Beyond Veganism: EVERYTHING Is Conscious? If So, How Do We Eat Ethically?

For many years I have understood that the entire universe is a oneness. We simultaneously have individuated beings (you and me) along with an overall unity that often gets heavily denied and not even thought about. If everything is one, how can we eat anything without it being felt to be a problem? I will answer this in a concise but detailed enough way... Let's dive in!

I just watched a video from David Icke entitled 'Everything is Conscious' (see the bottom of this post for the video) in which he highlights that some scientific studies show plants exhibit a level of awareness and intelligence - including what could be said to be a felt response. He highlights the closed mindedness of most in the 'scientific world' to this idea, because they tend to define consciousness erroneously and even associate it only with brains and physical bodies. Having realised the unity of all that is a long time ago, I have had a lot of time to explore what consciousness actually is - if we took David's explanation to be the final say then we would be forced to conclude that a house brick or a kitchen chair are actually conscious - but is that true? Most people would say no and I have yet to meet anyone who can provide any evidence at all that such objects hold consciousness or are aware.

To understand this, we need to realise that UNconsciousness ALSO EXISTS! Consciousness includes awareness and generally an ability to process and move ideas/energy. Dead 'things' do not exhibit this ability in any tangible way - but is a house brick actually 'dead' and what is death/life in the context of an overall oneness? In short, we need to think about vibration to answer this. Living things are vibrating - they are moving on the tiny and usually also the large scales. Once something dies, it ceases to vibrate and falls apart or breaks down. What we call 'life' is actually more accurately described as vibration - but while it might be technically accurate to say that anything which holds a form on this planet (including house bricks) does have some level of the quality of consciousness within it, none the less, being alive is not a guarantee of being conscious - consciousness itself needs more than just vibration. You only need to run into a low ceiling at high speed to discover what unconsciousness is - it is a state of unawareness - despite the living state of the body. Consciousness requires the presence of self in order to be present. Can we say that a house brick has a sense of self? I don't think so at this point.

David identifies, correctly, the difference between the non-physical (spirit) self and the physical body (which many still continue to deny) - however, there is a leap of logic being made to claim that because there is a non physical (soul) self that exists beyond physicality, that therefore everything is conscious. I do agree that everything COULD have the POTENTIAL to be conscious, but that is not the current state of this universe.

David did not mention the implications of all of this for our food choices - I am not aware that he is vegan and he may not be aware that there are countless arguments and debates taking place online CONSTANTLY surrounding veganism and how meat eaters often turn to 'but plants have feelings' as if to try to justify their continued abuse, torture and murder of millions of mammals. I can understand not addressing this topic because it is a complicated one - however, I am happy to and it needs to be done. Just because I might not be sure how to live in total balance and harmony, which may include 'possibly' annoying grass by walking on it and by eating celery - doesn't mean that I am therefore justified to do obvious and tangible pain and harm to animals.

Ok, so maybe plants aren't fully conscious in the way that we are - does that justify us eating them? If so, doesn't that justify eating unconscious animals if we find them - or maybe even humans? This is not an easy question to answer using mentality alone - we need to use FEELING and intuition here.. Why? because feeling is the form of expression that comes from the living will that has desires and needs. Some have claimed that it's ok to eat animals because 'they agree on a spiritual level to be eaten' - well, that's convenient isn't it! I have never yet seen an animal running onto someone's knife to just 'get it over with' because they 'agree' to it - this simply isn't true and there is no evidence for it either, beyond the claims of 'spiritual people' who aren't empathic enough to understand what is really going on and what can be understood through feeling into the situation.

Despite all the complexities - I have an answer that is straightforward. I spelled this out in a reply to a comment under the David Icke video on Youtube, so I'll just drop it in here:

Me: the idea that plants have feelings is often used as an excuse to continue the abuse, torture and murder of mammals for food. such abuse is absolutely not needed. what is missed by most is that plants bare food, they are specifically the only construct on Earth that does this. The fruits of plants, for example, are specifically intended to be eaten - hence their bright colours and attractive smells/tastes. When consumed, their seeds have the ability to pass through the digestion and go on to create more life. In this way, the act of eating them is a way to create more life and to not create death. The issue with the feelings and desires of plants is that of intention and will - just as with other life forms. Plants are the only food source that can provide without having their will overridden.

Commenter: There are many carnivorous creatures on earth that kill and eat other creatures. How do you suggest that nature keeps a balance, without creatures that eat other creatures?

Me: the question of how to have real balance is the most important there is right now and also the most avoided. to fully answer your question requires hundreds of pages of text and also a personal internal evolution within most readers. the ultra short (and incomplete) answer is that since creation is an interconnected oneness, ultimately, those with the most power have the most ability to change their reflection in physical reality. predatory animals are reflections of predation (aka heartlessness and unconsciousness) within the hearts and minds of those with the most power - which on earth is predominantly those with human form. once the majority of humans find balance, through living in their heart and through real empathy - they will find their reflection in physical reality changes and the animal evolution will move on apace.

As you can see, this topic taps into so many subjects that we need to really hold a deep awareness of the structure of the cosmos and our role on Earth to even start to address the issues involved. I feel, though, that this method of living in harmony in the Earth - of only eating the food born from food baring plants, which can be eaten without the Mother plant being harmed, represents the ultimate level of balance that can be achieved in this life on this planet in terms of living in balance. Some claim to be able to live without eating, taking their energy from the sun and air - I have an open mind and accept that this may be possible, though since I haven't achieved it myself, I will, for now - continue to seek the most balanced way to eat.. I'm not there 100% yet, but I aim to analyse the nutritional content of plants soon, in the context of finding those which can provide what we need, while also not killing any plants.

The issue raised by the commenter about over population of animals without predators is another issue that needs to be understood - but, again, it does not justify human predation since, for one, most of the animals humans are eating are deliberately created for that purpose by humans and would not even exist if we chose to not eat them - so cannot be included within overpopulation calculations for animals and cannot be said to be something that is 'controlled' by human predation. The issue of animals keeping the levels of other animals down is a complex one and in most cases it is one best left to the animals to resolve themselves. They are certainly not unconscious and certainly house far greater intelligence than they are typically understood to have and actually often have more consciousness than some humans. I highly recommend the following video on that subject:

David Icke's Video

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Wishing you well,

Ura Soul

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This post was originally published at Ureka.org: Earth Heart Community.