The Dawn of Separation

The following is a chapter from the book Money, Sex, Power & Faith.

“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” — Albert Einstein

Between the years of 9000–6000 BC, humans started domesticating animals, and claiming and trading them as property. As animals became property, so did the land upon which they were kept and the tradeable grain grown there. Although humankind seems to have existed on the planet for some 190,000 years in concert with Nature and one another, it was during this time there began a movement toward dominion over Nature, and the distinctive understanding of “this is mine, and that is yours” which culminated in Daniel Quinn’s “Great Forgetting” where we merely got so caught up in developing what would…