Page Five
The
Global Community Study & Activity
Continued from Page 4
"We are nature, long have we been absent, now we return."
- Walt WhitmanJust as the sensation of thirst is as real as water, the strings of the web of life are as real and factual as any other part of the web. They were the means by which the bird influenced the meeting.
Just as people, plants and rocks are biologically of, by and from nature, so is the web and its sensory strings. Profound disbelief registered on many faces when I told the web activity participants that, "Since you are part of nature, the strings are in you. A great many are in your subconscious (old brain). You may learn to relate harmoniously through them by using a natural systems thinking process." They disbelieved this. Society has well taught us to conquer, not respect, nature. This teaching drives the strings and their value out of our awareness and values.
The strings are natural senses or attraction sensitivities that pervade nature. For example: a
bird that eats insects is connected (strung) to them by some form of the sense of hunger (attraction to food); similarly the sense of thirst string (attraction to water) connects the bird to water.
One need only hold their breath to feelingly realize that our desire to breathe is a specific natural attraction sensation, a love for air.
We did not invent that love.
It is a string of the web.
The strings, -our inner nature, or inner child natural loves- are lost or injured because society considers them interruptive, taboo, flaky, subjective, spiritual, naughty, unimportant, stupid etc (g/o). That blocks them from freely entering our thinking, they contain stigmas, "discomforting blue blocks." They are often as alien to us as the "Indians" were to many frontiersmen, or as Afro-Americans are to the Ku Klux Klan. For example, as you read this page your new brain's attention addictively focuses on the words and message of the page, not thankfully on the air that exists between you and the page nor on your sensory old brain desire to breathe the air. In addition, the bias of your thinking about the importance of thinking tends to validate that your lack of attention to air makes perfect sense. Your thinking tells you a story of its own, that your thinking is what is important and you think with words, not air (g/o).
"We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers our actions run as causes and return to us as results.
-Herman MelvilleScientifically, it is clear that natural systems organize themselves with the string. Moment by moment nature creates additional string and connections that increasingly weave, balance and repair the web of life. This is not done haphazardly, rather it is a multisensitivity attraction intelligence that, in congress, produces nature's optimum of life, diversity, cooperation and beauty. The process is unifying enough to globally produce and sustain the web of life without creating garbage or pollution. Practically nothing in nature is left out, unattached or unwanted, a way to define unconditional love.
Remember, natural systems and genuinely nature connected people don't display the runaway war, abusiveness, pollution, mental and environmental disorders that threaten our lives. These problems arise because our estrangement from nature prejudiciously and addictively prevents us from thinking with the string and its intelligence. Over 95% of our time is spent and reinforced indoors. Most of the web of life and its attraction string connections are not present indoors. The authentic strings neither touch us nor register in consciousness when we are out of contact with nature.
A photograph of nature is relatively sterile and unreal in comparison to sensory attraction contact with authentic nature. Our overwhelming disconnection from the profound substance of the web often programs us to sense the strings to be like a foreign, taboo language that we need not learn to speak or is unspeakable (g/o).
Like any other natural being, we are not sterile isolates. Our lives demand the flow of sensory and physical connections that support our being. Our separation from the sensory string womb of nature biologically generates great psychological unfulfillment in us. It accounts for our insatiable wants, the greed we too often feel and display. When we want there is never enough.
The rest of nature does not display our greed or destructive problems, it is fulfilled by web of life attraction connections.
Our wants profoundly influence our thinking (g/o). They produce our runaway personal, social and environmental addictions and deterioration. For example, without conscious sensory contact and fulfillment from the strings, our thinking still lets us begin to smoke cigarettes. They are a substitute fulfillment for the joys of string fulfillment in and by nature. Lacking nature's balance and wisdom, our substitutes often become dependency problems. We become psychologically addicted, our thinking bewildered. For example, after 45 years of research and education as to the harm that comes from cigarette smoking, today, 30% of the public smokes cigarettes, 70% of people who smoke do not believe they are more susceptible to heart disease, 60% do not believe they are more susceptible to cancer and almost. The disconnection of our thinking from nature's wisdom leaves us out of balance and in denial.
What to do? As the following three examples show, nature itself provides the antidote. Many hundreds more similar examples are found in our archives:
1. "As I continued the Natural Systems Thinking Process activity, I found myself attracted to the strings of various songs of the birds and then gradually to the various stones and nuts and shells in the path. I would stop in the path, pick up the stone, admire its beauty and then feel clearly called to return it to its appropriate place. So often other times I have felt I needed to put it in my pocket and carry it home. Now I had a real sense of appreciating each rock, each shell, each leaf in its place for the time I was there. I felt suddenly freed from the need to possess something. I had a growing sense of letting it be and to just be still and glory in the fullness of the moment.
As I allowed myself to connect, appreciate, thank and move on with so much of what surrounded me, I felt a letting go into being present. In this transformation, I began to feel a part of the scene more and not the other self that needed to possess.
I learned that I do not need to possess something to have the joy of it."
