Collective Consciousness & Universal Thought Streams

There is a fascinating passage in the famous book ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Yogananda Paramahansa, which says that our thoughts are not actually our own - they are in fact part of universal thought streams that flow through the collective consciousness of humanity. 

This strikes me as a very profound idea indeed. This means that we are all swimming along in the collective mind, completely caught up in its sway, believing our thoughts are uniquely ours when actually they’re the thought streams of humanity. There must be an infinite number of tributaries as our musings meander down all sorts of rivulets. But according to Yogananda, they are universal waters, which means we are thinking in a similar way to others in our particular watercourse.

To take an example, those seeking power will have roughly the same thoughts as all the other power-hungry human beings on the planet. How to gain friends and influence people will be top of their agenda. These thought streams will inevitably sweep them along to notions about how superior they are, how they can use others, who is a threat and how they can manipulate or outmanoeuvre their foes. 

This river of thought can get very tumultuous as it flows downstream, because power is fickle - it is inevitably lost as it continually changes hands along the way. When powerful people begin to lose their grip, their thoughts become very disturbed and desperate as the current sweeps them along at frightening speed into anxiety and paranoia about who is gaining ground, who is hunting them down, who is threatening their identity as the ruler of this or that. This is where the stream can become a torrential whitewater rapid, pulling people under and drowning them in its ferocity. 

There are many such thought streams with an extremely strong current, because we have collectively invested so much energy in them. These streams can be hard to get out of - they whisk us along in a seemingly uncontrollable manner because everyone is thinking the same thing. These waters are dangerous because we so easily identify with them, getting swept up in the strength of the ideas that underpin them. Thoughts about the perfect body image for instance, are relentless watercourses that we can get very stuck in, tossing us about in the froth and foam as the collective obsesses about comparative looks and weight. 

It is only when we become aware that we are in a universal thought stream that we can find the banks of the river and climb out. This happens when we observe our thoughts. We climb out the moment we stop and say, “hang on, I’m thinking about the size of my thighs again. This is not who I am. I am the one who is aware of these thought streams. I am the knower not the thinker, the consciousness that loves and accepts myself fully, whatever I look like.” 

This awareness then frees us from humanity’s obsession with appearances. Every time we liberate ourselves from these thought streams by realising that it isn’t who we are, we weaken the collective current, so a raging rapid can become a calmer side-stream, and eventually a little rivulet that dries up all together.

We simply need to remember not to take our thoughts too seriously. Its nothing personal, we are not our thoughts. Thoughts come and go like the changing tides of the collective ego. And every time we become aware of the ego, we weaken it a little more. 

There are some egoic thought streams that still repeat for a little while, even when we become aware of them. While they are weakened every time we observe them, they still have a certain momentum because they are so strong in the collective consciousness. 

But our realisation that this is a universal rather than a personal issue becomes a very powerful tool for transcendence, as we can dis-identify from our thoughts so much more easily. We can say, “Wow, I really got caught up there for a moment, which shows just how strong these ideas are in the human collective.”  

This not only stops us from identifying with misguided conceptions ourselves, but enables us to see other people’s reactions not as ‘their ego’ but ‘the ego’ - the ego of humanity. Then we are more likely to be responsive rather than reactive to other’s unconscious thought streams. 

It also shows us where the work needs to be done for all of humanity. When we step out of these collective tides, we are doing an enormous service to those still unconsciously identified with their thoughts, who are seemingly out of their depth and being buffeted around by the tumultuous waves of the dark side of human consciousness. 

At these moments of awareness, we get a sudden realisation of the big picture view, so we can scan the landscape and choose our thought streams more carefully. There are the most beautiful, serene water flows full of happy, compassionate, kind thoughts that bathe our souls in love. These are the waters that enlighten our minds and keep us on track as we float towards the ocean of cosmic consciousness at the very source of our being. 

It is then that we realise we are not just a single wave on a choppy and changeable river, but the deep abiding ocean of Spirit that unites all the waters of the world; one body, one mind, one soul. 

With this realisation we can throw our heads back and laugh, titilated by the fun of it all as we marvel at how simple it is to take charge of our journeys. All we have to do to calm the storm is to meditate and climb onto the riverbank for a moment, sitting in the space between thought streams. Then, with renewed awareness, we can dip back into the river of life, going with the flow in complete surrender, knowing that as the poet Rumi says,  

“We are not a drop in the ocean, but the ocean in a drop.”

xx

Andrea Revell

About Andrea Revell

Andrea is a visionary thought leader, philosopher and author on all things mind body spirit. Previously an academic at universities in the UK and Asia, she has lived and travelled all over the world researching and teaching on sustainability and spirituality, encouraging systemic solutions to our planetary health problems. Using integrative medicine to successfully resolve an autoimmune condition she had for many years, Andrea trained in various alternative healing modalities and is now an internationally certified spiritual life coach, unlocking people’s potential with the power of meditation, breathwork and ancient Egyptian numerology. She has a PhD in environmental ethics and is a lover of philosophy, particularly Eastern philosophy, inspired by her years of living in India and Japan. Andrea has a regular yoga and meditation practice and loves to explore all things metaphysical. Having grown up in New Zealand and South Africa, she now lives in the UK with her husband and two children.

You can connect with her on World of Enlighten, Tiktok, Instagram or her Website.