Primitive Skills, Camping, Wilderness Survival, and Bushcraft

Awareness: Key to Survival

2012-02-19T20:27:00.000-08:00

The first thing that strikes an observer looking at the human body is that it is essentially an Antennae array with a life support system at its core. The nerve endings radiating from the spine reach out in every direction. The design is present in all species with a simple nerve ganglion rather than a complex brain. As a species, as any species, our survival relies heavily on our responsiveness to an ever changing environment. Failure to be responsive on an individual level means consumption by a predator, starvation, or demise due to climate or dehydration. Failure to respond on a species level results in extinction. As the cliche' goes, change is the only constant. Our bodies are designed to seemlessly interface with a healthy and ever changing environment because, over miilinea, less efficient interfaces were exterminated, culled out by natural processes.

Our survival is based on a simple two part mechanism. In fact, our nervouse system has formed itself, and has the ability to rewire itself, in direct correlation to how we utilize this mechanism. It is a mechanism utilized by the simplist of organisms, yet, in all of our haughty complexity, we over think the mechanism and fail to act upon it. Often, especially with our desire to control things like climate, food availability, comfort and even the size and standards of the design of our structures, our over-developed logical mind takes center stage. This is done at the expense of developing and learning how to use our entire nervous system, as an interface with the rest of the world, even the universe. Our atrophied senses aren't due so much to the lack of your ability to track by scent, or hear the landscape via echolocation like a bat. These things are all well established and have been accomplished and documented. There are even cases of individuals who lose half of their brain and manage to retrain themselves to speak, walk, and function in society through the deliberate re-wiring of neural pathways.

All of these things can be accomplished by all of us. In fact, we can increase operational intelligence by simply applying an understanding of this simple two part mechanism. Part one is awareness. Awareness is what allows the Tiger Shark to locate it's next meal, and the sea lion to escape safetly to shore. It is what made you understand the word "hot", and allows you to know what it means to be lost. Notice how awareness cannot be learned through reading about it in a text. It involves multisensory input and an emotional investment. Detrimental to this process is the voice that reads to us or expressses our thoughts as words inside our heads. Processing language, wether it is spoken or not, takes time, and removes the person caught up in the practice of such "internal dialogue" from the moment. Sensory input often illicits emotion, and it does so at an alrmingly fast pace. It is much faster than stringing words together inside your head. Because it is unfiltered, the information gathered to create heightened senses of awareness come in faster and in larger quantities than the logical mind can qualify. Thus we get "intuition", or "gut feelings" about something. Learning how to first recognize this form of comunication as valid, than questing to develop it even further is the first step in increasing you awareness.

But this is only half the picture. Actually, I'm lying. There is a third component that needs to be present to manifest this first part of the process and the second. Thes econd half f the two part equation for the survival of life on this planet is action. We have become as a culture dependent to the point of inaction. The "victems" of Hurrican Katrina waited for their government to save them and blamed the governement when they didn't respond. Our predictable and safe environment means we don't have to be aware and that we can assign blame to others for our food being late, our health being poor, our lives being miserable. Missing is first the awareness that our environment is not healthy, and second, the action to do something about it. Do you know how to train fleas for a flea circus? You out them in a glass jar and hold that jar next to a light bulb. The smart fleas move away from the heat source, the dumb ones die. The even dumber ones believe you actually use real fleas in a flea circus. The awareness level is not enough. Folks really did dance and play music as the Titanic sank. People really do deny the impending storm until it's too late. Inaction is a symptom of a broken two part system. Either the being is not aware enough to respond, or the organism in question is simply unresponsive to the situation. Both symptoms are indicators of lack of awareness, but only one is a symptom indicating lack of empowerment, and that is lack of action in the presence of appropriate awareness levels.

This brings us to the third and missing element. Faith. faith in self, the greater good, the idea of life as sacred, god, the magic jelly bean, whatever it is, faith is the one default mechanism that activates awareness and compels one to action, even in the face of the logical minds tenacity to remain in control. When you can step outside of that prison of flesh and logic and view your whole being as who you are beyond just a brain that dangles a meaty utility of limbs beneath it you quickly note there is so much more. We are, beyond even the confines of our mond-body connection, constantly interfacing and dialoguing with the environment we choose to immerse ourselves in and those things we choose to focus on in that environment.

To close, I must assure you that this is a simple process. It is not an easy one. Profound shifts in your reality take effort, and sometimes they take time. Profound simplicity escapes those whose brains have patterened upon complexity. They grow bored, frustrated, even angry that they can't satiate themselves with arguement, equations, or self engrandizing thoughts. Remember that it is your brain, not the other way around. Lose your mind and come to your senses. Become the hero of your own story and not the victem of somebody elses. Expand your awareness and have enough conviction to act based on what your awareness is communicating to you.

Our Apprenticeship, Mentoring, and Community at Maine Primitive Skills

2011-09-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

We are winding down the first Apprenticeship experience here at the school. It was amazing. I wanted to plug our community in to eager learners from all walks of life for the type of long term mentoring experience I always wanted as a kid practicing outdoor skills. Imagine a place you could go to learn primitive skills in a nurturing environment surrounding by folks passionate bout all the skills and each of those people having overlapping areas of specialty. Our apprenticeship is centered on the needs of each individual who registers. Folks come from various backgrounds with many interests or concentrations. Through interviews and class time we get to know their learning styles, preferences, comfort zones, edge areas, and help them better define their own vision for skills development. The Mentoring and Community models, as well as the flexibility and distance learning strategies, allow folks the freedom to grow in the skills they are interested in by formatting their experience to suit their learning styles and obligations back at home. You may plan on staying on site, visiting often, or coming during the classes where you can “check in” with instructors on your journaling and/or the field work you are doing at home (with phone and internet contact). Not only is the cost of the Apprenticeship less than the minimum required courses, you can come to any course you’ve taken in the past and volunteer. Many folk stay for weeks at a time to work on skills between the courses they have chosen. The experience culminates in a Potluck at the end of the Mentoring weekend in the fall.. a closing potluck at the end of the “Mentoring Weekend” in the fall. But the community bonds that are formed make it more likely you will be back to volunteer, gain support as you start your own programs, even use the schools facilities and name to provide a venue for skills you want to share.

March 21, 2012 will mark the start of the second Apprenticeship Program at the Maine Primitive Skills School. The Apprenticeship includes the opportunity to stay on site between April 30th & October 15th and will concentrate on building Earth Living, Awareness, Tracking, Philosophy, and Mentoring skills. The program requires attendance of at least five of our 5 day programs (Tracking, Awareness, Earth Living, and Philosophy, Plant Intensive), as well as one winter skills program and one of the mentoring programs. Three weekend courses will be used as instructional labs. Weekly person to person or phone interviews regarding practice components and dirt time are also a part of the program. Cost includes these elements and is $2, 300.00. That’s $960.00 less than the cost of taking the minimum required courses together outside of the program. There is a 12 person limit.

APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM DETAILS!

