Journal of Health Research and Reviews (in Developing Countries)

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Year
: 2020  |  Volume : 7  |  Issue : 1  |  Page : 36--41

Exploring the collective consciousness fields of Ardha Kumbh Mela 2019


BR Divya, Keshavamurthy Murthy 
 Yoga-Spirituality Division, SVYASA Deemed to Be University, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Correspondence Address:
Dr. B R Divya
Yoga-Spirituality Division, SVYASA Deemed to Be University, Jigani, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
India

Abstract

Background: Kumbh mela as a pilgrimage site represents the common collective consciousness engaging their participants with religious and spiritual feelings. People connected with Kumbh mela rituals display different emotions that exerts its influence not only on personal consciousness level but at interpersonal, collective consciousness level linking people to reconnect with others and community. Aim: The aim of this study was to explore and correlate the nature of random event generator (REG) toward the Shahi snan and Aarti durations of Magha Month of Ardha Kumbh Mela 2019 in Prayagraj, Allahabad. Materials and Methods: An observational study conducted at Arail Ghat, Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj from January 15 to March 4, 2019 considering only shahi snan dates. Psyleron REG connected to a laptop was placed in one of the high-tech tents created on the banks of the Sangam river. During the early morning and evening hours on the selected days, the REG was observed for its nonrandom behavior and its deviations. Results: Positive significant deviations (P < 0.05) were observed for all Shahi snan periods of Kumbh: Makara Sankranti (Z = 1.748), Paush Purnima (Z = 1.642), on Mauni Amavasya (Z = 1.68), Basant Panchami (Z = 1.978), Maghi Purnima (Z = –2.149), and Mahashivaratri (Z = 1.697). The shahi snan showed the trend of the collective consciousness fields in the increasing directions of REG except on Maghi Purnima Day. The Aarti of evening hours shows significant negative deviations P < 0.05 in decreasing directions of REG on Mauni Amavasya (Z = –1.762), on Basant Panchami (Z = –2.372). REG trend with P = .07* (Z = –1.429) for Mahashivaratri. No significant deviations were observed for the Aarti time on Makara Sankranti (Z = –0.919), Paush Purnima (Z = –1.175), and for the Maghi Purnima (Z = 0.421). Conclusion: Shahi snan and Aarti time periods of the Ardha Kumbh mela have fostered a profound subjective resonance resulting in significant directional deviations for the REG.



How to cite this article:
Divya B R, Murthy K. Exploring the collective consciousness fields of Ardha Kumbh Mela 2019.J Health Res Rev 2020;7:36-41


How to cite this URL:
Divya B R, Murthy K. Exploring the collective consciousness fields of Ardha Kumbh Mela 2019. J Health Res Rev [serial online] 2020 [cited 2024 Mar 29 ];7:36-41
Available from: https://www.jhrr.org/text.asp?2020/7/1/36/298875


Full Text



 Introduction



Pilgrimage is an important aspect of life expressing the totality of beliefs and sentiments of a group of a people. Pilgrimage is a source of a meaningful and a personal engagement with spirituality. It is a healing journey with transformative powers. It exerts its influence not only on personal but at interpersonal level linking people to reconnect with others and community.[1] The meaningful engagement of people in religious and spiritual sites can be seen in the form of feeling their connections being felt sacred, the fulfillment of their vows, feeling healed from their ailments, praying, marking a life passage, affirming that pilgrimage sites are more of therapeutic in biological, psychological, social, and spiritual ways.[2],[3]

Kumbh mela is associated with a mythical story of pot of nectar that could bestow immortality. Fall of four drops of the said nectar on four locations on earth is the designated site for Kumbh mela celebration for attaining Liberation, transcendence from life and death. A site of high spiritual beliefs attracts a wide spectrum of participants.

