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The Rhythms of Life

David Pratt

According to mainstream evolutionary theory, the origin and evolution of life are the
result of random physicochemical processes. The first living organisms are said to have
arisen by chance in the primeval oceans and to have gradually evolved towards greater
complexity and diversity through random genetic mutations, with the least well-adapted
variations being weeded out by natural selection. In their latest book, Our Place in the
Cosmos: The Unfinished Revolution (J.M. Dent, 1993), cosmologists Fred Holye and
Chandra Wickramasinghe comment:

All this is taught nowadays as though it embodied proven unquestionable

facts, but in reality it is little more than a dogma, dogma that has come to be
fossilized in our educational system. (p. 2)

According to modern science the earth is about 4.6 billion years old. [Theosophy, on the
other hand, puts the age of the earth's present embodiment at nearer 2 billion years
(The Secret Doctrine 2:68). The radiometric dating methods used by science assume
that radioactivity began as soon as the earth formed and that the rate of radioactive
decay has always been constant. Theosophically, radioactivity is a sign of
etherealization and began in earnest only about 4½ million years ago, at the midpoint of
the earth's life-cycle, and will accelerate as time goes on (see G. de Purucker, Studies
in Occult Philosophy, pp. 20-1, 638-40; SD 1:439fn, 2:147fn). Prior to that, the overall
trend was towards the condensation of matter -- the opposite of radioactivity.] The first
unicellular organisms are said to have appeared about 3.8 billion years ago, as soon as
the young earth became habitable. If life evolved by accident, it is difficult to see how
this could have happened so quickly, given the amazing complexity of organic
molecules. For example:

the protein histone-4 has essentially the same chain of l02 amino acids in all
life-forms. If you had random shots at assembling this particular chain from a
supply of individual amino acids to suit yourself -- one shot for every atom in
every star in every galaxy visible in the largest telescopes, your chance of
successfully finding histone-4 would be like backing a horse at odds of 5 x
10132 (that is, 5 followed by 132 zeros) to 1 against, and histone-4 is just one
of very many critical proteins. (Our Place in the Cosmos, p. 29)

Hoyle and Wickramasinghe take the view that life first evolved in the depths of space
and that the earth was seeded with life by comets. They present evidence suggesting
that comets and interstellar clouds might contain not only organic molecules but also
viruses and freeze-dried bacteria. Bacteria certainly possess remarkable properties
which would enable them to survive in space and withstand entry into the earth's
atmosphere. For example, they can survive near-zero pressures and temperatures, as
well as pressures as high as 10 tons per square centimeter, and flash heating to
temperatures of up to 700°C. They can also survive intense doses of radiation. If
bacteria evolved in a terrestrial environment it is hard to understand how they have
acquired such properties.

Most astronomers believe that the solar system is surrounded by a sphere of some l00
billion cometary nuclei, known as the Oort cloud. From time to time, individual comets
are said to be deflected out of this cloud into the inner regions of the solar system by
interaction with a passing star or molecular cloud. As a comet approaches the sun its
outer layers begin to evaporate, releasing its biological material, some of which could
rain down intact onto the surfaces of the planets, including the earth, and provide the
genetic building blocks from which life evolved. The earth is perpetually embedded in a
halo of material evaporated from short-period comets, and about 1000 tons of this
material are swept up by the earth's atmosphere every year, sufficient to supply about
1021 bacteria and 1025 viruses.

In 1976 two space probes, Vikings 1 and 2, were sent to Mars by NASA with
experiments on board designed to test for the presence of microorganisms in the
Martian soil. Since Mars possesses enough of an atmosphere to permit the soft landing
of microorganisms, the experiments should have given a positive result if Hoyle and
Wickramasinghe's theory is correct. The official line, however, is that no signs of life
were found. In actual fact, this is not true, for while one experiment gave a negative
result, the other gave a positive result. NASA, however, claimed that the positive result
was probably due to the presence of some strong oxidizing agent in the Martian soil and
announced that no life had been found on Mars. The designers of this experiment, G.V.
Levin and P.A. Straat, spent nearly 10 years searching for a way of reproducing by
nonbiological means the effects obtained on Mars, but without success. Meanwhile, the
other experiment was belatedly tested against Antarctic soil -- comparable with the
barren soil of Mars -- and failed to detect organic material of biological origin which was
known to be there! This experiment was simply many thousands of times less sensitive
than the experiment which had given the positive result. Levin and Straat therefore
maintain that the Viking experiments did in fact find microbial life on Mars, while NASA
continues to deny it.

