flock, herd, pack, group,
or pair".89
For example, he and other researchers have concluded that the behavior
of the members of termite colonies are coordinated by social fields,
which contain the blueprints for the construction of the colony, and
pass through physical barriers.90
Experiments have indicated that neither sense-mediated communication,
nor an electrical field, can likely explain how termites, after the
nest they are building is cut in half and separated by a steel plate,
can still go on to create structures and tunnels that are perfectly
aligned.91
Consequently, Sheldrake has concluded that in termite colonies:
the individual insects are coordinated by social fields, which contain
the blueprints for the construction of the colony…. To make
models without taking such fields into account is rather like trying
to explain the behavior of iron filings around a magnet [while] ignoring
the field, as if the pattern somehow "emerged" from programs
within the individual iron particles.92
The highly respected biologist, Edwin Wilson, has similarly argued
that "The total simulation of construction of complex nests from
a knowledge of the summed behaviors of the individual [social] insects
has not been accomplished and stands as a challenge to both biologists
and mathematicians.”93
In the case of termite nests, the workers first make columns, then
bend them toward each other at some point and join them at a midpoint
between the two columns. Termites are blind, so they cannot make this
happen through visual alignment. Researchers have concluded that the
coordination does not happen through movement back and forth between
the columns, to get an alignment through measurement, nor does it seem
that sound plays a part.94
And, as Sheldrake points out,
Smell can hardly account for the overall plan of the nest or the
relationship of the individual insects to it. They seem to "know"
what kind of structure is required; they seem to be responding to
a kind of invisible plan. As Wilson phrased the question, "Who
has the blueprint of the nest?" I suggest that this plan is embodied
in the organizing field of the colony. This field is not inside the
individual insects; rather, they are inside the collective field.
Just as a magnetic field can pass through material structures, so
[must] the colony field. This ability...would enable the field to
organize separated groups of termites even in the absence of normal
sensory communication between them.95
Gunther Becker suggested that a "biofield," an alternating
low-energy electric field produced by the termites themselves, could
account for the coordination. The effect fell off as the distance between
the groups was increased.96
But Sheldrake, in accordance with Wilber’s model, concluded that
"such fields are unlikely to be able to provide the blueprint for
the termite nest. How could a specific pattern be established in the
electromagnetic field to begin with?"97
Sheldrake suggests that a set of experiments conducted by Eugene Marais
may indicate that "another, more mysterious kind of field seems
likely to be involved as well."98
Marais separated termite mounds into two halves and inserted a steel
plate, which was a few feet wider and higher than the termitary, into
the breach of each mound, thereby preventing all sensory and electrical
means of communication. Despite this, the termites still built a similar
arch on either side of the plate, which were aligned.99
Sheldrake commented:
The repair activity seemed to be coordinated by some overall organizing
structure, which Marais attributed to the group soul, and I prefer
to think of as a morphic field…. Unlike the field investigated
by Becker, it was not blocked by a metal plate, and was therefore
unlikely to be electrical in nature.100
However, it "would be difficult to prove that no sounds could
have gone...around the barrier."101
So Sheldrake has proposed a research protocol that would control for
this and other variables. Unfortunately, no one has attempted to replicate
Marais' experiment.
Sheldrake and others have demonstrated that psi capacities are widely
distributed in the animal kingdom.102
In a series of experiments, he showed how certain pets sensed when their
owners decided to return home from work or an excursion, even when they
varied the time from day to day.103
Sheldrake argues that humans have partly lost or neglected the psi
capacities that animals demonstrate, and that, as Wilber claims, they
are not paranormal or supernatural abilities.104
Biophoton Emissions.
Fritz-Albert Popp has detected “biophoton emissions”
from living organisms. Photons are electromagnetic light waves with
very high intensity.105
Popp discovered in his experiments that bacteria, sunflowers, fleas
and fish “sucked up” the light emitted by other living organisms
in their environment. He concluded that this exchange of photons, or
wave resonance, was a form of communication, even a means for living
organisms to influence the health of each other. This may especially
be the case when healers use their hands in touch or near-the-body healing.106
From his study of illnesses, Popp hypothesized that illness results
from incoherence, in the form of either too little or too much light.
“Perfect coherence is an optimum state just between chaos and
order.” Popp also believed that biophoton exchange might explain
“how schools of fish or flocks of birds create perfect and instantaneous
coordination.”107
Stuart Hameroff also found that living tissue emits photons.108
In addition, he discovered that microtubules inside cells109
conduct photons. In collaboration with other researchers,110
he realized that microtubules help create coherence of waves (“superradiance”)
in the body. This allows photons to “communicate with other photons
throughout the body, causing collective cooperation of subatomic particles
in microtubules throughout the brain.”111
Superradiance may account for the tendency of the brain toward EEG synchronization,
and may provide another basis for field effects between living organisms.112
(See Correlated Consciousness, below.)
Cardioelectromagnetic Communication:
Heart To Brain. Emerson once
gave metaphoric expression to something researchers are now beginning
to measure.
The heart in thee is the heart of all; not a valve, not a wall,
not an intersection is there anywhere in nature, but one blood rolls
uninterruptedly an endless circulation through all [humanity], as
the water of the globe is all one sea, and, truly seen, its tide is
one. It is one light, which beams out of a thousand stars. It is one
soul, which animates all people.113
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
A relatively new arena of research is called energy cardiology114
or cardioelectromagnetic communication.115
The heart’s electrical field is measured with an electrocardiogram
(ECG). The magnetic component of the heart’s field is “not
impeded by tissues and can be measured several feet away from the body.”116
Under certain conditions, the heart’s electromagnetic waves synchronize
with the brain waves (measured by the electroencephalogram or EEG) of
oneself or other human and non-human animals.117
For example, heart-focused attention is correlated with greater synchronization
of heart and brain.118
Sustained positive emotions, such as appreciation, love, or compassion,
are associated with highly ordered or coherent patterns in the heart
rhythms…and a shift in autonomic balance toward increased parasympathetic
activity.119
This “physiological coherence” is the state of “more
ordered and harmonious interactions among the body’s systems.”120
Cross-coherence occurs when “two or more of the body’s oscillatory
systems, such as respiration and heart rhythms, become entrained and
oscillate at the same frequency.”121
When individuals were taught how to use a positive-emotion refocusing
technique to generate appreciation, cross-coherence significantly increased.
It was expressed as a higher ratio of alpha rhythms in the brain (measured
by the EEG) that was synchronized with the heartbeat (measured by the
ECG).122
Increased physiological coherence is correlated with a number of health
and mental health benefits.123
In the converse, experimental evidence suggests that certain prolonged
negative psychological states can facilitate the progression of cancer
and increase risk for physical illness and early death.124
As I report elsewhere in this paper, a number of studies have found
that subtle energies used by healers are correlated with increased wound
healing rates,125
lowered pain,126
increased hemoglobin levels,127
conformational changes of DNA and water structure,128
and changes in psychological states.129
Rollin McCraty has argued that the effect of electromagnetic or “energetic”
communication may ultimately be found to be a mechanism in healing of
this type. Even though these benefits have to do with individual effects,
the research I present below suggests that perhaps people can influence
each other’s physiological coherence and thereby help others improve
their physical and mental health.
When waves are synchronized and overlapping, their combined amplitude
is greater than the individual amplitudes. The information that they
carry gets stronger and complete information about the other wave is
exchanged. Waves have an almost unlimited capacity for storing information.130
This reality may help explain not only the experience of deep knowing
in tele-prehension, but also the healing effects generated by healers
who enter rapport with their clients when conducting non-conventional
methods.
Several researchers have studied entrainment, or physiological synchronization,
between people during moments of empathy. In one experiment at HeartMath,
two participants faced each other at a distance of five feet and practiced
an emotion-restructuring exercise that has been shown to produce sustained
states of internal physiological coherence.131
The alpha brain waves of one subject (measured via an EEG)
became precisely synchronized with the R-waves (peak of the waves reflected
in an ECG) carried by the magnetic field from the heart of the other
subject. “These data show that it is possible for the magnetic
signals radiated by the heart of one individual to influence the brain
rhythms of another at conversational distances…. The degree of
coherence in the receiver’s heart rhythms appears to determine
whether his/her brain waves synchronize to the other person’s
heart.”132
Similar results have been obtained by other researchers133
and in other experiments conducted by HeartMath.134
For example, Linda Russek and Gary Schwartz found that people who more
regularly experience positive emotions such as love and care are better
receivers of others’ magnetic-field signals.135
Based on the results of these and other experiments, the researchers
at HeartMath concluded:
The nervous system acts as an antenna, which is tuned to and responds
to the magnetic fields produced by the hearts of other individuals.
This cardioelectromagnetic communication is an innate ability that
heightens awareness and mediates important aspects of true empathy
and sensitivity to others. It can be enhanced, resulting in a much
deeper level of non-verbal communication, understanding, and connection
between people…. [It] has the potential to promote the healing
process. From an electrophysiological perspective, it appears that
sensitivity to information contained in the fields generated by others
is related to the ability to be emotionally and physiologically coherent.
During coherence, internal systems are more stable, function more
efficiently, and radiate electromagnetic fields containing a more
coherent structure.136
Besides this heart-to-brain communication, the hearts of different
individuals have been found to influence each other (heart-to-heart
communication).
Cardioelectromagnetic Communication:
Heart To Heart. Although the number of subjects
is still too small to reliably generalize, researchers at HeartMath
have found that the heart rates of people who have a close living or
working relationship, and who generate feelings of appreciation for
each other while sitting four feet apart (and being blind to the data),
can become entrained. This entrainment apparently also occurs during
sleep, between couples that have been in long-term, stable and loving
relationships. Their heart rhythms can converge and can simultaneously
change in the same direction.137
Another study found that the heart rates of married couples, who were
skilled at empathizing, became synchronized and tracked each other during
empathetic interactions.138
Despite some methodological problems, several studies have suggested
that entrainment may also occur during empathetic interactions between
therapists and clients.139
These results regarding cardioelectromagnetic communication indicate
the importance of relationship-centered approaches to not only clinical
and professional care, but also to team and organizational development.
Based upon training thousands of people to maintain coherence during
conversation, HeartMath researchers have concluded:
It is a common experience that they become more attuned to other
people and are able to detect and understand the deeper meaning behind
spoken words…, even when the other person may not be clear….
Intuitive listening helps people to feel fully heard and promotes
greater rapport and empathy between people.140
The proposed interpersonal communication mechanisms may in part explain
the effects of service and care that emphasize the relational aspects
of human interaction in professional settings. For example, see Parker
Palmer’s work regarding “teacher formation” and research
related to relationship-centered care (RCC), including the Fetzer’s
Institute’s program.141
Correlated or Shared Consciousness:
Brain-To-Brain Communication. Despite the
typical methodological issues that need to be worked out in any new
area of research, a number of experiments142
has indicated that tele-prehension of thoughts, images, emotions, intuitions
and physical sensations between persons is facilitated when people are
bound by close emotional ties and empathy (e.g., “bonded couples”
or monozygotic twins), are in an altered state of consciousness, or
meditate together,143
although this effect occurs in other situations, too.144
The respective EEG brain wave patterns of pairs become highly synchronized
or coherent. EEG alpha rhythms or visually evoked potentials (measured
by a functional MRI machine) created in one person can produce the same
effects in another, even when members of a pair are separated in sound-attenuated
or electromagnetically shielded rooms.145
In addition, in several experiments, individual interhemispheric synchronization
occurred (a phenomena that happens during meditation) when paired participants
tried to sense each other’s presence while in separate rooms.
Moreover, the individual with the greatest synchronization tended to
influence the other member of the pair.146
Ervin Laszlo has attributed this phenomenon to field effects.147
Karl Pribram has theorized that our brain perceives objects not primarily
through language or images, but by resonating or getting in synch with
them. “To know the world is literally to be on its wavelength.”148
Remote Viewing.
A common statement from those who experience collective consciousness
is that they feel as if they can see through each other’s eyes.
Research has indicated that this may, in fact, be true, as one mode
of tele-prehension. Mystics, intuitives and psychic healers have all
spoken of another kind of sight.
There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight….
Close both eyes
To see with the other eye.
- Jelaluddin Rumi
A number of experiments have tested remote viewing and found statistically
significant results, well beyond chance levels.149
In a well-designed, double-blind experiment, an independent researcher
prepares target sites. A target is then selected randomly. One person,
the recipient, proceeds to the designated site. Through focused attention,
a second participant, the viewer, describes the details of the site
that the beacon is viewing. Independent judges determine whether the
target was correctly described and/or identified.
