Reconnecting With Natural Senses

by Lynn Ruoff

There is a lack of inner contentment in the peoples of the world's modern societies today. We long for that elusive tomorrow when things will be better, when we will have more stuff, when we will fulfill those requirements of our parents, our peers, our God. We make choices based on responsibility, fear-based security issues or previously ingrained responses. Reconnecting with our Natural Senses that were inherently imbedded into our individual DNA strands can ease this discontentment and bring us back to a place of balance, of inner peace, of quiet, of bliss. Our dependence on exterior gratification can cease altogether by observing the natural flow of nature. This natural flow is a knowingness of all that is. Opening this inherent source inside of ourselves is the key to our ultimate freedom and thus, release from our nagging discontentment in life.

How we have been taught has disconnected us.

Cherokees never scolded their children for having anything to do with the woods. (Carter, 1976, p. 57) This was certainly not the case in the majority of households in modern society. Parents, peers, even our names supported our separateness from our natural nature. Reconnecting through using activities designed in the Natural Systems Thinking Process (NSTP), designed by Dr. Michael Cohen, (Cohen, 1997) has helped many individuals find their inner peace or consciously appreciate the support they did have in their connection to nature as children.

One participant of the NSTP activities was supported in following his natural instincts in nature as a child and he has spent his life in internally satisfying careers. He explains,

"I have always been close and comfortable with
the earthly wilds. My mother encouraged my attraction to nature. As a child, I found solace, fun, and education in nature in the rolling countryside at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Pennsylvania.Nature runs to the core of my lifelong vocation and avocation pursuits." Cyrus, 10/02

Another participant found her support diminished by peers starting at adolescence. She explains her internal experience,

"I was such a wild and free child when I was out of
doors. At first I thought, no one ever took that pleasure of any of this away from me, really. I'm not sure just what happened. Then, Oh, wait. I remember. It was when I went to junior high school. Suddenly then the way I was - a total Tomboy - became VERY unacceptable. Playing out of doors was viewed as kid's stuff, for dummies, for little kids. We were supposed to be "grown up" now. Sophisticated. Above all that. That was one of the worst years of my life." Sarah, 01/03

Ishi, the last of the indigenous Yana population in California, tells us that in his culture the separation of one's being to his natural self by inquiring his name was insulting!

".the commonest initial inquiry of a white traveler made to a strange Indian took the form, "Who are you?" to which the usual Indian answer was, "I am a person." What else was he to answer? It was a rude question, whether rudely meant or not. One did not say one's name, certainly not to a stranger. One belonged to the people. One was a person." Kroeber (1961, p. 139)

Society's seemingly harmless, simple traditions such as associating each person with a separate name or the requirement of wearing shoes, has ingrained a resonance with not being a part of anything - being a separate entity defined by exterior domination. I recently changed my name and the amount of fear that arose was surprising! I realized the depth of ownership my mother was still claiming over me (at the age of 43!) when she stopped talking to me and preached to the rest of the family for a month about how I remained who she had named me, regardless of what I am now choosing to call myself. My fear was warranted! Who I really am is characterized in this NSTP posting:

"I went for a walk in the forest. The feeling was connection. Beingness. A part of the whole. Playful, welcoming, curious, fitting in, natural. Hard to put into words!" Lynn, 11/02

The indigenous Ishi had no resistance to the white man's clothes upon his entry into western civilization, but the shoes he declined. "They kept him from the familiar, necessary contact with the earth by which he kept in balance and informed of what lay beneath each footfall and what might be expected ahead." Kroeber (1961, p. 118)

" This experience in nature shows me I am a person who gets good feelings from:

1) allowing the desert to clarify life

2) walking barefoot in the sand

3) smelling sagebrush on a desert breeze

"This activity definitely enhances my self-esteem.  If I were to have my ability to experience this taken away, I would feel lost." Kristin 01/03

In the NSTP program, reconnecting with natural senses is defined as retraining our old brain, or learned behaviors, with new brain, or natural sense, experiences. This process takes dedication and a willingness for change to occur from the inside out. Mary Ann describes her recognition of this process:

"The most powerful part of the exercise was awareness of new-brain connecting to old-brain sensitivities. The feeling of integration is powerful and the focus is incredible. I know it will take allot of practice to make it part of how I am in the world. More and more I question wrangler stories just because of the knowledge that they can get between my old and new brain, that they can dis-integrate my ability to focus on life as I know and am

increasingly knowing it." Mary Ann 08/02

The Primal Matrix/Webloves/Our relationship to the Whole

We haven't been taught in our society about our inherent natural senses, perhaps for fear of loss of control of the individual by the establishment, however they have still emerged. They have been referred to as The Primal Matrix, (Glendinning, 1994), Webloves and New Brain Experiences, (Cohen, 1997) Our relationship to the Whole, (Zukav, 1979) and The Thought, (Carter, 1976) The words don't matter. It is the feeling, the knowingness that we all share regardless of what we are told. This primalness, if you will, is what enables us to reach the present moment where peace and contentment can be experienced. Our scientists have proven as early as the beginning of the 20 th century that our world is not one of separate entities:

