Recently I was asked a couple of questions:
"Do you think the path to collective intelligence will be one that must be taken intentionally? Or can a collective intelligence emerge unintentionally?

After a collective consciousness emerges, must it necessarily be aware that it is a collective consciousness? Or, can a collective intelligence exist without being self-aware?"

My response is: the path towards collective intelligence need not be taken intentionally, since it already exists. One way to refer to it is as the 'collective unconscious'. All living species are inherently connected in varying degrees of subtlety. As human thought is becoming increasingly globalised, and awareness of distant events is reaching more people, the empathy and shared thoughts/emotions that this produces is all adding to this 'unintentional' collective intelligence. The thought forms that we emanate go towards the state of our collectivity. However, what I am saying is that an intentional awareness of collective intelligence is more affective and functional. Why? Because an intentional act carries with it more force, power, and effectiveness than a non-intentional action.

This may serve to answer some of the 2nd question. A collective intelligence can exist without being self-aware because, as stated, it already exists. Yet awareness fosters active participation. A collective consciousness does not require that all 'components' or 'members' are conscious, since a conscious entity produces an exponential effect, so only a few conscious 'nodes' or people can represent the many. This is why human history has progressed from the actions of a few...yet the agents of human history have mainly been conscious drivers/participants, or either the agents of conscious entities.

Our conscious evolution then will have a much more profound effect if we, as participants, are conscious of our participatory role.

Intention is a very important element.

An interesting book to read in reference to this is Peter Russell's 'The Global Brain Awakens'

His Holiness the Dalai Lama was in Liverpool today - Thursday 27th May - and gave a speech in Liverpool Cathedral on acceptance of his honorary award from John More university: there is a live web broadcast: the whole event lasts 1h 25 m: it begins with 10 mins of music + introduction; 45 mins of the Dalai Lama speaking, followed by 20 mins of questions, then end ceremony.

Change


We should have intuited that change is best not be
avoided when it comes to call, crashing on us unsuspecting.
It’s only our normalcy, the complacency of our warmth
that steers us away into our regulatory corners.

So there’s nothing wrong then to be woken from
our catatonic slumber, our onanistic embrace,
to face the new dynamic world asunder…

Or so they say, or would like to say, I don’t know,

except that I’m restless if I stay too long, feels as if
I’m being left behind by the whole human race,
wherever they are heading.

If change is good, why do people die only a few miles
from where they first entered life, or fail to open their
windows on a sunny day, I don’t know…


23.5.04
18.36

As I have often stated, and will not tire of repeating: the future of our place in the world depends upon our own perceptions and how we view the world. As matter is a product of consciousness, then the strength of our inner vision can influence external phenomena. If there is enough 'critical mass' then a group mind scenerio is able to significantly alter the directionality of our evolutionary trajectory.

I have also posted from Elizabeth Sahtouris before. In one of her latest online articles: Vistas - Evolving Our Beliefs to Evolve Our Lives - she writes:

"That view is now crumbling under evidence produced by science itself that consciousness is not a late emerging property of evolution but the very source of the entire material world of Nature, including humanity. As that discovery spreads through society at large, along with its implications that we can dream and create the world any way we desire, we need to be well prepared for conscious creation of the reality we truly want.

While people have always created reality out of their beliefs, until now a handful of powerful people dictated the beliefs of each human culture. The glory of our own time is that the news is finally out that each and every one of us has the authority, even the mandate, to choose the beliefs by which we live and create our individual and communal lives.

To create the human future well we need good Vistas -- consciously created belief systems comprised of worldviews and the values for negotiating them courageously and lovingly."

Conscious Evolution requires the participatin of our thoughts: it is not a light thing, nor some 'New Agey' saying. The mind, as an amplifier for conscious thought/energy, can and does have direct and meaningful influence upon physical phenomena. Therefore before we expend our energies trying to change the world, it is paramount that we first change our perceptions and way of thinking: this is the path towards a conscious evolution - an evolution of intelligence.... as the late Prof. Jonas Salk referred to it - 'The Survival of the Wisest'.