Gaia

Flash!

Energy ... matter ... gas clouds. Galaxies ... stars ... planets. Wind ... rain ... sunshine. Molecules dance in seltzer seas. Rocks float on rocks. Sparks fly blue and green. Meteorites and comets splash down. Volcanoes boil the land.

Act One: Energy is begotten from a desire for truth ... one spirit becomes two.

Act Two: Desire and energy together beget matter ... two spirits become three.

Act Three: Desire, energy and matter together beget life. Fate becomes destiny. A stone becomes a cosmocell. The cosmocell will be named Earth.

On and in Earth, a species evolves to ponder its origins and higher powers. The individuals invent a name for their kind: Homo Sapiens. Female and male they comingle where land meets sea at the bottom of a gaseous shroud of transparent elements and compounds. Now a pair come together on moonlit sand ... they breathe the salt air ... they feel each other's aliveness ... they reach into one another's spirits. Life begets life.

How well adapted is Homo Sapiens? Can they cope with the ever-changing moods of their planet? Are they in tune with their environs? Do they have staying power as a species? Perhaps. But maybe not.

Until recently, humans never doubted their suitability for living on the Earth. Humankind saw itself as the ruling species. Nature was wild and terrible and hostile, a force to be conquered, subdued and exploited. The question "Are we fit?" was not posed. If anyone were audacious enough to bring it up, the answer would be a psychic sneer. This question is occasionally asked these days. If you pose it, you'll usually get silence in response, as yesteryear ... but the reason for the silence has changed. Blind faith has become blind fear. None are so blind as those who ... you've heard it. We need a vision.

How would a space alien see humankind? Glance at captain's log, Tau Ceti B expedition Number Six to Sol C [Earth], 1990 our time ...

Some species on Sol C are wretched in the individual, but brilliant in the generality, such as Cucaracha Disgustica. These hardy, humble crawlers have ruled the land for millions upon millions of years. As for the ones who call themselves Homo Sapiens, in the individual they are among the most advanced, and are gifted with great manual dexterity in addition to respectable-sized brains ... In the generality, however, they are more primitive than microbes. Their potential for destruction is immense, and many of them contemplate mass misery deliberately in a most baffling and horrifying manner. These creatures kill each other for sport, cutting against the survival instinct common to other species, and the very axiom by which life operates. A sizable portion of this species regards inert matter at a level of importance exceeding even their own lives. They befoul their atmosphere, land, and water in the name of ... something. I, your humble captain, am at a loss as to tell you what that something is ... I would be fascinated to speak with humans and learn by what mechanism they have built this value system, so foreign to me ... these creatures appear too busy to ask 'What do we ultimately want from the life that the universe has given us?' Busy busy cellular mobile radio telephone beeper voice mailboxes ring ring ring ... Please leave your name and number after the tone ... Click. They rush around with no well-defined final goal apparent to me, unless that goal be the death of their host planet ... do they not know Gaia? Many of this species think they are the highest power in the place they call Earth. As incredible as this sounds, I do not jump to this conclusion carelessly; I arrive at it only after much thought. I have been to Sol C six times, now ... My opinion is that Homo Sapiens will stimulate their Gaia to defend herself against their behavior, which has every aspect of a cosmic disease. It's fortunate that Homo Sapiens is not the highest power on their cosmocell. If they were, the destruction of Sol C would be certain, for there would be nothing to stop them ... Will this species learn their place, or will they not? How long can we maintain our silence? How can we, in good conscience, not intervene?

Hmm.

Parent Star pours energy through void, down through ocean of air and onto green land and turquoise sea. Aha! A human polishes a machine ten times as massive as his own body, as a dog, panting, watches from inside car ... On seat of car is an issue of Newsweek, dated November 30, 1992, open to page 71. In corner is photo of dead bird, with caption saying church believes humankind does not have absolute mastery over Earth. "Don't need no church to see that," laughs dog. "That stormlast summer was proof enough for me." Human ears hear dog's musings: "Bow! Arf-arf!" Dog picks up copy of Newsweek in his mouth and presents it to Master. "Trash!" says Master, pointing to dumpster across street. Dog places magazine on dashboard and bounds off, playing with his shadow, chasing his tail in afternoon sun. Master laughs. Ha-ha-ha-ha.

