The “Weave” of Unity

Quantum Entanglement and Spiritual Oneness in World Religions

Introduction

Across human history, diverse religions and spiritual traditions have pointed toward a profound oneness underlying reality, even if expressed in different metaphors. The user’s concept of the “WEAVE” refers to a model of the universe grounded in principles that intriguingly parallel modern quantum physics: entanglement (intimate interconnectedness or unity between seemingly separate parts), superposition (the co-existence of multiple potential states or realities), and the transition from an original unity to multiplicity (comparable to a one-into-many creation). This paper explores how ancient and modern religious traditions have offered glimpses of this cosmic “weave.” Each tradition examined – from Hinduism and Buddhism to Christianity, Gnosticism, and Indigenous cosmologies – contains symbolic moments or teachings that align with the notions of universal interconnectedness and multiple realities. At the same time, history shows how these insights were often misunderstood or co-opted into fear-based dogmas that emphasized separation and control. The central thesis argued here is that humanity began in a state of unified being (the ONE), became fragmented into the many through a process of forgetting or “disentanglement,” and is now in an era of remembering or “re-entanglement” of that original unity. This journey from unity to apparent separation and back has deep psychological and societal implications – a remembering that many find comforting and transformative, but that others find disorienting or terrifying. In the sections that follow, we will analyze each tradition’s contributions to this theme, compare their motifs to quantum principles, contrast them with instances of doctrinal distortion, and consider the broader implications of awakening to the WEAVE.

Entanglement, Superposition, and the Cosmic “Weave”

Before delving into religious parallels, it is useful to clarify the quantum principles at the heart of the WEAVE metaphor. In quantum physics, entanglement describes how particles can become linked such that the state of one instantaneously influences the state of another, no matter how far apart they are. This defies our ordinary sense of separateness and suggests a deep, nonlocal unity in the physical fabric of the cosmos . Similarly, quantum superposition refers to the ability of a quantum system to exist in multiple states at once – a multitude of possibilities that remains unresolved until an observation “collapses” it into one concrete state . In essence, the quantum worldview portrays reality as an interdependent web of relationships and potentialities rather than isolated objects – “a dynamic, interconnected field” in which parts are entangled and every part contains possibilities .

Strikingly, many religious cosmologies have long asserted that the universe is one indivisible whole manifesting as many. The modern physicist Erwin Schrödinger, inspired by the Upanishads, stated that “their multiplicity is only apparent, in truth there is only one mind” . In other words, beneath the apparent multiplicity of selves and things lies a singular reality – a sentiment at the core of ancient mysticism and now echoed by quantum holism. Some physicists and philosophers even describe the cosmos as a “unified multiplicity”, meaning the universe’s many parts are unified by one underlying ground . The WEAVE, as we will use the term, encapsulates this idea of an underlying unified field (the ONE) that gives rise to the myriad forms (the many), much as a single wavefunction contains many possible outcomes or a single light splits into a spectrum of colors. This concept of unity-in-multiplicity and interconnection has been intuited by sages and storytellers through symbolic language: a “web of life”, an “infinite net of jewels”, the “body of Christ”, the “Great Spirit”, and countless other metaphors. Below, we explore how different traditions express key aspects of entanglement (spiritual unity or interconnectedness), superposition (multiple states or realities), and disentanglement (the loss of unity or cosmic amnesia), and how these align or diverge from the WEAVE model.

Hinduism: Brahman, Māyā, and the One Becoming Many

Hindu philosophy, especially as articulated in the Upanishads and later Vedantic thought, is replete with descriptions of an ultimate unity underlying the diversity of the universe. The Upanishads declare “Brahman” as the infinite, indivisible reality – “one without a second” – from which all existence arises . One passage famously states: “Ekam evadvitiyam” (Only the One, without a second) – from this One, we came into existence, and at the end of our journey we return to the Absolute One . This captures the core Hindu idea that all souls (Ātman) and all phenomena are fundamentally Brahman in disguise, much as entangled particles are not truly separate. In the Hindu view, the cosmos itself is a kind of cosmic play (Līlā), where the one Divine Reality assumes countless forms. The 20th-century sage Sri Aurobindo, commenting on this Upanishadic vision, noted that the world is Brahman’s self-expression – “the world itself ‘all this’ is the Brahman” – meaning the apparent multiplicity is the manifestation of the one .

