Teilhard de Chardin said, "We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." Spiritual seekers of varying stripes have subscribed to this view for millenia. And now, quantum physicists may be reaching similar conclusions, however tentatively.

Some physicists believe that the Universe is a giant hologram, which (to put it very simplistically) is a three-dimensional image, a projection of something else. And interestingly, if you were to break this hologram down into smaller, individual pieces, each piece would contain all of the information that is contained in the whole. In other words, the knowledge of the entire Universe can be found in every particle in existence. With this understanding, nothing within the hologram is an individual entity at all. Everything we see, everything that we are is actually an extension of this same "fundamental something." Nothing is separate.

And yet, here we are, seemingly separate. No two people are alike. No two snowflakes are alike. But paradoxically, we are all projections from a greater source. We are one being, one energy. Every sub-atomic particle in our body can communicate instantaneously with any other sub-atomic particle in the Universe, regardless of the distance separating them. They could be one inch apart or one million light years apart. We are all interconnected.

So, if we're all part of the same energy, the same field, the same being, why are we different?

Well, what fun would it be if we were all the same? How does consciousness—God—have fun? How does God grow and learn about itself? How does God experience itself? It decides to create individualized expressions of itself, each endowed with their own unique gifts and traits and the same creative powers as the whole:  remember, in a hologram, each piece contains all of the information of the whole. Everything we see—material or organic—contains this information.

Robert Scheinfeld refers to us as "god-like beings playing the human game." And so we are. Each of us is here to represent an aspect of the God energy. We're not supposed to be the same. Some of us are here to be conservative, some liberal. Some of us are here to represent the Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, or some other spiritual path, while some are here to represent no spiritual path at all. Some of us are here to express gender and love in heterosexual ways, homosexual ways, bisexual ways, or as a transgendered person. Some of us are here to experience the world as mentally ill, physically disabled, autistic, or with reduced mental capacity. Some of us are here to show the power of unconditional love, and some are here to show us what darkness looks like, to give us the choice. And all of it, love it or hate it, is part of the One source, of God energy.

When we truly understand what Oneness looks like, we have to accept that it includes everything. There are no exceptions. This includes the things we don't like, and the things that we really have a hard time loving. This isn't to say that you have to love all of the things that other people do. You can dislike someone's actions and choices, but the person is still deserving of love and forgiveness because they are literally part of you. Every time we encounter someone or something that we don't love, it is an opportunity to learn to love it, and that part of ourselves.

Of course, whatever it is we choose to do here in this hologram is just part of the human game. Shakespeare said, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." We're playing the roles we chose and continue to choose, every day. And all of them are valid. The American nuclear family ideal is valid, but so are any other ways of expressing family, whether the parents are of the same sex, or there is only one parent, or even if there are no genetic parents at all, such as an adoptive family. The Mosuo culture's definition of family is also valid:  children are raised by the woman's family group, and the genetic father does not live with them or have a role in their upbringing. He does, however, contribute to the raising of children in his family group. We may find this to be an odd—or even uncomfortable—arrangement, but this is just another way of being, a different way of expressing ourselves. There is no one "right" way to do anything. There is no one "right" way to live.

And yet, playing this game, many believe that there is only one "right" way, and they seek to prove it with violence. Today, the Uighurs and the Han slaughter each other in the Urumqi province in China. Extremist Sunnis and Shiites, both praying to the same God, seek to repress the other or blow them up. Jewish and Palestinian hardliners, each pointing the finger at the other, find their differences too weighty to overcome, while the masses suffer and wait. When will we tire of this game? When will we finally get sick of the "I'm better than you are" game?

Pessimists despair and say that we will never heal this, but know in yourself that it is very possible to heal and overcome it. All it takes is a shift in consciousness. Many people are already experiencing this shift. It's the awareness that we are truly part of one great, multi-faceted being. There is no right or wrong way to express that energy. When we begin to value each expression, each person, each thing, for its own divinity, for what it is without judging or trying to change it, then there will be no more hate or fear or war. We will know that fighting each other means that we are literally fighting ourselves.

Nothing is separate. Nothing is "less than." Everything just is, perfectly.

Related articles:

• Who is right?
• We are One: The world is a reflection of you
• We are One: We are the things we do not like
• We are One: The myth of our "shadow side"
• What is God?