Response:

The tragic loss of life we have witnessed in these mass killings can’t be fully explained or fathomed through the concept of collective consciousness. Such horrific events compel us to work through the grief and sorrow in their own cases.

If one seeks a more generalized understanding of what these types of violent incidents might indicate for an evolving society, I can offer a few comments. When a group or society undergoes a major shift from one state to another, it doesn’t happen in a smooth gradual transition. It displays unstable and in some ways chaotic behavior until it shifts into the new state. This phenomenon of phase transitions is seen in other physical and biological systems as well.  So even as world consciousness is moving inexorably toward a more enlightened, compassionate behavior, there can these terrible eruptions of violence from the collective unconscious as it purifies out these horrific elements. It’s not that society as a whole is violent and wants to kill each other; it’s that as we take steps to move to a more healthy, peaceful society, the violent tendencies erupt to the surface like boils on the skin as the body tries to heal itself.

Love,

Deepak