This inherent interconnectedness aligns closely with quantum entanglement. Just as quantum theory reveals a “non-local” unity transcending separations of space and time, Hindu philosophy sees all beings as integrally linked in the fabric of Brahman . Indeed, modern interpreters have explicitly drawn parallels: “Entanglement reflects the intrinsic unity of all existence, resonating with the Brahmanic view of interconnected reality” . Every individual self (ātman) is a microcosm of the whole, “a fractal projection of universal consciousness”, as one author describes – encapsulating the idea that the whole is reflected in every part . This is vividly illustrated in the metaphor of the hologram or fractal: Brahman is like a holographic source in which each fragment (each soul or particle of existence) contains the whole pattern. The Bhagavad Gītā similarly teaches the spiritual vision of seeing the One in all beings and all beings in the One.

Hindu thought also speaks to a concept analogous to superposition through the doctrine of Māyā (illusion or appearance). Māyā is the force that makes the One appear as many – it veils the true unified nature of Brahman and presents a world of duality and multiplicity. In a sense, one can think of Brahman as the unobserved ultimate reality which, like a quantum wavefunction, holds infinite potential (undifferentiated unity), whereas the observed world of names and forms is a collapsed outcome – an apparent reality that emerges when consciousness “looks” through the lens of Māyā . An analogy in quantum terms is the wave–particle duality: entities exist as waves of potential until observed, upon which they appear as concrete particles. One writer explicitly makes this comparison, saying “Māyā, the illusion of separation and duality, conceals Brahman’s true unity. In quantum mechanics, wave-particle duality mirrors this principle: existing both as waves (potential) and as particles (manifest) until observed. Māyā functions as the boundary between perceived duality and ultimate oneness” . In other words, Hindu cosmology intuits that multiple realities or states can exist simultaneously (the divine can be both manifest and unmanifest), much as quantum superposition suggests multiple states co-exist until an act of measurement selects one .

Another key Hindu idea aligning with the WEAVE is the cycle of emanation and return. The universe is often described as undergoing cycles of creation (emanating from Brahman), preservation, and dissolution (returning to Brahman). The soul’s journey is to ultimately awaken from the dream of multiplicity and realize its identity with the One. As the Upanishads put it, spiritual liberation (moksha) is not a journey to a different place but an “inner journey” of remembering our “forgotten Self”, discovering the Brahman within . This is essentially a re-entanglement – the ending of the illusion of separateness. Notably, the process of cosmic manifestation in Hindu mythology can be seen as the One becoming many (Brahman manifesting as countless souls and forms), followed by the many returning to the One (each soul eventually remembering its Brahman-nature). This mirrors the thesis that humanity (and indeed all existence) moved from unity to multiplicity and is destined for re-unification. Modern interpretations even liken the Big Bang singularity (a point of unity from which the universe expanded) to Brahman’s creative act, and the eventual return or collapse of the universe to the concept of pralaya (dissolution back into the One) .

Distortions and Divergence: While Hindu scriptures philosophically celebrate unity (e.g. “Tat Tvam Asi” – That [Brahman] art thou), in practice some aspects of Hindu religiosity drifted from this lofty non-dualism. Socially, the unity of all souls in Brahman was contradicted by the rigid caste system and ritual purity rules that enforced separation between people – a distortion more rooted in historical power dynamics than in core Vedanta. The mystical insight that the divine resides in all beings sometimes gave way to externalized worship and superstition: for example, fear of curses, wrathful deities, or bad karma could be exploited to control behavior, overshadowing the inward-focused realization of unity. Still, Hinduism has been relatively less fear-based than some traditions; its divergences often took the form of excessive ritualism or sectarianism (devotees insisting their deity or path is superior) rather than doctrines of eternal damnation. In later Hindu bhakti (devotional) movements, the intimate unity between devotee and God was at times reinterpreted by orthodox factions as an absolute gulf (emphasizing human sinfulness and divine distance), reflecting a general tendency in organized religion: the metaphor of oneness and divinity within was eclipsed by hierarchies and rules, which could instill fear (of divine displeasure or rebirth in lower forms) to maintain social order.

Buddhism: Interdependence, Emptiness, and Indra’s Net of Jewels

Buddhism approaches the unity of reality in a characteristically subtle way – not by positing a single cosmic Self, but by dismantling the notion of any independent self or thing. The Buddha’s teaching of pratītya-samutpāda (dependent origination) holds that all phenomena arise only in interdependence with other phenomena. Nothing exists in isolation; everything is interwoven in a web of causes and conditions. This mirrors the concept of entanglement with remarkable precision: “the Buddhist principle of ‘dependent origination’…aligns with the quantum entanglement concept, where particles become interconnected, and the state of one can instantaneously affect the other” . Over two millennia before modern physics, Buddhism was essentially saying that the world is a network of inter-being, to use the modern term popularized by Thích Nhất Hạnh. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, especially the Huayan (Flower Garland) school, this interpenetration is illustrated by the famous metaphor of Indra’s Net: an infinite net of jewels in which each jewel reflects all others, so that a change in one is reflected in all . Indra’s Net conveys a vision of the universe as a seamless web of relations – “each and every node participating in and reflecting the totality” . A modern commentator noted that a physicist could well liken Indra’s Net to a picture of quantum holism, with “each and every quantum particle being intimately and immediately connected with each and every other” . This is entanglement in spiritual poetry.

