“Oneness” as a perceived relationship between self and other can include first a recognition of essential similarities with the other. (By “essential” I don’t mean “centrally necessary.” I mean “essenc=ial:” “springing from or related to the essence of something/someone.”)
Then it can mature into an actual identification with the other, with various degrees of distinguishability from the other, various degrees of individuation within the One identity. In other words, there is a spectrum of the degree of sensed or experienced “Oneness.”
Everything said below is presented as informed speculation “for what it’s worth” to you for your purposes in your life—and with the hope it contributes somehow to more people maturing further into more mature experiences of Oneness that will generate a kinder, freer, more thriving world for us all.
Remember that each worldview stage is cumulative; each is present in all the later ones, foundationally, colored by the current predominant worldview.
Remember also that in addition to the cumulative nature of worldviews, each individual person and each group with one worldview predominant in their consciousness and behavior has the consciousness of earlier and even later worldviews sprinkled through, showing up in various circumstances; we are “mosaics.”
BEIGE
In BEIGE there is what’s called an “oceanic fusion” kind of identification as One with the other. There are no conscious differentiations, no “essential similarities”-based sense of Oneness within this identification, although there obviously is an experienced difference between “my group” and “other group,” and an experienced difference from other species. This is obvious from different behaviors directed toward other groups or other species.
We can infer there is also a very instinctual sense of individual identity, as each individual acts like an individual with their own unique relationships to the others. For example, they do not mistake another’s body for their own. It is not the fused individual identity of an infant or some mentally ill people who literally cannot differentiate their body from what’s outside it.
PURPLE
Here my analysis has to get nuanced because there is still the “oceanic fusion” kind of Oneness in BEIGE, but there is also a layer of Oneness with “my tribe, my village,” that is somewhat more consciously chosen, as evidenced by the fact that this sense of Oneness can be transferred or at least expanded to a different tribe or village. It is still, however, I suspect, on the level of fused identification, and not based on “perceived similarities.”
PURPLE also is fused-identified with all of the natural surroundings and forces of nature, which has the beneficial effect of a respect for the natural world that begins to get lost in RED. It is reclaimed, at a higher-order integration of complex differentiations, somewhere starting perhaps in GREEN but greatly maturing after that.
Please understand that the words I’m using here such as “my tribe” cannot convey the actual PURPLE worldview-consciousness experience. Probably none of us are capable of having that experience un-colored, unaltered by our current predominant worldview. The ORANGE-GREEN words I use don’t refer to it, they point to it, suggest it, indicate it, hint at it.
RED
RED consciousness and identity represents a first step into non-fused individual identity and therefore the first opportunity for a new kind of “Oneness” experience. That new kind gradually shifts and expands and matures through the YELLOW stage/worldview, in my opinion, and then there is a shift into a third kind of Oneness perceived similarities in TURQUOISE which gradually matures into an identity of Oneness on through CORAL and TEAL.
Probably the only “identification” of Oneness in RED is with family, and perhaps with some people a person might have a blood oath of loyalty with, meaning the person would sacrifice their life for the other or the other’s “cause” such as their throne or kingdom.
RED
would be capable of experiencing essential similarity with others who share the
same geographical area, the same bloodline, possibly the same “trade” or role
in life, or the same leader to whom loyalty has been pledged. What this
perceived essential similarity might generate in experience and behavior is loyalty, cameraderie, and friendship.
As
RED is famous for having slaves, there are huge categories of people,
especially including those who have been conquered by physical force, with whom
there is not any sense of Oneness except a most basic realization that they are
more like myself than some other animals are. Enslaved peoples are often regarded as sub-human, not fully human.
BLUE
The obvious Oneness in BLUE is that I am One with those who believe as I do about important matters in life: about the meaning and purpose of life, about the source of Truth, about the rules we must live by. (Contrast with GREEN Oneness with people who feel as I do.)
So the circle of care and concern generated by a Oneness similarity or identification is greatly expanded compared to BLUE, and for the first time can significantly transcend geographical location and even basic human characteristics such as race. (Although the RED Roman Empire had loyal members in far-flung corners of the Earth, to be sure. That was a similarity of pledged loyalty to a leader and to a set of rules or beliefs, and not an experienced Oneness of identity.)
