We Are One was never meant to be just a lofty metaphysical concept. It is a scientific fact and an ingredient towards creating a better world.
Our understanding of reality drives our perception. Our perception of reality drives our behavior.
There is no longer a reason to see ourselves as just accidents on a tiny planet in a random corner of the universe. Over the past few decades, science has been pointing to the interconnectedness and interdependence of all life. Only a few have been paying attention to these findings. But these are the findings that have the power to re-shape every aspect of our lives for the better.
We are vital pieces of the larger puzzle of life. We are just as much a part of nature as the ocean, the trees, or the bees. Everything in the cosmos — including the whole human family — is part of one indivisible fabric that is infinitely connected.
“We are all connected. To each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe, atomically. We are not figuratively, but literally stardust.” — Neil DeGrasse Tyson
We need to start re-telling our cultural stories to reflect this knowledge. When embraced, these 3 scientific truths could shift humanity in the direction of greater unity, compassion, kindness, and empowered action.
1) We are all connected- literally
We are all expressions of the same underlying energy that shows up throughout all of life. Most people know that atoms are the building blocks of matter. But the deeper we look at sub-atomic particles, the more the world of matter dissipates.
Waves of potential turn to sub-atomic particles through their interaction with the four basic forces of nature (electromagnetism, gravity, strong force, weak force). As we examine the connection between these forces and the behavior of sub-atomic particles, we notice that it is impossible for individual particles to exist independently. Anytime we try to isolate one piece of the whole, another piece is undeniably affected — as if they were all part of the same field of possibilities. That is because they are! A particle is an outcome of the forces that bring it into existence and therefore it is not separate from those forces.
We seem to be rather blind to the idea that a thing cannot be different from that which it is made.
No matter how many times we cut an apple into pieces, the pieces of that apple are still an apple, whether you call them atoms, quarks, or Bob. When that piece of the apple enters your digestive system, you may call it something different. That which you perceive as an apple is no longer visible as such. But the energy contained inside the apple has simply been converted into energy to help fuel your next workout. While you may put a different label on the “digested apple,” the essence of it at the quantum level has always been a field of vibrations acting to produce certain particles, atoms and molecules.
In the same manner, everything that we perceive as matter is energy that keeps transforming itself in accordance with the laws of physics.
The same thing that swirls through the cosmos as a galaxy is also the energy that wags the tail of a happy puppy. It is the energy that can be felt as the love that warms a human heart or that powers your laptop.
We may call it by different names based on how we are currently perceiving it through the limited field of our physical senses but that does not change the fact that it is all one thing.
If everything in this universe is made of the interaction between sub-atomic particles and the forces of nature, how can we be excluded from that? How would we act if we truly comprehended our interconnectedness?
2) Every action has an impact. What one person does matters (Yes, YOU matter!)
The theory of quantum entanglement points to the interdependence of everything in the universe — from people to objects to situations. Studies have shown that when two particles are observed in independent locations, measuring one particle changes the state of the other. As reveleaed in a 2017 MIT study, this relationship has been shown to exist even if the two particles are 12.2 billion light-years away.
What happens in Vegas, doesn’t just stay in Vegas — it affects the whole Universe. It is literally as if the space between the two particles didn’t even exist. Everything was at one point physically connected and now remains “psychically” connected. Even Einstein was baffled by this phenomenon. He called it “spooky action at a distance.” This spooky action can be seen in many of nature’s processes, photosynthesis being the most notable example.
What happens in your life affects what happens in all of life. If that which IS cannot be different from that which it is made of, then it makes sense that one part of the whole affects another part of the whole.
How would our thoughts, words, and deeds change if we all behaved as if everything that comes from us has an impact on everything around us?
3) You perceive reality into existence
In quantum physics, the observer effect states that nothing that is observed is unaffected by the observer. The act of measuring a particle changes its behavior. We think of matter as being solid. But at the smallest scales of the universe, at the quantum level, particles can only be measured in terms of probabilities.
Before becoming what we perceive to be matter, particles exist as wave forms, floating in a sea of electromagnetic potential within a field of infinite possibilities. As a wave form, a particle can literally be anywhere until the moment we observe it. Once observed, the wave form collapses into what we perceive as matter.
The possibility of the particle’s existence has always existed, but its characteristics were undefined until the moment it was looked at.
As observers, the lens of our perception causes us to notice what is already consistent with our existing model of reality. The space between our perception and the consequent response is where we have the power to alter our reality in every second.
Until we change the way we look out into the world, we automatically reinforce our existing models of reality. We thus continually see that which choose to see. This makes it look like things “are just the way they are.” But since reality comes into existence as we observe it, it is only the light of our focus that changes what aspect of that reality will appear real to us.
As we break the barriers of our conditioning and our minds become more open, we create new possibilities for ourselves as we learn to re-direct our focus.
The more we embrace and integrate these truths into our daily lives, the more compassionate we will become towards one another.