Notes From the Road

Group Consciousness

We are doing a blog revival!!

Well today's blog is on the gift of Group Consciousness. As you may have noticed I've capitalized Group Consciousness. I do that with anything that is important to me. It all started way back at Summer Solstice (www.3HO.org) in the late 90's. I can't exactly remember when... just that I was a teenager, and Yogi Bhajan was on the stage teaching a packed class underneath a huge outdoor shelter in the New Mexican Jemez mountains. The sky was a crisp blue. Everyone was dressed in white. We were holding some sort of posture, and we were chanting. There must have been about a thousand yogis. At one point the back of the class started to sing a little bit slower then the front of the class. At first it just kind of came in like a gentle wave of sound differential. But soon it became a kind of sound frenzy. Yogi Bhajan suddenly yelled at the top of his lungs, " Have Group Consciousness! Come together! You are One!!!" He didn't try to correct us by using the microphone to get us all chanting together. He put the responsibility squarely on our shoulders. I was listening quite intently to the whole process because even back then I was really into hearing people sing together. Imagine, one thousand yogis, powerfully chanting but totally discombobulated. For a moment I thought that perhaps we couldn't really come together. But the Master kept yelling "Group Consciousness, You are One!" And sure enough, like a child gathering a bouquet of flowers, we were each plucked up into this thing called Group Consciousness, and it happened! Our hearts, minds, and souls had completely merged, and we were singing together, not because we could hear necessarily everyone's voices, but because we could feel each other!

It was the most beautiful experience that I've had in Group Consciousness, and it inspired a beautiful moment in our concert in Montreal Canada last night. Let me tell you about that. So, we had just finished chanting a beautiful and ecstatic chant, and it felt like a good time to sing "People of Love." (www.spiritvoyage.com/Snatam), we started singing it in English, and as you may know the main spoken language in Quebec is French. As we were singing in English I thought to myself, wow wouldn't it be nice to hear this song in French? But, my skills in French are about as good as a fish trying to walk on land. But then I remembered that day up at the Solstice Site with Yogi Bhajan, and the words Group Consciousness came back. And so I said to the people, right then and there, with the music going, "Yogi Bhajan would probably have done this... he would say, sing this song in French, and find your Group Consciousness to come together." So, we kept playing the music, and one by one people began singing... some people using different words then others, some people using a slightly different tune then others. But I kept thinking listening, and it took maybe a matter of 30 seconds, and the whole place was singing completely together "We are the people the people of Love, let us people Love today" in French!! Oh my God, it was soooo beautiful!!! Soooooo beautiful. I can hear it even now. They were in unison, heart, body, mind and soul. I was completely transformed in that moment by the Grace of it. Thank you to the beautiful audience in Montreal. Thank you to Equilibrium Yoga (www.equilibriumyoga.ca) for hosting us so beautifully.

I believe that it is these moments of Group Consciousness that bring about great transformation on this planet. I actually don't think we can do anything really significant anymore without having Group Consciousness. So, let us find ways to empower the Group Consciousness of this great phenomena that we call humanity... that we may come to the aid of Mother Earth, all plants, all animals, and all beings.

Blessings to everyone. May you have many experiences of Group Consciousness. Sat Nam.

PS. Come to Summer Solstice too! Its fun. We'll be up there with the whole family! And then stay for Khalsa Youth Camp and International Women's Camp. Check out www.3HO.org for more information.