For example, Jahn and Dunne conducted 336 rigorous trials, with 48
ordinary recipients and remote viewing distances ranging from five to
6,000 miles. Almost 2/3rds of the results exceeded chance levels, with
odds against chance of one billion to one. As in other tele-prehension
experiments, those recipient-viewer pairs who had an emotional or physiological
bond obtained the best results.150
A government panel, including two Nobel laureates and other distinguished
researchers chosen for their skeptic views, reviewed 23 years of experimental
data. All agreed the research was impeccable.151
A second review by a team that included Dr. Ray Hyman, a noted skeptic,
concluded that the results far exceeded chance.152
Hal Putoff and Russell Targ concluded that the most important success
factor appeared to be a “relaxed, even playful, atmosphere, which
avoided causing anxiety.”153
If viewers interpreted or analyzed the scene, they would invariably
guess wrong. Expectation or imagining seemed to have a similar effect.154
The unconscious aspect of the mind and the right hemisphere of the brain
seemed to be in use155
– indicating receptivity, rather than conscious control. Meta-analyses
indicate that results are more significant when the viewers are in altered
states of consciousness.156
These variables match many of the identified success factors in other
forms of tele-prehension, and are similar to factors reported by meditators
and those in creative states.
Through experiments involving screened rooms, Putoff, Dunne and Jahn
concluded that electromagnetic waves could not explain the remote viewing.157
This supports the idea that another type of field, perhaps created by
focused mental attention, may be at work.
Another form of mental focus, intention, may create an even more powerful
field. I will describe experiments regarding the effects of intention
upon other living systems in the following sections.
Nonlocal, Intentional Influence.
A large number of studies have examined the ability of people
to influence other living beings in remote settings. In a series of
experiments, for example, influencers changed the direction of knife
fish, got gerbils to run faster on activity wheels, and slowed the rate
of hemolysis (bursting of cell walls) in red blood cells.158
In 16 remote staring trials, starees showed significantly greater electrodermal
activity (EDA) while being stared at (59%, versus 50% chance), indicating
that they had unconsciously felt the attention of the starers.159
These results have been replicated a number of times.160
A meta-analysis reported a significant effect size in experiments where
the receiver’s skin conductance was targeted.161
Remote intention has been shown to have a significant calming effect
on a group of highly nervous people,162
and to help participants focus their attention, especially those whose
attention tended to wander.163
In some cases during these studies, telepathy occurred.164
A number of these findings have been replicated, including intention’s
effect upon healing.165
A meta-analysis has shown that intention can affect a wide range of
living organisms, including their healing. Moreover, studies have demonstrated
that a group can significantly influence the eye or gross motor movements,
breathing and brain rhythms of a different group. Although the effects
were small in scale, ordinary people, who were trying remote influence
for the first time, consistently produced them. The EDA studies succeeded
47% of the time166
and the studies in general had the intended effect 37% of the time,
in contrast to an expected 5% chance success rate.167
Distance seemed irrelevant, with effects extending even into outer space,
during a space mission.168
The greatest influence occurred when the subjects greatly needed the
intended effect, which indicates that healing interactions may be particularly
effective. Finally, as with other forms of tele-prehension, strength
of effect correlated with how much the influencer related to the subject,
increasing as the subjects changed from animals, to human cells, to
other people. This finding is consistent with Wilber’s assertion
that humans share a greater number of fields (and subtler fields) with
each other, than they share with animals, for example, thereby increasing
the means and strength of influence.
Ganzfeld (whole field) experiments eliminate sensory input by placing
participants in soundproof rooms, covering their eyes, etc. These experiments,
including studies of telepathy, have produced the strongest results,
with 82% significantly better than chance.169
A meta-analysis of all ganzfeld experiments showed odds against chance
of ten billion to one.170
After reviewing a number of studies involving telepathy and psychokinesis
(influencing objects at a distance), Braud identified the factors, which
make remote influence more likely:
1. Relaxation and alert receptivity via meditation, biofeedback,
etc. Gentle wishing, rather than intense willing or striving was most
effective.171
2. Reduced activity or sensory input.
3. Dreaming or internal states or feelings that create connection.
4. Right-brain functioning.
5. Belief in success.
6. Viewing life as interconnected and believing that extrasensory
communication is possible.172
Meditation involves many of these factors. During the highest state
of meditation, siddhis (psychic events) may occur: seeing everywhere
at once, unity with the object of focus, and psychokinesis.173
The correlation with meditative states may help explain the effects
of meditation reported in a later section of this paper.
Distant Healing Intention.
More than 80% of Americans believe that their “thoughts
can cause healing for another person at a distance,”174
as do 75% of family practitioners.175
Two-thirds of more than 150 controlled studies of distant healing intention
(DHI) over the past 40 years have indicated that distance healing can
result in statistically significant healing effects.176
Of the more than 50 of these experiments, that were rated to be of excellent
methodological quality, 74% yielded statistically significant results.177
Meta-analyses of these studies “provide strong evidence that DHI
is related to predictable changes in a distant person’s physiological
state.”178
The DHI healer uses intention as the essential healing modality, rather
than conventional chemical, mechanical or energetic interventions, which
are avoided by means of spatial, temporal, and/or sensory shielding.
Specific forms of treatment typically include intercessory prayer, non-directed
prayer, energy healing, shamanic healing, non-contact therapeutic touch
and spiritual healing. Most healers use a process of relaxation, enhanced
concentration and visualization.179
Comprehensive, excellent surveys of the literature, including possible
field effects, evaluations of the efficacy of distance healing, and
limitations have been conducted by Larry Dossey, Daniel Benor, Marilyn
Schlitz, William Braud, Elizabeth Targ, Dean Radin and others.180
Despite impressive results with some fairly well designed studies,
which used clearly defined, randomized, double-blind protocols,181
Elizabeth Targ found that many of the studies, published through 1994,
had failed to control for one or more variables other than subtle-energy
and/or distance healing, or the treatment and control groups had not
been appropriately matched. So she and Fred Sicher designed a double-blind
experiment, using healers who utilized all types of healing techniques,
who believed that their healing efforts were going to work, and who
had had years of successful experience in distance healing. Over 10
weeks, for six days per week and an hour per day, each healer held an
intention for the well being of a patient with end-stage AIDS. Each
healer treated a new client each week, so that every healer treated
every client, in turn. This ensured that overall healing, rather than
a particular technique, was studied. During the six-month trial, 40%
of the control group died. But the 10 patients who received distance
healing survived and became healthier. A team of scientists concluded
that the treatment had worked.
But the control group was 10 years older, on average, compared to
the treatment group, which might have accounted for the deaths. So Targ
and Sicher repeated the study with 40 patients, controlling for all
factors, including age and positive thinking (in each group, 50% guessed
after three months that they were being prayed for; belief did not correlate
with results). The treatment group, over six months, was healthier in
every way: fewer hospitalizations (three vs. 12), hospital days, and
new AIDS-defining illnesses (two vs. 12); significantly lower disease
severity and doctor visits; significantly improved mood; and, overall,
significantly better medical outcomes on six of 11 measures. Fifty statistical
tests determined that no other variables accounted for the results.182
These results were confirmed by a 12-month study of traditional forms
of intercessory prayer (mostly Christian or non-denominational) for
cardiac patients. Teams of intercessors, who were not gifted healers,
but simply believed that God responds to prayer, prayed for one patient
over 28 days, thinking the first name of the patient. Intercessors did
not receive feedback regarding results. Neither the medical staff, nor
the patients, was aware of the study. Symptoms for the prayer group
decreased by 10% more than the control group; and they had fewer adverse
medical events, shorter hospital stays, and a number of other superior
indicators. As in the Targ/Sicher study, not the prayer method, but,
rather, holding a healing intention, was what mattered.183
In all the well designed studies Targ had reviewed, it was this last
factor that seemed common: effective distance healers used intention,
combined with a request and surrender to a healing force greater than
themselves (“the spirit world, a religious figure, the collective
consciousness, light, or love”184).
Ultimately, healing influence may be drawing upon the life force and
consciousness of Spirit itself, with us acting as the receptive and
open vehicles for the physical manifestation of wholeness.185
Radin conducted a study of two groups that used DHI. The effect size
for changes in electrodermal activity of the target was almost twice
as large as previous meta-analytic estimates involving individual attention.
“This suggests that groups may enhance DHI effects.”186
Other studies of distance healing, using group meditative practice
and focusing upon social effects, are reported below.
Social and Cultural Healing.
Only two of the 150 studies covered by the surveys mentioned
above involved distance healing by groups.187
It is not possible to conclude from such a small number of studies whether
individual of group healing efforts are more successful.188
But the research I describe below may indicate that Jung may have sensed
the power of collective healing, a power which indigenous and Eastern
traditions have not forgotten:
Our personal psychology is just a thin skin, a ripple
on the ocean of collective psychology. The powerful factor, the factor
which changes our whole life, which changes the surface of our known
world, which makes history, is collective psychology, which moves
according to laws entirely different from those of our [individual]
consciousness.
- Carl Jung189
Groups of Transcendental Meditation (TM) practitioners
have had significant impact upon the well being and physical and mental
health of surrounding geographic communities. Mainstream scientists
have tended to dismiss the TM research out of hand, primarily because
of questions about the TM organization’s alleged “promotion
of the personal interests”190
of its founder, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, or because of skepticism
that believers or practitioners could conduct unbiased research, or
because TM researchers occasionally claim that TM is more effective
than other techniques.191
Yet, 50 very rigorous, socially focused, scientific studies, which have
“controlled for alternative explanations,”192
have been conducted over more than 30 years. Many of the experiments
have been published in well respected, peer-reviewed scientific journals.
The results have been impressive, in terms of improved quality of life
and health and decreased crime rate, accidents, war, etc. I cite some
of these studies below.
The Maharishi originally hypothesized that if 1% of the population193
in a geographic area practiced TM, the coherent calm and stress reduction
created by the group’s meditation would, via what he called the
“Unified Field”, lower conflict and other forms of social
disruption in that area. (If a group practiced the more advanced TM-Sidhi
program, he hypothesized that only the square root of 1% of the population
would be needed.) According to his hypothesis, individual stress increases
collective stress on all levels of collective consciousness (family,
community, city, state, national and world), and vice versa.194
But a meditating group’s coherence – defined as “working
together for mutual support, achievement and fulfillment”195
– is more powerful than the incoherence of the larger system within
which it is located. It can therefore bring order to the whole. The
incoherent members of the larger system tend to move “randomly”,
working against each other and therefore canceling each other’s
actions and efforts. This effect has been compared to the laser, where
a “relatively few in-phase, coherent photons stimulate the whole
system to become coherent,”196
or to the heart, where the pacemaker cells – about 1% of the total
cells – cause all the heart’s cells to beat rhythmically.
A 1993 study found that, when 4,000 people meditated together, violent
crime in Washington, D.C., declined 23% over the course of the experiment,
in contrast to its rising in the months before and after. The results
were shown not to be due to other variables, such as weather, the police,
or anti-crime campaigns. The predicted effect had been posited with
and independent review board, which had participated in the study design
and monitored its conduct.197
A similar effect was shown in a study of 24 U.S. cities, in which 1%
of the urban population regularly practiced TM. A follow-up study demonstrated
that the 24 cities saw drops of 22% in crime and 89% in the crime trend,
compared to increases of 2% and 53%, respectively, in the control cities.198
During a two-month period in 1983 in Israel, on days when a TM-Sidhi
group equaling the square root of 1% of the surrounding population meditated,
independently published data showed that war-related deaths in Lebanon
dropped 76%, and conflict, traffic fatalities, fires and crime decreased.
In Israel, the national mood increased, as measured by a blinded content
analysis of the emotional tone of the lead, front-page picture story
in the Jerusalem Post, and the stock market increased. Other potential
causal variables were controlled for.199
Predictions regarding war-reduction in Lebanon
and increased quality of life in Israel had been posited with two independent
project review board of scientists before the experiments began. The
study was subsequently repeated seven times, with statistically significant
effects.200
Research in five conflict-ridden locations around the globe,201
in the U.S.,202
and worldwide (via TM-Sidhi assemblies of 7,000 practitioners, equal
to the square root of 1% of the world’s population in the mid-1980s)
produced similar effects.203
According to David Orme-Johnson, one of the regular researchers of
TM, the experience of “transcendental consciousness” has
been shown to result in increased individual coherence, “as indicated
by improved health, creativity, intelligence and social behavior,”204
in more than 600 studies conducted by 200 universities in 30 countries.
