These painful symptoms are exactly like the corrective emotional signals experienced in an individual. Any group must have the enlightened leadership to ensure that a structure evolves which accommodates the needs of each of its members. Each and every such symptom should be acted upon immediately to restore frustrated need-meeting opportunities. Each group should ensure its continuous purpose of self-development and expression. The leadership of any group should respond exactly like an enlightened mind, to adapt itself to each and every incoming piece of information and design the organizational structure and rules to best allocate resources and eliminate internal competition.
The most popular and admired leaders of any group are those who respect the spiritual dignity of the members and reflect that respect in what they do to enhance it. But the responsibility for group enhancement lies as much with the group, itself, as with its leadership. The secondary role of leadership is to stimulate organization and cooperation.
Failing to respond to such symptoms is like closing the door of the mind in a flight response to denial, and all the problems inherent in that choice will befall the group. Such dysfunctional groups can be identified for their dependence upon ideological, emotionally manipulative, psychological or physical walls to contain their members. Such walls are erected to keep individuals from escaping into more rewarding and spiritually fulfilling groupings. In an enlightened group or world, no such walls need ever exist. All such walls, of course, are spiritually unsound, for they will eventually be broken down by the safeguard angers of those frustrated spirits imprisoned within.
In business structures, where the entrenchment of leadership is too often dependent on the profit line, leadership may elect to ignore the warning signs of discontent until it is too late to successfully correct them. In political and religious groups, other controlling factors can keep the body contained through fear and intimidation. The Berlin wall was a metaphor for the crumbling of all organizations that control people to the detriment of their spiritual development.
Dysfunctional groups are far less likely when the structure facilitates the most natural and purposeful contributions from its members. Any group desires, of course, that each of its incoming members to be as capable, resourceful, and functional as possible; but some qualities are far less important when the environment is fertile. For the group can bring out the best, or worst, in any member, depending upon its structure.
Nature, itself, offers many lessons of enlightened organization. But these lessons are often subtle and need to be studied and appreciated. For this to happen, nature must be appreciated. As for a group that is bringing out the "worst" qualities in any of its members, serious reflection is in order.
The inevitable struggles occur in order to eventually bring about the just and spiritually desirable structural conditions. The more the structure accommodates human nature, and allows each individual to fulfill the trinity of purposes, the more successful it will be in its group endeavors. First and foremost, the structure must accommodate the basic individual needs for freedom and power or there will be the corrective feelings of fear and anger in its members, and retaliatory self-preservationary acts against the group.
It is a cycle. When fear is introduced into a structural environment, anger is an eventual consequence. When anger surfaces, fear is enhanced. Many school systems are evolving into such
a cycle and, unless reversed, will suffer serious consequences.
One has to ask the obvious, if the freedoms spelled out in our constitution are sufficient
to guide our government, would not these same principles be worthy of emulation in our economic and religious institutions as well? Should they be accepted and put into practice, all such institutions would compliment and
spiritually enhance each other, to the general benefit of all involved.
The only true protection against "emotional manipulation" and a firm determination is to free oneself from it. The first step in doing so it recognizing it. The second step is in accepting that the only person entitled to manipulate one is oneself. The final step is caring enough about yourself to take control of your own destiny, once and for all.
This is a subhuman state of living but has been accepted as the norm among humans. Religions used fearsome fire and brimstone to force moral actions; businesses use threats and power-wielding to get the most effort out of workers; governments pass laws restricting freedoms and threatening fines and imprisonment, but nothing will work except a structure that provides natural justice. For the human spiritual system is designed to pull individuals forward along the naturally moral purposeful destiny path. The push of painful feelings only ensures that there will be no backward movement allowed.
Is it possible to imagine a world in which the above described tactics (fear and threats) would not be in place? If it can be imagined, it can be achieved. This millennium is, in effect, a crossroads for the future of humanity. New possibilities are dependent upon which destiny we elect to create. It will take our physical, mental and spiritual determination to take that road better traveled.
The ideal structure instead assures each group member the necessary freedom to move about, to do what is necessary to meet needs and challenges of the environment. There must also be an adequate balance of resource allocations such that each member can both draw from and give to, the group unit. These are the only two required conditions of justice, and when they exist, the inner positive feelings drive purposeful movement.