ORANGE
ORANGE can actually identify with the oneness of all humans, unless there is a RED shadow dehumanizing some in the face of narrow self-interest, allowing them to be treated differently, with different ethics. That is a common shadow in ORANGE that gives the whole worldview a bad name for some people who are shifting into GREEN.
This actual identification with all humans is why mature ORANGE is the worldview in which people find it natural to regard people of differing race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, and gender as all being equally human and deserving of equal human rights. It is ORANGE which finally disengaged from human slavery and stopped dehumanizing certain people it was OK to own and control as slaves, under threat of death or imprisonment or other worse fate.
ORANGE is about self-interest, and many never reach the fully-mature ORANGE which is aware of the inter-dependence underlying true self-interest. That inter-dependence is not an identity, but it is moving in the direction of a Oneness identity. The inter-dependence is perceived along the lines of supply-chains or food-chains or even monetary-chains as in “Follow the money.” It is not yet the inter-dependence of parts of a whole “system” which in real in the reality of YELLOW.
GREEN
In GREEN the “Oneness” is when we have the same feelings. People who feel as I do, I am One with, in recognition of our similarity, but not in actual identification. An actual identification with people who feel as I do can happen in GREEN—especially for people who have a strong need to belong, with an unmet personal need for “my tribe” leftover from not-fully matured PURPLE—but I suspect it requires the intangibility of subtle-energy sharing that’s real only starting with TURQUOISE.
People who do not feel as I do, as we do, need to be persuaded or otherwise manipulated into feeling as we do, or they are definitely “Other,” probably dangerous to “us” and not deserving of the same ethical considerations as “us.”
GREEN can mature into and through having an identified Oneness with “my relationships” on the personal scale; maturation can expand that scale of embodied identity of “my relationships” considerably.
GREEN does experience a Oneness identification or at least perceived participation of self with “The Web of Life” which harkens back to PURPLE but has a more complex understanding and experience, more differentiated and then integrated.
YELLOW
The experienced sense of Oneness in YELLOW has a larger scope of both perceived similarities and actual identification. The perceived similarities transcend all the factors that linger to create “otherness” in GREEN and are largely experienced as that we are all parts of a complex whole that is a system of inter-connected and inter-dependent parts. This can include a “living systems” perspective, not just mechanical. However, it is not what is meant by the more mature Oneness perceived similarities (or even identification) captured in the term “inter-being.”
YELLOW makes a great leap in the circle of caring and concern, removing all the inconsistencies, gaps, and hypocrisies of earlier worldviews, and truly enabling a person to experience essential similarities with all living things, non-living things, the whole “Web of Life” in both its tangible and intangible manifestations and operations.
The actual Oneness experienced directly in a YELLOW identity might begin as the experience of perceived similarities just mentioned, but can mature into a direct embodied identification with all that—which still is missing the next piece of the puzzle that emerges in TURQUOISE: the subtle realms not recognized as real by mainstream science. YELLOW is still within the reality defined by mainstrem science. The “We” of the Oneness of YELLOW is fully describable in terms of social science, of social “fields” which consist of relationships.
Don’t mistake the intangibility of social fields with the directly experienced intangible (but experienced bodily as sensations, feelings, images, sounds, etc.) subtle-energy fields that are real in TUQUOISE.
TURQUOISE
In addition to what has been already said about the experiences of Oneness within the TURQUOISE worldview, the following speculations can be made.
TURQUOISE has the maturational task of creating a mature reintegration of Oneness with intangibles experienced especially in BEIGE and PURPLE, further moved along in GREEN and YELLOW, and yet in TURQUOISE going beyond those to beginning to experience essential similarities based on the beyond-“reality” reality of subtle energies.
For example, a non-human Being can be experienced as “essentially similar to me” based on the similarity of experienced subtle energies of their embodiment, transcending anything heretofore recognized as part of The Web of Life—such as extra-terrestrials, angels or demons, etc.
By late TURQUOISE and into CORAL, a person can expand their personal identity to a wider scope than is available to earlier worldviews. That wider scope not only includes greater quantity of “others” experienced as “self” but more diverse qualities of being included as “self,” all the while maintaining a healthy grounded identity in their physical embodiment. (Or perhaps, unfortunately, “spacing out” sufficiently to become unfunctional in practical life.)
