Most of us live our daily lives with the sense that we are separate from each other, contained within our own bodies, thoughts, and experiences. This sense of individual selfhood helps us function in everyday life, but it also creates the illusion that we are fundamentally alone, disconnected from one another and from the larger whole.
Yet, when we shift into nonordinary states, the illusion of separation starts to unravel. In such states of consciousness, as in those accessed through deep meditation, psychedelics, or other portals, many people report a profound sense of connection. These states seem to reveal what lies beneath the surface of our everyday awareness: that we are not, in fact, separate. We are deeply, inherently interconnected.
Some experiences of nonordinary consciousness point to a phenomenon known as ‘shared mind,’ where the boundaries of separate consciousness begin to blur. These include experiences of telepathy (mind-to-mind communication without sensory involvement) and clairvoyance (accessing information without sensory input), both of which defy the logic of separation (Barušs & Mossbridge, 2017). Instead, these experiences lend to the idea of a shared mind, which allows or access to a unified field of consciousness – something larger that connects us all. While these experiences fall outside of ordinary sensory perception, they suggest that our minds might not be as isolated as we think.
Mystical experiences, too, contribute to the idea of a shared mind. These experiences are often accessed in deeply altered states of consciousness and offer another kind of connection: not just between minds, but between everything. Many who experience these mystical states describe a sense of oneness and unity with something greater. Sometimes this unity is internal – an ego-dissolving recognition that one belongs to the universe. Other times its external – an awareness that all beings, all things, are made of the same source, the same matter, the same light.
These mystical states echo across traditions and cultures. While the language used to describe them varies, the essence is the same: there is no “other.” There is only one.
These states are the most expansive reaches of consciousness, where one identifies not only with other people, but with animals, nature, and even the cosmos or universe in its entirety (Grof, 2019). In this unitive experience, time, space, and separation dissolve. What’s left is a deep knowing: I am not separate from the universe; I am part of it. I am it.
This experience of unitive oneness shifts more than just perspective. It transforms the way we live. When we no longer perceive ourselves as isolate beings, but as parts of a expansive, interconnected whole, we begin to relate to others differently. We meet the world with more love, more compassion, more care. We see that how we treat others is, in a sense, how we treat ourselves.
In my personal experience, while I’ve often grazed the surface of inherent connection in altered states, one particular experience opened the door to something more expansive, what so many have described as unitive oneness. I was at a music festival, my happy place, surrounded by people I loved with my favorite music as the soundtrack, when something shifted. I felt myself begin to dissolve into everything around me. I felt deeply connected, not just emotionally, but energetically, as if my breath was literally breathing love into the people around me. Even more, the stage itself seemed to be holding me, like I was being cradled by the sound, the beat of the music breathing through my body.
It was more than just a connection to others. It was a profound sense of connection to everything – the artist, the crowd, the earth beneath me, the air around me, and the music itself. That moment changed something in me, awakening a knowing deep in my soul and calling me live from that space. Love. Compassion. Kindness. Those are the most important things. Because we are not separate, we are all connected. We are all one.
This expanded awareness invites us to live differently. It reminds us that love and empathy aren’t just virtues; they’re natural responses when we recognize our shared essence. If we are all part of the same whole, then kindness becomes not just an act, but a way of remembering who we are.
These states of consciousness, whether fleeting or profound, offer a glimpse of something that resonates more deeply than the illusion of separateness. They show us we are not alone, not broken, not disconnected.
We are part of each other. We are part of something cosmic and infinite. And at the deepest level, we are one.
These moments, whether they arrive in mystical states or in quiet stillness, leave us with a deeper understanding of what it means to be human. When we soften the boundaries between self and other, between body and beat, between me and we, we remember something ancient, something true.
So this week I invite you to reflect: have I ever experienced a moment where I felt more connected to everything around me? What did that connection feel like, and how did it shift the way I see myself in the world?
References
Barušs, I. & Mossbridge, J. (2017). Transcendent mind: Rethinking the science of consciousness. American Psychological Association.
Grof, S. (2019). The way of the psychonaut: Encyclopedia for inner journeys (Volume One).MAPS.
Threads of Consciousness 
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