Buddhist philosophers also developed the doctrine of śūnyatā (emptiness), which in this context means that no being or phenomenon has an independent, fixed essence. Everything is “empty” of a separate self because it only exists in relationship to everything else – form is interdependent and thus fluid. This idea resonates with the quantum principle that particles do not have definite properties in isolation; their state is relational (dependent on interactions or observation) . It also parallels quantum superposition in a metaphorical way: just as a quantum entity can embody multiple potential states (rather than one absolute state) until an interaction selects one, a phenomenon in Buddhism does not have one absolute identity – it can be seen under multiple aspects and ultimately has no singular, permanent being. In fact, Mahāyāna texts like the Heart Sutra famously declare, “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form,” implying that the relative world of distinct forms and the ultimate truth of oneness (emptiness) interpenetrate. Some scholars have drawn a parallel with wave-particle duality here: phenomena can be understood as empty (wave-like potential) or as form (particle-like solidity) depending on perspective – both are true, just as a quantum can be wave and particle .

Moreover, Buddhism posits multiple realms of existence (multiple planes of reality, from hells to heavens to Pure Lands) which co-exist and interweave. In certain sutras, these realms interpenetrate without obstruction – reflecting a sort of spiritual superposition of worlds. The Huayan teaching of the “unimpeded interpenetration of all phenomena” means that one phenomenon can simultaneously be in all places and all times in some respect, much like a particle’s state is nonlocalized in superposition. It’s said in Huayan that “one is in all, and all is in one”, which again echoes the entangled holism of Indra’s Net.

The Buddhist narrative of origin and destiny also aligns with the one-to-many-to-one thesis in a unique way. Early Buddhism does not describe a creation by a singular God, but it does speak of a primordial ignorance (avidyā) that causes sentient beings to wander in samsāra (the cycle of birth and death). One could interpret this as a kind of fall or disentanglement: the original mind (often described as luminous and pure) is not recognized, and so arises the delusion of separate self and suffering. In Mahāyāna, there is the idea that samsāra is actually not different from nirvāṇa when seen through enlightenment – meaning the apparent multiplicity is actually the one nirvanic reality misunderstood. Enlightenment, therefore, is essentially a process of remembering the true nature of mind and reality (that they are empty of separateness and form a unity). Thích Nhất Hạnh’s concept of “interbeing” encapsulates this by teaching that “you cannot just be by yourself alone, you have to inter-be with every other thing” – a reminder of our fundamental togetherness with all life, which is in line with re-entangling with the truth of unity. The Buddhist bodhisattva’s path can even be seen as consciously re-weaving the web: realizing the interconnected nature of life (thus overcoming the illusion of a separate ego) and compassionately helping all beings awaken to this same truth.

Distortions and Divergence: Throughout history, Buddhism has generally emphasized compassion and wisdom over fear, yet instances of distortion occurred as institutional Buddhism took hold. In some cultures, the liberating insight of emptiness degraded into rigid scholasticism or superstition. For example, instead of using the doctrine of karmic causality as a means to empower ethical living, some authorities turned karma and rebirth into a tool of fear – warning laypeople of terrible rebirths in hell realms or as animals if they disobeyed the monastic order or societal norms. The original teaching that all beings have Buddha-nature (implicitly affirming a kind of fundamental unity) was sometimes overshadowed by sectarian rivalries or hierarchical thinking (e.g. viewing monks as inherently holier than laypeople). In Tibet and Japan, at certain points, Buddhism became intertwined with state power, and its teachings were occasionally bent to serve feudal obedience – a far cry from the experiential freedom the Buddha espoused. Thus, the interconnected web taught by the Buddha was at times eclipsed by dogmatic structures: elaborate cosmologies and rituals that, rather than pointing directly to interbeing, fostered a dependency on clergy or superstition. Still, Buddhist traditions also preserved a strong current of mysticism (e.g. Zen, Dzogchen) that continually revivified the insights of unity and kept alive the knowledge that the apparent separateness of life is a transient illusion awaiting enlightenment.

