Monism is the stance that All is One. It denies separateness and diversity.

Monism is motivated by the unacceptability of specifics. Facts about one’s self, life, experience, and the world seem unattractive, and inessential. Monism holds that the essential is the abstract and general, instead—and those are seen as pure and all-good. The physical world, as it appears, is an impure illusion, which should be transcended.

Monism holds that all religions and philosophies are essentially the same, and that they point at the same ultimate truth. Namely, the truth of monism! This is a clever strategy for assimilating and extinguishing competing systems. To insist that “No, actually, our system contradicts yours” sounds aggressive and “not-nice”; but actually it is monism that has imperialistic aspirations.

Monism holds that the true self is mystically identified with the One or Absolute or God or Cosmic Plan.