There's a wonderful story about Milarepa, the Tibetan Buddhist saint who as a young man went out into the world to experience life and returned home to find his house filled with demons. He was angry and afraid at first and wanted to fight them or flee. Instead, he did the unexpected.

First he took a deep breath and bowed. Half of the demons disappeared. Then he opened his heart and mind, expanded his field of awareness and out of his mouth came a song that sent away all but one of the demons. The last demon, snarling fiercely, opened his mouth to consume Milarepa, but Milarepa placed his head in the demon's mouth. The demon disappeared.

What's wonderful about this story is the way Milarepa dispelled the demons. He "inspired" himself with a deep, calming breath and expanded into the higher perspectives of peaceful non-resistance.

We can do the same. If we are quiet and wait patiently, magnificent insights will come to us too. We have only to expand our view, as ancient people did in watching the constellations move around the nighttime sky. One day, someone built a wheel and civilization moved forward.

How do we move into the higher mind, which sees farther and more truly than our ordinary eyes?

Here's how it works for me. When I take a deep breath, widen my awareness and wait patiently, my still, small voice beckons me into the peaceful serenity of my heart. I am drawn by these joyful feelings into a luminous field of love behind my closed eyes, and I sit silently, gratefully, in these currents of energy until Earth meets Heaven in me.

In this stillness of being, I seek not to know why there was an earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean. I open my heart and envision light illuminating that part of the world, calming and purifying earth, sea and sky. In being a channel of blessings, I too am healed.

Some people consider meditative prayer to be wishful thinking, yet it is the single most effective way to bring about healing and peace. More than anything else, the love and light flowing from us will bring each suffering person the understanding, peace and healing so badly needed and propel us all into the age of enlightenment wheeling toward us now.

The amazing research of Dr Masaru Emoto on water crystals (hado.net) perfectly illustrates the ability of loving prayer to transmute diseased water into molecular patterns of exquisite beauty and harmony. Meditation has the same alchemical effect, according to 600 studies cited by physicist John Hegelin (permanentpeace.org). These studies show that the peaceful energies pulsing outward during meditation build a global brain wave coherence that reduces aggression and heals the quantum field of consciousness.

So why are our lessons still so painful? My still, small voice explains that pain, suffering and loss are in no way part of the natural order. Rather, our resistance to the love flowing through all things creates an energetic snarl of pain and loss.

As we open our hearts and minds, our empathy moves us into the quantum field of love, where we become one humanity. This is the path of oneness taken by all the great mystics and why the Hindu swami Muktananda said, "Earth, moon, stars and sun revolve inside me." Rumi, the Sufi poet of Islam, urged us to immerse ourselves in the glittering cosmic sea of spirit until our toes begin to say Allah.

The Hebrew prophet Elijah found oneness and divine guidance in the still, small voice within and so did the Christian prophet Jesus. In "The Life of St. Issa," an ancient manuscript translated by a traveler in a Tibetan monastery in the 1880s, Jesus points us to the voice of the heart and God's infinite healing and peace.

The universal laws of love will protect us if we live in harmony with our planet and keep our eyes on the big picture: a wheel inside a wheel turning us inward to an enlightened new age where we are one people, one mind, one soul dispelling its demons and coming to know Itself.

source - Judith Pennington @ eaglelife.com

The Natural Law of Oneness - In countless ways throughout history sages and philosophers have said,"We are One". What comes to mind when you here this phrase spoken? Does this seem a trite platitude, or a literal and obvious fact? A person will tend to understand "We are One" in direct accord with how much inner reflection they have done in their lives. Meditation helps us understand that our oneness is a fact of natural law.

Through human self-reflection, the universal force that is consciousness also self reflects to some degree. This is so because there are no real boundaries between human beings and Nature, other than those we impose. Humanity is an extension of nature and natural laws. This is why we are a medium for That Which Creates and Understands in the Universe.

