What is it?
With the word “group” we can understand a number of different things: most likely, the first meaning that emerges is that of something that goes beyond an individual unit to include more people. We can add another, which is that of a set of individuals connected to each other by a common purpose.
And there is another one: more individuals with a common purpose, but also aware of wanting to give life, together, to a specific and particular collective experience that can lead, step by step, to the achievement of that goal.
In fact, the first definition would be attributable more to a collection of people – to a more or less small or large crowd – than specifically to a group. In reality, an actual group only begins when a number of people come together to pursue a common goal, together.
This objective can vary in nature: very concrete and material (an example can be a sports club, where people share the purpose of practicing a certain sport) or high and wide, as is the case for those groups that pursue an ideal, seeking to be useful to a part of society or maybe aimed at the development of themselves.
Where, in addition to pursuing the common objective, there is also an interest in the process of development of the group itself, we are faced with a degree of maturity that will result in placing emphasis on the events of the inner life of the group, in the same way as external acts aim for more concrete outer purposes.
It is precisely the group, seen as an entity that knowingly evolves itself through the development of different states of consciousness, and which are becoming more numerous, that we will explore further here.
A group, any group, is a living being, endowed with all the components, physical and psychic, with which all individual living beings are endowed. The difference compared to the individual is that from the beginning, a group does not present itself as a unified being, but is constituted by a set of unitary beings, that is, individuals.
A group has a physical body, composed of the physical bodies of the people who are part of it, but not only: its physical appearance also includes its visible behaviors, its habits, its relationship with the environment, its way of living in time and space, its external acts, its rhythms and lifestyles on the physical level. Initially, all these elements are disparate precisely because they result from a completely different sum of human beings. Over time, they find common ways of life, organize themselves in agreed times and spaces, give themselves a rhythm and a discipline that tends to give a unified form to the modes of being. So, we can say that the physical body of the group integrates and manifests itself as such.
A group also has its own emotional body, derived from the set of emotional experiences of its participants. It is a more subtle body and not immediately recognizable at first glance, but this does not make this body less rich. On the contrary, the interpersonal encounters and exchanges within the group, reflect the emotions and feelings that live in the soul of each participant bringing an opportunity for qualities and behaviours that enrich group life.
Then there is the mental body of the group, also made up of the set of mental accumulations of each person – ideas, beliefs, thoughts of various kinds and nature, knowledge. Again, these are combined with the mental activities that take place in group life and that then become its heritage in terms of mind. Each group finds its sources of cognitive development – lines of thought, reference theories, teachings, common beliefs – that go to build what we might call a “common mind-set”.
When these three bodies of the group – physical, emotional and mental – integrate and harmonize with each other (and this process takes some time) the personality of that group emerges: that is, a configuration of physical and psychic elements that distinguish it, making it “what it is”, and characterizing its external manifestation. The personality of the group expresses its note, in more or less orderly and consistent ways, depending on its level of maturity.
Then there is in each group a deeper and more subtle aspect, which represents the soul of that group, that is, the set of qualities that gradually flow spontaneously and characterize the way in which the group achieve higher objectives of existential growth.
On an even deeper level, even a group, just as with an individual, has its own essential core that contains the ultimate goal of its very existence, its vitalizing purpose. This is gradually revealed as the group grows in consciousness and matures. Until then – since it marks a precise step in its development process – that purpose, that ultimate goal, is revealed only through more partial and limited objectives. In general, even the very forming of a group takes place as a response to a purpose that, after being realized in the form in which it presents itself (creating a group, opening a center, starting an activity ….), opens the way to another purpose, always partial but this time more defined and usually even deeper, which is taken as “the purpose”. This next level of purpose, if realized, leads to the revelation of another level of purpose and so on, in a process of gradual unveiling that brings ever closer the understanding of the true reason why that group was formed. The various stages of its growth bring the group closer to its essential purpose, nucleus of fire and spiritual seed (even if it were a secular group!).
How does it work?