With folks already registering for the 2012 year starting in the Spring, it promises to be an exciting journey! The kick off is a pot- luck dinner at the Maine Primitive Skills School Augusta campus on Saturday, March 24th at 6pm. From there we’ll meet each other and map out personal interests and what you would like to emphasize during the experience. Recognize that your interests may change as you go through the courses and get a better understanding of what each discipline has to offer. The 5 five day courses and the dates you plan to attend will also be worked on, and we will schedule your monthly one on one and weekly phone interviews as well. Each participant is invited to stay in the dorms during and between classes provided there is room. Due to the limited infrastructure, only four can stay for more than a week at a time between classes , and we’ll attempt to fill that calendar as well during the pot-luck. Tenting space is available the entire time. Apprentices will be able to come early and participate in acorn meetings before classes and also share in the debrief after classes end. This is valuable experience in mentoring technologies and the invisible school will prepare you for your own instructional time in the late summer and fall when you can apply the technologies you’ve been working on in front of a “live” class. This experience was designed to preserve the intensity of successful Tracking based programs found in the East while implementing the community building models so successful on the West Coast. The goal is a “best practices” forum where you are challenged, involved, and allowed to develop your own passions in primitive skills. Your journals and sit spots will represent stark growth rings as you awaken connections to the landscape and increase your proficiency in the “hard” and “soft” skills of our ancestors. There are parts that are tough. We believe without the struggle of getting your first coal with a hand drill, or the experience of sleeping COMFORTABLY in a debris hut for the first time, your voice as someone who shares these skills will lack the strength of your experience. You will, however, be supported by a community of fellow learners just as dedicated as you are.

MORE APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q:WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES TO SIGNING UP FOR THE APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM?

ASIDE FROM SAVING MONEY ON THE COURSES INCLUDED IN THE PROGRAM,YOUR ATTENDANCE TO STAFF FUNCTIONS AND INVOLVEMENT AS AN “INSTRUCTOR IN TRAINING” APPLIES AS HOURS OF WORK STUDY. ADD TO THAT THE WEEKLY CONTACTS, AT HOME AWARENESS EXERCISES, FACE TIME WITH INSTRUCTORS AND SPECIALIZED HARD SKILLS SUPPORT AND MENTORING INSTRUCTION AND YOU CAN SEE WHY SLOTS ARE FILLING SO QUICKLY.

Q:WHAT IF I WANT TO SPECIALIZE IN AN AREA?

THERE IS PLENY OF ROOM TO TAILOR YOUR PROGRAM TO YOUR NEEDS. MANY FOLKS WANT TO USE PLANTS, TRACKING, LONG TERM SURVIVAL, AS THE CENTERPIECE OF THEIR EXPERIENCE. DURING THE POTLUCK IN MARCH,WE WILL EXPLORE YOUR INTERESTSAND BEGIN THE DESIGN PHASE. YOUR PROGRAM WILL REFLECT YOUR INTERESTS AND USE YOUR STRENGTHS TO ADRESS THE CHALLENGES YOU WANT TO WORK ON.

Q: Is there a lot of physical labor involved?

A: Some. Each persons experience will manifest differently. Learning by doing is an important aspect of the school. In the beginning garden prep and later, wood for heat are things that need to get done. This will be a part of the program, and will not interfere with the rest of your experiences. Yes, the tuition will cover the classes and the on site option is available between the sap running time, as that is the only time there would be water available. The garden piece would be a small part of it as the apprentices will become delegators of weeding and wood splitting, stacking, etc. for the work-study and volunteer folks. Most of the concentration would be on learning the skills and the methods of sharing them.

Check out the testimonials of last years apprentices at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4GJx2VjIzc

E-MAIL AT MPSS@GWI.NET

Urban Survival

2011-04-02T14:55:00.001-07:00

In any survival scenario, and every scenario is a survival scenario on some level, one of the key factors to success is defining and recognizing the risks. Once you are made aware of the risks, you can focus on risk avoidance, assessment, management, and resolution. The Urban Landscape has more risks to deal with than any naturally occurring environment. The variable that skews this perception is our level of familiarity with that environment. We learn from an early age to stick our fingers in outlets or walk blindly across a busy street. In contrast, the numbers of our species are few who know how to prevent hypothermia without a thermostat or lighter. Fewer still are the number of folks who can accurately identify f the relatively few harmful plant species in their environment and the treatment for accidental exposure to them.

We'll start with recognizing some of the more common hazards on the Urban landscape. Once these are identified, we can explore methods of avoidance, risk assessment, and management.

In an Urban Survival scenario the first and most common risk will be human beings. Human beings, as a collective species are very adaptable. They rely on their intellect, opposable thumbs, and varied diet for success. However, on an individual level they have become so specialized, that if we were to categorize them on perceptions and behaviors, they would warrant further division in to separate sub-species. The most specialized sub-species and the one that presents the highest degree of risk to your personal safety is "Homo sapien urbanis". This particular breed of human has been cultivated in an overpopulated state where competition, aggression, a fast pace, and a genuine disregard for the well-being of others have been cultivated for generations. These attributes have been honed in a culture of fierce competition for a perceived limit on time, opportunities, and materials. In this environment, Homo sapien urbanis have evolved in to the veloci-raptor of the umbrella species. Field marks include quick, darting eyes, a pace faster than the surrounding landscape, and short bursts of activity and communication done in rapid succession. Behaviors include an efficient and interrogative style of exchanges designed to profile any new member of its species for weakness or possible value. While meat is the preferred diet of this sub-species, it will consume anything that is quick and easy to procure. It has an expectation of immediate gratification, and has refined its awareness and cunning to satiate this expectation. It's ability to plan and set long rage goals focus nearly exclusively on self and offspring. The reptilian portion of this sub-species' brain is highly developed. As a result of its high stress and fast paced life, this apex species has become overwhelmingly dependent upon the urban infrastructure. In a survival situation where that infrastructure begins to fail, this highly specialized predator will be quick to attack any perceived asset or keeper of said asset. Homo sapien urbanis projects intense predatory energy where ever it goes and is easily detected upon the landscape. While its peripheral vision is poor, it's capable of detecting the faintest hint of weakness and is quick to notice movement.

Contamination of water is the second most imposing threat in an urban survival situation. The collapse of supporting infrastructure means pumps will stop and pressure will diminish in many of the water and sewer lines. Depending on the specific disaster, raw sewage or air may be all that comes out of the faucets in our homes and businesses. Life sustaining water will become a priceless commodity. Urban environments have no available ground water supply due to pavement, concrete and vast networks of underground electrical, transportation, and service networks. If the disaster is in the form of a viral or bacterial epidemic, or if the devastation creates a situation where bodies are left decomposing for long periods of time, finding potable standing water may be nearly impossible. Run off water from city roof tops and other sources will also be contaminated due to pollutants that have accumulated for decades on roofs and the droppings and chemicals the water will make contact with.

Death by dehydration is only a few days away. The symptoms of this condition are a lack of judgment, apathy, and combativeness. Add to this the stress of a system in collapse and millions of people in a small area vying for a limited water supply and the results are predictable.