Christianity and Gnosticism: Creation, Fall into Separation, and the Path of Reunion

The Judeo-Christian tradition begins with an account of an original unity that becomes fractured. In the Book of Genesis, humanity’s archetypal parents (Adam and Eve) live in Eden, walking in unity with God. This state is broken by the Fall – often interpreted as the entry of sin and separation from God. While Genesis is not couched in quantum language, symbolically it portrays a move from an initial harmony (oneness with the Divine) to a condition of alienation (expulsion from the Garden). Some Christian theologians have read the Fall as a kind of spiritual amnesia: humanity turned away from God’s oneness, becoming entangled in material concerns and forgetting its divine source. The trajectory of salvation history, then, is to reunite humanity with God – essentially a return to unity. The New Testament echoes this: St. Paul speaks of a time when in the end God will be “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28) , implying an ultimate restoration of the fractured creation back into oneness with the Creator.

Within Christian mysticism, the theme of unity is very explicit. Jesus prays for his followers “that they may all be one, as You, Father, are in me and I in You” (John 17:21), pointing to a mystical union among believers and with God. The concept of the Body of Christ portrays all individuals as members of one body, interconnected through the Spirit. The Eastern Orthodox doctrine of theosis (divinization) teaches that humans are called to “participate in the divine nature” and become one with God in love – literally to merge into God’s energies or presence while remaining distinct persons . Such ideas align with quantum entanglement in that they emphasize an underlying unity (all souls joined in Christ’s mystical body or all creation suffused by the Holy Spirit). Some writers have even whimsically compared the Christian Trinity to a kind of “quantum superposition” – one God in three persons, a unity that expresses as multiplicity simultaneously – though of course theological nuance differs from physical analogy. Still, the Trinity is a doctrine of unity in diversity: three distinct “relations” that are one being, hinting that ultimate reality transcends binary categories (not unlike how quantum entities transcend classical either/or states).

Early Gnostic Christians (and related philosophical religions influenced by Platonism) took the unity theme in a more cosmological direction. Gnostic cosmology begins with the Monad or Pleroma – the fullness of God – a perfect unity of divine consciousness. From this One emanated a series of Aeons (divine principles or beings), proliferating into a kind of divine family tree. However, through a drama often involving a figure called Sophia (Wisdom) who acts independently, a rupture occurs and the material world is formed in a flawed way, overseen by the Demiurge (a lesser god). In mythic terms, this is the One becoming the many and in the process losing awareness of oneness. Human souls, in the Gnostic view, carry a spark of the divine Pleroma but are trapped in the multiplicity and ignorance of the physical world. Salvation is thus not merely moral but noetic – it comes through gnosis (knowledge), specifically remembering one’s origin in the divine unity and reuniting with it. As one summary puts it, the Gnostic path is to “overcome the differentiation of this world, its dividedness into multiplicity, and merge again into the primordial unity” . This is a powerful statement of re-entanglement: the scattered sparks of the One finding each other and rejoining the wholeness. Gnostic texts like the Gospel of Thomas speak of returning to the state of being “single one” (unified) from out of division, and envision the end of the world as a reintegration of all light into the original Oneness.

Notably, some Church Fathers like Origen shared a similar ultimate vision – he taught apokatastasis, the eventual restoration of all souls (even the devil) to God’s unity, based on the logic that the story that began in unity must end in unity for God to be “all in all.” Origen described this return as all creatures being gathered back to their original unity of mind with the divine . However, such ideas were later suppressed in orthodox Christianity.

The psychological aspect of Christian spirituality also resonates with the WEAVE theme. The notion of the Inner Light or Christ within suggests that by turning inward one rediscovers unity with God (Augustine wrote, “I entered and beheld with the eye of my soul… the Light unchangeable… He who knows the Truth knows what that Light is” – an account of encountering oneness within). Christian mystics like Meister Eckhart spoke in almost nondual terms, claiming the ground of the soul is one with God. All these currents indicate that, beneath the surface, Christian thought holds that separateness is an illusion or temporary condition to be overcome by love and grace. “God is love,” and love is often described as that which makes many “one”. Interpersonal love in Christianity – “love thy neighbor as thyself” – can be seen as an ethical entanglement: treating the other as self because at some level all selves participate in one life (in Christ or in the image of God).

