The notion that we are isolated centres of consciousness is an illusion. As Albert Einstein argued, we are deluded if we imagine that we exist separately from the rest of the universe.¹

That we are influenced by and influence each other, and further, that we are interconnected subliminally, is evident from a number of factors.²

Human Interconnectedness

Systems theory indicates that we are deeply influenced by family environments, friendships, social affiliations and the culture of the work place. Peter Berger, Brigitte Berger and Hansfried Kellner argue that technology brings with it a specific consciousness, a new way of thinking and being.³ Peer pressure, hypnosis, parapsychological phenomena, clearly evident in the Aboriginal tradition of pointing the bone, as well as the electrifying oratory of Adolf Hitler are further evidence that we do not exist in isolation from each other, but are interconnected, as cells in a human body.

Additional evidence comes from scientific study of the effect of meditation on the health of communities. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the originator of Transcendental Meditation, contended that if only 1% of the population began to meditate their meditating would affect the remaining 99%. Sociologist, Garland Landrith tested this hypothesis in 1973 on a comparison of US cities with populations of 25,000 or over, where critical factors, such as, population, region, college population and previous crime rate trends were kept constant. Landrith discovered that, whereas the "non 1% cities" reflected the national crime rates between 1972 and 1973, those cities in which there were 1% TM participants, evidenced a decrease in the crime rate of 8.2%. The likelihood of these results occurring by change was one in a thousand.⁴

The fact that we are interconnected with each other is only part of the story. We are also connected with the wider environment.

Humans and Animals

A strong case can be made for an interconnectedness with the animal kingdom.

Luther Standing Bear, a Sioux Chief, speaking of the traditional spirituality of his people, commented that they felt such a close kinship with all creatures that they spoke a common tongue.⁵ Those most adept at exploring the affinity between humans and animals have been shamans.⁶ [20]

This interconnectedness between humans and animals is not the exotic fantasy of ill-informed "primitives", but an intuitive discernment that has faded from the awareness of Western consciousness. However, we are now rediscovering that humans can communicate with other species⁷ and that connection with animals is beneficial to human health.⁸

One explanation of cross-species communication is the presence of a universal Consciousness, or Mind. Taking this possibility of such a factor into account, Lyall Watson, a biologist, spoke of a flow of pattern or instruction between species, a timeless consciousness in which perception occurred by osmosis in the context of a global ecology of mind.⁹

Flora

There is also evidence to suggest that we are more closely connected with plants and other flora than we have been led to believe. In the Spindrift experiments, a group of researchers discovered that prayer significantly increased the growth of rye seeds, soy beans, mung beans and mould. They also learned that the more the seeds were under stress when they were prayed for the more they grew and that growth was proportional to the time given to prayer. It was also discovered that to achieve any effect it was important that those praying knew what they were praying for. Furthermore, it was discovered that non-directed prayer was far more effective than directed prayer, prayer for specific outcomes.¹⁰

The Physiosphere

It can also be argued that we connect psychically with what we regard, somewhat arrogantly, as the world of the inanimate.

When the sub-atomic structure, of what was once considered inanimate matter, is taken into account, and when allowance is made for the inter-relatedness of matter, energy and consciousness, it may no longer be ridiculous or quirkish to speak of mineral or gaseous matter as sentient!

Jung, in his autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, wrote of several youthful experiences that were not easily explained. In two separate instances loud retorts revealed weird physical happenings. A centuries-old table cracked down the middle and a knife, resting on a sideboard, snapped in two.¹¹ One explanation of both occurrences would be that the articles absorbed intense, repressed human emotions, resolving this shadow energy in an unusual way. Further support for the thesis that we influence matter and are influenced by it, is the exercise, on the part of certain Hindu gurus, of siddis, or psychic powers, where substances, like sandalwood or jewellery, are produced out of the air!¹² Sally McFague argues that one cannot draw a distinction between living things and what appear to be inanimate objects,¹³ and that we should recognize that we are distant cousins to the stars and near relations to the oceans of the world.¹⁴ [21]

