The people you meet in life are like shops. You visit them in the expectation of finding a little hope or consolation, a little love or faith. Often you are disappointed, because you are greeted with a kick on the shins, and this means that the ‘shop’ in question does not have what you were looking for.

That is why our teaching encourages human beings to open ‘shops’ that are so civilized and spiritually cultured that whenever you visit one of them you can be sure of finding the Godhead. This is the kind of humanity that we are working to create, and once we succeed, no one will want to hide away in their own little corner, because everyone will know that if they visit others they will be able to find what they need and go home happy, their problems solved.

Why do women look for husbands?
Yes, this is the new humanity that we are preparing here in the Brotherhood. The brothers and sisters who are here are all ‘shops’, and each one offers their own particular brand of energies, fluids and qualities. One is working to cultivate purity, and when you are with her you feel yourself becoming pure. Another is full of love, and with him you are influenced by love. With yet another you find yourself becoming wiser or stronger. In this way you are nourished by all the qualities and virtues you need and can continue to grow towards perfection.

A couple still needs two tickets
To be clear, you cannot cease to exist as an individual in order to melt into the collectivity. You will always be an individual, but that individual must learn to vibrate in unison with others and share fully in the life of the collectivity. It is possible to become a collective being while remaining an individual.

A man and his wife, for instance, will always be separate individuals; in spite of the love that unites them they will always be two separate, different beings. When they get on a bus, go to the theatre or eat in a restaurant, they will always have to pay for two tickets, two seats, two meals. In fact if they tried to object, claiming that they were one, not two, they would never convince anyone else of that unity.

Collective, cosmic, universal life is in the mind
When I talk about being part of a collectivity, therefore, you must understand what I am saying. It is not a question of cutting yourself up in little bits and scattering yourself throughout the collectivity. No, you must always be an individual, with your own name and your own body, but inwardly you can live a collective, cosmic, universal life. It is only in your thoughts that you can become one with the cosmos and with universal life.

Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

Complete Works Volume 26, A New Dawn, Society and Politics in the Light of Initiatic Science
Lyon, March 6, 1966