“…living systems adapt by transforming themselves, and thus does learning happen. Real learning is not something added, it is a reorganization of the system. New nets and assemblies occur, loops form, alternate pathways develop. The viewed world is different and so is the viewer. When in the sixteenth century Copernicus and Keppler produced compelling evidence that the Earth revolved around the Sun, it was not just additional information. A revolution occurred in our experience of the world and in the ways we see and think. Now, in our time, the Gaia hypothesis -that the Earth itself is a living system- brings with it a comparable transformation in our understanding of our world and ourselves. We can recognize here the creative function of cognitive crisis. When old habitual modes of interpretation become dysfunctional, it is often painful, a dark night of the soul, but that kind of confusion can be fruitful. It motivates the system to self-organize in more inclusive ways, embracing and integrating data of which it had been previously unconscious.”