How often do you hear people say ‘We are all one‘? Even though you probably agree to some extent, it has become somewhat of a cliche within the spiritual community. The deeper meaning has been lost, and you might be asking yourself, what does this actually mean?
On the surface level, we are all so different, but we are tiny parts of a much bigger system. The belief that we all share a collective consciousness at a deeper level has been a prominent view that has withstood the test of time.
So let’s really look into the collective consciousness to see how we are energetically connected, what this means, and how it affects our lives.
What is the collective consciousness?
In simple terms, the collective consciousness refers to a deeper level of consciousness that all living things are connected to (and byproducts of). This deeper form of consciousness is also known as the universal consciousness, source, and totality, depending on the belief system.
So let’s really unwrap this. On a soul level, every living thing is connected to a giant energetic network that forms a conglomerate of consciousness (which is a raw state of energy).
The way I see it is that consciousness (in its purity) is like a giant orb of energy that exists in a different dimension. This consciousness is expansive beyond measure and has an unlimited imagination that can create literally anything, for it is the source of existence itself.
At some point, within some dimension, all energy (meaning all things) converge into this singular consciousness at a deeper energetic level, as all things are manifestations of this consciousness. When people say ‘we are all part of god‘, that’s because the collective consciousness is god. It’s the deepest level of reality that exists.
How are souls connected to the collective consciousness?
Essentially, we’re all fragments of consciousness that have split off from the source to undergo different experiences. Even though we all appear as individuals, energetically we’re all tethered to the collective.
This reality is like a thought of the collective consciousness. So everything that we experience is real, in the same sense that our thoughts are real. But there are layers. Look at it as if our universe is a projection. It’s like an idea of the collective consciousness that is being played out in an infinite amount of ways.
At its core, we are all the same consciousness experiencing oneself via the mechanism of individuality. By branching out to experience as much as it possibly can, in every shape and form, this is how the collective consciousness learns and grows.
Of course, there’s no better path to growth than through life experience. If you’re undergoing life experience from innumerable life forms, from countless points of view, in potentially infinite planets and even dimensions, you can only imagine how wise we really are at the core level.
Below are a couple of articles to further delve into ultimate reality, and why the collective consciousness wants to experience every possibility imaginable (in which your life is an aspect of).
- Understanding ultimate reality: A road map of the spiritual realm
- What is the universal intelligence and how does it work?
Layers of consciousness: Why reality is an onion
If you could picture how different dimensions are connected, imagine it as an onion. At the core of this onion is the collective consciousness. This core acts as the source of all existence, as it is the base dimension.
At this base dimension, there is no separation. It’s totality in the truest sense of the word, as it’s the deepest level of truth that there is. At this level, there is no such thing as a soul, individuality, or separation.
Different dimensions (layers of the onion) act as different thresholds of separation. This is where the role of the soul comes in, to act as a fragment of consciousness that can undergo experience.
Imagine a soul as a tiny piece of the collective consciousness that is being projected through different layers of this onion. Your soul is vicariously experiencing many dimensions like a spotlight being cast through panels of glass.
With that said, the closest layer to the core of the onion is deeply connected to the collective consciousness. This dimension is a container for the deepest level of a soul.
Dimensions that are further in the peripheries are more disconnected, meaning there’s more space for individual experience. The more peripheral the layer, the greater the soul’s disconnection from the collective, meaning the more diversity can be experienced.
In the scheme of things, we are very disconnected from the source, to the point we don’t even know it exists or how it works. But we’re experiencing this level of reality because there is so much diversity, meaning there is so much to experience and learn from.
The collective consciousness: Cells forming a body
To further explore the phenomenon of the collective consciousness, here is another way to look at it.
Just to be alive, you are the work of trillions of tiny organisms working together to create the complex system that you are. Individual cells certainly can’t comprehend the collective that they create, yet somehow a much broader consciousness than any individual is created.
The cells that compose your body aren’t individually conscious in the way we perceive it. Everything you are, however, including your senses, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are created. A whole new form of experience is created, and it’s immeasurably more significant than any individual.
The collective consciousness is the spiritual equivalent of cells forming a body. Every individual – at a fundamental level is just a little part of a much more expansive consciousness.
Want to get straight to the point? Here’s a video I made explaining this phenomenon. Click to listen, otherwise, continue reading to learn more!
Synchronicities of the collective consciousness: Collective movements
The most important thing to note is that reality is dependent on consciousness, not the other way around. This makes reality a projection, as reality is the dependent variable. Reality is like a thought that is being played out, but it is dependent on consciousness to be created.
As we all have the same consciousness at the core, this means that the experience we all have is inherently shared, at least to some degree. We are all individuals, but as we are all rooted in the collective consciousness, this means that your individual experience is more intertwined with the collective than you think.
What happens at an individual level influences the collective, and what happens at a collective level influences the individual. There are a lot of influences on people displayed through media, technology, and the spread of information. But there’s a lot more than that too.
Energies ripple through the consciousness. When there are events such as genocides and wars, people who aren’t remotely involved seem to experience a collective trauma. This can result in other manifestations of that trauma such as addiction, violence, domestic abuse, and seemingly unrelated events which resonate on the same vibration.
Likewise, love, peace, gratitude, and high vibrations also ripple through the collective. This means that on some level, we all feel the experiences of others, and we all have the ability to tap into other people’s experiences.
The reality that we perceive shifts to resonate with what humanity experiences as a whole (or what could be described as the mean experience of everyone). To learn more about vibration and what this really means, I’ll link a guide below:
How ideas penetrate the collective
Similar themes within humanity seem to emerge at the same time around the globe. As different stages, eras, and constructs seem to be synchronous, this suggests that there is some common denominator (or underlying force of the collective).
