just in what way exactly are “we” all one? The phrase gets thrown around a lot these days, but few people explain precisely what they mean by it. Can you give me some examples of how “we” are all one? I suppose I can think of a few myself. We all exist. We all have the potential to interact with one another. What happens in one part of the universe, can affect another part of the universe. Am I on the right track? Many things in the universe have the potential to transform into other things. Nothing in our universe seems wholly black, or wholly white, but some shade of gray. Everything may contain a little of everything else. Nothing is perfectly rough or perfectly smooth. Perfectly crooked or perfectly straight. The same thing can become something else when taken out it’s former context and placed into a different context.
I’ve heard some people say that from the point of view of the body and the mind, we’re all different, disconected, but from the point of view of consciousness, we’re all similar, connected. People have likened the body to a computer and computer software. Consciousness is likened to the user of the computer. We all think and feel different things at different times. When your having a bad day, I may be having a good day. One mans treasure is another mans trash. You have dark colored skin, I have light colored skin, you have blonde hair, I have red. Obvisously we all look different too. However, what we may all have in common is, we’re all conscious beings and though the body and mind may die, consciousness itself is immortal and the same for all times and places.
I have my doubts though. Consciousness seems to differ between people and species. I am more conscious than a worm or an idiot. It’s arguable that a worm isn’t even conscious, it doesn’t have a brain, it reacts to changes in it’s environment predictably, reflexively. It doesn’t seem to learn, or think, it just acts. Some people even argue that we’re an extremely complex machine, that our thoughts and feelings are in some sense an illusion, a byproduct of chemistry and mechanisms. Scientists may one day build a machine that’s capable of thinking and feeling like us. It’s arguable that our consciousness is not immortal. The physical world seems to affect our consciousness. When i drink alcohol, my consciousness gets distored. When I get kicked in my head, my consciousness can be permanently damaged. So it’s arguable that when I get shot in the head, my consciousness will be destroyed.
But then there’s all those near death experiences. People report having outer body experiences when doctors say they showed no signs of brain activity. I’m sure you’ve heard about them, so I won’t bother explaining them in detail. There’s been studies on esp suggesting that they’re may be some truth to the phenomenon.
So the question remains, does consciousness live on after mental and physical death? Is consciousness the essence of who we are? is it in that sense that we’re all one? Or is it another sense? Are we all one omniscient, omnipresent being when decarnated, only to become finite beings when incarnated?
What about this? Some of the smallest things in the known universe (Atoms) appear in some respects to be very similar to some of the biggest things in the known universe (solar systems). Are atoms tiny solar systems? Do presently undetectable quantum beings live there. If so, than I can say that not only am I a human being, but I am solar systems and trillions upon trillions of living beings. If atoms are solar systems than solar systems may be atoms. All these solar systems and galaxies may be part of giant watermelon, or something, which in turn, may be part of something else, which may be part of something else.
Nevermind worms, I’ve even heard people say (Boyan) that matter itself may be conscious. If true, than we’re all conscious beings. Don’t ask me, I have no idea how. When I kick a rock, it just moves. The rock has given me no indication that it thought to move. If true, subject would be indistinguishable from object. Panconsciousness or Pansciousness.
So there you have it. In which of these sense are we all one, or is it in another sense?
By the way, if everything is material, than in some sense subject becomes difficult to distinguish from object again. We would all be in some sense, objects. Only to the dualist would everything be truely separate, disconnected.