Natural
Systems Thinking Process: the ecosychology of change
"I go to nature to be
soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order."
- John Burroughs
Like Burroughs, I have always
gone to the nature world to be soothed and healed from the pressures
and pains of living in our culture. After participating in the
PNC orientation course I understand my experiences in the natural
world have helped me become more aware of my natural senses.
As Garth mentioned in his essay,
there has been much scholarship on Western civilization's disconnection
to the natural world. Project Nature Connect's "Old Brain,
New Brain" concepts have given me much more insight into
the tragedy of our society's separation from the natural world.
Prior to engaging in the orientation course I was interested
in identifying the moment in our society's history that the split
with the natural world occurred. Identifying that singular historical
moment, if there is one, is no longer of importance to
me. What is important is identifying the cause of our behavior
that perpetuates this disconnection. The concept of "Old
Brain and New Brain" thinking is an important contribution
in helping us understand the cognitive structure of our society,
which predisposes its members to live disconnected from the natural
world. "It is because people are mostly rewarded by other
people and society that they tend to habitually know and think
about the world through the perceptual filter of our nature conquering
society (Cohen)."
Human beings are born with
the innate capabilities of "Old Brain" ways of thinking.
This way of knowing and relating is inherent to the entire natural
world. The "Old Brain" way of thinking is described
by author David Abrams as, "the concerted activity of all
the body's senses as they function and flourish together."
In multisensory concert natural
sensitivities make the balanced "natural sense" that
is nature's beauty, peace and wisdom, the web of life. In the
natural environment natural sensitivities provide a non-language,
interspecies attraction communion. This communion permits natural
systems to act sensibly as a community, "to make common
sense," "work by consensus," to organize, preserve
and regenerate themselves responsibly, intelligently and diversely
without producing garbage, war, or insanity (Cohen 1994)
Our nature conquering society
has conditioned us to understand the world through the perceptual
filters of reason and language, which disconnects us from the
multisensory direct way of knowing. The "New Brain"
way of knowing "conditions us to bring the sensory world
into our awareness by labeling it with language abstractions
-words, symbols and images- and validating the reasonable cultural
meanings of these abstractions (Samples, 1976)."
The sensory attraction activities
of the orientation course are excellent ways to reconnect with
"Old Brain" ways of knowing. By becoming aware of our
natural sensory attractions we are able to connect and build
healthy relationships with the natural world.
The creek that runs through
this land calls me...I am drawn to the wild flow of the river
after a rain. The fluid strength of the water carves hard-edged
boulders into smooth fluid stone. Green moss grows soft on its
surfaces and the lichen weave paintings of orange, lime, and
deep yellow.
Dead oak leaves mulch the earth
and tender green grasses are born. I remember that what I see,
I am and I began to feel into my own fluid strength, that allows
the flow of emotions to carve my heart open and soft.
I remember that my creativity
and new beginnings come from the continual cycle of death into
life. What is dying now, I ask my body. Your belief in separateness,
it responds, and pulls me down to the rock. I pour my weight
into the body of the earth and surrender my sense of self into
everything. I feel the wind with the skin of a boulder and then
I become the wind, caressing the boulder's skin with my hands
and fingertips. All my limbs began to move like flowing water
and I become the river. I hang upside down until I stand where
the river flows above the trees, where the trees grow down, down
into sky, and where leaves become roots. I press my face to the
cool smooth surface of the stone, it's sensation and texture
merge into my being, bringing me into the truth of this moment
(Aryeh).
The activities I participated
in throughout the Orientation course have given me valuable experience
in reclaiming my "Old Brain" ways of knowing while
connecting them to my "New Brain" way of thinking.
Over three decades ago Allan Watts wrote: "It is our ignorance
of and, indeed, estrangement from ourselves, which explains our
feelings of isolation from nature." The Natural Systems
Thinking Process teaches us to become more aware of our natural
sensory attractions, which allows us include the balanced, communal
thinking of the natural world into our lives and institutions
of our society.
- Jacob
Additional student reviews of the course are available at
orienteval2a.html
orienteval3g.html
orienteval4h.html
orienteval5j.html
orienteval6k.html
orienteval7z.html
orienteval8.html