Kumbh is inscribed in UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage of humanity acknowledgement. The 55-day-long ritual bathing festival is organized between January and March, once every 3 years on a rotational basis across each of these four sites in India––at the confluence of three rivers at Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad), on the banks of the Godavari River at Nashik, on the Ganges River at Haridwar and the Shipra River at Ujjain. Kumbh can be linked to Religious tourism, an expression of Faith linked travel which comprises of rituals, pilgrimage, and tourism.[4]

Pilgrimage destinations are ritual spaces where one can experience a collective synergy, a transient state of heightened awareness congealing everyone around to a unified state. Due to the liminal stage of the rituals, participants tend to recognize the shared humanity while shedding the profane trappings of social life (such as age, race, class, sex) that separate from one another.[5]

Possibilities of existence of group mind, heightened awareness state, and synchronized directed attention have been confirmed by the experiments conducted using random event generator (REG).[6] The REG is influenced and tends to behave in a nonrandom sequence due to the emotional states of extreme distress or eustress.[7],[8]

Gatherings in a spiritual atmosphere such as temples, places of yajna, homas, chanting bhajans, and mantras have already proved the effect of spiritual inclination affecting the general level of human consciousness in influencing the REG.[9],[10] Hence, the spiritual religious and cultural gatherings and participation have become the pillar of Indian philosophy and culture in the divine development of the human culture and civilization in different domains and actions.

This study aimed at exploring and evaluating the different days of Shahi Snan and aarti durations in the Magha month of Kumbh mela in creating collective consciousness fields due to synchronous directed attention of the gatherings influencing the REG.

 Materials and Methods



Setting and design

This is an observational study conducted at Arail Ghat, Triveni Sangam in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India from January 15 to March 4, 2019 (only shahi snan dates were considered for the study). REG was placed in one of the high-tech tents created on the banks of the Sangam River Banks. On the selected days it was run to observe the mental influence of the gatherings and the geographical resonance due the event on the REG.

Special events that attract larger crowds with common intent and purpose (e.g., Religious Rituals, Meditation, Common Prayers) were inclusion criteria of the study. Mixed events with different intent and purpose such as different cultural programs comprised dance, song, drama, debate, and so on, were exclusion criteria of the study. In the study, Shahi snan and Aarti were considered for inclusion criteria and the event happening later on time were excluded from the study.

REG samples are of the different dates chosen for the study. One REG device is used. Five days were chosen and two different time periods. A total of 10 samples for the study were determined. Sadhus, Pilgrims, and Tourists of Kumbh were the participants of this study. This being a field study total number of people comprised was approximately more than 5000 each day of the Shahi snan days. Study had no bias and no dropouts; all the 10 samples were included in the study.

Appartaus/equipment used––psyleron random event generator––REG

Psyleron REG is a research instrument, a quantum electronic device used to explore the mind-matter effects. This technology interfaces machines directly to human consciousness fields. The REG is used for both a precognition and psycho kinesis experiments. Portable REGs with software is connected to a laptop records and indexes the continuous binary data in the field situations found to produce anomalous outputs when run in different group environments. The REG experiments are about human consciousness in selected sites and situations correlating with events, groups suggesting high degrees of attention, intellectual cohesiveness, shared emotion, or other coherent qualities. The events can be religious or secular ceremonies and rituals, individual or group therapy sessions, business meetings, sporting events.[11]

Global consciousness project (GCP) is a project working on similar lines to explore the coherent network of the people with related motivations and interest. The study hypothesizes that Shahi snan tends to show a positive increasing trend and the aarti, due to its nature of activity shows a decreasing trends in the REG.

Assessment

Psyleron REG 1 is used for this study for assessing the same (https://www.psyleron.com). It is used to generate random 1s and 0s as a representation of quantum events. The device generates 200 random binary numbers (0 and 1) each second (200 bits/event).[6] The randomness of REG is influenced for either zeros/ones, when the mind starts interacting with the matter. Then the random sequence becomes deterministic and the count of zeros/ones increases and the curve starts moving up or down based on the strength of the universal consciousness as sampled by the instrument.

Shahi snan

The Magha month is the time of Shahi snan (Royal bath). The shahi snans are on Makara Sankranti, Paush Purnima, Mauni Amavasya, Basant Pancham, Maghi Purnima, and Maha Shivaratri days. It is considered royal due to the way sadhus approach for the holy bath on the auspicious days dressed in garlands in royal processions sitting on a throne in a decorated chariots fitted with umbrella. During these days, each monk of different Akhadhas are given a predetermined time to take bath. The first in order is the Dashnami Sanyaasi order followed by the Bairagis. Bathing in holy rivers and darshana of the holy sadhus attending the Kumbh was considered as a blessing and an opportunity to attain immortality.[12]