Several studies regarding TM showed that interhemispheric coordination
and the number of areas in the cortex perceiving information increased.205
These results are similar to those reported in the section on cardioelectromagnetic
communication (above) and in the general literature on the physical
and mental health benefits of meditation and contemplation.206
The sociological studies cited in this section measure social health
in a broad sense; and the research on individual health benefits may
be extrapolated to the social arena. Other studies have examined the
effect of group TM practice on aggregate, more typical measures of individual
physical and mental health. For example, eight studies have shown that
group TM meditation is significantly associated with improved physical
and mental health among others outside the TM group.207
After controlling for a number of factors, meta-analyses of TM studies
have found it to be “more effective than the clinically derived
approaches that are modeled after it” in reducing anxiety,208
improving psychological health,209
and reducing tobacco, alcohol and drug use.210
More than 500 studies have reported stress-reducing effects of TM practice,
thereby presumably benefiting physical and mental health.211
Several studies support the hypothesis that TM practice can reverse
long-lasting effects of stress on neuroendocrine regulation.212
A recent study may provide “empirical support for a postulated
psycho-neuroendocrine mechanism that could mediate the observed reductions
in behavioral indicators of social stress”213
reported in the studies cited above.
Many of the TM studies purport to show that group practice “has
a more beneficial effect than individual practice.”214
Moreover, larger groups may have more significant effects than smaller
groups. For example, one experiment examined the degree of serotonin
turnover – a neuroendocrine benefit linked to reduced stress –
and correlated it different-sized TM practice groups. The results strongly
suggested that increasing group size “increases serotonin turnover,
not only in group members, but also in individuals completely outside
the group.”215
The Effect of Psychosocial Support and
Community Upon Physical and Mental Health. A
good deal of research indicates that relationships and involvement in
strong community or social networks, including psychosocial support
groups,216
are important predictors of physical and mental health, of recovery
from disease, and of length of life.217
For example, in one study a small town of immigrants had a strong sense
of community, which spanned class and economic lines. In spite of many
high-risk health factors, the townspeople had a heart-attack rate less
than 50% of nearby towns.218
But a generation later, when the sense of community had dissolved, the
heart-attack rate matched the rate of the neighboring towns. Studies
of cardiac patients have demonstrated that “isolation –
from oneself, one’s community, and one’s spirituality –
rather than physical conditions, is one of the greatest contributors
to disease.219
Research has suggested that social connections and support may slow
the progression of cancer and reduce mortality risk from it.220
People who live the longest are often not only those who believe in
a higher spiritual being, but also those who have the strongest sense
of belonging to a community.221
Although one might argue that the benefits of community and support
networks arise through the observable interactions between members,
the research presented in this paper suggests that we influence each
other in additional and perhaps more powerful ways. Developing collective
consciousness is a way to work more consciously and skillfully with
the healing and creative powers of community.
Indigenous traditions, communally oriented cultures, and a number
of Eastern traditions still recognize the primary role of community
in individual health, and see a rupture in one’s connection with
the community as a key factor in physical, emotional and mental disease.222
In mainstream U.S. culture, we have unfortunately shredded a good deal
of our sense of community, including that which once existed in the
workplace. Given the research presented in this paper, it is imperative
that this destruction be reversed.223
If organizations and communities hope to nourish the health, well being
and productive contributions of their members, they need to build a
sense of care, mutual support and community.
Collective Intention and Attention, Coherence
and Global Consciousness. Just as remote
attention and intention influence the harmonic order and coherence of
living systems, similar effects have been found upon randomness generated
by machines. Indeed, our influence upon inanimate reality may be as
profound as our influence upon living systems, as one mystic noted:
All things in the world have been made in consideration of everything
else. Everything in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth,
is penetrated with connectedness, with relatedness.
-
Hildegard of Bingen, Scivias224
A random number generator (RNG) or random event generator (REG) electronically
issues the numbers “one” or “zero” in random
sequences. We can test empirically whether individuals can influence
the output of these computers, causing more “ones” than
“zeroes” to occur, to a degree that represents a statistically
significantly deviation from chance (a 50% probability of one of the
two events occurring) or randomness. You might ask, “What does
that have to do with collective consciousness?” First, it can
show the ability of humans to create order or coherence in reality,
a phenomenon that underlies health, learning, creativity, meaning and
culture. Second, it may demonstrate that focused collective attention
and intention bring these benefits to large segments of our world.
Over many years, Helmut Schmidt tested gifted psychics, while Robert
Jahn and Brenda Dunne, of the Princeton University Engineering Anomalies
Research (PEAR) lab, tested ordinary people. Both sets of participants
achieved RNG output that represented statistically significant deviation
from chance. Over a 12-year period, in 2.5 million trials, 52% of the
trials and almost 67% of the PEAR’s 91 participants influenced
the REGs in the intended direction,225
compared to 54% of Schmidt’s trials.226
More than 25% of the PEAR experiments involved distance influence, up
to thousands of miles.227
Because of the nonlocal nature of these effects, Roger Nelson began
calling the experiments “field consciousness” studies.
Roger Nelson and Dean Radin conducted a meta-analysis in 1987 of more
than 800 REG experiments conducted by 68 researchers. The intended results228
had been achieved 51% of the time. Similar results were found in a subsequent
meta-analysis covering experiments over 41 years, between 1959 and 2000.229
The odds of this outcome over such a large number of trials (where results
would be expected to return to chance levels) are a trillion to one.230
The PEAR lab also conducted studies with pairs of people, who knew
each other previously. Together they tried to influence a REG. In 42
experimental series with 15 pairs and 256,500 trails, many produced
results that exceeded the effect of either person alone.231
“Bonded pairs” – couples who were in a relationship
– created a coherence effect almost six times as strong as individuals.232
Jahn and Dunne suggested that emotional closeness might create resonance
between individuals, and result in stronger influence, just as two waves
that are in phase or synch amplify a signal.233
When REGs were taken to a variety of group events,234
the REG data seemed to become ordered when activities were more intense
or captivating; when they evoked concentration, or were emotionally
meaningful to participants -- in other words, when many or all of the
group’s members became simultaneously more attentive and engaged
in an event, when their collective consciousness became more coherent
or focused, or when they were engaged by similar, intense feelings or
thoughts.235
Although participants were unaware of moments when the REG’s output
had become ordered, in one study they described a corresponding, high-interest
event segment as a “special, shared moment.” One participant
said that the “change in the group’s energy had been almost
palpable.”236
The effects of group attention were three times greater than the earlier
individual-intention PEAR studies.237
Just like pairs and couples, groups seemed to produce larger results.
Nelson discovered that, when a group was meditating together, the effects
were six times as great.238
In the mid-90s, Dean Radin began studying high-interest points during
mass-viewer events, and found similar, significant influences upon REG
output. For example, during the March 1995 Academy Awards, with an estimated
viewership of one billion, he operated two REGs, with one in a nearby
room and one 12 miles away. He and an assistant noted what they considered
high interest and low interest segments during the ceremonies. A subsequent
comparison of these events to the REG data showed that the highest interest
periods correlated significantly with ordered REG output, and that the
odds against this happening were 1000 to 1. In the four hours after
the event, both REGs very soon returned to and maintained randomness.239
Radin replicated these results with other events, such as the 1995 O.J.
Simpson trial verdict, the 1996 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremonies,
and in smaller groups, such as a personal growth workshop.240
By 1997 these results had also been replicated by researchers in 12
studies. Highly significant results were obtained, with odds against
chance of 10,000 to one.241
Although Dick Bierman has correctly noted that, “It is unclear
if the driving factor behind these apparent anomalous correlations is
a shared emotion, a shared attention, or a specific
state of consciousness that may transcend ordinary time and
space constraints,”242
the effect is unmistakable. It will take more experimentation, together
with measurement and control of other variables, in order to know how
to interpret the underlying causal factors.
In 1998, Nelson began calling the machines EGGs, or ElectroGaiaGrams,
and decided to enlist 40 other scientists in setting up a global network
of devices. His goal was to test for something like the “noosphere”,
Teilhard de Chardin’s term for a field of intelligence that he
believed surrounded the earth.243
Through Nelson’s Global
Consciousness Project (http://noosphere.princeton.edu), researchers
have been studying the correlated effect that world events have upon
the random numbers generated by the EGGs. According to the Project’s
hypothesis, a positive deviation from randomness is predicted.244
Researchers so far have found that some events have been correlated
with significant results (for example, Princess Diana’s death,
New Year’s celebrations, and 9/11, one of the most striking results245).
Nelson believes these events captivated public attention. During all
the public ceremonies for Diana, the degree of coherence was 100 to
one against chance.246
Based upon various independent data analyses of results observed on
9/11 from the EGGs network, performed by Nelson,247
Radin,248
Peter Bancel,249
and Richard Shoup,250
together with a critical analysis by Edwin May and James Spottiswoode,251
Nelson offered the following interpretation of the strong deviations
from randomness that with correlated with the major events of September
11:
We do not have a theoretical understanding of the sort that must
underlie robust interpretations…but I would like to describe
a speculation…that the instruments have captured the reaction
of a global consciousness…. Based on evidence that individuals
and groups manifest something we can tentatively call a consciousness
field, we hypothesized that there could be a global consciousness
capable of the same thing…. It would seem that the new, integrated
mind is just beginning to be active, paying attention only to events
that inspire strong coherence of attention and feeling. Perhaps the
best image is an infant slowly developing awareness, but already capable
of strong emotions…. The EGG network reacted in a powerful and
evocative way. While there are certainly sensible alternative explanations,
this is not a mistake or a misreading. It can be interpreted as a
clear, if indirect, confirmation of the hypothesis that the EGGs’
behavior is affected by global events and our reactions to them….
The results from this scientific study are an apparent manifestation
of the ancient idea that we are all interconnected, and that what
we think and feel has an effect on others.252
If Nelson’s speculations are borne out by further research,
then humanity has inherited a new responsibility: to be conscious of
the impact of our pooled thought and feeling. The following studies
highlight an important consideration: namely, that collective intention
for advancing the common good, organized through prayer or meditation
(especially its advanced forms), may create a field effect that is opposite
the one created by largely unconscious, mass attention. In other words,
collective intention that is grounded in love, empathy, compassion,
altruism, etc., may create a healing field effect, in contrast to mass
attention that is focused primarily by fear, threat, danger, mistrust,
horror, anger, etc.
Shortly after 9/11, TM practitioners gathered in Iowa for five days
“to meditate together to create an influence of stability and
peace”253
in the United States. Orme-Johnson predicted post facto that strong
coherence in the EGGs output would have been produced on September 26,
2001, the day on which the highest number of meditators (1800 individuals)
practiced. When Nelson analyzed the data, he found that its departure
from expectation on that day was “steady and unusually strong,
leading to a final result that has a chance likelihood of about one
in 1000, had it been an a priori prediction, instead of a non-formal
exploration.”254
(In science, formal experiments are based upon predictions made before
data collection begins.) This result may support the hypothesis of TM’s
founder that the experience of a unified field of consciousness creates
coherence in the environment.
Orme-Johnson also predicted post facto that the strongest coherence
would be reflected during periods of TM-Sidhi “yogic flying”,
an advanced meditative technique, which involves a “subjective
experience of waves of bliss.” The concatenated result for the
five days of group practice, during the time period of most powerful
results (7:00 – 7:30 p.m.), showed a fairly steady trend, but
as a negative deviation from randomness, the opposite direction predicted
by Nelson’s hypothesis. Commenting on the results, Nelson noted
how this opposite-direction result occurred during another focusing
of collective intention for the common good:
Although this [the TM-Sidhi analysis] is a non-formal exploration
and is too little data to allow robust interpretation, such an effect
corresponds to a reduction of the size of deviations from expectation
in the nominally random data. It is worth noting that the Silent Prayer
on September 14, 2001 [conducted simultaneously via many organized
events in Europe and the eastern U.S.] showed the same pattern…,
steadily opposite to the usual direction; but somehow it looks right
– symbolic of the moment’s contrast to the preceding days….
Perhaps we should predict such an effect from deeply focused meditations.255
A recent study, with EGGs located in TM meditation halls, found a ten-times
more powerful effect for yogic flying, compared to regular TM.256
As predicted ahead of time, the effect was again opposite the
trend direction produced during and immediately after 9/11.
Although further study, replication and careful interpretation of these
results are necessary, the data trend’s opposite direction raises
an intriguing possibility regarding the positive effects that collectives
can have upon communities, societies and our world, when collective
intention is marshaled – and practiced -- on behalf of the common
good. As these and the earlier TM-related data suggest, perhaps we can
mobilize and harness large-scale, constructive intention, in order to
bring healing to dis-eased situations locally, regionally and globally.
The above results, together with the relatively larger effect sizes
obtained in studies of bonded couples and of groups, suggest that DHI
by groups may be more efficacious, relative to DHI by individuals, after
controlling for other variables. Group-based DHI certainly deserves
more study.257
Facilitated Learning and Creative Synchronicity.
