A shift from personal to collective has to happen for all of us to thrive and live in peace. In Western society today, most people grow up in family units that are not always healthy, and even if they are, it might not be enough to fulfill our sense of belonging. The sense of community and communal action is entirely missing in the West, not to even speak about tribal activities. When classical music came up in Europe, the drums were essentially removed, and before that, the Romans and then the Christians eradicated the pagan roots that were the tribal roots of the Europeans. Coming together in collective dances and connecting with each other on Earth is a basic human need. We are social beings, not meant for isolation, and when we focus our collective purpose in a group, we become powerful co-creators of reality, where magic happens. But when we are isolated from the community and the tribe, the results are psychological disease, trauma, depression, and even schizophrenia. People feel lonely in the family because a few close people are simply not enough to enable us to feel and express our true connection to the source of all being and the human spirit, the human heart, in the context of the Earth as a whole. The earth tribe that we are!

That’s why it’s absolutely essential to make the shift from personal to collective, or personal to cosmic, but first to connect with the community of where we live, and in the cosmic sense, that’s on the earth, together. When our perspective changes like that, the natural instinct to survive, which is the driver of egocentric behavior, is transformed into the understanding of doing things for the benefit of the whole, including everyone, with compassion. In tribal societies, this is natural. Deep in the Amazon, people who grow up in medicine tribes have the tribe as their extended family, and this is embedded in their visionary imagination, versus having mama and papa there and potentially your bloody sisters and brother’s.

As I see it, we, as a species, have to come together in groups all around the world and create collective communities to retrain ourselves to do things with our visionary imagination to include everyone and not just isolate ourselves (in our heads). Physically being with each other removes the obstacle of selfishness, which has been the cause of trouble all around the planet. We have to learn how it feels to care for our fellow brothers and sisters and the earth by being present and aware of what is most needed of us right now. That’s what love is in its true expression: to care! And that’s what we are capable of as awakened human beings, which lays the groundwork for truly living in peace with ourselves and with each other.