Connecting the Dots: Atomic Bonds And Human Nature

On the day of the rapture that never happened, I interviewed Lynne McTaggart on my radio show, "Connect the Dots." The author of the new book, "The Bond: Connecting Through the Space Between Us" (Free Press, 2011 ). McTaggart told me that she wrote "The Bond" because "We're in crisis and we all know it. We've been watching this series of disasters, ecological, economic, terrorist -- and while it may or may not be the end of the world, it's the end of the world as we know it. We're at the end of a certain mindset that has caused these compounding crises. Understanding and changing that mindset is the path to a viable future."

The signature of McTaggart's journalism and writing is her keen interest in frontier science, and her ability to synthesize complex findings in a way that resonates with core human needs. In her previous books -- the bestseller, "The Intention Experiment" -- and book before that, "The Field" -- McTaggart explored the farthest reaches of quantum physics. But in following the unfolding research at the pioneering edge of science, McTaggart learned that once science penetrates into the sub-atomic particles at the core of all matter, they found (surprise) "relationships." The relationship between particles defines matter more than anything inherent in the particles themselves. "It's a bond, a relationship so intrinsic and profound that you cannot separate where one thing ends and the other begins," McTaggart explains.

This realization lead McTaggart back to sociology, psychology, human beings and relationships. The core of the modern dilemma, as McTaggart sees it is that "We see ourselves as individuals in competition, striving to the death for survival, rather than working together for survival." She wondered, "Were we meant to be this competitive?"

When McTaggart investigated the scientific research, she found that the answer is that we aren't.

The way we live is in contradiction with nature. We're in crisis because we're not living the way we're designed to by nature. We've got it backwards. We believe we're strong when we compete. But the truth is that we're weak when we compete, and we are strong when we cooperate. Nature has a drive for wholeness, and when we ignore that, we operate against nature, and against ourselves. We've been operating on the wrong story.

We've been operating on the story that we are separate things, fighting for survival, but it's not true. We're designed to care, share, and be fair. It's the survival of the Fairest, not the fittest. Unfortunately, we are living in the opposite way so it's no wonder we're trouble.

According to McTaggart, we're neither relating, acting, nor seeing in ways that will allow us to survive and thrive. The way out? "To live as connecters, givers, car-ers, and shar-ers."

"Taking our turn is wired into us. If someone is talented, and makes more money, people don't mind that," McTaggart says. "People mind when the banking industry executives pay themselves record bonuses after they engineer things that cost others their jobs and homes," she says. "Right now, all Western countries are at the unfairest they've ever been in history. According to studies, we have the same levels of fairness as those countries in the Middle East that have just had major upheavals."

Studies show that "The more unfair any society, the worse the health care, and the higher the rates of crime, violence, and mental illness, the worse the survival statistics." McTaggart claims that this effects everyone in the society.

People's natural tendency is to give and to share, but when someone is given to, but interrupts the give-and-take process by not giving back, greed develops. There evolves an ethos of 'keeping what's mine.' This mindset undermines the cohesion of a society, to everybody's detriment. We've been following the wrong story. Our heroes are the lone wolves -- but they are perfect candidates for a heart attack.

Surprisingly, this increased heart attack risk is not due to known risk factors, like smoking, diet, or high blood pressure. The key factor is social cohesion. Social cohesion and support are stronger protectors, and the lack of them, stronger risk factors for developing heart disease than any of these other physiological determinants, according to a triad of studies McTaggart uncovers in "The Bond."

Lynne McTaggart's book, U.S. book tour schedule of events, and programs can be found on her website.

To hear the full conversation between Lynne McTaggart and Alison Rose Levy on Connect the Dots radio, go here.

More Connect the Dots on cultural attitudes, health, society, and environment with blogs, radio shows, and action links, at: www.healthjournalistblog.com

 

Follow Alison Rose Levy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AlisonRoseLevy

Comments

[whirlpool]

10:52 AM on 06/11/2011

Well I thought this would be a bit New Agey but not bad. In fact there is a good point here about evolution. Lynn Margulis the noted evolutionary biologist has postulated that symbiosis is important in evolution not just natural selection. One can google symbiogenesis and get to it.

[Gregg Hake]

10:49 PM on 06/10/2011

Lynne McTaggart's question: "Were we meant to be this competitive" is an interesting one and I appreciate you repeating it in your article, Alison. I've been giving some thought to the matter of late and I find the approach articulated by William Jordan to be particularly useful in helping to shape my answer to the question:

"Life is not competition with others. In its truest sense it is rivalry with ourselves. We should each day seek to break the record of our yesterday. We should seek each day to live stronger, better, truer lives; each day to master some weakness of yesterday; each day to repair past follies; each day to surpass ourselves. And this is but progress. And to individual, conscious progress, progress unending and unlimited, is the one great thing that differentiates man from all the other animals."