A third risk to survival in an urban environment is starvation and disease. Malnutrition, combined with stress lowers the bodies immune system. In an overpopulated environment without adequate sanitation or plumbing, disease and malnutrition go hand in hand. Many models exist regarding this relationship in countries where western ideas of societal structure have been applied and have floundered due to lack of infrastructure or a rich enough environment to support the existing populations. These examples can be found in Africa, South America, and in some areas in The United States.

The first threat, people, may seem the toughest. Luckily we happen to be people, so we blend in and are well versed in their behaviors, body language cues, and motivations. The issue is failure to predict behaviors, being unaware during potential risky situations, and lack of avoidance strategies. Folks should focus on bounty, health, and balance all the way up until the point of system failure. After that, it’s time to bring out the warrior mind. Keep this part of your psyche available as an advisor. As a tracker, or even a wildlife program aficionado, we know what happens when large amounts of biomass (crowds) accumulate. They attract predators. Thus, the avoidance procedures are easy; avoid crowds and be cautious around larders. Furthermore, hide and disguise your own larders of food and water. This may also mean masking you good health. Inevitably you will have to choose between the environment you are most familiar with and moving to an uncertain rural area with fewer support systems. You will also be entering the territorial range of an entrenched local population of Homo sapien ruralis. Not only do they have a more developed sense of awareness about their landscape, they tend to rely on community bonds more than the predatory reptilian packs of Homo sapien urbanis. Some pre-scouting before these decisions become necessary is heavily advised.

Fresh water procurement and storage are essential to survival. Ownership of water, as discussed before, can attract predators. Hiding caches of potable water should be done early and often. Remember that water weighs roughly 9lbs. per gallon. Plastic containers outgas and degrade over time and are not recommended. Glass and metal containers, in that order are preferred. Cisterns, if feasible are a good idea. Water filtration straws and a means to boil water, such as a hobo stove, or other device that doesn’t rely on power supplied by an infrastructure that may not be there is also advisable. If you are under-prepared or your stash of water is compromised, raid the water storage tanks behind most toilets as fast as you can before the masses realize they are out. You have about a six to eight hour window before folks will come out of their initial “shock behaviors” of looting, or fumbling through the rubble and they begin to realize what you are up to. Again, in most cases, shelter and fire are easier to come by in a city reduced to rubble. Water will be the new commodity and, as a survival necessity, it will be worth killing for.

If you’ve seen our recent youtube videos, you already know how malnourished we are as a species and the resulting chronic diseases. In a collapse of infrastructure this is particularly devastating to the concentrated populations of people who rely on shelves of food at grocery stores. Avoid these areas at all costs. A years worth of dried goods and canned food is a wise investment. It doesn’t have to be done all at once either. One shouldn’t ignore the wild foods either. While toxins accumulate in all mammals in city environments, we are the apex species. As such, toxins accumulate in their highest concentrations in us. That rock dove (pigeon) may seem too dirty to eat now with a belly full of calories, but go without for a week and that banded birdy will seem like a turkey dinner with an anklet.

This should start your wheels turning. Out here we believe it’s too late for most of you. But those who start walking around their 9-5 routine with the idea of shelter, water, fire, food, escape routes, and networking may make it out. If not, you might see other people through whatever disaster might befall you. Just remember that the most common tragedy is living in fear of something that may never come. This is often done at the expense of missing out on the excitement and joy of this amazing and temporal existence. How do you live a joy filled life where preparation is the byproduct of living fully? Well, that’s the question. If I answer it, than I take it away from you, if I don’t answer it, than I’m being selfish. Truth is, we each have to come to that one on our own. Until then, be the hero of your own journey, not the victim of someone else’s.

Economic Collapse - A Survival Guide

2011-03-23T15:23:00.000-07:00

With destabilization in the Middle East and a convergence of man made and natural disasters many folks are feeling an urge to do "something" to prepare. Preparation for an unseen Economic Collapse is as personal as dieting. Each person approaches the task on their own terms and each gets a certain, often predictable, series of results from their approach. In order to fully grasp what you are up against with survival preparation and economic collapse, check the stats on your dieting strategies and success rates. Before you get too depressed, look at the strategies and success rates of those who have been successful. The cycle is easy to recite, but a little more difficult to apply, especially to survival. Motivation, action, commitment, self discipline, and consistency until it becomes an effortless lifestyle change. To work through this predictable series of events, most people have to fail multiple times before getting it right. Ask any smoker or ex-smoker with regards to quitting, it ain't easy. The kicker is that refined sugar and flour is more addicting than cigarettes. First, if you are only now thinking about creating an independent life style apart from the support system that has fed you, transported you, and provided you with Supersized Happy Meals and plasma screens, step out of the aisle so that those who can fit through the door and slide down the inflatable raft can make it. Don't worry, you'll be help enough....on a spit. For those of you who have had a gnawing feeling that you should do something but couldn't find the time or opportunity and trust that the first responders are gonna come and help if things really do go bad, keep watching those survival you tube videos put out by "primitiveskills". You won't really know how to do the skills, but you'll believe you can and, apparently, your comfortable with that. The majority of you folks will be responsible for clogging the major routes of transportation well enough to protect the rural areas for a few extra weeks from the shiftless predatory "survivalists". These are the folks who plan on "just headin' out to the country, woods, oz, who knows where. Due to their limited or lack of in depth training, they find themselves dependent on processed foods, manufactured ammunition, even machinery. They are so addicted to these luxury items that they will break in to homes and even kill folks to have them. The rioting and looting will eventually spill out in to the rural areas. The government crack down or other forms of mob rule will impose restrictions on travel, curfews, and impose martial law in the larger urban areas. Rioting and looting will still occur. This scene has played ad nauseam in the Baltic States, South America, Haiti and the revolving country names of the political jigsaw puzzle collectively known as Africa. Closer to home it's happened in Louisiana after Katrina. We have documentation of societal economic collapse and the predictable patterns of cultural fall out in our current news stretching back to when Nero played his fiddle. Luckily, we also have examples of how folks made it through these hard times and don't have to re-invent the wheel. Victory Gardens, local bartering, strong community, a work ethic that ties hard and smart labor with ones own personal freedom, not a government hand out or hand in (your pocket). are a good foundation. Missing is the realization that we are intimately tied to our landscape. The health of our soil and our land is a direct correlation to our own health. It's long past time to bring back a sense of stewardship. instead, those who work the land to promote health all around are going to see this one through. Those who rely on tokens and public transportation have simply become too specialized a subspecies and share their fate with other species that become too specialized in a changing environment. Say hello to the Saber Toothed Cats for me, okay? So what's the plan? First, address immediate action, then intermediate action, and then you'll be able to address long term action. Immediate action: Remember that Attitude, Shelter, Water, Fire, and Food are the order of the day when it comes to securing your immediate survival needs. Do you have a secure shelter and a weeks supply of water, firewood, and food set aside? If not, there is your first course of action. Be smart and acquire items that will last for years and require not electricity to prepare or store.

