By Todd Hayen, PhD

You don’t have to be spiritual to understand unity consciousness – you are conscious of our human unity whenever you talk to a friend, look at a new born baby, cry at a movie, hug a loved one, or make love. You are even aware of unity when you walk down the street and smile at a stranger, or shake hands with a business associate, or jump out of your seat cheering at a sporting event when your team advances a point. You are aware of your unity with nature when you watch a sunset, take a walk in the woods, hug your dog or pet your cat, or feel the adrenaline surge through your body navigating a kayak through the rapids of a raging river.

You get my point – unity consciousness, or unity awareness – occurs when you are consciously tuned into being human – integrating with the human world around you. Humanity is partly defined by the relationship you have with other humans, sharing the rituals of life: marriages, group activities, worship in congregation, funerals, and other purely human activities – touching, loving, hugging, cueing in on subtle facial expressions, experiencing life’s riches gathered with those you love – or even with people you don’t know. Everyone, in these examples, are human. We all share that.

Is this important? I would say it is vitally important, so important in fact, that I believe we would perish if we didn’t have a fair dose of “unity awareness” every day. What is the worse form of punishment, short of intense physical torture, that we can imagine? We seem to know instinctively that solitary confinement fits that definition. “Thirty days in the hole, that’ll teach ‘im” – a common line in movies and books describing the inhumane treatment that accompanies incarceration. Humans don’t do well in isolation – any form of it if it is forced. How many remember the old Star Trek original series pilot? When Captain Pike is imprisoned by highly advanced humanoids bent on studying human behavior. The captain could be set in any environment he could imagine, but still a prisoner. It was entirely unacceptable. He had to be free. Humans need other human interaction, touch, smiles, hugs. They also need to feel safe around others, and feel free to be who they are. Even in our modern culture, which has developed around an unnatural fear of “other”, we have learned that a welcoming smile from a stranger is a sign of friendliness. We don’t fear shaking hands, even hugging and kissing a stranger if the setting is right. These are not just tribal customs, they are essential to our emotional and psychological health. We are, at a base level, a gregarious sort. If you watch any anthropological footage of scientists in a primal tribal setting you will see how touchy-feely the tribe members are. Very often they all sleep piled up on each other in one large communal hut. Humans are designed to touch and stroke, skin to skin. Maybe we are not quite as chummy these days in our modern steel, glass, and concrete environment, but we have learned to compensate for this modern lack of intimacy – but essentially the need for this deep physical intimacy is in our bones.

Again, is this so important? Yes, I believe it is. More important than you can imagine. What we see happening in our Covid world today is a deliberate, and conscious, removal by authority, of the very things that make us know we are human beings and not merely flesh and blood chattel. A serious accusation, I know, but I cannot see any other explanation for it. Science has shown there is very little, if any, reason to use masks, social distancing, and lockdown, to mitigate the effects of a relatively typical viral presence. If you don’t understand what I am saying here you need to do a little more research, do it before it is too late due to rampant censorship of any thinking that is contrary to the mainstream narrative. We are very possibly experiencing a psychological operation that will render us less defiant, less willing to make a fuss, and more compliant with whatever is shelled out to us. Anyone who has read, or seen the film rendition, of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four will clearly see what a compliant culture looks like at its extreme. The people in Orwell’s dystopia are essentially stripped of all of their humanity. They do not relate to one another in any physical way, the expression of love is strictly forbidden, and moment by moment they are told by the ubiquitous invisible announcer the progress of the continuous war raging in some “invisible” land – remote enough that all information about it can easily be controlled by the “party”. Chillingly familiar, isn’t it? Although the dystopian nightmare of Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four with its “thought police”, “Big Brother” and “newspeak” has nearly become a cliché, the similarities to our modern day continuous, and invisible, war with Covid-19 and ubiquitous news about the virus emanating from countless computer and smart-phone screens is just too close to ignore.

Most people seem to believe in the hyped up seriousness of this war against the formidable enemy called SARS Cov2. Most seem to believe the sanctions are designed to protect us and others from the ravages of a disease that has a high likelihood of killing us and those we love. Most seem to believe that anyone is capable of spreading the disease, and although it is contrary to viral science, most seem to believe this virus can likely kill if transmitted by a person who seems perfectly healthy. Yet all the statistics show the virus not to be as formidable as the media says it is, there is clear evidence that the PCR tests, that are responsible for the high number of “cases” we are frightened with every day, are faulty.

So we willingly drink the poisoned Kool-Aid, believing it is necessary to stay alive, yet quietly the Kool-Aid itself – the mask wearing, the social distancing, the lockdowns and isolation from our families, our friends, and the human race in general – is slowly killing us, not just in quantifiable ways such as depression and suicide, which instances of both have skyrocketed world wide since the beginning of the pandemic, but in even more deadly ways – deadly to our very souls. Humanity is dying, we are losing some of our most precious ways of being aware of our unity; we are becoming, slowly, like the people in Orwell’s dystopia – watch the movie, you will get a clear picture of where we are headed. And we don’t even know it.

What value can we place on the joy and soul nourishing we experience when we hold a new-born baby? Walk on the beach with a newly discovered soulmate? Hug a friend who has had a tough day, shake the hand of a business associate at the consummation of a good business transaction – accompanied by a broad smile you both can appreciate, and from which you both can feel your inner human connection. What value can we place on gatherings with family and friends, hearing and feeling the spontaneous outbursts of laughter as we enjoy everyone’s company, sitting communially with fellow human beings, shoulder to shoulder, watching a sporting event, a ballet, a play or a musical. What value can we put on sitting by a loved one’s side while in the hospital? Attending a family member’s or friend’s funeral? A wedding? Or watching your children play with their playmates in the park? What value can we put on any of these human experiences? – playing, shopping, worshipping, dining, simply living. Never before, even in the times of our most horrendous wars and world calamities, have we been mandated by our government to relinquish our very humanness through connection with others – covering our faces, keeping our distance, and not behaving as humans have behaved for millenia, And for what? To mitigate a disease we have a 99% chance of surviving? That is no reason.

One of the most famous quotes Orwell gives us in Nineteen Eighty Four is: “It’s not so much staying alive, it’s staying human that is important.” In this case we can do both if we wake up and pay attention. But we don’t seem to be doing either, and that is the true tragedy.