Meditation for Success Part 2

The Chardinian Noosphere and Chicken Salad

We used to operate a small coffee and sandwich shop. We offered nine different kinds of sandwiches, all of which are roughly equally popular. One day my daughter reported to me that is seemed everyone who came in ordered a chicken salad sandwich. Why did on this one day chicken salad more than triple in popularity? The common vernacular answer is “There is something in the air.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit priest and philosopher, might say, “Yes, there is something in the air, and it is the collective consciousness.”
Chardin's theory was that there is a collective consciousness emanating from the interaction of human minds. This collective consciousness, he called the noosphere (from the Greek word for mind, nous). The noosphere is evolving and integrating with conscious human though until it reaches total integration which he called the Omega point.

This may seem like pretty far out stuff, but why is it that sometimes everyone seems to get the same idea? Is the collective consciousness whispering in people’s ears, “Eat chicken salad today.”?

Attitude is Contagious

Have you ever been in a room with friends, having a pleasant discussion, when in walks a newcomer? Sometimes the newcomer is ridiculously happy and excited. Perhaps everyone laughs at first, but as the newcomer shares his excitement, soon the spirits of everyone in the room are lifted. At other times the newcomer may be despondent and depressed. Soon people begin to leave because of the uneasiness everyone is feeling. There is a collective consciousness of everyone in the room. The introduction of a newcomer can affect that consciousness either positively or negatively. Either way, soon everyone is feeling it.

Collective Consciousness on a National Scale

The history of America is the history of dissenters. From the Federalist Papers to Henry David Thoreau to John Reed, America has prided herself in her dissenters. These dissenters usually develop a following, but are generally forgotten except in the halls of academia. But in 1968 America was reshaped by the voice of dissention.

The early 60’s were as American as apple pie. Popular music was dominated by folk songs sung by clean cut young men like the Kingston Trio and The Brothers Four. But in 1968 everything changed. Why did previous dissenters have to settle for a small following, while in 1968 there were so many dissenting voices that it became a chorus of dissent that changed the direction of the country forever. It was something in the air.

Prayer, meditation and visualization are ways of putting something into the air. It joins the noosphere of collective consciousness and rejoins the world of tangible reality, sometimes in very dramatic ways.

Several business leaders are discovering the power of meditation to enhance imagination and focus in business decisions. Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, requires that his executives meditate three times a day. Thomas Edison, perhaps the greatest inventor of the previous century, had developed a very advanced meditation technique. He was known to say that when he was faced with a particularly difficult and complex problem, he would put himself into a form of trance - and stay there until the solution presented itself.

What he was doing was getting his conscious mind out of the way, and allowing his subconscious mind to work on the problem.

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