Next, your intermediate plans: Extend your Immediate Plans to last for a year or more. Add to that an assumption that you cannot rely on government agencies for help or support. Even now, first responders will normally take well over five minutes to get to your house once called. That means a person shooting you has five extra minutes to keep shooting after you calmly dial the police and, ignoring all those fascinating exit wounds, you inform the dispatcher of your situation. If you thing the response time is going to get better when the infrastructure is strained...then you either never met a state worker or you are one (denial is NOT a river in Africa). Your fire arms and ammunition should be used to acquire meat as well as defend your family. A shotgun and knife are the two best home defense weapons. Handguns are fun, easy to negotiate around corners and a blast to accessorize, but they usually leave survivors who either need to then be treated or who turn around and press charges. Your gardens should be well established and diverse. Communication equipment and procedures for you, your family, and your close community members should include escape routes, rally points, and emergency procedures.

Long Term Plans: Caches in five gallon buckets buried through out your landscape or your escape routes should include shelter, water, fire, and food or the equipment to acquire them. You are studying and practicing herbal medicine and seed propagation for a "medicinals" garden. You have planted your orchards and have coordinated with others in your intentional "sustainability community". You are aware of what they will grow and raise and how you intend to barter with them. First aid training up to and including Wilderness EMT is important. Learning how to make acorn flour and how to can, dehydrate and pickle are important as you work toward being able to grow your food nearly year round and store food to get through the winter. All of this can be done in the guise of a trendy movement, like "permaculture", or "hobby gardening".

If you develop a healthy work ethic and cultivate an attitude of connection to the landscape, stewardship, and a sense of adventure, then a coming Economic Collapse will just seem like another growing season, hunting season, tree tapping season, ice fishing....ahhhhh, you get the point.

Survival and The Zombie Apocalypse

2011-02-18T19:49:00.001-08:00

Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse has become the hot theme over the last two years. It is a thinly veiled metaphor for folks of all walks of life to be able to express their growing uneasiness with the way they see things are going. In expressing our uncertainties through zombies we can cross all manner of political and social boundaries. The big plus is that they resemble humans and are already dead. So, in the spirit of taking advantage of this . . . movement, it seemed important to share some topics that might be worth exploring on your own. Our school doesn’t officially cover most of these topics. We do however practice a great deal of them as a matter of fun and “entertainment purposes”.

For those of you who have been through a survival skills course, you have probably heard of attitude, shelter, water, fire, and food as important topics to be covered. Firearms, lock picking, psychological warfare, escape from restraints, hotwiring, improvised munitions, and small group movement aren’t necessarily included in the basic survival package. They are, however, things to consider in an Apocalypse of the Zombie persuasion.

Just to be clear, we don’t condone any of the above training for folks unless being pursued by zombies. Some founding father type apparently said something about the government being afraid of the people as being freedom and the people being afraid of the government as tyranny. I suppose that would make being afraid of zombies perfectly healthy, maybe even sane in today’s current climate. So train wisely.

Remember that cell phones and televisions are transmitters that there is currently no real “Right to Privacy”, and only you are responsible for your own safety before embarking on such liberties. Be also aware that time is a real issue. Jobs, sleep, family and other obligations limit what you can learn. Make a list of skill sets you want to master, another list you want to be decent at, and a third list of skills you want to be familiar with. There is only so many hours before the brain sucking hordes come out of the ground. In short, prioritize and don’t advertise.

Your essentials list should be relatively short and have some aspect of escape and evasion included on it. This list is where you will be spending most of your training time and energy. It should also include some sort of defense training or strategies. Don’t be so self absorbed that you forget to network with valuable community assets on some level with regard to this list. This could be something as low maintenance as establishing safe houses along escape routes, or as involved as cross training team members and practicing reactionary drills. Remember that “one is none and two is one” when it comes to high intensity zombie interaction.

On the decent proficiency list, a transferrable/barter-able skill is important. Something you can do that few others can gives you value in high stress group dynamics. They won’t sacrifice you to the zombies if you’re the only one who knows field expedient short wave radio, or can repair firearms. Blacksmithing, EMT skills, a cross trained person in two or three of these areas is important. Strive to be that person.

Lastly, the list of skills you are lightly familiar with should be your largest. You train in these to gain a working knowledge of how things operate. Just don’t get fooled in to believing you know something just because you saw it on you tube or read it in a cheesy blog like this one. As an example, lock picking should not be on this list unless you popped open a pair of cuffs and a master lock a few times with improvised rakes, wrenches, and picks.

Zombies are arrogant and lack creativity, but they are well trained and their ego’s give them the illusion of command and control. It is only through your training and networking that you will prevent having your brains sucked out. If you already believe you know all this “stuff”, than you are exhibiting zombie behavior. Being hungry for more ways to increase your survival and the survival of your loved ones may be the only way to prevent the spread of the scourge and allow you to survive the zombie apocalypse.

Choosing Sides

2011-02-08T13:19:00.000-08:00

I write this as more than just a motivated former Marine. I’ve run a survival school since 1989 and I consider myself an eager student of the subject (translated: I don’t mind how you choose to feel, I don’t have any money, and I willingly subject myself to black flies, mosquitoes, and self proclaimed “experts” who will tell you all they know without ever leaving the comfort of their living room chair). I do this because it makes me feel like the wealthiest man on earth. That brings me to the point of this article. I’m looking across the landscape and seeing a whole lot of people preparing for something. Their skill sets are impressive and many of them overlap. There are old school Red Scare types prepping with bunkers, caches, shelters, and firepower. There are back-to-the-landers with permaculture and the homesteading arts. There’s the New World Order types, the overpopulation groups, the folks with specific dates, etc. Heck, for the folks who can’t find the one ideal group to call home, there are zombies.

Well, with all of you folks choosing sides, joining up with co-ops, spec-ops, psy-ops, and the pyramids with the psy-clops, I figured I should choose a side too. Now, whomever I joined up with would have to be powerful. I’m a sore loser when it comes to living, at least when it concerns my family and me. So I needed some entity more powerful than zombies and the entire Red Army combined. I needed something that could provide food, security, and stability for me and the future of my folk; some entity that was tactically sound, reliable, and proven during the long haul. I didn’t want to be tied up with unnecessary logistics and unreliable communications. After running trough the short list and going over all the candidates, in the end, I chose the Earth.

For one, she’s bigger than all of the other groups…combined! She’s been sorting through species like folks go through cheap ballpoint pens. In a real “man versus wild” scenario, history demonstrates pretty conclusively who the winner is…every time. Now you folks of a conservative nature, don’t go tuning me out just yet (Teddy Roosevelt is still one of my favorite Presidents). You can’t expect to “Live off the Land” if you don’t have enough meat to feed your family. Besides, where do you go to “get away from it all”? The city? Really? Even if it came to cannibalism, do you think that the meat there is safe to eat? Toxins accumulate in the apex species of any environment. Think about it. Besides, even if you were able to stick to wild game, have you seen the size of the deer in New Jersey? They’re the size of Greyhounds (the dogs, not the busses).

So what do I mean?