We humans will either run with the winds of the universe, or buck them ... we will embrace nature, or go to war with it. Some people look upon nature as something to be conquered. Suppose they are right? When planning war, it is necessary to know the enemy. Nature begat human beings. We are part of nature. In order to conquer nature, therefore, we must conquer ourselves. The dog chases its tail ... and humankind chases its. Who is that goddess laughing?

Suppose the advocates of nature-conquest are mistaken? Suddenly, this proposition looks inviting. What if Homo Sapiens are not the highest power of Sol C? Then we need not bear the burden that such a role requires. Wars are won by surrendering sovereignty.

Gaia ... the ancient goddess of Earth. A single living entity. All living planets have their Gaias, their Mothers of Nature. Beyond that, the same might be true of galaxies, and even for the whole universe. But that is one, two higher powers past our immediate concern, which is to come to terms with Gaia of Sol C, the highest power of the living Earth.

Creativity begets solitude. Aloofness ... detachment ... a tendency to see things from a different slant ... such are marks of genius. Now, add audacity! Those who work mostly apart from the urban foci of academe begin to hear the voices, see the signs, and glimpse the passions of powers greater than themselves. Writers, composers, painters ... James Lovelock is a scientist who lives like an artist. Lovelock, working with biologist Lynn Margulis, brought Gaia to the attention of the scientific community in the 1970s. Some might call Lovelock the Einstein of the life sciences. There is common-mode thinking in evidence ... minds out of the mainstream ... uncluttered by mundanities ... working in societies that tolerated them. Lovelock's academic background is solid; but from this foundation he lets his mind soar. He sees, and shows others, Earth as a living being. This notion is the Gaia hypothesis. [To the denizens of Tau Ceti B, it is not hypothetical, but axiomatic.] In the mindscape of Lovelock and Margulis, Gaia has survival instinct, and consciousness of a sort beyond our understanding.

There is no doubt that Earth is going through a life cycle. It was born ... it is evolving ... it will eventually die. This is true at every level of life. Humankind is part of Gaia. But it is Gaia, not Homo Sapiens, who is the highest power of this planet. Margulis sees Gaia as a symbiotic being, in which species cooperate for the health of the whole. This flies in the face of kill-or-be-killed dogma. But cooperation works! [Political pundit's snide aside: Compare Japanese and American industrial practices.] The scientific community has trouble with the Gaia hypothesis. Some accuse Lovelock of depicting species in geocybernetic, even geopsychic, cahoots ... as if the Earth has an ordained purpose ... as if everything works together for good. Science and spiritualism are incompatible marriage partners ... slam!

Um ... If pure science is so hip, why are we in such deep doo-doo?

The Gaia paradigm, as it might best be called, serves as a catalyst for Earth awareness in the sciences. It has not been proven or disproven as a theory -- but then, neither has Darwin's theory of evolution. We are awakening. But is this enough? Is it happening in time? Ozone depletion ... global warming ... desertification ... starvation ... pollution ... energy shortages ... are these spasms of a dying Earth, or a Gaian geoimmune reaction to the disease presence of Homo Sapiens? Without a course change on our part, this question is academic. So where are we headed? For a preliminary long-range forecast, hear what the Prime Elders of Tau Ceti B said to the Explorer Captain before sending her on her seventh voyage to Sol C. She saw no point in going, so cynical had she become, until she was told this ...

Things are not as we imagine them, nor the way we want them; things are as they are. Truth-seekers pursue reality without fear. Arriving at truth, we accept or deny it, join or fight it ... as we choose. The Gaia of our world will live until Tau Ceti consumes her, and she, as part of the galactic Gaia, surrenders her identity. By losing herself she will find a greater whole. The same will befall the star system for which you are now embarking. It happens at every level of life in this fractal universe. It is called growth ... Deepen your field of vision! Homo Sapiens will find their place because they want to. They carry the seed from which the cosmos sprang: desire for truth. This is the highest gift Universal Gaia can grant ... a part of her original spirit. She never shares this without forethought. The arrogant among Homo Sapiens -- how well we know they exasperate you, captain! -- think their species is endowed with something no others on Sol C have. Paradoxically, they are right. These beings are not fated, as you fear ... they are destined. Go now; watch the miracle begin. Be well.

Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000 by Francisco Carrera.