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(Click here for an overview of posts in the series The Art of Living in Community.)

Introduction by Alex Walker
The power of the invisible connections that can be created in the context of group meditations is one of the most important forms of spiritual work in the Community.

Various forms of meditation are used to:

  • Link individual meditators together into a cohesive group,
  • Connect the group with the divine in some undefined sense, or with some specific energy.
  • Link together meditators and beings on the inner in different geographical locations (for example meditations to link the community at Findhorn to Iona and Glastonbury).

This is a vast subject, and there are many different techniques that can be used.

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Group Meditation by William Bloom

(From Meditation in a Changing World by William Bloom pp 103-111.)

Why Group Meditation?
Group meditation may seem to be a modern phenomenon, but it is not. There have been many communities in the past where women and men have shared silence. These communities have been oases of peace and alignment in fractured societies. In most religious traditions meditation is taught mainly as a group and community practice in the first place.

It may also seem paradoxical that an action, so private and inner, should be done with other people, but working in a group is supportive and helpful.

Group meditation requires a different framework of understanding from individual meditation. In individual meditation we are describing and discussing what happens in one individual’s psyche and consciousness. An extreme sceptic, listening to us, could at worst say that everything we describe is just a production, an epiphenomenon, of the human brain and that altered states of consciousness are due to changes in brain electro-chemistry. Individual meditators, supported by the millions who also meditate, know for themselves the truth of the matter.

But to understand group meditation we need to take another metaphysical step beyond the normal framework of the contemporary worldview. For here we are discussing an invisible set of connections between people. When people sit in group meditation, their brains are not wired up with one another! Nevertheless the individual meditators share a similar experience which is powerful and beneficial. Meditators share this experience because they are energetically and telepathically connected. We each of us carry an atmosphere, mood, aura, charisma. Call it what you will, it is certainly an energy field which other people can feel.

So, let me be clear for sceptics. In discussing group meditation we are not talking about a social event — a tea party for mystics. We are discussing a powerful energetic dynamic. Just as powerful forces move in observable group dynamics, so they also move invisibly in group meditation. The proof of this can only be found in direct and personal experience.

Over the years my personal experience of group meditation is that it gives me great pleasure and inspiration. I am always fascinated by its texture and atmosphere. I love feeling the tensions subside and the whole group move into relaxation and then alignment. In a world full of tensions, I find sitting safely with a group, sensing the inner dynamics, energising and comforting.

The Social-Psychological Usefulness
Group meditation may not be a tea party, but this is not to deny that the psychological and social aspects of group meditation can be extremely useful. First, if we are starting a practice, or want help sustaining one, then being in a group can provide a very helpful, psychologically supportive framework.

Second, it can be a very powerful symbolic gesture. When two people shake hands or smile at each other, beneath the fact of these everyday gestures something meaningful is happening. We are signalling safety and friendship. To close our eyes in a group and to be silent together is an even greater gesture of trust. It allows anxieties, impatience and fear to subside.

Shared silence is a symbolic gesture of anchored spiritual co-operation which transcends egotistical separateness. In fact, many people with an instinct for these realities always take a few moments silence with their colleagues before beginning a piece of work. In modern jargon this is called attunement and I shall describe it in greater detail later on.

There is also a more subtle symbolism in attunement and group silence, for it has a levelling effect. No matter the apparent hierarchy or leadership, it melts away in the silence. Individual egos surrender, in spirit, to equality of opportunity. People who have trouble with surrendering to this temporary and minimal gesture of unity, usually have even greater difficulty in surrendering to and experiencing the spiritual unity of all life.

The Invisible Connections
My experience, and the experience of so many others, is that we possess an energy body, or aura, that surrounds us and emanates from us. This information is not new, but has been taught in mystical, esoteric and shamanistic traditions the world over. Our energy field is made up of various types of energy, such as the vital life force that gives us physical health, most often called prana. It is also made up of energy generated by our feelings and thoughts, as well as the energy of our inner self. This invisible anatomy is as complex as the structure of our physical bodies.

When we centre in meditation, this cauldron of physical, emotional and mental energy calms down. When we align, the atmospheric quality of our inner self is allowed to come in and we begin to feel its mellow nurture. And while all this is going on as a private experience, we are also radiating this atmosphere outwards through our energy bodies into our environment. In group meditation we each of us radiate an atmosphere and we also feel the atmosphere radiated by the others. Our energy bodies experience the changes in vibration and this, in turn, anchors through into our nervous system; it is then interpreted by the brain in a form of direct knowing. This is as tangible as feeling heat or cold.

A clear and everyday example of this is how, if we are connected to someone, we can know instantaneously what mood they are in by just being near them.

Our atmosphere, thoughts and vibrations are picked up and tuned into by others. Because of this some newcomers suffer from an undue nervousness about group meditation because they are worried about the effect that other people will have upon them. This is usually an unfounded fear because people, when meditating, have deliberately moved into a space of silence and purity. But if you are nervous, approach group meditation cautiously and slowly build up your confidence.

