When I was a little boy, I once had the chance to watch a well being cleaned out in the front yard of my family’s home. My father felt that the pollution level in the well was no longer acceptable, and so he decided to hire a few workers to clean it out. They began the process by bailing all the water out of the well, one bucket at a time. The well always seemed to be full even during dry periods, but it began to show its floor after the men emptied it with the well buckets for a while.
One worker entered its hollow passage and returned with shoes, paper, toothbrushes and other miscellaneous objects that had fallen into the hole over the years. Watching the man being pulled up by a rope, I felt an urge to follow his example and go into the well. After much persuasion, I was granted permission to do so. I got in the bucket as the men carefully lowered me down to the bottom of the well.
The cleaning process was already over and the well was in a satisfactory state with only a few puddles of clear water here and there. Inside the well, I felt as if I were on a vacation to a creek. I picked up pebbles, rubbed the moss stuck between rocks and generally entertained myself. Moments later, I raised my head and saw the grand wall of stones piled up above me, and the small circle of blue sky peeking through the well’s entrance. Suddenly, I felt an overwhelming tidal wave of confinement, oppression and fear. I yelled to be pulled back up and the workers answered my call.
“Frogs in a well” is a well-known Korean saying, referring to limited awareness of a bigger world. A frog born in a well will only know about life in that well, and will never suspect anything outside of the well that he cannot perceive. Imagine that this frog is intuitive, with the gift of a sixth sense. He could tell stories about an outside world, but his frog friends would most likely deny such outrageous claims. And even those frogs who do feel the existence of a bigger world would feel overwhelmed by their immediate reality and their uncertainty over matters that they cannot physically experience — so they will mostly be persuaded by the other frogs to ignore such impracticalities.
Human beings have persisted in thinking and understanding in this way — as if they were frogs in a well — until now. Despite globalization, rapid transportation, and high-speed communication, there still may be some people, living in the same small town all of their lives, who expect people outside their town to be somehow different from themselves.
It is true that various fields of science — especially quantum theory and astrophysics, which deal with the smallest and largest matters — have helped people overcome their conservative tendencies. During the last century, astronomy and astrophysics have provided people with a continuous stream of new and interesting knowledge, and have changed the general public’s perception of the universe. As a result, humans are now very aware that both the sun and the earth are like tiny specks of sand compared to the size of the entire universe.
However, this expansion of understanding has mainly been superficial and, in fact, the public’s way of thinking has not really changed much from that of people in the Middle Ages, who believed that the whole universe revolved around the earth.
Humanity has now reached a very special point in history, different from any other time in the past, when we must understand our lives and our world with certainty. Until now, our limited information and deeply-rooted prejudices have allowed us to ignore the truth and rules of the universe, and doing so has neither blocked our pursuit of happiness nor become an obstacle in our daily lives. But we are now at a turning point, where conveniently standing by blindfolded is no longer acceptable. It is time for humankind to shed the ignorance it has had for so long about itself and the universe. If we can’t, it is possible that the meaning of life itself will vanish. Indeed, human beings are now facing the most crucial turning point in history.
This book will discuss an enormous cosmic project called the “Gaia Project.” The Project is an unprecedented huge-scale plan even in the unlimited universe, and the earth is at the center of the plan. It includes the initial formation and the final change of the earth, which is called in this book the earth’s “Great Change.” Although this book discusses the fundamental purpose, process and influence of the Project in detail, the focus of this book is on the Project’s final stage: the Great Change, currently in full-scale progress. This book explains why the Great Change, which most of the general public may consider catastrophic or the end of the world, is happening, and it explains what changes will accompany the Great Change, and what humanity will experience and learn from the process.
By reading this book and gaining an understanding of what is now occurring on this planet, people — including you — can prepare for the upcoming changes. In other words, when people begin to accept the facts clarified in this book with open minds, their understanding of life, the earth and the universe will expand dramatically and they will be able to accept the outside changes with a sense of peace, even experiencing the joy of being together during the cosmic festivities on the earth.
