To Know is Not Enough

It was a Tuesday; the sun was gently setting through a slight crack in the clouds above the rolling hills of the west highlands. The waves of the Moray Firth were breaking along the dunes and in all directions. The pine trees across the bay were howling, as I watched the seals on a sand bank crying out for their mother. Moments earlier, I had been complacently sitting in the living room checking my e-mail and yet something in the September evening sky beckoned me to this place along the shore. As I stood there I watched in unison as the wind, ocean, land and sky created a moving postcard of interconnected companionship. It only lasted a moment but I knew it was Gaia in all her glory, smiling and saying hello to me. 

The theory of Gaia, of the earth as an animate being, is becoming increasingly more accepted in wider scientific circles. It is the idea that the earth, like humans, is actually alive and breathing. She does this through the waves of the ocean, the chirping of birds, the blossoming of roses on a bush.  Gaia theory poses the idea that the earth and all of its facets is one large, self-regulating, system that works in a subtle and delicate balance. In regards to the health of our planet, how important is it that each individual believe in this thought that the earth, like us, is a living and feeling entity? Even if we did understand that she was a living, interconnected, would that help us to change the lives we have been accustomed too? Stephan Harding in his book “Animate Earth” writes “We need to develop a sense that Gaia really is alive, not in some metaphorical sense, but really, actually, palpably, to the extent that you recognize the joy of sunlight on the great bare branches of winter trees…”(227) Why is it so necessary that we view the earth in this way.  It was in the last chapter of the book that Harding really began to illustrate how imperative it is for humans to know of earth as Gaia, in order for us to realize how wrong it is, the way we treat her for our consumption use.  It is clearly because we see the earth as a non-human that we treat her for her raw materials and disregard the beauty and balance of her landscapes, that I believe will make it that much harder to convince humanity that Gaia really exists. I also believe it is an economic system that disregards the equality of all human life. How do we convince humanity of species egalitarianism if we cannot even convince ourselves that all humans are equal? 

 The same economic system that is destroying our planet employs people from poorer countries because their labor power is cheaper to use than those working in wealthier countries.  This same economic system that is polluting our air with toxic chemicals, has young children working for outrageously low wages in factories that are unsafe for any human being.  In all parts of the world humans are still oppressed for the color of their skin, their religion, their gender, and their economic state. Even if we are able to convince humanity that mother earth is in fact a living, breathing, animate creature, how would that make any of us likely to not harm her.  Harding illustrates this by writing “This is difficult for our culture to accept, for we tend to think of anything non-human as somehow inferior, as subtly different to us, as somehow not really alive, as in the end as no better than a mere machine.”(225) But the harder truth is that we even feel this way about humans.  It feels hard to believe that as humans, if we continue to allow the exploitation of our fellow species, that we will do something to change the way we collectively treat mother. 

Harding, throughout his book, argues and represents many different areas where he believes it is a strong argument that the earth is in fact a connected and animate being. In my particular opinion, I don’t believe one needs to experience Gaia in order to know what we are doing to the planet is harmful. It seems that although we can make people aware of the issues happening on our home Earth, no mind based information will give people a sense of her essence, one needs to feel that for themselves. I was particular interested in chapter seven, Microbes to cell giants. While reading Animate Earth, I personally found the idea of oxygen being a generous gift from the ethers of our atmosphere, and the idea that it took a complex and quite particular bacterial balance to support the development of photosynthesis, interesting to look out from the view that the earth was creating all of this intentionally. However, it that this strain to convince the masses that earth is interconnected will simply always be disproved in one for or another.   Piscean science does not take miracles into account. If one chooses not to believe that the earth is not an interconnected being, with or without seeing it with their own eyes, I find it very hard to convince them with any other facts or diagrams.    I mention these above references to acknowledge the enormity of the growing situation – No amount of scientific evidence will ever truly be good enough for those who do not want to hear it. 

In my worldview, the plane between life and death is a thin veil. Death although terminal for our human bodies, is not in the grand scheme of things, a true ending.  It is in this worldview that believes the worse thing that can come from the destruction of our planet is that we will no longer have earth as a place to incarnate. This is the real heart of the matter.  I believe beyond mere pleasure, a motivation of western society is a fear of death and a desire to run as far away from our mortality as possible.  We consume out of fear, and because we believe it will make us happy. I am afraid to die, so I stop living, and instead take comforts in easier more waste producing ways of surviving. If we are to help our humanity see that our dear and loving planet is in crisis, our only option is to explain that if we do not stop our unsustainable consumptions we will run out of resources. Without these resources we will run out of food – resulting in widespread famines.  I read somewhere that when there are too many deer in one area consuming too many of the natural resources, there are food shortages resulting in many of the extra deer dying off. This is Mother Gaia’s way of balancing out her system.  If we truly want to raise awareness we need to explain that Gaia will balance herself out – even if it means killing off too many of her most resource consuming species, us.  Harding writes “ Our very bodies, our dreams, our creativity, our imagination all come form her, and in the end the matter that we are made of will return to her when our lives are done.” (226) If we want to support humanity in the raising of their collective awareness we have to instill more programs to help individuals over come their fear of death. This collective counseling could take forms in many different ways. If we are not afraid of the earth, not afraid of the potential we may die, perhaps we won’t need to make ourselves as walled in and comfortable. 

I believe a growing disconnect from our surroundings is adding to the collective fear of the people in our riches nations. We no longer need to survive as whole communities because we can feed, cloth, and hour ourselves without the help of others.  Harding discusses that local communities are imperative to human life because they bring warmth, soul, wealth and well being into national economies. They are also important for the well being of each individual and their place within the structure of the planet.  We brought back local farming and local systems, not only would there be enough food and lower prices, but people could get back onto the land and work together with their neighbors for a cause. Their disconnect from reality might lessen; they could become more grounded and less fearful of being human.  Kundalini yoga, from my experience, has been one of the most valuable technologies for removing fear from people’s lives. It helps to open and heal the charkas and bring one into the awareness of their being. If we began to instill classes or free meditation sessions in schools and work places during work hours, people could take more breaks from the computer and learn to tune out – if only for an hour a day  - from the constant sonic boom of modern life.  If man becomes more connected to his surroundings, perhaps in this way he’ll begin to feel the beauty in the light of the October sky, and the breath of an autumn wind. Gandhi wrote

"A man, whilst he is dreaming, believes in his dream; he is undeceived only when he is awakened from his slumber." If through working the land, meditation and yoga man begins to feel this life, in this way, perhaps his desire to destroy it will begin to lessen, and he will wake from sleep. It seems it is in this way, that we can only hope to help humanity become aware of mother earth as a living, breathing, loving, and being. 

There are very beautiful and gentle ways of bringing communities, and individuals back into their bodies, here on spaceship earth.  I don’t personally believe we will able to stop the great turning – we are living in a time of limited resources and they will run out. If we refuse to treat our earth the way in which she needs to be treated, living will be much more complicated. Their will be increasingly more deaths from famine, and possibly, if sea levels rise outbursts of horrible plagues. In some sense, it’s not actually a big deal, we just won’t have have earth as a habitable and pleasant place to incarnate in our next lives.