Have you ever stopped and thought about whether the trees grow in a conscious manner?  Does a tree, perhaps in some way that is alien to us humans, think to itself “I’m going to push a new branch out of this place and then make it grow leaves.”

It’s long been thought that these things ‘just happen’ and that there is no consciousness behind it.  Do mountains grow by thinking about it?  What about the weather?  Is there conscious thought behind the storms and the winds? How do we know that nature accomplishes this without conscious thought?  It may be that nature is thinking about a whole lot of things, but in a way that we are not able to understand.  

At one point humans believed that animals were not conscious beings who communicated and felt pain.  We now know that is not true and that even plants talk to each other.  We can even buy machines, quite cheaply, that can convert their energy into sound so that we humans can hear it.  We know that trees talk to each other, and there are many people who believe that we too can talk to trees.  Myself among them.  We believe that this planet, our home, Gaia, is sentient.  If Gaia is sentient, then so is everything that is part of her.

 On the other hand – the toe nail on my left big toe grows quite happily without any conscious thought from me! 

 It’s a matter of perspective and belief.  A wise person will question their beliefs from time to time, and the perspectives by which they are viewed, because both these things – perspective and belief – can (and should) change when more knowledge is gained. 

 In other words – Believe, but don’t wear your belief like a comfortable jacket.  Give it a good airing every now and then, and make sure that it is still a good fit for you.

 Beliefs that are held on to without form of questioning is cognitive dissonance at its strongest!!!