Evolution In Terms Of Individual Consciousness And Group Consciousness

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings. Blessed be this lecture, blessed be every one of you, my beloved friends. Once again I am allowed to come to you through this channel and to bring you what you need at this particular time, at this particular juncture on your path. This need may not be always clear to you in your conscious mind. In other words, some of you may not immediately perceive why this particular lecture is just what you require at this point and this may become apparent only later. Others may be immediately touched by it and know exactly that this is what they need.

I will start with a general discussion of some cosmic realities, with some philosophical premises. But you will see that they are of immediate practical value for you. At this period of your history it is often said, and it is also noticed, that the Aquarian Age or the New Age brings in a new group consciousness. This consciousness manifests in many different ways. Groups are forming in new ways as never before. Community life is also taking entirely new forms. All these develoments are expressions of something deeper that is happening. It is not enough to simply see this occurrence out of context, as it were. It is important for you to understand the dynamic, ongoing principle of the evolution of consciousness at work here. You need to gain an overall view, so that you can tune in and perceive the wider and deeper meaning of what is happening today in your time dimension.

Ever since human beings have incarnated there has always existed on this earth plane an evolution of consciousness that alternates the emphasis on individuation and on group consciousness. It is necessary to change this emphasis at different phases of mankind's development. At one period man needs to gather his energies into himself and to concentrate all his faculties on his personal being. At other times or in other phases he needs to develop through his relationship to his surroundings. This alternation exists as an overall movement, as well as in smaller cycles. It exists both historically, as regards the entity mankind, and personally, in regard to the individual.

At each change of phase a higher level of development is reached, so that what was gained through the emphasis of, say, the concentration on individualization, can then further the group consciousness. And what is being learned in group relating during that phase then furthers the individual development. I will now give a brief, and surely oversimplified, picture of this.

At the dawn of mankind, there were very few human beings who lived scattered all over the earth. The individual was more or less alone. He fought against the elements and against nature as best as he could by himself. He was generally in a state of such fear that at that stage he could just about cope with the fear of his environment, the fear of nature, but he could not yet handle the fear of other human beings. Thus he lived in a more or less isolated state. This must not be taken literally, for he did live with relatively small family groups, or clans. Already then he understood to some degree that he needed to cooperate with others in order to fight the enemy -- whether the enemy was the elements, nature, beasts, or other clans. So even at this highly individualized period on the lowest scale the need to get along, to cooperate with others existed. The lessons that were learned at this hardest stage at the dawn of mankind could then be brought into the following phase, thus enriching the group consciousness.

At a later period, in historical times, the population increased. Man's ability to cope with the elements also grew, due to his development. He learned to take care of himself more efficiently. It is then that the need arose to widen the circle of his relating with others. The group consciousness came to be emphasized. From family clans, tribes came into existence. Man had to learn to get along with others. He was not yet able to widen this span beyond a relatively small circle of his own clansmen. Later the span widened and from small groups larger groups, or nations, came into existence. But this happened after further alternations, after other phases of increased development of the individualization of consciousness. Even today, mankind in general is not yet able or willing to get along with all the human brothers and sisters inhabiting the earth. The old consciousness still makes for separation. But now mankind is ready for a new influx. As a result, those who resist the movement will experience a painful crisis, while those who follow it will experience unprecedented richness and blessing.

Let us now return to the second phase in this great cosmic movement which I discussed. Group consciousness at this early stage meant learning to get along with others. At this early phase of human development such getting along could best be learned for negative reasons: the fear of an enemy. As man's development proceeds further, then getting along with others will no longer be due to fear and to need, but to love and to mutuality.

Group consciousness means finding the oneness between the self and others. At the early period of the development of consciousness this happened in a very primitive and superficial way. Nevertheless, this stage had to be traversed. The consciousness had to learn this particular lesson of cooperating out of fear. So for extended periods of history the individual existed within the tribe, finding security only when he learned the lesson of getting along. Then the tribe would act out enmity, suspicion, and negative aggression, not so much by fighting between individuals, although this, too, always exists within the tribe or the nation or the family, but mainly by going against other tribes. In this expression of negative aggression, loyalty to the same tribe, protection of the brother within the tribe, had to be cultivated. So you can see that even the negative manifestation of the lower development -- hostility toward the other, warfare -- can and is being used for the purpose of evolution. In other words, of the development of consciousness.

