Classic stages of group development include differentiation followed by intimacy. Differentiation is also known as the storming stage, where group members vie for power and control. This would be an apt description for the disintegrative current state of the world.

As I sit writing this blog, I contemplate the recent mass shooting in Virginia Beach, located in my new home state of Virginia. Such occurrences are so commonplace in our time that by the time this blog is published, a few days from now, the attention of the world will have shifted to the next crisis. Survival in our time appears to require a numbing to the onslaught of daily crisis throughout the world.

This shooting, gun control issues aside, reflects an outbreak of a psychotic psychological virus that becomes activated, as the previous homeostasis in the world that contained these destructive energies is lost. These latent destructive energies are potentiated and invited to erupt through the fissures in our social networks.

Though these lethal outbreaks appear unrelated, they are all connected by an undercurrent of global psychosis, thinly contained by the governing world factions vying for control in this time of disintegration. 

When threatened, humans turn to an array of defense mechanisms to protect the ego from the disintegrative effects of danger. These include denial and rationalization. Denial helps us maintain ego integrity by keeping the danger at bay. Rationalization protects the ego, through the supremacy of reason, from the disintegrative collective psychosis blatantly erupting by the hour throughout the globe.

We need our defenses. But we do well to allow ourselves to acknowledge the greater truth of the disintegrative times we live in, with their potential lethal side effects. Ego does well to call upon its higher Self or High SOUL for guidance in these extraordinary times. Synchronicities and dreams often provide precognitive guidance that might be useful in everyday decision making. We should not be so quick to override an ominous feeling that suggests, for instance, that we change a plan we have made.

Of course, we want to be careful to not become paranoid and overly fearful of the world. However, a bit of rational paranoia might be appropriate in these times of instability. Most significantly, we should give due consideration to all signs and messages from the unconscious that seek to get our conscious attention. Why refuse such wisdom and support from within?

Traditionally, children turn to their parents for security and stabilization in times of threat. Likewise, citizens turn to their leaders. The uniqueness of our times is that the leaders are heralding the disintegrative phase, which further thins the fissures in the social safety network.

Beyond that, the technological age has provided easily accessible social network mediums to further entice and activate destructive torrents. The preponderance and power of outside influences can easily distract one from their inner partner and personal homeostasis, which is vital in these disintegrative times.

The good news is that every individual can proceed to the intimacy stage of group development, what the world needs now, through inner psychic hygiene. Every individual has the power to seal the border of the self from outside influence and focus on bringing their inner self into balance by listening to the various factions of the inner self and creating good governance of self, within and without.

This might mean deciding, for instance, to give up coffee to calm the body and mind, or be honest with self and friend about a relationship that is not working. I make no judgment about coffee, by the way, the example simply reflects any truth an individual must face.

Surrendering our attachment to illusion is the first step toward intimacy with self. Facing this monumental challenge alone is a contribution toward the new intimacy and cohesion the world so desperately needs.

Be empowered to reconcile the warring factions of self vying for control in these times of disintegration. Reconciliation in the truth of the heart is true citizenship in these changing times. Do your duty to self and country; focus on sustainable inner balance.

Just another citizen,

Chuck