The greatest illusion, the Grand Illusion of Humanity, is that we are separate. Separate from each other. Separate from plants and animals and nature. Separate from the world. Separate from life and God, from Mother Earth and the joy of being alive.
We forget that all of life is sacred, and that we are an integral part of the Divine. Joy, awe, wonder, delight is our birthright. We are meant to be happy.
Some people describing what happens when they contract full-blown coronavirus is that the pain goes right into their bones. People have described a radical illness unlike any other, more deeply disruptive than any illness ever experienced before.
What if the pandemic is a device for healing our mistaken perspective, our deeply ingrained and nasty habit, that we are separate from Nature and Joy and from all the people and creatures in the world.
We are all One. All of life is One. Everything in the world is part of Consciousness, and we are an integral part of that all-pervasive Consciousness. Perhaps the pandemic is a sinister little tool for curing our badly mistaken position, often rigidly held, that we are alone, separate, individual. In other words, rugged individualism. The cowboy myth.
Maybe the pandemic is curing the cowboy myth, or contributing to that cure.
Just a thought.
I have made a tremendous amount of progress on the story world which now includes Life: A Field Manual as one of its story elements.
I now call this whole thing my “Story Project“ because this story world, this story universe, is producing a book and also a movie script, and perhaps eventually a graphic novel.
The book has an outline, in 3 parts. The book has a title. Several chapters of the book have been written, the first drafts anyway. We have seven primary characters (so far). Each primary character acts like their own person, but they also embody a deeper identity. Nehanda, for example, is the spirit of the people of Africa.
It is an imaginative tale being designed to provide a vision of a bright future. Every day, the news highlights the horrors of humanity’s injurious effect on our world. Just as it is possible to view the pandemic in a constructive light, it is also possible to view humanity’s current existential crisis in a hopeful way. It just takes a little creative hard work and imagination.
Recently CarolG posted here, calling this story universe an antidote. Well said.
I’m not publicizing the story outline, the book title, the chapters that have been written, or the essential story itself. That information will be revealed when the book is released. Then perhaps this Substack site will have a serious purpose. For now, it is merely a hobby platform rarely used.
As a species we first stepped on the moon in 1969, and during that period we saw our first photographs of the earth. It was a revolution in human consciousness. For the first time we were giving serious consideration to the earth as a whole, and to what might lie beyond the earth. Star Wars came out in 1977, adding imaginative fuel to that fire.
Now we are due for a new revolution in human consciousness, moving to another level as it were. Hopefully this story, if it ever gets printed, can contribute to this latest revolution and evolution.
"What if the pandemic is a device for healing our mistaken perspective, our deeply ingrained and nasty habit, that we are separate from Nature and Joy and from all the people and creatures in the world."
Your words and their implications startled me. I had COVID in March 2020 and the physical symptoms were truly terrible but the vivid, serialized dreams were frightening in a completely different way. Over the course of 15-20 consecutive dreams, I was left with the belief that our human lives are a construct directed by something outside of humanity... and the governing rules of that construct are about to drastically change.
Daily, nearly two years later, I consider how much of my psyche may be responsible for that message and am willing to admit that my own fever, fears and imagination might color my interpretation. But even then, I can't shake the belief that each of my dreams took me to "thin places" where worlds are fused together.
Your post adds more fuel for thought. Thank you.