A friend recently sent me photos of a family gathering in which he, his partner, his children and their friends all engaged in constructing a holiday scene out of multi-media materials.  As I looked at the photos, I was inspired by the beautiful energy of sharing and delight that emerged from the many images.   Looking at these images got me to thinking about the importance of how we act toward one another – in family settings, among friends, at work, when we’re out in public. 

My thinking drifted to something else that’s become a more commonplace idea in recent years – that we live in a collective field of information that touches everyone all the time.  Rupert Sheldrake, a British scientist, calls these “morphic fields”.  Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist, called them “the collective unconscious.”  Whatever name we put on them, the theory is that all of us have access to these fields outside our conscious awareness and that we both contribute to and draw from these fields all the time.  Sheldrake’s theory holds that the more information of a certain kind is in our collective field, the more we’re able to draw on, and benefit from, the qualities and capacities conveyed by that information.

There have actually been a number of experiments exploring this hypothesis.  Often, they involve teaching laboratory animals particular tasks and then observing how members of the same species, separated by continents or oceans, respond to the same tasks without any training or contact with the animals that were trained.  Again and again, the findings show that members of the same species become more skilled at these tasks and the hypothesis is that they are drawing on a morphic field that now contains that information.

Whenever I teach a workshop or run a group, I always begin by having people not only become aware of their own “core presence”, but also become aware of the larger, collective field in which we all exist.  I suggest that we can draw inspiration from that field, even as we offer it our own wisdom and experience.  This larger field is a living presence for me, and when I suddenly discover an inspired idea or creative solution, I pretty much assume I’ve drawn on this collective human wisdom.

Going back to a favorite theme of mine, I began to think about the small, barely-noticed acts of kindness that add something tangible to the collective that may make it easier for others to be kind, as well.  I also thought about the energy and qualities this friend and his family contribute to our collective field when they have these gatherings.  This reminded me of the importance of the ways in which each of us interacts with our world on a day-to-day basis – how we touch more than just our own lives as we live our daily lives.

And so, for this week’s experiment, I invite you to pay particular attention to the qualities you bring to your encounters with friends, family members and the world at large.  Keeping in mind that the qualities you embody and express affect our collective human field, notice what it’s like if you hold the intention of both contributing to, and drawing from, a store of kindness, curiosity, delight, creativity or love – or any other quality you want to develop or express.  You might also notice that when you become activated into feelings of anger, sadness, despair or any other challenging emotion, you again contribute to and draw from a collective store of these feelings. 

As with all the experiments, please be sure to leave judgment behind – or at least pat it on the head as it moves through, rather than grabbing hold of it or wrestling with it – and bring along curiosity as your companion.  The invitation in this experiment is to become more mindful of the qualities and energy you bring to your interactions with others, and to have an opportunity to make new choices if what you’re doing doesn’t enhance the quality of your life.