The first level of life of the group is therefore physical and has to do with the first structuring of the physical body; it is the first to manifest itself. It does so through the order that the group gives, which includes behavioral rules such as times, meeting methods, setting, environment, rhythmic performance of activities: space and physical time, in short. To the extent that all components adhere to this first regulatory level of the group’s life, the appropriate container is created for the emergence of psychic aspects, starting from the emotional one.
Each person arrives in the life of a group bringing with him the entire sphere of his or her previous feeling: fears, attachments, expectations, complexes, needs of various kinds, to which must be added the varied set of their desires. While everything about physical life is easier to manage and regulate, it is not possible to command the feeling “not to be heard”. Especially emotions, as un-mediated reactions to events, tend by their nature to escape conscious control and require a certain commitment of awareness and transformation to be first appeased and then made harmonious within the life of the group. There are many tools that can serve to make the emotional life of the group functional and able to support the realization of its purposes; among them, a very effective one is the sharing (put link to article on sharing) of thoughts and moods, especially when it becomes a regular and rhythmic part of the life of the group.
Similarly in the mental body of the group all the contents that everyone cultivates in their individual mental body arrive into the group. Even on this level, therefore, one must take into account an inner layer of ideologies and beliefs that is “pre-existing” with respect to the experience that the group is living together. But the attraction exerted by the new ideas that are inevitably put forward in each group generally replaces the previous mental body. The mental sphere is more fluid, we could say “more airy” than the emotional sphere, and therefore also more plastic and pliable. Success lies very much in the quality of the proposed philosophical and ideological references – and in the ability to present them in an attractive way – and the convergence of participants’ minds on them.
Each group is based on its own key ideas, which shape and enrich the common goal. The latter is always, by its very nature, mentally placed. In fact it is only with the mind that the goal can be defined and it is through the mind that a group can stabilize, and resist the sometimes conflicting waves of desires that move in people.
Therefore, the strength of the group mind depends on its ability to keep the objective firmly for the set time frame needed for its realization. And, in turn, the commitment to keep it firm and remember it, stimulates the development of collective mental function.
In fact, the real focus of the life of each group is precisely the goal that it has set itself, which can change over time as content, but which must always be there, otherwise it risks the dissolution of that small society.
How does it evolve?
From the initial state, of a set of people you meet, to the state of “being a group”, is a big journey. A journey where, time and work pass through the group, including moments of crisis and moments of achievement, trials and errors and new understandings.
In the psychology of the individual – as Psychosynthesis sees it – the central focus of the person is the self, a center of self-awareness and will. Self-awareness means awareness of self and the relationship with the world around it. Well, the same applies to a group; in a group self-awareness is initially represented by the shared goal for which those people came together, in the sense that they are only aware of what has gathered them together. The goal, to the extent that it is felt by everyone, typically manages at least to hold together so much diversity.
It is another thing though to achieve that goal, which must wait for the group’s development time to be ripe. So in a first phase the goal is basically what holds the group together.
In order for this first phase to express its intrinsic meaning, the group itself must become self-aware as a “macro individual”, that is, as a unified psyche operating in all its aspects and levels.
This can only be achieved through a gradual acquisition of awareness of the emotional and mental content that animates that group psyche. It is therefore necessary that the basic ideas (especially those linked to the common experience that is being experienced) of each one be shared with everyone; and that the emotions and feelings that flow in the group are fluid, beautiful and aimed at union.
These goals are of such obvious value, that they are generally desired by people as well. But a major obstacle that gets in the way, is the unconscious arena that exists in everyone and that contains the relationships of previous personal life experiences: emotional experiences derived from previous significant relationships (starting with that with one’s family of origin), instances and beliefs coming from the social visions in which one had previously believed, values and models of life long frequented…
The biggest challenge is that all this psychic “material” is largely unconscious or at best semi-conscious, and therefore taken for granted. Therefore the group’s goal – which also includes the search for rich experience as a group – ‘meets’ almost all the ‘occupied spaces’ in the psyche of the participants. In other words, vital energy is already largely absorbed by previous desires and life purposes, and little remains to live with sufficient intensity and commitment, the new existential adventure proposed by the group.