As population increased and civilization advanced, this movement had to come again to its next alternation in order for evolution to take its course. In more recent history, just a few hundred years ago, the emphasis began to focus more on the individual. Individualism became very important. In the course of recent years, decades, and centuries this emphasis on the individual increased. Man had learned certain lessons in bridging the gap from the self to the other. So now the emphasis had to be put back again on the individual, on his individual rights, on his right to be himself, on his right to be different, on his right to not conform, on his need to become more self-responsible.

This phase is now approaching its end. The importance of the individual is not diminishing, but the emphasis is shifting again to the group consciousness on a deeper level of reality. The principles that were previously learned on the lower levels can now be applied to the higher levels. The lessons that were learned in the phase of high individuation can now be brought into the new phase of the development of group consciousness.

Once again you see here the familiar spiral movement of creation that you detect so often in many individual forms on your Path. The same spiral movement exists in regard to the development of mankind as a whole. The spiral always seems to go around in circles. Yet if the growth is real, then these are not circles that repeat themselves on the same level. They repeat themselves on ever deeper or ever higher levels -- as you wish to put it. Higher in terms of development, deeper in terms of depth of consciousness.

So in mankind's history the evolution of consciousness had to alternate, again and again, between the emphasis on individualism and the emphasis on the group consciousness. What has been learned in one phase of the path of mankind is brought over into the next phase. Then what was learned in the phase of individualism can be utilized for better relating. Let us take an example. The more self-responsible you are, then the more you contribute to the group. The more you can assert your rights and your individual needs, then the less you need from the group, and the less you will need to conform to the group. Therefore the freer will be your love and your ability to give to the group. Hence you can receive more from it. For the self-sufficient person needs love and intimacy, closeness and warmth as valid legitimate requirements for happiness. The greater your individuation, the better will be your integration with the group consciousness. Therefore, it is a mistake to think of this development in terms of either/or. There are those who believe that group living is contradictory to individuation. And there are those who accuse indidualism of being separate and as being opposed to love and brotherhood. Both are wrong, as you can see from the foregoing.

There are many more such alternations historically speaking that I cannot go into at this time. Actually there is a spiral within the larger spiral. The spiral I discussed here is a fourfold alternation that holds true on a more overall scale of the evolution of mankind. But within the fourfold alternation there exists a smaller spiral movement in which subdivisions of many more such alternations exist. For instance, within the larger overall phase of either the individual or the group consciousness, constant smaller fluctuations of the same alternations take place. And within the secondary spiral movement there exist many more spiral movements, lower subdivisions of the same alternation of individual and group consciousness. An entity is born many times within one overall phase that may last many hundreds or even thousands of years. But in his individual life he has the same alternations to go through. One incarnation may emphasize one facet much more, and another incarnation another facet much more. And even within this same incarnation, man goes through periods of his life in which he concentrates more on the one form of development, and later more on the other, regardless of whether he knows it or not. So, for example, a small infant is almost entirely in the individual state. Do not believe that there is no lesson learned in that phase. When he reaches school age, then it is his first phase in this particular lifetime of learning how to get along.

Later more such alternations go through his life, each one fulfilling a purpose and presenting a lesson. This may be a third spiral within the larger spirals. There are periods where living alone fulfills an important function. At other periods living alone and being alone represents stagnation and a refusal to follow the organic movement. The same holds true about the reverse. There are periods where group development is essential for the develoment of the individual and for the development of the entity mankind as a whole. There are other periods where staying within that framework represents stagnation. But when the one or the other applies cannot be generalized. Each has to be evaluated in terms of the person's own path. The only thing that can be generalized is that when the personality follows the movement of his inner path, then he will be in peace and in joy. When he does not, then he will be discontented and anxious.

Living with another person in real intimacy can also come under the heading of group living, at least to some extent. Once again, it can be misleading to try to adjudge whether it is right or wrong to be either alone or with others. It depends in what phase of all the intermingling spiral movements an individual finds himself. If you truly follow your path, then you will know that what may be important and advisable at one time, at a later period may be stagnating and therefore not advisable for you. So you have to be aware that no specific thing is always right. For there is continuous movement.

