One Life...

Many Manifestations

“Great souls are they who see that spiritual is stronger than material force, that thoughts rule the world.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (Self-Reliance)

I watched Tom Shadyac's documentary film, “I AM,” with the Seekers Group last night. If you have a chance, I highly recommend it. In the film, Shadyac chronicles his journey from making such films as Ace Ventura and Bruce Almighty, to his concussion illness that lasted for months. He had lived the hyper-lavish lifestyle that most Hollywood film directors aspire to, his properties growing more opulent with each success. But, when he came face-to-face with death and all the emotional turmoil that comes with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), he began to ask the big questions about life's meaning, and especially, what underpins our violent society.

There is too much in the film to write in one blog, but essentially, Tom asked luminaries in science, philosophy, academia, and spirituality, including Desmond Tutu, Howard Zinn and Lynne McTaggart, what is the strongest instinct of humanity—what has allowed us to become the dominant species. The answer from everyone, along with the hard science to demonstrate it, is not what you might think. It is not dominance by physical force—survival of the fittest—but the ability to cooperate. It is our ability to act cooperatively in the interest of the greater good that has allowed us to prosper. We are in trouble as soon as we squash the basic instinct to work together—to put our energy into pulling one another up and not into simply enriching ourselves.

One of the things that Tom Shadyac noticed about himself, and others in his orbit who were considered “successful” was that the lavish lifestyle did not produce happiness. Their first instinct was to add more of everything—bigger house, real art, celebrity friends, expansive holdings. But that didn't work either. It was only a literal blow to the head that turned his thoughts around. What he came to understand is that we have been sold a bill of goods with regard to what is important—what it means to be successful. It is not the hording of wealth, but the sharing of wealth, not the tendency to accumulate more than we can use, but the freedom of living light. Most of all, happiness comes from the conscious realization of our common bonds with all living things on planet Earth. We share common DNA with every living organism, and the very air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink is filled with the elements of other life forms—those who are here now, and those who have gone before us. There is no such thing as separation—everything is connected. We are one life.

As soon as we, as a species, come to understand this at a fundamental level—science can now prove what the great spiritual traditions have always known—that this is one life with many manifestations—we will see our world change. I believe we are headed in that direction now. I pray that human consciousness reaches this level in my lifetime. I want our children, and all the world's children, both now and all generations to come, to live in peace. I know you do, too.

In the Spirit,
Jane