What is a true method by which to understand what is heck is going on? Descartes said, “I think therefore I am” and determined that mindful awareness is the ultimate reality. If I believe my mind and its interpretation of the sensory inputs from my body, then it follows that I could examine and learn from my own body, using my eyes to peer through a microscope or by observing more sensitive electronic devices. My body includes my mind. When I observe my body, I find that I am not one individual being. I can be more properly described as a colony of autonomous creatures and cells that long ago were incorporated into my animal body.
If my being is a symbiotic colony of living cells, then perhaps my body is part of a larger symbiotic colony of living beings. This gives rise to a particular perception of reality, that we are embedded inside the living being who inhabits this entire planet Earth. This habitable zone exists between the molten core of the planet and the vacuum of space. Every biome in between those extremes have been colonized by the living being I call Gaea, which is the ancient name of the goddess of Earth.
By giving her a human name, she becomes a being we can empathize with and show compassion for. She is all of Earth’s life, and my mind is unable to comprehend all of the symbiotic interactions of my being within her being. Obviously, I breathe microbes, I eat other creatures and microbes (also my stomach bacteria digest it for me), I drink microbes in various fluids, my skin absorbs humidity and microbes from the atmosphere, my body’s electromagnetic field interacts with the planet’s field and I’m sure much, much more. There is also the fact that, as a growing biological organism, we are of a particular process. Most of our body is replaced every seven to fifteen years, we are more of a persistent standing-wave in existence rather than a static particle. We are Gaea’s sensory system. Through all of us, all living individuals, she apprehends the cosmos.
If this particular perception is Truth (with a capital T), it then follows that our mental life is also bound to Gaea as much as our bodies. When death occurs, the body is broken down to make its nutrients available for new life. Then the mind remembers that it is Gaea and adds itself to her experience of life. Our death is the transition back to Gaea’s awareness, but it also allows evolution to proceed as there are more nutrients to access and room is made for new mutations.
Gaea’s death, on the other hand, is not only a distinct possibility but one that would entail our own eternal demise as well. These are some of the reasons why humans need to help Gaean biospheres exist off of the planet. People need to realize that by accepting the mantle of “Midwives of Gaea” they accept the stewardship of Gaea’s life, both on the planet and off.
