Unity and interconnectedness
States of unity and interconnectedness can be described as an alteration in the cognitive rules which define both what one's sense of self or identity is attributed to and what it is felt as separate from. For example, most people feel that the self is inherently separate from their external environment and could not possibly extend into it. On top of this, many people feel that the self is specifically limited to not even the physical body as a whole, but exclusively a person’s internal narrative or thought stream and the image of their own personality as built up through social interactions with other people.
When experienced, this subjective effect alters directly changes that which one's self is currently attributed to so that it becomes capable of including systems which were previously perceived as seperate to one's identity or being. The experience of this alteration results in feelings of intense and inextricable unity or interconnectedness between oneself and specific or multiple external systems.
Many people who undergo this experience consistently interpret it as the removal of a deeply embedded illusion, the destruction of which is often described as some sort of profound “awakening” or “enlightenment”. Depending on the degree to which this supposed illusion has been lifted, it can lead onto five possible levels of differing intensity and degrees of interconnectedness.
These are listed and described below:
1. Unity between specific external systems
The lowest and least complex level can be referred to as a state of “unity between specific external systems”. This is the only level of intensity in which the subjective experience of unity does not involve a state of interconnectedness between the self and the external. Instead, it can be described as a perceived sense of unity between two or more systems within the external environment which in every day life, are usually perceived as separate from each other.
There are an endless number of ways in which this level manifest itself but common examples of the experience often include:
- A sense of unity between specific living things such as animals or plants and their surrounding ecosystems.
- A sense of unity between specific human beings and the objects they are currently interacting with.
- A sense of unity between any number of currently perceivable inanimate objects.
- A sense of unity between humanity and nature.
- A sense of unity between literally any combination of perceivable external systems and concepts.
2. Unity between the self and specific external systems
The second of these two levels can be referred to as a state of “unity between the self and specific external systems”. It can be defined as the experience of a loss of perceived boundaries between a person’s identity and specific physical systems or concepts within the perceivable external environment which are currently comprising their central point of cognitive focus.
There are an endless number of ways in which this level manifest itself but common examples of the experience often include:
- Becoming unified with a specific object which is being interacted with.
- Becoming unified with another person or multiple people. (particularly common if engaging in sexual or romantic activities)
- Becoming unified with the entirety of ones own physical body.
- Becoming unified with large crowds of people. (particularly common at raves and music festivals)
- Becoming unified with the external environment but not the people within it.
This creates a sensation which is often described by people as the experience of becoming inextricably connected to, one with, the same as, or unified with whatever the perceived external system happens to be.
3. Unity between the self and all perceivable external systems
The third of these five differing levels of intensity can be referred to as "a state of unity between the self and all perceivable external systems". It is defined as the experience of a loss of perceived boundaries between a person’s identity and the entirety of the currently perceivable external environment. The experience as a whole is generally described by people as “becoming one with my surroundings”.
This is felt to be the result of a person’s central sense of self becoming attributed to not just the internal narrative of the ego, but in equal measure, to the body itself and everything around it with which it is physically connected to through the senses. Once this sensation is in place, it creates the undeniable perspective that one is the external environment experiencing itself through the specific point within it that this body’s physical sensory awareness and conscious thought happens to currently reside in.
It's at this level that a key component of the unity experience becomes an extremely noticeable factor. Once a person's sense of self has become attributed to the entirety of their surroundings, this new perspective completely changes how it feels to physically interact with what was previously felt to be an external environment. For example, when physically interacting with an object in everyday life it feels very simply that one is a central agent organizing the world around itself. However, whilst undergoing a state of unity with the currently perceivable environment, interacting with an external object consistently feels as if the system as a whole is autonomously organizing itself and that one are no longer a central agent operating the process of interaction. Instead the process suddenly feels as if it has become completely decentralized and mutual across itself as the environment begins to autonomously, mechanically and harmoniously respond to itself to perform the predetermined function of the particular interaction.
