Of Science, Paganism and Dreams of the Earth: Reflections on Living in Gaia
By Fahad Khan
It appears obvious to us that it is because the material conditions on Earth are the most appropriate that life, as we know it, exists here and nowhere else. What may come as less obvious would be asking why indeed did the Earth arrive at these material conditions in the first place? Even more interesting would be the question how has the Earth managed to keep these material conditions stable within a narrow range for over past millions of years? This was exactly the question that perplexed scientist James Lovelock and led him to enquire on the role of life in defining and sustaining the material conditions needed for its survival on Earth? (1.)
The answer to the problem of planetary homeostasis (stable internal environment) came in the form of the Gaia Hypothesis. It proposed that all life forms were in interaction and synergy with their non-living surroundings. These were closely integrated with a ‘cybernetic feedback system operated unconsciously by the biota’ and spread across the biosphere, the atmosphere, the hydrospheres and the pedosphere. Together they constituted a complex, self-regulating and evolving system that was responsible for maintaining the conditions for life on Earth. (2.) In so far as the entire system seemed to be acting with a purpose it behaved like a single living super-organism which was named as Gaia — after the mythological Greek Mother Earth, the provider of life.
Since its inception in 1970s the Gaia Hypothesis has come a long way, battling incessant criticism from scientific community. While the critics have distinguished between ‘weak forms of Gaia’ which draws relation between the evolution of collective life and Earth’s environment and can withstand scientific scrutiny, with ‘strong forms of Gaia’ which claims Earth to be a giant living being, a hypothesis which is unfalseable. (3.) The hypothesis itself has experienced a paradigm shift at the end of 1980s when led by Lynn Margulis it moved from a limited homeostasis explanation to offering a more profound cognitive autopoietic (life-centered) view. Margulis proposed the fundamental role of primitive germ interaction with the environment in provoking life and evolution on Earth. (4.)
Unlike its hostile scientific reception, the Gaia hypothesis enjoyed much more popularity in the outside world. It attracted a whole range of adherents from philosophers, writers, environmentalists to mystics, poets and other seekers. The Gaian thinking stressed on our essential interconnectedness with other living and non-living forms around us. (5.) Lovelock’s top-down approach gave a broad view of life on earth and emphasized that God and Gaia, theology and science, even physics and biology were not separate but a single way of thought. (6.) The Gaia hypothesis struck chords with pagan cultures who already practiced various forms of Earth worshipping and provided them with a welcome intellectual background to pursue their spiritual journey where God was not separate and external to humans. Accepting Gaian worldview could mean seeing yourself as living ‘in’ the Gaia (rather than on it) and perhaps even serving as her consciousness. (7.) A Gaian way of life, in this sense, would be a call to each one of us to come out of the grips of our dead habits and develop greater awareness about our own deep experiences. Only then could it be possible for us to explore our innate relationships to the immediate world around– the sea of air we live in, the land we walk upon, the trees we sit under and the lives we interact with each day — as part being part of the same essential oneness.
I often read to myself some parts of Kahlil Gibran’s Prophet. One of them is about work where Gibran discusses the role of ‘work’ in human lives as linking them to the soul of the Earth. I shall leave you with these lines from Prophet to ponder over:
“You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life’s procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.
Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth’s furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life’s inmost secret.” (8.)
1. Lovelock, J. and Epton, S., 1975. The quest for Gaia. New Scientist, 65(935), pp.304–306
2. Kleidon, A., 2012. How does the Earth system generate and maintain thermodynamic disequilibrium and what does it imply for the future of the planet?. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A, 370(1962), pp.1012–1040.
3. Kirchner JW (2003) The Gaia hypothesis: conjectures and refutations. Clim Change 58:21–45
4. Onori, L. and Visconti, G., 2012. The GAIA theory: from Lovelock to Margulis. From a homeostatic to a cognitive autopoietic worldview. Rendiconti Lincei, 23(4), pp.375–386.
5. Charlton, N., 1997. Gaia Theory. University of Lancaster web site, http://www. lancs. ac. uk/users/philosophy/mave/guide/gaiath, 1.
6. Lovelock, J., 1995. The ages of Gaia: A biography of our living earth. Oxford University Press.
7. Chase, P., 2003. Neopaganism: a Twenty-First Century Synthesis of Spirituality and Nature (Doctoral dissertation, University of Florida).
8. Gibran, K., 1923. The prophet. New York, NY: Alfred A.
