THE PERCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING OF GAIA

by David Abram

500 Word Critical Thinking Essay

by Vivienne Elanta 12021131

Ecofeminism S221 Aril 2003

David Abram takes the reader on a journey beyond Lovelock’s Gaia theory, which he believes is still tainted with a mechanistic view of the world embedded in a subject/object relationship. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s work of psychology of human perception, he unlocks the door to an understanding that, “perception itself is a communication or communion between an organism and the living biosphere”(p.242). He asserts that the most radical and important aspect of the Gaia hypothesis is the element air, bringing renewed awareness of our immersion in a living organism, Gaia, thus opening our senses to the opportunity to perceive our world in a new way.

David Abram disagrees with traditional perception as a one-way process and the assumption that “the senses are passive mechanisms adapted to an environment of random chance events”(p.240). This model of perception he says is what perpetuates the mind and matter separation. Instead he argues that “perception, then – the whole play of the senses – is a constant communion between ourselves and the living world that encompasses us”(p.241

In further support of his argument he points out that the first evidence of the earth as a living organism came from the study of air, recognised as “a functioning organ of the Earth”(p.239). He says, “We are immersed in its depths as surely as fish are immersed in the sea”(p.239). He aptly describes the air as “a thick and mysterious phenomenon no less influential for its invisibility” (p.246). He draws his conclusion that “if the Gaia Hypothesis is correct, we shall have to admit that we exist in this planet, rather than on it.

David Abram’s main thesis stands on solid ground. He makes a vital contribution to the Gaia debate with his theory of perception and its implications for Gaia. His radical insight into the importance of air shifts the Gaia Theory into new territory by making the assumed invisibility of air very tactile. He extends the scientific importance of air into the spiritual, by emphasising the sacredness of air in Native American Cosmology as well as other spiritual tradition.

Embedded in his argument is a paradoxical weakness in assuming the air to be the most radical element. In so doing he elevates this element as the most important, creating a superior versus inferior dichotomy. Without earth, water and fire there would be no life to breathe in air. If Gaia is indeed a living organism, then like the animal body the liver is no more radical or important than the heart. I do agree with him though, that the air is the most neglected and invisible element.

Through the use of a lively imagery and poignant metaphors Abram’s argument is convincing.

It enriches my own understanding and perception of Gaia as a living breathing organism, with a full capacity for deep communication and communion with us through our senses, “a sort of sensuous immersion – a communication without words”(p.241). His argument has left me in a “Spell of the Sensuous”.¹

1 Abram, David (1997) ‘The Spell of the Sensuous’, Random House, New York