4. Unity between the self and all presently occurring external systems
The fourth of these five differing levels of intensity can be referred to as a "state of unity between the self and all presently occurring external systems". It is defined as the experience of a loss of perceived boundaries between a person's sense of self, the perceivable external environment, and all which they know to currently exist outside of this through their internally stored model of reality. This feels as if one's sense of self has become attributed to not just the external environment but all of humanity, nature, and the universe as it presently stands in its complete entirety. The experience of this is commonly interpreted by people as “becoming one with the universe”.
When experienced, this effect creates the sudden perspective that one is not a separate agent approaching an external reality but is instead the entire universe as a whole experiencing itself, exploring itself, and performing actions onto itself through the specific point in space and time which this particular body and conscious perception happens to currently reside within.
5. Unity between the self and all external systems
The fifth of these five differing levels of intensity can be referred to as a "state of unity between the self and the creation of all external systems". It is defined as the experience of a loss of perceived boundaries between a person's identity and all external systems of behaviour. This includes not just the systems as they currently stand within the present moment but at each known point of their existence throughout all time lines past, present, and future as defined by the person's internally stored model of reality.
When experienced, this feels as if one's sense of self has become attributed to all of space and time including every single past and future event such as the initial creation and eventual destruction of existence. At this point, a number of commonly reported, innately extrapolated conclusions of a religious and metaphysical nature often begin to manifest themselves as profound realizations. These are described and listed below:
- A perspective which feels personally responsible for the designing, planning, and implementation of every single specific detail and plot element of one's personal life, the history of humanity, and the universe as a whole. This naturally includes personal culpability for humanity's sufferings and its flaws, but also includes its acts of love and achievements.
- The sudden and total acceptance of death as a fundamental component of one's life. This is because death is no longer felt to be the destruction of oneself but simply the end of this specific point of conscious awareness-- the vast majority of which has always existed and will continue to exist and live on through everything else in which it resides.
- The realization one's preconceived notions behind the definition of their concept of “god” or “god-hood” can now be felt as identical to the nature of existence and to that of one's true self. This realization is generally reached through the subconscious conclusion that the usually differing concepts of god-hood, existence and self are each now identically defined as that which is the all-encompassing, all-powerful, creator, and sustainer of this existence.
Analysis
Examples of unity throughout history and culture
If one performs research into similar states or ideas of unity and how it relates to the supposedly illusory nature of our current concept of one's self, it quickly becomes evident that others have been reaching consistent conclusions throughout many points within humanity's historical and modern literature. These similar or even identical accounts can be found across a surprisingly large variety of religious, philosophical, and psychological sources. These have been collected and listed as a set of documented examples below:
- Egolessness is a documented emotional state within psychology where one feels no ego (or self) and of having no distinct being apart from the world around oneself. This is often described as feelings of oneness and being inextricably woven to the fabric of one’s surroundings or environment.
- Monism is a philosophical position which argues that there is only one thing, which all things are not separate from but working together within as a unified system of behaviour.
- Oceanic feeling is a state within psychology which is described as a sensation of an indissoluble bond and of being connected with the external world in its integral form. It is considered to be the source of religious energy. From this perspective, the feeling is referred to as an entirely subjective fact and not an article of faith.
- NondualismIn Hindu philosophy, is an idea which states that there is no difference between the concept of Brahman (the external environment) and Ātman (the self).
- Alan Watts, a philosopher who lived in recent times, spoke extensively about the illusory nature of the self. His lectures are extremely informative and can be found for free on the Pirate Bay and in parts within many videos across YouTube. His book “The Book on the Taboo of Knowing Who You Are” is dedicated to a formal explanation of the philosophies and logic behind this perspective and can be found within the form of a free PDF.
- Interconnectedness is a philosophical concept which defines itself as part of the terminology of a world view which sees a oneness in all things. This is based upon the idea that all things are of a single underlying substance or reality and that there is no true separation deeper than appearances.
