Tour Station 5 of 6
You and the Web of Life
The Natural Systems Thinking Process
"I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order."
- John Burroughs
Experts often present the web of life by gathering a group of people in a circle. Each person represents some part of nature, a bird, soil, water, etc. A large ball of string then demonstrates the interconnecting relationships between things in nature. For example the bird eats insects so the string is passed from the "bird person" to the "insect person." That is their connection. The insect lives in a flower, so the string is further unrolled across the circle to the "flower person." Soon a web of string is formed interconnecting all members of the group. People pull back slightly and sense how the string unites, supports and interconnects them and of all life. Then one strand of the web is cut signifying the loss of a species, habitat or relationship. The weakening effect on all is noted. Another and another string is cut. Soon the web's integrity, support and power disintegrates. Earth and its people increasingly suffer from "cut string" disintegration, yet we continue to cut the strings.
Recently, I asked this activity's participants if they ever went into a natural area and actually saw strings holding things together there. They said no, that would be crazy. I responded, "If there are no strings there, what then are the actual strands that hold the natural community together in balance?" It was very, very quiet. Too quiet. That silence symptomizes a missing link in our thinking, perception and relationships. Without seeing, sensing or respecting the strings in nature and our inner nature, we break, injure and ignore them. Earth and its people are at risk.
"This project has brought hope that activities can be done by ordinary people, in ordinary circumstances and the basic element will help turn around our behavior toward the ecological sustainability issue that we face. "
Johanna J.Source Of The Strings
The strings are biologically of, by and from nature. Profound disbelief registered on many faces when I told the participants that since they were part of nature, the strings were in them and they could learn to relate harmoniously through them via the Natural Systems Thinking Process in Reconnecting With Nature. They disbelieved this because, subconsciously, our extreme separation from nature teaches us to conquer, not respect, nature and our feelingful inner nature.The strings are natural senses or sensitivities and they include the sense of reason. For example: a bird that eats insects may be connected to them by a sense of hunger; a sense of thirst connects that bird to water. We have learned the strings in us, our sensory inner nature (inner child), are taboo, flaky, subjective, immature, foolish, spiritual, etc. That blocks them from freely entering our consciousness, values and thinking. They are as alien to us as the "Indians" were to many frontiersmen.
"We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along along these sympathetic fibers our actions run as causes and return to us as results."
-Herman MelvilleThe Natural Systems Thinking Process helps you improve your thinking and relationships. It enables you to tangibly tap into the "higher power" intelligence of the strings by making conscious sensory contact with them through the basic element.
In backyards or backcountry, reconnecting with nature helps us find and follow attractive callings from natural areas. Safely, enjoyably, these callings entice us to break through some of the freedom-limiting walls in our psyche. They draw us into ordinarily hidden natural valleys of our mind. There, in our soul, we consciously connect with our nature's sensory essence while it is genuinely connected to strings of nature's perfection in the immediate environment. With joy, even while we sleep, these vibrant connections feelingly enter and improve our thinking.
An often ignored attribute of some of our greatest thinkers and leaders is that they spent periods of 40 days at a time in the wilderness and enjoyed profound insights there. As our studies demonstrate, at a maximum total of 90 minutes per day, through our email Natural Systems Thinking Process Orientation Course and Introductory Course you may achieve similar results in your backyard or backcountry. At your convenience, you can spread the process out over a longer period and achieve the same results. You may also achieve these results by carefully following the instructions in the self-guiding book Reconnecting With Nature. The short Orientation Course takes only 30 hours (1Credit) and gives you a working knowledge of the process.
"My personal recovery has become significantly more stable. Also my recovery is more sustainable now because it is less dependent on any particular model of recovery."
Steve S.
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