Sheldrake has conducted a number of experiments, which seem to
indicate that morphic resonance and field effects may facilitate faster
and easier learning by individuals and groups who attempt to learn a
skill or behavior after an individual or group in the same species initially
does so. Researchers have investigated this phenomenon in terms of language
skills, solving crossword puzzles, birds pulling caps off milk bottles,
conditioned aversion among chicks,258
and other forms of learning.259
These experiments have replicated earlier research by others.260
In one experiment, the average time required by participants to initially
solve visual puzzles was recorded. The same puzzles were then shown
to several million television viewers, for them to solve. Subsequently,
a group of individuals, who had not watched the program or seen the
puzzles, solved the puzzles much faster than the original group.261
Laszlo has used similar ideas to explain creative synchronicity across
cultures or individuals in different locations, who could not have been
aware of each other’s work. He has studied instances where they
appear to enter into field-mediated communication, regardless of the
distance separating them. For example, “the great breakthroughs
of classical Hebrew, Greek, Chinese and Indian culture occurred almost
at the same time [750 to 399 BC]…among people who were not likely
to have been in actual communication.”262
Laszlo has suggested that some creative acts may be
due to the elaboration of an idea or pattern in two or more minds
in [direct, but unconscious] interaction, a process in which the results
transcend the individual abilities…. Perhaps [when individuals]
with high levels of motivation and great powers of concentration focus
on similar tasks, the similarity of the states of brain and mind allows
some level of access to each other’s cerebral processes.263
A number of other researchers have noted this phenomenon.264
Harold Gardner has suggested that it might be salutary “to view
the field as the ‘prime mover’” in such cases.265
If learning and creativity can be facilitated and distributed by field
effects, perhaps healing can also be – among the members of teams,
organizations, local communities, and even our global community. The
research described in this paper, especially the TM research, suggests
that this is a possibility.
Cautions and Considerations
When Designing and Interpreting the Research
When reviewing the research and considering the possibilities regarding
collective consciousness, it is important to address several important
issues.
Reductionism and Absolutism.
The most common problems that I have seen arise during discussions of
collective consciousness are reductionism and its converse, absolutism.
Reductionism occurs when, for example, any one discipline
or professional specialty reduces or collapses all the diverse aspects
of a whole phenomenon to its own partial, discipline-specific perspective.
We have stories and sayings in ordinary life that expresses the partialness
of reductionism. Examples include the blind men who think that the part
of the elephant they’re touching – its truck, leg, or tail
-- is the whole elephant, unconnected to the other parts. Similarly,
we have a saying, “If you’re a hammer, everything is a nail.”
The converse of reductionism is absolutism. In this
case, a discipline inflates its perspective, claiming that its perspective
can absolutely explain every aspect of a phenomena. In the preceding
examples, the elephant’s tail is seen as the whole elephant. The
hammer is seen as the tool that contains the solution to every problem.
In terms of collective consciousness, systems theorists
seem to fall quite often into both traps (although other disciplines
at times do the same). The external processes and systems of any collective
become the sole focus. “If we take a group through these processes,
or structure an organization this way, or teach these
techniques, then collective consciousness will be ensured,”
the thinking typically goes. What gets sacrificed are the inner aspects
of individual or collective life, issues like psychological or moral
development, meditative practice, culture, and so on.
A second major area of reductionism during discussions of collective
consciousness centers around quantum physics, especially the quantum
vacuum and the Zero Point Field. Wilber
correctly notes that the issue of where to locate the quantum vacuum
in the overall consciousness-mass-energy model “has probably caused
more theoretical trouble than any other single item…. The result
has been calamitous.”266
Because this is such a common and widespread error, I’d like to
spend a little time on it.
Because the quantum wave potential is “a vast source of creative
energy that gives rise to denser material particles,” many scientists
have equated it with Spirit, God, the Tao, Brahman, etc., or limitless
consciousness itself. However, since subatomic particles emerge from
the quantum potential and therefore are the material beginning
of the evolutionary chain, equating the quantum potential with
Spirit means that “the higher the level of evolution, the farther
away from God you get…. The quantum potential is not actually
a radically formless or nondual domain…, but rather is simply
one aspect of a manifest realm that itself has qualities and quantities,
and hence is not radically Unqualifiable.”267
In other words, unqualifiable nondual Spirit is reduced to a material
aspect of dualistic reality.
An example of this reductionism underpins Lynn McTaggart’s book,
The Field.268
The title refers to the Zero Point Field (ZPF), a field associated with
zero-point energy, the “ever-present energy in the emptiest state
of space at the lowest possible energy, at temperatures of absolute
zero, out of which no more energy could be removed…. All elementary
particles interact with each other…, causing random fluctuations
of energy.” These interactions, “when added across the universe,
give rise to enormous energy.”269
The ZPF implies that all matter in the universe is “interconnected
by waves…, tying one part of the universe to every other part.”270
This description is fine. But McTaggart’s explanation of every
single phenomena in life by means of the ZPF is where problems begin
to arise. Before I give a few examples, let me speak about involution
or creative manifestation.
The wisdom traditions are virtually unanimous that an involutionary
movement (or creative manifestation)271
preceded life’s evolutionary movement, proceeding from
pure Spirit through soul, mind, life (prana) and insentient matter (the
quarks and atoms of quantum physics). According to this cross-cultural
view, the quantum potential is therefore not Spirit, but Spirit-as-prana.
“When the Schroedinger wave function [in quantum physics] collapses
[a movement from multiple potential states to a particular particle
form], prana gives rise to matter. What the quantum mechanical formalisms
are catching is a brief glimpse of – in a merely third-person,
abstract, mathematical form – the staggering power of etheric-astral
energy.”272
Some quantum physicists turn an event at the bottom of the involutionary
cycle into its beginning. Put another way, they conflate the beginning
points of the involutionary and evolutionary cycles.
McTaggart falls into this conundrum. First, she calls the ZPF “a
repository of all fields…a field of fields.”273
For the reasons mentioned above, this turns evolution on its head. Moreover,
rather than seeing quantum fields as one of many types of fields, all
reflecting various levels of consciousness and complexity, she reduces
all of them to one.
Second, McTaggart makes a number of huge, interpretive claims, which
she does not adequately support, in my opinion. She refers to the ZPF
as:
a life force flowing through the universe – what has variously
been called collective consciousness or, as theologians have termed
it, the Holy Spirit. [The scientists studying the ZPF] provided a
plausible explanation of all those areas over the centuries [that]
mankind has had faith in, but no solid evidence of…, from the
effectiveness of alternative medicine and even prayer to life after
death. They offered us, in a sense, a science of religion.274
I have serious problems with these claims. Although one might be able
to argue that some simple form of collective consciousness – or,
more accurately, prehension -- exists at the subatomic level, I would
argue that collective consciousness fully and meaningfully emerges only
at later stages of evolution, when transpersonal consciousness begins
to develop. Second, as explained above, subatomic particles or their
interactions are unlikely to be able to contain the subtle energies
that may, in fact, help explain some of the phenomena described in this
paper. Third, McTaggart has taken a Christian concept – Holy Spirit
– an aspect of the divine, and has applied it to the
nondual, which constitutes another reduction, from a theological perspective.
Finally, she assumes that science can explain all aspects of religion,
ignoring the limits of science in terms of studying realities that can
only be accessed via gnosis, as I explain elsewhere in this paper.
David Bohm’s dualistic formulation of the implicate
and explicate orders also reflects
this problem.275
He portrayed the implicate order as quantum and spiritual,
and the explicate order as Newtonian and material. But, as Wilber points
out,276
the wisdom traditions hold that, in the energy aspects of the involutionary
movement of the Great Chain of Being, each holon is implicate to (the
creative source of) its subholon, whereas each subholon is explicate
to (the manifestation or expression of) its holon. Life’s creative
process begins at the causal level, eventually working its way to the
quantum level, in successive implicate-explicate movements. But if you
absolutize physics – an all too common situation –
the Great Chain is itself collapsed into one movement, and the nondual
is equated with one pole of a dualistic formulation.
Bohm eventually realized this dilemma. In an attempt to solve it,
he proposed a “super-implicate order”. But the problem of
qualifying the unqualifiable remained. He then added a “beyond
the super-implicate” realm, creating a four-level, rough approximation
of the chain of being. But because his model was based on physics, he
reduced the middle section of the chain, which includes the
domains of biology (the “life” level) and psychology (the
“mind” level), to the domain of physics (the “matter”
level).
The Two Truths Doctrine.
Another problem, according to Wilber,277
with equating quantum (or string or symmetry) realities with nondual
Spirit is highlighted by the “Two Truths Doctrine.” Conventional
or relative truths can be known by science, but absolute or nondual
truth can only be known by gnosis (satori, etc.), a direct apprehension
through transformation of consciousness. Relative truth addresses finite
events, about which you can make true or false, assertoric statements,
and the conditions under which your assertions are true. But when you
attempt to categorize (organize into discrete, defined parts) nondual
Spirit, you enter the realm of contradiction and ad absurdum
and ad infinitum regressions. For the philosopher-sage, Nagarjuna,
for example, the Ultimate is empty (shunya) of qualities and categorizations.
To communicate one’s experience of the nondual via language, one
must resort to poetic metaphor, such as the “One”. By contrast,
in quantum physics, the vacuum potential is a model, and one can therefore
communicate via dualistic, assertoric language.
The trick is not to reduce all of reality, including the nondual,
to the quantum level, but rather to see the quantum level of reality
as isomorphic to other levels. In other words, each level of reality
will be implicate or explicate to other levels. Each level will have
certain unique fields that express its energy, but do not necessarily
express the energy of other levels or other phenomena. If we approach
collective consciousness from a comprehensive, integral framework, we
will avoid the traps of reductionism, absolutism and, at times, inappropriate
language.
Harmful Field Effects.
Occasionally someone asks me whether field effects can be harmful.
The simple answer is yes. In fact, we all already live in the midst
of a number of harmful, unhealthy fields. We may be in a destructive
relationship, or work in a toxic organization with a narcissistic leader,
or be part of a religious organization that has cult-like characteristics,
or live in a community characterized by high levels of conflict or crime.
But what about individuals or groups who consciously and maliciously
harm others? This is a very important question. Larry Dossey has documented
examples of the ability of malicious thoughts to harm and cause disease.278
You can take steps to inoculate yourself, so to speak. HeartMath, for
example, has found that people, who are able to maintain their own physiological
coherence, are “more internally stable and, thus, less vulnerable
to being negatively affected.”279
This is one reason that I stress development and practice so much: the
more you can discover who you truly are, the more you can develop your
own internal compass, and the more you choose to live in a state of
honesty, acceptance and love, the less you will be affected by negative,
external influences.
Some people, such as the TM practitioners, believe that the powers
of influence one achieves are commensurate with one’s level of
consciousness, and are otherwise unavailable. In addition, as one’s
moral development and identification with others evolves, one chooses
to live more responsibly and for the sake of the common good. In such
cases, causing harm to others becomes less and less likely. This is
another reason I stress development and practice. A growing body of
research seems to indicate that our thoughts and feelings, individually
and collectively, affect others – perhaps to a degree we have
not imagined or understood. I believe, therefore, that we have a personal
responsibility to develop our capacities, strengthen our concern and
care for the common good, and create healing field effects in our organizations
and communities. I do believe that the TM practitioners are correct
when they say that coherent, unified, field consciousness is much more
powerful than typically incoherent, malicious intentions.280
The cautions and considerations that I have just outlined, lead me
to speak a bit about the crucial importance of practice, development
and character for the building and sustaining of collective consciousness
and wisdom on behalf of the common good.
Collaborative Creativity.
Sheldrake’s hypothesis, as explained above, is that members
of a social holon – once present or past members of that holon
have learned a behavior – can draw upon morphic resonance, their
collective memory, to learn the habits and skills established by their
predecessors. If true, then members of a collective, through their own
learning and development, can assist the learning of other members of
the collective and of other similar collectives.
However, as Sheldrake admits, a major limitation of his hypothesis
is that it cannot explain how novel or creative behavior occurs. The
first field – such as the field of a new idea – “comes
into being through a creative jump. The source of this evolutionary
creativity is unknown. Maybe it is a matter of chance. Maybe it is an
expression of some inherent creativity in mind and nature.”281
As we all know from our experience, the cumulative habits of teams,
organizations, societies and cultures can stifle change and innovation
very effectively. Moreover, memory involves recall of something that
has already occurred. Although it may provide a helpful stepping-stone
in the creative process, it refers to the past, rather than the new.
So, how can collaborative creativity take place?
I have addressed this question in depth elsewhere,282
so I will only make a few comments here. I believe that the answers
lie in the arena of human development. From the wisdom traditions, from
the social sciences, and from our personal and professional practice
and experience of change and transformation, we know that attitudes
and beliefs can make a big difference. For example, how open and curious
we are, how willing we are to take risks, etc., together with the behavioral
choices we make, can determine how creative we are and how fast we learn.
