Diversity In Unity

According to Chris Bache's description of Robert Monroe's "interlife rings," the bardo region between life and death is a place where our souls can choose to associate only with others like ourselves, or with others at a similar level of development. Bache indicates that this stands in counterpoint to the physical plane where we live, where we are forced to interact with myriad, different beings. Thus, the diversity of physical life encourages faster development at the soul-level. In this way, would such an "interlife" be a kind of heaven with a dark side, akin to gated communities where people choose to be insulated among others just like themselves? This model indicates a back and forth between resting (in unity) and growth (through diversity). But is such a one-at-a-time model the only way of thinking about how diversity and unity interact?

Perhaps a more useful conception, especially as manifested in a conscious organism, is consciousness as unity and community. The diversity of unique thoughts, the diversity of experiences and emotions -- these can be conceived of as analogous to a society. The single neurons in a human brain that can never experience what it feels like to act as a coherent body nevertheless comprise an overall system which "transcends and includes" them. Aren't these neurons a form of community? Moving beyond the concrete biochemistry of the brain, Genpo Merzel builds on the "Psychology of Selves" theory as he seeks the communal intelligence of our different conscious "Voices" to help us integrate Dual and Non-Dual reality. And even from the point of view of the unified ego-consciousness of a single individual, the diversity of experience as we age reflects the shifting of emphasis of different voices or perspectives of our minds.

However you want to conceive of our discrete inner-selves or voices, one can imagine our inner landscape to function like the shifting currents of cultural views (and vice versa). Like a peaceful transition of political power, perhaps each coherent individual repeatedly transitions as different inner voices align and become prominent, thus transforming our "singular" identity. "I" and "We" at the same time. Diversity and Unity, together.

In the outside world as we typically think of it, diversity is something that must be actively sought out, and embraced as the vehicle for growth that it is. But coherence must also be sought. Homogeneity, or hegemony, is not an evil, unless it is blind. If we are to evolve into a loving, unified culture, certain coherence of principles must be attained. Homogeneity with openness is a strong, evolving coherence. I believe this to be our destiny: Diverse but Unified.

Collective Transparency

To me, Facebook is the leading edge of what is possibly the most evolutionary aspect of the web: the transparency of each of us and all of us.

Increasingly, people are signing on and donning a Facebook mask. This mask is seen not just by those one wishes would see it, but by anyone one accepts into one's circle. For most of us that means people who knew us as children, family, current friends, professional acquaintances, etc. No longer can the image you put forth into the world be so segmented. Now everyone sees the same pictures, the same likes/dislikes that you broadcast, the same political views, the same mask.

It's still a mask, but in my opinion, it's harder to obfuscate your true self to all these people who know different aspects of you. Thus, the mask probably tends to become more authentic of our true self, and perhaps we are encouraged to live up to the ideal we want the world to believe that we are.

The second aspect, and Facebook is just one piece, is the clearing house of the collective consciousness that is on display online. I believe that a collective mind is becoming transparent to an ever larger group of people, because we can see that we are experiencing and thinking things in sync. Leaving the mystical aspects of a collective mind to the side for one moment, I think it is a profound step for people to begin seeing themselves as part of this collective cultural force, instead of discrete atoms.

The Nexus Age

Increasingly, there is a desire among those interested in human evolution to distance current visionary philosophies from the perceived airiness of what has been called "New Age" thinking. "New Age" has become a pejorative moniker for all that may be deficient about hippy culture.

The replacement label for this Era of Transformation is "Next Age," a concept that maintains a focus on becoming.

Neither is distasteful to me. However, as an even more evocative label for the current period I propose yet a different concept: "Nexus Age."

Nexus means "core" or "center." As Wilber and Gebser put forth, we are living in an Age of Integration. We are in the process of melding ancient and modern wisdom, matter and spirit. The irony is that attainment of enlightenment involves the reconciliation of Above and Below, of Now and Later. We are becoming increasingly aware that the future is not "better" than the present, that life Above is not "better" than life Below. Reality, and life, is a moving process. All stages of the process are in harmony, and this point of evolution is about an awareness of this harmony and process. This facet of truth is becoming transparent to our conscious minds, right now.

In the Nexus Age, humans exist fully in the present moment, aware that we are neither matter or spirit, but the nexus of both. We are neither becoming something different, nor are we only one particular form; we are at the nexus of both. Our conscious minds see through the process, and realize that Now, our future, our destiny, our potential is manifest and manifesting.

In the Nexus Age, we embrace that we are the meeting point of all dualities. Let's meet there now.


Image credit: "Disorientation" by heiwa4126, used under Creative Commons license.