Group Think Re-Thunk

Earlier this evening as I pondered what to wear to my weekly flute choir practice, I questioned the decision to reach for my khaki slacks.  I hadn't worn them in at least a year, but for some reason, the choice felt right.  When perusing my selection of tops, I decided on a solid black long-sleeved polo shirt with khaki trim around the collar and cuffs.  It had been at least two years since I'd worn that particular top.  After twenty years of wearing a khaki uniform with collared shirt, in recent years I've leaned towards collarless tops and more stylish slacks.  I checked the outfit in the mirror and liked the look, but I was subtly aware that the choice was not what I normally wore to the rehearsals.

Half an hour later when I walked into our practice room, the women already seated started laughing.  It didn't take long to notice why.  Four others in addition to me--nearly half of our small choir-- were wearing light or khaki colored slacks and a solid black or navy top with contrasting trim.  Not for the first time, my fellow bass flute player and I were dressed like twins.

Halfway through the rehearsal, out of the blue our director stated, "I remember going to an orchestra rehearsal once where half of the players showed up in pink.  It was bizarre."

One of our members asked why she mentioned this at that particular moment, having already commented on our look-alike outfits at the beginning of rehearsal.  Our director replied, "I don't know.  It just came off the top of my head."

Sitting there hearing her words, I received an unexpected "hit" from Sanaya.  Their message came in a burst of awareness as their concepts often do.  As I let the download "unfold" mentally, word by word, I knew that the thought our director had just blurted out was actually part of their message: 

"Thoughts are not owned by the individual thinker.  All thoughts belong to the universal Mind.  The thought just spoken by your director was put there by us as evidence of this teaching.  Groups such as this one take on a group consciousness.   Each individual has what they consider their own thoughts, but as the  so-called individual consciousness prepares to gather with a particular group, the thoughts begin to coalesce.  As the individual members of this choir prepared for the rehearsal, their thoughts came into alignment in such a way that those sensitive to vibrations began to think coherently--as one with the others.  The result is that as each member made a clothing choice, the others picked up on this and thus made a similar choice, with each one thinking the thought was their own. 

We prepared this lesson for you to show how group consciousness works.  Can you see how entire organizations and even nations take on a belief system and these beliefs are quite often followed blindly by members of the group?  Only when you pay attention to your thoughts and keep in mind that you always have a choice as to whether or not you act on them can you rise above a group consciousness that may be detrimental to the growth of the whole.  Certainly there is no damage to be done by a choice in clothing, but we ask you to be aware of going along with the crowd when choices are made which are not of the highest order--when they are not based on love, kindness, and compassion.  If you question your thoughts and actions, perhaps there is reason to question.

That is all."

Wow.  And I thought I was just getting dressed for a rehearsal.