Connecting Through the Space Between Us

By Lynne McTaggart

Ancient cultures and mystics have taught that the universe is an interconnected whole, but science and popular culture are only now beginning to catch up with the wisdom of the ages. Lynne McTaggart presents recent research that confirms that sub-atomically, there is “no such thing as an individual thing,” and that rather than being a species designed for aggression and “survival of the fittest,” what moves us most is our need to connect and belong. In fact, she says that the best survival strategy for a human being is not domination but cooperation. We are “wired” to help others, even at cost to ourselves, and the very same pleasure centers in the brain that are activated by eating and sexual activity come alive when we come to someone else’s aid. Furthermore, instead of a winner-take-all mentality, humans have a deep need for things to be fair and equitable, not just for ourselves but for everyone. So deep is our connection to all that is around us that our interactions with our environment, with each other, and even with the activity occurring on our nearest star, the sun, have a greater effect on our health, mental stability, and what we consider to be “uniquely us” than we have been accustomed to believe.

So what’s gone wrong? If we are designed for cooperation and fairness, why is our world in such a mess? McTaggart writes that today’s global crises are the result of our failure to live in accordance with our true nature, saying that the Western drive to individuate and be separate and unique in our relationships “often translates into a need for power,” and this not only puts us at odds with others but is actually in contradiction to who we really are. “Currently, we maintain this view of the universe as a place of scarcity populated by separate things that must turn against each other in order to survive. We’ve all simply assumed that’s life,” she says. “But that’s not the story science is telling us any more.”

Lynne McTaggart is an award-winning journalist, the author of six books, the co-executive director of two publishing companies, and is recognized worldwide as an authority on the science of spirituality.