We Are One
I never liked the phrase “we are one” when it was used in the context of entheogens or wellbeing communities.
It felt lofty and gimmicky.
Like what the actual f*ck is that because I just feel numb and I have a taste of plastic in my mouth when someone says it.
In time, I had my own “we are one” experiences; ego dissolutions that were hard to parse or describe and took all my tenacity to unravel and ground in my everyday experience and language.
I was thinking today about the number of people who crave having that “we are one” experience and have a taste of the divine union of all beings. I saw a line in my mind showing a simple way to open oneself to that possibility and that’s what I am gonna share now.
Safeport: this is a downstroke “we are one” experience. If you are seeking an upstroke, seek elsewhere. I am being clear here so if you want to get to engage with that kind of experience but you sense you don’t have the capacity for what’s coming, you stop here and circle back some other time or never.
You will need to be versed in grounding before you continue. Use the Butterfly Hug technique by Mexican therapist Lucina Artigas if you are unsure about what technique to use.
First of all, exhale.
Exhale a few times and feel your body.
Then, count your blessings.
Consider all the things you are lucky to have and that may have eased your way in the world. Good phyiscal and mental health, loving parents, born and bred in the global north, socialised male, racialised as wh1t3, living in a peaceful country, never went hungry to bed, parents didn’t die or abandon you during your childhood, happy marriage or relationship status, stable job, an able body, a family name associated with power, heaps of money (enough for you and a couple of generations after you), being in a country with a good welfare system and a wide availability of medical care, education, fresh water available at all times, air con or heating, never suffered physical violence by parents or other relatives, never raped or sexually assaulted, never being the victim of a violent crime, good relations, a sexual life you feel happy with, a loving group of friends, enough time off work, nourishing holidays, with the number of kids you want, no pollution or considerable efforts made to reduce it, wildlife protected or restored, availability of goods on line and in high street shops, good internet and mobile services, cutting edge technology available at reasonable prices, having a passport that is accepted in many countries without the need to apply for a visa, are from a country which colonised other countries, physically attractive, being straight, being of the gender you were assigned a birth, etc, etc.
Feel all those things, especially the things you did absolutely nothing for to get them. You just opened your eyes in this world and you got a bunch of things by default.
Feel that cluster of privileges in your body. Feel the sensations.
Lock the cluster by naming a particular sensation you are experiencing and its intensity (scale 1 to 10).
Exhale and release that sensation by writing it down.
Now ponder the following thought: all those privileges were available to you thanks to the pain and suffering of all the people who didn’t have them.
Exhale.
You never went hungry because millions starved just for you to have a nice meal every day.
You never saw a war in your country thanks to dozens of war-torn countries.
You never worried about not having water because draughts ravaged lands far away from you.
And so on.
Exhale and ponder.
Open your heart and feel the connection between you holding your privileges and people, plants, animals, the earth itself getting the short end of the stick.
Feel. If your mind demands verifiable data and an outline of how this is possible, I am not going to give it to you. Perhaps this is a good time to exhale a few times and quit this experiment for the time being.
If you feel able to continue, let your mind blabber for a while and keep feeling.
How does it feel to ponder that all your privileges have been secured through the suffering of others? (Not because that is the only way possible but because that is the way it’s ensured when living under the dominant culture.)
This isn’t about guilt-tripping you or making you feel evil. This is about feeling the impact of your existence. Just your existence. You breathing air, being alive has an impact and the egregore of the dominant culture has it be it is a detrimental one for many beings.
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Feel deeper and feel the pain of those others. Of the Other. All the pain that was necessary for you to get your latest glass of water from the tap or your recent holiday in Bali.
Feel.
Feel.
Feel.
Face the feelings.
Feel.
Feel.
Feel.
Feel and lock a particular sensation you are experiencing and its intensity (scale 1 to 10).
Exhale and release that sensation by writing it down.
Now you have two keys to the same experience.
Exhale.
Exhale.
Exhale.
Relax your neck, your back, your bottom.
Read out loud those two sensations you wrote down before. Increase your attention on the areas where they arose. See if they naturally arise again or other sensations in the same locations arise.
Focus on those areas and increase the attention a tad more.
Set an intention to connect those two locations. Ask your heart centre for help.
Exhale and widen your focus to cover both locations, anything in between and your heart centre.
Exhale and stay there.
Just feel.
Feel the “we are one”.
Feel how you and I are connected.
Feel how we all are connected.
It is likely that there is a lot of sensation in this part and that your body feels on fire for a while. Let it be. Allow it and witness it for as long as is needed.
Once it settles, lock a particular sensation you are experiencing and its intensity (scale 1 to 10).
Exhale and release that sensation by writing it down.
Ground.
You are good.
You are precious
I love you.
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