Balance Point
by Joseph Jenkins • Grove City, PA

In my book, Balance Point, I describe the mysterious journey that my wife Annie and I undertook some years ago. I had only met my Aunt Lucy, who was a maverick scientist, once. When she died, she left me money under the condition that I complete a mission. That mission involved coming to an understanding of the crisis point that the planet is at, and also finding my own spiritual "balance point." Annie and I ended up going to some pretty unexpected and mysterious places and meeting a lot of people. We came to understand why Lucy had believed that the fate of the world was at stake.

One of the people whom we met was a pathologist, Dr. Cecilia Tomasso, a physician who studies disease organisms. Lucy had come to her because she wanted help in looking at the earth from a quantum level of perspective. Looking at something from this perspective, you see it in an entirely new manner. For example, if you look at the solar system from the next quantum level up, the celestial bodies might look like atoms. On the other hand, if you looked at atoms from the next quantum level down, they might look like celestial bodies making up solar systems, galaxies and universes.

If you look at the earth from the next quantum level up, you might view it as a single, relatively small organism. All the life forms on earth then appear to be microorganisms. The human species would look like one of these microorganisms, living on its host. Lucy came to Dr. Tomasso because, unfortunately, our role is more one of pathogen (a disease-causing microorganism) than benign or helpful microorganism. Dr. Tomasso explained that pathogens often dwell on their hosts without causing harm for a long time, but if the population of pathogens rises to a certain level, they begin to suck the vitality out of their host. They secrete enough toxic waste to poison their host, and if they keep multiplying without being checked, the host gets sick and dies.

Lucy said that humans dwelled on the Earth for eons and never did much perceivable long-term damage, but then they multiplied to a certain population level and their toxic discharges began harming the planet. Just like disease-organisms, humans began consuming, multiplying and polluting, showing little regard for their host.

Lucy did not believe that the human species as a whole was pathogenic, but that some human cultures were exhibiting pathogenic behavior. Most indigenous cultures, for example, have lived on the Earth for millennia in a sustainable manner. It’s the culture of material consumption that seems to be so out of control. According to Lucy, our disease-like behavior will either kill the Earth, make it sick enough that many of the more vulnerable life forms on it will die, or that the Earth will kill us in its own defense.

Dr. Tomasso explained that along with pathogens, there are always things that fight disease in defense of the host. When a person gets sick, for example, the body temperature rises as a defense mechanism against the disease. When the body’s temperature is higher, it can generate more antibodies, T-cells and other disease fighters.

The Earth’s temperature is beginning to rise now at an unprecedented rate. From the next quantum level up, it looks like the Earth is getting a fever. Dr. Tomasso explained that the warmer global climate may allow the proliferation of organisms that would make life miserable for humans, and maybe even exterminate us. For example, mosquitoes have killed more people than all wars combined. A warmer planet would mean a vastly expanded range for disease carrying mosquitoes. And we have no idea what new, mutated or evolving life forms, viruses or bacteria may be sparked by a warmer planet. At least fifty new human diseases have emerged in the last fifty years, including Ebola, AIDS, Hantaviruses, Lyme’s, etc.

On another part of our journey, we met Tom and Lana, researchers at the University of Ohio in Youngstown who do computer modeling of environmental systems. Tom and Lana’s computer programs seem to predict the end of the world as we know it– not the end of the natural world, but the extinction of the human species. If we continue to erode our topsoil, deplete our fossil fuel reserves and pump our aquifers dry while continuing to increase the population, the end will come through starvation, water pollution, disease, extreme weather and other natural disasters.

They also introduced us to The World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity, written in 1992. The Warning states that: Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future that we wish for human society and the plant and animal kingdoms, and may so alter the living world that it will be unable to sustain life in the manner that we know. Fundamental changes are urgent if we are to avoid the collision our present course will bring about… We are fast approaching many of the Earth’s limits… No more than one or a few decades remain before the chance to avert the threats we confront will be lost and the prospects for humanity immeasurably diminished.

Annie and I continued our journey by way of the Amazon jungle. There we met a shaman, Eduardo, who helped us to learn about our connection with the Earth. We learned about the balance point between ourselves and the living universe. When we find that balance point, which is unique for each of us, we live harmoniously with the greater whole, aware and respectful of the life in all things.

Eduardo said that spiritual balance is our natural state. Humans are capable of incredible beauty. The goal we inherited from Lucy is to try and educate people about the impact our behavior is having, because we can choose a different relationship to the planet if we recognize what’s going on. But we have to do that before we reach the point of no return and the disease becomes incurable.

We have the capacity to be the Earth’s keepers, and to live together on this planet wisely, fairly and with foresight. This, I do believe.

Compiled with permission from Balance Point, Jenkins Publishing, Grove City, PA. 2000. Joseph Jenkins has a love for the written word & a strong environmental ethic and scientific background and was recognized at the Three Rivers Environmental Awards. He authored The Humanure Handbook and The Slate Roof Bible. To order the book, call (800)639-4099.