Well, my grandfather was a farmer. In WWII he threw potatoes at the German torpedo bombers. He was a merchant marine on one of the supply ships to Europe (the kind they referred to as “Kaisers Coffin’s). He was a hard speaking, levelheaded man who taught me the importance of good soil and a sharp aim. He shared that it’s okay to kill a groundhog to protect your blackberries as long as you eat it (the groundhog . . . and the blackberries). He raised nine kids, and an assortment of fruits, vegetables, and livestock, and stayed married to the same wife his entire life. He also taught me the lessons his parents learned during the depression about calorie investment versus calorie expenditure, and the importance of keeping a productive landscape. We hunted deer because we planted and took care of the plants, shrubs, and trees that the deer ate. We always had fresh eggs, a source for meat, milk, and veggies. It was hard work that benefited his kids and their children. Heck, I suppose it’s benefiting my kids now, as I see them enjoying their lives amid a landscape of people too busy worrying about a mythical future to do something in the present to change it. I’m not talking about pretending to kill zombies or starting a small garden. Those things are nice and all. I’m just talking about getting back in touch with what worked. Assume for a minute that your great-grandparents were really good at living a healthy and productive life without things like electricity. Imagine it takes more problem solving to get your food and heat sources every day, and that a healthier diet and more active lifestyle make you sharper and more robust (individually and as a species) than the diet and activity level in today’s world. Now couple that with a wild sense of stewarding the landscape. Lets get totally crazy and assume that there was this scientifically founded and religiously supported idea that the landscape’s health is directly related to the health and prosperity of your tribe, or “nation”. One last thing, and pardon me if this will make your brain explode at the absurdity of it all, but let's add the idea that we have today’s technologies, and that these technologies allow us to increase individual backyard productivity to allow for year round backyard food production in the contiguous United States.

Hmmmmm . . . with these wacky elements as part of the package, do you see where preparing for some futuristic event could get you into some really cool projects that will increase your survivability, and decrease your dependency? Beyond that, it will build a community of folks who support each other with complimentary skill sets, gardening, foraging, livestock, and hunting diversity. There will be an increase in bartering potential, and an increase in security. Before you know it, we will increase the quality of our lives, building something that used to be called “neighborhoods”, where folks talk to each other, share news, get in arguments, watch each others kids and yell for them all to get home when the street light came on. We would begin to build a real community of folks who plant with an eye toward what their neighbor might be planting so there would be good garden trades in the fall. We’d plant apples for pies and for the turkey and venison that come after them.

This stuff isn’t that old. Granted, the folks that still do it are few, and many don’t want to share what they know with strangers, but it hasn’t been forgotten. I’m siding with the Earth because the landscape is a direct reflection of my own health. The way this land is worked depends on whether I view it as a “resource” or an “investment”. More, it shows folks how near-sighted or far-sighted I’ve been; how selfishly or selflessly I’ve spent my days.

So, I can fire a rifle a bit, still learning how to pickle, and make soap, even getting a forge up and running. All that’s good. I'm learning and teaching wild edible plants, how to make bows with stone tools, listening to bird alarms and tracking indicator species to be a better hunter. More than that though, I’m having fun. Lets face it, we have this big looming event that’s coming (or not) and we get into all of this excitement about skills, and plants, and gardens and guns because in the end, it’s fun. Imagine if it were as simple as that. You work hard at something you enjoy doing to ensure the health and survival of your kind, and as a result you're rewarded with a deep sense of satisfaction and fun, and a sense of competence. It doesn’t take a survival expert to give you the importance of that vehicle. You already have it. It’s parked in your brain right next to the self-doubt and distraction cars. Which on do you plan on piloting when it comes to surviving the coming apocalypse? Maybe your apocalypse is already here. Either way, I’m having fun. Let me know how it turns out. Oh yeah, and watch out for those zombies.

For videos, "how to" articles, and information on classes visit http://www.primitiveskills.com

Survival Teaching Story on Attitude and Perspective

2011-02-06T00:34:00.001-08:00

“I need a rattle.”

The thought came to the snake faster than the warming rays of first light. Thus, it was sluggish and didn’t quite stick at first. It wasn’t until the energy of the new day soaked though her scales and stirred her blood that the idea compelled her unblinking eye toward her once magnificent tail. The sight brought the drama of the hawk and the drop, the scramble to find cover and the pain, all rushing in. She even shook her tail, but the expectant buzz was replaced by a dull thudding noise. No thankfulness entered her heart this morning. She did not feel a sense of gratefulness for surviving the attack. Any feelings of appreciation were now muffled by the feeling of remorse at the loss of her beautiful tail. The grief was just too all encompassing. It was hunger that drove her from her shelter.

She saw the other snakes stare and turn to each other. She kept to the low places and the corners, wanting to remain unseen, unnoticed. Her imagination built conversations between the snakes she passed, each one mocking her for her lost tail, her lack of awareness. She found a pocket gopher; it’s heat guiding her to the den. A coyote passed by and all of her attempts at rattling did nothing to break its stride. She remembered the respect her beautiful tale commanded. Again, snakes are staring, whispering. Entering the den she found her mark and feasted. While her belly was full, her heart remained empty. She fell asleep in the den. The scraping of claws startled her from her mournful sleep. A badger, taking advantage of the cool shade the hole provided, or looking for food, started to burrow toward her. He used his razor sharp claws to widen the entrance. She rattled, and nothing. She coiled, and nothing. The darkness and lack of noise left no other option. Badgers eat snakes. She struck at the center of the darkness and hit. She did it again, and again. The wall of fur paused, then stuttered before shuffling backwards. Hope faded as the mass stopped at the opening, the only avenue of escape.

The life giving sun was leaving. She had to get out or she would never survive the cold night of the desert. Slowly she inched near the badger. Not until she was close did she realize it was dead. As she crawled over the body, more snakes were whispering and staring from the rock. The burden of this was too much. Seeking counsel with the matriarch, she headed toward the sandstone ledge that housed the elders.

She was careful to hide her tail when other snakes came with in sight, but her arrival was not unnoticed. The clan mothers seemed unusually happy to see her. The elders greeted her warmly. When at last she saw the matriarch, the voice of the wisdom keeper startled her. “Why do you hide that amazing tail”, she asked. Sliding closer to examine the young snake, the Matriarch continued. “Your scars are the stuff of legend. For the last two days your story has been shared. Your encounter with the hawk, how you survived the fall to Earth, your standing up to the coyote with out flinching, and most amazing of all, your battle with the badger. Your tail holds the story of all of these things louder than any words. You should hold that tail with pride.”

Of course, snakes cannot really speak. And, even if they could, they would rarely find the energy to share this sort of thing with each other. However, the story is too important not to be told. Therefore it is up to us to find the story within ourselves when we find that our scars are holding us back, or that our tails have been nipped. These things that we believe are being told of us should be heard in a way that frees us, empowers us, becomes our badge of wisdom borne of hardship, not a prison of shame, grief, or inaction rooted in a story of shortcomings.

Folks come to our school to learn survival and we give them a list of priorities. At the top of that list is “Attitude”. After coming to classes for a year or so, they find that the list of priorities applies to more than just survival. It applies to a full and empowering life regardless of what is thrown your way.

This story was given to me after a Cherokee Elder made a statement at one of our classes. All he said was, “I need a rattle”. By the time I walked from the winter classroom to the office, the story rushed in. I typed it out as fast as I could before it left me. Now it is yours.

