Boudicca,
Have you read Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth?
If not, you might want to read his fascinating description of the "pain body." Tolle has come up with a pretty good description of the Beast, in my opinion.
Tolle also talks about the collective "pain body":
"The pain body, however, is not just individual in nature. It also partakes of the pain suffered by countless humans throughout the history of humanity, which is a history of continuous tribal warfare, of enslavement, pillage, rape, torture, and other forms of violence. This pain still lives in the collective psyche of humanity and is being added to on a daily basis, as you can verify when you watch the news tonight or look at the drama in people's relationships. The collective pain body is probably encoded within every human's DNA, although we haven't discovered it there yet."
I agree with freshstart57's view of the collective beast having zero effect on her sobriety, and the collective beast, or "pain body" as the case may be, similarly has none on mine. However, just take a step back and look at the collective beast at work when congregations of drinkers cluster at various events and venues. The collective breakdown of inhibitions is startling at times, to say the least, which is a big reason why I dislike being present in crowds of "celebrants."
Reading this thread caused me to open my Tolle book and read through Chapter 5 on "The Pain Body" again. I would highly recommend it.