Did the red pill just kick in or I have totally gone off the deep end?

As I dive into exploring what it would really mean to live a self-sufficient and sustainable life it occurred to me to ask some much bigger questions about our planet. I also want to clarify that I’m not talking about the thin crust and atmosphere that surrounds earth, I’m talking about the big blue ball itself.

• Is Earth alive?
• Is Earth sentient (self aware)?
• What might planet Earth think of Humans?

I suspect many ancient and primitive people would answer these questions in the affirmative… of course planet Earth is alive and self-aware. Science can teach us a lot about our planet but it can’t really teach us how to stay connected to it. In this regard primitive people had an incredible advantage over us and quite possibly held the key ingredient to truly understanding Earth’s real nature.

Modern society tends to insulate and distract us from the natural world around us. Many of us spend almost all of our time inside our climate controlled cars, homes, and work-spaces focused on society related tasks like earning a living, watching television, and shopping. It’s really no wonder why many primitive people must have felt like they were apart of the natural world and why we feel so separate from it.

Is Earth alive?

So lets stop for a moment and focus our advanced modern minds on the question, is our planet alive? Could a giant ball of magma covered in a thin hard crust spinning in space be a living creature? If Earth were a life form it would probably be virtually impossible for us to recognize or understand it simply because it would be unlike any life form we’ve ever encountered before. There is no point of reference.

It’s almost like we’re the microscopic organism trying to understand it’s much larger host while we go about our normal business. You know kind of like we’re the bacteria digesting food in someone’s large intestine. Relatively speaking we’ve just begun to understand our planet and how to effect change, but there are certainly many more mysteries to be discovered.

Simply speaking I don’t think it’s possible with our level of understanding to answer the question scientifically. Instead I think we need to fall back on our beliefs and let ourselves be open to the possibility that Earth is actually alive. To prove or disprove this idea scientifically would require finding a set of criteria to measure it by. Since that would first require a level of understanding that is probably greater than our combined knowledge our best option falls back onto belief and gut feelings.

Is Earth Sentient?

So lets assume you just took the red pill like me and think that it’s remotely possible that the planet itself is a living creature. Could it be self-aware?  Again since heading down this path requires a lot of imagination just jump off that cliff with me and say yes. Thanks.

Sure… if a planet could be alive it’s probably at least sentient if not an incredibly advanced life form. Scientists estimate that the earth is 4.54 billion years old. Just for fun lets compare that to humankind which has been on planet earth for about 250,000 years. I’m pretty sure that if one entity could live for billions of years it would develop a wisdom beyond our imagination.

What might planet Earth think of Humans?

So if our planet is alive and sentient what might it think about us? Well first off we’ve only been on it’s back for a small fraction of her overall lifespan and for most of that time we were not really noticeable. But in the last 100 years our numbers have dramatically increased, kind of like an infection. In fact today there are something like 6.6 billion humans running around mother earth’s back.

If you don’t think of that’s a lot of people consider this. There is now more than one person for each year the planet earth has been around. Somehow we get really impressed by numbers like 4.54 billion years and pretty much scoff at numbers like 6.7 billion people. Weird huh? Yeah well tell that to the virus that gave you that flu. The real question we should be asking is… is the virus sentient?

All kidding aside the point of this little essay isn’t to make you feel shitty about being human… not at all… in fact I don’t think humans are all that bad; some of my best friends are human.

And the point is…

My point is that we better get on the stick and stop trying to imitate an infectious disease or this big round friendly lady might just start a scratching or get a fever or something so she can get back to enjoying her travels around the universe.

We can all start today too. We just need to begin to use that incredible intellect we brag about to the gorillas and choose to live in balance with the rest of the living creatures who seem oddly content to live peacefully in Mother Earth’s arms.