Reasons for Our Myopia

I have argued that we do not exist as individuals isolated from each other and from the ecosystem that supports us, including animals, flora and what has traditionally been regarded as inanimate matter. We are part of an inter-connected whole, not only in terms of proximity and food chains, but also at a deeper psychic level. One reason for the West's failure to appreciate this subtle interconnectedness, as Erwin Schrödinger has indicated, has been the presence of, otherwise beneficial, but, in this case, limiting, scientific presuppositions.¹⁵

Ken Wilber has argued that our lack of what he describes as unity consciousness, arises from the construction, in the various layers of the self, of boundaries between what we distinguish as self and non-self. A final boundary, at the deepest level of the self, he argues, needs to be dissolved, or penetrated, before the presence of this universal self can be appreciated.¹⁶

The Nature of This Interconnectedness

It can be argued that this world of complex interconnectedness is a dimension of reality that manifests in phenomena that are non-local and non-temporal.

Non-Local

Lawrence LeShan, from the perspective of parapsychology, has contended that psychic healing, like prayer, is effective at a distance, and that it depends on a form of energy, whose affect on people, who may be thousands of miles away, is experienced instantaneously.¹⁷

Nick Herbert, an authority on non-local effects in physics, argued that such non-local influences were mediated by fields that were not interrupted by matter and that were not restricted to the speed of light.¹⁸ In 1964 John Stewart Bell, an Irish physicist, demonstrated mathematically that just such a world existed.¹⁹

Research into parapsychology also supports the contention that we live in a non-local world, in which the sending of messages from a "sender" to a "receiver" is in no way diminished by distance and in which humans can mentally influence the outputs of machines keyed to microscopic events that are inherently random, such as radio-active decay.²⁰

Non-Temporal

In these same experiments it was also discovered that some "receivers" received messages three days before they were sent!²¹

Theologians, along with mystics, have drawn attention to two types of time, linear time and eternal time, cronos time and kairos time. Physicists, drawing this same distinction between the commonsense notion of chronological time and the non-flowing, non-linear time in which things do not happen, but simply are, argue that it is the latter that is the ultimate reality and that the distinction between past, present and future is nothing more than a stubborn illusion.²²

Two Dimensions

To help explain how some experience an interconnectedness with the world around them, while others do not, it has been suggested that reality has, at least, two dimensions.

A helpful way of conceptualising these two dimensions was developed by David Bohm, a former associate of Einstein and now Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Physics at Birbeck College in the University of London. Bohm posited the presence of two orders, an implicate order of unity, a holomovement of electromagnetic waves, sound waves, electron beams and other forms of movement, enfolded in an explicate order of diversity. He based his model on the hologram, in which the whole was reflected in every part. He posited a group mind, a unitary mind, in a holographic universe.²³

I have been describing the essence of the implicate order as "unity". However, there are Eastern traditions, like Advaita Vedanta and Theravada Buddhism, that would prefer the concept of non-duality to unity. Tauler, the Rhenish mystic, commented that it is those who have entered into this unity, that is, it is those who are qualified to distinguish the two dimensions, who are best able to appreciate the true meaning of the distinction.²⁴

A Universal Mind

One explanation of the interconnectedness of the implicate order is the presence of a universal Mind, or Logos, which is seen as the constituent element in this multi-dimensional universe. This notion found expression in the intuitive wisdom of the Vedas and the Upanishads, which pictured a universal Self underlying our physical, psychic and spiritual existence.²⁵

Over recent years the New Physics has given support to the notion of a universal Mind. Jacob Bronowski has argued that the assumption that the observed and the observer are inseparable underlies the concept of relativity.²⁶ Theoretical physicist, Sir Arthur Eddington, has argued that the stuff of the universe is mind stuff, something that is indefinite but continuous with our mental nature. He went on to contend that the notion of a universal Mind or Logos was in harmony with the present state of scientific theory.²⁷ [22]