As part of this creative Cosmos, we too create, self reflect, and come to know the Creator Within. This is why one of the very best ways to know God, is through the knowing of self. Our daily reality is not only a matter of connection with God or Universal Consciousness. We are in fact, actually composed of the same essence as that which is called God. In essence, we are as"cells in the infinite body of God". There are no ultimate boundaries in the cosmos. The universe is actually composed of the very same underlying substance in all places, peoples, and times. We are all "made of God", or in other words, Consciousness.

Within our being is the essence of universal Intent. That Intent prompts us to grow, to increase our knowledge and become ever more than before. This is the impulse of evolution in all living beings. As a result of evolutionary impulses, we have at our command both the intelligence to accurately perceive the laws of Nature, as well as the potential wisdom to apply them effectively. We may, if we so choose, realize our Divine and Natural identity. Humanity may stride forth into a self-enlightened era, one that recognizes Nature and Consciousness as self. Through such understanding we may fashion an enlightened world.

Humanity, like all life, is the expression of Universal Intelligence. We are the product of the Universal Will to evolve, through the medium of living bodies. Life is conclusively not the result of purely random mathematical probabilities. It is the result of an intelligent universe that has Intent, and which is self aware. For this reason it is not reasonable to conclude that we are the sole intelligent creation, in a universe that is itself everywhere intelligent. Our existence and sophistication is testimony to universal order, and purposeful action. It is no mere accident that human potentials for creative, wise and purposeful action are vast. Even the single cell possesses an incredible library of information encoded into its very structure. The scope of that information will never be adequately encompassed by words, not even by many volumes of the most advanced scientific texts. How much more this is true of the human being we cannot even scientifically guess, with any real accuracy. We must turn within to obtain kind depth of knowledge, and how to make best use of it. The intelligent expression of Natural Law, that is everywhere for us to observe, be it named God, Synchronicity, Consciousness, the Tao or Gaia, is still, That which Manifests throughout Nature. When we return to Nature and the natural, the principles of natural law will again become clear to society as a whole. So will the best means for right living in general.

Subjects such as study of the soul, of unified field implications, psychic phenomena, group mind phenomena and the underpinnings of Natural Law, are all fundamental keys to the understanding of life. A striking feature of such studies is their inherently unifying nature. Such fundamental knowledge encompasses all of religion, science, philosophy and day to day living, simultaneously. If one were to summarize all of these pillars of wisdom under one comprehensive heading, it would have to be under the category of consciousness. This is why a knowledge of consciousness breaks all ideological and social boundaries. Through it, all apparent divisions in the world are rendered essentially meaningless. In the realization of self as consciousness, we may see that the conclusions of scientists, theologians, and philosophers of all ages, (past and present) have been derived from the same fundamental reality. In all the great philosophies and religions of history, consciousness and its particulars form the common thread of Truth, that is woven into the fabric of the world's rituals and practices.

source - excerpt from 'God and Consciousness' by Matthew Webb @ esolibris.com

With more and more people talking about collective consciousness, it seems natural to wonder, Is there any scientific research to back it up? The answer, increasingly, appears to be "yes." In fact, a growing body of recent research suggests not only that a field of awareness and intelligence exists between human beings but also that through it we influence each other in powerful ways.

Just as Gene Roddenberry imagined a future in which Star Trek's Spock could "mind meld" with others, more of us are now becoming aware of our remarkable capacity to intuit each other's thoughts and emotions, as well as to consciously think and create together without communicating through the five senses. Collective consciousness becomes most apparent in our ability to intuitively sense and work with the interactions between our and others' physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual "energy fields." Although science has long been convinced of the existence of gravitational, electric, and magnetic fields, significant research in the frontier science known as parapsychology, or the study of psychic ("psi") phenomena, indicates that other types of fields—including thought fields—may also exist. A fundamental psi phenomenon is extrasensory perception or influence, perhaps made possible by the apparent ability of consciousness to operate beyond the constraints of space and time. Examples include telepathy and remote viewing.