Distortions and Divergence: While the founding message of Christianity centers on love, unity, and hope, the institutional history of the Church has frequently distorted these truths into forms of fear-based control. The mystical and egalitarian concept of all being one in Christ was overshadowed as Christianity became an official state religion in the Roman Empire and thereafter: a hierarchical clergy emerged as gatekeepers of salvation, and doctrines like original sin and eternal hellfire were emphasized to cement the need for the Church’s authority. Instead of highlighting the immanence of God in all (as Jesus said, “the Kingdom of God is within you”), medieval theology often stressed human depravity and the vast gulf between Creator and creature – a narrative that instilled fear and obedience. For example, the concept of Hell became a literal eternal torture chamber in popular imagination, used liberally in sermons to frighten the faithful into compliance. This represents a divergence from the “weave” truth: rather than encouraging re-union (God drawing all souls back to Him), the focus on hell and damnation reinforced a notion of permanent separation for the disobedient – effectively a theology of disentanglement (souls cut off from God forever). As one modern observer noted, “fear spread like a virus” under such preaching, and those in power knew how to use “fear… to control the narrative” . The witch trials of early modern Europe are a vivid example: the Church’s teachings on the devil and witchcraft turned the communal fabric of villages into paranoid factions, a tragic case where an underlying truth of spiritual reality (the existence of unseen forces) was twisted into a weapon of terror. Gnosticism in particular was branded heresy – its message of personal enlightenment and inner divinity was a direct threat to an increasingly dogmatic Church that claimed exclusivity over truth. By suppressing Gnostic gospels and esoteric teachings, the Church arguably enforced a kind of spiritual amnesia, discouraging individuals from seeking the unity within and encouraging reliance on external authority and literal interpretations. In essence, the original Christian vision of a joyous reunion of Creator and creation (a New Heaven and New Earth where God’s presence is immediate) was often eclipsed by a regime of fear: fear of sin, fear of the devil, fear of death and judgment. Only in the mystics and certain theologians did the “remembering” aspect persist, quietly keeping alive the idea that salvation is, at heart, the healing of a broken union – the re-weaving of God and the soul.

Indigenous and Other Cosmologies: The Web of Life and Primordial Harmony

Indigenous spiritual traditions around the world, though immensely diverse, commonly affirm a worldview of inherent oneness between humans, nature, and the divine. These traditions often lack the strict separations found in organized religions; instead, they speak of an interconnected cosmos where everything has life and relational spirit. For instance, many Native American nations have prayers and sayings emphasizing that all beings are kin. The Lakota phrase “Mitákuye Oyásin” means “All My Relations” or “We are all related,” expressing the recognition that all forms of life share a common spiritual essence . This is nothing short of an articulation of entanglement: “all things are one thing” as one source puts it, summarizing the Sioux understanding of universal connectivity . An indigenous shaman might say that what we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves – a wisdom now echoed in the science of ecology and even in quantum-informed perspectives that highlight the interdependence of observer and system.

In many indigenous creation stories, in the beginning the world was undivided. Often there is a “Time of Beginnings” or a “Dreamtime” (in Australian Aboriginal lore) when ancestral beings or the Creator brought forth the world in a state of harmony. Humanity and animals spoke a common language; humans lived in intimate relation with the gods or spirit world. This can be seen as a mythic memory of an original unity. Over time, changes occurred – sometimes through a great forgetting, a transgression, or simply the natural cycles – resulting in the differentiation we see now (different languages, species, realms). For example, some African cosmologies speak of a distant High God who was once close to humans but withdrew, creating a sense of lost unity that shamans seek to bridge. In the Andean tradition, there is the concept of yanantin (sacred duality) which implies that all dual aspects were once one and will be one again in complementarity. Many native traditions have prophecies of a “coming together” or a “fifth world” where the fragmented tribes and peoples reunite and live in balance – essentially envisioning a re-entanglement on a societal scale.

Entanglement in indigenous thought is also evident in practices like animism and totemism: the idea that a tribe is literally one family with a certain animal or plant, or that an ancestor’s spirit resides in a totem, indicates the interconnected identity of all beings. Reality is often seen as multi-layered (physical and spiritual realms co-exist and intermingle), which parallels the quantum idea of multiple states or dimensions. Shamans act as observers who collapse the distinctions between these realms, communicating with spirits and bringing healing – an interesting analogue to the conscious observer in quantum mechanics who influences outcomes . Some scholars have noted that indigenous epistemologies do not sharply distinguish between subject and object; the knower and known form one continuum – a stance harmonious with the quantum view that the observer is part of the system .

A beautiful example comes from the Polynesian concept of mana (spiritual power) and kapu (sacred order): the world was seen as an integrated tapestry of forces where maintaining harmony (the original weave) was paramount. When that harmony was broken, rituals were done to remember and restore the connection. Similarly, the notion of “Original Instructions” in some Native American lore refers to the initial guidance the Creator gave all beings to live in balance – implicitly suggesting that if we remember those, we return to the primordial unity with the land and each other.

