The Gaia Perspective
Changing our worldviews with Fritjof Capra and his mentors
(working title)
A film by John Feldman
The world is experiencing increasing violence and societal breakdown. How can we respond? This feature-length documentary turns to scientist and author Fritjof Capra and his colleagues and mentors – each a maverick thinker in their field — in a quest to uncover the cornerstones of a society that allows people to coexist in harmony with each other and with the natural world.
All these thinkers propose that to solve the problems of today it is imperative that people move from a mechanistic worldview that fosters a view of humans as separate and superior to nature to an ecological worldview that sees humans as imbedded in a self-sustaining entity, Gaia. This perspective – which is actually very old — stresses our interconnections with nature and with each other and fosters collaboration, community, and spirituality. This is the Gaia perspective.
Fritjof Capra is a major figure at the crossroads of science, spirituality, environmentalism, and systems theory. In the late 1950s, Capra was introduced to the work of physicist Werner Heisenberg and the paradoxical nature of matter at the smallest level. Heisenberg’s revolutionary insight that there are no “particles” only “relationships” sparked Capra’s decades-long journey from the turbulent 60’s to the present day as he wrote a series of books including The Tao of Physics, The Turning Point, The Web of Life, and culminating with his masterwork, The Systems View of Life.
The Gaia Perspective takes us on a journey of discovery, problem solving, and healing. It forms a trilogy with my two previous works that are now being distributed internationally: Symbiotic Earth: How Lynn Margulis Rocked the Boat and Started a Scientific Revolution (2017) and Regenerating Life: How to cool the planet, feed the world, and live happily ever after (2023).
Most of the interviews have already been completed for this film. A few more will be scheduled. Here is a partial list of Fritjof Capra’s mentors to be included in the film:
- Werner Heisenberg and *Geoffrey Chew explored the paradoxical nature of matter at the smallest level.
- Gregory Bateson developed a radically new concept of mind as a process and explored how mind and nature are unified.
- *Hazel Henderson provided a critique of political economy and developed the love economy.
- Stanislav Grof was a pioneer of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and transpersonal psychology. He explored “inner reality” and the mystery of consciousness
- *Michael Murphy co-founded the Esalen Institute in which Capra participated and was a key figure in the human potential movement.
- *Brother David Steindl-Rast co-wrote with Capra Belonging to the Universe: Exploration on the Frontiers of Science and Spirituality.
- Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela defined life as a self-making system (autopoiesis).
- *Pier Luisi Luigi co-wrote The Systems View of Life with Capra and studied the origin of life.
- Ilya Prigogine applied thermodynamics to living systems. He developed the idea that life creates “order out of chaos.”
- *Lynn Margulis theorized that evolution is more about collaboration than competition.
- *James Lovelock co-developed with Margulis the Gaia Theory that all life on Earth is one self-sustaining entity.
- *Satish Kumar, *Stephan Harding, and *Vandana Shiva explored the spiritual dimensions of biological thinking. They were Capra’s fellow instructors at Schumacher College.
- Margaret Wheatley (to be interviewed) proposes that sane leadership on behalf of the human spirit is the way forward. She coined the term: Islands of sanity.
- The film also calls upon the work of Leonardo da Vinci whom Capra regards as a totally original systems thinker. He wrote three books about Leonardo.
*These people have already been interviewed for the film.
I am fortunate to have working with me on this production as a writer, researcher, and associate producer noted Capra scholar Gustavo Rodrigues Rocha. Regge Life of Global Film Networks is executive producer. Our Brazilian executive producer is Lourenço Bustani. As with the previous two films in the trilogy, Susan Davies will be the film’s producer; Sheila Silver will compose the score; and Guido Alvarez will be the graphic designer.