Suggesting that ills said to be perpetrated by advertising are really attributes of a unified field of consciousness, this paper discusses the concept that advertising creates desire. The generally undisputed notion that advertising helps to create specific desires is distinguished from the criticism that advertising increases the level and decreases the quality of generalized "desire". The nature of desire is discussed as a component of the metaphysical perspective of the Eastern philosophical tradition of the Veda. From this perspective, it is argued that: (1) "desire" is fundamental to all aspects of creation and cannot be created or increased; (2) the quality of specific desires is a function of a pervasive unified field of human consciousness, the existence of which has recently been posited from psychophysiological research; and (3) the quality of advertising products and services, consumers' propensities, and advertising itself is delimited by the quality of the unified field. The summary notes that the unified field of consciousness concept opens up a new avenue for dialogue in advertising theory, one where commonality can be found for integrating various discourses on the relation of advertising to consumers' desires and to the quality of life in society as a whole. References are included. (JD)