by Richard Moss MD:  As a student of history what I see in the progress of human cultural evolution is the continuing belief in the illusion of separateness

and the simultaneous survival impulse that belief creates. When separateness dominates consciousness, “Me” trumps “You.” “Mine” trumps “Yours.” “Ours” trumps “Theirs.” And the needs of humankind continue to trump the inherent rights and dignity of every other form of life.

In all of human cultural evolution can we actually credit ourselves as conscious beings since belief in the separate self and obedience to self-interest is so instinctual? Even when bolstered by the highest levels of education or when we seemingly prove our intelligence by achieving exceptional success (in consensus terms) should we credit ourselves and such capacities as demonstrating true consciousness? Maybe the best we can say – and it would certainly do our collective human grandiosity that is sucking the life out of the earth a great deal of good – is to acknowledge that such basic human behavior is only conscious within a relatively narrow context.

The consciousness we need today to overcome the illusion of separateness and the consequent unconscious slavery to self-interest begins when we are aware of our survival instinct in all its manifestations: material, intellectual, emotional, psychological, and religious, and can more completely witness the thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors that are based in this illusion. Then we can begin to make choices that ally us with all of life and our own lives become lived primarily as servants to the whole and not as sovereigns over whatever lesser domain we stake out for ourselves.