Obviously, mystery is still involved here, as any spiritual teacher,
educator, consultant or therapist will tell you. Nonetheless, many spiritual
practices, for example, are specifically designed to help practitioners
become more and more open, flexible and adaptive, and to embrace and
recognize change as the true nature of reality.283
Various developmental traditions describe an evolution of consciousness,
which increasingly takes practitioners away from constantly repeating
patterns, routines and habits,284
while taking them toward increasing openness, change, experimentation,
and intuitive insight. This way of living can cut throw off the crushing
weight of unconscious habit.
Intuition may in fact hold the key to creativity. Research has indicated
that tele-prehension and creativity may each call upon similar capacities
and skills. In one experiment, for example, Charles Honorton and Marilyn
Schlitz found that artistically gifted people were more successful at
ESP than ordinary individuals.285
My experience with teams is that collaborative creativity arises after
the group has engaged in an intuitive process. It appears that the diversity
of a group requires that the members find an overarching or underlying,
broad and inclusive perspective, one that incorporates the different
viewpoints. In the intuitive sensing of this large and encompassing
perspective, a novel insight about a problem or issue seems to arise.
In groups and collectives, individual members can inspire each other
to be more creative and transformative by the way they live –
a marker of true leadership. The more members of any collective who
make choices for openness, freedom and creativity, the more the culture
of the collective will take on those characteristics. They begin to
act like what chaos theory refers to as “chaotic attractors”,
as more and more members of the group choose to enter harmonic resonance
with them (Wilber’s third form of tele-prehension, as described
earlier). I once worked for an organization where such a strong transformative
field had been built, that visitors would literally sense it and remark
upon it when they walked in the door. Unfortunately, this is more often
the exception than the rule.
I also believe that Spirit responds to an invitation, especially a
collective invitation, to learning and creativity. Here the involutionary
and evolutionary movements of life meet and interact. This, I believe,
is what Wilber is talking about under the second form of tele-prehension
presented above.
The Importance of Practice, Development and
Character
There is a way
Between voice and presence
Where information flows.
In disciplined silence it opens.
With wandering talk it closes.
- Jelaluddin Rumi
Wilber’s integral model of development is very important, in
terms of hypothesizing and studying the relationships between development,
human capacities, subtle energies and field effects. According to the
Vedanta and Vajrayana traditions, only when individuals have consciously
developed a particular level of consciousness can they permanently realize,
access and master the correlated states of consciousness and behaviors,
“converting ‘temporary states’ to ‘permanent
traits’”.286
Research has supported this view by finding, for example, that the dreams
of infants and children do not contain or express capacities associated
with the higher levels of consciousness, such as formal operational
thought, postconventional images and morality, etc. Such contents only
appear during early adulthood. Furthermore, although an infant exhibits
energy fields associated with the families of gross, subtle and causal
(described earlier in this paper), because it enters waking, dreaming
and sleeping states;287
it does not possess the species and subspecies energy fields because
it has not developed the correlated stages of consciousness.288
To illuminate the difference between temporary states and permanent
traits, we can examine what happens when a crisis (such as a flood or
earthquake) occurs in a community. In such situations, community members
often respond in remarkable ways: they demonstrate full commitment to
the common good, work tirelessly on its behalf, collaborate in extraordinary
ways, and exhibit great levels of compassion, care, altruism and effort.
They often describe the experience of communion, community and collaboration
as a rare and singular peak experience. Although this experience may
result in an ongoing transformation for some, most community members
and the community itself typically return to ordinary behavior within
a relatively short period of time after the crisis subsides, as old
patterns and habits subsume the temporary state of collective consciousness.
But those who transform, whether through a conversion experience or
ongoing practice, and then reside in the transpersonal levels of consciousness,
seem to be able to express collective consciousness regularly and relatively
consistently. At some point, they experience what I call “the
communion of the heart.” They begin to evidence ongoing care for
the common good and to exhibit consistently collaborative intention
and skills, no matter what situation they are in, no matter what group,
organization of community they are involved with at any particular time.
We now stand at a critical juncture, where we can begin to interface
the modes of inquiry and the findings of the wisdom and scientific traditions.
By stripping most metaphysical constructs from the wisdom-tradition
consciousness model in his recent work,289
Wilber has opened more of the model’s stages to scientific investigation.
Scientists studying human development have already described at least
12 major levels of consciousness, which can be studied in at least 24
developmental lines. Furthermore, in the online draft of his latest
book, Wilber has begun to integrate these scientific findings and the
various wisdom-tradition versions of the human chakra system into his
integral model of development, thereby correlating them with the states
and stages of consciousness and their associated energy fields.290
Wilber’s synthesis provides a comprehensive framework to study
scientifically the relationship between human development, character,
collective consciousness, and related, sustainable capacities and skills.
To realize the individual and social benefits of developing collective
consciousness and wisdom, which have been suggested by the research
described in this paper and by applied disciplines such as organizational
and community development, we need to learn how to develop these sustainable
collaborative capacities and skills.
I would argue, based upon my experience working with groups and teams
over the past 33 years and upon my study of the research,291
that we will only be able to develop and utilize our collective wisdom
through consistent practice, self-honesty and courage. Research regarding
the means for developing collective consciousness is therefore crucial.
I will now describe some promising and necessary areas for studying
collective consciousness.
Future Lines of Research
As we have seen in this paper, the scientific investigation of collective
consciousness is just beginning. Areas of fruitful research might include:
-
What is unique about collective consciousness? How does it differ,
if at all, from what occurs in high performance teams, for example?
How does it differ from mob or crowd psychology? How does it differ
from group identities that are built upon separation from others
(e.g., a skinhead group, certain ethnic groups)?
-
How might we best define collective consciousness, in a manner
that is parsimonious, yet essential, and that allows us to operationalize
our definition and conduct good research?
-
What theory best explains collective consciousness? What model
best represents it? What testable hypotheses can we formulate about
it?
-
What can research on love, altruism, empathy, compassion, forgiveness,
etc., tell us about the relationship, if any, between those phenomena
and collective consciousness?292
-
How is collective consciousness manifested or expressed on one
or more of the 24-plus lines of development?293
What is the relationship or correlation between individual and collective
development?
-
What can other cultures, past or present, teach us about collective
consciousness and wisdom? Are there cross-cultural aspects that
tell us about the essential and universal aspects of these phenomena?
-
What do various disciplines have to teach us about collective
consciousness (e.g., intergroup relations, diversity and multicultural
studies, team building, organizational development and fields, transpersonal
psychology, collaborative creativity, group psychology, etc.)294
-
What do the wisdom traditions, including shamanic practice and
experience, tell us about collective consciousness?295
-
What have we learned or can learn about group dreaming, including
setting an intention before sleep and using tele-prehension? What
can other cultures tell us about communal dreaming?296
-
How can the research the social benefits of group TM meditative
practice be studied within other meditative and contemplative traditions?
If the social benefits of such practice are replicated, how can
we teach reflective practice in order to advance the common good
and collective health? 297
-
Do groups of subtle-energy healers, working together, produce
physical and mental health benefits that are faster and/or greater
than those produced by single healers?
In all cases, an interdisciplinary focus would help address the complex
nature of collective consciousness and would help ensure that our research
is integral; a cross-cultural focus would help us determine what is
universal; and a longitudinal focus would help us see to what degree
collective consciousness changes in tandem with developmental stages.
Summary and Conclusion
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands,
but in seeing with new eyes.
– Marcel Proust
Humanity is embarking on an exciting journey, exploring ways to consciously
use our collective wisdom and power to benefit the common good. In some
ways, these communal methods have been known in the wisdom traditions
for a long time. But, in other ways, we are approaching them fresh.
First, we are exploring them scientifically, moving from an arena of
metaphysics and belief, to an arena of experimentation, practice and
methodologies that can be used to train many people. Second, we are
harnessing the true nature of healing and creativity, which involves
relationship-centered and collaborative approaches, and coming into
individual, organizational and societal wholeness, both of which are
inherently spiritual and sacred by nature. These approaches promise
to restore community in mainstream U.S. culture, especially in our organizations.
Third, we are beginning to consciously learn how to work with field
effects, and to assume individual responsibility for our crucial contributions
to the health and creativity of our relationships, our organizations,
our communities and our culture.
Robert
Kenny, MBA, is a Fetzer Institute Fellow, founder of Leaderful Teams
Organizational Consulting, and co-founder of Bluff House Retreats. For
21 years he was a human resources executive at the Federal Reserve Bank,
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, Citicorp, and a comprehensive, non-profit
educational and health center in New York City. He has published a number
of articles on collective wisdom, and is writing a book, Change Your
Life, Change Your Work: The Transformative Power of Reflective Practice
and Inspired Action. You can reach him via email
.
Endnotes
1Kenny, Robert
M. (1992). Reflections on group consciousness and synergy. ICIS FORUM,
22 (2), 3-11.
2An
extensive body of research has been conducted regarding the impact of
collective consciousness, via the practice of transcendental meditation
by groups, upon indicators of social cohesion and health (e.g., homicides,
suicides, traffic fatalities, unemployment, conflict, and quality of
life). Beyond what I describe in this paper, all the research is summarized
at www.mum.edu/tm_research/summary_tm_res.html.
3Wilber
uses the term “Kosmos” in its original sense: “the
patterned nature or process of all domains of existence…, not
merely the physical universe…. [It] contains the cosmos (physiosphere),
the bios (biosphere), nous (noosphere), and theos (theosphere, or divine
domain).” Wilber, Ken (1995, p. 38). Sex, ecology and spirituality.
Boston, MA: Shambhala.
4Wilber,
Ken. (In press). Kosmic Karma (Vol. 2) [Online]. Boston, MA:
Shambhala. Available draft: http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptC/intro-1.cfm.
5Kenny,
R. M. (1987). Elliott Jaques’ Stratified Systems Theory: A
review and critique. Unpublished master’s thesis, New York
University, Stern Graduate School of Business, New York, NY.
Kenny, R. M. (1992). Op cit.
Kenny, R.M. (Facilitator). (1993, August). Team
effectiveness, group consciousness, and individual psychological development.
Invited workshop presentation at the Celebration of Community Conference,
co-sponsored by the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), Olympia, WA.
Available audiotape.
Kenny, R.M. (Facilitator). (1993, August). Decision-making
tools: How to build consensus in teams. Invited workshop presentation
at the Celebration of Community Conference, co-sponsored by the Institute
of Noetic Sciences (IONS), Olympia, WA. Available audiotape.
Kenny, R. M. (1994). Community-building by M. Scott
Peck, M.D.: A critique. ICIS FORUM, 24 (1), 37-58.
Kenny, R. M. (Facilitator). (1994, August). Psychological
development and team building. Invited workshop presentation at
the Annual Conference of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology
(ATP), Asilomar, CA. Available audiotape.
Kenny, R. M. (Speaker). (1995, August). Maturation,
psychospiritual development, and Peck’s community-building model:
A critique. Sidney M. Jourard Division 32 (Humanistic Psychology)
Award paper, presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological
Association (APA), Chicago, IL.
Kenny, R. M. (Speaker). (1995, September). Community-building
and human development. Invited presentation at the New York Conference
on Social Research, New York, NY.
Kenny, R.M. (1996). Creative collaboration and human
development: A case study. Unpublished paper, Saybrook Graduate School
and Research Center, San Francisco, CA.
Kenny, R.M. (Facilitator). (1996, November). Team
creativity and individual development. Invited workshop presentation
at the Common Boundary’s 16th Annual Conference, Washington,
D.C. Available audiotape.
Kenny, R.M. (1997, August). Creative collaboration
and human development: A case study. Invited paper presentation
at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association (APA),
Chicago, IL.
Kenny, R. M. (1998). Creative collaboration: The
untapped resource of synergy. Unpublished doctoral candidacy essay,
Saybrook Graduate School and Research Institute, San Francisco, CA.
Kenny, R.M. (Speaker). (1998, October). Building
healthy and sustainable communities. Invited presentation at the
New York Open Center’s Conference on Sustainable Societies, New
York, NY. Available audiotape.
Kenny, R.M. (Speaker). (1999, June). Collective
relationships: The challenging, yet golden, road to spiritual development.
Invited paper presentation at the semi-annual colloquium of Saybrook
Graduate School and Research Center, San Francisco, CA.
Kenny, R. M. (1999, Fall). Spread leadership! Yes!
A Journal of Positive Futures, 39.
Kenny, R.M. (2000, January). Developing leaderful groups.
The Co-Intelligence Institute. Available: www.co-intelligence.org
or
via email
.
Kenny, R. M. (2000, Summer). Creating community. Communities
Magazine, 23-25.
Kenny, R. M., in collaboration with Glover, J. R. (2001).
Calling out our potential: Developing collective wisdom and team
synergy: With reflections on our collective future. Kalamazoo,
MI: The Fetzer Institute. http://www.collectivewisdominitiative.org/papers/glover_callingout.htm.