When an entity, either individual entities or the entity of the planet, is ready for an alternation -- in other words, when its development approaches the changing point -- then there are always strong new energies released into the planet from higher spheres. This manifests on the inner plane as a strong movement. When this movement is halted by the tendency to stagnate -- in other words, to not move -- then it creates a painful crisis. You may look at all the upheavals in human history from this point of view. Most such periods were actually a manifestation of this principle. When the new movement is halted, then what would normally express itself in a blessed, rich way can manifest only in a distorted and therefore painful way. This is how the intrinsically positive reality is distorted into a negative one: by not feeling, by not trusting, by not following the course of the inner reality.

Let me give you a specific example of something that is happening today in your time on earth. Mankind as a whole is now ready to approach a much deeper phase of group consciousness. If this movement were followed, then its natural manifestations would be that nations would transform into one human government; religious differences would disappear because the One would be recognized as undifferentiated. The whole group mankind would apply laws of brotherhood, of justice, and of love to all, thereby sharing equally the wealth of the earth. Thus new dispositions, new laws, and new approaches would be instituted that would yield undreamed of results -- also on the outer level. The other person no longer would be the enemy. But since mankind by and large resists this natural development, then those who follow it must, perforce, separate themselves from those who do not. They create their own communities in which this new spirit will manifest more and more. In the meantime, the great new movement that is being halted by the resisters manifests in a distorted way. This is why today you find the regrettable manifestation of group consciosness in over population, in over crowded cities, and in monopolies in which large groups master the masses and dictate laws and values. The self-alienated nature of over crowded living and working, in which humanness makes room for robotness, is a well-known manifestation that is considerably talked about in your world.

Those who are not connected, either consciously or intuitively, with the movement of consciousness and with the development of consciousness are regressive. Therefore, they try to halt the movement because they fear it because they believe that it is bad. But this cannot really halt the movement. It hits a closed channel that is alien to its own benign nature and thus it creates the misconditions I mentioned before. The group then becomes an amorphous mass. Instead of a group consisting of highly individualized and individuated members, a mass consciousness is at work that must not be confused with the group consciousness. The halted movement of group consciousness expresses itself in large groups selfishly running the masses; it expresses itself in big concerns in which all personal connection to others, to employers, and to aspects of the work itself is almost entirely lacking. These and many more such manifestations in your modern life that I cannot possibly discuss in detail now or even begin to enumerate are not the result of overpopulation, but of halting the movement. In other words, of not feeling it and therefore of not following it. Overpopulation itself is one such manifestation. Modern man is a small cog in a big machine. He is depersonalized because he has halted both movements: his individuation and the emphasis on group consciousness.

When the movement is blindly halted because it is feared and denied, then the result is that the population increases. Greater communities form mass consciousness -- instead of group consciousness -- in urban and industrial life, in the disconnectedness from nature. Just as group consciousness becomes distorted into mass consciousness, individual consciousness becomes distorted into separatism and into alienation from the other.

If the movement is followed -- in other words, if it is not obstructed by blind resistance, by the fear of change, but is trusted and honestly accepted -- then these negative manifestations will fall by the wayside. Those who follow the movement will not be affected by the distortion of mass consciousness. They will create a new group consciousness. There is a great deal of difference in this, as you can perceive now. The mass consciousness eliminates the individual, whereas the group consciousness honors and furthers him. Each individual is an integral part of the Whole. The more fully you function as an individual, the more you have to add to the group. Conversely, the less you are a full-fledged individual, the less you can add to it.

In the mass consciousness this is entirely different. The mass consciousness requires non-individuation, it requires a blind following, it demands conforming. The halting of the movement creates a perversion of what the movement would create if allowed to function by the consciousness that directs it and which, in the final analysis, determines its expression.

This is important to understand. Both within yourself and within the consciousness of the entity mankind the group consciousness has definite gradations and categories. Let us say that there are three major phases in development in this respect. Mankind as a whole -- and all the individuals who form part of it -- has gone through these three stages. They are also going through them both on deeper levels and on higher levels of the organization of consciousness, until total oneness with the All has been achieved.

On the lowest scale you need the group because you are frightened, because you are dependent, because you are not yet able to be responsible for yourself. You do not yet have the ability to establish a channel to your limitless creative potential. This phase can be likened to the infant that needs its mother.