At this stage, therefore, a great deal of awareness of the contents that move in everyone’s psyche and, consequently, in the group one is necessary. People need to talk, to listen, to get to know each other, to look at each other, to learn to give themselves references aimed at bringing out aspects of themselves previously unconscious. Carrying out activities together is also – at this stage – more an opportunity to explore the psyche of the group, than an action aimed at an external construction. Everyone, some more, some less, is called by his own intent to “be a group” to “empty the psyche of the past” and to replace its contents with values, visions and models that are in tune with those that allow progress as a group. This is how the development of the group’s consciousness begins.
Only after sufficiently addressing the requirements of this first phase, can we access the next phase, which provides for the activation of the will of the group as a push and support to realize concrete works visible outside of the group, of whatever kind and nature they are.
Once the first characteristic of the group self, that is, self-awareness, has been matured, one can access what always, according to Psychosynthesis, accompanies it as a later stage, that is, the expression of the will, applied to manifest works. Self-awareness and will, here are the two great magnets that promote the development of the central core of every personality, whether individual or group.
It is in this second phase that the group begins to become visible through its works. If the first phase has been intense, this second stage is easily achieved: in fact, all the psychic forces of the group converge – or sufficiently convergent – towards the realization of its purposes. Very often groups experience a sense of frustration at failures in self-expression. This is generally because the will, by its very nature, does not have the power to act where there are too many unconscious elements; and unearthing such elements by transforming and/or replacing them, takes time and patience. In a world where beings only find existence to the extent that they become visible, it is quite obvious that everyone, individuals and groups, hasten to “show up”/be seen. It is therefore desirable to dwell on the time required in the first phase, that of inner work, and this will allow us to arrive at the latter phase with much more skill and incisiveness.
When this first phase has been developed and realized, we could describe the personality of the group as “integrated”, that is, operating as a harmonious and coherent whole in its various components; able also to carry out his task in the outside world and to be recognized.
This state of integrity makes it magnetic, that is, attractive: attractive to others, but also attractive to that world of potential that is part of its very being. Potential that cannot emerge in the sphere of consciousness unless it is drawn to light by the same magnetic force acquired from its “container”, aka the harmonized personality around its center, the self. The psychic structure is represented in Psychosynthesis by the egg, expressing the various aspects of the human constitution – conscious and unconscious. The egg is often perceived as static, because its visual image is static. In fact, all its parts are in a dynamic relationship with each other: we can visualize it as a field in which different currents intersect, overlap, collide and intertwine and where different elements mix endlessly. This intense dynamism is governed by universal laws, such as those of Attraction and Repulsion. It is by attraction, therefore, that the contents of the area of the psychic egg that corresponds to the upper unconscious, pour into the sphere of awareness, illuminating it and illuminating their qualities which have remained latent until now, and of new and unexpected faculties.
The group then enters a third phase, that of group creativity. The energy potential, not yet used – nor even known – that had been held in the upper unconscious, waiting for the right conditions to manifest itself in all its vitality and richness of possibilities, can now come to light.
The group is ready to fully carry out its task in the world, giving its best and operating as a focal point of light, love and creative activity. Compared to the second phase, in which the note was the expression of one’s will in ways that are precious and useful above all for the good of the group itself, in this third phase the note is that of service to the Common Good, a service rendered not only through concrete works, but also through its own essence, beyond any visible form.
At whatever level this group is committed, it will always have beneficial effects on the environment around it, radiating the light qualities that it has contacted in its consciousness.
As we can see, these are three quite different stages in the objectives and in the results achieved. But they are all equally important, because without one you cannot realize the other. They must be travelled with awareness and wisdom, with balance, humility and patience.
If these characteristics are present, no external circumstance can prevent a group from developing to become a centre of Light and Good for the whole world.
by Marina Bernardi