Primitive Skills as foundational to Permaculture

2011-02-04T05:21:00.000-08:00

Primitive Skills-The foundation for Permaculture

Go to the window and look at your landscape. Can you identify each plant, shrub, and tree along with their edible, medicinal, and utilitarian uses? Can you name each bird and animal, their behaviors relationships and current location? Are you aware, based on the evidence provided by plant species and conditions, animal tracks and sign, elevation, and drainage, of the soil quality and characteristics? If this sounds too far fetched, it’s because you’ve been raised in an artificial landscape superimposed on the real and natural one. Our ancestors knew all of these things as a matter of survival. More so, their diet was healthier, their craniums larger, and their concern for the environment based on a direct correlation and relationship with the health of their community. At a glance our “primitive” ancestors could predict the weather, locate water, read the tracks and sign of insects, and animals, interpret the language of the birds, and read the forested landscape to determine what plants, medicine, cordage, dyes, and tools could be gathered. They could also tell the health of the ecology of the area. Can you?

Imagine you did know the answers to the above questions. How would that change your behaviors? Would you eradicate all of the mint for one year of tea? Would you harvest all the sweet fern in a rush to stock up on diarrhea medication? Of course not! Saving seeds, drying herbs, and cultivated the land for more diversity has been going on since long before the bronze age. The “care taker attitude” has been expressed and well documented in the history of this land and every continent by it’s indigenous cultures.

This in depth “native” knowledge of the landscape has had important historical ramifications for our success as a species. Arguably, whether you are a “back to the lander”, “prepper”, in to “nature education”, or just want to get in touch with something real and important, there is nothing as effective at addressing the foundational skill sets to all of these approaches as primitive skills.

Our ancestors refined their relationship with the landscape over countless generations. Motivated to be efficient and successful by their own mortality, hunter-gatherer nomadic tribes were a far cry from the club toting dolts portrayed in cartoons and insurance commercials.

So, lets get to the nitty-gritty details. How does this look? What are the ways that would make our landscape a biodiverse wild “garden” that would sustain multiple layers of life for generations to come?

First, start with the people. We use the “Thanksgiving Address” as a structure to build awareness and community from. Caretaking your landscape is no exception. What talent can you tap in to in your community? What would they feel motivated to do and how would they feel most valued? Our programs rely heavily on work-study and apprenticeships so that the people are learning as they share their skills and hard work. The key to make sure they are valued, because all hands are certainly needed.

The soil, our unspoken wealth, needs to be addressed next. Test your soils in different locations and map out what you need to do. In most cases it makes sense to adjust what you grow than to adjust the soil. Exceptions include things like high bush blueberries or other high yield or important species that you just can’t do without.

Map the understory, but include the tracks and sign as well as the important herbaceous plants. Garden pests equal meat on the table. Finding the balance will help you optimize populations of plants to attract mammals as well as provide your community with food and medicine.

Pay special attention to shade loving plants and their relatives. A healthy tree that is allowed to grow increases in value over time. Be sure to make the most out of the trees you do have to remove. Milling or using raw timbers to make out buildings, raised beds, fire wood, charcoal for your forge, ash for soap making. Like the natural world and our native ancestors, the key is maximizing a return on energy investment.

Weather, the sun, the moon and our intuition also play a role. Just like the “thanksgiving Address” we expand our awareness across the landscape with the intent to create bounty and leave more for the future generations than we found.

Trailing with Track and Sign

2011-02-03T03:26:00.000-08:00

2011-01-10T15:50:00.000-08:00

Just added three more courses to the 2011 calendar...

Primitive Cooking

16 July 2011 (rain date: 17 July)

Humans have been cooking food for a long time, possibly 200,000 years or more. Aboriginal people learned to use the heat of cooking to detoxify food, break down molecules our bodies can't digest, and increase the pleasure of eating by enhancing flavors. Primitive cooks around the world created hearty, nutritious meals without the use of metal pots and pans, stove tops, ovens, crock pots, and the like. They had many different methods of cooking food that maximized nutrition while, when necessary, reducing toxins and antinutrients that may be present in the food. This day-long class will examine several methods of cooking that do not require modern kitchenware, including the aboriginal equivalents of the crock pot, grill, boiling pot, and baking pan. This class is a perfect companion to any wild food classes you may have participated in and furthers your "bushcraft" skills. A lot of organic, wildcrafted, and/or free-range foods will be consumed as part of the class and the day will culminate with dinner cooked entirely with aboriginal technology. Given the need to make and tend fires throughout the day for this workshop, a rain date needs to be kept open (the following day) for inclement weather. Price is $125.00 (which includes the price of food) and class is limited to 10 students. Class begins at 9:00 am and ends at 6:00 pm or whenever the evening meal is completed. If you are interested in enrolling for this class, please contact the Maine Primitive Skills School (207-623-7298) or visit http://www.primitiveskills.com/registration00.html.

Healing with Plants, Fungi, and Lichens

29‒31 July 2011

Coping with and recovering from illness, injury, and debility has always been part of being human. And for these complaints, plants have served as the major source of medicine. This class will examine the use of wild plants, fungi, and lichens for healing injury and supporting the body. Students will learn a suite of species that grow in New England that can be used for many common ailments, such as colds, infections, gastrointestinal upset, headaches, dermatitis, insomnia, etc. Methods of collecting will be discussed, as well as directions for making infusions, decoctions, poultices, salves, tinctures, and smoking mixtures. Throughout the weekend, various stories and examples will be shared demonstrating how plant-based medicines have preserved life and influenced aboriginal and contemporary people. Healing with plants provides people and families with another avenue of self-sufficiency and furthers connection to the landscape. The class will be taught by Arthur Haines (who personally uses plants, fungi, and lichens for all medicinal needs). Class will be offered at the Delta Institute of Natural History in Bowdoin, ME (click here if you need directions). Price is $180.00 and class is limited to 10 students. Class begins at 7:00 pm on Friday and ends at 12:00 pm on Sunday. If you are interested in enrolling for this class, please contact the Maine Primitive Skills School (207-623-7298) or visit http://www.primitiveskills.com/registration00.html.

Fall Foraging

30 September to 2 October 2011

This hands-on class is designed for those with with an interest in self-sufficiency, human health, and a deeper relationship with plants. Foraging provides many avenues of connection with nature and fosters a greater appreciation of the many things that local landscapes can provide for us. It has become increasingly clear through many independent studies that diets rich in wild foods promote health and defend the body from many of the debilitating ailments that plague modern societies (e.g., obesity, diabetes, arthritis, coronary disease, periodontal disease). Students should expect to spend much of the weekend outside identifying, collecting, and preparing wild plants for food (so be prepared for weather and uneven terrain). Class will focus on gathering plant foods and medicines that are appropriate for the season (nuts, legumes, fall roots and tubers, and wild rice--as available). Throughout the class, simple tools will be used and reference will be made to primitive and contemporary methods of processing plants. As well, wildcrafted medicine and utilitarian plants will be discussed to provide a more holistic understanding of how plants can positively affect our lives. Wild nutrition is both a link to the past and a gateway to a sustainable future. This class will be taught by Arthur Haines and will be offered at the Delta Institute of Natural History in Bowdoin, ME (click here if you need directions). Some locations will be visited off site so please be prepared to carpool short distances from the property. Price is $180.00 and class is limited to 10

Foraging for Food, Medicine, & Survival Tools Pt. 3-Resources

2011-01-04T03:31:00.000-08:00

Foraging for Food Medicine, & Survival Tools Part 2-Medicine & Foraging ...

