Gaia Academy
Introducing
Gaia Academy
The Vision
Purpose
Gaia Academy is materializing from out of the Noosphere at this critical juncture of planetary evolution. The human species Homo sapiens had a function to fill in subduing the material plane of Planet Earth, in the recurring cosmic drama of transitioning from Physics to Metaphysics, but now that function has been fulfilled. Life on Planet Earth now heaves under the imperial domination of this outdated species yet Homo sapiens is utterly incapable of altering its course. Consequentially, the planet is now swiftly heading toward compounding disaster. At this critical juncture of planetary evolution, it’s time for a new species to emerge and begin ascendancy. This new species of humanity - as yet unnamed - will understand intuitively that in order for humans to thrive, the living, breathing, pulsating Biosphere in which they are subsumed and do their living must also be thriving. The new species of humanity will understand instinctively that their purpose within the Web of Life is to act as wise stewards of planetary evolution, assisting Earthlife toward realizing optimum health and vitality. The new species of humanity, therefore, will recognize its purpose and responsibility as an integral agent of Gaia. Gaia Academy acknowledges that beginning to resolve the current global polycrisis is not within the range of possibilities for Homo sapiens - they are constitutionally incapable of making the necessary changes. Hence, at its core, Gaia Academy is founded for the purpose of facilitating the emergence of the new species of Humanity.
Gaia
The origin of this appellation is the Earth Mother Goddess of the Greeks. Then, in his 1979 book Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth, British scientist James Lovelock adopted the name Gaia to refer to the very improbable chemistry of the atmosphere maintaining homeostasis for Earth as a fit environment to support biological Life. Followers of Lovelock proposed that this homeostasis inferred Gaia was an “organism” - but this could never be true, since all organisms possess the capacity to reproduce. Gaia could, however, certainly be considered a “living system” - even though such a designation still limits the phenomenon within the range of materialistic Science. If we expand the thinking to the infinite realm of Metaphysics, then Gaia assumes more powerful possibilities: Planet Earth as Gaia can be considered a celestial being, living among a planetary family of related celestial beings that comprise our solar system. In turn, our solar system, organized around its central star (wish I had a name), exists within a family of other solar systems related by proximity on the Sagittarian arm of the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way galaxy, in turn, forms a binary galactic system with the nearest galaxy Andromeda. Further, this galactic pair exists within an agglomeration of other galactic systems that comprise the Virgoan supercluster. We can thus situate the celestial being Gaia within a Cosmic Ecology. Gaia Academy exists, in part, to explore the implications for Consciousness of this expanded metaphysical view of our planetary home.
Academy
The term Academy is used to describe this Project in explicit reference to the original Academy of Plato. While Plato’s Academy materialized during the fecund Axial Age, marking the transition from mythological thinking to the materialistic, reductionistic, rational thinking of Science, Gaia Academy is likewise materializing during an Age of profound transition - identified here as evolution from Physics to Metaphysics. Gaia Academy is thus conceived as an isomorphic iteration of Plato’s Academy - with some modifications. Whereas Plato’s Academy was organized around a gymnasium to emphasize fitness of body and mind in the learning process, Gaia Academy is organized in concert with a Healing Center and Ashram, recognizing traditional Eastern influences in systems of conscious transformation. Whereas Plato’s Academy had a student body consisting primarily of youth from materially wealthy patrons, Gaia Academy will tend to attract pupils from around the world rich in Spirit. Despite these updates, Gaia Academy will still retain an open, classless atmosphere absent of internal distinctions: faculty and pupils intermingle freely together with each regarded simply as being at varying stages in their lifelong educational inquiry. Faculty and pupils share meals and participate together in intramural activities such as yoga, meditation, martial arts, athletics, music, and drama. Most importantly, faculty and pupils can be seen in ongoing dialogue with one another.
