There are times when we all feel a separateness, isolation or loneliness -- an unconnectiveness. Then there are times in world events when these feelings become more accentuated. Yet, connectiveness to others and to Nature appears to be a primary driving force in our lives. At a deep level we know that we need a community whether it be with people, cats, or plants. In quantum physics non-locality states that a physical system, once separated, retains a connectedness. The linkage transcends space, time and the four accepted fields of physics. It provides a scientific basis for an underlying unity -- a substructure or foundation that underpins the entire universe.

This connectiveness in community enhances our health. Small discussion groups have dramatically increased the life expectancy for women with breast cancer. Group therapy was found to be as good as Prozac for treating depression in AIDs patients. Even the joining of two in marriage extends life expectancy. We know that one of the greatest contributors to heart disease is isolation -- whether it be from oneself, one's community or one's spirituality. The small town of Roseto, PA was entirely populated with immigrants from the same area of Italy. Their culture had been transplanted in its entirely and the town shared a very cohesive sense of community. Despite the prevalence of smoking, economic stress, and high-fat diets the people of Roseto had a heart-attack rate less than half that of neighboring towns. But as the years passed, the cohesiveness of the town broke down. The younger generations lost the sense of community of their Italian forbearers. Roseto became a typical American town -- a collection of isolated individuals. The heart-attack rate quickly escalated to that of the neighboring towns -- the coherence of community had been lost!

Each of us is composed of a community of cells. The cell is the simplest form of life. Cells exist in a vast range of varieties, coming in many sizes and shapes, and performing many functions. A human has about 100 trillion cells. An amoeba named Dictyostelium, a single cell organism that feeds upon bacteria, provides an interesting example of how individual cells can cooperate. When these amoeba are under stress due to food shortage, about 100,000 individual cells form a mound about the size of a grain of sand. The mound then begins to act as if it were an organism and develops into a crawling slug like form. The slug now goes through another change -- the back end catches up with the tip, and the slug turns into a blob. The blob then grows into a slender stalk carrying spores. Fifteen percent of the cells die as their sacrifice to form the cellulose stalk; the remainder live on as dormant spores capable of giving rise to new cells. The cells appear to know their purpose in life and the necessity for community to survive.