2010-12-31T08:44:00.000-08:00

Foraging for Food, Medicine, & Long Term Survival Tools Pt. 1-Food

2010-12-30T04:12:00.000-08:00

2010-12-24T04:59:00.000-08:00

Survival

(Part 1 of 6 "Developing a Survival Attitude")

Survival. The very idea of being placed in a survival situation evokes deep feelings. The reaction it stirs in you indicates a great deal about how you would react to an unexpected situation where lives may be on the line. Could you accurately assess your ability to survive in a real survival situation? Do you have “What it takes”? And what is, “what it takes” anyway?

Biologically, or genetically, there is little more we can do beyond physical training and learning in a contrived environment. Worse, we could “read up” on survival skills and theory and give ourselves the illusion of understanding. This would allow us the dangerous assumption that, because we read it in a book, or saw a few videos on the internet, we have “what it takes”. This elusive internal quality has little to do with book learning. Even folks trained in survival skills perish in the same conditions that untrained individuals find themselves surviving. So, where are you in this spectrum?

Beyond our genetics we become who we are based on only two variables. The first is the environment we immerse ourselves in. The second is what we choose to focus on in that environment. Here are two examples to illustrate how profound these two simple components can be in creating different results for members of the same species.

Since he was young, Brad was an avid outdoorsman. His father and Uncles would take him fishing and hunting. His family was involved in Scouting. When Brad shot his first deer at thirteen, the community rallied in celebration. As a young man, Brad took up Rock Climbing, Hiking, Backpacking, and Snow Shoeing. He loved knives, rifles, archery, and camouflage. Brad learned gardening from his grandparents. As a middle aged man, Brad often reflects on his exploits, especially those times where he had to spend a few unplanned days and nights in the forest due to poor judgment, weather, or unforeseen circumstances. These memories came to him with a sense of fondness. All of this gives Brad little comfort now, at 2am. Strange groups of people stare as he walks by. Towering apartment buildings and confusing, dark streets make him feel like an alien as he tries to locate the building he was supposed to meet a friend at. They all look the same to him. Brad struggles to keep the welling panic at bay as he realizes the enormity of South Philly.

Mark, a product of Chicago, would have felt more at ease in this neighborhood. He yearns for the familiar hum and rhythm of the city. A steam shrouded sidewalk grate would indicate warmth. A church steeple might mean a shelter near by. A fast food joint would almost guarantee a dumpster full of food. Marks’ sense of order, his ability to read street signs as well as subtle body language cues, all of his finely honed urban survival strategies are failing to serve him in this alien northern woodland environment.

Brad, with all of his woodsman skills is just as lost in the city as streetwise Mark is in the natural world.

Provided they are not injured and can breath, both men require five basic elements to ensure their survival. Four of these are physical needs. The fifth, the most important element, determines how they and, more importantly, you would react in a similar situation. The first four priorities are a need to find shelter from the elements, drinking water, a source of light and heat (fire), and last on the list; food.

The fifth element; that which will compel them in to action or cripple them into complacency, is “Attitude”. Attitude is nothing less than how you view yourself in the context of your “reality”. How you view your commute, your job, your relationships, even the power and the will you believe you have to change a situation…or not. It is the reason some walk away from an event while others perish, frozen in their uncertainty and fear. It is the amount of ignorance and fear that we focus on that is our greatest undoing in the end. It is the opportunities and actions we seize that is our saving grace as well.

None of this takes place without the initial choice. In fact, it could be said that choice is one of the two “Parents” of a healthy survival attitude. But lets explore this concept within the context of your own reality. In the second paragraph of this article there was a statement, “Beyond YOUR genetics you become who you are based on the environment you immerse yourself in and what you choose to focus on in that environment.

With that in mind, lets first focus on your environment and how it shapes you. How much of your effort, intellect, and problem solving skills go directly in to providing you with adequate and safe shelter against the elements as well as protecting you from the threats in your environment? Does your landscape demand that your awareness is developed around these things, or is having a roof, climate control, and a warm bed an assumed component of your reality?

At the Maine Primitive Skills School we have a saying, “Convenience kills”. In the environment you find yourself in, if you are not actively problem solving to address your survival needs you will lack the ability to do so in a real situation. Since most of us lack the means or the will to modify our surroundings, we are left with the second component of what shapes us; what we choose to focus on in that environment. This piece makes increasing your survivability easy and fun.

During your daily routine, envision different “call to action” scenarios where you have to come up wit your own shelter, water, fire, and food. On the commute, where would you acquire these things if you were snowed in, or you were stranded on a specific section of roadway with no help available? At work, you are hit with a natural disaster the knocks out power and isolates your people from the rest of the world. What materials would you utilize and how long would they last? How would you plug in different personalities to create an optimal chance for all to make it through? Developing these questions as part of your overall routine shifts you from being the victim of someone else’s story to becoming the hero of your own journey.

Arthur Haines introduction

2010-12-20T08:11:00.000-08:00

Survival Fire Making : Friction Fire with Bow Drill

2010-12-13T04:02:00.000-08:00

Survival Fire Making : Friction Fire with Strap Drill

2010-12-12T08:34:00.000-08:00

Track Aging Techniques

2010-12-07T10:05:00.000-08:00

Track Interpretation Skills

2010-12-03T13:14:00.000-08:00

Track Identification Skills

2010-12-02T11:49:00.000-08:00

Introduction to the Six Disciplines of Tracking

2010-12-01T03:47:00.000-08:00

Wilderness Survival-Power Snare

2010-11-13T09:47:00.000-08:00

Rolling Pencil Snare

2010-11-12T08:35:00.000-08:00

Greased String Dead Fall

2010-11-08T12:51:00.000-08:00

Broken Stick Dead Fall Trap

2010-11-04T04:50:00.000-07:00

Split Stick Deadfall

2010-11-02T13:10:00.001-07:00

Split Stick Deadfall

2010-11-02T13:10:00.000-07:00

For more information, instructional videos, details about our staff, school, or courses, please visit http://www.primitiveskills.com

