The
Group Mind

The Third Mind

In their collaborative collection of essays and stories, The Third Mind, William Burroughs and Brion Gysin offered the idea that “When you put two minds together, there is always a third mind, a third and superior mind, as an unseen collaborator.”¹ It also may stand to reason that when we put more than two minds together, a similar process gives us a group mind. Like singular human minds, group minds may be conflicted and discordant to varying degrees, or they may be coherent and single of purpose. The group mind functions as a collection of entities much the way we can consider one mind to have component entities. If the human entities are misaligned or have divergent purposes, the group mind will reflect that. If the component humans fit well together and can reach agreement or consensus, the group mind can become a more successful collaborator.

On the neurological level, our mirror neurons and theory of mind functions tend to blur the boundaries between individuals. Information flows between us consciously through language and media and unconsciously through facial expressions and other ideomotor indicators that our mirror neurons and modeling faculties read and respond to.

Mirror neurons respond strongly to those who move, dress, speak, and behave like we do. When we join in with others who look, sound, and act similarly, we feel as if we have become part of something. We have all experienced common phenomena that demonstrate this principle. In a classroom or testing environment, where everyone is sitting the same way, looking at, listening to, and doing the same things, we tend to fall in synch with each other. If one student coughs, the cough migrates around the room. If one person shifts in his or her seat or rustles papers, the seat-shifting and paper-rustling proves contagious. Similarly, a yawn may make the rounds of a group of friends, as may laughter, a gesture, an itch, a phrase, or an idea—all demonstrating our interconnectedness through neurology. Even better, when we sing, chant, or play music together; when we dance together; or when we make love, our common, mirroring behaviors blur the boundaries between one person and another. In such states of deep rapport, we mutually follow each other’s lead, and the resulting behavior is not born of any one person.

In a more nefarious form, when large groups of people are directed to all do the same things—as when a military leader demands that troops dress, march, and behave the same way, or when a cult leader encourages his flock to drink the Kool-Aid—patterns of thought and beliefs may also spread quickly. This concept is frequently used by political forces to sway public opinion or to influence elections. When George W. Bush ran for presidential election and re-election in the United States, his campaign rallies were carefully controlled and were packed with enthusiastic supporters, many purportedly bused in from more distant locations, to give the impression of mass approval.² When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, canvassers were instructed to tell undecided voters that many of their neighbors and peers were voting for Obama, which helped to develop a very successful “me too” effect.³ Wilhelm Reich suggested that being a part of mass movements gives us a mystical sense of being part of something larger than ourselves.⁴

For the most part, however, the group minds we encounter each day are benign, if not beneficial. We identify these as our family, friends, clubs, organizations, movements, schools, and religions, and being a part of these group minds is a normal and healthy part of being human. It is how our neurology is wired. We have evolved as social organisms that devote a great deal of brainpower to mirroring and modeling each other. Everyone around you is also inside you, and you are inside them.

Memetic Entities

And of course the clever modeling centers in our brains can find entities in patterns of information that involve groups of people. We relate to institutions such as governments and churches as if they were big, if somewhat confusing, parents, family members, or friends. Government is “big brother” and the church is “the body of Christ.”

Schools of thought, political ideologies, religious beliefs, corporate structures, forms of government—and much else—depend on the attention of humans to exist and they have built-in abilities to perpetuate, to include more humans, and even to reproduce. These self-perpetuating thought-forms, for our purposes here, are called “memetic entities.” “Democracy” is a memetic entity, as is “Aikido,” “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy,” “Jazz,” “Buddha,” “Beelzebub,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “the English Language,” and Atem. They are patterns of information that act with autonomy across time and yet interact with humans on many levels. All of the given examples became manifest through the interaction of human minds, some obviously by an individual, others less obviously by changes in culture.⁵

Working in Groups

Think about it this way: the continual flow of information between all of us on an unconscious level, through ideomotor response and our mirror neuron systems suggests that, as religions and philosophies have proclaimed for eons, we are all one. That little area in the right frontoparietal lobe that tells each one of us, “I am me,” creates an illusion of separateness, but mostly we are always connected to others. Within that single great human entity, that functions on a level that we, as individuals, have difficulty perceiving, are smaller pockets of interaction. These are the group minds and memetic entities. Humans appear to be wired this way and we also use that same wiring to perform some of our magical tasks.

So it can be really, really helpful to work your magick in the company—and with the participation—of others. Any entity beyond the strictly personal is living in the neurology-mediated information flow, the noosphere. This includes the commonly known gods and goddesses, angels, demons, fictional characters, and all other memetic entities. Even if you are all alone in your secret magical temple, if you work with an entity found in grimoires or religious texts, you are interacting with the minds of everyone else who has contributed, over time, to these entities. How much better, then, to physically join with others in group invocation, to fully activate and employ your mirror neuron system? We’re talking about major woohoo.

