Thankfully, you are not God.

If all were one, then all would be hell.

The idea that we are all one, AKA monism or Open Individualism, is common in circles populated by spiritual explorers and psychonauts. Psychedelics in particular lower your ego identification and give you a feeling of oneness with your surroundings.

Many people find this sense of oneness to be a blissful experience. I did not (that this difference exists at all implies a certain distinction). Upon experiencing the god’s-eye view that everybody I talked to was me, and that I was eternal, I panicked.

Because if I was God, then I was infinitely alone. If everyone was me, then there was no possibility of relationship. No love, no meaning. I was in a jail of myself with no escape.

Now being separate from those we love is also no picnic. That’s why the Christian God, who is defined by love (1 John 4:8), is defined by the paradox of the trinity. He is one divine essence, but also has relationship baked into his being (now why God would be three persons as opposed to two is beyond the ability of these musings to distinguish).

Love, meaningful relationship, is defined by the quality of being deeply intertwined with and interpenetrated by the being of somebody else, without obliterating the distinction between the two of you.

Yes, let’s lose ourselves in each other. But always, something remains unmixed. That is the fundamental mystery, the adventure of love. Love is not a tame lion. It is not predictable.