Freeman Dyson has suggested that the universe shows evidence of mind at three levels, at the level of elementary physical processes in quantum mechanics, at the level of mind and at the level of universal Mind. The implication of the latter, for Dyson, is that we are small elements of God's mental processes.²⁸

Henry Margenau, Professor Emeritus of Physics and Natural Philosophy at Yale and theoretician in molecular and nuclear physics, has similarly argued for a universal Mind. He has pointed to the sameness of the properties of the elementary constituents of matter²⁹ and the fact that oneness exists at the most basic levels of nature.³⁰ He went on to contend that each of us is part of God, or part of the Universal Mind.³¹

Another interesting explanation of the dynamics of this universal Mind is the controversial theory of morphogenesis suggested by a young plant biologist, Rupert Sheldrake, in the early 1980's. Sheldrake hypothesised the presence of morphogenetic fields and morphic resonance to explain why certain cells become leaf cells rather than root cells. The DNA, and other chemicals, are what tune these cells into the resonance of certain fields, which are built up, with the passage of time, through what he called patterned restrictions.³² Explaining himself, Sheldrake commented, that, while an understanding of the workings of DNA helps explain how organisms acquire the proteins out of which they are built, it does not explain why the organism evolves into a particular pattern and shape, in spite of associated mythico-scientific theories. Sheldrake's alternative explanation, associated with his concept of morphogenic fields, is that the universe, and the creativity that characterises it, can only be explained in terms of something over and above, or transcendent to it, corresponding to the God of religious experience.³³

God?

It is only a short step from universal Mind to God.

Not all physicists make this transition, some because theism is not a personal presupposition, some because they consider that it is illegitimate for them, when involved in scientific research, to smuggle in a factor that is not amenable to scientific verification and some because they do not want to imply that the god they are talking about is to be equated with the god or gods of the various religious traditions, along with their mythological paraphernalia.

Some, however, like the physicist Freeman Dyson, have been more adventuresome. Dyson, who did not make a clear distinction between Mind and God, argued that God was what Mind became when it passed beyond the scale of comprehension. He contended that we are the chief inlets for God at the present stage of the evolution of the planet.³⁴ [23]

Contemplatives

Mystics of all traditions have confessed to an intuitive awareness of what Bohm described as the implicate order of reality. This order is characterized by two foundational insights, first, that everything is related to everything else, and, second, that God is in everything.

The Neoplatonist, Plotinus, almost two thousand years ago, argued that each being contains in itself the whole intelligible world and that it is our urge towards individuality that prevents us experiencing this interconnectedness, and the presence of divinity, within this interconnectedness.³⁵

Eastern mystical traditions are full of expressions of the principle of the unity at the centre of the cosmos. The treatise, Discourses on Vegetable Roots, from the Ming Dynasty, questions the assumption that there is a great divide between humanity and heaven. It argues that the omnipotence of Heaven can be experienced within one's interiority.³⁶ This perception is reinforced by the Taoist notion that the Tao, the uncreated, ineffable source of what we take for reality, is its ground, its immaterial foundational element. The Taoist Book of Chuang Tzu commented that this principle of unity, that was in all things without being identical with them, was unlimited and infinite.³⁷ The poet, Yung-chia Ta-shih, similarly suggested that one perfect and all-pervasive Nature circulated through all realities. He argued that it is beyond our control and initiates its own activities. If we hunt for it we lose it. We can neither take hold of it, nor get ride of it. It is when we are silent that we hear it speak.³⁸ In an exchange between Chuang Tzu and Tung-kuo Tzu, Chuang Tzu argued that there is no place where the Tao does not exist. It is even in the ant, the panic grass, the tiles and shards, even the piss and dung!³⁹