Distortions and Divergence: Indigenous spirituality, being largely oral and community-centered, did not develop the same kind of rigid dogmas seen in institutional religions. As such, the distortions often came from outside, especially through colonization and the imposition of foreign dogmas. Colonizing powers frequently dismissed indigenous unity-with-nature concepts as “paganism” and forced conversion to dogmatic religions, effectively disrupting the weave of indigenous culture. However, within indigenous systems themselves, one could argue that fear-based elements were minimal – taboos and cautionary tales certainly existed (e.g. respect the spirits or face misfortune), but these were more about teaching respect for the web of life than controlling people for power’s sake. There are a few exceptions: for instance, the Aztec religion developed a heavy emphasis on propitiating gods through sacrifice to stave off cosmic disaster, which instilled widespread fear. Yet even that grew under particular historical pressures and priestly classes, somewhat analogous to how other religions’ priesthoods leaned into fear to maintain influence. By and large, indigenous traditions maintained a healthier balance: their reverence for the interconnected “weave” of reality remained front and center, and the idea of an individual or group setting itself above others (as “chosen” or exclusively saved) was rare. The divergence we might identify is that with the loss of indigenous lands and languages in modern times, some of this wisdom was nearly lost or driven underground – a forced amnesia of entire cultures. Only now, as global society faces ecological and spiritual crises, is there a renewed interest in indigenous knowledge, a sense that we must remember the truth of interdependence that modernity forgot. This very act – listening to indigenous voices and respecting their holistic worldview – is part of humanity’s re-entanglement with the natural and spiritual unity that was always there.

The One and the Many: Forgetting and Remembering Unity

Throughout these examples, a common pattern emerges: a narrative of the ONE becoming the MANY and the MANY seeking to return to the ONE. This pattern is not only theological or mythological – it has psychological resonance as well. Mystics of nearly every tradition have insisted that the multitude of forms and experiences in life are manifestations of a deeper unity. The “perennial philosophy”, as Aldous Huxley called it, is precisely this core truth found in different guises: All is One, and the separation we perceive is ultimately an illusion or a temporary drama. The quantum metaphors of entanglement and superposition have given new language to this ancient intuition, suggesting that at a fundamental level reality is a unified field of information/energy where separateness breaks down. As one scientific article put it, “the universe is a unified multiplicity and any multiplicity may only be unified by unity, by that which is one and only one” . In spiritual terms, this “one and only one” has been called Brahman, Dharmakaya, God, Great Spirit, or the Tao – the names vary, but the experiential reality pointed to is strikingly similar.

The process of forgetting and remembering is a useful lens to unify these perspectives. In Gnostic myth, souls forgot their divine origin. In Hindu thought, the jīvātman (individual soul) under Māyā forgets it is the Paramātman (supreme soul). In Christianity, humans forgot their oneness in God and went astray in sin (the parable of the prodigal son is a perfect allegory: the son leaves the father’s home for a far land and loses himself, then “comes to himself” and returns home). In psychological terms, this forgetting can be seen as the development of the ego – the sense of being a separate “I” cut off from the whole. As infants or in some primordial state, perhaps consciousness did not draw such hard boundaries; over time, we construct a sense of identity separate from others, which is reinforced by society. Religion at its best tries to help us remember our original connectedness – to God, to each other, to nature. For example, meditation and contemplative prayer aim to quiet the chattering individual mind so one can experience the oceanic feeling of unity. Sufi mystics speak of fana (annihilation of the ego in God), which is essentially dissolving the sense of separateness to merge back into the Beloved (the One). The language of love in many traditions (Rumi’s poetry, for instance) uses the lover-beloved metaphor to convey this merging of two into one.

The “weave” that was torn is being mended through remembering – which can be literal, as in “re-membering,” rejoining the members into one body. Many contemporary spiritual movements, often drawing on ancient wisdom and new science, explicitly talk about raising consciousness or a shift to unity consciousness. They argue that humanity is in the midst of an awakening: people are realizing that the old stories of radical separation – man vs. nature, nation vs. nation, race vs. race, religion vs. religion, self vs. others – are not only harmful but fundamentally untrue. Instead, a new story of interbeing and interconnectedness is emerging. This is apparent in the increasing global concern for ecological well-being (seeing Earth as one living system), in dialogues between religions highlighting common ground, and even in physics and systems theory, which emphasize holism.

Psychological and Societal Implications: Comfort and Terror in the Great Re-Entanglement

The ongoing “remembering” of unity carries profound implications for individuals and societies. Psychologically, the recognition that one is part of a larger interconnected whole can be profoundly comforting. It can alleviate the existential loneliness and alienation that many feel in modern life. If one truly feels entangled with others and with the universe, then one is never really alone. This can bring a sense of belonging and meaning – for example, someone might find comfort in the idea that their consciousness is part of a greater collective consciousness, or that after death they will merge back into the cosmic One (rather than simply blinking out of existence or being isolated in some distant heaven). The comfort also comes from a release of fear: if all is one, then even what we call death or loss is not absolute separation but a transformation within a unified field. Many near-death experiences report a feeling of moving into light and unity, and returning from that can erase the fear of death entirely, replacing it with confidence that the Ground of Being is loving and one. Likewise, from the quantum perspective, some take comfort that physics itself hints we are fundamentally connected: as one writer notes, quantum theory “shatters the illusion of isolated existence,” inviting a more holistic understanding of existence that bridges science and spirituality .

