Finding Connection in Chaos
“Together at Home,” the epic virtual concert by Global Citizen and dozens of acclaimed musicians, raised millions of dollars for the World Health Organization over the weekend. Despite the uncertainty, the confusion, and the distressing news updates on the international impact of COVID-19, people across the globe are discovering ways to support one another. In spite of our cultural differences, our various life experiences, and our sometimes conflicting perspectives, people seem to be coming together as a collective global community.
As citizens of the world, we have suddenly found ourselves facing a common struggle. We are all collectively encountering a serious threat to our health and safety, a risk to our economic stability and security, and an unknown future and potential livelihood. Though we may be experiencing this in different ways to varying degrees, we are all on this same cosmic ship.
Though the idea of collective consciousness is far from new, it seems especially more “collective” now than ever. This concept of shared beliefs, values, attitudes, and priorities has been somewhat subjective depending on where, how, and by whom we are raised. Yet, there are some things that align with us as human beings across cultures, over borders, and through generations—things like a need for connectedness, belonging, and purpose.
In these current circumstances together, collectively, we are now part of a common universal goal. We are confined to our homes in our respective corners of the planet, yet we are more interconnected, more interdependent, more united than ever as a human community.
Concepts, which up until now might have been more esoteric, suddenly seem more tangible and applicable. For example, cosmic resonance, also referred to as ganying has been a tenant of eastern philosophies for millennia. It can be explained in part as: “Events and things separated in space, with no observable linear causal connection to one another, assumed to have an invisible, instantaneous influence on one another.” (A. Meyer, with Robert Weller and Peter Bol)
This brings me to another controversial phenomena known as “simultaneous discovery” (aka “multiples”). It might not seem all that miraculous in our modern world in which information travels at the speed of light through invisible currents and connections. But centuries ago, before even the telephone was discovered, people on opposite sides of the globe were experimenting, exploring, and discovering the same new inventions at the same time, unbeknownst to one another (e.g. the crossbow, magnetism, etc.). In fact, the patent for the telephone itself was filed on the same day, February 14, 1876, by two unaffiliated individuals, Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray.
Perhaps these notions of simultaneous discoveries, cosmic resonance, and collective consciousness are merely coincidence. Or perhaps not. In view of the pandemic we are facing today, we wait for scientists to discover a cure, a vaccine, or an effective treatment for COVID-19. Typically, in the capitalist society in which we live, competing companies would be vying to be first to find the answers, and in fact up until now, the efforts have been described as chaotic and disorganized. However, we are quickly discovering that competition over collaboration will get us nowhere in our pursuit to end this pandemic.
From a more collective perspective, companies and professionals are teaming together for this common cause. Dr. Francis Collins of the National Institute of Health has proposed an effort to bring the great scientific minds of the world together, to work collaboratively and cooperatively toward a common goal to end the pandemic. Long-time rival companies like Apple and Google are moving beyond their differences to develop an effective way to notify people who have come in contact with the virus through something called “contact tracing.” The World Health Organization has launched a treatment trial known as “Solidarity,” in an effort to collect information in a more centralized and effective manner.
The concept of solidarity brings us back to the “Together at Home” concert. We are in this together. I see it written in sidewalk chalk and on handmade posters in front of homes and businesses throughout my neighborhood. As elusive, unpredictable, and devastating as this virus seems to be, our only way through this challenge, as a global community, is together. Together in our common cause and purpose, a united collective consciousness.
If we pause to recognize that we are experiencing a significant moment in history, we might ask ourselves, how do we want to make it matter? How can we see this strange and stressful time, not just as a holding pattern, waiting for something to pass, nor as a bus stop, waiting for whatever comes next, but rather as an opportunity to make it mean something?
What are we learning about ourselves, about each other, about the world? How have our priorities shifted? What are we realizing matters most? What are our values? What qualities are helping to guide us through these challenges?
And perhaps the most important question of all, what can we carry with us after this has passed? Assuredly, many things will be different in our global society as the pandemic recedes. There will be an adjustment to how we experience travel, work, entertainment events (concerts, sports, etc.), and even our interactions with one another. How can we make certain this crisis wasn’t for nothing? We are each making simultaneous discoveries through the cosmic resonance of this experience, and we have the opportunity to enhance our collective consciousness as citizens of this globe. How can we apply our creativity, our collaboration, our connection, and our compassion for one another into the future?