The Advantages
Because we radiate and because we can sense the atmosphere created by other folk, it is easy to see how group meditation can be very helpful. There are, in fact, several distinct advantages to meditating in a group.

There is a ripple or wave effect which actually multiplies the beneficial quality. This is similar to the physical effect that can be observed in the ocean when small waves build up to create one large wave. A single individual’s calm vibration helps the next person. As that next person calms, their vibration in turn goes back to help the first person. The waves of calm build up. The group as a whole can, therefore, take advantage of the individual or individuals who calm first. Those first individuals create an atmospheric flight-path for everyone else in the group to reach the same state. The combined atmospheric effect of many people sharing silence makes it much easier for beginners to achieve centre and alignment as the vibration touches, soothes and aligns them. People often have their first experience of being centred and aligned in a group. One of the interesting features of group meditation is that nearly everyone notices when the whole group has relaxed and come to centre. It can also be a great support and refreshing experience for more experienced meditators.

In a similar way, any individual who is reaching peaks of awareness or expansions of consciousness not normally reached by the others in the group, creates an energy funnel which helps the others approach the same space.

These helpful dynamics are referred to in many spiritual traditions. It is, for example, referred to metaphorically in the idea that when two or more are gathered together in my name . . .

Two Types of Group Meditation
Within this framework, then, we can say very generally that there are two types of group meditation.

  1. The first is that in which everybody is meditating individually in their own separate ways.
  2. The second is that in which everyone is meditating for a common purpose.

In the next two sections I will deal in turn with these two types.

Individual Meditation in Groups
In individual private meditation, sitting in silence, we allow ourselves to become aware of the texture and consciousness of our inner selves. This is a nurturing and transforming experience for us. When I sit with a group I am aware that every individual, in their own private and unique way, is also in the same psychological and spiritual process.

In the same way that I require time to relax, centre and align, so a group also has its own rhythm. Sometimes I am so stimulated that it may take me a half hour to centre. Sometimes, if I am in enervated crisis, my whole meditation may be a struggle as I breathe through my tension or psychic activity. In a group, however, as the group calms, so I too calm as I am affected by the group atmosphere. Even if there are more nervous wrecks than just me, the group dynamic will still work. I can imagine someone asking, ‘but suppose everybody’s a raving basket case, what then?’ I have indeed experienced groups in which everyone was stressed but even so, on closing eyes and bringing the breath into rhythm, the group has gone into calm. It can be miraculous how fast and easy centre is reached. It is the exact opposite of group hysteria, as the herding instinct is harnessed here for creative good and for empowering the individual.

This is the beauty of meditating in a group: collective support, but individual empowerment. We share the process of relaxing and aligning. Then, in the support of group alignment, always with that nurturing mellow atmosphere, we can continue with our own private meditation and get on with whatever is there to be breathed through and contemplated.

The texture and sensation of the meditation will be coloured by the group atmosphere. It is sometimes useful and interesting, when centred, gently to become aware of and to explore the nature of the group atmosphere and how it affects us. We can be aware of the helpful energy currents of the other meditators as well as the helpful currents we ourselves radiate. Until you have a good deal of experience in group meditation, I do not think that it is a good idea for you to try purposefully to affect the group atmosphere. If your presence is meant to facilitate a change, then patiently let it happen. If, however, you do have experience then invisible co-operation can be very useful; I will discuss this more fully later.
Even if there is no explicit purpose to a group meditation, there are powerful implicit benefits. We have already discussed the benefits to the individual, but shared silence is also extraordinarily helpful in helping people to work co-operatively together. Without any fuss, in silence, our personality vibrations blend and become accustomed to each other. If there is personality friction in a group, nothing can work so fast to heal it as sharing silence together.

Even if there is no stated specific purpose to a group meditation, I personally feel that it is appropriate for every group meditation to end with a short period devoted to radiating love and to healing the environment. This can be done silently as a part of everyone’s private meditation or it can be led with an appropriate prayer, invocation or mantram.

Group Meditation for a Common Purpose
There are several basic modes which can be usefully applied to group meditation: to Centre, to Align, to Review, to be Aware, to Expand and to Serve.

  • When a group centres, the individuals relax and create a calm atmosphere.
  • When a group aligns, the individuals accept the joint resonance from all their core selves. The group also aligns with what may be the common or inner purpose of that group.
  • A group may also review and be self-reflective about its state, the individuals gaining insights about their own roles as well as the group as a whole.
  • A group may choose to give awareness to a particular subject.
  • A group can also expand its consciousness together.
  • A group can work specifically to radiate a blessing or healing as a form of service.

Again, like individual meditation, these different features do not need to be regimented and allocated specific amounts of time. A group does not even need to be formally led into the agreed focus. Before the meditation there can be a simple agreement about the focus and how long the meditation is to last. Sometimes though it is helpful to ring a sweet-sounding bell to begin and end the meditation.