Friends, Below is an article you can find in the latest Lotus Guide, a Northern California magazine. It’s part of the Introduction of my not-yet-published book (next year!)—Unity Begins Within: Spiritual Healing and the Four-Petaled Flower of Wholeness. Enjoy and Share. Annie

In 2011, one of my spirit teachers said: “Your planet is in a turbulent situation and cannot continue to exist in the ways it has been going.” Was he prophesying our current political, socio-economic, and racial crises? Climate change disasters? The global pandemic? Vaccine polarization? Choose any one of these topics and think about a conversation you recently participated in or a report you watched on the news. Wealth and righteousness are being placed ahead of the welfare of humanity, and there doesn’t appear to be much agreement or Unity about anything. Instead, separation is thriving.

Our “turbulent situation,” as my teacher called it, arises from one core place—the collective amnesia of the Oneness of our spiritual roots. Too many people have forgotten that we are One spiritual being. This memory loss creates a void within the soul which, depending upon its size, generates a fertile environment for diverse states of separation to emerge and flourish. While one person might become depressed, and another feed the emptiness with food or alcohol, it’s within the extremes of spiritual amnesia where internal disunity shifts gears and becomes outwardly destructive. We see these manifestations daily in war, genocide, and the ego-centric abuse of people, animals, and the planet. Does having power over another fill the emptiness within? One person alone cannot awaken the entire collective, but one person can awaken themself and play their part, however small it might seem, in shifting collective consciousness.

Separation—spiritual and personal—was a hallmark of my abusive upbringing. It seeded within my soul when I was young and grew to become a deeply rooted, flourishing tree, one I didn’t even know existed until I was in my early thirties and camping at the Yuba River with a friend.

On our first day, we played in the cool, refreshing water, sunbathed on giant rocks, and bushwhacked along the river’s edge exploring off-the-beaten-track trails. We ended up in a magnificent, deep gorge, although it was so far away from camp that the only way to return was through the river. The water was over my head in some places, and as a fire sign with a fear of drowning, our return adventure was no fun for me. Even though my friend championed me all the way, I coped with my vulnerability by snapping at her, making mean comments, and emotionally shutting down.

That evening, I found myself in a ferocious inner battle—me fighting me. My mother had never acknowledged accountability for anything (according to her, she was always right) and I learned at a very young age that being wrong was the worst possible statement about my character. I knew I needed to apologize for my rude behavior, but admitting I’d made a mistake seemed impossible.

My friend was a saint. She witnessed my anguish, didn’t take it personally, and never pushed me to speak, even though my suffering had traveled outside of me and visited her in the form of a thick and chilly wall. After hours of agonizing self-torment, I finally realized I had to surrender my war. At this point, it was dark, and we were in the warm, cozy tent. My friend was in the middle of reading aloud when I abruptly interrupted and blurted out, “I am so sorry.” And then burst into sobs as I fell into her open, loving arms. My battle finally ended, and Unity—inner and outer—had won. This profound experience of being so disunified within myself that I’d created a barrier to keep me separate from someone I loved jolted me, and I finally began uprooting my childhood tree.

Traumatic Life experiences often land us in spiritual amnesia, survival, and separation. In my Spiritual Healing practice, I’ve seen how inner disunity—warring against oneself as I did at the river—can go so far as to physically manifest as an auto-immune disease, where our own body, which is meant to support us, turns against us instead.

How does one awaken from the slumber of separation? Mother Nature is a nurturing catalyst for me. Do you feel alone? Separate from Spirit or yourself? Lean against a tree. Place your feet in the creek. Go to the beach and immerse yourself in the expansiveness of the ocean. Let the refined energies of the natural world melt away your emotional defenses and reveal your core fragilities. That’s when true healing begins. And then, as you do whatever it takes to unify, your separation wound will lose its power, and Unity will fill the void.

Separation and disunity can be a little like a privet tree, an invasive species that constantly reseeds itself. Let’s be vigilant, notice when new trees have grown, and pull out the fresh roots. One by one, we can do our parts to change a “turbulent situation” into something more stable and sustainable. And here’s the magic—each individual awakening becomes an elixir that infuses the collective spiritual amnesia and inspires it to rub its sleepy eyes and begin seeing Unity everywhere.

Apu likes to unify with the creek.