If my identity can include for example experiences of “past life selves,” “selves on other planets and in other dimensions of reality,” as well as all the selves and qualities regarded as “bad” or “evil,” I have quite a Oneness experienced identity indeed.
CORAL
The experience of Oneness shifts from being based on any perceived similarities, no matter how foundational or essential, except for one similarity: existing. Being. Anything or anyone who can be perceived as separate “other” is identified as self in that we both exist, we both are manifestations of the Creative Force/Source of Being and of All That Is. We are distinguishable, individuated, but not separate. That’s what “Oneness” means here—not homogenized milk.
It’s important to understand that we’re talking about worldviews here. That means what I am calling the experience of Oneness in a worldview (whether as perceived essential similarities or as identity of self) is ongoingly experienced in consciousness and fully embodied in body and behavior, not just understood intellectually or glimpsed or experienced occasionally or while “practicing.”
TEAL
The possible evolution of the "Oneness" experience beyond CORAL would be experienced, or more accurately said "apprehended," Oneness of identity not only with all that exists, but with the very Force or Power that creates all that exists (my terms for “Source” or “the Ground of Being.”)
That identity would be apprehended or experienced in each moment, as background if not as foreground in a person’s consciousness. This Force or Power would be both inseparable from and indistinguishable from, whatever is being experienced, whatever is happening, whatever “self” is experiencing, in every instant, and of necessity, inherent in the nature of Beingness and whatever gives rise to Beingness. (That’s the ultimate or third kind of Non-dual Realization, but that’s another blogpost.)
A couple of the many related complexities
There are some other Oneness related experiences I should mention.
Oneness with Nature
One is the direct experience of the Oneness of Nature and the person’s inclusion in that Oneness. That often happens spontaneously rather than from being achieved or induced and it can happen to a person within any predominant worldview. It is often called “Enlightenment,” though that would be a simplistic notion of Enlightenment. It generally doesn’t last, but it can certainly can leave permanent effects on one’s beliefs and attitudes.
That experience of Oneness is most likely to stabilize as an ongoing embodied awareness in someone whose predominant worldview is TURQUOISE, I believe.
Oneness with other people or creatures, Empathy
There sometimes can be a temporary or longlasting sense of being merged in consciousness with another person or creature (such as a pet.) The experience of this is as if the other were co-occupying one’s inner space, so their thoughts, sensations, and feelings are vividly present, and one can even be aware of the other’s sensory experiences: what they are seeing, hearing, sensing, etc. If one is a not-mature empath, the other’s thoughts and feelings can be difficult to distinguish from one’s own.
This experience of Oneness can happen for example during sexual interactions, or just from walking by someone on the street that you sense you’d like to rescue from unhappiness in some way, or during a psychic reading or healing, or temporarily if someone you love is in crisis, or various other possible circumstances.
This is what’s called a “state” experience, being temporary and not constantly embodied, rather than a “stage” or worldview-related experience, in which case it would be ongoing, embodied, and accessible easily to the person’s conscious awarenesss. I would expect that could begin in TURQUOISE and increase from there. However, there certainly are people who have an abiding experience of being merged with someone(s) within earlier worldviews; parent-child relationships or spousal relationships might be the most common arenas for such experiences.
I regard this Oneness sense as a merging of astral-plane subtle-energy bodies. This can go on with or without the person’s conscious awareness of it. One circumstance in which it can go on is that some advanced spiritual practitioners (who might be in any worldview) are psychically merged with many people whom they are non-verbally and intangibly “transmitting” subtle energies/expanded consciousness to, all the time. The “guru” is generally not vividly conscious of all their astral-plane activities; it would be too distracting for good practical functioning in the world.
Conclusion
Do you recognize anything I’ve said? Are these descriptions helpful to you in navigating your experiences? Do these descriptions help you understand yourself and your inner journeys? Do they help you understand others you might want to be helpful to?
If you’re wanting to facilitate someone moving along the trajectory, it’s helpful to know where they are, what they’ve already experienced, and what might be their very next step forward.
That’s my hope and purpose for sharing these musings!
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