Alan Watts describes this “taboo” as the unspoken rule that keeps individuals from seeing themselves as anything other than isolated egos. Society quietly insists everyone stay within the bounds of a separate self—no peeking behind the curtain to notice that the boundary between “you” and “the world” is an illusion. Language, schooling, religion and social customs all team up to keep genuine self-knowledge under wraps.

According to Watts, the root of this taboo lies in ancient tribal thinking: a fear that if people truly recognized their oneness with nature and each other, the fragile structures of civilization would collapse. It’s the elephant in the room of modern life. Admitting that “I am the whole universe in ecstatic motion” would upset power hierarchies, disrupt commerce, even challenge the narratives spun by politics and media.

Fast-forward to 2025: streaming endless highlights of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour or AI-generated “perfect” selfies on social platforms still can’t fill the void created by a hidden self. Algorithms might predict likes, but they’ll never crack open the deeper question: who is doing the liking? Watts argued that this refusal to look inward leads to a kind of social jet lag—never fully present and always craving the next distraction.

Breaking the mold requires facing the “am I separate?” question head-on. Buddhist parables, Hindu teachings and Western mystics all whisper that self and cosmos are two sides of the same coin. It’s less about adopting a new belief system and more about dropping the old one that insists on absolute separation. Once that taboo loosens its grip, daily life transforms: traffic jams become dance floors, or a stranger’s smile feels like coming home.

These days, with mental health awareness finally gaining traction, the timing couldn’t be better. shedding the taboo means taking the greatest road trip there is—journeying inward to discover that the map and the territory are one and the same.