Events such as the Neolithic revolution, the Axial Age, the formation of classical empires, colonialism, and industrialism have all occurred worldwide, around the same time. Widespread revolutions and movements have also been synchronous around the world.
Likewise, there have even been mass meditations where synchronously, the world paused conflict, because the collective was affected by these events. Currently, spirituality is making a resurgence once again too, which is evident in every country and culture.
This shows that the collective humanity might not be so disconnected after all. Even though we could attribute this to the spread of information and ideas, many of these occurrences were marked well before we had the ability to exchange ideas or influence.
Dynamics change over time. Collective ideas and belief systems sway regarding culture, norms, morality, ethics, and so forth. As with the hundredth monkey effect, could these synchronicities point to a collective consciousness that may have outliers, but a common denominator?
It goes to show that we are all connected in ways we can’t quite understand. At least not while we’re looking at the surface level. So let’s really get into the influence of the collective consciousness, and how it shapes reality.
Drops to the ocean: How the collective consciousness shapes reality
As we’ve looked at how different movements shape the collective, now let’s explore how the quality of energy affects the vibration of the collective.
Imagine the collective consciousness as a giant body of water. The quality of energy that we experience in the form of emotions, thoughts, and beliefs is like adding drops to this body. It doesn’t seem like much, but trillions of beings on this planet all experience different qualities of energy, all the time. That’s a lot of water being poured into the collective.
If one person has a traumatic experience, it would be like adding a drop of murky, dirty water to this collective. One drop won’t do much, as one drop of dense energy divided amongst billions of people isn’t much of a burden to carry. But if many people experience trauma, fear, hatred, and other forms of suffering, all those drops of dense energy start to add up.
Hypothetically, if most of the population were to suddenly suffer, then the reality would transform to accommodate this suffering as a critical mass is reached. The outliers (people having a heavenly experience) are going to be pulled into this collective suffering.
On the other hand, high vibrational energies are like adding drops of a cleaning agent to this body of water. If most people were to suddenly feel love, gratitude, compassion, and other high vibrational energies, the entire reality would shift to resonate with that collective energy.
In this case, as people who are suffering are outliers, their individual energy would start converging to the high vibration that the collective is experiencing. So these people would start healing, growing, and waking up because a critical mass has been hit.
The spiritual tug of war
Look at reality as a spiritual tug of war. Mostly, there is so much diversity, that the collective balances itself out in one way or another. But if the collective of humanity leans in any particular direction, the projection of this consciousness follows suit.
After all, reality is malleable. We create our own realities on an individual level via vibration (read the article below to learn more), but this phenomenon works on a collective level too.
Reality needs to have a congruency with the consciousness that creates it. So if we want a create a heavenly world for humanity, it can only happen by changing the collective. By healing, contributing high vibrational energy, and helping one another, we start tugging the collective towards a high vibrational reality.
So let’s apply this to the current world situation. Humanity is reaching a boiling point where there are all sorts of nasty influences being dredged to the surface. Because of the pain this is causing, more people are waking up to the truth, that we are in a three-dimensional matrix.
But the collective is shifting towards a higher vibration as we’re illuminating and healing a lot of our collective trauma. Once a critical mass is hit, meaning most people wake up, the entire reality is going to shift toward a five-dimensional reality.
If the powers that be succeed by reducing the vibration of the collective via fear, hatred, and division, then the collective will shift further into the three-dimensional matrix.
Tapping into the collective: The experience of the Godself
Certain practices can help you tap into a higher, interconnected realm of consciousness that transcends the individual ego. That’s really the purpose of the ego, to act as the separating mechanism between the self, and the collective.
Everyone has the ability to tap into this universal consciousness through spiritual practices. Some people call this the godself, as it is the deepest level of consciousness that contains an infinite amount of wisdom. People can tap into this godself to pull out wisdom, to use in their lives.
To learn more about this phenomenon, I suggest you read the following article about ego death. Otherwise, here are some ways that you can break the barrier of ego, to further connect with the deeper nature of consciousness that we all share.
- Understanding the phenomenon of ego death
- Stop trying to kill your ego: Find balance with it instead
Meditation
Meditation is a lens into the soul. By regularly meditating, you distance yourself from your ego. The more you do it, the more you start connecting with a much deeper level of self where the distancing between things thins.
Some people can enter states of ego death, transcendence, and unity of the collective consciousness through meditation, but this can take some practice. To learn more about meditation and to get your own practice going, read the article here.
Spiritual practices
Spiritual practices help you connect with the soul by bypassing the ego. As you connect deeper with your soul nature, you connect more with the collective consciousness, as the soul level is much closer to the collective consciousness than the ego level.
So explore different spiritual practices for whatever it may be. Form your own practices and push yourself to commit to them. The more you learn, experience, and practice, the better you will become at distancing yourself from your ego.
Ceremonies and rituals
Every culture has different ceremonies and rituals. Each ceremony connects with different spirits and energies, which can really help with the healing process of both individuals and the collective.
In my opinion, there’s no better way to experience the collective consciousness than through connecting deeply with oneself and spirits via ancestral ceremonies. See what’s available where you live, or seek these ceremonies out.
Plant medicines
Plant medicines are spiritual tools that help dissolve the ego and deepen your connection with your spiritual nature. As someone who has worked closely with shamanic traditions in Latin America, plant medicines are a very powerful key for accessing the collective consciousness.
You can learn more about the power of plant medicines in the articles below. These suggestions are just the tip of the iceberg. I encourage you to explore your own pathway, and really delve into the nature of spirit, to see that we are all the same thing.
- Transcending reality with psychedelics: What really happens during a breakthrough trip?
- Do psychedelics manifest synchronicities via the collective unconscious?