The existence of psi (or tele-prehension, as Ken Wilber calls it) has been convincingly demonstrated in numerous scientific studies carried out by Marilyn Schlitz, Dean Radin, and others. In typical remote viewing experiments, for example, one individual is sent to a distant, undisclosed location while another individual, who remains in the lab, attempts to "remotely view" and describe that distant location in detail. Across a large number of experiments, remote viewers have been able to describe another's surroundings with a statistically significant degree of accuracy. Intriguingly, pairs who had an emotional bond have obtained the strongest results. These findings suggest that groups whose members build a sense of connection and trust with each other may have an increased capacity to access and understand each other's perspectives, to "see through each other's eyes."

Biologist Rupert Sheldrake and others have conducted several ingenious experiments that show how widespread psi abilities are—even in animals. Using synchronized video cameras placed in the homes and workplaces of dog owners, he has proven that dogs go to wait at the front doors of their homes at the precise moment their owners decide to return home from work, even when those times are varied daily. Sheldrake, Radin, and others have conducted numerous telepathy experiments on human beings as well, demonstrating that people can sense the thoughts and intentions of others across space and time. This research includes studies on a common experience called "the sense of being stared at." By separating two people in a laboratory setting, with the first person hooked up to equipment that monitors his or her nervous system and the second person staring at the first person at random intervals on a closed-circuit television, researchers have collected evidence for the existence of this phenomenon with statistical "odds against chance" of 3.8 million to one.

Sheldrake has also demonstrated in a number of studies that we can assist each other's learning across distances, without any external interaction or communication. In one study, for instance, a group of individuals completed a newly created crossword puzzle, and their average completion times were recorded. The same puzzle was then broadcast to millions via TV, for the viewers at home to complete. Subsequently, a new group, who had not seen the puzzle at all, finished it significantly faster than the original group, suggesting that as a result of so many individuals having done the puzzle, knowledge of the puzzle was somehow etched into the field of collective consciousness, making it increasingly easier for others to solve.

Radin, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) Lab, and Roger Nelson's Global Consciousness Project have taken research into consciousness "field effects" even further—into the realm of mind/matter interactions—by conducting a series of intriguing experiments with random number–generating (RNG) computers. RNGs can basically be thought of as sophisticated coin-flipping machines, programmed to issue zeroes or ones randomly. That is, just as if you were to flip a coin one hundred times and could expect the "heads" and "tails" sides to come up fifty times each, so it is with an RNG—producing, on average, an equal number of zeroes and ones. Ordinary people, however, have used the power of thought alone to create order out of this randomness, causing RNGs that were sometimes thousands of miles away to issue significantly more of one number over many trials, simply by intending to do so. Bonded pairs—couples in a relationship—produced effects that were six times stronger than individuals. Like the remote viewing experiments, these results indicate that people with an emotional connection, when acting in concert, are more influential than individuals acting alone.

Just as we can create order in physical systems through focused attention or intention, a number of experiments have suggested that two or more people can create synchronization or coherence between their nervous systems. For example, in research funded by the Institute of Noetic Sciences and others, Marilyn Schlitz and William Braud have shown that individuals who are calm and relaxed can intentionally reduce the anxiety of others in distant places, and that people consciously focusing their attention can help others in remote locations to concentrate their wandering minds. In another arena—"distance healing"—67 percent of 150 controlled studies have shown that individuals and groups can use intention, relaxation, enhanced concentration, visualization, and what is described as "a request to a healing force greater than themselves," to heal others to a statistically significant degree. Healing effects and tele-prehension have increased when participants felt empathy and rapport or when they meditated together.

On community, societal, and even worldwide levels, more than twenty experiments, published in respected scientific journals, have demonstrated that Transcendental Meditation groups representing one percent of a target population have caused significant improvements in measures of quality of life and physical and mental health and have reduced crime, accidents, conflict, and war in the entire target population, apparently by reducing stress in the collective psyche.

