The Gaia hypothesis, named after the Earth goddess in Greek mythology, was developed in the 1960s by Dr. James Lovelock, a NASA scientist. The hypothesis, which was initially ignored and then belittled by mainstream scientists, suggests that the Earth is not a lifeless rock that merely serves as the platform for life – but rather a living organism that has worked for hundreds of millions of years to keep the planet’s natural cycles in balance.
The travail Gaia has experienced, in our lifetime, is being studied by scientists around the world – and some governments have begun to listen and react. However, a larger crisis has been largely ignored by mainstream scientists and the lay public; that is the crises in the field of energy and consciousness that supports human beings.
Humans are part of the ecology of this planet – and they interact with Gaia on both the physical-material level and the subtle levels of energy and consciousness. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that what we see on a planetary scale, including the deteriorating condition of the atmosphere in the 21st century, corresponds to the condition of the non-physical field that interpenetrates every human being.
Those of us who study the subtle world of energy and consciousness are not the only ones alarmed by the changes that have taken place: physicians, psychologists, sociologists and just about everyone else who reflects on the human condition agree that, in many parts of the world, human societies are being stressed to the breaking point.
What Will it Take?
So, what can be done? Perhaps the Nazarite has provided the answer. In verse 89 of the Gospel of Thomas (a Gnostic account which is at least as old as the four gospels presented in the Christian cannon), Jesus declared, “Why do you wash the outside of the cup? Don't you understand that the one who made the inside is also the one who made the outside?”
From this verse we can infer that healing Gaia will meet resistance until people en masse restore the health of the collective field of energy and consciousness that supports them.
This article will examine the correspondence that exists between the pollution of the atmosphere and the pollution of the subtle field that nourishes human beings as well as all life on Earth.
The Pollution of the Atmosphere
Planetary scientists report that the cycles that regulate Gaia are being stressed by pollutants that are routinely pumped into the environment by industry, agriculture and human activities. These include greenhouse gases that are the principle cause of global warming and toxic chemicals that poison the air we breathe.
According to a report by National Geographic Magazine, humans have pumped enough carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the past 150 years to raise its levels higher than they have been for hundreds of thousands of years.
We also learn from the World Health Organization, which monitors air quality, that atmospheric pollution can sicken and even kill people. Poisons in the air we breathe have been linked to higher rates of cancer, heart disease, stroke and respiratory diseases such as asthma. Until now, most of the victims have come from low- and middle-income countries. But that is about to change. The American Lung Association now estimates that in the U.S. nearly 134 million people – over 40 percent of the population – are at risk of disease and premature death because of air pollution.
Atmospheric pollution is not only responsible for global warming and a deterioration of human health – it disrupts air currents in the atmosphere which are responsible for moderating weather and climate. The changes already under way have led to extreme weather events, including storms droughts and heat waves that have disrupted agriculture and terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
The Subtle Atmosphere
The atmosphere which blankets our planet corresponds to the collective field of energy and consciousness that interpenetrates us and unites us as human beings to one another and to Gaia. During the same period humans have pumped pollutants helter-skelter into the atmosphere, a corresponding deterioration in the quality and quantity of life-affirming consciousness and energy in the non-physical field has taken place.
This disastrous situation was foretold by the sacred texts of Yoga. The authors of these texts predicted that in the present epoch, known as the Kali Yuga, the collective field of consciousness and energy would be infested by pollutants and non-physical beings that would trap unwary people in self-limiting and destructive patterns. According to these adepts, life-affirming consciousness and energy among most human beings would decrease by 75% from its normal level in the Satya Yuga, making it virtually impossible for most people to share pleasure, love, intimacy and joy freely with their friends and loved ones.
The corruption of the subtle field reached its zenith in 2001, which explains why so many of our contemporaries suffer from high levels of stress and exhaustion, even burn-out, and why so many people silently hunger for a deeper connection to their loved ones and to the natural world.
They’ll Steal Your Soul If You Let Them
The disruption of the subtle field corresponds to the disruption of the atmosphere in another way; to a large extent human beings have been responsible for it. In the last few decades, an increasing number of people have become vectors through which distorted fields of energy and consciousness have entered the non-physical field that supports humanity.
To understand how this has happened, it’s important to recognize that there are two forms of consciousness and energy in the non-physical universe: Life-affirming consciousness and energy that emerge directly from Universal Consciousness and distorted fields of consciousness and energy that emerge from a subordinate field known as maya. The field of maya is constantly changing. As a result it masks the true character of spiritual reality and the authentic identity of each human being, which Yoga teaches “is the same in the beginning the middle and the end.”
At the same time vast amounts of pollutants have been pumped into the atmosphere, immeasurable amounts of distorted consciousness and energy have been pumped into the subtle field by non-physical beings and alien creatures that inhabit the field of maya. As the human population has skyrocketed, many people have become attached to these fields, which means the participation of people in distorted and self-limiting activities has increased exponentially. As a result, humans have increasingly become vectors though which distorted fields influence human activities and relationships. Adding to the problem is the fact that many people now actively project the distorted energy and consciousness, in their field, at other people in order to achieve their goals or to get what they want.
The projection of so much distorted consciousness and energy into people’s fields has disrupted the balance of forces in the non-physical field that supports them. As a result, gender balance and polarity have been disrupted in the same way that ecosystems and ecological relationships have been disrupted on Gaia.
These changes help to explain why mental health problems have skyrocketed throughout the post-industrial world, why so many people have addictive problems and why so many people feel empty and alienated from themselves and Gaia.
The sorry fact is that we all know an increasing number of people who are trapped in self-limiting patterns that make it difficult for them to be themselves or express themselves honestly. These problems and a host of others interfere with people’s innate ability to participate joyfully in worldly activities and follow their dharma, life path.
Although many of us have been taught that it’s always been this way, the truth is that during the Satya Yuga, when both the subtle field and the Earth were virtually free of pollutants, humans experienced bliss 24/7. Awareness and energy radiated from personal body-space without the distortion that has poisoned the subtle atmosphere today. This enabled people to reflect on their internal condition as well as the condition of the physical and non-physical world that sustained them. The collective subtle field supported core values that were inclusive, generous and which advanced the collective good. People had unlimited access through their subtle field and the natural world to energy with universal qualities. The availability of this energy, in the form of chi, and jing enhanced communication and allowed people to share pleasure, love, intimacy and joy without judgment or prior conditions. The world during the Satya Yuga may not have been utopia – but it was a far cry from what we see today.
Because of the complexity of this issue and in the interest of readers, I will continue this series, ‘The Subtle Truth about Gaia’ in the next two issues of Inner Awareness Newsletter.