Interconnectedness

Spiritual traditions around the world speak of interconnectedness and unity of all living things and reality, but it is so hard to truly fathom.  Other individuals do things all the time that we do not understand, that we do not know about.  They act in ways that appear so counter to our own free will and well-being.  How can two things be one, and yet be in so much conflict?

And yet, that is exactly the same contradiction that arises when considering the supposed unity of the human mind.  While studying psychology, one will learn that the human mind regularly falls prey to subconscious ideas and impulses that are counterproductive, contradictory, or just nonsensical:  Irrational beliefs, phobias, and neuroses, attractions to familiar yet painful relationships and situations.  A typical person may struggle with these for their entire life.

However, getting in touch with various parts of the subconscious mind can be a very healing experience.  It is a powerful experience to have for oneself, to observe that this process of truly acknowledging and accepting these parts of ourselves (even though at first they seem to make little sense and to have come out of nowhere) results in so much growth, enlightenment, even joy.  Nothing convinces like empirical observation and first-hand experience.

The other day I read something interesting, unfortunately I forget the source.  I read about a therapist who healed his patients by apologizing to them.  He did not apologize for anything he did, no, he apologized for things someone else did, and it worked, it healed the patients.  Something about this situation struck a chord in me.  Often the world seems so lonely, it seems as if we are all on our own to get over our problems, but this situation shows that people can help each other and grow if we go out on that limb and accept "other" people's sins.  It's all rather Christ-like, to atone for the sins of another.

This also illustrates the practical application of faith.  Faith is often derided as being just blind, irrational belief, but faith is about believing something we learned on a higher level of reality even though it seems to contradict what one observes on a "lower" level.  But perhaps this does not count as faith since the rewards of acting on this idea of the interconnectedness of all things can be so forthcoming.

Anyway, so to albeit a limited degree, I have learned that to evolve one must accept that other people, that the whole world is a part of us, we are a part of them.  It can be a painful, difficult, and tedious process.  It defies our intuition to accept the actions of strangers we have never met that live on the other side of the earth, but doing so has an effect.

Lately I have been reading about and listening to interviews of men like Rupert Sheldrake, David Wilcock, Dean Radin.  Their ideas about "morphic fields", "the source field", research into psi, also illustrate how everyone is connected and affects one another.  But what really convinces me is the analogy of psychological issues with interpersonal issues.  If I can accept that parts of my mind believe things I consciously disagree with, that ones mind can apparently contradict itself and even attack the body, parts of it appear so very separate, yet still be one person, then logically I must accept the possibility that other people are one with myself too, despite all outward appearances.  The other possibility is that the contradictions in ones mind reflects a true separation, e.g., being possessed by demons... but that is a discussion for another day.