Eckhart TolleNYT Bestselling author of the Power of Now

What Mass Extinctions Reveal About Consciousness

8 Sept 2026 · 2 min

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1:47

In this monologue, Eckhart Tolle proposes that a sixth mass extinction may already be underway and irreversible. He reviews the five previous mass extinctions, highlighting the end‑Cretaceous event 65 million years ago as the most familiar. Tolle explains that early photosynthetic bacteria released oxygen—a gas that was initially poisonous to existing rudimentary life forms—yet later life evolved to harness oxygen for energy. He notes that each extinction eliminated 60‑80 % of species, after which life rebounded over a few million years, each time emerging with greater biological complexity. The talk uses this pattern to reflect on consciousness, suggesting that just as life regenerates and evolves, consciousness may also transform through crises.

Chapters

Let's take the worst-case scenario. Let's say that actually the sixth mass extinction of life on the planet has already started, and it cannot be reversed. Now let's look at the previous five mass extinctions. There have been five. The last one, many people know about that, happened approximately 65 million years ago, which is when the dinosaurs and many other life forms. Very, very suddenly and quickly became extinct. There were already 5 other mass extinctions before that. There were already rudimentary life forms on the planet, and then one life form, certain bacteria, through photosynthesis started to generate a poisonous gas-like substance on the planet, and this poison— this gas was poisonous to many creatures The rudimentary life forms on the planet. And this gas that filled the planet and killed off many life forms is still around. We call it oxygen. So then life forms grew up that actually used that gas to generate life and energy. After each mass extinction, life on the planet became greatly impoverished because 60, 70, 80% of life forms disappeared. And after each life extinction, life regenerated on the planet. It took a little while, a few million years, but life regenerated on the planet. And each time it regenerated, the life that came was at greater complexity than the life forms in the previous life forms.