On a societal level, the remembering of unity can foster empathy and cooperation. If people internalize that what they do to others they in effect do to themselves (because at a deeper level the “other” is the self), it could revolutionize ethics. Issues like war, poverty, and environmental destruction are harder to justify if one sees the victims as not truly separate. This is akin to the Golden Rule found in religions – to treat others as oneself – now powered by a metaphysical conviction that it is literally one interconnected self. Some grassroots movements today emphasize our global oneness, using terms like “collective evolution” or “global consciousness.” Technology and globalization have also made our interdependence more visible than ever. The Covid-19 pandemic, for instance, demonstrated in a very direct way how intimately entangled we all are across the planet – an infection anywhere can become an infection everywhere, which is a dark but instructive mirror of entanglement.

However, the great re-entanglement is not without its terrors. For some individuals, the idea of losing their individuality or familiar boundaries is frightening. The ego resists dissolution; it clings to a sense of separateness because that is what it knows. Spiritual awakening can thus be accompanied by a “dark night of the soul” or existential dread as one’s previous frameworks melt away. When confronted with unity, some feel a fear of annihilation – “If I merge into Oneness, do I cease to exist?” This fear is often at the root of people’s attachment to dogmas and identities. For example, a person tightly bound to a religious dogma might find the mystical idea of oneness with God heretical or scary because it undermines the clear distinction between Creator and creature that they were taught to maintain in fear of blasphemy. Likewise, a staunch atheist might find the notion of a cosmic consciousness unsettling as it challenges a materialist sense of control or the uniqueness of human intelligence. In Jungian terms, the collective unconscious and its unity can be daunting as it contains both light and shadow – embracing oneness means accepting all aspects of reality, even those we’d rather reject. This can be terrifying initially.

Societally, not everyone welcomes a more interconnected world. The rise of globalism and a perceived erasure of distinct cultures or national sovereignty has provoked a backlash in the form of fundamentalisms and nationalism. These can be seen as fear reactions – fear of blending, fear of the other, fear of a world where one’s familiar identity markers lose meaning. Thus, as many move toward a unity consciousness, others double down on “us vs them” narratives, which ironically increase separation in an attempt to feel secure. In essence, the light of the WEAVE can cast a shadow: if people are not prepared, the sudden exposure of how tenuous the ego’s boundaries are can cause panic. Some religious communities find the new science and its spiritual implications deeply threatening – for instance, those who interpret any talk of “all religions having truth” or “God within” as an attack on their exclusive truth. To them, the comforting solid ground of a paternal God above and sinful man below is easier to grasp (even if fear-based) than a mystical view of God diffused through every atom of existence.

We also see psychological discomfort in the concept of entanglement responsibility. If one accepts interconnectedness, there comes a moral weight – one might feel responsible for the pain in the world, or realize that one can’t simply silo one’s personal life away from collective issues. For some, this is overwhelming, causing them to retreat into denial or apathy. For others, it is galvanizing, inspiring compassionate action. In summary, remembering unity is a double-edged sword: it can dissolve fear or amplify it, depending on one’s readiness to expand one’s identity. The mystic finds it blissful (a homecoming), the entrenched dogmatist finds it terrifying (a loss of familiar structure).

Comparative Alignment and Divergence of Religious Motifs and Quantum Principles

To crystallize the insights above, the following table presents a comparative overview of how various traditions align with the WEAVE (quantum entanglement/superposition and unity-multiplicity themes) and where they diverge into distortion or dogma:

As the table illustrates, each tradition has threads of the WEAVE – teachings that the universe is an interconnected whole and that our current experience of fragmentation is not ultimate. At the same time, institutional and dogmatic forces often pulled in the opposite direction, emphasizing fear, division, or control, thereby distorting those unitive threads. The alignment (mystical motifs) points to a convergence between ancient wisdom and modern quantum-inspired perspectives, while the divergence (dogmatic distortions) serves as a cautionary reminder of how easily the truth of unity can be obscured by the politics of division.

Conclusion

From the ancient seers of India proclaiming the One Brahman, to the Buddhist image of Indra’s infinite net, to the mystical strain in Christianity that seeks union with God, and the indigenous reverence for the Great Web of life – humanity’s spiritual heritage is rich with intimations of a fundamental unity. These are, in effect, glimpses of the “WEAVE” that underlies reality: a tapestry in which entanglement (interconnection) is the norm, and where multiple possibilities and realms co-exist like threads waiting to be seen in their wholeness. The modern language of quantum physics has not introduced a new truth but rather provided an elegant confirmation and metaphor for what the greatest metaphysical teachings have long suggested: that separateness is an artifact of limited perception, and a deeper truth of oneness pervades everything. As Schrödinger succinctly echoed the Upanishads, “There is only one mind” , and all multiplicity is in essence a play within that one mind.