The presence of microorganisms on Mars does not necessarily prove that Hoyle and
Wickramasinghe's theories are correct as other explanations are conceivable. A more
crucial test will come in the early years of the next century when the spacecraft
ROSETTA will rendezvous with a comet and deploy a probe to take samples of its
surface. Their views have so far received little support from other scientists.

Theories of the origin of life tend to take for granted that there is such a thing as dead
matter. From a materialistic standpoint, living organisms consist of one or more cells,
but while cells are considered to be alive, the atoms of which they are composed are
believed to be lifeless, and life is regarded as no more than a by-product of complex
physicochemical processes. Reproduction is sometimes cited as one of the essential
characteristics of life, yet viruses -- regarded as alive -- cannot reproduce by
themselves, but only by taking over a host cell. Other properties of life are said to be
complexity, metabolism, and interaction with the environment. But is there anything in
nature which does not possess these properties? Even 'fundamental' subatomic
particles, for example, far from being simple, structureless points, as most physicists
believe them to be, may be just as complex in their own terms as a planet or sun, but
their complexity may be obscured by the fact that they are so minuscule and live at such
fantastic speeds compared to ourselves.

Theosophy rejects the idea of a sharp division between living and nonliving systems.
H.P. Blavatsky writes:

Occultism does not accept anything inorganic in the Kosmos. The

expression employed by Science, 'inorganic substance,' means simply that
the latent life slumbering in the molecules of so-called 'inert matter' is
incognizable. ALL IS LIFE, and every atom of even mineral dust is a LIFE,
though beyond our comprehension and perception . . . (Secret Doctrine
1:248)

From one point of view, the distinguishing mark between what is called the
organic and the inorganic is the function of nutrition, but if there were no
nutrition how could those bodies which are called inorganic undergo
change? Even crystals undergo a process of accretion, which for them
answers the function of nutrition. In reality, as Occult philosophy teaches us,
everything which changes is organic; it has the life principle in it, and it has
all the potentiality of the higher lives. (Collected Writings 10:383)

Life and consciousness are universal: everything is alive and conscious, though the
degree of manifest life and consciousness varies widely. Physical matter is a
crystallized, sleeping form of life-consciousness. More complex physical forms do not
create life but merely allow a greater degree of inner vitality to be expressed through the
physical form. If 'inorganic' matter seems to possess an innate tendency to self-organize
into 'organic' forms, it is because of a creative impulse originating in inner worlds and
acting from within outwards. Blavatsky therefore rejected the idea that the first germs of
life were brought to earth on a meteor, a theory put forward in her own day by the
scientists Helmholtz and Sir W. Thomson (SD 2:158, 719, 730). However, this does not
preclude the possibility that the material swept up by the earth on its journey through
space might play an important role in physical evolution.

The process of aging ultimately leads to death, but there is no known physical
mechanism which controls this process. Theosophically, a physical organism functions
as an integrated whole for as long as it is animated and held together by inner energy
fields or souls, composed of finer, nonphysical grades of spirit-substance. An organism
is born with a certain store of vital energy and, after this energy has been expended, the
inner entity withdraws for a period of rest and the physical body dies. Once the
individual molecules are freed from the restraint imposed by this coordinating force, they
become more active or full of life and go their separate ways, causing the body to
decay.

As far as the evolution of living organisms is concerned, the fossil record contradicts the
Darwinian belief in a branching evolutionary tree, in which all creatures have descended
in small steps from a primitive common ancestor. The tree of life is divided into different
levels, beginning with kingdoms (the broadest group), followed by phyla, classes,
orders, families, genera, and finally species (the twigs on the tree of life). But it is only at
the lowest levels -- genera and species -- that significant fossil evidence of intermediate
forms has been found, and even here the links are not nearly as gradual as required by
Darwinian theory.