Kenny, R.M. (2001, June [excerpts], and 2000, May [full
interview]). The chalice of community: An interview of Robert Kenny.
Online Noetic Network. Available transcript: www.wisdomtalk.org
or
via email
.
Kenny, R. M. (2002, Summer). Developing collaborative,
creative and ethical leadership through the use of reflective practice.
Newsletter of the Pacific Northwest Organizational Development Network,
6.
Kenny, R. M. (Facilitator). (2003, September). The
transformative power of collective practice, wisdom and inspired action
in organizations and communities (Conference Recording Services,
Inc., Cassette Recording No. 051, http://www.conferencerecording.com/newevents/awa23.htm,
510-527-3600). Invited workshop presentation at the Annual Conference
of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), presented in collaboration
with the Association for Global New Thought (AGNT), Palm Springs, CA.
Kenny, R. M. (2003, October). Inspiring creativity
and sustainability through reflective practice. Workshop presented
at the annual conference of the Organizational Development Network (ODN),
Portland, OR. Proceedings available at http://www.odnetwork.org/conf2003/proceedings/index.html
or
via email
.
Kenny, R. M. (Facilitator). (2004, March). Building
Individual and Organizational Creativity, Collaboration, Vision and
Leadership Through Reflective Practice. Invited workshop presentation
at the monthly meeting of the Pacific Northwest Organizational Development
Network (PNODN). Seattle, WA.
Kenny, R. M. (May-July, 2004, pp. 79-80). The science
of collective consciousness: A summary. What Is Enlightenment?,
25.
Kenny, R. M. (In press). Change your work, change
your life: The transformative power of reflective practice and inspired
action. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.
Kenny, R. M. (In press). Creative collaboration and
human development: When the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.
In A. Montuori & R. Purser (Eds.) (In press), Social creativity
(Vol. 3). Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
Kenny, R. M. (In press). Creating healing teams, organizations
and societies. In M. Schlitz & T. Amarok (Eds.), Consciousness
and healing: Integral approaches to mind-body medicine. New York:
Churchill Livingston/Elsevier Science Limited.
6For
example, Benor, D. J. (September 2003, pp. 1-12). Collective consciousness:
The journey IS the destination. The International Journal of Healing
and Caring, (2), 3.
7Kenny,
R. M. (In press). Creative collaboration and human development. Op
cit.
8Kenny,
R. M. (1999, Fall). Op cit.
9Kenny,
R. M. (In press) Building personal, organizational and community health
through collective consciousness and action. Op cit.
10Kenny,
R. M. (In press). Change your work, change your life. Op
cit. Kenny, R. M. (2003, September). Op cit.
11Kenny,
R. M. (2003, October). Op cit.
12Kenny,
R. M. (1994). Op cit.
13Wilber,
K. (1996). Eye to eye: The quest for the new paradigm. Boston,
MA: Shambhala.
14Wilber,
K. (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
15Wilber,
K. (In press). Ibid.
16Wilber,
K. (In press). Ibid. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptD/part1.cfm.
17Kenny,
R. M. (1998). Op cit.
18Walsh,
R., & Vaughan, F. (Eds.) (1993, p. 3). Paths beyond ego: The
transpersonal vision. New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
19Wilber,
K. (1995, p. 290). Op cit.
20Wilber,
K. (1995, p. 313). Ibid.
21Wilber
very rightly notes: “The manifest world continues to expand correlative
with the amount of love sentient beings can bring to it…. The
greater the degree of the evolution of consciousness, the more transparent
the boundaries themselves become to Emptiness” or Spirit. See
Wilber, Ken (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptD/part1.cfm.
Love may actually constitute the energy that accounts for many of the
phenomenal aspects of collective consciousness.
22Wilber,
K. (1995, p. 292). Op cit.
23Wilber,
K. (1995, p. 610). Ibid.
24For
example, see Bucke, R. M. (1974 [1900]). Cosmic consciousness: A
study in the evolution of the human mind. New York: Causeway Books.
25“The
awakening of the ultimate Self or nondual I-I of all holons, which brings
with it the full recognition of the Kosmic solidarity or ultimate We
of all holons, a recognition of that infinite depth or nondual Spirit
that grounds all intersubjectivity and solidarity, as disclosed and
illumined by causal and nondual paradigms [practices].” Wilber,
Ken. (In press) Op cit.
http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptC/intro-1.cfm.
These terms will be explained throughout this paper.
26Wilber,
Ken. (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptC/intro-1.cfm.
27For
example: “Only an individual holon has a dominant monad or ‘I’
with a singular agency or intentionality, and thus…has consciousness
per se (although a collective interior holon can have a type of diffused
consciousness, e.g., ‘group ego’). Wilber, Ken. (In press,
n. 6). Op cit.
http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptC/intro-1.cfm.
28Jung,
C. G. (1964). Man and his symbols. Garden City, NY: Windfall/Doubleday.
29Kenny, R. M.,
in collaboration with Glover, J. R. (2001). Op cit.
www.collectivewisdominitiative.org/papers/glover_callingout.htm.
30Glaser,
B. G., & Strauss, A. L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory:
Strategies for qualitative research. New York: Aldine de Gruyer.
Glaser, B. G. (1992). Basics of grounded theory
analysis. Mill Valley, CA: Sociology Press.
31Briskin,
A., Erickson, S., Lederman, J., Ott, J., Potter, D., & Strutt, C.
(2001). Centered on the edge: Mapping a field of collective intelligence
and spiritual wisdom. Kalamazoo, MI: The John E. Fetzer Institute.
Available: www.collectivewisdominitiative.org/CenteredOnTheEdge/thebook.htm
32See
endnotes 1-8.
33This
body of work will be referenced in the remainder of this paper.
34See
Calling Out Our Potential. Op
cit.
35Hermeneutics
studies inner realities as people experience them (e.g., how people
feel about their experience). Structuralism studies how inner realities
manifest as behavior. These two research methods, when used together,
are well suited to studying stages of human development. Cross-cultural
research would help us see what is more universal, while longitudinal
research would allow us to determine which patterns of being-in-the-world
constitute stages, rather than states. See Wilber, K. (In press). Op
cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptD/part1.cfm.
36Sheldrake,
R. (2003, p. 16). The sense of being stared at: And other aspects
of the extended mind. New York: Crown.
37Charles
Tart found in his research that, when two subjects hypnotized each other,
they claimed to know each other’s thoughts and feelings. Tart,
C. Psychedelic experiences associated with a novel hypnotic procedure:
mutual hypnosis. In C. Tart (Ed.) (1969), Altered states of consciousness
(pp. 291-308). New York: John Wiley. As I discuss in this paper, there
are certain non-drug processes which group members can consciously and
willingly undertake to create altered states of consciousness, such
as meditation, which may enhance their ability to think and create together,
or to influence the advancement of the common good.
38Kenny,
Robert (1996). Op cit.
39E.g.:
Elgin, D. (1997). Collective consciousness and cultural healing:
A report to the Fetzer Institute. San Anselmo, CA: Millennium Project.
Available: www.awakeningearth.org.
Laszlo, E. (1995, pp. 88, 106). The interconnected
universe: Conceptual foundations of transdisciplinary unified theory.
River Edge, NJ: World Scientific.
Radin, D. (1997). The conscious universe: The scientific
truth of psychic phenomena. New York: Harper Collins. Available
www.boundaryinstitute.org/
or www.psiresearch.org.
Sheldrake, R. (1995). Seven experiments that could
change the world. New York: Riverhead Books. Available: www.sheldrake.org.
Wolman, B. B. (Ed.) (1977). Handbook of parapsychology.
New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Utts, J. (1991). Replication and meta-analysis in parapsychology.
Statistical Science, 6, 363-403.
40Sheldrake,
R. (1995, pp. 23-24). Ibid.
41Wilber,
K. (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptC/intro-1.cfm.
Wilber says that the first way, psi, is not his main focus; accordingly,
he will focus upon the other two; and, because the third is the most
acceptable way for mainstream science, he will refer to it most often.
He also notes (ibid, n. 49): “The only way there is a direct sharing
of subjectivity is through tele-prehension…But a hermeneutic circle
also consists of inter-subjective exchanges, such as signs and symbols
[shared, e.g., through language].” In the main text (Excerpt C)
Wilber calls tele-prehension “direct depth-to-depth resonance”.
42Ibid.
43A
whole, which has a coherent and unique identity and agency, and which
is simultaneously a part (subholon) in another whole. The transcendent
yet inclusive new whole joins the parts into a deeper commonality, wherein
the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. For example, a molecule
is a subholon of a cell, and a cell is a subholon of an organism. Wilber,
K. (1995, p. 18). Op cit.
44“Spirit,
in a metaphoric fashion, is the nondual Self of all inter-selves…,
which allows any understanding to occur at all – not because you
and I are part of a super-I, but because there is only one
Super-I that is identical in and as all individual I’s, the single
nonlocal absolute subjectivity that inhabits all subjects, and thus
brings them together.” Wilber, K. (In press, n. 48). Op cit.
http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptC/intro-1.cfm.
45See
another paper of mine on this website, which has definitions of resonance
and the related, important concepts of attunement and entrainment in
coordinated and synergistic groups. Kenny, R. M., in collaboration with
Glover, J. R. (2001, pp. 3-4). Op cit. www.collectivewisdominitiative.org/papers/glover_callingout.htm.
46For
Wilber, “depth” means consciousness. In holons with the
least consciousness (e.g., subatomic particles like quarks), Wilber,
like Whitehead, calls consciousness “prehension”. If I understand
Wilber, he is saying that one cannot experience harmonic empathy with
another sentient being who has evolved to a higher level of consciousness
(or greater depth), because one has not yet experienced that level of
consciousness in oneself. Perhaps you have experienced this on a verbal
level with a great spiritual teacher: you don’t really understand
some of the things that he or she is talking about, because you have
not yet experienced or prehended those things. See the description of
“solidarity”, under the “Fields” subheading
of this paper.
47“Those
who have engaged the causal-nondual paradigms [practices] have found
that the realizations brought forth by those paradigms decisively contribute
to otherwise insoluble issues, such as the mind-body problem and intersubjectivity….
Although the ‘conclusions’ of these other paradigms cannot
be seen by the mental paradigms, they can be seen by integral individuals,
who can then directly contemplate their relevance for these issues [emphasis
added].” Wilber, K. (In press, n 15). Op cit.
http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptC/intro-1.cfm.
48Emerson,
R. W. (1969). In R. Cook (Ed.), Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected prose
and poetry. San Francisco, CA: Rinehart. (Original work published
1909-1914).
49Emerson,
Ralph Waldo (1969, p. 107). Ibid.
50Quoted
in Wilber, K. (1995, p. 606, n. 1). Op cit. “Notice that
one song of our souls is not the same as being cells of the same body….
The former is the harmonious intersection of souls in a nexus-song;
the latter is parts of an organism – partners versus parts.”
Wilber, K. (In press, n. 48). Op cit.
http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptD/part1.cfm.
51Sheldrake,
R. (2003, pp. 4-5). Op cit.
52See
Appendix A in Sheldrake, R. (2003). Ibid.
53Morphic
form, discussed later, is another. Wilber, K. (In press). Op cit.
http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
54Wilber
believes, however, that “some aspects of the higher dimensions
might be truly meta-physical.” Wilber, K. (In press). Op cit.
http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
55Unless
I have misread the draft of his book, Wilber’s terminology appears
contradictory. He is using the term “subtle energies” as
an overall classification, even though he labels one of the levels of
energy as “subtle energy.”
56“Complexification
of gross form is the vehicle of manifestation for both subtler energies
and greater consciousness.” Wilber, Ken (In press). Op cit.
http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
57The
basis for putting forth this hypothesis will be explained below, including
the section on “Nonlocal Effects”.
58Wilber,
K. (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
59Dossey,
L. (1997, pp. 175-177). Be careful what you pray for…you might
just get it. San Francisco, CA: Harper.
Green, E.E. (1991, June 21-25). Copper wall research
psychology and psychophysics: Subtle energy and energy medicine: Emerging
theory and practice. Proceedings of the first annual conference,
International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine
(ISSSEEM). Boulder, CO.
60E.g.:
Alexander, C.N., Davies, J.L., & Orme-Johnson, D.W. (1990). The
effects of the Maharishi Technology of the Unified Field: Reply to a
methodological critique. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 34,
756-768.
Krippner, S. (1992). The Synergy Project: A worthy
enterprise in need of clarification. ICIS FORUM, 22 (2), 9-10.
Peoch, R. (1988). Chicken imprinting and the tychoscope:
An anspi experiment. Journal of the Society for Psychical Research,
55, 1-9.