These and other studies provide strong evidence that we can develop and work with our collective consciousness to produce a number of important interpersonal, organizational, and social benefits—from increased empathy, understanding, and respect to enhanced health, cooperation, and creative collaboration. In our increasingly diverse workplaces, communities, and global institutions, where we are challenged by extremely complex and urgent problems, cultivating these capacities will not only promote the common good but also could ensure our survival.

source - Robert Kenny @ wie.org/j25/kenny.asp

An Idea Whose Time Has Come - There are pivotal ideas that have changed the destiny of mankind and shaped its future. Many have remained unnoticed within the shadowy corners of history until a bright light has shown on them, illuminating them, and making them relevant to time, place, and circumstance.

Such is the understanding of the oneness of the human family, of mankind - an idea that has been part of human consciousness for ages, yet one that has not attained its full status as being real or relevant until today, when the planetary body itself is in danger, and when new possibilities appear within the hearts of many who are being influenced by expanding spiritual light upon the Earth.

The idea of the human family relates not only to its essential oneness in terms of the basic needs and rights of every individual upon the Earth - the need and right to food, shelter, and a way of life free from fear. The idea of the human family relates also to the understanding that there is a basic kinship among mankind, a basic essence that we share together so that in heart, mind, body, and spirit, there is more that joins us than that separates us.

This perception, when taken to a deeper level of truth and reality, has radical consequences. For it means that we cannot separate the world any longer into those we love and those we hate, those who are with us and those who are against us. Indeed, we must find a way to achieve common ground even with those we hold profound differences with, recognizing their humanity, recognizing, that they, too, have the same underlying structure of needs and desires that define all that is human.

We are in the process of discovering, today, not a new truth about the physical, biological, or chemical structure of what it means to be human - although advances in science are revealing a great deal in these areas as well. Today, we are discovering a truth that emerges from the heart. This truth emanates a sense of compassion, a desire for peace, a longing for honesty and an end to deception, an aversion to all that limits or restricts the rights of individuals to live freely.

These ideals, illuminated by spiritual light, are glowing more brightly within the human heart, so that structures and policies that are detrimental to the right of individual freedom are being questioned, policies that have been long established that have contained hidden motives or agendas are being uncovered, and practices that are restrictive to human liberty are being exposed. These policies and practices may not yet have an immediate substitute at hand. For the vision of the new has not yet fully come into being. Yet the desire for fundamental respect to be accorded to each and every human being because of their humanity, is moving more into the foreground of human consciousness.

An idea whose time has come may have been present in awareness long before this. It may even have been one commonly referred to, yet without understanding the full consequence of its emergence into the light of day. Such is the idea of the 'human family', one in mind, heart, and spirit, waiting to recognize itself as one in body as well. For this 'body' of the human family is nothing other than the essence of Divine life and Divine energy that has lived within each human soul from the beginning of time. It is the essence of truth and of purity that has remained at the core, no matter what the exterior self has displayed. This Divine essence which links all in 'body' as well as in mind and heart, means that there is no longer an 'outsider' or 'other' that we may declare as such. For all are united in a common Source that flows through the spiritual veins of each human being.

This is the new and radical truth whose time has come. It has not yet fully arrived on the human scene, but is waiting in the wings. It is waiting for each one to awaken to the full meaning of being One.

source - Julie Redstone @ worldblessings.com

The experience of unity consciousness is transcendent, beyond mind. To describe (or attempt to describe) the experience of unity consciousness with the use of conceptual language inherent in the mind is quite difficult.

It's similar to describing the feeling of falling in love or the birth of a child -- difficult to put into words, or, just the right words. Words are labels, and labels are by their nature limiting. Just as one cannot accurately describe infinity, one cannot accurately describe unity consciousness. The words used in the futile attempt to describe unity consciousness can, however, serve as a bridge to the experience of oneness.

