What I like about the universal c...onsciousness things - the
   gaia mind - is it explains a lot of world history. Perhaps the
   mechanisms used by the world mind is due to commerce (chinese
   ships trading spices with ancient greece, bringing the idea of
   the Tao to Plato (as the Tao and Plato's "Word" are very nearly
   identical concepts and they sprung up within the same generation
   of people geographically separated by thousands of miles - about
   500 BC))"