Consciousness and Earthquakes

Group effects are familiar to most people and there’s a fair bit of research exploring the mechanisms and consequences.  Have a look at http://noosphere.princeton.edu/ for a good example if this is unfamiliar to you.  As a healer, I see group effects on a regular basis. I’m often surprised at the waves that come through my practice. One month all my new clients will be hoping for help in their relationships - the next month it will be arthritis.   I often tilt my head in puzzlement and wonder what is going on in the global energy above Mill Valley, CA that might be producing such things.  

Recent events in Japan bring this phenomena sharply into focus.  Our planet has given us an abrupt reminder of an important truth.  “Japan,” says Simon Winchester of Newsweek, “....prompt(s) us to remember what in calmer times we are invariably minded to forget: the most stern and chilling of mantras, which holds, quite simply, that mankind inhabits this earth subject to geological consent—which can be withdrawn at any time.”

As one person after another came into my office with fear, a flight, fight or freeze response and other survival-type anxieties, I found myself repeatedly reminding that we are not any more in danger than we were last month. It is our perception of the danger that has shifted dramatically. Our ego-identity has been challenged and reminded: we are not in control.  

What does this mean on a global scale? What does this planet-wide reminder mean for us? What group effects does this generate and where does that take us next?  

I believe that consciousness is a force. And group consciousness is a powerful force. Our April 22nd speaker, Dr Jean Millay, will be presenting the science behind this idea.  It’s called the “5th Fundamental Force in the Universe” (the first four being gravity, electromagnetism and the weak and strong nuclear forces). 

To accept consciousness as a force, one that contributes to group phenomenon, reveals two important things. The first is to remember that we are being effected by energy outside of us. We have some control over how involved in that we get. It is important to discern what is us and what is effecting us from the outside.  This will help to diminish what can become an escalating wind-up of anxiety. It will help us stay balanced within ourselves. The second is to be mindful of what energy we are contributing.  Group effects are the sum of the individuals, and we are those individuals.

What appeals to me about keeping these two things in mind is that it allows us to maximize the control we have - internal and external. It encourages us to accept the responsibility at our feet and the ways in which we can honor that.  It also allows us to stay out of self-judgement.  Of course we’re affected by what’s happening. This is a group phenomenon, and we are part of that group.   We can take a step back, look at what is us, what is outside of us. Figure out what we can do to reassure our ego-identity it never actually was in control anyway, and help it to relax. Then we can take that all important step forward.  Now, solid in who we are, we can decide what part of that global bank account we want our own consciousness to deposit.


Tiffany Schneider, PhD