Group Karma
Karma is the spiritual equivalent of the law of cause and effect. The existence of favourable or unfavourable karma depends on whether past deeds were good or evil. Most people have both good and bad karma because they have performed both good and bad deeds in the past. So most people lives are a mixture of misery and happiness. Karma is not limited to actions taken during one's present life, but can extend back into the infinite past and forward into the infinite future.
Thus,it is karma that forms the connecting link between one's consecutive lives. Karma applies mostly to the acts of individuals, but it may also be the overall result of actions by many people acting as a group; such as groups of persons, family groups, groups of nations, and the like. In other words, there are such things as group karma, family karma, and even national karma.
Further complicating the mix are the needs and agendas of others around you that affect you on a deep and profound level. Sometimes you may have made agreements with other souls to work on certain issues together, helping each other through several lifetimes. Karma is attached only to souls.
There is no such thing as a karmic place. However, strong emotions can easily imprint themselves on the world around us. Homes, workplaces, even hotel rooms, can develop a distinct build-up of emotional residue. These residues linger in the subtle reality, affecting everyone who comes into contact with them on a deep and unspoken level.

Thinking Exercise: Family and Group Karma

1.Think of your family relationships, including your parents, siblings, spouse, children, aunts, uncles, and in-laws.
2.Who in your family have you felt close to?
3.Who have you felt distant from?
4.Think of your friends. Are there any that you felt closer to than your family?
5.Are there any that you think that you have been with before?
6.Think of your neighbours and/or co-workers.
•Are there any that you instantaneously liked or disliked for no apparent reason?
•Do you feel that there is something more to them than meets to the eye?
•Try to visualize it or make a story about them.

Silicon Valley's story: group karma at work?

The past 200 years preceding the "Silicon Valley" miracle in the last decade of the 20th were filled with genocide, environmental destruction, greed, trickery, and exploitation. In 1776, at the time of their first contact with the Spanish explorers originally who were looking for gold, Santa Clara Valley was an untouched Eden with maybe 10,000 Ohlone Indians. By 1830, these peaceful, basket-weaving peoples who had been living there for over 10,000 years had completely disappeared, killed off by epidemics and the mission system.
In 1848, the land, originally part of Mexico, became part of United States. Americans, many of whom were failed gold-seekers from the mother lode, started to pour in and acquired Mexican cattle ranches, often through force and trickery.
The rich alluvial soil-some of the best in the world-- proved ideal for orchards. The Valley during the spring was a canopy of white blossoms-"The Valley of Heart's Delight." However, an orchard of another type grew around the seeds planted by William Hewlett, David Packard, Fred Terman, and other researchers at Stanford University. Today, Hewlett-Packard is one of the world's largest producers of computers and electronic measuring devices and equipment. The names of the branches of the tree are familiar: Stanford Industrial Park, Varian, Apple Computers, Intel, Yahoo, CISCO, Netscape, etc. Creativity leads to innovation, and innovation leads to prosperity. Prosperity attracts restless, bright, often unscrupulous people, with often troubled and unhappy pasts, from all parts of the world. The old-time farmers sold their farms off for a king's ransom and move. The orchards were bulldozed to make room for subdivisions and industrial parks.
At one time, the largest mercury mine in the U.S. was located in the New Alma den hills in the back of San Jose. Mercury, which is used to separate silver from base ore, seeps from this 100-year year old open sore and poisons the Guadalupe River and San Francisco Bay. Silicon Valley has 29 "Superfund sites"--toxic sites slated for cleanup by the federal government. This is more than any other area in the country. High-tech manufacturing created 24 of the 29 sites; 18 are tied to the computer chip industry.The Hispanic hamlet of Alviso lies partly on a landfill created by the dumping of asbestos-lined pipes in the 1950's by the Certainteed Corporation.
Not long ago, Silicon Valley found itself at the centre of the world, a job- and money-making machine fueled by the popularity of the Internet and technological innovation. Those days are a distant memory now. Now, the Center of the World has become a technological Rust Belt. The streets, once throbbing with energy, are empty and quiet.
Empty new buildings stand like bleached mausoleums in the sun with big, indiscreet signs slapped on them: "AVAILABLE. A full 20% of the valley's jobs have been lost since March 2001, and hi-tech jobs continued to be lost as companies downsize or outsource jobs to Asia. The business and political leaders of Silicon Valley are at a loss as to what to do to restore the formor prosperity.



About the Author
Bio: Janet K. Ilacqua is a freelance writer based in Tracy, California. She specializes in academic writing and ghostwriting of books and manuals for individuals and small businesses. For more information about her services, check her website at http://www.writeupondemand.com