But we don't live in our actual physical bodies as if we experience life in the All-Is-One model. We experience it pretty much as individuals -- it is a limitation of our nervous system -- even though we are biologically interdependent. That's the way we evolved, for some reason -- I would guess as a constraint of information processing. We can fantasize about group mind, but very few of us actually experience it outside of the low bandwidth of language and gesture.
It's true that we don't ordinarily seem to experience existence beyond our body. I think it can feel that way under the influence of certain chemicals or intense meditative states, but the practical impact of that feeling is limited.
However, that feeling can spark the idea of this "better way" of modeling the universe: the belief that the universe is at basis a force preferring cooperation, balance, and "good", because we all have skin in all the games, not just our own. The impact of this idea of existence is not a physical one-ness, but a mindset providing a basis for preferring peace, cooperation, and self-determination in the iterated game of life.
In that sense, 'living as if we experience life as all one" would be not about the experience of group mind, but rather trying to live in balance with nature and other species, trying not to unnecessarily interfere with the course of nature, and working with other humans to reduce conflict and create good through cooperation.
And the key thing that I think Caitlin is suggesting: rejecting those in power who would enslave us and pit us against one another.
But we don't live in our actual physical bodies as if we experience life in the All-Is-One model. We experience it pretty much as individuals -- it is a limitation of our nervous system -- even though we are biologically interdependent. That's the way we evolved, for some reason -- I would guess as a constraint of information processing. We can fantasize about group mind, but very few of us actually experience it outside of the low bandwidth of language and gesture.
It's true that we don't ordinarily seem to experience existence beyond our body. I think it can feel that way under the influence of certain chemicals or intense meditative states, but the practical impact of that feeling is limited.
However, that feeling can spark the idea of this "better way" of modeling the universe: the belief that the universe is at basis a force preferring cooperation, balance, and "good", because we all have skin in all the games, not just our own. The impact of this idea of existence is not a physical one-ness, but a mindset providing a basis for preferring peace, cooperation, and self-determination in the iterated game of life.
In that sense, 'living as if we experience life as all one" would be not about the experience of group mind, but rather trying to live in balance with nature and other species, trying not to unnecessarily interfere with the course of nature, and working with other humans to reduce conflict and create good through cooperation.
And the key thing that I think Caitlin is suggesting: rejecting those in power who would enslave us and pit us against one another.