Glossary: egregore An egregore, as the term is used in certain parts of the Internet, is a group of people that moves cohesively, often in pursuit of a goal. This group of people can be very nebulous and even to members of an egregore, it can be unclear whether they're really part of it. Similarly, the egregore's direction or goal may not be any single member's. Yet, the egregore itself is often easy to recognize: It has its own kind of agency, much like that of a hive or swarm, and is eager to use it. Alternatively and more mystically, egregore refers to the group mind behind that agency. This is the where the word originates (see Wikipedia). Egregores come in many forms, sizes and ages. On the long-lived side, there are states, well-established and clearly delineated by territory and citizenship. There are religions, which can be ancient (like the Catholic Church) and range from crisply outlined (most abrahamic faiths, secret societies) to completely nebulous (philosophical schools and folk religions). On the short-lived side, there are mobs (online and offline) and group dynamics, each of which can form and disperse within minutes, but may live for months. Corporations have clear outlines but otherwise vary wildly, in extreme cases they may live for over a millenium or become as powerful as empires. Since they are subject to market forces first and foremost, their goals are among the most estranged from a regular human's. Political ideologies like to form egregores, in fact they often enter a close symbiosis with their respective egregore so that each can perpetuate the other. It can become hard to tell the members from their beliefs. In these egregores especially, what their members profess to believe in, and what they end up doing, can be at complete odds (compare: many of the 20th century's regimes). A technical definition could be that an egregore is any group of people that has agency that isn't any single member's. Another outlook is that egregores are the alien race we share the planet with - they may exhibit agency and substantial intelligence, but despite being made of humans, they fundamentally do not think like us. published: Sep 27 2018. epistemic status: tentative.

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