The same perspective, couched in different terms, is evident in the comment of Shankara, a 9th century Hindu mystic, who argued that Brahman is not something to be obtained. Rather is it that which constitutes a person's self and which is present to everyone.⁴⁰

Paul Brunton, a modern, Western mystic, who spent many years in the Orient and whose writings have only come to light posthumously, summed up the eastern mystical heritage with his comment that the notion that God is to be experienced within an individual, as their Ground, is not an attempt to depose God and deify humanity. Just the opposite. The experience involves a humiliation of the self and a recognition of one's helplessness and dependence. Self, in its ordinary sense, is cast away, and, as a concomitant development, one's reverence for God deepens.⁴¹

In the West, metaphysicians, and alchemists influenced by a variety of esoteric traditions, including Eastern religions, were the first to begin exploring the implications of the intuitive feel they had for the oneness of reality and the divinity that appeared to suffuse it. This development found expression in Plato's world of Ideas, that were seen as emanating from a [24] primeval universal Goodness, and in Platonic and Stoic doctrines of a cosmic Logos.⁴² This tradition was also evident in the Gospel of John,⁴³ and, in a somewhat bizarre form, in Gnosticism. It was also reflected in Alchemical texts, such as the Corpus Hermeticum, which advised that this constitutive Presence embraces everything, everywhere and at all times. Expressed in contemporary terms, it was argued that this Presence is ubiquitous, non-temporal and non-spacial.⁴⁴

Christian mystics have insisted on the interconnectedness of all reality and of the fact that God is within all things as their foundational essence and as the ground of their interconnectedness. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) contended that everything is related, connected,⁴⁵ that God has organized everything in relation to everything else⁴⁶ and that the affinity we feel for creatures results from the fact that we discern the presence of God within them.⁴⁷ Mechthild of Magdeburg (1210-1280) similarly confessed that her spiritual awakening coincided with a sudden awareness of the fact that God was in all things and that all things were in God.⁴⁸ Meister Eckhart (1260-1327) contended for a recognition of the interdependence⁴⁹ and relationality⁵⁰ of all things and argued that those who dwell in God live in the eternal now.⁵¹ He further suggested that those who conceive of the creator as external to the creation are ignorant, as God is in all things.⁵² Further confirmation comes from Julian of Norwich (1342-1415)⁵³ and from Nicholas of Cusa (1400-1464), who contended that divinity is the enfolding and unfolding of everything.⁵⁴ Even Aquinas' had argued that God is in the interiority of all things.⁵⁵

This emphasis on the interconnectedness of everything, and of the presence of Mind/ Consciousness/Logos/Spirit in all of reality, continues to be reflected in Paul Tillich's notion of Spiritual Presence⁵⁶ and in John Macquarrie's existentialist description of God as "Holy Being that lets be."⁵⁷ [25]

A Quantum Universe

A suggestion, outlined by Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, corroborates the notion of a Universal Mind, the idea of a universe constituted by an all-embracing Consciousness. They draw attention to the nature of what have been called Bose-Einstein condensates, illustrations of which are superfluids, superconductors and laser beams.

The quantum properties of the Bose-Einstein condensate are both fluidity and a high degree of unity. They differ from glass, in which there is no order or unity among the parts, from gas, in which there is unity but no order and from crystals, in which there is order but no unity. Each indeterminate particle in a condensate fills all the space all the time and the whole acts as one single particle. There is no noise or interference between separate parts.

The authors suggest that consciousness, deriving from a similar firing of the brain's neurones, could furnish the physical basis for human consciousness, which, like other Bose-Einstein condensates, could not be [26] reducible to the sum of their parts. They further argue that this phenomenon is also evident, at a broader level, in society.

