An Embodied Spiritual Practice for Global Collective Consciousness
For many years I have felt an inner disquiet, a restless rumbling and longing in my soul which I could not easily ignore. Among varied spiritual pathways this search prompted, I found the embodied spiritual practice of “Ritual Body Postures”, as formulated by the late Anthropologist Felicitas D. Goodman from her research into the early indigenous cultures the world over. This surprisingly simple practice involves the holding of various body postures depicted in ancient artwork, accompanied by fast monotone drumming or rattling. Holding these postures while listening to a rhythmic beat activates an inner, visionary journey, a type of altered state or trance, without the need for drugs or plant medicine.
In my first Ritual Posture session, I saw an image of a Native American elder with a feathered headdress standing at the edge of a mountain precipice looking out across a vast desert landscape. As he made an offering to the great mystery, a jolt of energy pierced my heart. It moved to the base of my spine, and I realized that I, too, was making an offering. I found myself envisioning and asking, how, at this great time of global change, my fellow humans and all species might thrive.
Five years later, I found myself standing on a very similar precipice in Sedona, Arizona, while visiting Laura Lee and Paul Robear, the Directors of the Cuyamungue Institute (CI) that Dr. Goodman founded nearly a half century ago. I was invited to further explore how CI’s practice might help stimulate global collective intelligence and imagination. This proved to be a pivotal step towards fulfilling the vision I had seen in my first trance session many years prior — I realized my inner restlessness and longing had directed me towards an experience of greater wholeness and meaning. I have since come to understand that, in effect, I have offered myself, to the Universe, as a Changemaker. Aurelio Peccei, co-founder of “The Club of Rome”, says in his autobiography “The Human Quality” that inner change is foundational to effective, meaningful structural transformation. I have come to understand how much an embodied spiritual practice, which fosters and stimulates inner change, can help guide and empower this process of transformation.
Over the years, I’ve attended many of the online Ritual Posture sessions that Paul and Laura offer, free and open to all, through Zoom. In these weekly sessions, groups of strangers from multiple countries and backgrounds come together to share in a form of group consciousness. Laura Lee points out that “the format of the ritual in a Ritual Posture session is key here, a protocol established by Dr Goodman from the Institute’s beginning. Each session starts with Paul demonstrating the Ritual Posture chosen for that session. Though the posture is decoded as ‘ritual instruction', that originating artifact is not mentioned by name, by culture, or any identifying feature of its deep history prior to the visionary journey. For in-person sessions, Paul himself demonstrates how to hold the posture, but when online, he shows a photograph of himself in the posture. He then leads the ritual, the central step of which is 15 minutes of ‘sonic driving’ in the form of drumming or rattling, traditionally with skin hand drum or gourd rattle while those gathered hold the posture. As eyes are closed, participants can better settle into the ‘inward gaze.’ In this short time, an inner experience unfolds as vivid as a dream, which can be just as fleeting. As the rattle ends, we take pen to paper to document the journey. One by one, we then go around the circle to verbally share the highlights of our experience, often so ineffable they can be hard to contain in mere words.”
Here is where we first see the signs of group consciousness. These journeys are deeply meaningful to each individual, and in the sharing, both personal and collective wisdom emerges. There are also telling details and elements in participant’s individual journeys or visions that multiple people in the group find they have in common. The amount of unique detail and correlations the group finds in each posture session is always surprising. Once everyone has shared, Paul reveals a single artifact or multiple figures from various cultures and eras depicting the same, or very similar poses. Here, another facet of global consciousness can emerge, the connection these artifacts and posture session share with our Ancestors. I asked Laura to comment about this connection as well.
“More often than not,” she replied, “we find the artifact has a larger story to share in its identifying features, depicted symbols, geometric patterns, cultural role or mythology. The intriguing thing is, without any advance knowledge, without any effort beyond being open to receiving a vision, we see correlations between elements of our journeys and the artifact, or that culture. The journeys we have today might well be the same journeys of long ago, and just as meaningful to us in the here and now as they were back then. We realize what we are sharing, bonding and bridging goes beyond our present moment. If quantum entanglement operates on a human level, this is it, bridging past and present, spanning cultures around the planet, and operating on a cosmic scale — this is truly a phenomenon far larger than our individual selves. This may be an ancient form of biohacking.”
This practice leads us into a shared field of consciousness, a form of collective intelligence where we can all thrive. Over and over, I hear participants report increased creativity, joy, emotional strength and resilience, insight, compassion, gratitude, and that ineffable sense of being one with the All. The longing and spiritual hunger that led me to explore this deeply meaningful approach that I had been looking for, has been for centuries available and open to us all. Alongside this practice, I have also realized there are many other pathways to cultivate this deep inner connection with Source. At this great time of planetary change and spiritual evolution, might this also be the moment to bring together multiple approaches to cultivating a collective sense of global consciousness?
Ritual body postures offer a way to empower our inner changemaker, helping us to grow from a consciousness of “me” to “we”, to ask what Mother Earth might want from us at this moment of planetary evolution. How might we find a greater inner purpose and meaning that contributes towards creating a better world for all? In the past few years, I have worked with the Cuyamungue Institute to explore collective intelligence and research global consciousness. Help join our efforts by visiting
https://www.cuyamungueinstitute.com
or reaching out at gcc@cuyamungueinstitute.com.
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Brian Tucker, Chair, Global Consciousness Committee (GCC) at the Cuyamungue Institute (see Global Collective Consciousness Project). Cuyamungue Institute (CI) is a leading organization dedicated to advancing the understanding of human consciousness through rigorous research and impactful outreach initiatives. CI is committed to fostering global awareness and innovative approaches to explore the depths of consciousness. Respecting all relevant disciplines, experiences, understandings, and available resources, the Global Consciousness Committee collaborates with other organizations and individuals in an inclusive process that synthesizes with the world community of changemakers who are contributing to the growing evidence of a Global Collective Consciousness. For more general information on Brian’s work see https://ecozoic.live
https://ecozoic.live