As a uni student many years ago studying world history, cultural anthropology, geography and psychology, I was suddenly struck by the realisation that everything - everything - is interconnected and affects everything else. The flutter of a butterfly's wing might not seem to cause a hurricane but in the greater scheme of things, nothing in this world - not culture, not history or human thought - remains untouched by the reflected light of a tiny jewel on Indira's universal web.
That insight changed my view of the world. The world of separate nations, cultures and histories that I had lived in before simply ceased to be.
This week, I was overwhelmed by another aspect of this insight, this time regarding human psychology. In response to a question about Jung's approach, a psychotherapist friend wrote "it might be helpful to add something about Organismic Theory. It was a view developed in Biology that emphasized the holistic-developmental nature (as opposed to the reductive-deductive approach) of all living organisms."
That was it! I felt it. Something had hit home... so I did a little investigation.
Organismic theory is described by the APA* as "an approach to psychology that emphasizes the total organism, rejecting distinctions between mind and body. It embraces [an] ... approach that takes account of the interaction between the organism and its environment." *(American Psychological Association).
How obvious! yet until then, I had not really understood it, not in my bones, not viscerally. Now I did. I felt it in every cell of my body, which rang like a bell at the knowing that I am not a discrete object but an ever-evolving confluence of everything I have ever experienced, consciously and unconsciously: the texture of a wall, scent of a patch of earth, family, society, food, air I have breathed, every person to person interaction, mistakes, misunderstandings, regrets, hopes, belly laughs, people passed on the street .... Everything is connected, and I- all of what I am, could be or will be - am one tiny but valuable part of One Infinite Consciousness.
It is not enough to know it intellectually, all this talk about holism and oneness. I had to feel it in the cells of my body, in my gut, in my deepest heart to Know it.
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