"Long ago wise men realized that faith and attention—if only they are intense and focused on a specific set of ideas and/or an influential (real or fictional) personality—can create an independent entity that acquires personal traits, character and power and begins to exert control back on its creators, and if necessary also on other groups and even natural environment. Such an entity was called egregore (from the Greek root eger: to be aware of, to control). The larger the group and the more their awareness is directed towards a certain egregore, the greater and stronger its power the greater the control. If you give the egregore your awareness, the egregore will include you in its control and power, to put it bluntly.
The term egregore (spelled also egregor) was used almost exclusively in occult circles to denote a magical entity, purposely created by a group (an order, fraternity, cult) to represent their common aspirations and ideals in a condensed form. This may seem like some primitive voodoo magic but when you bring it into the modern context, you may well recognize how strong egregores actually are in your everyday life.
In 1976 in the book The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins described something similar to egregore without metaphysical and magical connotations. Richard probably never heard about egregore, and his coinage meme (analogous to gene) spans biological and sociological frameworks. Meme denotes a cultural idea, social practice, concept or activity that becomes a norm and is (sub)consciously repeated in society. It could also be defined as a thought that acquires its own identity when spreading through society, as an idea that counts as a replicator, specifically in the sense of it acting as a parasite, forcing people to reproduce it (just like viruses do).
The term is sometimes used in the context of “meme complex” to denote a group of memes that support each other and form a general belief system, e.g. religion. This use suggests that cultural evolution, wherein selection is based on the adaptation of ideas, has surpassed biological evolution, in which selection is based on hereditary characteristics. When we marry egregore with meme, we arrive at a biological entity that may, in a sense, be considered alive, capable of spreading, reproducing, proliferating and parasitizing entire cultures..."
C CAug 25, 2026 05:00 AM (This post was last modified: Aug 25, 2026 05:17 AM by C C.)
What we usually don't appreciate is the magnitude of the feedback effect of these personified concepts, once they're devised by whatever group. They can reciprocally influence or outright manipulate the people that either venerate or are aficionados of them. Like Freddy Krueger, they don't need to exist in the external environment. In a sense, the supernatural has always existed in psychological and communication spaces. And they don't have to be wholly fictional creations. The ideational version of Elvis has, for intents and purposes, become a viral thought-form.
Egregores embed themselves deeply into our many-layered psyche from childhood on. Whenever I have a nightmare about a demonic presence, I automatically cry out Jesus' name to banish them. This in spite of the fact that I haven't consciously believed in Jesus for around 40 years. Don't know if I can say as much for demons though. The foul residue of this mighty egregore still lingers in me at some unconscious level in spite of my firm atheistic stance. They infect our young and supple minds thru the robotic attempts of parents indoctrinating them into us. Unconsciousness relentlessly bent on keeping us as unconscious and controllable as possible.
Aug 24, 2026 11:38 PM
(This post was last modified: Aug 24, 2026 11:51 PM by Magical Realist.)
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