The building blocks of humanity and all beings on Earth originally came from space; we are all connected physically and consciously. 

Carl Sagan’s famous line, “We are made of star stuff, we are a way of the cosmos to know itself” is not just hyperbole or even theory. A 2017 study showed the six most common elements of life on Earth — carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, and phosphorus — are found in stars.

This idea has been the driving force for countless astronomers, including Gaia News contributor Marc Dantonio.

“Carl Sagan was my favorite astronomer and I heard him say when he first said it, ‘We are made of star-stuff,’ Dantonio said. “That man was absolutely correct. Everything you’re made of, every atom in your body, every atom in the room around you, every single thing on this planet was once made at millions, and millions, and millions of degrees in the heart of a star. And what do they do? They explode when they’re done with their lives because they run out of their fuels. That stuff blows out from the star, and where does it go? It goes everywhere, it goes out in all directions. There are so many trillions, upon trillions, upon trillions of massive supernovae that have occurred, that the universe is littered with their debris, and their debris happens to be many of the elements on our periodic table.”

If we all come from the same source what are the implications, not just for humanity, but for the planet?

“In terms of the beings on this planet, every single creature on this planet, including the Earth itself and all the planets in our solar system, all the moons, are literally all connected because they were made from the very same solar nebula. We’re basically all family,” Dantonio said.

How does this physical, tangible connection across everything in our universe translate into our collective consciousness?

“Have you ever been in a room, you’re sitting down, and you think of someone you haven’t talked to in 10 years, and that instant they call you?” Dantonio asked. “Well, I talked about that at a conference, I mentioned that on stage, and the very first thing I said was, ‘How many of you has that happened to?’ Every single hand went up and, of course, everybody started laughing. Is that coincidence? Science tends to tell you that that’s what it is, but I don’t think it is. I think it’s something known as quantum entanglement but at a higher level. I call it the ‘brainular’ level.”

“Well, our brains were manufactured from all the elements created by the solar nebula here in this region of the universe, and perhaps, there is a link to life in general when formed in the same place in the same way. We might look different, we might be different — very different — but we might also have this link, a very primitive evolutionary link that goes all the way back to the beginning. I wouldn’t be arrogant enough, I would never be arrogant about it and say that can’t possibly happen. You can’t say that something you can’t research yet, can’t possibly happen. You just have to say, ‘It’s an interesting idea, and maybe it’s true, we just need more research,’” he said.

What should people consider when we think about the fact that all beings on earth and even our solar system are made of star-stuff?

“It means that we’re all one species that’s based on the same chemistry,” Dantonio said. “At the very least, it means that we should all be together in a variety of ways; we should all have a meeting of the minds, so to speak. Those minds, by the way, were born of this tumultuous universal beginning in the heart of a star. So, I think that moving forward, what we need to do is consider that everything that we are comes from everything that we’ve been, and comes from everything that we were made from.” 

During divisive times it is important to remember we all came from the same place and we’re more alike than different.