But you often find that an individual has reached the point where he is ready to move into the next phase, in which he could be self-responsible and establish his own channel, but he is unwilling to do so. All of you have found this on your path within your lower self. Since the planet also has a lower self, then there are factions of people who similarly resist. So you must differentiate between not being able and not being willing to take on selfhood. As a result of this unwillingness to grow up, you insist that others -- either your parents or the group -- give you the sustenance that only your Divine Self can give you.

A person who uses the group as a crutch and as a substitute for individuation halts the movement. And so does one who uses individualism as a cover for his inability to be intimate, to be open, to be undefended, and who therefore fears the group. Such a person will have a stake in confusing conformity and mass consciousness with group consciousness and he will use the rightful argument against the former to blot out the existence of the latter.

When the individual organically follows the next step from needing the group to emancipation and self-responsibility, then the pendulum at first may swing too much in the direction of individualism. In this state he will rebel against the group and he will therefore deny its value. You also find this rebellion find within you. Now you know that to the degree that you deny your autonomy -- because you fear it and distrust it and thus are forced to depend on others -- to that degree you dislike both yourself and those on whom you depend. Thus you need to rebel. But if you proceed organically, then your rebellion will not be a period that is acted out blindly for an extended length of time. For the rebellion will be recognized for what it is and the emphasis will be put on the self, rather than on those against whom one rebels. Then the individual will unfold his dormant divinity and he will learn to utilize his previously dormant divinity. Yet he is still in a phase where the concentration has to be mainly on this individual process. This does not mean going into isolation. Help from others and the reactions of others are always an integral part of this phase. Others and contact with others are always necessary. Others are the mirror that shows where the self is stuck. Therefore, the self needs this mirroring -- in other words, this awareness of his effect on others -- in its individuation process. But in this phase the climate is one of individuality, and therefore the emphasis is on individuation.

Then there comes the next phase in the development of the group consciousness on a higher level. This phase comes when the individual has found himself and has brought his full self-realization to fruition. Thus, he can benefit from the group and he can give to the group without losing his selfhood, his autonomy, and his self-responsibility. Neither does he lose his privacy, his right to be different, his need to express his uniqueness. Quite the contrary is true. In a group that has become so evolved there is no conflict between the needs of the individual and the needs of the group. Group consciousness does not level off uniqueness -- as is falsely believed -- but furthers it. Now the group is no longer used as a crutch because the self cannot handle life. Nor is the group an authority that one needs to rebel against. The group is truly an extended self in which one can function as a free agent. The highest organization of group consciousness is that within which each individual has found his own autonomy.

In the overall development the phases are never that clearly defined. They overlap. There are many spirals within the spiral, many movements within the movement. Yet the movement is not haphazard and chaotic but is an expression of such profound harmony and lawfulness in a larger scheme that the human consciousness can only sense it vaguely at best. So I want to say to you that at this period of your history mankind is ready for the individual autonomy that can form groups and for the group consciousness that becomes an entity in itself. Those who obstruct it distort group consciousness into mass consciousness and distort individual consciousness into separatism. But those who follow it will create the new world, the life of the New Age. Community living is springing up increasingly and, although it does not always express itself in its perfect form, it moves toward it so that it will blossom in the best sense of the word.

In your particular community, in your particular pathwork and movement, you will find all these three phases of human consciousness represented. Even the person who is, on the whole, sufficiently highly developed to form part of this New Age community living has areas within him that represent lower phases. You all know this and you have been working with these aspects. You find that part in you where you desperately need others because you fear that you are not enough, where you have not yet actualized your inner God. This does not mean that you should now separate yourself from the group, for alone you could hardly accomplish the task of your development. But you need to be aware of your wish to misuse the group in order to avoid meeting yourself.

You also find that part in you that rebels against the group and that wants to shun it because you fear exposure and rejection; because you fear your weakness, and therefore you fear your need for the group; and because you do not yet know how to function without the pretenses of your mask and without your defensive games. Again, this does not mean that now you should abandon all your individual needs and forms of self-expression and submerge yourself into an amorphous group organism. It merely means to see them, to pay attention to them, to understand them, and then to proceed from there.