This event marked not only as a religious gathering but also became a blend of trade, social communication sharing the recreational elements of fair.[13]

Aarti

The Aarti to the holy rivers (Ganga and Sangam) is followed by the prayers and discourses. It is an initiative to understand the significance and protect the holy rivers. Rituals like Sankalp dharnam and shodoshapachara puja are performed. Three types of Aarti performed––Aarti with burning incense (Dhoop Aarti), with lighted lamps (Jhar Aarti), and with camphor (Sayan Aarti). All these rituals are performed with its associated mudras, sounds (high, medium, and low), and chanting of mantras. These ritualistic procedures do carry a rationale and logical approach.[14]

Data analysis

All the data were collected with the Psyleron software, and data were examined according to overall experiments and by time-stamped epochs following human events in proximity to the test environment. All statistical procedures were system generated of Psyleron software.

The Shahi snan and Aarti durations of Magha month of Kumbh mela provide an interesting opportunity to explore the effect of a group activity on the randomness of truly random events.

A value for each individual REG event refers to the number of 1’s out of 200 bits with binary probabilities, represented by a value of 0–200. The theoretical (chance) mean for each event is 100 with a standard deviation of √50.

REG data from each event day for each epoch were analyzed independent of either previous or subsequent values; REG software generated results for each overall experiment and each individual epoch is shown and produced accordingly. Individual event scores were standardized according to 0.5 chance expectations. The Z shown in the table is the combined overall Z scores (Zc) of the event. Single-tailed probabilities of deviations have been reported of REG output. A probability of less than 0.05 was considered significant and a probability value between 0.1 and 0.05 has been reported as a trend.

 Results



The results shown in [Table 1] contain information about the REG progression during the early morning hours of the Shahi snan and Aarti time periods of Ardha Kumbh mela 2019 at Prayagraj, Allahabad.{Table 1}

[Table 1] corresponds to the bathing rituals during the Shahi snan (early morning) and during Aarti (evening hrs) of the Shahi snan dates. In [Table 1], the Z score ≥±1.64 is considered significant for a single-tailed study. A probability value between 0.1 and 0.05 has been reported as a trend. In [Table 1], the least significant period was of Paush Purnima for 6156s (3.30.48 AM–5.13.23 AM) with Z = 1.642 and P = .05 and the maximum significant period was on Basant Panchami for 16695s (3.23.58 AM–8.02.12 PM) with Z = 1.978 with P = .023. The shahi snan showed the trend of the collective consciousness fields in the increasing directions of REG.

The Aarti performed during evening hours shows the least significant periods on Mahashivaratri evening time for only 1520s (6.40.00 PM–7.05.19 PM) with Z = –1.429 and P =.076* (REG trend) and the maximum duration is on Basant Panchami day for 7543s (5.00.26 PM–7.06.08 PM) with Z = –2.372 and P =.008. The Aarti durations show the decreasing trend of REG. The Aarti of Makara Sankranti, Paush Purnima, Maghi Purnima, and Maha Shivaratri does not show a significant influence, but the decreasing directions of REG can be observed.

[Figure 1] represents the directions of the mean shift (Z scores) on REG as influenced by the collective consciousness periods of Shahi snan and Aarti activities of Ardha Kumbh mela. The mean shift is toward the positive/increasing directions for the Shahi snan and for the Aarti the mean shift is toward the negative/decreasing directions.{Figure 1}

 Discussion



The Magha month of Kumbh locations affects the pilgrims (spiritually inclined) for its religious reasons, social support, and intrinsic religious beliefs, whereas the service people of the event (boatmen, sweeper, boatmen, police, and businessman) were affected by the material characteristics only.[15]

The direction of deviation observed during both the Shahi snan durations as well as in Aarti durations indicates the nature of activity of the events. The shahi snan is the hoy dip revered by sadhus, pilgrims, and visitors of all age, gender groups. Masses having holy dip were predominantly observed for enjoying the ritualistic dip and bathing, getting excited and being more in a cheerfulness state. The high extrovert, excited intense emotions could have fostered a relatively intense or profound subjective resonance[16] involving emotionally laden environments and hence may have resulted in less randomness with deviations in the increasing direction.[17] The Shahi snan of Kumbh mela studied by GCP (global consciousness project) also indicates a similar positive trend.

