There are many planes of reality that my consciousness can be at when I look at another person. I can look at you and I can see men and women, old and young, and light and dark and so on. I see the physical bodies. Or I can flip it and I can see happy, sad, bored, irritated, fascinated, mildly depressed, latent manic schizophrenia, I mean the whole range of the human psychological condition you see, when you look at people on that plane. It’s the “As the World Turns” plane. Will she, won’t she, did she, didn’t she, can he, can’t he? That’s abuse, alcohol, it’s all of that stuff, all of it.
Then you flip and you look into the eyes of the other person and you see another person looking back at you! And you’re looking through the veil of body and personality and it’s like, “Are you in there? I’m in here. How’d you get into that one?” It’s like you’re looking at another being who’s looking out through these little things saying, “Hi out there!” and then they’re busy being manic depressive, dying, whatever, you know. And if you really want to push it you flip it once more and you’re looking at yourself looking at yourself looking at yourself because there’s only one of it. There’s just one of it. The whole universe is just one of it.
– Ram Dass, August 6, 1991 – St. Paul, MN, Spiritual Care Conference
