Collective Effervescence

Have you heard of the term “Collective Effervescence”?

It is the shared emotion and sense of harmony people experience when engaged in a shared purpose like demonstrations, rituals, ceremonies, and celebrations.

Emile Durkheim, a French sociologist, defined CE is the process of synchronization and intensification of emotions in collective rituals.

He saw CE as the reason behind societal survival because it helps people cope with life.

Various iterations but one central theory

There are nuances on the central theory but overall, experiences that trigger CE would include: 
•    people acting in unison
•    synchronizing gestures, actions and expressions. 

The coordinated manifestations generate an atmosphere of emotion and fervor.
 
Mutual stimulation creates an atmosphere of emotional connection.

Participants experience we in place of self, culminating in a state of effervescence. Individuals feel a greater than normal intensity of emotions and an enhanced sense of unity.

CE is not just experienced around positive events or emotions, negative gatherings lead to a bolstering group feeling. Whatever the emotion it just has to be shared.

Pizarro pitches humanity’s dual nature. The profane = daily life. Sacred = ideal values. CE combines those two sides.

I think it’s interesting that there is a name for this, do you think collective rituals are vital to an individual’s survival?