Each of us is made of the same "stuff," yet we continuously see each other and the world around us as dissimilar and separate. It’s important to see ourselves as part of a greater entity. In Wholarian Vision, author Katrina Mayer presents a new way of seeing the world and bringing it together.With prose, stories, and poems interspersed, Mayer introduces the Wholarian vision-a process of being connected to all things and to all people in order to see others without prejudice or bias. Wholarian Vision introduces and explains this new concept and describes how it affects the mind, body, and spirit. It discusses both the Wholarian world and the relationships within it.With the goal of bringing the world together through a global perspective, Wholarian Vision shows how we all originate from one and we will always be part of one. Our actions, our choices, our lives, and our voices are the message of one heart, one world, and one love.

Wholarian Vision

How to Remember Your Connection to EverythingBy Katrina Mayer

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 Katrina Mayer
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-9413-3

Contents

Foreword by Isaac Allen.....................................................ixAcknowledgments.............................................................xiIntroduction................................................................xiiiSection 1—The Concept.................................................1Chapter 1—In the Beginning............................................3Chapter 2—The Separation Myth.........................................11Chapter 3—What is Wholarian?..........................................19Section 2—Mind, Body, Spirit..........................................27Chapter 4—The Wholarian Mind..........................................29Chapter 5—The Wholarian Body..........................................39Chapter 6—The Wholarian Spirit........................................49Section 3—Wholarian World.............................................59Chapter 7—What is the Wholarian World?................................61Chapter 8—Wholarian Relationships.....................................69Chapter 9—Hilarious Wholarians........................................79Section 4—Why It Matters..............................................89Chapter 10—Imagine All the People.....................................91Chapter 11—Belongingness—Circles of Oneness.....................99Chapter 12—One Small Step for Wholarians..............................107Afterword...................................................................117About the Author............................................................119Bibliography................................................................121

Chapter One

In the Beginning

ONE


We'll start
from the beginning ...
and in the beginning there was ... One.
Nothing existed other than One
completely, perfectly
One

Then,
in a flash of
inspiration,
generation,
creation,
divination,
imagination,
vibration,
transformation,
celebration,
and pair formation,
One became ...
many.
And the many quickly forgot they were part of
One.

"One" has been known by different names as well as forms. From Omnipotent God to Cosmic Egg, from Tree of Life to Earth Mother, from Creator to Big Bang, the list is long as well as imaginative. Just as long is the list of creation stories illustrating how One became many. But, regardless of religion, tradition, culture, or scientific perspective, each story begins with One, and from One all things are formed. That is how it all began.

Let's look at some of the major creation stories. Many of these are familiar and show us how One became many. In Christianity and Judaism, the story begins in the Old Testament: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).

According to the Bible, heaven and Earth did not exist before God created them. Neither did light, sky, land, seas, vegetation, sun, moon, stars, fish, birds, animals, or man. God created all these things in six days and rested on the seventh. The One God created everything.

In Chinese tradition, it is written in the Tao Te Ching, "The Way gave birth to unity, Unity gave birth to duality, Duality gave birth to trinity, Trinity gave birth to the myriad creatures. The myriad creatures bear yin on their backs and embrace yang in their bosoms. They neutralize these vapors and thereby achieve harmony." The myriad creature came from the Way ... the One.

Hindus believe the universe was created from the Word "Om" and that nature and all of God's creations are manifestations of him. Hence, all animals and humans have a divine element in them. Om is the One.

In Sikhism, all that existed before creation took place was God and God's Will. God is the One.

And in Islamic tradition, according to the Qur'an, the skies and the earth were joined together as one "unit of creation," after which they were "cloved asunder." Again, everything was One until it split apart into the many.

Regardless of all the other differences in our world's major religions, they all generally agree on the fact that everything was made or created from a place of unity.

All that was created came from One. Let's repeat that. All of the something that we can see and can't see was created from the One.

Then, when we apply logic to this theory, everything that came after the original something is still connected to the original something because, after all, they all came from the same place. The One.

Make sense?

No matter how you slice it, we all come from the same place. We all come from the same One. Logically, that means we are all made up of the same "stuff." Hence, we are all connected.

Of course, there are people who do not think of the origins of our universe from a religious point of view. For those people, religious stories are allegorical but not factual. If that describes you, then you have the Big Bang theory. That is the creation theory that is supported from a scientific perspective. And lo and behold, you will find that it has the same basis as the religious stories.

According to the Big Bang theory, an intensely hot, high-pressure, astronomically dense set of circumstances existed, which resulted in a tremendous explosion. Then, over a great amount of time and space, heating and cooling, and expanding and contracting, the universe was born. Interestingly enough, no amount of science has determined what might have existed before the Big Bang produced matter. Where did the "stuff" that formed the universe come from, and what led to the explosion? But regardless of the answer, everything we now see or don't see in our universe comes from that initial matter. Everything! There is nothing you can see, feel, touch, taste, breathe, hear, etc. that didn't come from that initial matter. Sound familiar?

