Most of us have heard the expression “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.” The statement is a definition of emergence, a phenomenon that occurs in all parts of our world, yet is often overlooked or minimized in our current reductionist scientific world-view. My belief is emergence is a fundamental aspect of the creative force of the universe, ever-present in our physical world. Three examples – in increasing complexity – illustrate my point.

We all learn in school that two atoms of hydrogen coupled with one atom of oxygen create a new molecule, H2O, commonly known as water. Neither hydrogen nor oxygen alone have the properties of water in its three states, gas, liquid and solid. In fact, no other substance known to humans has the properties of water and no other substance is as important as water to living systems. Water has a certain wetness that hydrogen and oxygen do not have alone. Water has emergent properties not present in the building blocks that come together to make it water.

Turn now to humans. Each of us has parts of ourselves that can be isolated and studied separately. Our physical body has been studied by Western Medicine and Western Science in minute detail, discovering countless processes and interactions. Our physical body has been categorized into systems, organs, tissues, cells, hormones, neurotransmitters, enzymes, molecules and atoms and the workings described and explained. Western Science can explain some of how healing happens, but offers no explanation of why healing happens. In the last several years, we have gained a vast amount of knowledge about our emotions, again categorizing, describing, and explaining the interactions between our emotions, our physical body, and our mental states. In addition, we have learned a great deal about the workings of our mind, particularly the interface between our thoughts, our sense perceptions (sight, sound, taste, smell and touch) and the firing of neurons in our brain and extended nervous system.

However, for each of us, we are not simply a collection of physical body, emotions and mind. We each create an emergent property, not easily examined: consciousness. Just as we are unable to explain the properties of water from adding the sum of its parts, human consciousness cannot be explained by adding the sum of human parts of body, emotions and mind. Humans have capacities that transcend a reductionist explanation: compassion, altruism, intention, and intuition are just a few of the capabilities that human consciousness provides us. These are emergent properties of human consciousness.

The final example is the concept of family. Each of us has a sense of what family is and who we feel is part of our family. Any attempt to reduce down the concept of family into characteristics that rule in or rule out people is difficult, if not impossible. Family is not just people you live with. Family is not just people that share your genetic code. Family is not just people who share your beliefs, values or life ways. Family, for each of us, becomes a unique, emergent property, a transcendence of our lived experiences and consciousness.

Emergence is an unexpected outgrowth or rising out of a substance. The root word for emergence and emergent is the same root word as our popular word, emergency, used mainly today to connote a negative unexpected event. However, emergence does not carry the same negative connotation: a plant sprouting from a seed is demonstrating emergence. Whatever or whoever created this beautiful world planted a seed in you when you were conceived. The conditions around you have fed your physical, emotional and mental bodies and created an emergent consciousness arising out of your existence on this planet. What properties of your emergent consciousness are you nurturing into full bloom? How is the unique expression of human life that is you blessing our world and contributing to the rising consciousness of humanity?

Tom Capshew is the author of Divine Warrior Training: Manifesting the Divine in Our World. He is working on his second book, Consciousness Rising. He works with individuals, couples and families in a private psychotherapy practice. His private spirituality practice is available in-person and online. Please visit www.innerspark.org for more information.