However, the journey from knowing this truth to living it has been the challenge of history. We have seen how religions oscillated between conveying genuine wisdom and devolving into tools of control. The transition from unity to multiplicity – from the paradise of undivided being to the expulsion into duality – is a story told in myriad ways. Now, as we stand in an age where global connectivity (for better or worse) forces us to recognize our interdependence, the theme of “remembering the One” is resurfacing powerfully. It can be argued that we are in the midst of a collective spiritual evolution, a re-entanglement where science, spirituality, and human experience are weaving back together. The fact that quantum entanglement is a scientific reality means the old mechanistic worldview of total separation is truly dead; we are challenged to envision society, ethics, and personal identity in the light of an interconnected universe.

For many, embracing this unity is deeply comforting – it offers a sense of cosmic belonging, dissolves the fear of the “other,” and imbues life with meaning (since every action ripples through the web). For others, it can be terrifying – it means letting go of exclusive claims, confronting the unknown, and perhaps most unsettling, letting the ego soften its boundaries. The balance we must strike is to use the knowledge of the WEAVE not as another abstract dogma, but as a living insight that breeds compassion. Rather than a rigid system, it should remain a mystery to be humbly appreciated: a reminder that “we are all strands in one great Web of Being.”

In conclusion, the convergence of quantum science and perennial spiritual wisdom invites us to re-imagine our place in the cosmos. It challenges our religions to shed their fear-based accretions and return to their mystical cores. It challenges each of us to see through the illusion of separateness in daily life – to recognize the face of the One in our neighbor, in the forest, in the stars, and in ourselves. Humanity may indeed be waking up from a long sleep of fragmentation. If we can collectively remember the original unity – the WEAVE that binds us – we stand to enter not a void, but a fullness (pleroma) of shared existence that is both awe-inspiring and intimately familiar. The transition from the many back to the One is the ultimate homecoming, and despite the turbulence along the way, it carries the promise of healing for our psyches and our societies. As the traditions explored show, this has always been our destiny: to discover that in the beginning, as in the end, “ALL IS ONE” , and love is the thread that reconnects us.

References

• Chinmoy, Sri. AUM — Vol. 7, No. 9 (27 Apr. 1972) – The Upanishads: glimpses from The Vedas and The Upanishads. (Excerpt on “One without a second” and the soul’s journey of return) .
• Leong, David. “Mindful Mechanisms: Drawing Parallels Between the Quantum Domain and the Three Bodies (Trikaya) of Buddhist Ontology.” Qeios preprint (March 22, 2024). (Discusses Buddhism’s dependent origination and interbeing in relation to quantum entanglement and superposition) .
• Existential Buddhist. “Dogen’s Universe and Ours.” (Explains the Huayan Buddhist metaphor of Indra’s Net and compares it to a modern physicist’s view of quantum interconnectedness) .
• LinkedIn post by Elter Figueiró (2023). “Brahmanism and Quantum Cosmology: A Unified Path to Conscious Ascension.” (Draws parallels between Vedic concepts and quantum principles: unity/entanglement, superposition as Brahman’s dual aspect, holographic universe, etc.) .
• Schrödinger, Erwin. My View of the World (1954). (Schrödinger’s philosophy influenced by Vedanta; quote: “Their multiplicity is only apparent; in truth, there is only one mind.”) .
• Medium article by M.O.S.H.I.T (Mar 20, 2025). “The Poison of Control: Religion, Fear, and the System That Profits Off of Us.” (Describes how the Church used fear of witches/devil to control narrative, exemplifying distortion of spiritual truths) .
• Ramelli, Ilaria. Origen, Eusebius, and the Doctrine of Apokatastasis. (Scholarly work on how early Christian theologians envisioned the return of all creation to unity in God, citing 1 Cor 15:28 “God will be all in all”) .
• Awka Times (2023). African Spirituality and Gnostic Thought. (Highlights resonance between African indigenous cosmology and Gnostic ideas of interconnected material and spiritual realms, and unity) .
• Sioux proverb (Lakota wisdom). Mitákuye Oyásin – “All My Relations” (as cited in shared leadership blog). (Affirms oneness of all life in indigenous worldview) .
• MDPI Journal Religions, Vol. 15, 2024 – “Quantum Physics and the Existence of God.” (Explores consciousness and unity in quantum interpretations; quote on universe as “unified multiplicity… unified by unity, by that which is one and only one.”) .