Vernadsky!

…the Earth’s atmosphere itself, consisting primarily of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon, is the creation of life. – Vernadsky

Yeah, before Lovelock and the Gaia Hypothesis, long before Gorshkov / Makarieva’s “Biotic Regulation” / Biotic Pump, before Lynn Margulis‘ additions to Gaia Hypothesis with her microbial expertise and now accepted Theory of Serial EndoSymbiosis, ……

“Virtually unknown in the west, the great Russian geologist and geochemist pioneered scientific study of life’s impact on the Earth.” Read more from Ian Angus’ “Metabolic Rifts” series at Eco-Socialism Vs. Barbarism]

The question of Gurdjieff’s concept of life as a “sensitive skin” on Earth receiving and transforming cosmic radiations seems very akin to Vernadsky’s work, they both grew up in late 1880s Russia, traveled widely, and wound up living in Paris in the same period between the Great Wars. Vernadsky went back to Russia for a time, whereas Gurdjieff mainly stayed put in Paris, with perhaps a few “Mystery Vacations” back to the Middle East, or maybe Russia, and an occasional steamer trip to New York City to collect more “sheep” as he sometimes called his richer supporters.

(See also Anthony Blake’s book on The Enneagram, with a long segment on Gaia Theory and the enneagram, and JG Bennett’s various prescient comments on octaves, his model of 12 energies, and the biosphere in his master-series, The Dramatic Universe. And to go back to the source, Vernadsky’s own words, Synergetic Press translation of Vernadsky’s The Biosphere.)

Vernadsky!

(Wild thoughts: Young acolytes of the Czarist Ottoman Sarmouni Secret Sufi Airship experiments, who went separate ways to wind up living in the trendiest city in Europe? Eh wot… can you prove me wrong?)