The Gaia Society, then, is a spiritual philosophy based on this purely scientific theory that all the life on Earth is equivalent to a single organism, and that it controls our temperature, oxygen level, rainfall, salinity, etc. It's as unthinking as a thermostat, but very accurate. It and "the gods do it" are the only proposals available to explain the "impossible imbalance" of Earth's environment.

The Gaian system is not just interconnecting lines on a scientific graph --who's dependent on who; it's our flesh-and-blood and DNA connection with all other creatures, plant and animal.

The feeling that we are part of such a fantastic, ancient, and intricate system is awesome. The more so  the more you learn of it. This awareness automatically generates a sense of oneness with all people, as well as all lifeforms, and regenerates our sense of childlike wonder. We have found our most basic identity!

The Society is for those who think and feel --and if you think or feel that you need a little more of one or the other-- we have a good way for you to improve your ability at either.

The Gaia Society is the philosophical and spiritual home and center for people who identify with nature--the spiritual philosophy for all ecologically aware people and responsible people. It is not for the irrational who are "into" UFOs, reincarnation, crystals, astrology, etcetera. We love reality.

"Spiritual" is an okay emotional response, but "mystical" is an intellectual aberration. Primitive beliefs about the beginnings of the Earth, and other folklore, can be interesting psychologically, but isn't what we're about. It's not reality. What is known through science is vastly more awesome than simple folklore.

Sure, the name Gaia is taken from the Greek goddess of the Earth (Mother Nature); appropriate, but just a metaphor. "She" doesn't exist.

Our feelings are centered on nature, and may seem close to worshipful, but it is rather... the glorious peak experience of the realization that we belong here. The feeling has always been there; and will as long as nature exists, but civilized man is losing touch.

The Gaia Society members share a philosophy that our expanding knowledge of--and contact with the Earth's life, inevitably brings up a spiritual quality. The understanding of reality and nature seems to have produced this feeling in all peoples throughout history. The record of multitudinous cultures bespeak the same truth.

Primitive peoples have felt their position--their place in life--all along. So-called civilized people have lost that, and science has burned away enough of the fog to let us see where we are, and the awesomeness of that, and our connections with nature. So, as T. S. Eliot said, we have come full circle and arrived at where we began... and know the place for the first time.

Primitive peoples can be taught the thinking, scientific part of that awareness (no hurry), and we, the (supposedly) civilized, badly need to learn the feeling part of the recognition of where we are in the universe, and in the network/web of Earthly life. We need the feeling that we belong to it, and in it.

That is what we, individually, and as part of the Gaia Society do. We want to reflect and add to all the voices that we hear on the green side, to make a symphony out of the urgent chaos.

That is what the Gaia Society does and, as a member, what you can help others to do --to feel that they own their place here.