61Sheldrake,
R. (2003, pp. 10-11). Op cit. http://www.sheldrake.org/papers/Morphic/.
62Sheldrake,
R. (1999, p. 302-306). Dogs that know when their owners are coming
home: And other unexplained powers of animals. New York: Three
Rivers Press.
63Murphy,
M., & White, R.A. (1978). The psychic side of sports. Reading,
MA: Addison-Wesley.
64Novak,
M. (1976, pp. 135-136). The joy of sports. New York: Basic
Books. Nikolai Bernstein has conducted some fascinating research. He
filmed and analyzed the rhythmic movements of dancers, by attaching
sensors to parts of their bodies. The sensors revealed that the dancers
were moving in waves. Because the movements could be represented by
Fourier transforms (mathematical formulas that can represent complex
patterns including those involved in optical images, and the relationships
between quantum waves via their interference patterns), Bernstein was
able to predict the subsequent movements of dancers “within a
few millimeters.” (Cited in Pribram, K. H. [1991, p. 137]. Brain
and perception: Holonomy and structure in figural processing. Hillsdale,
NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.)
Reviewing this and other research, Pribram concluded
that our brain communicates with our body via waves and patterns, and
that our senses operate by analyzing frequencies. (Cited in McTaggart,
L. [2002, p. 87]. The field: The quest for the secret force of the
universe. New York: Harper Collins.) This may help explain how
sports participants can anticipate each other’s movements ahead
of time, since the waves may be able to be communicated nonlocally between
team members who have achieved a certain level of resonance. These findings
may also indicate that sense-based communication may be occurring on
non-apparent levels, making extrasensory communication somewhat ordinary,
rather than extraordinary.
65Kenny,
R. M. (In press). Creative collaboration and human development. Op
cit.
Kenny, R. M. (1998). Op cit.
66Sheldrake,
R. (1999, p. 302). Op cit.
67Sheldrake,
R. (1999, p. 302). Ibid.
68Sheldrake,
R. (1999, p. 306). Ibid.
69Sheldrake,
R. (1999, p. 303-304). Ibid.
70Sheldrake,
R. (1999, p. 304). Ibid.
Sheldrake, R. (1985). A new science of life: The
hypothesis of formative causation (new ed.). London: Blond.
Sheldrake, R. (1988). The presence of the past:
Morphic resonance and the habits of nature. New York: Times Books.
Sheldrake, R. (1992). Note on “Reflections on
group consciousness and synergy.” ICIS FORUM, 22, (2),
11.
Sheldrake, R. (2003). Op cit.
71Sheldrake,
R. (1988, p. 221). Ibid.
72E.g.:
Mahlberg, A. (1987). Evidence of collective memory: A test of Sheldrake’s
theory. Journal of Analytic Psychology, 32, 23-34.
Sheldrake, R. (1999). Op cit.
Abraham, R., McKenna, T., & Sheldrake, R. (2001).
Chaos, creativity and cosmic consciousness. Rochester, VT:
Park Street Press. See also the other works cited here.
73Sheldrake,
R. (2003, p. 279). Op cit.
74As
with the other aspects of his integrative classification system, Wilber
notes that the number of levels is “rather arbitrary” –
just as you can measure temperature in either a 180-degree Fahrenheit
scale or a 100-degree Celsius scale. Wilber, K. (In press). Op cit.
http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
75Wilber,
K. (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
76Harold
Saxon Burr was a Yale physiologist was one of the first scientists to
experimentally detect energy fields. Others include Motoyama and Tiller.
77E.g.,
Michael Levin. Their perceptions essentially match the drawings made
by Burr, based upon his instrument measurements, which depict “typical
and important aspects of these energies.” Wilber, K. (In press).
Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
Benor, D. J. (January, 2004). Fields and energies related
to healing: A review of Soviet and Western studies. The International
Journal of Healing and Caring, On-line, (4), 1, 1-11. Available:
www.ijhc.org.
78Wilber,
K. (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptC/intro-1.cfm.
79“A
‘we’ is not a single prehension of a single I, but the shared
prehension of member I’s linked by similar signification and/or
tele-prehensions; this is why neither a we nor an its [the exterior
or social forms of a collective holon] can perceive.” Wilber,
K. (In press, n. 34). Op cit.
http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptC/intro-1.cfm.
80Wilber
calls this intentional action “agency”. Wilber, K. (In press).
Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptC/intro-1.cfm.
81Wilber
believes that “some sort of ‘web’ or interobjective
totality” exists, but considers it a “conception that enters
the prehensive worldspace of only…humans at the ‘yellow’
level in the values line of development. [Wilber, K. (In press, n. 17).
Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptC/intro-1.cfm.]
Values and behavior at this level might include: express self to reach
goals and better self and some others, be successful, gain materially,
compete/strive/drive and win/achieve, delegated authority makes decisions,
and self-actualization may take precedence over service. [Forman, J.
(2003). Introduction to integral theory and methodology. Unpublished
paper.]
According to Wilber, a worldspace is a shared “cognitive
map of the external world,” which determines the “band of
circumscribed stimuli that can be responded to,” that register,
or that have impact or meaning. The band of stimuli that register becomes
deeper and wider as group members transform and develop. A worldspace
is created, enacted, codetermined, or “disclosed by a particular
degree of shared [common] depth,” by members establishing “an
opening in which similar-depthed holons can manifest to each other,
for each other.” [Wilber, K. (1995, pp. 540-541). Op cit.]
If Wilber’s view is correct, individuals may be able to consistently
register each other’s thought and experience their connection
within the web of life when they develop a certain level on the values
and cognitive lines.
82Solidarity
comes in two forms. Vertical solidarity means that two or more
holons share a similar level of consciousness and therefore resonance
of depth, which can form part of the horizontal or cultural solidarity
(shared horizons, in terms of meanings, norms, traditions, etc.) that
is required for mutual understanding. When both forms of solidarity
exist, individuals experience “adequate resonance”, or genuinely
overlapping intersubjectivity. Wilber, K. (In press). Op cit.
http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptC/intro-1.cfm.
“Spirit is the empty center of the agency or subjectivity of all
holons, the nondual Subject that is the ultimate, nonlocal instantaneous
ground of all intersubjectivity. Kosmic solidarity means that we are
ultimately of one culture with all sentient beings, top to bottom [developmentally],
and hence we can, in our varying degrees, resonate with other sentient
beings authentically” (Ibid, n. 55).
83Wilber,
K. (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptC/intro-1.cfm.
“In the present moment, solidarity is also established by tele-prehension,
such as immediate harmonic resonance” (Ibid, n. 50).
84Wilber,
K. (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
85Wilber,
K. (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
86McTaggart,
L. (2002, p. 164). Op cit.
87Wilber,
K. (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
88I
am going to address only issues of nonlocality or space in this paper.
Solid research also exists regarding field effects that appear to influence
past or future events, and therefore transcend time. This is a complicated
issue and space does not permit me to consider it. If you wish to read
about the relevant research, please see my paper on the scientific evidence
for collective wisdom at www.collectivewisdominitiative.org.
89Sheldrake,
R. (1995, p. 238). Op cit.
90Sheldrake,
R. (1995, pp. 80-81). Ibid.
91Wilson,
E. O. (1971, p. 229). The social insects. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press. Cited in R. Sheldrake (1995, pp. 86-88, 231). Op
cit.
Marais, E. (1973, pp. 119-120). The soul of the
white ant. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin. It is possible, however,
that sound could travel around the steel plate. The experiments did
not control for this.
92Sheldrake,
R. (1995, pp. 80-81). Op cit.
93Wilson,
E. O. (1971). Op cit. Cited in R. Sheldrake (1995, p. 231).
Op cit.
94Wilson,
E. O. (1971, p. 229). Ibid.
95Sheldrake,
R. (1995, p. 83-84). Op cit.
96Becker,
G. (1977). Communications between termites by biofields. Biological
cybernetics, 26, 41-51.
97Sheldrake,
R. (1995, p. 86-87). Op cit.
98Sheldrake,
R. (1995, p. 87). Ibid.
99Marais,
E. (1973, pp. 119-120). Op cit.
100Sheldrake,
R. (1995, pp. 87-88). Op cit.
101Sheldrake,
R. (1995, pp. 9-31). Ibid.
102Sheldrake,
R. (1995, p. 90). Ibid.
Sheldrake, R. (1999). Op cit.
Sheldrake, R. (2003, p. x). Op cit.
Long, W. J. (1919). How animals talk. New
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103Sheldrake,
R. (1995, pp. 93-94). Ibid.
104Sheldrake,
R. (2003, pp. ix and 2). Op cit.
105Popp
believes that biophoton emissions explain morphogenesis, the phenomena
that Sheldrake and others have studied. (See McTaggart, L. (2002, p.
47). Op cit. But this may be true only on a certain levels
of matter (e.g., the cellular level), as discussed elsewhere in this
paper, in terms of absolutism in physics.
106Benor,
D. J. (January 2004). Op cit.
107McTaggart,
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108Hameroff,
S. R. (1987). Ultimate computing: Biomolecular consciousness and
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109Microtubules
are tiny hollow cylinders made of “microscopic hexagonal lattices
of fine filaments of protein, called tubulins.” McTaggart, L.
(2002, p. 92). Op cit.
110Karl
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117McCraty,
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118McCraty,
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191I
do not have a vested interest in presenting this research. I do not
practice TM, nor do I have any connection to TM groups or the university
founded by the Maharishi. Rather than privilege one meditative technique
over another, I tend to look for the commonalities among them. Although
I believe that spiritual practice is important, the teachers I respect
most emphasize other factors, too, such as honesty and courage in facing
whatever we fear. Nonetheless, the TM research is persuasive and seems
to have important things to tell us about the effects of meditative
practice and focused group intention.
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193Ibid.
(p. 4).
194Ibid.
(p. 3).
195Ibid.
(p. 3).
196Ibid.
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221McTaggart,
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222Cohen,
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223Cohen,
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224The
English title is Know the Ways of the Lord. Cited in G. Uhlein (1984,
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225Jahn,
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226Broughton,
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227Dunne,
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228Radin,
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in random physical systems. Foundations of Physics, 19 (12), 1499-1514.
Other experiments regarding the effect of intention upon REGs have been
conducted, such as: Peoc’h, R. (1995). Psychokinetic action of
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229Radin,
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1959-2000 [Online]. Available: www.boundaryinstitute.org.
230Radin,
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231Dunne,
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PEAR Technical Note 91005. In Rao, K.R. (Ed.) (1993). Cultivating
consciousness for enhancing human potential, wellness and healing
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232Interview
with B. Dunne (1998, June 12). Cited in McTaggart, L. (2002, p. 119).
Op cit.
233Jahn,
R. G., & Dunne, B. J. (1987, p. 257). Margins of reality: The
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234E.g.:
Nelson, R. D., & Mayer, E. L. (1996). A fieldREG application at
the San Francisco Bay Revels. Cited in D. Radin (1997). Op cit.
235Nelson,
R. D., Bradish, G. J., Dobyns, Y. H., Dunne, B. J., & Jahn, J. G.
(1996). FieldREG anomalies in group situations. Journal of Scientific
Exploration, 10 (1), 111-142. The variables reported in my text
are a compilation of observations reported in L. McTaggart (2002, p.
205). Op cit. New York: Harper Collins. The verbatim text from
the Nelson et al. article is: “unusually cohesive cognitive interaction,
creative enthusiasm, or other forms of emotional intensity” and
“high degrees of attention, intellectual cohesiveness, shared
emotion, or other coherent qualities of groups.” This would be
a good focus for research: when significant order emerges in the FieldREG
data, what do participants report as the nature of their experience
during those moments? In addition, participants might be given a variation
on the devices used in auditoriums, to measure like-dislike reactions
to statements made by speakers, perhaps asking participants to indicate
times they feel a significant level of cohesion or closeness in the
group.
236Nelson,
R. D., et al. (1996). Ibid. Cited in L. McTaggart (2002, p.
203). Op cit.
237See
also: Schwartz, G. E. K., Russek, L. G. S., She, Z., Song, L. Z., &
Xin, Y. (1997). Anomalous organization of random events during an international
qigong meeting: Evidence for group consciousness or accumulated qi fields.
Subtle Energies, 8 (1), 55-65.
238Nelson,
R. (1997, July). FieldREG measurements in Egypt: resonant consciousness
at sacred sites. PEAR Technical Note 97002. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University, School of Engineering.
McTaggart, L. (2001, February 2). Interview of Roger
Nelson. Cited in L. McTaggart (2002, p. 206). Op cit.
Nelson, R. D. et al. FieldREGII: consciousness field
effects: replications and explorations. Journal of Scientific Exploration,
12 (3), 425-454.
239McTaggart,
L. (2002, p. 208). Op cit.
Radin, D. (1997, pp. 157-74). Op cit.