Whether it be in a unit as small as a family or as large as a government, the giving and receiving process must be apparent in the minds of all the participants in order to give purpose to one's existence. There will always be some who give less than seems appropriate and others who give more than their share, but if we can get beyond judgement and accept the built-in variances in humans, overall happiness will take an important step forward.
An enlightened leadership, aware of the pitfalls, would build a structure which would assure that the positive feelings always remain stronger than the negative ones. Although money might be tight for salaries all around, there can be allocations of projects which can offer added empowerment and creativity, special incentive and recognition programs which build self-esteem, informal business activities that allow connection, and group missions which offer meaning. The structure can provide for all the needs and salary itself becomes far less important.
The above should stand as an inspiring guideline to be used in the creation of any organization, regardless of size or complexity. In fact, there are probably successful groups in place right now that can serve as living examples of what can be.
Any group organization can dramatically improve its internal relations and its external successes, by structurally tending to the emotional needs of its members. This is the only way to foster trust, connection, and true cooperation. Soliciting constant communicative feedback and attending to the emotional information is essential. There are many deadly habits routinely undertaken by both leaders and members when fear and anger are allowed upon the premises.
A gentleman by the name of W. Edwards Deming did wonders for the Japanese auto industry and established a list of fourteen guiding principles which eventually became an American business program called Total Quality Management. Among these principles was #8 which stated: Drive out fear. People often fear reprisal if they "make wages" at work. Managers need to create an environment where workers can express concerns with confidence.
The enlightened leaders that have discovered these patterns, have found that the resources invested in attaining such enlightened structures, have been far surpassed by the values of the positive changes within the workforce. The employees of such organizations find true joy and pleasure in going to work each day, and are more aligned within themselves as individuals, simply due to the structure of their working world. They bring home enhancements, as well as bacon, to their families.
Unfortunately, in a business climate where competition gains too prominent a position in the practices of an organization, or where spiritual qualities are overridden for the sake of maintaining power through fear, no tweaked management program can ever be truly successful.
The opposite is also true. To the degree that fear and anger are simply incorporated into the system, there will be an eventual downfall, for it does not jive with the spiritual nature of humanity. Even if members are forced to remain within religions, workforces, political parties, countries, or even families that deny them basic freedom and power, there will be symptoms within the group which point to the necessary corrections. Thus, there will be systems which arise to handle the steady discontent rather than to effect repair. The only long term solutions are those which follow the guidance of spirit and engage the inner natural morality.
Depending whether one sees the glass as half full or half empty, we are observing the definite evidence of trends happening in our society today. Of course, the news media is focusing on mostly negative happenings. Yet, in not so noticed but significant ways, a certain positive anticipation of this next one thousand years is beginning to seep into the collective consciousness. Since we have managed to survive the Y2K phobia mostly intact, there is now a new wave of optimism heading toward our troubled beaches.
Every such grouping can benefit profoundly from this same principle. Heeding the wisdom within each of the negative feelings that arise individually and en masse, and correcting its source immediately can allow every type of group to evolve as dynamically as can individuals themselves.
We can also be assured that with the evolvement of each individual comes progress toward the evolution of all groups.
The Isolated Group
Regardless of the level of inner harmony of the group, it will still behave like an individual entity---complete with a version of
each of the same pitfalls.
After a certain period of time, the habit of excluding outside information becomes self-perpetuating. At this point, it takes a traumatic experience to shake lose the ingrained thought patterns and open a wedge through which new information can flow.
If a group functions reasonably well as a unit, then it becomes likened unto a separate mind. It quite literally does take on a mind and a life of its own. But with the choice of isolation, it attempts to disconnect itself from the grander cooperative whole of humanity. It closes its doors through walls of rules and codes that are intended to keep members in, and the rest of the world out. Such isolation, of course, denies the spiritual interconnection between all humans and automatically sets the stage for a whole new series of painful symptoms. (For the grand cooperative spiritual interaction is the only Way).
When an individual or a group elects to set it/him/herself apart from the outside world, then it does so either with the intent of plugging into its spiritual/higher self or with the intent of sparing it/him/her self from outside information that might contradict a belief system. Through isolation comes an absence of evolution, which is in contradiction to the very nature of spirit.
