The herd life has many advantages: comfort, certainties, feeling of belonging… But at the cost of individuality and the unique soul path of each person. Because when a person becomes aware of their inner aspects, they discover that they contain a powerful energy which would allow them to guide and animate their life. But this new inner dynamic opposes the laws of the group which until now governed his life.
The “individualization process” as Carl Jung called it, is demanding because it requires overcoming numerous barriers, mainly societal, family and cultural, forming the framework of various collectives. The path to self-realization, the outcome of this process of individualization corresponds to experiences of liberation. The existential logic of collectivism puts the WE before the I, the group before the individual. Although structuring and stabilizing a society, they prevent any form of evolution outside their frameworks. It is often the pioneers, a minority creating breaches and taking risks, who later move the collective forward.
On a spiritual level, it is another logic, because to be a prisoner of collectivism is to be caught in oppositions and egregores. Self-fulfillment takes the form of a conquest of non-duality, of overcoming pairs of opposites and conflicts in a higher unity. The individualized being is found beyond the wars of wars, norms, moral codes, judgments, certainties… which fade and become irrelevant. He becomes more tolerant and empathetic, and impervious to the traps of opposition.
Everyone has their own particular vocation that they must discover, make flourish and allow to grow. But the individual path takes the form of a separation from the group and a solitary walk. Moving away from reassuring and structuring collective norms, he is deprived of any reference point, which he must create for himself. Escaping the imposed frameworks, here he is free but condemned to the obligation to live his singularity. He feels like a stranger wherever he goes, no longer belonging to any group. His homeland is nowhere, it is actually within himself.
Communities are often of no help, because they must respect the collective frameworks through which they exist. Moreover, the very existence of beings in the process of individual realization potentially places them in danger of implosion. They then risk not finding a favorable response to their questions.
There remains the help of a spiritual guide or a knowledgeable psychologist, with whom these people on the journey can share their doubts and the difficulties encountered while walking the paths of the soul. These guides or psychologists will themselves have already accomplished this overcoming of collectivisms. But they will only be able to provide at best half of the answers, because progress on the path to individuality is necessarily unique. The final answer is to be found only within oneself.