Young Sadhus uniformly perform worship (Aarti) using various instruments at the river site to the sacred rivers during the sunset period. The uniformity of the Aarti (lamp show), the sound of devotional music, the nature of river and the sunset view could probably have induced a deep devotional state and a blissful feel for the spectators and the performers. A journey of introspection is felt to progress spiritually which is observed in the earlier studies during vedic chanting and bhajans.[9] Emotions expressed deep within a total introspective state could be one of the reasons of REG’s negative deviation (toward the lower parabola).[9],[18]

The Aarti time period for Mahashivaratri was too less, due to the system error the complete duration of Aarti was not covered and the week of Maghi Purnima near to the place where REG was running the Ram Katha was happening which could have influenced people in a different way and hence the decreasing trend as seen in the other Aarti days is not seen.

The place where REG was placed (500 m from the River bank in a tent) was completely surrounded by thousands of people for taking the holy dip and worshipping the river. Certain days due to the nearby ongoing activities REG could have behaved differently and hence the aarti time of Makara Sankranti was not significant.

The effect of group consciousness has been measured by random number generators (RNGs) in varied settings that included meditation, ceremonies, sports, and tragedies.[16],[19],[20],[21] It has been reported that group situations reacted nonrandomly with significant deviations and also in situations involving unfocused subjective resonance and those “that foster relatively intense or profound subjective resonance”[16] fostering transcendental experiences[22] or “flow experiences”[23] may reflect a more decreasing directional trend for the REG.

Some of the people attending the Kumbh described in volume about their visit as a tourist being transformed into a pilgrim in the process of the visit. They expressed that they are visually encaptured viewing the pilgrims, sadhus, their devotion, and dedication to the event; they said that they were caught up in the rituals, emotions aroused due to the discourses, satsang, and they also acknowledged the feeling of a positive spiritualistic transformation within them. Pilgrimage for them was a means of self-fortification to endure the problems they are facing in life.[1] The well-being of the participants is positively impacted in long-duration mass events due to participation in social group-related activities.[24]

A study conducted on Kumbh Pilgrimage experiences indicates the motives of the pilgrims encompassing the need for spiritual devotional and knowledge connectivity indicating a perceived sense of solidarity among both the pilgrims and tourists.[3] The study on 154 Kalpavasis indicated the existence of a positive association between religiosity, happiness, and life satisfaction.[25] Kumbh mela as an event has shown the interaction and meaningful engagement of the people and has exhibited the group mind which is reflected in the nonrandom sequence of REG. The nature of the activity and the corresponding direction of the mean shift is being attempted to justify here while stating that this study though still in an exploratory level, tries to prove the existence of collective consciousness of Kumbh influencing REG. As this also being a tourist and pilgrimage spot, many other collective research studies can evaluate environmental changes, psychological, and physiological outcomes during this time to bring out the sacred significance of Kumbh mela performance in India.

The study does not have control data due to practical limitations. No contrasting events were being able to study in the same time frame. As this being a public gathering event on the river banks, crowds attending the event with personal religious and spiritual purpose are not completely supportive for intense research studies and follow-up study also becomes a challenge as it is a moving crowd. It is an understanding from the previous studies notes “that even in laboratory experiments there is evidence that traditional control data may not be immune to anomalous effects of consciousness.”[17],[26]

 Conclusion



The study indicates that Kumbh mela as an event with Shahi snan and aarti produces an energetic resonance springing between the participants and the event itself. This being a collective project of a spiritual practice has the capacity to activate at the deeper levels of unconscious with delicate dancing of synchronistic resonances. This event through the results produced on REG proves that due to episodes of focused group energy, it expands the consciousness engaging the deep psyche in its ambience.

Future possibilities of improvement

For further future studies on Kumbh mela with random number generators(REGs) can test for the direction of the results, distance effects from the groups and with more number of REG`s. As this also being a tourist and pilgrimage spot, many other collective research studies can evaluate environmental changes, psychological, and physiological outcomes during this time to bring out the sacred significance of Kumbh mela performance in India.

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Dr. H.R. Nagendra Chancellor, SVYASA Deemed to be University and Paramarthniketan, Rishikesh for supporting us during our study period.

Financial support and sponsorship

Travel allowances were supported by Indian Yoga Association.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

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