BS: collective effervescence

Subject: BS: collective effervescence
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Jun 26 - 03:59 PM

I understand collective effervescence to be a peak experience in group form.
I read that this term was coined by Emile Durckheim shortly before World War I.
My chorus director sent us choristers a link to an article about it.
The New York Times published it, and its author was Adam Grant.
I got shut out of it because I don't subscribe.
But the article was within the last five years, and it is much quoted elsewhere.

The Mudcat has had a thread on peak experiences by another name, however those experience were not limited to group experiences but could be had by individuals as well.

Collective effervescence is obviously not limited to musical gatherings,
but must surely include those that are especially uplifting.
Anyway, I wanted to share that with my fellow Mudcat members.
A quote from the article:
"Joy shared is joy sustained."

Subject: RE: BS: collective effervescence
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Jun 26 - 04:35 PM

I heard a conversation about this in the last day or two on a radio show, but I can't remember which one. How the collective joy of an ecstatic moment is really good for groups of people. (Something about a study with people in headphones listening to different things or the same thing, and how study participants in proximity when all listening to the same thing responded, even with headphones.)

That article sounded familiar and I looked it up, from 2021. Here it is as a Gift Article that anyone on this thread should be able to read.

There’s a Specific Kind of Joy We’ve Been Missing
July 10, 2021

By Adam Grant

Dr. Grant is an organizational psychologist at Wharton focused on how people find motivation and meaning in daily life.

Here is the first part of it:

In late June, over 15,000 vaccinated people packed in to watch the Foo Fighters reopen Madison Square Garden. When the band brought the comedian Dave Chappelle onstage to sing the Radiohead song “Creep,” the audience erupted in the closest thing I’ve seen to rapture in a solid year and a half.

No one cared that Mr. Chappelle was off key. They were all participating in an experience that was unimaginable just months earlier. One day they’ll tell their grandchildren about that night, when New York City came back to life and their favorite band performed another band’s song, and they tried to carry a tune with a legendary comic doing lead vocals.

Most people view emotions as existing primarily or even exclusively in their heads. Happiness is considered a state of mind; melancholy is a potential warning sign of mental illness. But the reality is that emotions are inherently social: They’re woven through our interactions.

Subject: RE: BS: collective effervescence
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Jun 26 - 08:03 PM

Thank you, Stilly! Now I can read the article as well.

Subject: RE: BS: collective effervescence
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Jun 26 - 11:15 AM

Well, it has happened occasionally at the FSGW Getaway. Usually it's just group fun singing, but I remember one time late at night in a fairly dark room.... there had been a number of moving songs about life and war..etc. Finally, someone in the shadows sang "I never found my El Dorado" and when it ended, there was just silence..no applause or comments.. and quietly, people just got up and went off to bed.

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=30018

Subject: RE: BS: collective effervescence
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Jun 26 - 11:18 AM

I love the idea of a Declaration of Interdependence.