THOUGHTS: Nikola Tesla - We are All One

Only egos, beliefs, and fears separate us

We are always reaching out to find a deep connection with others. I suppose this is a sort of universal code. We may call them soul mates or best friends. We may meet a new person and we are so excited that they share many things in common with our own minds that we throw all in to that friendship or connection. We believe that we will be connected with our new friend or lover about everything.

What we should see is that the connection is usually one of ego. If we are lucky enough to become more aware then maybe we see how connected we are with everyone and how alone we are also. Our attachments to one particular individual or another becomes less specific as our attachments to everyone becomes, well, just …. more. Our compassion for one who ‘should’ be closer to us becomes the same as our compassion for one that we do not know. This often has the strange effect of people assuming that we are ‘uncaring’ or ‘disconnected’ or perhaps ‘aloof and detached’.

Nikola Tesla said

“We are all one. Only egos, beliefs, and fears separate us.”

What does it mean then when we understand and relate to someone else’s ego? When we connect to their ideas and their way of speaking? If it is our ego that connects we can understand why we sometimes feel a disappointment when they do not see something the same way as us. The last few years has shown us all this. People we thought of as good friends for many years disowned us or we disowned them. Perhaps even family? Our egos were infuriated by their egos and… well… things were said!!

If we take ego out - can we find a small thing or way of connecting still? Taking Nikola Tesla’s above quote then of course we can because we are all one. I am interested in this concept and have experimented for the last 8 months in spending small amounts of time with people I have absolutely nothing in common with (or very little!) That is to say that my ego has nothing in common with their ego. It has been a useful experiment because it has helped me to step back more easily from my own conditioning, my own feeling of being ‘right’, my sense of fury at others for thinking differently. Essentially it has helped me see my own ego reactions sooner. I’d like to say that I have moved into a state of complete harmony with the moment that is NOW and left my ego behind, but that just isn’t true unfortunately. I try everyday and I fail often and I am really okay with that because I’m making progress.

Sometimes we tune in to what another person has to say and how they say it and it resonates with us on a sort of vibrational level, a kind of harmony, it brings a lift of connection that we explain through our understanding as ‘friendship’. We say “I like this person”. Other times we feel that vibrational level in a negative way, it disturbs some emotional sense in us and we ‘dislike’.

I have felt this in an extreme way whilst working as a therapist. I was treating a client who had become a ‘friend’ and had come to realise more and more that I felt unwell and uncomfortable around her. I did not allow this to lead me to an answer instead I remained only in my ego and unconscious to this energy. Which was a crazy thing to do - as a person who worked with energy! I clearly did not have the awareness or sincerity that I thought I did. Eventually there came a time when I was trying to give this person a treatment of Reflexology (which involves working on the feet) my hands were pushed away. I tried to touch her again and was unable to do so, like two same poles of magnet repelling, it felt that strong. It was awful for both of us. I believe I hurt her feelings badly as I was unable to see her again, I could not have her near me. I apologise to her now in my heart because I should have spoken my truth and from my heart and I should not have just tried to please. Perhaps I should have explained as kindly as possible that I could not listen to anymore of her anxious moaning talk.

Here is our wonderful ‘crazy’ scientist Tesla once again

What we now want most is closer contact and better understanding between individuals and communities all over the earth and the elimination of that fanatic devotion to exalted ideals of national egoism and pride, which is always prone to plunge the world into primeval barbarism and strife.

I read that and think ‘Wow, wish I had been his friend’! In truth I imagine he would have seemed like the person without special attachments to anyone as I described above, probably very annoyed at the interruption to his work when I called round for coffee.

Nikola Tesla died before the end of the second world war in 1943. He was asking people to consider that statement at a time when the world was in chaos.

Are we still in chaos? I would say that we are. Are we still divided? What do you think?

What if we could accept that life is not done to us but for us. What if we could accept that it isn’t all for us either. Sometimes a person may say something that resonates on a positive connection level and I believe we should allow ourselves to experience the joy of this. We should accept this connection and feed our inner vibrational levels (not just our egos) with the excitement of knowing that we have shared something. But if the next day that same person says something that resonates on a negative energy level or just does not reach us at all then search yourself and ask if you need to respond? Can we walk away? Perhaps ask yourself if you feel disappointed that they are not ‘the person you thought they were?’ Why do you think that?

I am not suggesting that we need to spend time with people whose egos we have nothing in common with (although I found the practice helpful in small doses) and I am also not suggesting that if we are confronted with someone forcing their opinion on us that we shouldn’t quietly and calmly speak our own truth if we need to.

I have many sides, my ego has many sides. I am interested in many different things. I am exploring through essays, short stories, anarchy poetry. I am finding how I can connect to others on a sincere level and not be too attached to the thought that they are like me in every way or not. That they may resonate with my thoughts sometimes but not always and I theirs.

Lets ask ‘my friend’ Tesla again,

“We are just waves in time and space, changing continuously, and the illusion of individuality is produced through the concatenation of the rapidly succeeding phases of existence. What we define as likeness is merely the result of the symmetrical arrangement of molecules which compose our body”.

Does that sound too clinical to you? I actually like the sound of that. It makes me feel like something quietly explained, like something clicks in me and makes sense, It helps me to see my own ego clearly and have a bit of a laugh to be honest that I believed it for so long! It doesn’t make me feel more detached from others, it makes me feel more connected.

I have found many people who are all working towards understanding themselves and understanding their existence, understanding their own egos and doing the work towards understanding their connection to others. How to communicate, how to leave ego out of it. That gives me hope in a time when so many dark and dangerous things are happening. It enables me to focus on hope.

So let me finish with a real message of hope from ‘our’ friend Nikola Tesla again

When we speak of man, we have a conception of humanity as a whole, and before applying scientific methods to the investigation of his movement we must accept this as a physical fact. But can anyone doubt to-day that all the millions of individuals and all the innumerable types and characters constitute an entity, a unit? Though free to think and act, we are held together, like the stars in the firmament, with ties inseparable. These ties cannot be seen, but we can feel them. I cut myself in the finger, and it pains me: this finger is a part of me. I see a friend hurt, and it hurts me, too: my friend and I are one. And now I see stricken down an enemy, a lump of matter which, of all the lumps of matter in the universe, I care least for, and it still grieves me. Does this not prove that each of us is only part of a whole?