Jello and Ice Cream

Many times in the course of the group meditation sharing, I notice that there are similarities in terms of what we share. If there's a day when one person expresses drowsiness, I find that I too felt the same way. Sometimes, what the participant relates is like a kind of spot-on impression of how I experienced the meditation practice as well. For instance, one participant mentioned today that she felt disconnected with her body and method and almost went into a dream state of successive thoughts--and I had a similar experience in the first sitting! Now, is this just a case of selective memory? Or is it a genuinely shared co-experience?
   As I am writing this thought, I am reminded of childhood memories when I used to have a dessert which was a concoction of jello (green jello, to be precise) and melted ice cream. The two ingredients did not seem to be a match at all: one being rubbery in consistency, while the other being in a liquid state when melted. In spite of that, however, I was still able to enjoy the two ingredients together, until one day the thought of jello with ice cream became a kind of social norm. In other words, what 'happens' is often co-created, and whatever is emphasized in a shared narrative often influences one's experience of something. A good example might be how a very hot pepper might seem to be painful in one context, yet very edible and desirable in the context of a hot pepper competition. Suddenly, through the institutionalization of hot pepper eating contests, hot peppers are not seen as problematic, but as challenging and exciting to deal with.
   I wonder if perhaps we get our cues on what to share or not to share from the overall emotional atmosphere that the group collectively evokes at a given time. I have yet to study this question but I think the meditation group would be an ideal area to study this kind of phenomena.