- Samadhi is a buddhist concept described as a state of mind in which the consciousness of the experiencing subject becomes one with the experienced object.
- Alexander Shulgin is a well known biochemist who discovered hundreds of novel psychedelics. He developed a simple scale for the measurement of the subjective effects of psychoactive substances at a given dosage. This scale was known as the Shulgin Rating Scale and is defined as a four tier levelling system of description. The highest level of which is described as a "peak experience', a 'religious experience,' 'divine transformation,' a 'state of Samādhi" and a "connectedness with both the interior and exterior universes which has come about after the ingestion of a psychedelic drug". Shulgin went further by stating "If a drug (or technique or process) were ever to be discovered which would consistently produce a plus four experience in all human beings, it is conceivable that it would signal the ultimate evolution, and perhaps the end, of the human experiment."
Alongside of the previously listed formal examples of unity, a huge amount of anecdotal accounts of varying detail and legibility can be found littered throughout the many trip report databases and various psychedelic communities which exist across the internet. In our efforts to provide as many general points of data and evidence for the existence of this experience as possible, a number of trip reports written by PW users and readers have been listed below:
- My first experience with unity by Josifikins
- Becoming God (my second experience with unity) by Josifikins
- I designed it this way myself by Oscarette
- Ego death and unity with a friend by Sem'anis
- Prolonged unity and messiah syndrome at school by H0bcnd2
- 5 months of daily mantra chanting - Oneness through meditation by Sem'anis
- permanent all encompassing states of unity and interconnectedness by Oscarette
- States of unity and interconnectedness by Anonymous
- A profound sense of oneness by Oscarette
Although such accounts do not necessarily support the validity of the metaphysical realizations found within these states, they still provide a wealth of evidence regarding the legitimate existence of this experience as a real and physical neurological process that is worthy of formal study and recognition.
Speculation
Although PW is not asserting inherent truth behind any particular metaphysical idea, it's worth noting that claims which the universe by its very definition is comprised of a single unified substance of which we are all a part of is a very basic and logically coherent point of view. This can be argued based on the reasoning that at every level of any system of behaviours complexity, it is inextricably woven into its surrounding systems ad infinitum through mutual interdependent interactions which cannot be defined separately from each other on any basis beyond our subjective experiences of perceivable visual differences. This is an idea which holds true throughout all aspects of physical existence and logically indicates that no individual system or concept such as the self or any other can ever truly be considered as separate from the singular whole.
As a thought experiment which assumes that the realizations found within these states of unity are genuinely based on a rational and logically sound perspective, there are two alternate hypothesis regarding the innate inability for human beings to feel this knowledge of unity within our everyday perspective despite the fact that we can logically understand it.
The first of these is that perhaps this illusion of separateness formed because it is an evolutionary advantage for the ego to feel intrinsically separate from and more significant than the external environment as a means of ensuring the motivation for survival.
The second of these hypotheses is that the illusion of separateness does not stem from a hardware problem but a software problem. It is entirely possible that unity may well be the default perspective through which human beings originally operated, but it has been suppressed through a purely cultural or, more specifically, linguistic problem. This could potentially stem from the way that despite the many obvious benefits of language, it pays a price through completely reorganizing our thought structure and perception of the world into a system of intrinsically separate labels that in reality are merely glimpses of a unified whole. It’s an overcoming of this deeply embedded illusion that hallucinogens and meditation could theoretically overcome by suppressing the linguistic thought structure of the ego and allowing our consciousness to see reality for what it really is.
If the universal definition of the self can be defined as “the thinker behind one's thoughts”, identifying a separate individual component besides the singular whole which serves this purpose seems to be inherently impossible on both a physical and a philosophical level. This realization (which may well be overly simplified or completely wrong) indicates that one is permitted to use terms such as “I”, “you”, and so on, but not because they refer to an empirical and separate self. Instead we are permitted to use them simply because they are convenient symbolic approximations or linguistic tools for use in conversation which, through social interactions with others, we have been taught to believe as something much objective than they really are.