Setting
Gaia Academy is a multidimensional Learning Center nestled within the Cascadia bioregion of North America - what we fondly refer to as Ecotopia. Gaia Academy in form and function is a world-class EcoVillage - meaning a comprehensive demonstration site for sustainable living in community. Utilizing the patented methodology of Designing for Consciousness, Gaia Academy is the most impeccably designed EcoVillage in the world. Users of the campus experience enhanced levels of consciousness simply by walking around the place. As a component of the total Village, the Learning Center is a tripartite structure composed of the Academy, an Ayurvedic Healing Center, and an Aurobindo Ashram. Situated on 120 acres legally designated as Land Trust, the built environment of Gaia Academy is concentrated into a higher density Village Center with the remainder of the property organized in accord with the zonal system of Permaculture, culminating in an undeveloped Zone 5 Nature Sanctuary connected to wildlife corridors. There is a demarcated Village Green featuring a stage for music and other performances, with an adjacent Community Center containing a community kitchen plus dining hall, library, and office spaces. While self-contained and economically self-reliant - integrating systems of food growing, water catchment, waste water treatment, and renewable energy - Gaia Academy is nonetheless within biking distance of an interacting population center.
Pedagogy
The principal learning methodology taught at Plato’s Academy was the dialectic. This methodology was recorded for posterity in exquisite detail in the collection of writings known as Plato’s Dialogues. In the Dialogues, the protagonist Socrates can be witnessed endlessly querying his interlocutors in an effort to distill the essence about any topic under discussion. This methodology served to penetrate the various levels of obfuscation or self-denial so as to arrive at a truth that could be readily shared and agreed upon. Needless to say, typical modern pedagogies at institutions of higher learning are exceedingly private in comparison: Individuals tend to read materials in isolation, then write their interpretations exclusive of others in what appears to be a goal of individuated, unique self-expression. As a result, truths are not shared and agreed upon but remain in domains of exclusivity with a socializing tendency to rally around competing claims that can be organized into dualistic categories. No wonder Socrates railed in The Phaedrus against introducing the technology of writing! The introduction of the technology of so-called smart phones has exacerbated this problem of hunkering down into competing silos of truth. Identifying once again the purpose of Gaia Academy as facilitating the emergence of a new species of Humanity, pedagogy will be centered upon the dialectic. After deep reading, problems must be discussed thoroughly to distill their essence and discover shared truths. This is the way to approach the polycrisis.
Curriculum
The transition from Physics to Metaphysics implies a de-emphasizing of Scientific Materialism and a reorientation toward Consciousness. Similarly, the evolution to a new species of humanity implies an expansion of Consciousness beyond that typified by Homo sapiens. Accordingly, the curriculum at Gaia Academy is structured to facilitate this reorientation and this expansion by focusing on Consciousness in programs of study. Track 1: Designing for Consciousness - Already mentioned as the methodology by which the EcoVillage was designed, Designing for Consciousness can also be taught as a comprehensive program of study. Graduates of this Learning Track will develop the knowledge and skills to design projects at multiple scales: from gardens to villages to bioregions. Track 2: Becoming Gaia - Integral to the expansion of Consciousness embodied in the evolution to a new species of humanity will be identification with ever larger and more inclusive wholes. For the purposes of this Learning Track, identification not just with but as Gaia may be facilitated by integrating and embodying specific knowledge, skills, and practices. Track 3: Power of Nondual Metaphysics – In the Art of Manifestation among contested realities, what ultimately determines which reality will manifest upon Earth? This program of study explores the creative potentials inhered by accepting that the generative power which animates the Universe is identical to the generative power that flows through each one of us as Life.
Community
We would like to modify Thoreau’s famous aphorism, “In wildness is the preservation of the world,” to a timelier, “In community is the preservation of the world.” Community - as a fusion of the two powerful terms ‘common’ and ‘unity’ - manifests on multiple levels and in a variety of forms at Gaia Academy. Plato’s Academy was a community setting, where participants studied and domiciled together, sharing meals, exercising in the gymnasium, and engaging in intense dialogue via the dialectic throughout the day. The EcoVillage, likewise, is presented as sustainable living in community. The affluence of North America has enabled people to live relatively solitary lives, compared to the rest of the world - and the introduction of smart phone technology, with its oxymoronic “social media,” has exacerbated the isolation. Pupils at Gaia Academy are preparing for a world that is downsizing and contracting in anticipated scenarios of energy descent. The extravagant luxury of suburban, single-family homes was a profligately wasteful use of resources only possible during the fossil fuel bonanza of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Sustainable community design implies creating living situations that accommodate and encourage more sharing of space and resources - and the multidimensional Learning Center on 120 acres that includes Gaia Academy is a world class model in this regard. People who come to the campus can expect to participate in social, economic, spiritual, and educational experiences that emphasize community building.