It used to be claimed that there was a fairly complete sequence of fossils showing how
the modern, one-toed horse had evolved from a horse the size of a dog, with four toes
on the forefeet and three on the hindfeet. Even if this were true, it would merely show
that a particular kind of creature can evolve into a similar kind of creature. Nowadays,
however, it is generally admitted that this picture of straight-line evolution is far from
accurate. Instead of gradual change, fossils of each intermediate species of horse
appear fully formed, persist unchanged, and then become extinct, with no transitional
forms. What's more, three-toed and one-toed horses appear to have lived side by side.
Horses and bears belong to different orders of mammals and supposedly descended
from a common ancestor, yet there is no fossil evidence whatsoever of ancestral
creatures that were part-bear, part-horse. This is just one of countless 'missing links',
and the stock excuse that they are missing due to the imperfection of the fossil record is
wearing increasingly thin.

Hoyle and Wickramasinghe argue that species can adapt only within very narrow limits
by internal means alone, and that to produce large distinctions extending to orders and
classes, species must acquire a sudden input of new genetic information from outside
themselves. In their view, this input is provided by viruses from comets which, as well as
causing diseases, might occasionally add useful new genes to an organism or trigger
dormant genes into activity. But is the random injection of genes from outside the earth
any more likely to produce the incredible beauty, ingenuity, and diversity of
contemporary life forms than the slow accumulation of random genetic mutations?

Theosophy holds that evolution is driven not so much by the influx of organic matter
from outer space as by nonphysical influences acting from inner space: evolution is
guided by spiritual, intelligent, and semi-intelligent forces acting from planes
transcending the physical. An increasing number of biologists recognize the need to
invoke some kind of organizing principle or force to explain the purposiveness of
evolution. Few, however, are prepared to go as far as the nineteenth century naturalist
A.R. Wallace, who helped to develop the theory of natural selection, but differed from
Darwin in believing that human beings could not have evolved without the guidance of
higher intelligences.

Far from being characterized by slow and steady progress, evolution on earth has been
punctuated by mass extinctions and the sudden appearance of new species. The first
multicellular organisms (or metazoans) appeared in the fossil record about 600 million
years ago, according to conventional dating, but they are relatively few compared to the
incredible proliferation of such organisms that occurred some 530 million years ago, in
the early Cambrian. Since the 'Cambrian explosion' not a single new basic anatomical
design (or phylum) has appeared in the animal world; in fact the number has declined
from about 49 to 28, and the overall trend has been towards an increasing number of
species based on fewer and fewer basic body plans. For instance, there are about a
million species of insects alive today, but only three basic arthropod designs, compared
with over twenty in the mid-Cambrian. The cause of the Cambrian explosion has not
been satisfactorily explained. According to Hoyle and Wickramasinghe, it resulted from
the earth being bombarded by a swarm of cometary bodies, which contained not only
bacteria and viruses but also the frozen eggs of metazoan creatures, which could have
developed within huge aqueous lakes in large comets.
Theosophy sheds a different light on this subject. The globe we live on is said to be the
most material of twelve globes that together make up the earth planetary chain; the
other globes are situated on more ethereal and spiritual planes and are therefore
invisible to us. The different life-waves or kingdoms of nature -- from elemental to
human to spiritual -- form the globes of a planetary chain, and on each one the monads
or consciousness-centers which compose the life-waves embody in suitable forms and
pass through different stages of evolutionary development. On any globe, at any time,
one kingdom dominates, and the bulk of its monads embody on that globe. Each
kingdom stays on a globe for many millions of years, and passes seven times through
all the globes in succession during each embodiment of a planetary chain. When a life-
wave departs from a globe, it leaves behind its most advanced representatives (often
referred to by the Sanskrit term shishtas, meaning 'remainders'). When it returns to that
globe in the next round, the monads reawaken these ethereal seeds of life or astral
root-types, which begin to materialize and differentiate into a variety of stocks
appropriate to that kingdom's evolution.

