This Is Why“Everything Is Connected” And Also, Why “Some Dogs Like Cats”.
Now dedicated to Suhas :)
This article has very little to do with actual dogs or cats, and more to do with the fundamental interconnectedness of all things in the universe.
Also, it has very little to do with Dirk Gently or Douglas Adams, and more to do with the concept of a unified field of consciousness.
Also, if you’re someone who likes clicking on weird things because they make you feel curious about life and the future, you should definitely consider reading this:
The fundamental interconnectedness of all things in the universe — what it means in a nutshell.
Alright, I’ll come clean. This is a part of my yet-to-form daily writing habit. This is part of my healing process, and I can only hope that it eventually adds to yours on some level, some day. Till then, please, just treat this as ancient/weird wisdom that’s worth listening to and discarding.
The first time I watched the ‘Dirk Gently’ Netflix web series, I was drawn to it purely in terms of curiosity/sci-fi/geek value. If you’re someone like me who enjoys watching things like Star Wars or reading books like the Harry Potter series, you already know what I’m talking about. There was no learning involved in the process -just plain appreciation for the way a random person has put together a random set of events into an entertaining story.
This was back when I thought I was happy.
This was before the heartbreaks, before quitting my job, before investors refused to put money in my startup, before I was un-naive enough to start reading about startup advice from people like Kunal B, who said it’s better to blog than rant on social media — before overexerting myself at the gym to near unconsciousness, before being evicted from a rented apartment on account of having a pet, before my chaos. I’m sure you have yours, so I’ll try not to focus on my specifics too much.
…And then I figured out I wasn’t happy. I started realizing I was depressed. Someone at a local hospital asked me to start taking some really s***tty antidepressants, for starters.
Bummer.
Okay — It wasn’t that much of a surprise. My dear mother, whom I love very much, has suffered from clinical depression for the better part of the last five decades. I grew up witnessing her depression take various forms — anger, anxiety, frustration, suffocation, guilt… the works. And a part of me (once again, the ‘before’ part of me) thought I had escaped the agony of all that when I left home for college.
And then I dropped out — and then I started working — And then I wrote books — which did not work- And then I got really fat — And then my fiancee dumped me — And then I went on a tirade of bad career and relationship choices (Pre-2017 chaos).
And then, 2019.
I started meditating.
When I say I started meditating, I tried everything.
Before I tried meditating, I tried chewing morning glory seeds. If that sentence wasn’t self explanatory to you, you shouldn’t try explaining it to yourself. The thing is, I was, at least for a while, consumed with the idea that “reality” as I can see it around myself was a game of light and shadows, and that it was possible to “see through the matrix” with a certain awakened level of either consciousness or perception.
I tired doing reruns of Dirk Gently, I replayed Jim Carrey’s MUM convocation speech over and over again, and I became increasingly enamored with the idea of ‘holistic breathing’ or ‘holistic breath-work’. It is supposed to produce the same effects as LSD, and I’m happy to say that after a few exhausting 45 minute sessions, I was able to replicate some hallucinations.
I’m happy. I don’t feel enlightened about it. Seriously, hallucinations are not a big deal. There’s a reason why there’s a drug alternative available.
And then I started learning about TM (Transcendental Meditation).
Man, that was the s***. I totally gobbled down what Bob Roth and other TM stalwarts had to say about the process, I cold-called a TM practitioner in Bangalore, India, when I knew I had no money to pay for the course, I googled like a madman (as a madman? The specifics are unimportant) and landed on some invaluable resources, like this video:
This guy explained to me in a nutshell, the act of picking up a meaningless word, reciting it in your head for about twenty minutes (or more) and ending up finding all the answers to everything you ever wanted to know, in the universe.
Sounds like a big claim? I leave it up to you to actually try the process (Sitting in one place with your eyes closed for 20 minutes shouldn’t be dangerous unless you’re behind the wheel or something) and decide for yourself.
By the way, here’s what I learnt along the way.
- All living and non living things share a soul — that may sound like an oversimplified version of the truth, but another thing that you learn while meditating, is that:
- All ‘truths’ are inherently simple and easy to understand.
- Yes- All human beings can essentially be considered as ‘one person’ living multiple lives. Which indicates that deep down, we share our likes and dislikes. We all want the same thing.
- We all want to be peaceful and happy.
- We all know how to distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘bad’
- Our collective conscience “binds” us
Okay — how is any of this useful to a Dirk Gently fan?
That’s the real question, isn’t it?
Here’s the thing. Once you figure out that everybody is essentially the same person (a big freaky but actually quite convenient truth to live with), you start understanding what makes people tick, what makes them laugh, what makes them cry, what makes them stop crying, what makes them heal, what makes you heal, what unites you with your peers, what unites you with people you’ve never met in your life….
You start creating better content.
As a writer, the best way to put this across to you, is… By practicing TM, you will get closer to the act of being able to write or create content in which every reader/viewer starts imagining themselves at the center of your story. Because, in writing an interconnected story, you are writing about every story.
And lastly, to do justice to the preview image I’ve chosen for this article…
Understand this last part.
If the value of the dollar (USD) falls against the value of the Euro, many people around the world will have different reactions to it. They will feel differently.
But.
If you like dogs, or cats, or animals in general — and if you experience a sense of joy when you see a dog playing with/licking a cat (or vice versa), then rest assured that everyone else who’s feeling happy about that image, is feeling the exact same thing.
I’ve been told I have a problem with articulation, but I think on some level, that clears the air about the fundamental interconnectedness of all things in the universe as far as churning out good content is concerned.
May the force be with you (?)
