Page Two
The
Global Community Study & Activity
(Continued from Page One)
The Train We Ride
"Our greatest problems are the result of the differences between how we think and how nature works."
- Gregory Bateson
The stress and destructiveness of our "civilized" way of thinking recently led a psychology student to write
"Our society is like a runaway train that we each ride. We are concerned that the train too often deteriorates the wellness of people, society and the environment. However, our efforts to improve our lives mostly gets us better seats, meals or jobs on the train. We have no process that lets nature's intelligence help us stop the train, redirect its tracks, or safely get off it and teach others to do the same. What we need is a better train of thought."
The student expressed her concern, because she was involved in a unique nature connected psychological process that dramatically improves how we think. Most people ignored her work. "We are psychologically addicted to riding the train," she concluded.
The natural environment neither rides our train nor produces our destructive results. Rather it intelligently organizes itself to sustain life in vibrant balance and beauty, without producing garbage and pollution.
Be alarmed.
I recently watched the essence that creates Earth's harmonious ways perform before the eyes of informed, caring leaders. They were insensitive to the value of the performance. Their, and our, dismissal of it is cause for great concern.
The performance occurred at a hurried, stressful training session for community safety program directors. Their differences kept them arguing amongst themselves (g/o). In the midst of this hubbub, a young, wild bird flew into the meeting room through the open door. It could not find its way out.
Without a word, the rankled, behind-schedule meeting screeched to a halt. In that moment, the bird brought to people's consciousness deep natural attraction feelings for its life. Hope filled each person.
For ten minutes that frightened little bird made those seventy people harmoniously, supportively, organize and unify with each other to help it find its way back home unharmed (g/g). Yet when they accomplished this feat, these leaders cheered their accomplishment, not the bird's (g/o). It's role and impact went unnoticed. They returned to the aggravation of the meeting, as if nothing special had happened.
I wanted to point out to this group the powerful, sensitive, unifying and mutually supportive effect the bird had upon them individually and collectively. Experience told me they would scoff, as they had previously. They would say what happened was not important or useful for it was uncommon to have a wild bird touch their lives.
Unconsciously, these leaders' subconscious sensitivities enabled a touch of nature, a wild bird, to unite them, to free them from the stress they were feeling and catalyze cooperative community amongst them (g/g). Although it said not a word, the bird was an excellent educator and counselor. It reached and ignited people's inner nature, it nurtured into new brain consciousness natural senses of love, empathy, community, friendship, power, humility, place, reasoning, gravity and a score of others (g/g). A single bird had the power to bring joy, cohesiveness and integrity to their thinking and lives. The benefits were evident.
It is the lack of such contact that creates and sustains our runaway disorders.
Scientists, Genesis and the Garden of Eden story agree that humanity is to nature as our leg is to our body. We are one, a delicately balanced integrity that is sentiently and biologically fused to each other and Earth. The bird changed the nature of the conference simply because, as part of nature, it was part of everybody there. For a moment, our consciousness was psychologically returned to the Garden (g/g).
When the bird left, the connection with an essence of nature's integrity disappeared and "normal" stress returned. Similarly, our normal way of thinking (g/o) daily disconnects us from the garden and results in the hell of our lives.
The reverse is equally true.
If you consciously reconnect to genuine nature, backyard or backcountry, you may energize and nurture into your thinking the natural sensory attractions that hold people and planet in balance. This phenomenon is the basic element of a newly researched, nature connected psychology, the Natural Systems Thinking Process. The process enables people to let thoughtful, shared, sensory connections with attractions in nature improve our thinking, relationships and spirit (g/g). That basic element nurtures the buried, intelligent workings of nature out of our subconscious and into our awareness and relationship building.
We inherit many attraction sensitivities from nature. The bird activated some of them and things came out right. Through the Natural Systems Thinking Process, anybody can learn to create similar experiences that afford similar outcomes.
Most of us are aware that the disconnected thinking process that produces and sustains industrial society has unthoughtfully placed the environment and people at risk (g/o). Our thinking is missing many natural sensitivities that normally keep nature on a harmonious, balanced course. Often we can't make sense of life and our lives. Most of us succumb to the stress our thinking produces.
We need a more sensitive thought process to think our way out of the runaway problems our train of thought produces.
The natural environment governs itself with an intelligence that encourages its diversity and a wisdom that prevents it from producing our unresolvable problems. We are part of nature.
As natural beings, we inherit the ability to think and feel with this global intelligence(g/g).
However, from birth and before, we box our mentality in a thinking process and society that for thousands of years has been hell bent on conquering nature (g/o).
Our underlying problem is the nature disconnection of industrial society. It teaches us to think in words and stories that portray nature's intelligence as an enemy that exists in people and natural areas. Subconsciously, we learn to know and fear nature as evil. For example, we often portray Satan with a tail, claws, scales, fur, horns, hooves and fangs. Isn't that nature. When have you seen Satan dressed in a business suit, pastorial robe or military uniform?
To our loss, as our thinking assaults and conquers nature within and around us, we deteriorate our lives and all of life. To openly love nature is often like having an illicit affair (g/o).
SUMMARY B:
We seldom train our new brain thinking to be conscious of many natural sensitivities that normally keep living systems and organisms in balance with themselves and each other.
OPTIONAL: On a piece of paper, record the SUMMARY letter above (A: B: C, etc.) along with the numbers (below) that indicate your amount of agreement with the summary statement a) as a stated truth (1-10) and b) as a 0-100 % percentage of your daily time that you think you practice this truth. Note how you feel about the difference, if there is one, between your a-score and b-score.
1.........2..........3........4.........5.........6.........7.........8..........9.........10.
disagree..........................so partially agree...........................fffully agree
The best way to learn and teach the Natural Systems Thinking Process is by doing it. Take our short online Orientation Course
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