Competition has proven to bear much fruit as has cooperation. Whether one is more fruitful than the other is yet to be decided. As to which produces more abundant enjoyment, camaraderie and happiness in the accomplishment of the little things and the large, the scales in my experience tip generously in favor of the cooperative approach.

I wrote a bit about my experience with this approach in my business here: http://tinyurl.com/3c9sphw. Thank you for your thoughts on the matter!

[khanti]

11:09 PM on 06/08/2011

Connecting the Dots - of karma and DNA

[Larry Ely]

03:58 PM on 06/08/2011

In chemistry the electron is a particle or a wave according to context. By the uncertainty principle, the more you know its speed the less you know its position, and vice versa. Its position is like a possession; its speed like a sharing, which leads to the capitalism-socialism dichotomy. Capitalism is about discreet ownership (position). Socialism is about all the discreet ownerships (sharing or speed). Capitalism began 3-9-1776 with the publication of the Wealth of Nations, and America began on 7-4-1776. America partook of capitalism because cosmic conditions and times go together. A new cosmic condition is being born, so America and capitalism are undergoing transition. The new cosmic condition being born is due to our consciousness expanding to contemplate the Demeter Persephone myth, a myth about nature and sustainability and cyclic birth and death. McTaggart in this piece invokes empirical medical evidence to prove the veracity of the pre-existing spiritual understandings from the ancient occult traditions. Science born of Galileo and Kepler and Newton has only taken their material understandings, even though these great men had parallel spiritual understandings that their follow up footsoldiers (the whole of the scientific enterprise) never understood and hence let collect dust to society's detriment. It is time to blow off that dust, and this is the spirit of the work both of McTaggart and Levy. Medical doctors today take the Hippocratic oath not even knowing its full significance.

[JohnFromCensornati]

02:19 PM on 06/08/2011

"The way we live is in contradiction with nature. We're in crisis because we're not living the way we're designed to by nature. We've got it backwards. We believe we're strong when we compete. But the truth is that we're weak when we compete, and we are strong when we cooperate. Nature has a drive for wholeness, and when we ignore that, we operate against nature, and against ourselves. We've been operating on the wrong story."

Did Nature design tigers to cooperate like humans? Are they operating against their atomic bonds?

[Briget Shields]

02:09 PM on 06/08/2011

Thanks Allison,
I couldn't agree more that we are living in a society of unhappy, unhealthy people. The stress that many are feeling comes from the unfair way we are living and the lack of concern from our government on how we are supposed to do that. Here in PA our governor locked his door on us yesterday when we tried to go in and make an appointment with him about our concerns with the natural gas drilling process. Josh Fox was with us and they refused to let us in to even make an appointment. Democracy is lacking and corporate greed is thriving right now. The lack of concern for the health and safety of the people along with the environment is depressing and exhausting for those of us who are sharing our knowledge, time and energy for the benefit of our communities. When the people making the decisions that affect us all lock us out, the anger, frustration and tension grows making us all unhappy and therefore unhealthy.

[liftitup]

11:15 AM on 06/08/2011

Thanks for brinigng Lynne's book to my attention. As I write this there is a picture of Anthony Weiner's pecs just above on the screen,with the caption, Why Are We So Addicted to Sex? The case could be made--speaking of social cohesion-- that addictions of any kind work against it, since addictions are about the individual organism's desire to fulfill what it experiences as its own pressing needs. Yes, how do we get to where we experience ourselves as a species, deeply connected to each other, and address the species' most pressing needs? But I need to say that I disagree slightly with McTaggert's claim that we were designed by nature to be in connection, since we obviously also designed by nature to be in conflict. I think the truth is that we must shape who we are, not just wake up to it.

[leilalevinson]

10:20 AM on 06/08/2011

Thanks, Alison, for writing this post and letting us know about Taggert's book. Her message is critical; capitalism thrives on our believing we are all on our own, but as Dr. King told us over fifty years ago, we live in a web of connectedness. I have been struck in the last few years by how difficult it is to resist the capitalist paradigm, how even women who profess to be feminists longing for community find it hard to work out of collaboration and connectedness rather than competition.

Let us commit ourselves to connecting, to work for the public good rather than the illusory personal advantage.

[Alison Rose Levy]

04:08 PM on 06/08/2011

You're right, Leila, and this is an important thing to acknowledge and dialogue about it. After all, we've been acculturated that same way, even though I feel we may be in closer touch with instincts to do otherwise.

Man thanks for your comments!

Alison