Last year in April of 2020, I wrote a blog entitled “Times of Crisis” (you can read it here: https://www.theclevelandshaman.com/post/times-of-crisis) In it, I explored the astrology surrounding and leading up to the pandemic, as well as the potential impact this crisis would have on us collectively. Now, more than a year later, I want to revisit what has occurred and explore a concept I learned about this week called “collective effervescence”. A special thanks to one of the readers of this blog (I have mentioned before that sometimes inspiration comes from emails I receive from all of you) who shared an article she had read entitled “There’s a Specific Kind of Joy We’ve Been Missing”. The article mentions a concept known as Collective effervescence (CE) coined by Émile Durkheim.
Before exploring the concept, however, here is an excerpt from last year’s blog:
Crises are by design disruptive, damaging, and disconcerting. It is important for us to recognize they have frequently been the thing needed to bring about change that may have otherwise never occurred. Human nature is of such that we can become entrenched in our individual silos, losing sight of the bigger picture. "On Wednesday I do this, on Saturday I do that, when I reach for such and such, it’s there, when I need this, I can get it." We create bubbles around our lives that when popped, leave us gasping for air due to an inability to process any atmosphere that isn’t the one we are used to.
Make no mistake crises can be brutal. This one is no exception. The suffering and damage have been broadly experienced. Everyone is having a different experience. For some it has meant death, others businesses lost, unemployment, sickness, weddings cancelled, education interrupted, trips cancelled, financial distress, loneliness, addictions highlighted, depression, and much more. Interestingly, the word crisis in Chinese, is actually composed of two words-- danger and opportunity. In my experience, I have found that this is true.
Now that we are more than one year removed from the initial lockdowns due to Covid, we all have “war stories”, so to speak, about our individual experiences. The severity of the change and disruption cannot be emphasized enough. The consequences of the pandemic and subsequent lockdown I enumerated last year in my post were indeed brutal, but today I wish to focus on something else…fear! Fear is one of the strongest emotions’ humans face. I have always had a particularly high degree of disdain for fear. Don’t get me wrong, fear is part of the human experience, but as I have journeyed through life, I have come to recognize that it is frequently used as a means of control and influence. Fear has been used with extreme effectiveness throughout history by governments and religions. Fear can be a great source of motivation.
This pandemic has had a very dark underbelly feeling to it. One of the most sinister aftershocks (and there have been many) in my opinion has been the rise of fearing each other. In our forced isolation we were taught that others were the enemy. As this state of being persisted, the fear deepened and for some became mind altering and a source of extreme anxiety. Let me share just an example from my own experiences.
I did a lot of walking during the lockdowns as a means of breaking the monotony and connecting with the natural world. One day while walking in the woods (not wearing a mask, as I never did while out in nature) I encountered someone walking the other direction, approximately 50 yards away from me on a separate path. Upon seeing me, a look of panic came over them as they frantically searched in their pocket for a mask. I was dumbfounded. They were fearful. I was to be feared. Out of respect for the obvious emotions they were feeling I showed no reaction but it drove home to me how extreme the situation was becoming.
Quoting from the above-mentioned article, “Most people view emotions as existing primarily or even exclusively in their heads. Happiness is considered a state of mind; melancholy is a potential warning sign of mental illness. But the reality is that emotions are inherently social: They’re woven through our interactions. Research has found that people laugh five times as often when they’re with others as when they’re alone. Even exchanging pleasantries with a stranger on a train is enough to spark joy. That’s not to say you can’t find delight in watching a show on Netflix. The problem is that bingeing is an individual pastime. Peak happiness lies mostly in collective activity.”
The problem that arose in 2020 because of the isolation and lockdown was that collective activities became non-existent for far too many people. Many were pulled into a sullen state that mimicked dark clouds daily. The real problem here is those emotions, like it or not, are highly contagious.
Quoting again from the article:
Emotions are like contagious diseases: They can spread from person to person. “Emotional contagion is when we are literally infected with other people’s emotions,” my colleague Sigal Barsade, a Wharton management professor and a leading researcher on the topic, has explained. “In almost all of our studies, what we have found is that people don’t realize it’s happening.”
When the pandemic began in 2020, the first negative emotion to spread was fear. Waves of panic crashed through communities, compelling people to purify packages and hoard hand sanitizer. As too many people lost loved ones, too many others lost jobs and everyone lost some semblance of normal life. The number of adults with symptoms of depression or anxiety spiked from one in 10 Americans to about four in 10.
And there’s reason to believe these symptoms haven’t been caused only by the crisis itself — they’ve actually been transferred from person to person. Studies show that if your spouse, your family member or your roommate develops depression, you’re at heightened risk for it. And contagion isn’t limited to face-to-face interaction: Emotions can spread through social media posts and text messages, too.
Enter collective effervescence. When Emile Durkheim wrote about this topic in 1912 it was just prior to World War I and the Spanish flu. Essentially, the concept is that through exposure to others we frequently experience buoyant emotions that fill us with vitality, radiance, zest and energy that we would otherwise not experience on our own. Sometimes this feeling feels inexhaustible; a natural high.
“Before Covid, research showed that more than three-quarters of people found collective effervescence at least once a week and almost a third experienced it at least once a day. They felt it when they sang in choruses and ran in races, and in quieter moments of connection at coffee shops and in yoga classes.”
As we all begin to re-emerge from the cocoons of fear that we have been ensconced in, may we once again discover the importance that collective effervescence plays in each of our lives. Though we often pursue happiness individually, it is equally important to remember the role of the collective in our lives. Connecting, caring and contributing enhances our happiness. This fact has been amplified dramatically this past year.
“The Declaration of Independence promised Americans unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If we want that pursuit to bring us bliss, it may be time to create a Declaration of Interdependence. You can feel depressed and anxious alone, but it’s rare to laugh alone or love alone. Joy shared is joy sustained.”
We are all in this gig together…
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