Pondering Gaian Theory and the Earth’s systemic balance

I find Edgar Cayce fascinating. Cayce was known as “the Sleeping Prophet”; he would go to sleep and start talking, and a stenographer would write down what he said.

He’s most famous for his holistic remedies: a patient would come to him with an ailment and Cayce would go to sleep and dictate a healing regimen. It’s said his remedies, always free, were 100 per cent effective if they were followed to the letter. Whether or not this is true, to me, is moot — because I’m more interested in Edgar’s other quirks.

Mr. Cayce dreamed about the details of life in Atlantis, and how the mythical city fit into Gaian Theory. Gaian Theory is the hypothesis that Earth acts as a living being that exists in homeostatic equilibrium. That is, the planet and every living thing on it acts as if it is a cellular component of a single entity, and there’s a tendency for that being to attempt to maintain systemic balance. The further the system drifts from balance the harsher the measures to return it to stability.

Now consider the composition of atmospheric gases. Dry air contains 78.09 per cent nitrogen, 20.95 per cent oxygen, 0.93 per cent argon, 0.04 per cent carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of other gasses. The trillion dollar question modern society is struggling with is: What happens when one of those components increases; and as it drifts further from the norm is there going to be a greater pressure for natural processes to return it to a state of equilibrium?

Now back to Edgar Cayce. Cayce believed the Atlanteans were more scientifically advanced than we are today: “. . . much of the peoples were in the position of using all of the forces in nature.” He thought one reason Atlantis was destroyed was because the misuse of technology had become such an irritant Gaia took drastic action to be rid of it. Consider that at the supposed time of Atlantis’ existence the oceans were at least 300 feet lower than they are today. It’s said that by the time of Christ humanity had already added enough carbon dioxide to the system to raise the average global temperature by one degree — simply by burning wood for heating and cooking.

I’m not a scientist, and I make no claims; it’s just a thought experiment, but I find it fascinating.

Lewis Lee

Raymond