The indigenous people of Hawaii have a beautiful practice that is very instructive for us as to the impact of the collective energy field on us as individuals. When an individual is ill and to be treated by a Kahuna healer, the patient's entire community must first assemble and undergo a forgiveness ritual in which everyone releases any resentments or ill feelings that were being held in the collective field of which the patient is a part.  

This constitutes a kind of cleansing or purging of the shared field, thus allowing the group's collective intention to be as strong and pure as possible as it is focused on the well-being of the patient. It is only after this process that the healer will proceed with the healing work.  

This is a true expression of the understanding that we are not living in isolation but are intimately connected to and subtly affected by those around us. The Kahuna wisdom seems to incorporate what we are only now learning from research -- the fact that when join together with others with a shared vision, new levels of order and healing are possible. We can literally change physical reality, for we are one.