The first symptom is known as "groupthink" wherein the minds of all begin to meld together and form a unique view of reality. And although this is not necessarily a bad thing, in the isolated form, it breeds profound emotional boundaries and a warped sense of reality. What happens is that as the members embrace the rules of the group, their emotional systems become entangled with the ideas, values and cultural knowledge held therein. They learn to feel good about certain ideas and feel bad about others---but based only upon the rules of that particular isolated environment---without the input from their experience and interactions with the rest of the world. This can spur a cult-like mentality, detached from its larger family of humanity, lost within its own delusions.
The cult mentality that we are conditioned to believe is not only inappropriate but possibly even threatening, and is one which has been around as long as their have been religious, economic, political and social institutions. They serve to provide security at the expense of freedom. In fact, they discourage the latter and strive to maintain a certain degree of control, usually through fear. They encourage and ultimately deteriorate into division, among themselves and between their respective groups and others of like kind, if not like mind.
Membership in this type of distorted reality is often taken on by personal choice, and is later perpetuated by naive belief that free will still actually exists. Power mongering violation can then occur. But the spiritual feeling system is alive and well. Its frustration will signal fear---an inherent quality in all such groups. The fear will then become part of the driving force of the group and nearly always at some point, the group will begin to take action within the larger community. They can turn to actions which follow this contrived worldview and act out upon that fear against the others in their world community, in a warped sense of self-preservation.
"Lord, I am truly sorry for having offended Thee...because I fear the loss of heaven and the pain of hell'. This should strike a certain chord of familiarity with some. Just a the crusades dominated the middle ages, so in modern times, governments lead military actions against other governments for the remotest of fears. Such actions can and do become prolonged and costly not only in economic terms, but most certainly in human terms as well.
This error is apparent in hate groups that hold ideas about racial or ethnic superiority, terrorist groups that hold ideas about right and just political conditions, and whose members have no logical qualms about unjustly violating others to attain them. It is apparent in jingoistic propaganda of communities which persuade their members to view their ideas as superior, and worthy enough for which to fight and perhaps to die. It is apparent in religious groups that shun members for individual thought or non-compliance and close the door to incoming perspectives and legitimate, spiritually directed questions. It is apparent within cults who take up arms in the name of their faith. This kind of damage is the strongest in those groupings which deliberately manipulate the emotional system of its members, to take for themselves their power of choice.
Moreover , it is apparent among governments and established religions and should be recognized as such. While the media may make a definitive story from the bizarre actions of a particular person, it will veer away from any evidence that this is being practiced on a broader scale, if doing such a story would be considered a clear threat to large and established institutions.
For the emotional system is the only safeguard system that saves humans from faulty choices of the free mind. If the mind is filled with ideas that exploit the defenses of the emotional system, that take power through instilling fear, guilt, anger, and hate, they can effectively turn the system against its master. Although the concept of "brainwashing" is a physical impossibility, the exploration of the emotional system in this way happens quite regularly. But those who become victimized will know by the level of fear and other negative emotion that the spirit is suffering under oppression. Entities are encouraged to heed the feeling signals, the true voice of spirit, above and beyond faithful adherence to any group doctrine.
The comfort level of any group is conditional upon what feelings exist in each member. If one feels good about the purpose of the group, the way its members relate to the individual, and feels free to leave and return to the surroundings of the group whenever it seems appropriate, it is likely that "fear" is not prevalent in the group makeup.
Indeed, isolation is no longer possible in the global community. Enlightened ideas must spread from individuals and flow freely throughout all human groupings for true civilization to emerge. No mind can be any more isolated than can a person, a country, or a spirit---for all are connected at the most essential levels of being. There is to be no turning back from the emerging global marketplace, but the spiritual guide must take its rightful place.
So we have a dichotomy of the individual mind with its personal guidance system and collective consciousness as it interrelates within itself. What each mind brings to the collective is that which either enhances or detracts from its spiritual evolution. What is described in the above paragraph could fit with the system we call the "internet." As below, so above.
The root source, as well as the most damaging of group pitfalls, are these powerful emotional boundaries that are erected between groupings. Emotional boundaries unchecked within the individuals will inevitably lead to emotional boundaries with groups. These are the walls of shared belief that keep members in and new ideas out.
Just as individuals become stagnant and hostile to the outside world if growth is not experienced, so groups become withdrawn and defensive if its members are not allowed to experience their own growth. Isolation eventually leads to hostility and alienation.
