The Illusion of Separateness

“Those trees are your lungs. The earth recycles as your body. The rivers recycle as your circulation. The air is your breath. So what do we call the environment?”
— Deepak Chopra: Physical Healing, Emotional Well Being

A new paradigm is emerging out of the ruble of the reductionist model.  This new paradigm dissolves the illusion of separateness between anything and anyone.

As we research smaller and smaller units of matter, it becames clear that there is perhaps no final unit waiting to be discovered but a fundamental unity to everything.  Physicist David Bohm, whose work is described in Michael Talbot's the Holographic Universe, calls the fundamental unity at the end of all matter the implicate order.  David Wilcock makes reference to the Source Field.

A popular metaphor for the universe in this new view is that of a hologram that projects what we experience as matter, light energy, etc.  An important property of a hologram is that information contained throughout is contained within any unit.  For instance, if you cut a piece of holographic film with a picture of an apple in half, both halves of the film will still project the whole apple!  (This is only true of real holograms produced by shining a laser through holographic film, not of the hologram type pictures and stickers like those found of credit cards).  

One phenomena in quantum physics that supports this view is known as "non locality."  Briefly, 2 quanta (photons, electrons, etc.) can become "entangled" that is, influence each other even across vast distances.  Physicists were blown away by this because it seemed like these particles were communicating faster than the speed of light.  This lead to the notion that on some level these quanta are existing without location, thus no "speed" is needed.

Since this is so contrary to our experience and how we have been taught to view things, it can be a bit mind boggling to think that somewhere particles are "speaking" to each other where this is no location.

Advocates of quantum biology such as Deepak Chopra point to the similarities between phenomena in quantum physics and biology.  It can be said that the cells in your body are doing the same thing, communicating on a non local level.

What is this "non local" level of you and of the universe?  Well, it is consciousness.  Your sense of self and continuity of experience is not contained within anything in your brain or body in any physical way, since the cells of your body die and are replaced continuously throughout your life.  It is consciousness that remains and gives you this experience.   

What is becoming clear is what we experience as separate things is actually an illusion.  Since there is only a fundamental unity then the idea that you are somehow separate from the environment begins to fade.  The earth in which you live, is you, you are the earth and everything within it.  You are the universe, everything it takes to make a universe is contained within all of us.  Remember, consciousness has no boundaries, the only limits to your consciousness, is your imagination.

Spiritual Work: Change Your Perspective II

Take the Perspective of Others by Considering the Context

Consider this -
Maybe the last person who was rude to you did not upset you because they are a mean person.

Too often in our daily interactions with people, particularly if they were unpleasant, we attribute fault to the person themselves:  “They forgot my order because they are dumb/bad at their job/don’t like me,” etc.

Did you know we also tend to attribute our own mistakes not as  faults but arising out of the situation?  For instance: "I wouldn’t have made that mistake if it wasn’t for the fact that X happened."

The tendency to attribute the behaviour of others to personality and our own to a situation is known in psychology as attribution bias. Attribution bias occurs through peripheral processing, or unconscious automatic processing.  This is a type of information processing our brains do to make sense of the extensive amount of information coming in through our senses all the time.  Instead of analyzing every bit consciously, overtime our brains take our past experiences and create short cuts that help us understand a situation or individual very quickly.  Because the situation that lead to an individual's behaviour is often hidden to us, many people have taught themselves to understand motives as inherent to the person.

There are, however, those that tend to give others the benefit of the doubt more often than not.  Although this route of processing takes more effort, it has been shown that people that make this tiny extra effort tend to be happier overall and are generally more psychologically healthy. 

You may not be able to imagine the context to everyone’s behaviour, many peoples actions seem completely unwarranted to us. However, remember that just like you, they have a context. That may not excuse their behaviour, but it is good for conscientiousness to know and be aware that people are not “good” “bad” “stupid” “ignorant” “mean” people just because you saw them act that way. Some of us have lost sight of our light, but there really is no “better” or “worse” only perspective.

The Challenge

Next time you have an unpleasant interaction, a disagreement or argument, take the other person’s perspective.  I know you’ve heard it a thousand times, imagine if you were the other person, how would you feel. But its really works! Especially in a moment when things are heated and the last thing you want to do is see things from the other person’s view because 1. they appear not to give a damn how you feel 2. you are too busy trying to show them how they made you feel/hurt your feelings. But, this is when taking the other person’s view is the most important. I have experienced the greatest amount of growth in my relationships when I perform this at the height of least feeling like it.

The result:  Anger melts and you are solution oriented almost instantaneously.  This allows you to learn from the interaction, which is the purpose of interactions in the first place. 

What are your thoughts?  Do you find putting yourself in the other person's shoes is good for consciousness? 

Atlantis - A Lesson from a Lost Civilization

Whether you believe there was a lost civilization known as Atlantis or not, there is a profound message from ancient societies contemporary to the supposed Atlantis.


Humans are much older than we previously thought (and are still being taught), and there is solid evidence for large scale hyper advanced societies existing at least 10,000 years ago (and probably earlier). For more information, I direct you to works by Gram Hancock and Micheal Cremo.


However, what I have always found to be truly relevant about Atlantis in terms of our society is that Atlantis, or more specifically, its demise, reveals something extremely important about our current predicament:


To put it simply: As spiritually decreases, war, strife, greed and subversive power increases. This can be seen both in the archeological record and in Plato's account of the fall of Atlantis.


First of all, Atlantis was an empire and its influence was spread beyond the main continent or land mass known as "Atlantis." Modern researchers and Atlantis chasers know this and are aware of archeological evidence existing on continents currently above sea level in sites dated as old as 15,000 to 10,000 years BCE that were most certainly under Atlantic influence. I won't go into the details of the exact proofs here but interested individuals can refer to this book and this one too.


Basically what these sites tell us: In the earliest periods a great value was placed on spirituality. During the earliest times people seemed to live longer, peaceful lives. No evidence of any weapons or conflict is apparent.


This is also where the cave paintings are the most stunning and technically adept.


Looking at how these societies evolved over time: As spiritually became de-emphasized, the production of weapons increased. During this phase, individuals seemed to live shorter lives, often dying as a result of conflict/murder/war etc. The cave art reflects a degradation in artistic skill (comparatively to older examples) and the subject matter is often shown to glorify war, death and power won with violence.


So, it seems there is a relationship between power/greed/violence and spirituality -> as one increases, the other decreases.


Plato sums this up nicely in Critias when he discusses the state of Atlantis right before its demise:


"...but when the divine portion began to fade away, ... and the human nature got the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see grew visibly debased, for they were losing the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and unrighteous power." (Plato, Critias).


This quote seems to imply that to the untrained eye, or to the unaware/asleep, Atlantis right before it fell seemed like it was at the top of its game, gaining more and more power and material wealth. However, to the awakened individual, the inevitable downfall was completely apparent, for it would be obvious they had lost sight of what is truly important.


Here we are today experiencing, what I hope, is the pendulum about to swing the other way: power/greed/violence etc. may be heightening, but more and more people are becoming awake and aware. There is also a resurgence of spiritual growth and quest for enlightenment/higher consciousness.


So I think the answer to the our current predicament is pretty clear here, one way history (or the subverted/forbidden history I should say) teaches us to combat greed/violence/war is by questing for spiritual growth and empowerment.


Sources:
Mary Settegast's Plato Prehistorian:10,000 To 5000 B.C. Myth, Religion, Archaeology (1987). Find it here.

Phillip Coppens' The Lost Civilization Enigma: A New Inquiry Into the Existence of Ancient Cities, Cultures, and Peoples Who Pre-Date Recorded History (2012). Find it here.