So even while all these aspects still exist in you to some extent, this does not mean that you are not ready to become a fully autonomous individual who is part of the group, thereby enriching the group and being enriched by it. You can be the one who finds his privacy and his individualization totally intact and his group living and intimacy totally unhampered. In the course of your movement on this Path, you will find the phases I mentioned. All of them are represented. They coexist within the soul. And that has to be recognized. Most of you have already found your dependency, be it on your family, be it on your mate, or be it on the group. First unconsciously and later consciously you expect from the group that it do for you what you think that you cannot -- in reality that you do not want to -- do for yourself. You have also discovered that you become either frightened of the group or uncomfortable in the group. You want to run away from it because of your expectations from it and because of the demands that you make of the group, as well as because of the hidden guilt for and the shame of your lower self. So you turn against the group and you rebel against it. You are all aware of these aspects. But you have applied them exclusively to the parental situation. Just as a child does, you still want to have a father figure and a mother figure. But from a cosmic framework, this is not only true in regard to a set of parents, but also in regard to a whole group consciousness which you endow with a power that you resist developing within yourself. Therefore, you then go into the second phase: rebellion against the group, resenting it, avoiding it. You find that part in you, too.

Many of you are organically ready to go into the third phase. It is one where you find your self-responsibility, where you find your inner strength, where you find your autonomy, where you find your channel to the highest. It is the stage in your development where you can stand on your own two feet because now you know that you have within you what you need. Therefore you need not fear the group, and thus rebel against it. In other words, you no longer need the group in a debilitating way. Now you need the group out of love and out of a desire for mutual giving and receiving. You share and you experience together the struggle of growth and the joys of life, both the pain of living and the pleasure of living. And you are grateful for the richness of this life with others in which being together does not infringe on your privacy, on your uniqueness, on your need to be yourself. That kind of relating is the true intimacy of fulfillment.

This kind of relating must also exist for a couple in order for the one-to-one relationship to be truly fulfilling. If you use a mate because you do not wish to fend for yourself, then the relationship becomes unbearable. By the same token, if you use a group because you feel frightened alone, then you must simultaneously fear and hate that group.

The negative expressions vary in the different phases. One will be more in touch with the fear and the need, and less in touch with the hate and the rebellion. He will be more in touch with his fear of life, and therefore with his need for the group, or his need for the mate. The hate for those whom one needs -- and therefore depends on -- is more dormant in that state. With others, the hate of and the fear of the group are predominant, as is the desire to run from it, while the need and the dependency are more dormant. Then a false independence is courted in which give and take cannot be learned, nor can flexibility and openness. This person continues to cultivate a rigid, inflexible attitude in which he thinks that he can control everything within him and around him. He cultivates an unyielding false selfhood.

All these phases of the alternation between individual consciousness and group consciousness do not exist only on the planetary level on an overall scale of the total evolution of the planet earth, of mankind as a whole. They also exist within each human being. It is very important for you to see where you are from this particular point of view. To be aware of this is of great importance. It will be a map for you, another kind of map with which you can chart your way, in which you can find the mirror of an inner situation. Without this awareness, then it would be much harder for you to understand where you are, what you do, and what your reactions truly mean. You will come into a deeper understanding of the unitary principle of life, rather than the dualistic principle. I often give you examples of this. In this particular instance, the dualistic principle of life proclaims either that individualism is right and that group consciousness is wrong or bad, or vice versa. Then each wrong is rationalized by the use of the distorted form of its true expression.

In the unitary principle you understand that both have their function and that both have their healthy, truthful expression -- and that both can have a perverted, distorted expression. So it is of the utmost importance for you to see where you are in relation to the group. Probe into yourself with questions. Are you needful of the group? Are you afraid of being alone? Do you expect of the group that it do what you do not wish to do or what you believe that you cannot do? The answer may not always apply to the group, it may apply to one other individual, but the principle remains the same. When you are fearful of your aloneness, then you must understand that relating to the other -- be it one person or a group -- will be just as difficult as your aloneness. Only when aloneness is no longer difficult for you will group living or one-to-one living be a true unfoldment of joy.