Radin, D., Rebman, J. M., & Cross, M. P. (1996).
Anomalous organization of random events by group consciousness: Two
exploratory experiments. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 10,
143-168.
240Radin,
D. (1997, p. 168). Op cit.
241Bierman,
D. J. (1996). Exploring correlations between local emotional and global
emotional events and the behavior of a random number generator. Journal
of Scientific Exploration, 10, 363-374.
Blasband, R. (1995, June 15-17). The ordering of
random events by emotional expression. Paper presented to the 14th
Annual Meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration, Huntington
Beach, CA.
Nelson, R. D., Bradish, G. J., Dobyns, Y. H., Dunne,
B. J., & Jahn, J. G. (1996). Op cit.
242Bierman,
D. J. (1996, p. 373). Ibid.
243For
Teilhard’s exposition regarding the noosphere, see P. T. de Chardin
(1964, pp. 132 & 137-138). The future of man. New York:
Harper & Row.
244Nelson,
R. D. (2002). September 11 2001: Exploratory and contextual analyses.
Available: Global Consciousness Project, http://noosphere.princeton.edu/terror.html.
Data from the EGGs are combined into a Stouffer Z-score for each second
of time. The scores are squared and then added together, to generate
a Chisquare for the whole period studied, which includes time periods
preceding and following the event. The departure of the Chisquare from
chance expectation (randomness, or a horizontal line on the data graph,
representing no clear trend) reflects a correlated response across the
EGGs.
245Nelson,
R. D. (2002). Terrorist disaster: September 11, 2001. Available:
Global Consciousness Project, http://noosphere.princeton.edu.
246Nelson,
R., et al. (1998). Global resonance of consciousness: Princess Diana
and Mother Theresa. Electronic Journal of Parapsychology. Available:
http://www.psy.uva.nl/ejap
or http://www.princeton.edu/~rdnelson/diana.html.
247Nelson,
R. D. (2002, pp. 1-15). Op cit.
248Radin,
D. (September 21, 2001, pp. 1-9). Global consciousness project analysis
for September 11, 2001. Available: Global Consciousness Project,
http://noosphere.princeton.edu/dean.wtc0921.html.
Radin, D. (March-May, 2003, pp. 8-13 & 44-45).
For whom the bell tolls: A question of global consciousness. IONS
Noetic Sciences Review.
249Nelson,
R. D. (2002, pp. 10-12). Op cit.
250Shoup,
R. (November 6, 2001, pp. 1-8). EGG anomalies: Comments on the GCP
EGG data for September 11, 2001. Available: Boundary Institute:
www.boundaryinstitute.org/articles/EGG_salad.pdf.
251May,
E. C., & Spottiswoode, S. J. P. (2002, pp. 1-18). Global Consciousness
Project: An independent analysis of the 11 September 2001 events.
Available: Boundary Institute: www.boundaryinstitute.org/articles/may-spot_sep11.pdf.
252Nelson,
R. D. (2002, pp. 14-15). Op cit.
253Nelson,
R. D. (2002, p. 1). MUM peace meditation. Available: Global
Consciousness Project, http://noosphere.princeton.edu/mumspeak.html.
254Ibid.
(p. 2).
255Ibid.
(p. 2).
Nelson, R. D. (2002, p. 8). September 11 2001. Op
cit.
256Orme-Johnson,
D. (September 1993, p. 6). Op cit. Personal communication with
the study’s author, Lynne Mason, November 7, 2003. Journal article
is in press.
257Radin,
D. I., Machado, F. R., & Zangari, W. (2000). Op cit.
258Rose,
S. (1992). So-called formative causation: A hypothesis disconfirmed.
Biology Forum, 85, 445-453.
Sheldrake, R. (1992a). An experimental test of the
hypothesis of formative causation. Biology Forum, 85, 431-443.
Sheldrake, R. (1992b). Rose refuted. Biology Forum,
85, 455-460.
259Sheldrake,
R. (1988, pp. 189-196). Op cit.
Sheldrake, R. (1999, p. 311). Op cit.
260Crew,
F. A. E. (1936, pp. 61-101). A repetition of McDougall’s Lamarckian
experiment. The Journal of Genetics, 33.
Agar, W. E., et al. (1942, pp. 158-167). Second report
on a test of McDougall’s Lamarckian experiment on the training
of rats. Journal of Experimental Biology, 19.
Agar, W. E., et al. (1954, pp. 307-321). Fourth (final)
report on a test of McDougall’s Lamarckian experiment on the training
of rats. Journal of Experimental Biology, 31.
261Sheldrake,
R. (1988). Op cit.
262Laszlo,
E. (1995, pp. 133-135). Op cit.
263Ibid
(pp. 130-132).
264E.g.:
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1988). Society, culture and person: A systems
view of creativity. In R. Sternberg (Ed.), The nature of creativity:
Contemporary psychological perspectives (pp. 325-339). New York:
Cambridge University Press.
McTaggart, L. (2002, p. 103). Op cit.
Murphy, G. (1958). Human potentialities. New
York: Basic Books.
Tardif, T. Z., & Sternberg, R.J. (1988). What do
we know about creativity? In R. Sternberg (Ed.), The nature of creativity:
Contemporary psychological perspectives (pp. 429-440). New York:
Cambridge University Press.
265Gardner,
H. (1988, p. 315). Creative lives and creative works: A synthetic scientific
approach. In R. Sternberg (Ed.), The nature of creativity: Contemporary
psychological perspectives (pp. 298-321). New York: Cambridge University
Press.
266Wilber,
K. (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
267Wilber,
K. (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
268McTaggart,
L. (2002). Op cit.
269McTaggart,
L. (2002, pp. 19-20). Op cit. Based upon a definition by Barrow,
J.D. (2000, p. 216). The book of nothing. London: Jonathan
Cape.
270McTaggart,
L. (2002, p. 24). Op cit.
271This
movement is reflected in human creativity, which begins in the realms
of inspiration, imagination and mind and is ultimately manifested in
form.
272Wilber,
Ken (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
273McTaggart,
L. (2002, p. 23). Op cit.
274McTaggart,
L. (2002, p. xviii). Op cit.
275Through
my comments here, I do not intend to detract from the seminal and significant
contribution that Bohm made in terms of the use of dialogue. His description
of how dialogue in groups can help unearth unexamined, unconscious cultural
and familial conditioning and assumptions, and can lead to the creation
of truly shared meaning (culture) in collectives, is still one of the
best analyses of the power of dialogue to create collective consciousness.
See, for example, D. Bohm & M. Edwards (1991, pp. 177 - 199), Changing
Consciousness. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco. However, since
I am dealing with research in this paper, rather than group processes,
I have not discussed dialogue in the text. Instead, please see Kenny,
R. M., in collaboration with Glover, J. R. (2001). Op cit.
That paper discusses various processes, including dialogue, for developing
collective consciousness. www.collectivewisdominitiative.org/papers/glover_callingout.htm.
276Wilber,
Ken (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
277Wilber,
Ken (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
278Dossey,
L. (1997). Op cit.
Regarding the suppression of plant growth by a depressed
man, see Grad, B. (1965). Some biological effects of ‘laying-on
of hands’: A review of experiments with animals and plants. Journal
of the American Society for Psychical Research, 59, 95-127.
279McCraty,
R. (2003, p. 12). Op cit.
280I
have several responses to the problem of malicious intent in groups:
1. Anyone who teaches or assists with human development
has an ethical responsibility to screen participants and to refuse
to teach groups who appear irresponsible, selfish, or malicious in
their intent.
2. If a group decides to try to learn how to influence
negatively the well being of others, no one in a free society can
prevent them from doing so. It is therefore incumbent upon the well-intentioned
to use their positive influence as often as possible, which may offset
the effect of those with separative or destruction intent.
3. In fact, a number of groups historically and currently
are likely unconsciously harming others to some degree, since so many
of us engage in limited or negative thinking about others, through
jealousy, envy, competition, exclusion, hatred, gossip, slander, disrespect,
etc. From that perspective, it is incumbent upon us to help group
members become aware of the effects of their thoughts and wishes and
to change their behavior to be supportive of the well-being of others.
4. Groups intending to increase the well being of
others should request the permission of those who would benefit, wherever
possible. In any event, and especially in those situations where permission
cannot be obtained (such as on a societal level), the group’s
intention should be focused upon the highest or common good.
5. If you believe that an individual or group is
wishing you harm, you can use certain “shielding strategies”
to protect yourself. (For example, see Larry Dossey’s book,
mentioned in the previous endnote. The effectiveness of these techniques
has been scientifically demonstrated. See:
Braud, W.G. [1985]. Blocking/shielding psychic
functioning through psychological and psychic techniques: A report
of three preliminary studies. In R. White & I. Solfvin [Eds.],
Research in Parapsychology. Metuchen, NY: Scarecrow Press,
42-44.
Braud, W.G., [1990-1991]. Implications and application
of laboratory psi findings. European Journal of Parapsychology,
8, 57-65.
Braud, W.G., et al. [1985]. Further studies of
the bio-PK effect: Feedback, blocking, generality/specificity. Op
cit, 45-48.)
Groups should use these resources to not only protect
their members, but to augment their well-being and growth.
All things considered, the potential benefits from
teaching groups and teams how to collaborate on behalf of the common
good are too great and are so critically needed, in m y opinion, that
failure to teach these skills – given the above considerations
– would be unethical and result in a significant overall loss
for, and therefore harm to, society.
281Sheldrake,
R. (1999, p. 305). Op cit.
282Kenny,
R. (1996). Op cit.
283Koenig,
H. G., & Cohen, H. J. (2002). Op cit.
Murphy, M., Donovan, S., & Taylor, E. (1997). Op cit.
Health Publica Icon Health Publications (2003). Op
cit.
Engel, K. (1998). Op cit.
Schlitz, M., & Lewis, N. (Summer 1997, pp. 34-38).
Op cit.
Walsh, R. (2001). The practices of essential spirituality.
IONS Review, 58.
284For
example, see the discussion of “prajna”, the Buddhist notion
of “the open ear, open eye, open mind that is found in every living
being”, in Chodron, Pema (2002). The places that scare you:
A guide to fearlessness in difficult times. Boston, MA: Shambhala.
285Schlitz,
M. J., & Honorton, C. (1992). Ganzfeld psi performance within an
artistically gifted population. The Journal of the American Society
for Psychical Research, 86 (2), 83-98.
286Wilber,
Ken (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
287Moreover,
because gross, subtle and causal family-energies emerged with the Big
Bang, living cells, and triune brains, respectively, all three come
with a baby’s body. Wilber, K. (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
288Wilber,
Ken (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
289Wilber,
K. (2000). Integral psychology: consciousness, spirit, psychology,
therapy. Boston, MA: Shambhala.
290Wilber,
K. (In press). Op cit. http://wilber.shambhala.com/html/books/kosmos/excerptG/part1.cfm.
Wilber, K. (2000). Op cit.
291Kenny,
R. M. (1996). Op cit.
292Scharmer,
C. O. (1999, October 29). The heart is the key to all of this: Conversation
with Joseph Jaworski. Available: Dialogue on Leadership website
http://dialogonleadership.org/interviewJaworski.html.
293Wilber
and the Vice President of his Integral Institute, Bob Richards, are
currently developing a set of research agendas regarding his integral
model of human development.
294Brown,
J., & Isaacs, D. (1997). The transpersonal domain in large-scale
change. Unpublished working paper. Mill Valley, CA.
Gozdz, K., Jaworski, J., & Senge, P. M. (1997).
Setting the field: Creating the conditions for profound institutional
change. Unpublished manuscript, Center for Organizational Learning
at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA.
Kenny, R.M. (1996). Op cit.
Flowers, B. S., Jaworski, J., Scharmer, C. O., &
Senge, P. (In Press). Presence: Human purpose and the field of the
future.
295For
example, see Krippner, S., & Welch, P. (1992). Op cit.
296E.g.,
the Achuar and Huaorani tribes of the Amazon view dreaming as a process
that is owned by the group and is a way to connect with the ancestors
and the universe. When members of the tribe gather to share their dreams
each morning, the individual is seen as the vehicle for life to dialogue
with the collective. What can we learn from their orientation and experience?
Or from similar processes in Western culture, such as the Social Dreaming
process that has been conducted by some members of the A.K. Rice and
Tavistock Institutes? What can we learn from the dream research that
has been conducted by Stanley Krippner and Montague Ullman, e.g., where
thoughts were sent and incorporated in dreams with 84% accuracy, and
odds of 250,000 to one that this had happened by chance.
Broughton, R. S. (1991, p. 98). Op cit.
297In
addition to TM practitioners, groups might include practitioners of
the Yan Xin Nine Step Qigong Method. See Wozniak, J. A., Wu, S., &
Wang, H. (1991). Op cit.
