Have you sometimes asked yourself where your thoughts come from? Or why do you feel such insignificance and yet profound awe when you gaze at the stars? There is something profound and sobering about understanding that the universe that exists outside of us—and the mind that exists within us—is all connected.
How the Brain and the Universe Share Similarities
There’s something cool that scientists have discovered: the human brain has a structure that is remarkably similar to that of the universe. Your brain has about 86 billion neurons. When scientists look at the pictures of the universe taken by powerful telescopes, they see something similar: galaxies clustered into groups, interwoven with connections made from dark matter and the blank spaces of the cosmos. Hence, it’s as if your brain is a miniature version of the universe. Or, the universe is a gigantic version of your brain.
Read more: Your Mind: A Mirror of the Universe
Thoughts Radiate Like Light
When stars begin to age, they release energy in the form of light that travels across millions of miles through space. Although stars are light years and miles and years away, their light will eventually still arrive on our planet. Thoughts in the brain travel as well. An idea begins in one part of your brain and accordingly travels to another. When you think of something, that thought sends signals, so that you can speak, feel, or perform particular activities. Some have said that like stars, our thoughts shine in our minds, illuminating our ability to create.
The Universe Thinks Through You
This is a deep idea, but it’s a much more beautiful one: what if, the universe is thinking through you, is feeling through you, is being aware through you? Your brain is not somehow apart from the world. It’s a part of it. Nature, the Earth, and the stars have assisted in constructing you. So, when you’re thinking, although you’re a human being exercising thought, you are also the universe thinking about itself.
Dreams and Stars: Both Full of Wonder
Stars brighten and fill our night sky with wonder and beauty. Your dreams do the same inside our minds. When you dream, you can move beyond time and space, without restriction, like flying or talking with people from your past, or beyond time and space. Stars and dreams both prompt us to consider the reality that our lives are more than what we can see every day and in reality, we have only scratched the surface of what there is to discover, in both the sky above us and in our hearts.
Everything is Connected
Old modes of thinking asserted that the universe was a machine cold, lifeless, and apart from us. As we move further into the twenty-first century, many scientists, philosophers, and spiritual teachers are converging to a new understanding: everything is connected. Your mind and the stars are part of the same system. So, you are not only in the universe, you are the universe, in a human form. Hence, this understanding can lend relief. You are not alone. You are part of something enormous and wondrous.
What you can do
Look up. You are made of stars. Think about your thoughts and emotions. Your inner world is just as vast as the outer world. Stay curious. Hence, the more you learn about the universe, the more you learn about yourself. Be kind to yourself. You are a part of something wondrous, and your life matters.
Concluding thoughts
From stars to thoughts, galaxies to dreams – everything is connected. The universe is not remote, it is inside you. So, the next time you feel small, remember: your thoughts move along the energy of stardust. You are the mind of the Universe. You think, you feel, you shine.
