Renee’s article describes Oneness as the essential nature of our human 3D-reality from both the Taoist (pronounced Dow-ist) and modern science point of view.

From her discussion of "everything is energy" to the "field theory" which describes all energy is connected, we are introduced to a newer way of thinking about the fundamental nature of the Universe.

Whether we use the words Tao, Universe, or God, they all describe a singular origin of everything. These words also describe something or someone which is directly unknowable.

Taoism describes the Tao as the mother of the 10,000 things. In this context, 10,000 means everything know to humans. Tao can be translated as "way, path, road, route." All of which refer to living in accordance with the laws of nature. It is the invisible source of all that is visible.

The prevailing scientific theory of the origin of the universe is the big bang theory. According to this theory, everything we can see is the result of a very tiny, tiny, tiny thing exploding to create all the components of the universe.

According to the major Western religions, God is responsible for the creation of all things. Interestingly, the source of the word, "catholic," is the Greek adjective, "katholikos," meaning, "universal."

Whether the source of everything we know is the Tao, a gigantic explosion, or God, it is pretty straight-forward to understand everything is interconnected, interrelated, born of a common source; therefore, everything is us.

Where humans begin to veer away from understanding and living the Oneness can be seen in each of these three possible explanations of the Universe.

In the Tao Te Ching, the first book written about Taoism in approximately 400 BCE, chapter one states, "The Tao that can be named is not the Tao."

What this means is in the Oneness, there are no names, no distinctions that separate anything from another. There is no me or you. There is just… well, the Oneness. Everything is connected.

It seems there is a human necessity to name everything. Our entire world is made up of words for things. That makes some sense, human sense. Names allow us to navigate the world, but, once you name something, it is separated from the Oneness (or is it?). Naming things veers us away from the Tao or the Oneness.

In the Big Bang Theory, scientists hypothesis there was a very small point (this word was used often in descriptions of the big bang) of some something, smaller than an atom, which decided one day to blow up, hence, the name, Big Bang. No one knows what this very small point of something was. Scientists call it a mystery.

Scientists say the "Big Bang," in some ridiculously small amount of time, a billionth of a second or something like that, created all the components of everything we can observe through fancy scientific equipment as well as through our mind, senses, and intuition as well as things yet to be explained or discovered.

How does the Big Bang Theory veer us away from the Oneness?

The Big Bang story begins with a move away from the Oneness. In the beginning, there was this thing that contained everything. Sounds like the Oneness to me. Then, boom, this thing that contained everything blew apart into all these different things. It was no longer the Oneness.

The "veering away" also occurs in the standard practice of science; that is, to reduce phenomena to its component parts. In this scientific reductionist practice of separating things like water into its tiniest bits, we often lose sight of the miracle of water and its importance in the development of human civilizations and human survival in all environments.

When God created the universe, in addition to all the great stuff, all the distractions and differences that bother us were also created. As a result, we don’t always remember we are all God’s children. We forget to live the teachings of the Bible. We forget the Bible entreats us many times to "not judge others, lest we be judged."

These "forgettings" veer us away from living as close as possible to the heart of God.

Now what do these three different ways of looking at the Oneness have to do with health? I am glad I asked.

My preferred definition of "healing" is, "to make whole." (Whole-ness sounds a lot like One-ness to me.)

How do we heal? How do we make ourselves whole? Remembering and….

If we are a Taoist, we know when we create names for everyone and everything in the Universe we are moving everyone and everything out of the Oneness. It is here we have the opportunity to remember we are all born of the Tao since all things and beings stem from it. We are the Tao and not the Tao at the same time. When we allow ourselves to remember we have the same origin as all things, we move closer to becoming One with all things.

Applying Big Bang Theory to the Oneness, the illusion we are separate little bits of the primordial explosion can be proven to be just that, an illusion, or even a delusion.

Firstly, in addition to the biochemical elements which make up our bodies, the essence or spirit of us must have existed in the tiny, mysterious point of who-knows-what that exploded in the Big Bang. The proof is that we have bodies as well as consciousness that is not biochemical. In his lectures entitled, "The Canticle to the Cosmos," the mathematical cosmologist, Brian Swimme refers to this concept as the bio-spiritual nature of the universe.

Since we were birthed in the primordial, cosmic fireball, we are all related to everything else in the Universe. How can we not be? We’re all made of star dust for Pete’s sake.

We simply need to remember where we all came from.

We learn from God we are all his children. We know that God created light, the Earth, the Waters, the Heavens, and all creatures great and small. If this is so, how can we not be all related? We simply need to remember all things are of God.

Let it be said remembering is not enough.

All these ideas about the Tao, the Big Bang, and God are useless unless we put them into action.

How do we do this? Love. Love is the answer.

The poet, Jack Gilbert, wrote, "Love allows us to walk in the sweet music of our particular heart."

While we are all part of whichever form of Oneness you choose to believe, each of us is unique in all the history of the Universe. We are holy particulars.

Love is an action. Love is a practice of remembering our common source. Love is remembering we are not alone. Love is a declaration of participating in life. Love is how we know ourselves through our relationships with others. Love is how we help others as well as ourselves.

Remember, God helps those who help themselves.