The more popular memetic entities have their own congregations and places of worship, including churches, mosques, synagogues, cinemas, theme parks, concert halls, office buildings, and factories. It’s easy enough to find people who want to participate in the rites of Jesus, Mickey Mouse, or the Grateful Dead. Where do we find co-experimenters to explore our lesser-known, newly found, or newly created entities? Sometimes the answers lie right in front of us. We participate in group minds every day, including family, friends, classes, coworkers, and the other impatient people in line at the post office. The following exercise has been used by a wide variety of different groups as a means to explore group minds and to develop rapport within the group. That’s not limited to magical orders, moots, or meetups—almost any group of people that works or plays together can benefit from these processes, although perhaps not the impatient people at the post office. (Hint: You don’t always have to explain that what you’re doing is magick. Sometimes it’s easy enough just to say it’s fun, or will help us get to know each other, or that it might illustrate an interesting principle of neuroscience.) There are also Meta-Magick practice groups in various parts of the world—check meta-magick.com/groups.html for current listings and contact information. If you don’t think you have others to work with yet, read through the steps of the exercise and imagine what kinds of opportunities you may have in the future to practice this way.

Exercise 12.1 Group Mind Ritual

 

Each group member develops his or her own Energy Flow Gesture based on a particularly pleasant and empowering experience. While breathing deeply and evenly, each person brings his or her flow to a strong, powerful level. When that level has been reached, each will let the feeling of the flow find expression as a movement or gesture. Ask yourself, “If this feeling were a movement, what would it be?”

 

Working in pairs, each takes time to learn the other person’s movement or gesture. Partners will demonstrate their movements for each other as often as is necessary to learn them. Use as little verbal cueing as possible. Do it silently if you can.

 

Then, facing each other, each will return to his or her own movement, repeating it over and over, while keeping eyes open and observing the other partner.

 

As each group member watches his or her partner, they begin to incorporate elements of his or her movement into their own. Each pair develops a “partner movement,” a compromise or aggregate movement that both
practice identically.

 

Partners practice the “partner movement”
together for another minute.

 

Each partner pair will meet with another
partner pair. Each pair will teach their partner movement to the other pair, so that both pairs can do both movements.

 

Partners will then revert to their own partner movement, repeating it while observing the other partner pair, who will be repeating their own partner movement. Gradually, each pair will integrate elements from the other pair’s partner movement until a “foursome movement” is developed.

 

Continue to practice the foursome movement together for at least another minute.

 

The entire group will then convene and foursomes will each demonstrate their movements, so that everyone can perform all the foursome movements.

 

Foursomes will then revert to their own foursome movement, repeating it while observing the other foursomes. Gradually, each person will integrate elements from the other foursomes until a “group movement” is developed together (or if this proves difficult, until they are showing signs of deeper rapport, including laughter, smiling, and synchronous unconscious movements).

 

The group forms a circle, each participant facing the center, and practices the group movement (or however close they have come to one) for at least another minute.

 

Everyone stops where they are and takes
notice of how they feel at that moment.

 

Each person develops their own energy flow for the feeling they have at that particular moment.

 

Each person externalizes his or her own energy flow and places it in the same place in the center of the circle.

 

Group members breathe into the combined energy flows.

 

Communicating silently with thoughts or with ideomotor testing, each participant can communicate with the entity as the rest of the ritual proceeds. Possible questions to ask the entity include: What do I call you? What can you teach me? How can I be more aware of information on the level of the group? How can I facilitate increased rapport or consensus with others in my life?

 

One at a time, going around the circle, each participant steps into the center, stepping into the entity for a minute or so, noting any changes in state, then returning to the
circumference.

 

When all group members have had a turn stepping in, each person then reabsorbs just as much energy as he or she originally put in and the ritual is brought to a close.

 

Participants take a few minutes to discuss the experience.

Just as individual consciousnesses have energy flows that are rich with submodality information, group minds can also develop their own metaphoric energy. The Group Vortex Ritual is a great way to encourage interaction and to build up group energy for a unified purpose.

Exercise 12.2 Group Vortex Ritual

 

Participants stand in a circle, facing the center.

 

A quality to invoke is agreed upon and each group member creates their own energy flow for that quality.

 

A direction, clockwise or counterclockwise, is decided upon.

 

At a given signal, each person sends/imagines their energy flow flowing in the decided direction to the person next to them. This continues for at least a few minutes as a continuous cycle of energy is developed.

 

At a given signal, everyone takes one step backward out of the cycling energy flow, leaving the cycling vortex within the cycle.

 

Participants breathe deeply and exhale into the cycling vortex.

 

The group takes some time for everyone to communicate with the vortex entity, in whatever way each finds best.

