I stumbled upon Gaia.com while reading through my online buddy Albert Klamt's posts. He, in turn, had stumbled upon my post here about the WhyNot? Forum, and we began exchanging posts and emails on similar topics.
As I further explored Gaia, I realized that a lot of the people there thought and wrote the way I did! There were a lot of posts about meditation and "consciousness" and "changing the world." Each person there believed that, in his or her own way, they could really make a difference. Moreover, "awareness", "consciousness", "higher spirituality," and "Oneness" for them were more than mere concepts; they were integral parts of living. I loved it!
So I transferred Little Rich Girl, my "best-of" blog, there, and began reposting some of my favorites from my blog Soul Work. Almost quite instantly, I received comments from readers who soon became part of my network. There was one very interesting comment I received from a man named Michael, about my blog post "Crossing the Line" . It goes like this:
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Hi, Nina. Your post reminded me of one of Steve Pavlina's blog posts about Soulful Relationships. Pavlina says:
So what is the mindset that makes it so much easier to relate to people? Here it is in a nutshell:
Everyone you meet in your life - even total strangers - is already intimately connected to you. The idea that we are all separate and distinct beings is nothing but an illusion. We are all parts of a larger whole, like individual cells in a body.
Moreover, everyone and everything you see out there in your world are reflections of you. Just as the cells in an organism carry the same DNA, other people are walking around with some part of you inside them. When you look at other people, you're really looking at yourself. When you notice other people, it's just like your eyes observing your hands. We're all parts of the same whole.
Here are some facets of this interconnected model of relationships:
- Oneness - Other people are not separate and distinct from you. In fact, they are you.
- Connectedness - You don't have to “build” relationships with others because you're already connected. You need only tune into the pre-existing connection that's already there.
- No risk - Little or no courage is required to approach strangers. You're never actually building new connections from scratch. You're just recognizing what's already there.
- Equality - You can feel just as close to total strangers as you do to your friends.
- Significance - All relationships are significant; none are irrelevant. Even the strangers you pass on the street are important parts of you.
- Love without attachment - Letting go of harmful relationships is easier because you're still unconditionally connected to everyone else. As you release old relationships that no longer serve you, you'll attract new ones that are compatible with you.
I read that particular blog entry and Steve Pavlina related some encounters that mirrored some of my most very recent encounters! As I wrote back to him, it's as if "Strangers are like old friends I haven't seen in a long time; friends are like soul-sisters or soul-brothers. I say 'recognize' because it's become more often now when I meet someone with whom I feel an instant affinity, as if we had already met before. Barriers are easily broken and bridges easily established."
And that's what I felt when I joined this online community. It was as if I could be there and express myself without fear of judgement or reproach. And there are so many interesting blog posts and articles to read and learn from. Not that I have too much time to read anyway, but it's good to know that, somewhere out there in the virtual universe, people are getting together and creating a new "virtual consciouness" that could ultimately change the way things are being done offline, in "the real world."
Why can't "the real world" function the way these virtual communities do, I wonder? There is so much we can learn from them.
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