"Collective Effervescence"

Hi @Appleblossom

Can you expand on what this concepts means? Is like a crowd of people filled with joy?

Probably more like trying to find that joy.

At the moment my heart lifts when a tiny little 4 year old chats to me when I walk down my street. He wants to take my bag or push my trolley. He is so gorgeous and fresh and enthusiastic .. he just melts me.

I used to be angry that I had missed out on positive experiences and feelings. His effervescence is contagious.

The phrase makes me think of talking in tongues and fainting spells. 🙂 A Catholic friend of mine once attended an Evangelical-style church with one of her friends. At one point, the entire congregation fell down (with the power of the Lord, you see...), and my Catholic friend fell down too, because she didn't want to be the odd one out.

The phrase was written by a french sociologist about 100 years ago - you can download a translation of his book at Project Gutenberg. https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41360

A while back, I found a very interesting book that was out of copyright that discussed the purposes of religion. It basically boiled down to 'religion has about as many purposes as it has people', and went through a diversity of purposes - both good and bad. It was helpful to me, although I've lost the link to the book itself.