So what does this all mean? It means we are all part of the whole! We are part of the One!

Each of us is made up of the same stuff. We are all about 70 percent water and the proportions of the rest of the elements in our bodies are also similar from human to human. It is worthy to note that the surface of the earth is covered by 70.8 percent water. And the components in our soil are very similar to the components in our bodies. This is not coincidence.

Yet we continually see each other and the world around us as separate and vastly dissimilar. We easily rattle off twenty differences between ourselves and the person sitting next to us on the bus. One political party swears that they share no similarities with the other political party and vice versa. And we know for a fact that the person who thoughtlessly cut in front of us on the checkout line couldn't possibly have anything in common with us or anyone else on this planet.

But the evidence is there. Whether you believe in religious or scientific origins, we all come from the same place. We all have the same materials in our bodies that are in the trees, the rocks, the oceans, and even in the stars.

Carl Sagan, the American astronomer, astrophysicist, and author said it best: "We are star stuff that has taken its destiny into its own hands."

* * *

Let's remember a time
When I knew you as my friend
Let's remember a time
When our connection didn't end

Let's remember the time
When our lives were intertwined
Let's remember the time
When we had One loving mind

Let's remember that time
When you and I were One
When we were earth and sky and stars
When we were the light of the sun

* * *

The Bird's Nest

Hannah was young when her mother passed away, and she didn't have many memories of her. But she remembered that her mother smelled like spring flowers in the morning when she came to wake her up. She also remembered that her mother made delicious pancakes on Sundays. And she especially remembered how tenderly her mother would comb her hair every evening before bedtime. Her mother whistled a funny little tune as she combed, and never tugged or pulled as she worked out the knots one by one. Because Hannah liked to play outside, she often came home with small sticks or pieces of leaves in her hair after rolling on the ground. But her mother never scolded or complained and spent as much time as she needed to get Hannah's long hair smooth and golden blonde again. This was Hannah's favorite memory.

After her mother was gone, Hannah's aunt stayed in the house for a while. She helped Hannah with her hair. But after her aunt left, there was no one to comb her hair anymore. Her father was sad a lot and promised to help, but he often forgot. Hannah wasn't mad, because she knew that he missed her mother as much as she did. And her brother just yelled at her and said that he didn't want to help her with something so "girly." He didn't seem sad, but Hannah thought she heard him crying at night when no one was listening. So she wasn't mad at him either.

One day, she decided to ask an older girl who lived down the block to help her. Hannah always admired the older girl's pretty hair, so she thought that combing would be easy. Unfortunately, the older girl didn't have much patience to work gently through Hannah's knots. She pulled and tugged until Hannah's eyes were filled with tears. Then the older girl stopped and said she couldn't do anymore because there were too many pieces of twigs and leaves in Hannah's hair. She walked away, leaving Hannah with the comb stuck in a knot in her hair. Hannah missed her mother more than ever.

Hannah realized that she couldn't wait for her father or brother to help with her hair. And the older girl tried, but that didn't work. So she only had one alternative. She would have to do it herself.

She took her comb and went into her backyard to sit by the tree her mother had planted. She put the comb in her hair and immediately felt a big knot. She tugged and tugged and strands of hair came out, but the knot didn't go away. After about ten minutes she stopped because her head hurt and she only got one little knot out. So, she decided that each day she would sit by the tree and work on her hair until all the knots were out.

And that's what she did. Each day, Hannah took her comb and sat by the tree and worked on the knots. As time went on, she learned to be gentle with her hair and not tug so hard. A few strands fell out each time, but soon she was able to get the comb through her whole head and there were no knots left. That day happened to be a Sunday, and she missed the taste of her mother's pancakes. She cried softly as she combed her long, golden hair and hoped her mother was looking down at her from heaven.

She said out loud, "Look, Mom, I'm a big girl now. I can comb my hair all by myself. But I miss you so much."

And then she heard a funny little whistle from high up. It sounded like the song that her mother whistled as she used to comb Hannah's hair. She looked in the tree and saw a bird and realized that the bird was whistling that tune. And next to the bird was an amazing sight. It was a nest that had been woven with the golden strands of Hannah's hair. The bird must have picked up the hairs each day after Hannah was done combing and placed them in the nest. The way the sun shined on it made it glitter like gold. Hannah couldn't believe her eyes or ears because the bird kept whistling that funny little tune, just like her mother.

That is when Hannah knew that her mother was always with her. She was in the tree, in the bird, and in the nest that glistened so beautifully. She realized that her mother would always be part of her life and would be there to help her. All Hannah had to do was look around to see where she was. She felt like this was a new beginning. Nothing could ever separate her from her mother again, and that thought made Hannah very happy.

With a big smile on her face she went back into the house to ask her dad if they could make pancakes.