 

In addition to whatever other personal questions each person might have, they ask the entity what part of their body could use some of the vortex energy.

 

Each participant diverts some of the vortex energy and directs it toward whatever part of their body the entity suggested.

 

Each participant, in turn, may stand inside the vortex for a minute or two and observe any differences in state they may experience.

 

Everyone takes a step forward, back to their original positions in the vortex.

 

Everyone then reabsorbs just as much energy as they originally put in and the ritual is brought to a close.

 

Participants take a few minutes to discuss the experience.

Decision Processes

Sometimes the thought processes of group minds can be complex and difficult to follow. Other times, however, decision-making processes may be adopted in a more conscious fashion. These are usually pretty obvious and consist of contracts, bylaws, constitutions, and other such documents that outline the behavior and protocol of individuals in relation to larger entities, various subgroups within entities, and the group minds in relation to the world. Such documents are numerous and, in their sum total, constitute the rules and infrastructure of the really big entity that we call our society.

To keep it simple, we’ll focus on three types of decision-making processes that can apply to the kinds of groups that may work with these exercises. There are times when each of these will be appropriate, there are also situations in which they may be blended together to some extent, and participants are encouraged to experiment with variation.

1. The decision-maker: One person makes
decisions for the entire group.

2. Majority rules: Decisions are voted upon by the group and those with the most votes are used.

3. Consensus: Each participant has input and the decision is adjusted, added to, subtracted from, and modified until all concerns are addressed.⁶

Each of these different decision-making processes will influence the nature of a group mind at least as much as any other factor. Which decision process will offer more woohoo will depend on the particular members and goals of the group.

Syncretism

Playing with decision processes can provide a quicker method (usually) for observing how our gods and goddesses came to be than waiting many years to observe syncretism in action. Syncretism is the process whereby various different opinions, beliefs, and concepts are combined to produce a unified religion or entity. Some examples of syncretism may be familiar to some readers, including the adoption of indigenous pagan holidays and symbols in the practices of Christianity as it spread throughout the world: trees, mistletoe, and other symbols of solstice celebration combined with the story of Jesus to produce the modern celebration of Christmas; or pre-Christian fertility symbols, eggs, bunnies, and even the name Easter (from the same roots as Eostre, Astarte, and Ishtar: female fertility goddesses) combined with New Testament lore, to create the holiday of egg hunts and the baby Jesus. Figure that each time some new element was added to the invocation ritual that we call “holiday celebration,” some decision process was also invoked. A pope or cleric or scholar proclaimed the symbolism, perhaps; or a body of priests, bishops, or wise men took a vote; or bits and pieces were added or subtracted as each group or individual provided input.

Syncretism gets even more interesting and fun on the level of entities, and the long history of meeting and merging memetic entities has given us more animal-headed or animal-bodied entities than can be counted: gods and demons with unusual numbers of arms, legs, breasts, and other body parts—with blue skin, green skin, purple skin, and every other variation that can be imagined. If we think of these diverse critters as memetic entities, with each meme analogous to a gene, syncretism represents the reproduction and evolution of our imaginary friends.

Practice groups—or you and your friends on a Saturday night—can explore the process of syncretism in a relatively quick (compared to the centuries usually involved) and fun way. Group Meta-Deities can be very intense, very serious, or very, very silly, depending on your goals and purposes. Play around with different kinds of decision processes and notice how your entities take different forms and offer different kinds of information. Notice which methods build the most woohoo into your entity and into your life.

Exercise 12.3 Group Meta-Deity

 

Participants sit in a circle and a banishing is performed to clear the space. This can be as simple as each participant practicing Expansion/Contraction breathing, filling and clearing the work area.

 

The group selects an objective or quality for which they would like to create a group-mind deity.

 

The elements of that objective or quality are identified. In a small group, each participant can suggest one element. In a larger group, a fixed number can be agreed upon and suggestions can be ratified by consensus, vote, or decision-maker.

 

Each participant imagines a humanoid figure in the center of the circle and makes appropriate adjustments to the figure as the ritual proceeds.

 

Each participant, in turn, makes a suggestion concerning the physical attributes of the entity. These may concern the sex of the entity, its size, color, shape, posture, gesture, facial features, number of limbs, special effects and features, and so on. Almost anything is fair game as long as it represents, in the mind of the suggesting participant, that objective, overall quality, or any of the elements. For instance, in seminars we have developed godforms with six arms, green skin, gills, sharp teeth, feline bodies, etc.

 

Participants simultaneously develop state entities for each of the chosen elements and place these into the group entity. For instance, if the elements are speed, intelligence, and patience, then all participants will develop their own “speed” state entity and place it into the godform, all will develop their own for intelligence and add them to the mix, and all will develop state entities for patience and place them into the godform.