We have seen how, when the mind follows the body's urge to self-preserve, it will interpret each negative feeling as one to close the mind and defend its presents contents. This is exactly the opposite of its purposeful message to mind. We have termed these emotional boundaries, since the feelings always point them out, but they are actually boundaries of the mind and its beliefs.
If we are taught at an early age that we are not to go beyond the mental boundaries of an instilled belief system, then it would follow that comfort would be sought within the confines of group structure we are most familiar with and distrust would be held toward those outside of the group mindset.
The worst effects come from groups who have decided through their own distorted lens that other specific groups are the dogs to be beaten. This is how hate is learned. This is how intolerance, social judgement, racial discrimination, and holy wars are born. Since the dawn of humanity, the reality of emotional boundaries has been continuously overlooked, and powerfully exploited. Most humans know intuitively that hating others is wrong, for the spirit desires no boundaries between individuals, let alone groups of them. But we don't think twice about seeing others as different than ourselves because of their free choices.
So the solution to the flaw of group hate is a greater emphasis on the virtue of "free choice." With the enhancement of this quality comes a natural respect and appreciation of those who are, by chance or by choice, celebrating their differences, as should we all.
Social Stratification Just as conformity urges boundaries from the inside, there is an opposite effect which also maintains the boundaries from the outside. Just as
members cajole each other to stay the same, there is also a tendency to compare themselves to outsiders, and feign a certain superiority. This also strengthens the perceived value of the group.
When members of a group are taught to think of themselves as superior to those not in the group, a predictable attitude is incorporated into the thinking of group members, which prevents them from having an objective view of the world around them.
When the group survives over a long period of time, its need begins to take on a life of its own. Individual members come and go with time, but the values become institutionalized, and rarely questioned. This can be likened to the Frankenstein monster that can aggress against its members, the first of which were its master designers. Some groups have become so unquestioned, that their original purpose no long exists, and its values have mutated into those that divide and drain humanity at large. Certain government and religious bodies have fallen into this category.
When we begin to question whether a known religious body is still intent on encouraging its members to evolve spiritually or when we begin to wonder if the democratic form of government we live under is truly "democratic" in its values, then we are moving to a greater awareness that turns away from participation in the rituals of such organizations. Church attendance may wane, voting participation may decline, and this may strike a familiar chord.
Yet, these groups are still preserved through the emotional forces effected upon their members. Lines are then drawn and institutionalized insiders and outsiders arise. The group remains strong through belittling outsiders, who are not group members. Weakening the outsiders then strengthens the unity of the self within the group. These lines establish long-term competition instead of enlisting connection and cooperation within humanity. It is simply a grand scale deadly habit which is the motivational force behind all sorts of social stratification.
Unable to find the needed strength from within these groups, those who then become the "outsiders" begin to seek their guidance from within. Eventually, that guiding
spirit supersedes and transcends that which the group was failing to provide. In other words, those outside a religious group might begin to experience more spiritual growth than those within it.
There is beginning to come into existence a system that has the capability of breaking down these prejudicial barriers, a system that invites difference in mind rather than body or even belief systems. In this environment, ideas can be exchanged and examined objectively on their merits. In this environment, the identity of the "proposer" of any idea is less important than the merits of the idea itself. The system I speak of is, of course, the median through which this material is now being passed along.
Any cultural ideology, system or law that is based upon a required division of peoples is spiritually and biologically unsound. For the individual spirit will continuously rail against any constraint upon its spirit, creating the predictable social symptoms too prevalent in the world today.
What can best accelerate the breaking up of the divisive cultural ideologies indicated above? It would have to be the individual determination to trust one's own Spirit to act as his/her final guide.
The solution to each of these pitfalls, lies within each and every individual spirit. For at the heart of all groups is the individual, and at the heart of the individual lies its innate feeling guidance system. Each and every interaction, when guided by the spiritual evaluative information can ensure maximum individual purposeful progress, as well as that of any group to which that individual might belong. Once bad feelings are recognized for the corrections they suggest, the deficit states that have long been accepted as necessary evils will begin to naturally disappear.
So long as there is the freedom of exchange, the spirit will be enhanced. We are but chapters in the book of all life and we evolve by our interchange of perception. This is the true gift of Spirit.
Indeed, group efforts can move mountains when each
member is moved from within by the pulls of spiritual pleasures rather than pushes of its pains.
With these fundamental understandings in place,
we can now discuss the enlightened changes necessary to the specific human social structures.