They also refer to the "quantum vacuum", of Quantum Field Theory, the ultimate void, heavy with potentiality, from which particles and waves "stand out", as excitations of fluctuations of the vacuum. This fertile Abyss or Emptiness of Buddhism, or the formless-void of Judaic-Christian metaphysics, is, in itself, a type of condensate, perhaps the Primal Condensate. Everything in the Universe, including ourselves and our consciousness, which is a highly developed instance of this Primal Condensate, is a product of and made in the image of the originating Condensate of this Quantum Vacuum. In other words, everything is connected to everything else and God is in everything!⁵⁸

Love

If we accept a universal Mind, non-local and non-temporal, in which all things inhere, we must then ask, "What is the nature of this mind?" The almost universal verdict of religious tradition is that it is loving.⁵⁹ The essence of this universal consciousness is love. This understanding is at the heart of Christian revelation.⁶⁰

In arguing for a God of love, Christians are confronted by the problem of evil and the knotty issue of theodicy. How can a God of love allow suffering? Most attempts, by Christians, at explaining how a God of love can tolerate evil and permit suffering, turn out to be exercises in special pleading, that either detract from the love we predicate of God, or else are recognized as being little more than well-intentioned, philosophical sleights of hand. We will never find an adequate answer to this dilemma. All we can hope to do is to sit with our pain and our perplexity, when we will find, not answers, but a Presence that is with us in our pain.

The Cosmic Christ

While the New Testament focuses on the life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, one can also discern, in an emerging Christology, the notion that this Galilean peasant was the incarnation of what we have been describing as the Universal Mind.

For instance, the Christological hymn, embedded in Colossians, contended that Christ created everything in the universe and that everything that exists is held together in him.⁶¹ This theme was reiterated in Hebrews, which argued that Christ, in whom the fullness and character of God is reflected, sustains the universe by his word of power.⁶² Further expansion is found in the prologue to the Gospel of John, which argued that the Word, the Universal Logos, that dwelt with God, that was what God was and that became incarnate in Christ, was with God when the universe was brought into being. It was through the Logos that everything came into existence.[27]

What he brought into existence was alive with his life and that life was the source of human enlightenment.⁶³

That this theme continued to nourish many in the church in the days of the Church Fathers was evident in the writings of Thomas Aquinas, the Medieval Doctor of the Church, who systematised, preserved and developed the teachings of the Early Church. Aquinas re-emphasised the view of the universe which saw it inhering in God. His understanding was that every creature witnesses to God's power, omnipotence and wisdom⁶⁴ and participates in the likeness of the divine essence.⁶⁵

In more recent times, the notion of God being present in the cosmos has been a prominent theme in the writings of Teilhard de Chardin. Teilhard's emphasis was evident in his comment that his material body was not an aspect of that universe, that he possessed totally. The truer reality was that he possessed the whole of the universe in the context of his particularity.⁶⁶ Gerald Manley Hopkins, equally a master of the quintessential, celebrated this intuition by declaring that the world was filled with the grandeur of God.⁶⁷

Paul Tillich, influenced by Schelling, articulated the vision of a ubiquitous "Spiritual Presence" which found unique expression through humanity, its culture and history.⁶⁸ Rahner similarly developed this theme of an immanent divine cosmic Presence.⁶⁹

Feminist theologians have also been eager to celebrate a cosmic Presence, partly in reaction to a persisting patriarchal theological paradigm, with its rationalism and hierarchies, and partly because of their desire to relate their experience of embodiment to the discussion of theology. This tendency is reflected in Sally McFague's description of the cosmos as The Body of God.⁷⁰ In McFague's model, God is viewed as Spirit, permeating the cosmic body and vivifying and developing it.⁷¹

Linked Experiences

I argued, in an earlier chapter, that experience of God and experience of self are interconnected. In this chapter, I have contended that the God, discovered by us in our interiority, can be recognized, not only within us, but also within the external world. I would further suggest that these two approaches to God are linked. The more we are in touch with the presence and activity of God within, that is, with the body/self, the more readily will we discern this same presence within the wider universe. [28]

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