Chapter Two

The Separation Myth

A human being is part of the whole, called by us "universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. —Albert Einstein

Within all of us is a varying degree of space lint and star dust, the residue from our creation. Most of us are too busy to notice it, and it is stronger in some than others. It is stronger in those of us who fly and is responsible for an unconscious, subtle desire to slip into some wings and try for the elusive boundaries of our origins. —K.O. Eckland, "Footprints on Clouds"

The universe is simmering down, like a giant stew left to cook for four billion years. Sooner or later we won't be able to tell the carrots from the onions. —Arthur Bloch

TWO

We all began our journey in this lifetime attached by umbilical cords to our mothers. Everything we needed for our bodies to live and grow flowed through those cords. For nine months, they supplied us with oxygenated, nutrient-rich blood. Then, during the birthing process, our cords were cut, and we were separated from the only world we knew. We went from womb to world, and the shift was immense. We were removed from a simple, enveloping, dark, comforting place to a bright, dry, chaotic world. No wonder we screamed.

So, our life experience was punctuated at an early stage with a profound feeling of separation.

And this sense of separation played out time and time again throughout our lives. When we were placed alone in a crib at night to go to sleep, we felt separated. When we were left in an unknown classroom for our first day of school, we felt separated. When a parent left the house to go to work, we felt separated. When our family moved to a new neighborhood, we felt separated. When a relationship ended, we felt separated. When a loved one died, we felt separated.

Wouldn't it have made all of these experiences less painful if we were taught early on that we were never truly separated? We were, and are, connected to all that exists. We are part of the oneness that existed since the beginning of time.

What exactly is the reason for perpetuating this sense of separation? Why would it benefit us to feel that we are not connected to one another?

There is a moment that I call the Big Bang of the spiritual world. It is similar to the Big Bang theory of our universe mentioned in the first chapter and may even be considered one and the same. Before this event, we all existed together as one, harmoniously. No separation existed, and everything was at peace.

Then, perhaps it was an atom, or a speck, a molecule, or a minute piece of the whole that speculated for a split second what it would be like to not be part of that Oneness. It vibrated a little differently and wondered how it would feel to be unique, different, or separate. It may have questioned its place in the totality. And upon this thought or this question ...

*~*-BANG-*~*

The illusion of separation was created. Suddenly, where once there was a beautiful and peaceful Oneness, there was now a multitude of entities. Where there was perfect order, there was now chaos. What was whole was now shattered into infinite pieces.

Many of these pieces developed egos in order to know themselves as separate beings. And, once egos were created, competition began because they determined that they wanted to be different from one another. They decided they wanted to be bigger, stronger, smarter, better, richer, faster, healthier, louder, etc. The memory of the peaceful oneness became buried quickly in the rush to be counted as individuals. The reality that everyone and everything comes from the same whole only remained as a distant memory, if at all.

Regardless of the lengths our egos have gone in order to make us feel separate, we are not. Our separation from one another is only a myth, an illusion. The Big Bang may have put more space between all of our particles, but we are all still one. We are all made up of the same stuff. We are connected. Period.

Did you know that physics tells us there is actually more space between the particles of a solid object than we realize? Our senses tell us that our desks are solid. When we put our hands on our desks they don't feel like there is a lot of space. But science has proven that there is really more space than solid particle. There is more space than solid particles in the desk, the chair, the wall, the book, the pencil, etc. Science has proven this. But our senses deceive us.

So if our senses can deceive us about the desk being solid, why isn't it equally possible for us to be deceived about our separation?

Now, if our brains are telling us that what we are reading is false, it is because our egos desperately want to continue the illusion. They don't want us to learn their game. They will give us a thousand reasons why we really are different from our neighbor, our uncle, our teacher, our sister, the stranger asking for money, the politician on television, the professional athlete, the chef at our favorite restaurant, etc. Separation is vitally important to the ego because without it, it does not exist.

That's right. The illusion of separation is perpetuated so the ego can continue to tell us that we are different and more special than anyone else. It doesn't want us to see how we are similar to any of the people mentioned above.

Our egos can be a bit like the wicked witch in The Wizard of Oz. They don't want us to realize the truth. They don't want us to know how easy it is to go home. They like power and prefer to stay in control. And, just like Dorothy, we don't realize this. We become trapped in the tower of the ego's castle, away from our loved ones. We feel disconnected, with deep longing to go home, back to our oneness.

In the movie, Dorothy was moved by compassion to help her friend, Scarecrow. His straw arm was burning, and Dorothy wanted to help. She empathically felt his pain and wanted to stop it. Simple enough. She grabbed a bucket of water and tossed it in his direction. And that's when the magic happened. The witch was also splashed by the water, and the result was devastating to her.

While Scarecrow was saved by Dorothy's compassion and quick thinking, the witch started making a terrible noise and said, "I'm melting, melting. Ohhhhh, what a world; what a world. Who would have thought that some little girl like you could destroy my beautiful wickedness?"

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Wholarian Visionby Katrina Mayer Copyright © 2011 by Katrina Mayer. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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