Document Type
Audio File
Publication Date
2013
Abstract
The transformation we aspire to in the Integral community must unfold on many interconnected levels. Successfully addressing the many crises facing humanity and the planet will require a shift in collective consciousness, and this collective shift will necessarily reflect (and be reflected) through the aggregate of shifts in many individuals. In this dance of reciprocity, individual expansions of consciousness necessarily reflect the absorption and expression of wisdom emanating from higher levels through humanity’s collective superconscious. How may we proactively recognize, cooperate with, and manifest an overshadowing wisdom that can propel us through the conflicting interests and limited perspectives that result in the impasses so evident today? This presentation will explore the relationship between individual expansions of consciousness and what might be called the Collective Superconscious through the lens of Western Esoteric Wisdom (WEW). From this perspective, we see the human soul as an individualized unit of a group consciousness that transcends and overshadows our evolving human personalities, which are all too often caught up in partial, fear-based, and destructive patterns. For those who are ready, meditation and contemplative practice can increasingly become the means for precipitating the Wisdom of Humanity’s Collective Oversoul into conscious realization and applied action in the testing ground of daily life. Crucial to the practicality of this vision is an understanding of how the subjective work of meditation can, over time, translate to tangible impacts within a person’s daily life and sphere of personal influence.
This presentation will address some of the basic tenets of WEW regarding humanity’s essential role in the evolution of both consciousness and form, and portray our age as a critical opportunity for conscious cooperation with the powerful evolutionary impulses impacting our entire planetary life. We will also consider how patience with ourselves and our fellow humans is, paradoxically, integral to our timely response to the current crises.
Recommended Citation
Raucher, Gary, "Transformation, Soul Alignment, and the Collective Superconscious in Western Esoteric Wisdom" (2013). Founders Symposium. 31.
https://digitalcommons.ciis.edu/founderssymposium/31
Comments
Gary Raucher is a core faculty in the CIIS Drama Therapy Program and maintains a San Francisco based practice as a drama therapist and MFT. He is also a certified teacher of The Wisdom Foundation, an applied teaching of contemplative practice designed to help students bridge meditative techniques to practical goals of self-development, soul-alignment, and service to humanity.