 

Participants breathe into the godform and continue to offer the godform breath and attention through the remainder of the ritual.

 

Each participant, in their own mind, asks the godform for one syllable of the god/dess’s name. When each has added their syllable, the sounds are combined to create the full name of the god/dess.

 

Each participant then asks the god/dess what offering or ritual would be appropriate to add more attention and energy to the god/dess. If these are practicable, then they are performed.

 

Each participant then asks the god/dess for any information it might be able to offer specific to their own situation.

 

One at a time, participants step into the godform, and experience the state for a minute or two.

 

The group then decides if the god/dess is to be given a place to inhabit, or if it is to be reabsorbed by the participants. The god/dess is then either given leave to inhabit its new domain or is absorbed.

 

The space is then banished again.

 

Participants reflect on their experience and record any relevant information.

Each time we’ve worked with a Meta-Deity has been a unique experience. Descriptions of any one of them might not give you the woohoo of your own group creation, but might demonstrate how diverse elements from each participant can join to create a unified entity. In a 2007 workshop in Seattle, for instance, our group created an entity dedicated to Magick itself, a true Meta-Magick entity. The entity’s name turned out to be SLA-OO-DAM-SCI-BA-SSS, and its elements were motivation, perseverance, efficacy, imagination, sensitivity, and wisdom. SLA was human-sized, hermaphroditic, and had a forked tongue, monkey tail, blue skin, six arms, piercing green eyes, and wings. The offerings that the entity wanted were words, chanting, transmuted gold, stroking, prayers, and communication. With our permission, SLA went on to inhabit a local park. Each one of us gained some personal insight into our magical practice from the interaction with SLA. The entity has also demonstrated a little bit of memetic survival instinct, too, by wanting to be included in this book.

The Celebration of Woohoo

Most of us are probably familiar with forms of invocation that involve celebrations within a group. These include various festivals of the seasons and other holidays, solemn ceremonies, and joyous parties. Very often the actions of invocation involve the environment itself, the building or space that holds the festival, and everything that participants bring into the space. The following ritual uses decision-making processes and group invocation techniques to really increase intensity, duration, and novelty of an invocation. It can be adapted for groups of any size but, up to a point, provides the most woohoo with larger numbers of participants.

Exercise 12.4 Group Environmental Ritual

 

Either by single-person decision, majority vote, or consensus, the group decides on an overall quality and component elements
to invoke.

 

Each element is assigned to a physical location in the ritual area. This arrangement may be based in group agreement or may fit the necessities of the space.

 

For each zone, participants are assigned actions, including but not limited to creating a visual symbol, a rhythm, a melody, words, a dance or gesture, an offering or ritual act. For instance, if the elements of the ritual are Wisdom, Patience, and Adaptability, one person would be assigned to create a visual symbol for Wisdom, one would create a rhythm for Wisdom, one would create a visual symbol for Patience, one would create the rhythm for Patience, etc. If there are fewer people, actions can be combined in a variety of ways. For instance, one person could be assigned to create all of the actions for one element. (Pat creates symbol, rhythm, etc., for Wisdom.) Alternatively, one person could create visual symbols for each and every element, someone else could create rhythms for each element, and so on. Another way to adapt for a smaller group or shorter amount of time would be to limit the actions in each zone, perhaps to just a symbol and words, or whichever tasks the group or leader agrees on.

 

To accomplish each task, each can use one of the following methods:

 
• Create an internal energy flow and allow the words, rhythm, movement, symbol, or act to arise from the intensified feeling of the flow.
 
• Create a state entity for the element and get assistance from the entity in creating the symbol, rhythm, melody, etc.
 
• Create a full god/dess and step into it, allowing the words, rhythm, etc., to arise from the intensified feeling of the invocation.

 

When each ritual element has been developed in this way, the entire group convenes and, beginning with one element, everybody performs each action as a group. That is, everyone looks at the symbol together (or draws it in the air), plays the rhythm together, says the words together, and so on until the full group has performed every action in every zone.

 

Participants may then wander about in the space, visiting the different elemental zones individually. When entering a zone, a participant joins in with whatever actions are already taking place in the zone or begins one, continuing with activities specific to that zone until he or she leaves for another zone.

 

At a prearranged time or signal, the group convenes as a whole in the center of the space. Each continues performing the action that he or she was performing at the time to convene.

 

Participants make their best effort to unify the actions into a harmonious, aesthetic composition.

 

When the actions have blended and been performed that way for a time, everyone stops and remains silent for a while, taking notice of what perceptions and states they are presently experiencing.

 

The ritual is brought to a close with a single action performed by all, perhaps created as an amalgam or sample of the blended actions from the previous steps.

 

Participants withdraw from the ritual area and discuss their experience.

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