No two individuals will view a oneness experience alike. If two persons traveled to the North Pole, one may describe the experience as an opportunity to view mammoth and beautiful glacial formations. Yet, the other may complain of the bitterly cold conditions. It's all in the eye of the beholder, yet there may be common threads in the descriptions of those who have the beyond-mind experience.

In stark contrast to our interpretation of life in a dualistic manner, one may be struck by the inherent connectedness of all life in the oneness state. No longer is one separate as an individual, seeing all as outside or beyond the borders of self. Rather than being exclusive, all of life is viewed a part of one's self. The trees, the plants, rocks, other persons, sand on the beach, space, time, thought, love — everything is you and you are everything. It is one gigantic unified relationship in the ocean of existence. It's crossing the bridge from "little ol' me" to "infinity."

While in the dualistic state there might have been ignorance, mysteries or unanswered questions, now it all makes complete sense.

While it may seem that experiencing this infinite connectedness could be a burden on the brain, the experience itself is one of utter tranquility. Whereas the nature of the dualistic "reality" causes an on-going tension or battle in thought, the oneness experience is a fusion of any such tension into an infinite peace. Everything is "just fine" or "just perfect" about life. Actually, it feels beyond perfect in this infinite sea of tranquility. The stormy waters of life subside and there is perfect and undeniable calmness to the waters. It is true and unfathomable peace.

Inherent within the unity consciousness is a deep understanding of life as never before. While in the dualistic state there might have been ignorance, mysteries or unanswered questions, now it all makes complete sense. You KNOW, though not in an intellectual manner. You know because you have become the experience, and it's closer to you and more a part of you than the air you breathe. It is in every cell of the body, between every cell, and then some. You are no longer a wandering soul, but one who is firmly entrenched in Truth, fully realized.

You are present. No longer is there is concept of time and space. There is no yesterday or tomorrow. There is no here nor there. Any descriptions relating to time do not exist, as mental constructs are simply washed away. Even saying all is NOW fails as a description, as time ceases to exist.

One expands in appreciation through the oneness experience. EVERYTHING has immense value, from the atom in a grain of sand, to the little ant scurrying about, to every hair on our head, to the wind blowing in the trees, to every star in the sky. There is no value system in the sense that someone or something is more important than another. With all being an inherent part of infinite consciousness (often termed "God"), every aspect of existence has infinite value. Judgments made outside of this experience have come only from the mind of man, which, but its very nature, creates hierarchical structures.

Though we have been strongly indoctrinated that activity or doing is the key to a successful and productive life, we see differently when we transcend. Instead, we see being as a core of, well, our being. It becomes enough to just "stand still," as a tree would stand firm on the ground, and simply exist. Such does not imply that one would only sit in a corner and refrain from using the mind and body; what it means is that we now more fully understand that we are no longer as identified with our actions, roles and accomplishments. We are full and complete in just being; we no longer feel the need to become someone. There is immense value in our nature, in who we are at our very core, without moving a finger.

Perhaps the most dramatic aspect of the unity experience is that we are transformed. Though we are still the person we were before the experience, we are very different. It is as if the old self is peeled away, and what emerges is this creature of life, love, understanding, peace and contentment. It is a new life that feels "closer to home" or that one has arrived. There is no place for fear, doubt or worry, as those are seen only as remnants of the dualistic mind. There is no sense of lack, as the universe of abundance and infinite intelligence is now at one's call. There is only allowing, the unfolding of life in its perfect manifestation of our higher nature. You are a flower in bloom, though fully bloomed. Life is a magnificent paradox.

And as inspiring and uplifting as these words may sound, they doubtfully convey even a fraction of a percentage of the experience. It's life beyond words, beyond thought, into a land beyond where our imaginations are able to travel. There's no way to comprehend it all with our limited minds, and yet we can experience enough of it to understand that, regardless of shape, size, status or place in life, we are inherently divine.

source - Scott Rabalais @ scottrabalais.com