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Orientation Course Evaluation Natural Systems Thinking Process: the ecosychology of change Jeannine Thanks to this course I am now aware that my old brain registers at least 52 non-verbal natural attractions which I and all other humans share with the plant, animal and mineral kingdom while my new brain substitutes words and images for direct sensory experience. There is no substitute for the Real thing and yet I am living in a society and culture that conditions and rewards all of us to live by word and symbol alone. The world of thought has become our dwelling place. This course has helped me to clearly see the destructive results of this way of being in the world. The NSTP gives high priority to direct sensory experience in nature and this is a great antidote to our out of control lifestyles. New brain reason and language is in the driver's seat. What happens to all our other natural senses? We must continue to nurture our connections with the natural world, bringing our old brain deep knowing back onto our screen of consciousness. And here is a way: NSTP. The arrogance of believing that I can live and flourish apart from the rest of nature is the soup I've been swimming in for longer than is healthy for any living organism. This course has been so valuable because it has held my feet to the fire of experience - of staying with my connection to nature. Today, Wow! the whole world is green! I am walking a trail not far from where I live and the freshness is so delicious. The greenness reverberates in my soul and g/g runs rampant. The strings of my heart are plucked by the many bird songs I hear - magpies, blackbirds, robins are the ones I see. The bright yellow pieces-of-sun dandelion patches are amazing - how smart they are to grow where no lawnmower will cut them down. The smell of lilac fills the air and a blossoming bush reminds my nose of caraway. I am filled with love and admiration for this beautiful place. I feel its nurturance and I know nature as bliss. And so I realize I can actually stop the train and get off even if just briefly. Nature asks for nothing - she is completely detached from human craziness. When I am in contact with Nature, I feel a deep healing in myself. That can only happen when I choose to stop, pay attention and wait. Then it comes clear: I am conceived belonging to the whole, completely in touch with and touched by my surroundings - then I know that I live with and by a graciousness not of my own making. Then I know: grace cannot be separated from nature; nature is grace. Are we not graced every day the sun comes up? Now I wake up to all the grace I'm swimming in! Gratitude and love replace arrogance and self-importance. By going outdoors to an attractive natural area and asking for its consent to be there; noticing how good it feels to be there or noticing discomfort and following another attraction until it feels good; thanking this place, tree, rock, etc. for the valuable feelings they have provided; leaning into trusting the experience; sharing this nature-connected story with others - this is an important part of "being fully present to our world." These now moments are where we and Earth exist and relate equally. These moments in connection with nature are thought free. Observing the mind rather than attaching to its conditioned contents allows me to experience a deeper sense of self. This aware presence to myself feels spacious and peaceful. When I am not identified with thinking, I experience a depth of feeling, of sensing, of compassion, of loving that simply is not there when I am trapped in mental concepts. Here I see and sense aliveness all around me: the sacredness, the beauty, the harmony that holds everything together. My mind stops and something else takes over: a state of relaxed alertness - no fear and no anxiety. Habitually living in this state of consciousness is greatly to be desired. Change and growth is a present moment reality and if I know who and where I am in the moment, I have a good chance of changing and growing. When I am being in integrity with my feeling response to what is happening in the world, then I may be moved to action out of love. We are (as far as we know) the first species having the potential to care about all the other species and choosing to open ourselves to this compassion is our challenge. We are earth waking up to herself. When I feel the emotional pain of my disconnection from nature I know I've taken the first step toward moving out of denial. I live my life removed from nature, therefore I am not nurtured by nature and fail to notice the ways in which she continually restores my natural intelligence. Every other part of nature survives in balance through attractions that unite and build supportive relationships and through this course I have experienced nature to be a unifying attraction. Nature has expressed love to me and the world by not producing pollution, abusiveness and stress. Cultivating and nurturing psychological webstrings helps me heal my psyche's loss of contact with sensory roots in nature's ways and intelligence. Lately, whenever I really get it that I am suffering from sensory deprivation in relation to nature, a little tune starts playing, "the more I see of you, the more I love the view" (Drew Dellinger). The more I feel, hear, smell, touch, resonate, vibrate, etc. with you the more I love you (nature). And I realize I am learning how to keep the strings alive and well in my consciousness. A question asked in the "Thoughtful Verbalizations" section of the course is, "how would you feel about having the webstring attractions you experienced in the activity taken away from you?" At first I responded to this question very matter-of-factly: of course, I would feel badly. Then it began to dawn on me - the webstring attractions have been taken away from me! Years of conditioning in this industrial-consumer society - how easily they disappear from my screen of consciousness! What an important question this turns out to be. Each of the other women in my group responded to this question with similar comments, "I would feel great loss and distress", "would leave me with not much excitement", "I wouldn't want the experience taken away as it taught me to enjoy, appreciate, thank each moment of beauty," "If I lost this connection I would be terribly distressed. It would be like losing a limb." Indeed we are one in this realization of not wanting to lose our webstring connections to natural attractions. Definitely, these thoughts and experiences are beneficial to earth and to all of us. I totally and fully agree with each of the Summary Statements in this course. When I examine my daily life for signs that I actually practice these truths, the percentage of time spent is about 30%, if that. Seeing the truth of this reality, I feel both sad and happy. I feel sad that I habitually see through the eyes of our nature conquering society's stories. I feel happy that I at least have the beginnings of awareness of this situation and I will continue to acknowledge and experience that webstring attractions are intelligent and I will celebrate these strings whenever possible. Some of the benefits of belonging to this nature-conquering culture are addictive consumerism, adherence to narrow beliefs about the nature of reality and desperate clinging to what deadens us. Old world views do not die easily. So much has been invested in them. The inclination toward unlimited material wealth, and domination over nature have brought about the corporation which is accountable to no one, and the insatiable consumerism that leaves us spiritually bereft, struggling to find peace, meaning and hope. Although the Constitution of the United States makes provision that the people can call upon the Government for protection against self-inflicted harm, (the domestic violence clause), that same government is responsible for causing the violence! The NSTP techniques taught in this course can help us all to see ourselves not as consumers, but as human beings in a communion of Earth's subjects. This course has given me the opportunity to reconnect with nature and to be much more tuned in to these lines from the UN Environmental Sabbath Poem: We join with the earth and
with each other Three cheers to Mike and all who make this learning experience possible. Here's to the basecamp of evolutionary effort! Thank you also to all the April Showers girls for their wonderful sharings.
Bibliography: Adams, Cass ed. The Soul Unearthed: Celebrating Wilderness and Spiritual Renewal Through Nature. First Sentient Publications. 2002 Chard, Philip Sutton. The Healing Earth: Nature's Medicine for the Troubled Soul. Creative Publishing. 1994. Cohen, Michael. Reconnecting With Nature: Finding Wellness Through Restoring your Bond with the Earth. Ecopress. 1997. ___________________The Web
of Life Imperative. Institute of Global Education.2002 Diamond, Michael. www.domesticviolenceclause.org Roszak, Theodore ed. Ecopsychology:Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind. Sierra Club Books. 1995.
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