"The physical world, according to quantum mechanics, is not a structure built out of independently existing unanalyzable entities, but rather a web of relationships between elements whose meanings arise wholly from their relationships to the whole." (Zukav, 1979, p. 74)

"My experience in nature shows me I am a person who gets good feelings:

from Touching welcoming natural beings Feeling them respond to me

Honoring their definitions of when to stop

4. If my ability to experience this G/G taken away I would not know when to stop - which I think is exactly why so many people today are trapped in addictions.

5. Yes, this activity enhances my sense of self-worth because I am experiencing my ability to listen to the messages Nature is sending me and this makes me more competent, happier, safer and comfortable with myself. Sarah, 09/01

Little Tree, a child reared in the Cherokee tradition, described "thinking Indian" as giving themselves to nature, not trying to subdue it, or pervert it, but to live with it. In loving The Thought, they grew to be it, which surrendered them to that natural place in the whole. (Carter, 1976, p. 123)

One NSTP participant experienced her natural sense of communication when she was in a sweat lodge. She talked about her connection becoming whole as she heard the grandfather rocks speaking. "Their messages inside my soul were loud and clear without hesitance." Lynn 09/01

When we begin to rid ourselves of the falsities perpetrated through western civilization something very natural and amazing occurs: we open our abilities to reconnect with our natural senses. (Glendinning, 1994, p. 174) We begin to feel peace and belongingness. This NST student's experience defines, very specifically, just that:

"I noticed the fire pit next to me and saw the issues I had let go of in the fire of this weekend's workshop and asked mother earth to decompose for me. I saw the daisies swaying in the soft breeze, taking in the warm sun, being in the perfect place in their continuing cycle of life. I saw the trees and the moss, and the moving clouds and the grasses and the birds and myself, all in the perfect place in our continuing cycle of life. Suddenly the decisions I am facing seemed to be quite natural and I was able to see clearly where my soul is in its fate and I entered into a place of knowing around them. I imagined the days when the daisies are dealing with storms or bees or being trampled and saw them as all part of it. Just as my experiences are all part of the web of life." Lynn 09/01

It is in the moment that we exist:

The importance of the ability to come back to what is here and now in experiencing peace and centeredness in our existence is crucial. Studies on indigenous peoples show that "Nature-based people are psychologically open.they have to be to survive. They are not burdened by psychopathology but tend to be integrated in thought, feeling and spirit. They live in the moment." (Glendinning, 1994, p. 18)

The indigenous Ishi was assumed ignorant by his interrogators when asked to "count" he stopped at 10. Shortly thereafter they witnessed him counting his personal money-stash in the manner of a bank teller. "Counting in the abstract was something that he was not accustomed to do. Counting is for counting something tangible .abstract numbers did not interest him as such, nor did they figure in philosophy in the Yana world view." (Kroeber, 1961, p. 149) Ishi, in fact, demonstrated quite simply here how he stayed in a place of internal clarity and well-being by not engaging in counting having nothing in the present moment to count - something that was not useful or meaningful for him - while his civilized counterparts went into a state of unbalance by getting stuck in their conceptualized stories!

Marianne, by connecting herself with the present moment in nature, was able to get past the conceptions and stories that we have been taught about death. Her words describe her experience:

"I went into the large fowl yard to look at the new baby ducks; I found four of them drowned in a shallow pan of water, so I did not have to remember a distressing event. The physical shock and sadness invaded my new brain and

froze all my old brain connections. I was completely tense and disconnected.

I wandered aimlessly, looking for attraction and I finally found it in an area of beautiful full-ripened oat grass. I asked permission, received it, and immediately, the tension started to leave my body. As I focused namelessly, then brought each attraction into new-brain focus, I felt a web of support begin to weave itself around me; it calmed and soothed and reminded me of my connection to all life, the cycle of life, and the celebration of even a short life. Amen

'Anything that assaults nature, assaults us as well.' Death is an assault of sorts too. But nature has the anecdote of new life; the reminder of bountiful recycling, reproduction, thrifty and careful harvest, and hope.

