INTRODUCTION
The novel is set in the prehistoric age in Europe. It draws on my scientific background and mystical experience, and tells the prophetic tale of a prosperous farmer who started using chemicals on the land - to his eventual cost. It was in the middle of his suffering that he received a mystical call that directed him what to do to recover from his agricultural disaster. By following the direction, he solved his problem and revealed to mankind the mysteries of nature, the position and role of man in nature, and the validity of the concept held by the mystics of the past. The concept is that no life exists in isolation, independent of the others.
I was inspired to write the novel after becoming aware that a concept held by the mystics of the past is in agreement with today's scientific findings. The concept is that all life is interconnected, that nothing exists in isolation and so, the real nature of individuals and events can only be correctly understood in the context of their connections with all others. This belief is held by Buddhists.
The belief is also found in the Gaia Theory. Gaia was the Greek goddess of the Earth. Her theory indicates that no life exists independently, but rather that all Living things are interconnected, forming a system where through their interactions with each other and their surroundings, they ensure their well-being and survival.
This belief is also expressed in the Catholic Bible, Sirach 42: 24-25. To quote the expression: "All things exist in pairs, one opposite the other, and he made nothing that was incomplete. Each thing strengthens the good parts of the other; who can get enough of seeing God's glory?" This is an expression of mutualistic relationships between different organisms where through their interaction, each perfects the well-being, life and survival of the other.
So, the belief held by different mystics of the past totally agrees that all life evolved together to interact with each other and through this, they ensure their survival. Today, this belief has been proved valid by modern science. I experienced this in one of my scientific research projects in agricultural science. (The details and data of the research are in my first published book, Interconnectedness of Life). The research took place at the Leeds University farm in the United Kingdom.
The aim of the research was to investigate the effect of agricultural pesticides on the soil organisms. We observed that on many occasions, in the plots where the pesticides were applied, the grass yield was higher than in the plots where they were not applied. We thought that the grass high yield in the plots with the pesticides was because the pesticides killed pests in the grass, leading to the better yield. But we were wrong. The population of the pests in the plots with the pesticides was not significantly less than the population in the plots without the pesticides. So, this occurrence became a phenomenon beyond our explanation. It was in the middle of this research that I had a mystical experience.
One night, I was in a deep sleep. It was like I was in a trance state. Then I heard the head of the project calling me in a loud, pressing and excited voice. On my answering the call, he raised up a sheet of white paper which was shining like a dazzling sun. He told me that it was on the paper that the reason behind the high grass yield in the plots with the pesticides was written. From where I was, I could not see anything written on the paper except the dazzling white light that was coming from it. So, I attempted to move closer to him, but he told me in a loud and powerful voice that I should not come close or attempt to touch the paper because it was too powerful for me. He said that instead I should stay where I was and listen to a voice which was to read out what was written on the paper. So, I listened and suddenly saw the Leeds University farm secretary. In a gentle, clear voice, she read out this:
"The animals supply the needs of man;
the plants supply the needs of the animals;
for all the soil organisms, bits and pieces assembled together,
mimic the ecosystem in order to supply the needs of the plants."
When I woke up, I pondered on the ecosystem mentioned in the information. The ecosystem is a system of interdependent organisms, a community of organisms where the organisms interact in an interdependent manner and through this, they ensure their well-being and survival, as well as ensuring the required conditions for the continuity of the whole system.
In every field crop, there is a group of organisms known as the natural enemies. They kill the other organisms including the crop pests, or they reduce the reproductive potential or the number of the other organisms. Through these ways, the natural enemies regulate the populations of the other organisms, maintaining the populations at the required levels in the environment. The natural enemies include predators and parasites.
In the research, I was the one who was sampling the soil organisms and recording the numbers. So, I went to the laboratory where the data was stored. I looked closely at the number of different groups of organisms in the data. Usually, the population of many of the groups of the organisms in the plots treated with pesticide was reduced to be lower than the population of those in the plot without the pesticide. We were aware of this. But what we didn't notice was that the population of one particular group of the organisms known as oribatid mites was increasing as the population of the other groups was decreasing, and the more the population of the other groups decreased, the more the population of the oribatid mites increased. I also noticed that the more the population of the oribatid mites increased, the higher the grass yield. This means that the increase in the grass yield was connected to the increase in the population of the oribatid mites.
The mites play an important role in maintaining soil fertility. They depend on the plants for their food and in return the plants depend on the mites for nutrients that enable their growth and good yield. The food which the mites feed on is plant litter. The plants shed the litter, giving it to the mites. By feeding on the litter, the mites play an important role in decomposing the litter, releasing nutrients in them and putting the nutrients back into the soil for the plants to absorb through their roots. Today, scientists are using the mites in organic farm research. They found that the nutrients which the mites release from the litter are better than the conventional fertilizer which farmers use. For example, the nutrients enabled an okra plant to flower and bear fruit (pods) earlier and the pods were bigger than the ones obtained from an okra plant grown in a soil with the conventional fertilizer.
It also emerged that the increase in population of the mites in the plots with the pesticide was connected to the changes which the pesticide made in the population of the natural enemies. Just as the natural enemies control the population of the pests, ensuring that the population doesn't grow above the required level in the environment, they also control the population of the mites, maintaining it at a specific level. When the pesticide was applied, it remarkably reduced the number of the natural enemies, thereby giving the mites' population the freedom to rise above usual. Also, since the mites live under the litter, the litter protected them from the pesticide. These factors led to the increase in the grass yield. So, the increase in the grass yield was the result of chain of changes which the pesticide initiated - all organisms including the crop are interconnected and a change in one, leads to a change in the other.
This finding and other independent research validate the concept held by the mystics of the past: that no life exists in isolation; that all life is interconnected and that the real nature of individuals or events can only be correctly understood in the context of their connections with all others.
In his teaching in the Bible, 1 Corinthians, 12: 4-26; St Paul, one of the most important figures in the apostolic age revealed that modeling a religious community on the concept, leads to achievement of spiritual success: just as the organisms in the natural system have their unique characteristics which enable them to interact for perfecting and sustaining each other, that Christian community is a unitary body and the individuals in it have their own unique characteristics which are a variety of spiritual gifts. The spiritual gifts include a gift of wisdom, a gift of knowledge, a gift of prophecy, a gift of healing. He said that the particular way in which the gifts are distributed is for a good reason. He likened the individuals with the different gifts to different parts that form one unitary body where they function in an interdependent manner - an interrelationship where a function in which one part lacks the gift to carry it out, the other has; the success of one part becomes the success of the other part; if one part is hurt, all the parts are hurt with it. If one part is given special honour, all parts enjoy it. He stressed that the force that stimulates the function of the gifts is love and that one without love will not be willing to share his own gift, thereby making his gift useless.
St Paul also revealed that no matter how weak a gift of an individual may seem, the gift is indispensable to the existence of the whole system. A similarity of this can be seen in the forest which itself is also a system of interdependent organisms...