Then you will move into the new consciousness that is beginning to spread its wings. It is a consciousness that is rich from within and which therefore adds to what is without. But it is a consciousness that can also take in from without and bring it back into the inner world. In a group that consists predominantly of autonomous individuals the richness multiplies and then compounds with almost incomprehensible speed. This is a phenomenon that you begin to perceive in your work here. Those who are following this new stream do perceive it. Those who may be active in this work but who are not yet within that stream are blind to it. They are not able to make the differentiation between the healthy attitude and the unhealthy attitude toward the group consciousness and toward the individual consciousness. For example, they cannot differentiate between healthy selfishness and unhealthy unselfishness as two different expressions of the same source. But those who are within the stream -- in other words, those who have reached their first foothold on that cosmic current that moves into a wider field of expansion -- will know that the group will never eliminate your privacy or the autonomy of your being. On the contrary, it will further it. It will further your independence, just as you will continue to further your independence and your autonomy. By doing so, you enrich the group, just as the group enriches you.

New communities -- new living centers of the new consciousness -- are springing up on earth. They will live this consciousness and will manifest this increasingly. In other words, they will practice it. It is important that you be aware of this principle and of this possibility that is ripening into a reality that manifests on your earth plane. Thus you can follow the various spirals within you, knowing both where you are and what you are moving toward. I know that all of you have worked hard, and therefore have progressed sufficiently so that you are aware of the aspects that are under discussion here. But it is one thing to know about this as a condition that exists within the human personality and it is quite another to understand it within the framework of a larger cosmic scheme. In other words, to know that this is the meaningful manifestation of a cosmic movement that you are part of, and that all of mankind is a part of. With such understanding you will avoid bringing this new force to a halt, so that it would manifest negatively to you. Instead you will go with it in the best possible way.

As I mentioned at the beginning, on the threshold from one phase to another stage new energies are being released. So it is not the first time in history that new energies have been released. Each period has its own newly released energy and its own stream of consciousness which are then brought into the inner consciousness of the individual beings. Now mankind has reached a much higher potential of development. Those who follow this potential will be swept along by this inner movement as never before. Before terminating this lecture, I want to say to you that if you wish, then you can tune in on this force and use it for your transformation. In this respect you are not doing as much as you could do, although your progress, both individually and as a group, is substantial. You still do not tune in often enough onto this force that is operative in the whole of the universal consciousness -- and therefore also in you. You still cling to the false belief that this or that problem or this or that attitude cannot be changed. By doing that you not only make yourself unavailable to the new consciousness and to this energy force that now streams inside of you, but you also endanger yourself because then this force will reverse the process and will bring you into a crisis that is avoidable. The force is there, regardless of whether you use it consciously and deliberately or whether you use it unconsciously. If you use it consciously and wisely -- in other words, if you follow it, if you go with it -- then it will bring you into undreamed-of unfoldment and enrichment. If you stem against it in your blind fear and in your stubbornness, then it will turn against you. This is the law. It is not an evil force per se that is doing it. It is the movement of the Whole that is not being accepted and therefore not allowed. In other words, it is the Divine Flow that is being denied. Whether it is denied because of your ignorance, because of your stubbornness, or for whatever other reason makes little difference. So I say to you, my friends, wake up further. You are in the midst of a wonderful process of awakening. You need to wake up more. In other words, you need to take yourself out of your numbness. Look for the Force within you. Feel it, hear it! It is the living Christ Force that can bring your negative material -- your negative and stagnant attitudes -- into an entirely new expression. Do not continue to stubbornly hug your negative thoughts and your false convictions. The Force is there the moment you embrace it, the moment you turn to it, the moment you lift your face to it -- allegorically, inwardly, symbolically. Lift up your hands and allow it and then go with it. So much has happened already in this respect. The Christ Force can be activated even more for the benefit of the wonderful unfoldment of the life of each one of you.

Universal love is highly concentrated here at the time of our meeting, so that you do not receive just words, important as the contents of these lectures are for you to understand and then to work with. But in these meetings a very concentrated love force penetrates and envelopes all who are here. Those of you who do not numb yourselves are aware of this. You feel it and you are enriched by it. So I say, open your inner eyes, your inner ears, and all your faculties of intuitive perception to soak in the force that is here, so that what your mind learns on the level of your consciousness can become a vibrant truth. In other words, not just a cut-off, intellectual understanding, but a lived, vibrant truth. You live, you move, and you have your being in this love and in this truth at all times. The problem is that most of the time you are not aware of it. What you have to learn is to know it, that is all. You are all blessed, my very beloved friends.

November 20, 1974