Everything is a single unit.

Since there is no distance or time, since everything is absolutely a single unit, it is not surprising that one individual or many can have an influence on another. Issues of health are really no different than any other issues, for health is not a single compartment of life. It is life. If you stand in a group, closely in physical contact with others, and one person begins to push, everyone is aware of that effort. If five or six begin to push, everyone is also aware of that effort. That effort is stronger, it is more easily sensed, and so it is with prayer. You are not praying across any distance whatsoever. You are already at the location of that for which you pray, whether it is a condition, a person, a community—there is no separation. Because you are all united, the force that binds you together, the spiritual reality that you share, surrounds each individual so that if there is a disruption anywhere, it is recognized by all.

There have been many books written trying to describe a kind of force that travels great distances, “out of body” forces. But when you realize and accept that there are no distances, the force is more easily understood as the example of pressure being applied to a group when all are in physical contact. When you accept the absolute, total unity of all that has been created, there is no mystery about the power of one or the power of many to influence another individual. Even the concept of other individuals is a convenience of sorts, since for human beings it is really not possible to fully comprehend the reality of all being one. It would be like describing a foot as being an entity totally separate from a hand. It is not separate, as you know; it is connected. It is a single organism, but within that organism there are differences of function.

This is the nature of all life. There is human function. There is dog function. There is cricket function. There is individual A function. There is individual B function. There are all these functions, but all are still fully united. As you grow in your ability to accept this reality, you will recognize fewer grounds for conflict, for an organism in the end cannot fight itself. An organism fights what it perceives to be external. Even illness is not external. Illness is a part of the functioning of the body. It may not follow a pattern that you seek, but it is part of the activity that occupies the human organism.