2. "My how my mind does chatter with words that can mislead me. When I make contact with nature and think with nature's intelligence, it guides me with a wisdom that helps me keep in balance. The contact is non-verbal because nature does not communicate with words. As I worked through the Introductory Course, I began to use the Reconnectin With Nature book's methodology to quiet my mind. As I went through the activities I began to sense a subtle, but perceptible, shift in my ability to attain a non-verbal awareness. Then one day, as I was doing one of the activities that asks us to "jam" the verbal mind with a word ("unity" in my case) I suddenly connected, WHAM, there it was - non-verbal awareness. No naming, no concepts, just being. What a relief! It didn't last long but it did change my life. Since then I have extended my abilities to just be. Now my "mind chatter" is only a murmur when I ask it to be. This has opened up experiences so far beyond anything I even dreamed of a few years ago."
3. "This morning I was battling the remnants of some depression I had been feeling about my family and life "stuff". I was doing the attraction activity, looking around enjoying the day, the breeze, the sun, the beautiful trees and the sounds of birds chirping. In a flash of good feeling, I realized that these feelings are what is so good about living on earth at this time. It was enough, if for no other reason, to be here, to experience the beauty of this planet. This was a major breakthrough for me, because I battle the reason for being here quite a bit in my recovery work. This happened before noon, and it is now 6 pm, and I still feel great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanted to share this because I am so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Without contact with nature's intelligent sensory fulfillments, our solutions for our runaway problems are often as ineffective as the new brain warning labels written on cigarette packages. Each sensory web string that our disconnection removes from our consciousness makes our thinking that much less sensible, sensitive and fulfilling. Whenever we don't let contact with its origins in nature nurture and rejuvenate a string, our new brain thinking loses a natural intelligence and fulfillment. This leads us -like father, like son- to insensitivity, to repeat the very trespasses we reasonably vow to eliminate. Please consider the experiences, above, with respect to the reconnecting process being an antidote for our runaway addictiveness, consumerism and materialism. Many additional examples are available.
The Insane War for Peace
Our society secretly wages an undeclared war of conquest on nature. That war daily victimizes us. It colors our thinking to the point that although we can plainly see the stupid, destructive effects of the war on our psyche, relationships and the environment, we don't admit that the war exists. Where is it officially declared? To acknowledge it and its destructive ways would be for our intelligence to admit its own stupidity. Our story that we are "the most intelligent species" would be discredited. Is it any wonder our problems continue?
The war is not simply a concept, it erodes each of us as it rages in our psyche. Sensitively look around and inside yourself and note the hurt we inflict and feel. We continue to relate in ways that destroy our wellness and unity, the web of life and our living planet: the oceans, atmosphere, and soil; habitats, wildlife and peace.
To knowingly destroy one's own life support system is a good way to define insanity.
Have you ever noticed that although people get upset and concerned when they learn that their car has been stolen, few people react this way at the news that the web of life is deteriorating, that they are losing their planetary womb, their biological mother, Earth? This subdued reaction is the same as that of a man who was pinned in the wreckage of a train. Only his upper torso was visible. During his rescue he said he felt OK, he even joked with his rescuers. Then he died. When they freed his body, they found his legs had been amputated. Traumatic shock had prevented him from being aware of his demise.
Most members of industrial society are similarly in traumatic psychological shock with respect to the loss of nature, their nature and Earth. The trauma of our disconnection prevents us from fully registering our demise and pain. We deny many of our destructive effects in order not to be overwhelmed by sadness, despair and guilt. We learn that we are helpless to deal with the immensity of our disorders so we "safely" remain apathetic and uninvolved while they continue.
Perhaps these paragraphs sound extreme to your way of thinking. Do you recognize that you are probably not immune to the psychological disease and trauma that infects our society, that the way you have learned to think is destroying a living planet?
Psychologically, we are each a living history of our culture's conquest of the web of life within and around us. What we psychologically change today to reverse our conquest story produces a new and better story and process for building better relationships tomorrow. Our stories are our destiny because they fill our consciousness and thinking. A new brain story that enables us to connect with and constructively utilize the regenerative intelligence and energy of the strings for recovery is vital. That story and process is available through this website.
Try this little demonstration:
Can you unashamedly say: "I love Planet Earth?" (G/G )
Any shame (G/O) or fear you do sense when your new brain makes this statement indicates that a sensory web string within you has been injured or thwarted.
Think of the people who have most shaped you life: Parents, siblings, teachers, clergy, spouse, boss etc. Could you, without shame or fear, say "I love Planet Earth?" to them? Any shame or conflict you do feel with them often indicates where they have hurtfully separated one or more of your sensory strings from the lifeweb. You probably would have little conflict telling them that you loved a certain baseball team, pet, or political leader you've never even met.
For each discomfort this activity arouses in you, you psychologically compensate for the injured or missing string in some way. Too often this way is destructive to the environment or a relationship with others or yourself.
Now find a few natural attractions in a natural area and say this statement to each of them. Did they trigger any discomfort in you?
Learning to proudly validate that it is normal and reasonable to love your planetary mother lets Earth help you fill a void in your thinking. In nature connected people it is filled by close contact with tribal community and the environment.
SUMMARY E:
The web of life consists of strings of attraction sensitivities that we can feel. Our hurtful disconnection from the attraction strings of the web leave us numb and wanting so we seek artificial, unbalanced, fulfillments that too often have additional destructive effects.
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
For previous pages use the BACK or GO of your browser