Mind without borders

 

Image from here

If you feel that you belong to the whole human race rather than a particular nation or religion or any such relatively smaller community, you have a more evolved consciousness. Nationalists, religious bigots and terrorists, linguistic chauvinists and such people possess a low-level consciousness.

There is something called ‘terror management theory’ in psychology. It says that when people are made to feel insecure and anxious they tend to cling to narrow affiliations. Remember how the slogan Hindu khatre mein hai captured the psyche of a whole nation a few years back? The Hindu is in danger. What danger? In a country where the Hindus were what is today commonly and significantly labelled as “brutal majority," what danger did they face from the tiny minority? It was a danger fabricated by certain clever politicians for the sake of winning elections. They won too. They rule the country today. And they keep the whole country at a very low level of consciousness. For the sake of keeping their power safe. It is easy to subjugate a people whose consciousness level is low.

The terror management theory mentioned above says that we have an impulse to cling to labels of identity to defend ourselves against feelings of insecurity. Create some kind of panic among people. Like Hindu khatre mein hai. Then project nationalism as a secure label. People will flock to that label.

Poverty and economic instability also can lead to increased nationalism, according to the terror management theory. We know where India stands in many rankings of poverty and hunger and so on. Good for nationalism. But bad for the evolution of the consciousness.

The terror management theory also says that those who experience high levels of wellbeing don’t tend to have a narrow sense of group identity. They feel a strong sense of connection to bigger groups like the whole world or the species itself. They see themselves as global citizens. They see themselves as human beings rather than Hindus or Muslims, Indians or Pakistanis.

Psychologist Steve Taylor studied this in detail and has written much about it. In one of his studies, he found that people who experienced some trauma like cancer or a fatal accident emerge from the catastrophe with changed perspectives. Their perspective becomes wider, more inclusive. Hence their lives become richer, more meaningful. More fulfilling. They see the connectedness of the entire reality. Instead of seeing the borders and boundaries, they see relationships and connections. Borders disappear from their minds.

Wide minds. High level of consciousness. When most people in the world achieve that stage, there will be no need for passports and visas. Borders and boundaries will be only for administrative purposes. The human race will be ONE. Oneness of a mystical kind.

That’s just a dream, I know. Let me dream.

PS. Written for Indispire Edition 429: Imagine a world without borders. No visa, no passport, no frisking... A really civilized world of harmonious coexistence. #VasudhaivaKutumbakam