The present or fourth round on earth began with the Laurentian period (which preceded
the Cambrian), about 640 million years ago (320 million according to theosophy, SD
2:710, 715fn). The appearance of metazoans 600 million years ago, and their sudden
proliferation 530 million years ago resulted from the reawakening of the astral root-types
by the monads arriving on our globe from the preceding globe -- their numbers being
relatively few to start with but swelling rapidly as time went on. From the start of the
fourth round until the midpoint of the planetary life cycle, some 4½ million years ago, the
evolutionary trend was downwards into matter, resulting in a profusion of new species,
which developed the fundamental designs activated at the start of the round into a
variety of specialized forms. However, the middle of the cycle marked the beginning of
the ascending arc towards spirit, and henceforth more and more animal monads will
tend to pass into nirvanic rest as they will not be able to evolve sufficiently along
psychological and spiritual lines.

The purpose of evolution is the unfoldment of the latent faculties and capabilities, the
slumbering divine potential, locked up in each monad, through the building of ever fitter
vehicles for self-expression. Changes within a species take place in response to internal
as well as environmental stimuli, and build up on the astral plane until they are able to
burst into physical manifestation as a sudden 'mutation'. When a new type of physical
vehicle is required for a monad's development, a suitable prototype is provided by the
patterns from previous cycles of evolution stored in the earth's memory field or astral
light (what Rupert Sheldrake calls the morphic field of Gaia). On the other hand, if a
particular species of plant or animal is no longer needed as a vehicle for evolutionary
experience, monads no longer embody in it and it eventually dies out and becomes
extinct. This process may be accelerated by environmental changes brought about by
natural catastrophes such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and comet and asteroid
impacts.

The largest known extinction occurred at the end of the Permian period, some 245
million years ago (44 million according to theosophy), when 96 percent of marine
species were wiped out. Another mass extinction took place at the end of the
Cretaceous period and the beginning of the Tertiary (the K-T boundary), about 65 million
years ago (less than 8 million according to theosophy); it wiped out half of all the genera
of animals, and every species of animal weighing more than about 25 kilograms (55
pounds), including the dinosaurs. The most popular explanation is that the earth was
struck by an asteroid or comet, generating a huge dust cloud which blocked out sunlight
and led to the collapse of the food chain. However, the extinctions began many millions
of years before the K-T boundary, and other scientists believe that the main causes
were a long period of intense global volcanism, related climatic changes, and changes
in sea-level or land elevation (see 'The great dinosaur extinction controversy'). Hoyle
and Wickramasinghe believe that infection with lethal viruses was involved, since the
extinctions were not confined to large animals but went all the way down to
microorganisms, and occurred in every kind of habitat, including the bottom of the sea.
Whatever its cause or causes, this extinction was followed by the rapid diversification
and rise to dominance of the mammals.

Hoyle and Wickramasinghe say that their book is intended to provide 'a doorway leading
to a different landscape which it will be the privilege of the next generation, or
generations, to explore' (p. 181). But while they present many challenges to orthodox
scientific thinking and open up interesting avenues for further research, they are still
working from within a materialistic framework (though in earlier books Hoyle proposes
that there is an overriding intelligence at work in the universe -- see The Intelligent
Universe). Interestingly, they also state that since Buddhism sees life and
consciousness as cosmic phenomena, inextricably linked with the universe as a whole,
the ancient Buddhist traditions provide a suitable framework for freeing science from its
remaining medieval fetters. The Buddha departed this life with the following message,
which, they say, provides excellent advice for prospective young scientists, and -- one
might add -- for all human beings:

Be as lamps unto yourselves. Hold fast to the lamp of Truth. Take refuge
only in Truth. Look not for refuge to anyone besides yourself . . . And those
who now in my time or afterwards live thus, they will reach greatness if they
are desirous of knowledge. (Mahaparinibbana Sutta, 2.33, 35)

Last revised: November 1999. Original article published in Sunrise, June/July 1994.

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