Biophilia for Eco-anxiety!

I am mesmerized by the spirituality of biophilia, a phrase coined by devout environmentalist E.O. Wilson. He defines biophilia “as the urge to affiliate with other forms of life.” It literally means “love of life,” an affinity for living things and the natural world.

The E.O. Wilson Biophilia Center in North Florida was established with the hope of turning future generations from being conquerors of the Earth to its caretakers.

Living with conscious awareness of every living organism as a sacrament, gives spirituality a depth that I had never experienced within the walls of churches. I began to understand and experience the meaning of “the sacrament of the present moment,” a phrase used by 18th century French Jesuit Fr. Jean-Pierre de Caussade.

Another Jesuit, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, says that “Our religion is becoming enfeebled because it is not exalted by a sufficiently passionate admiration of the universe.”

My biophilia can be best expressed in these words of Albert Schweitzer:

“The deeper we look into nature, the more we recognize that it is full of life, and the more profoundly we know that all life is a mystery, and that we are connected to all that is in nature, that all life is valuable, and that we are united with all this life. From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship to the Universe.”

Biophilia could be the basis of a spiritual response to the increasing fears caused by climate crisis. New York Times reporter Amanda Hess writes that people are feeling the impact of climate crisis beyond the weather. “A whole new lexicon has arisen to describe its psychological impact.

Under the umbrella of psychoterratic syndromes are included eco-anxiety, climate grief, climate melancholia and climate nihilism. In an article titled Climate Change Enters the Therapy Room, dated February 22, 2022, Ellen Barry writes in New York Times: “Ten years ago, psychologists proposed that a wide range of people would suffer anxiety and grief over climate. Skepticism about that idea is gone.”

In her forth coming book, Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis, author Britt Wray says that “climate crisis is becoming the number one threat to mental health.” Psychologists and counselors specializing in anxiety and fears related to climate crisis are opening offices in various states.

I won’t be surprised to see eco-anxiety listed as a mental disorder, in the next edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Currently DSM, 5th edition).

We are out of harmony with each other and out of harmony with nature. People are becoming increasingly exhausted with the mentally taxing and emotionally vexing complexity of reality around them. Social media continue to expose the clay feet of clerics and reveal that the religious emperor has no clothes. In this age of post truth, alternate reality, and fake news, traditional havens of security and certainty, such as religion and faith, have lost their hold on large chunks of the population.

Where do you look for comfort? How do you find clarity in the confusing cacophony of competing claims and noises? The answer is under your feet and before your eyes. Feel the Earth beneath your feet and behold the nature before your eyes. Observe the leaves dancing in the winds, the grass gracing the surface, the clouds moving effortlessly, the birds flying freely, and the gentle breeze caressing your face. The God you are desperately looking for is in all that and as all that.

According to spiritual writer Neale Donald Walsch:

“God did not throw anyone out of paradise, and one look at the world around you will show you that human beings are still living in a paradise. They are despoiling it step-by-step, to be sure, but even with all of that, nothing compares to a sunrise or a sunset, to an eagle’s glide or a butterfly’s flutter, to the fragrance of a rose or the smell of the morning dew. There is nothing more stunning than the quiet beauty of an unexpected snowfall, or the noisy beauty of expected waves pounding upon a sandy shore. We watch both with awe, as well we should, for we are clear we are seeing something exceeding magnificence.”

(from Cosmic Kindergarten: Earthly Lessons for a Heavenly Life)