Technology
The purpose of Gaia Academy was declared to be the facilitation of evolution to a new species of Humanity. It was further stated that the mission of Homo sapiens was to subdue the material component of Earth - but for what purpose? None other than to convert the material component of the planet into so much random extruded technology. There is a sense of order in this purpose - taming Matter with Mind - yet it is a low consciousness order by comparison - and make no mistake: Homo sapiens is utterly incapable of deviating from this mission. We could say that Homo sapiens appears on a living planet at a stage in the evolution of that planet when it is ready for this extrusion, this turning outward of its material component. The arrival of so-called Artificial Intelligence, which some want to ascribe with soul-like properties, surely indicates the culmination of the mission of Homo sapiens - and by inference, its demise. The new species of Humanity - as yet unnamed - will master body-based, or somatic technologies, which will prove to be infinitely more powerful than material, extruded technologies - for the simple reason that they will be able to tap into the generative power of the Universe itself. Remember: there is no distinction between the generative power of the Universe and the generative power of the Life that flows through me. With this renewed purpose, Gaia Academy will be a multidimensional Learning Center for mastering body-based or somatic technologies. There will be no room for any intelligence that is deemed “artificial.”
Indigenous
Throughout this Vision Statement, there has been an underlying yet so far unspoken subtext: What about the Indigenous? The evolution to a new species that intuits “for Humanity to thrive, the living, breathing, pulsating Biosphere in which it is subsumed and does its living must also be thriving.” Isn’t this already the knowing of the Indigenous? Or what about the new species instinctively recognizing that its purpose within the Gaian system is to serve as stewards ensuring health and vitality for the Biosphere. Isn’t this already the attitude of the Indigenous? For the purpose of this discussion, it would be best not to invoke Indigenous with race, or blood line, or with certain strands of DNA - for that is materialistic thinking. Indigenous in essence means being rooted to a particular place on Earth, living in communion with the ecology of that place, both its living and nonliving inhabitants, and identifying with that particular place for many generations to come. Becoming Gaia, therefore, indubitably means Becoming Indigenous. Achieving anything like “sustainability,” therefore, unquestionably implies becoming native to place, one particular place on the face of the planet. Indigenous is thus not only an example set by people around the world who are native to place, it can also be a vision for the future: Sustainable society will abolish the concept of “private property” and the “owning” of land.
Funding
Sri Aurobindo says that money belongs to the Mother. What he means is that money can be a tool of the generative power of the Universe IF it is used to facilitate salubrious evolution. Salubrious evolution is evolution that enhances the health and vitality of the Biosphere, for the benefit of all living beings. Money that is hoarded, or otherwise accumulated for the purposes of individual aggrandizement, in service of various forms of misguided, egocentric megalomania, is a Luciferian distortion of money’s potential. The ascension of a “billionaire class,” which hoards material wealth at the expense of the health and vitality of the Biosphere - or any of its inhabitants - is therefore an utter abomination. By the reasoning set forth in this Vision Statement, the ascension of a billionaire class, symbiotically accompanied by the rise of an intelligence deemed “artificial,” is surely an indication of the culmination of the materially driven species Homo sapiens. Accumulating a billion dollars - and since that will never be enough, accumulating hundreds of billions of dollars - could never take place in a vacuum. Amassing vast stores of wealth can only occur within the cooperative context of a multitude of overlapping communities: first responders, teachers, farmers, computer technicians, artists, medical professionals, street repairers, scientists, and especially, unpaid MOTHERS, etc. Based on this reasoning, Gaia Academy will be lobbying the billionaire class for a donation of a mere $100 million as endowment so that we can comfortably initiate our vital evolutionary work.