Anyone who has played in a good musical ensemble knows something about group mind.

Siegel outlines a lot of thinking about the possibility of defining and locating the notion of mind. What is the mind? Siegel ends up describing at least four facets of it:

Subjectivity
Consciousness
Information processing
Self organization

He also says mind emerges from energy and information flow.

While acknowledging the possibility he is completely wrong, he suggests that there is mind within our separate bodies but at the same time mind between us.

Like I said, it’s not a big leap for ensemble musicians.

It also reminds me of Friedman’s ideas about family as system and broadening the notion of understanding family system beyond a collection of individuals into a living organization that is more than the sum of its parts, namely the family.

Finally, I returned to Sally Kohn’s book on hate this morning.

In trying to understand white supremacy (and not incidentally terrorist groups) Kohn talks about how people are drawn to hate groups not by the hate but by the human need to belong and be accepted. The hate comes later after the bonding.

a lot of people who join extremist hate groups don’t even really hate the maligned out-group so much as they crave approval from the in-group they’ve embraced. The hate comes later.

Sally Kohn

This need to belong also pulls us as humans toward some of our better angels like empathy, compassion, and kindness.

while the desire for belonging may be part of what draws people into hate groups, that innate pull toward empathy turns out to be a powerful antidote to extreme hate.

Sally Kohn

Of course, Kohn is interviewing Arno Michaelis a reformed American Nazi. She is looking for hope in a world of hate. It’s interesting to think that it’s not the hate that is innate is us as humans but the need for each other.

Catholic Church Music, & Organs at the U of ND by Craig Cramer

Craig BCCed a link to this  article. Bookmarked to read.