Collective Consciousness

Pink Floyd – “Dark Side Of The Moon” (1973)

I remember watching Crossing Over with John Edward back when it aired in the early 2000s. I was curious, yet full of skepticism, as he would seemingly cast a wide net over the audience. "I'm looking for someone who passed who's name started with the letter D." Well, duh, several people know someone who has passed with the letter D. "A male energy."  

Another clue might land with one audience member, but soon, an extra clue or two now resonated stronger with another audience member. "Doug" for the woman in blue was dismissed over for "Dan" connected to the man wearing white. But what about "Doug"? I thought Doug was coming through for this woman and now she just sits dazed and confused? "See, it's not real," I'd tell myself and change the channel.

That isn't a real life example from a John Edward reading, but that's the general idea. I recently looked him up on YouTube videos giving readings and now I have a much clearer understanding of what was happening and why it could appear to make him less credible in the eyes of the skeptics out there (Yeah you, South Park, season 6, episode 15). I am no longer skeptic. I have these experiences when I practice mediumship.

Attending My First Public Gallery Reading
I had been attending a weekly spirit circle and practicing mediumship for several months before attending a symposium to listen to a nationally recognized medium. I didn't doubt his abilities, but his arrogance around his gifts was rather off-putting and the name dropping was unnecessary. The first night, he made mention of the collective consciousness and how he imagines it to be like a giant body of water and we are but a mere drop of water in this vast body of water. It was a similar description offered in the mediumship training I had completed.

Mr. Name Dropper was offering a gallery reading the second evening and mentioned how spirits can piggy back due to the collective consciousness. What might make sense to two people in the room with entirely different experiences and passed loved ones, could be a connection to both audience members using the same clues (derived from the collective consciousness), but one spirit manages to make a stronger connection to push to the front of the line. That's why "Dan" trumped "Doug" and it appeared John Edward was doing a quick pivot. It is a quick pivot. Communication with spirit moves fast. 

I like to offer this visualization:
There is a race and many people show up to run the race. The people lining up at the starting line are like the spirits lined up waiting to come through, to connect with loved ones. The race starts, there are 3 runners in the lead and they happen to be wearing the same colored shirt, have the same colored hair, are registered in the same age group, but each has a different race number. So purple shirt, brown hair and 30 year old age group could resonate with 3 people in the crowd cheering for that runner, but ultimately, race number 236 edges out race number 247 to win the race. Race number 262 pulled up just before the finish with a pulled hamstring and didn't make it across the finish line (i.e. spirit broke the connection) and race number 247 is waiting patiently for his 2nd place spot on the podium (i.e. another spirit waiting in line to connect).

During the symposium gallery reading, a few clues were coming through that the audience member in front of the microphone was not making a connection to:  playing a musical instrument, maybe in a church setting, like a keyboard. There was another clue previously given:  name with the letter J. Those 2 clues together made a lot of sense to me. I looked at my aunt and mouthed, "I think this is Grandma," but the reading continued for the audience member standing in front of the microphone, and my aunt gave me a confused look. I knew my grandma was there.

My father's mother passed away when he was a teenager, so I had no direct knowledge of her and she was not talked about very much. Growing up, we had her organ in our home and we took weekly organ lessons for years. My dad played her organ at home and played the organ at church some Sundays. My dad's name starts with the letter J. One of the first spirits I communicated with was my dad's mom. I regularly connect with my grandma and I felt like it was her way of showing up at the gallery reading like, "Ha ha...I got through here too," but she did not need to connect publicly. In fact, I had already asked her to let other spirits come for people desperate to connect with their loved ones. She makes me laugh at the creative ways she comes through. Most often, she draws my attention to my younger sister, named after my grandma.

There was another instance during the gallery reading where the psychic was giving a reading for a woman I recognized from my community. Her husband had done some art restoration at my work the previous spring (I work at a private golf club). When the psychic said "golf", I was sitting there saying to myself, "Something about your husband!" It took a while longer for the psychic to deliver the clues to the woman in order to draw her attention to her husband for a message pertaining to his health. The husband was not a golfer, so that didn't click with the wife at all, but I knew the husband from the golf course setting, so it made sense to me immediately.

Collective Consciousness
The collective conscious is the set of shared beliefs, ideas, and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society.

"The contents of an individuals's consciousness are largely shared in common with all other members of their society, creating a mechanical solidarity through mutual likeness." - Wikipedia, Emile Durkheim

Societies are formed from various collective groups, but here, we're talking about past and present societies as a whole. Think about everything you know- all of your personal experiences and understanding- is contained in that drop of water in the vast body of water. Every drop is everyone else's personal experiences and understanding, creating this vast body of water. Spirit draws on the collective consciousness in order to connect with us. It's why we can receive a clue or symbol that might make no sense directly to us, but might make perfect sense to the person connected to the spirit coming through.

Dark Side of the Moon
The challenge in front of spirit is to deliver the sign/symbol for you to receive and trust that you are getting it. It doesn't mean the person channeling has to decipher the meaning. In my training, I learned, "Get it. Give it. Get out." Spirit has to draw on your personal knowledge, experiences and understanding in order for you to get it. It is like a giant game of charades. I saw an example of this in a class one day when someone saw the album cover of Pink Floyd and she said, "I just saw the Dark Side of the Moon album cover". I'm sure I know some Pink Floyd, but the album cover would not be recognizable to me. I might have said, "I see a triangle with a rainbow" and tried to give it another context- thus, missing the clue. This particular Pink Floyd album was a strong connection to another woman's sister that had passed. The woman immediately knew it was her sister connecting and started sobbing. 

Collective Unconscious, Carl Jung
So what's the difference between the collective consciousness and collective unconsciousness? The definition from Jung on the collective unconscious follows, "While the personal unconscious is made up essentially of contents which have at one time been conscious but which have disappeared from consciousness through having been forgotten or repressed, the contents of the collective unconscious have never been in consciousness, and therefore have never been individually acquired, but owe their existence exclusively to heredity." Source.

“In addition to our immediate consciousness, which is of a thoroughly personal nature and which we believe to be the only empirical psyche (even if we tack on the personal unconscious as an appendix), there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals.

This collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited. It consists of pre-existent forms, the archetypes, which can only become conscious secondarily and which give definite form to certain psychic contents.” C.G.Jung

We inherit the collective unconscious. It is our birth right. We are all connected by source energy. That same drop/particle resides in each of us. As conscious beings, we all have access to the same infinite underlying universal consciousness. This deep divine consciousness we all share is accessible through deep mediation. It's so easy to forget our connection as we are distracted in the physical world with daily tasks, egos, insecurities, control issues, fear, lack, consumerism, etc., but isn't it exciting to catch even the slightest glimpse of that universal knowing unconscious that all is going to be alright? For to experience just a fleeting glimpse is enough motivation to consciously ascend through meditation practices.

The All is in the Small
I guess this is the reason I enjoy mediumship so much. I get to see glimpses of the collective and how it works together. I get to see how we are all connected, sometimes, one small clue at a time. One of my favorite oracle decks has an image of a hummingbird and the message declares: The All is in the small. Meditate on that verse.