The concept of Oneness is something that is spoken about extensively in various religions and the New Age movement, but very seldom is it clearly defined just exactly what that means. I am not ‘one’ with the chair I’m sitting in, I can get up and walk away from it, just as we can walk away from the people we deal with every day. How does that make us all ‘one’?

While this is true, it is also an answer that is extremely limited in scope. We know that nothing can ever be created or destroyed on an energetic level – that is, the building blocks that everything is made from are constant, they simply change form to create new things. Nowhere is this better portrayed than in the cycle of life – a plant grows, is eaten by an animal, which in turn is eaten by a predator, which eventually dies and becomes part of the dirt that grows a new plant. Through all these different forms the energetic building blocks stay the same, they are simply arranged differently. Since nothing can ever be destroyed, it is entirely possible that at some point you have encountered some energy that was a part of you at some point in another life from the distant past. Trippy thought, no?

Now apply this concept to thoughts and feelings – they are also made of energy, even if we cannot see them, and that energy must come from somewhere. This means we are constructing our mental and emotional experience from energy taken from the world around us, and if this is the case then it logically follows that at least some of that energy is going to come from the projected thoughts and feelings of those we interact with. This is actually pretty easy to see any time a large group of people gather, where the old saying ‘a mob is only as smart as it’s dumbest member’ inevitably holds true, as everyone is affected by those around them and ideas (even not very good ones) can quickly take root and spread.

What does this mean on a practical level? Simply put, we share our existence with every other being here on this planet, whether we like it or not. Even if we choose to stay isolated, we cannot completely negate the effect that others can have on us and that we can have on them. That the source of energy we are all made from is inevitably the same means that, in the most literal sense, we are all ‘one’.

“God is a fountain flowing into itself.” – Pope Dionysius