And we, as part of nature, are part of this too. It is a reminder of the frailness of all life in its present form; a reminder that all life will go on as intended; a reminder of our responsibility to act in natural ways to help and not sully this amazing cycle. I am a person who receives good feelings from helping nature lead the way. If I were to forget or lose these connections, sadness and despair could take my new brain into a place of lasting sorrow." Mary Ann 11/02

Another participant of NSTP, having lost all of his coursework due to a crashed computer system, was devastated. He then viewed himself in the present moment and changed his wounded psyche, coming back to a place of contentment. He wrote:

"The gift of NIAL only happens in the immediate moment. The past experience and accumulated knowledge (files) are the dead (like my hard drive) and not of the living. Living web strings in the immediate moment are forever." Cyrus, 10/02

Science goes into a profound assimilation of our existence. It claims that "Without us, or anything else to interact with, light does not exist. The other half is that, in a similar manner, without light, or by implication, anything else to interact with, we do not exist!" (Zukav, 1979, p. 95) Thus, it is only in the present moment that our experiences wield reality. We can talk about life infinitum, but until we come back to the experience of ourselves through connecting with our natural senses in the present moment, we cannot feel that peace.

The importance of individual choice

Cherokees demonstrate respect for individual life choices at a very young age. An orphaned five year old chooses his foster home by clinging to his new foster parent's pant leg in a group of several possibilities. A newly 'freed' orphan from a government-imposed placement is not given his bus ticket until he volunteers the statement that he wants to go home. (Carter, 1976)

Our society seldom recognizes a child's right to choose. We are taught that, presto!, at the age of 18 or 21 we have free choice. This is part of the grand illusion, however, because society goes on defining 'good' and 'bad' with their laws and peer pressures. Our true freedom has to come from reconnecting to our inherent right and ability to choose for ourselves. A middle-aged participant is still strengthening her connection to free choice as she convenes in nature:

"That is what my experience in nature shows me I enjoy -
Walking the path of NIAL
Carrying NIAL into every corner of my life so that it is my life And choosing each day to live there.
Without G/G I wouldn't know the path. I could and would become lost again.
My self-esteem is enhanced to discover that I can choose where I live." Sarah, 05/03

Physics, by its very nature, shows that we create our reality by the choice that we make about it. (Zukav, 1979, p. 28, 92) It is the continued suppression of our natural choice that keeps us from it. With determination, our natural senses can return us to the truth. These student dialogs and reflections portray the challenge of such a reconnection in our modern world:

"Thank you Spirit for giving me the courage to be in my peace." Lynn, 04/03

 "Lynn,

 This is such a profound statement. Yes it is a tug-of-war out there and our encounters with Nature strengthen our muscles so we can help her tug. Ironically, it does seem to take more courage to live in peace than to live at war. Excellent observation. 

Love, Theresa, 04/03

 "I feel fear at times because I can't see the end result of the way I'm living my nature-guided life and I question whether one can survive living naturally in an unnatural world..." Sarah, 04/03

Conclusion: Freedom!

The stories we have been taught make it difficult for us to choose to live freely in our natural world, connected to our primal matrix, in unity, as a whole through being present in the moment . Yet the truth remains that we do have a choice and when we choose our freedom, our natural senses guide us to that natural place where we experience peacefulness, contentment and joy.

Even after the massacre of his people by the white man, the indigenous Ishi lived among quickly made, personal, Anglo friends. They characterized him as being

"the most patient man I ever knew. I mean he had mastered the philosophy of patience, without trace either of self-pity, or of betterness to dull the purity of his cheerful enduringness. His way was the way of contentment, the Middle Way, to be pursued quietly, working a little, playing a little, and surrounded by friends." (Kroeber, 1961, p. 239)

The mentor who was supported in his natural sense connections as a child supports a participant with his knowingness,

"The unnatural word exists in one's mind.  We can all choose to live within our natural world--feeling peace, wholeness and unity.  Within my timeless inner nature,  I live moment to moment, open to what naturally emerges, surrendering control, and not driven to the end result and miss life on the away." Cyrus 04/03

Finally, I, using the Natural Systems Thinking Process, push past the inner torment of trying to fit into a box that society has painted me into - a person with a certain name, a certain number, an artificial identity, and I reconnect with my ultimate truth in my natural being with the help of Nature. Not surprisingly, the outcome is pure joy!:

"Total frustration! I had to call tech support and explain about my name change thing, etc. Reaction. I haven't had this level of frustration in months! SO I went outside and walked around in the gardens. I was drawn to the beautiful colors of the flowers and a hummingbird!! JOY! Joy! I can feel joy at all times! I don't even have a name! Who cares?" Lynn 11/01

Namaste, The Author

References

Carter, F. (1976). The Education of Little Tree. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

Cohen, M. (1997). Reconnecting With Nature. Corvallis, OR: Ecopress.

Glendinning, C. (1994). My Name Is Chellis & I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc..

Kroeber, T. (1961). Ishi in Two Worlds. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.