One of Music’s greatest powers is to raise our collective consciousness. Music can bring us together while collectively inspiring the purpose needed to take action to improve the world that we live in.
Raising the consciousness of the collective starts with the individual.
We, the humans…
As humans, we are mere animals.
The genes encoded in our DNA are not so far removed from other animals.
However, we do have some unique abilities that separate us from the animal world including our use of speech, walking upright, opposable thumbs, and our big brains.
Our level of cognition and ability to think beyond our immediate moment is the driving force behind our imagination. Our cognitive ability allows us to have memories that can also be projected into the future. This is quite unique and it’s the reason we’ve been able to build new tools and technology. It’s what has given us the gift of exploration — to discover new things and new methods.
This gift is a double-edged sword because it is what has also led to the biggest challenge in our society and that’s conquest.
Driven by conquest — The domination of people and land
A lot of the challenges we face today in our world have been around for millennia. These challenges come in the form of social injustice, war, environmental degradation.
Our world has continuously been built around the conquest of those that we crown as “brave and adventurous”. The history books write about them all the time — the brave colonizers, the adventurous capitalists. The drive to explore has led some of these men, women, tribes, nations, and sects down the path of exploitation of their fellow humans and their natural environment.
In an effort to aggregate power, these conquerors have used a formulaic “divide and conquer” strategy that continues to give them an upper hand in a world divided by race, tribe, sexual orientation, religion, political affiliation, and economic status.
Disguised in the need to achieve, and gain, and conquer is our ego’s hunger for recognition. It is what makes us feel like we are better than the next person. It’s the root cause of our superiority or inferiority complex.
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” — Blaise Pascal, French Mathematician & Philosopher
The validation received from the accumulation of external rewards is used to strengthen an individual’s ego. The need to satisfy our ego is the cause of most of our human suffering, which brings pain, hate, and division.
Look inwards for change
The first step to easing this suffering is to become aware of our egos.
To recognize that the mental chatter that happens in our minds is not who we are. That the status and recognition we acquire is not our true essence. Even when we strive for these things, the awareness of why we strive is important and that’s the first step.
Music can help with this awareness. It can center us. It can boost our collective identity that connects us to one another, reducing the need for a strengthened “self-centered” identity.
The vibes the conqueror can’t refuse
Musicians over time have used their ability to entertain and educate simultaneously to get this message of interconnectedness out to a wide range of audiences.
When I interviewed Seun Kuti, Grammy-nominated Afrobeat legend, for my book at his residence in Lagos. He explained his goal to increase the collective consciousness of people that listen to his music.
Reflected across Seun’s music is the idea that the main challenge we face today is the domination of people and land.
“The biggest manifestation of this domination is poverty and the class divide fueled by the thought that certain people believe they are inherently better than others” Seun Said.
Creators like Seun build trust and influence by getting their message across to audiences — wide and far apart. A message of solidarity with one another through infectious beats and harmonizing grooves.
“We have to honor that contract to be each other’s allies” Seun continued “not necessarily friends but allies in the face of those things that affect all of us and our children…to heal the human family — that has to be a priority because there’s real anger, pain, and hate”
Music is the key to raise our collective consciousness
Music can slow us down so that we can spend more time in reflection and be more introspective.
It provides moments of stillness.
As we meditate, music and natural sounds can be used to increase our state of meditation — bringing awareness to our internal egos. It can be used on an individual basis to find renewed and collective purpose. It can also be used collectively to highlight injustice, build empathy, connect to important issues, so that we can stand in solidarity with our fellow humans to build a more equitable world.
Music is a glue for unification, to increase self-awareness, reduce unbalanced narratives, and spread new ideas to move us to the dance of a more cohesive and natural future — tempering our egoistic need for conquest and raising our collective consciousness.
