Egregore

Occult and esoteric concept — describing an autonomous psychic or spiritual entity created by the collective focused thought and emotion of a group — the idea that sufficiently intense collective belief, ritual, or attention generates a real (if non-physical) entity that can act back upon the group — popularized in 19th century French occultism and revived in contemporary chaos magic and Jungian discourse.

Creates the metaphysical category for collective psychic entities — Egregore provides the conceptual vocabulary for describing how institutions, nations, religions, and brands acquire what appears to be autonomous agency beyond individual members; its synthesis of magical thinking and proto-sociological insight anticipates Durkheim's collective effervescence, memes, and contemporary collective intelligence theory.