I experience everything has a certain level of consciousness. We are taught to see inanimate objects as not having any at all. Of course, a flower may not experience the depth of emotion that a human does — but plants do become distressed. A dog may have more consciousness than, say a mouse. Many philosophers have asked, at what point can you consider something has a soul, and something doesn’t? I mean, clearly, when a someone dies, they leave behind their body. In those first few seconds, the body looks exactly the same, but we know that something is gone.

I’m not sure I’d call that a soul, but I suppose I prefer the word “consciousness”. I see inanimate objects as a kind of, “frozen consciousness.” An experience is happening for a rock, just not through the 5 senses like humans do. That all being said, I like the idea that the Earth itself is conscious. I don’t imagine Earth is very interested in the human population until it decides that humans have done too much damage and removes the species itself.