The Mirror Principle

There's something magical that happens when I get a chance to witness the interconnectedness of life.  The three dimensional world collapses, and a new reality emerges in which differences are hardly noticed, as the sameness of life takes center stage.  This can happen in many ways, and for me it's usually small synchronicities that pop up as I go through my day.  Someone around me says the words that are on my mind, my friend calls me on the same day I planned to call him, someone offers me the thing I was just about to ask for.  However it happens, it can feel like recognizing myself in another, or simply that for a moment I lose track of any sense of "otherness".  

---

​Another way in which I enjoy witnessing interconnectedness is something that I've started calling The Mirror Principle.  This is when a certain pattern or behavior is seen to be true across multiple levels of physical life.    It's recognizing that something that's true about me or my community applies on a larger scale at the same time.  Noticing a visual likeness really brings it home.  For example the similitude of blood vessels and the branches of a tree.  

Or how a network of rivers and streams takes the same fractal branching pattern as a lightning strike.

These are obvious examples that you may have already thought about.  Because we see them often, perhaps we have been desensitized to the magic of it.  But to me it's no small thing that this same pattern is seen across many different forms.

I think too, of atoms, solar systems, galaxies.  All massive amounts of energy swirling around a dense center of immense power.  I'm sure you've noticed humans doing this too!  Anytime there is a large gathering of people, there is some central point around which they are gathered.  Even if it's not a physical point (like the image below), it's an ideological point- all the people are out for the same reason (um, also like the image below).  

Well, this has gone on longer than I anticipated when I started writing.  So I'll tie this up with one more pattern that I've noticed.  It's about the influence that environment has on development.

Stem cells in biological entities differentiate according to signals they are receiving from the body's internal environment.  Whether for growth or repair, the body communicates and the stem cell responds by becoming something new.

Gene expression is influenced by many environmental factors, including light and dark, chemicals, the amount of touch received, and more.

Environment determines what plant and animal life will inhabit a given area.  Climate, altitude, rainfall, temperatures, light/dark cycles, and so much more.  The environment determines what life can do.

And humans of course fit this pattern too, not just biologically with our stem cells and gene expression, but behaviorally as well.  We learn from, grow to fit, and respond to our environments.  The world around us calls for something, and we take on a new shape.

Life happens as a continual communication between parts.  As humans, we are informed on many subtle levels by factors that don't even reach our conscious awareness.  The interconnectedness of life is so intrinsic to what we are that when I look close enough, it's hard to really know where I stop and my environment begins.  In a universe of unending relativity, any notion of solidity is surely the minds making.

What patterns have you noticed showing up in various places?  Comment below to share!