i don't know enough about the theory to have an educated opinion, but it doesn't seem terribly likely to me.
I don't believe the Gaia hypothesis posits sentience in the normal meaning of the world. Only that the environment and life in general co evolve together, each influencing the other. It's an unconscious feedback system that works through Darwinian evolution.
NWO bullshit and just another religion. Planetary sentience to the people in control means one hive mind with no individuality. Complete collectivism, basically, which will come once everyone is chipped. The only sentience I believe in is the sentience of the individual, which the people pushing this new age religion (which goes hand-in-hand with environmentalism) would like to eliminate. In short, all religion is bullshit.
My individual spirituality, as you call "knowing oneself", includes the Earth our Mother as a sentient energy. But I follow no religion.
See Rat... Everything is black and white in your world... I live in the gray areas you can't comprehend.
The Gaia hypothesis as proposed by James Lovelock, which is what the op implies in the title, "Gaia", has nothing to do with a new world order. It's an idea based on Earth science, biochemistry, and ecology. Basically it states that the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and the pedosphere all interact and evolve as one complete system. Life depends on the interaction of microorganisms with inorganic elements found in these different spheres. This interaction then regulates the salinity of the oceans, oxygen in the atmosphere, global surface temperature, and amount of CO2. -http://www.gaiatheory.org/overview/ Lovelock thought that organisms that evolve through natural selection to improve their environment would do better than those that didn't and that the organic and inorganic set up a feedback loop that is Darwinian based. Recent arguments claim that no genetic material in organisms can provide feedback to the various spheres and so can't influence them through natural selection. There is nothing political or religious in the original theory, it is purely a scientific hypothesis.
... and the original concept of Gaia as it relates to religion was part of Ancient Greek religion(s) which has come to essentially be regarded as dead, no longer practiced mythology, so it'd be quite the leap in reasoning to tie that with NWO. Although I think, Gaia as deity has resurfaced and persisted in some forms of Paganism.
Actually, Gaia and earth worship is very much part of the NWO agenda as it is to be the new one world religon for the new age of Aquarius (though in reality it predates Christianity and technically is not "new" at all). But if you've never looked into any of it before, I can see how it would appear to not have anything to do with it.
Lovelock defined Gaia as “…a complex entity involving the Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.” http://themindunleashed.org/2014/05/earth-sentient-living-organism.html Yes the earth is a living breathing organism in which we fortunately inhabit. All you have to do is take a clear look into nature to see that everything exists for a reason. The sun rises and gives life and plants food to produce oxygen that we breath. As well as that, the sun heats the water which evaporates and condenses into a cloud. The cloud floats over land and delivers water to us. with those simple school age examples you cannot think other wise. Which is why it is so imperative that we start to recognized that everything is intertwined with each other. We need the earth just as much as she needs us. To end with we also need each other. Without each other to express our thoughts and ideas to, they then go unresolved and growth in advancement stunts. Imagine having this discussion with ourselves.
Yes, religion. In part because we can see what is happening now and the same has happened during the Crusades. A distinct side of Christianity or Muslim. We are still engaged in a Holy war that has never ended and never will.
According to the great Pressed Rat, religion is the gathering point for the NWO.... Somebody isn't right.
The current religions are just a means to an end -- the end of an age. That age being the current Piscean age, as represented by the fish (hence the Jesus fish). The war between Muslims and Christians will last only as long as needed for the West to completely take over the Middle East, which is well under way. In the process both religions will be destroyed. It's all about divide and conquer. The new age of Aquarius is to be the age of singularity, where everything becomes one -- hence one world religion under an all-powerful one world government.