Gather what is scattered

“Gather what is scattered” is a Masonic mantra that Katherine Solomon invokes while explaining her research into shared human thought. In her account, gathering minds is not merely a figure for restoring what has been separated: collective attention magnifies thought, linking the phrase to a transformative power she sees as both spiritual and scientifically demonstrable.

Meaning and Formulation

Katherine places “gather what is scattered” beside two related mantras: “order from chaos” and “at-one-ment.” Together, the phrases move from dispersal toward arrangement and unity. In this sequence, gathering is the necessary first movement: what lies apart must be brought into relation before a larger order or oneness can emerge.

Connection to Collective Thought

Katherine uses the mantra to introduce her claim that human thought grows exponentially in power as more minds share it. She contrasts this amplification with the limited idea that two minds are simply twice as effective as one, pointing instead to prayer groups, healing circles, singing, and worship as examples of minds acting together. She presents Universal Consciousness not as an ethereal notion but as the underlying discovery of Noetic Science, and describes communications technologies such as Twitter, Google, and Wikipedia as linking minds into a wider web.

Role in the Conversation

The phrase is part of Katherine’s effort to explain why her research matters to Robert Langdon: shared thought, in her view, could change the world if people grasped its implications. The scene’s movement from the Masonic language of gathering and unity to her argument about interconnected minds gives the mantra a conceptual function within her explanation. As Langdon grows drowsy, he turns over related ideas about Universal Consciousness and the mind of the world; his sudden recognition of Elohim follows this chain of association, extending the conversation’s movement between collective human thought and religious language.