the Avatār effect

Collective Pursuit

We have seen the hard problem of consciousness, how to objectively characterize subjective experiences for an individual, and here we discuss the harder problem for the experiences of the collective Mind.

The Avatār

In its original usage in the Yoga model, Avatārs represent collective Ideals appropriate to the needs of the age we find ourselves in.

In modern tech parlance, an avatar is our digital persona to navigate the online world, but here in Yoga, the Sanskrit word Avatār literally means a conscious Being that descends to Earth (terra), from a highly idealized plane of existence of a Rishi's Mindscape, into a group psyche.

So when a group of individuals, such as families or teams, are fully synchronized is when we have an Avatār effect, and the collective conscious Being forms.

Story Web

Yoga is typically thought of as a hyper-individualistic ascetic pursuit, and is in fact, a very good first step to clean out the microcosm before attempting to serve society; of course now, the Internet has made it easy to spread subjective experiences, but since the core of the experience remains the individual, there is another jump needed to transform the collective.

Hence Yoga Stories, as a captivating way of experiencing Yoga at the societal level.

Because this shared experience is done through cultivating a Yoga Mind this is not the same as being mass-programmed like flocks of sheep.

In Yogic model, an Avatār is an involution of a highly idealized Self into Human form, accompanied by instilling of a grand mental narrative as a single, but composite, conscious Being into our Mindscape - and this impacts a whole collective.

In evolutionary Biology, there is something called the co-evolutionary vortex, when one particular mutual co-evolution pair draws in other species, creating a larger web of interactions where they all co-evolve with each other.  

So too, an Avatār is a full web of idealized characters, instilled with one main character alongside which all the other characters fit in their stories, and feels very personalized to all in the collective.

These characters interact in our Mindspace as neuropsychological processes, rubbing off on each other, and as we use this knowledge to resolve our relationships with the people/objects around us, thus too these characters all co-evolve in our Mindscape.

Eventually these characters no longer need to tell stories, so too our Mind stops telling stories, at least this particular one, which means we have liberated them, given them Moksha.

The collective story from a Yoga lens then becomes enduring, even across cultures, enables to wrap the psyches of large groups around a tale - then no longer is the tale merely subjective but as a shared version of reality, it is now made objective!

Hence, a Sat-Sangha - a collective of a shared experienced Truth.

Mythical Stories

When no one knows how to manifest an Avatār then all we can do is entertain ourselves as though these were mere mythical stories, wait patiently for one to magically appear, and parrot religious texts in the interim, for example:

For example, in much of Hindu civilization today we are awaiting the Kalki Avatār to take us out of the Kali Yuga, a word which may have two meanings, related:

• • kal which derives calendar literally means past/future, and “ki” derives krit meaning to create

  • “Kali’ literally means a bud that is waiting to flower in the fullness of time.

But actually, through Yoga, we can erase any past, and flower into any future - our choice!

For another example, in Biblical culture we await the second coming of the Saviour to save us

• • This grand event is timed with the Apocalypse

    • The Greek apo, also in Sanskrit apo, is the linguistic root of the English word opposite, 

    • and Greek calypse, also in Sanskrit lupt, means to hide,

    • thus actually & literally apocalypse means the "opposite of hide", or rather to uncover, in this case, the Truth of our existence.

Of course such a revelation will shake up the existing world order so most are reluctant to wish for one - whether accompanied by physical floods & the plague is a different matter.

History

Unfortunately Itihās has been mistranslated as ‘history’, a factual recounting of events, that happened uniquely in the past, and this “His”-story is usually told of conquering Kings written by men in their employ, which are really no more than hagiographies, or paeans to royalty, by loyal court poets.

The word "History" of course, begs the questions then, of where is :

• “Her”-story ostensibly meant to empower the weakened sex, but which stands to get co-opted by feminists to drive a particular agenda ? or 

• "Our"-story wherein lies the perspective to uplift the oppressed masses, but which gets framed as Subaltern or Race exploitation concepts crafted by ivory tower intellectuals opening the doors for incendiary politics ?

Thus, history-based narratives although undeniably useful from a shared national cultural perspective, could also become divisive tools to fragment society by propaganda, because they ignore the "lesser" narratives.

As a counterpoint, great Itihās scripts also have sub-scripts embedded from related stories, and the mark of a great storytelling raconteur is how they are able to jump across sub-scripts while still keeping the overall thread hanging coherently.

Although these stories are portrayed as having stemmed from the Yogic Mind, we are also not ruling out their past historicity, albeit embellished with poetic license, for these characters could very well have had actual lives too.  

Conversely, we ourselves could all be characters living right now in some cosmic virtual reality play!

Itihās 

A first-person grand narrative of an Avatār's complete story, actually experienced by a RIshi, is called as इतिहास Itihās in Sanskrit - or literally “actually happened”. 

These grand stories weave a plausible & entrancing plot that also reveals the structure of the collective Mind, such as the story of the Rāmāyana, the Mahābhārata, or the ultimate plot that the Universe itself could be a Conscious Being.

Prophets

It’s a widely prevalent notion that Avatārs manifest but rarely - but this is because the art & science of Avatār manifestation has not been detailed & propagated thoroughly. 

Many self-realized beings on this planet have stumbled upon a massive and spontaneous neuropsychological experience, but did not have had the cosmology of Yoga in which in to explain it.

When they descend from the mountain top or emerge from a cave in the desert, they do so bearing prophetic messages and claiming to be the sole messenger of 'God'.

Unfotunately when such prophets are not trained in Yoga, the Avatār effect is distorted, and this leads to blind monotheistic religion.

Collective Microcosm

• in a foetus there is a stage when the Atman/soul is said to enter the body thus giving it that integrated collective shared experience of the individual

• when all the cells in the human body feel they are part of just one narrative, that is the one person who embodies them, then it is like the cells and the person are all having an Avatār experience:

• as the individual grows in conflicted environments, they get a fragmented identity, and then their search for sva-Dharma again leads the whole body-mind complex to be fully in sync.