Breaking the Cycle

2010-10-26T13:55:00.000-07:00

There is an idea that a simplistic, happy life is ignorance. At first I thought it was steeped in racism, but then it occurred to me that it was more a lack of awareness when a certain paradigm came in contact with sustainable communities of equal intellect who consciously chose to live within the parameters of their landscape. In the last article if you got the idea that we are raising our kids like we raise our foods, a vast monoculture of standardized minds conditioned to respond to stimulus rather than initiate creative and intrinsic problem solving skills, than you'd be right. The institutions, born out of the industrial revolution and based in getting as many folks through the program as possible, are self perpetuating. The teacher is a product of the system that he or she facilitates. The obvious results are unquestioned, even embraced. The answer isn't change, it's catch phrases extracted from research done by fellow educators, and documentation to cover ones butt in case a "radical" challenges the idea that real learning happens in an artificial, sedentary environment where there is no intrinsic reward, emotional investment, or cultivation of natural curiosity. We see this institution take bright eyed, eager college graduates who have a passion for life and, in the same amount of time it takes an elementary school to subdue childlike curiosity and produce a glassy eyed disinterested middle schoolers, that same teacher has moved from the center of the room interacting with each student at their own level to a position behind a desk in the back of the room. We blame development for this, but again, culturally, this has been shown to be inconsistent. Well adjusted, very curious, and socially responsible adolescents abound in nomadic cultures around the globs. The impossible task of developing whole human beings in a classroom with a twenty student to one adult ratio degrades in to a cosmetic shell game. Each "seasoned teacher" knows they have about 185 days to cover the material the state requires, the district requires, the Principal requires, the parents, IEP, RTI, and standardized testing requires. Factor in grading and what's left is designated time for mentoring, challenging, and eeking out the innate curiosity about the world. Actually, what's left is a frazzled shell who fails to give up until retirement, and too often dies within the first five years after that. So how to we break free of this relatively young model of cultivating minds to conform and perform in a post industrial society? Do we really want to? School was not started with Plato and Socrates, as is normally touted. These folks had students wander the landscape and share from their direct experience. The model we work with today first manifested in Germany about 500 years ago in an effort to train members of agrarian cultures for jobs in the city. Dewey and Ford refined the process. To this day we rate our workers with grades. Grade A or "Meets the Standard" means you can perform the task well. You may be suitable for management. Grade F, and your the guy they send into the mine to see if the canary is still alive. It made sense 500 years ago. We didn't understand the many ways a person learns, or how the brain makes neural connections. Besides, the way we did it before, the invisible school, was compassion based members of our extended family allowing us to experience hardship, failure, and success in a supportive community of active and aware learners. How does one measure that? So, if your interested in breaking the cycle, for your kids, your self, your class room, your community, it's pretty easy. It's also supported by the latest in brain research and thousands of years of evolutionary processes. The latent, sometimes atrophied parts of your brain designed to utilize childlike curiosity are still in there! How many of you used to make forts as a kid, pretend to be an animal, make a bow and arrow or spear, have adventures? This genetic predisposition is nothing less than the whole bodies programming to interface with a multidimensional and dynamic organic landscape. In many educational institutions, if these traits can not be subdued by behavior modification through parental and teacher pressures, even peer pressure, than the child is medicated. Outside, these children flourish. They tend to have quicker responses, higher awareness, and an insatiable curiosity compared to the sedate industrialized minds that have "surrendered to the game". After all, the convenience of the game is what makes it alluring. Jump through the hoops, do what your told, write neatly and be on time, quiet, and respectful, and you will be handsomely rewarded. If not, hmmmmm. Sadly, the 10% who flourish in the contrived cells of the public school environment are rarely fully challenged themselves. They "do the work", but yearn for something more engaging. In fact, most students would rather be outside, or participate with more of their senses in meaningful interactions with their environment. We know this, and have known it with increasing realization since the early eighties. Most of the efforts to bring real learning in to public schools falls flat as a fad, again, due to brain patterning on the old way and convenience. "Convenience kills" doesn't only refer to a sedentary life, but a sedentary routine, mindset, awareness level, perspective, passion, body, and being. Movement, joy, pain and the sense that one is the hero of an amazing story instead of the victim of (fill in the blank). As a mentor, I would rather have a sneering, "How do you know" over a "Why do we have to learn this" any day. The first is based in inquisitiveness, the latter is based in a sense of futility. How does this all relate to "Breaking the Cycle of Empires"? By focusing on our species' true source of wealth, the health and well being of our children (collectively and as a community) and the environments they're raised in, we change the paradigm. The world of talented mechanics, engineers, farmers, midwives, herbalists, naturalists, and so on becomes an endless resource of mentoring talent. There is a LOT more though. We have to reclaim some of the wisdom we threw out with our pre-industrial ancestry. Cultural tools that bring awareness to a point of compassion, connection, and empathy, grief recognition and resolution technologies that strengthen the community, and whole person experiences designed to increase understanding of the world and ones role in it that are based on first hand interpretation are just a few of these elements. The rest are coming in the next article. Until then, push buttons, take people out of their comfort zone, and have at least one adventure each day that is not only worth writing about, but worth reading. For more information, instructional videos, details about our staff, school, or courses, please visit http://www.primitiveskills.com

Cycle of Empires

2010-10-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

Every great civilization follows a pattern. It is a redundancy that is lost to the generations who have yet to live it because it spans multiple generations. It is a cycle that provides important clues to our Nations development and the development and end result of a "Global Economic Community". The Great Gardens of Babylon, The Empire of Egypt, the Heart of Greece, Rome, and so many others, once nestled in fertile river valleys, were able to expand their power and influence far and wide. Each time, the success of the people was attributed to technology, the mind, the government...but never the lush habitat's that supported the raw material, the food, the leisure time to think these great thoughts. We see this on a micro scale in our cities. Young and vibrant at first, the city attracts the artists, the business folk, the entrepreneur. A young city is exiting, vibrant, full of story rife with opportunity...Newark, Watts, South Philly...these places are not what they used to be. Any elder not shut in to their own apartment behind five dead bolts can tell you, things were different. The cycle is inevitable when following a certain perspective. It comes when we forget our interconnection with the landscape. The environment is a reflection of our own health and stability. When we are out of balance, our physical reality reflects this in the way we deal with it. Currently, there are children who fear the woods, are told to never go outside without shoes, have never walked under a star lit sky looking for the big dipper. We expect 30 acres worth of biomass to appear in a bag in a drive through in less than a minute without a thought. Our standard of living and our numbers are so out of synch with the amount of energy consumed by other apex species, that many of them are already gone, and many more are on their way out. Wolves, Tigers, Lions, Leopards, Jaguars, Cougars...they are lessons to the limits of carrying capacity on the landscape and what happens when the capacity is exceeded. Sadly, their demise may do little to stop what seems to be a runaway train. Folks seem helpless, just smart enough to realize the futility of "going green" or to frightened to explore the history and science of what happens to any species that overspecializes, overpopulates, or exhausts it's "resources". In the surviving oral tradition of cultures on every continent the "caretaker" attitude was ingrained in the young through the wisdom of the elders. The idea of living with the awareness that our actions effect the unborn future generations is evidenced in story, song, and legend. Yet, we pattern on things that replace the hunt and the gather. We see no value in the ones who have gone before, they can't even set the clock on the DVD player. We have turned our wisdom keepers in to cute and cuddly grandparent's at the very best, and folks to be marginalized at the other end of the spectrum. Today it is hard to find a true Elder. We see a lot of folks at the end of their life, bitter that they worked so hard to "make a living" that they realize only at the end the gift of truly being alive and present. As a result, what was already hard to hear in the innocents and arrogance of youth, is impossibly drowned out by the technology we plug in to. We hear endless stories of tragedy and disaster on the news and then are told during each commercial break that we would only feel better if we bought "this" product. Look around, people are in debt and still buying the next item that will surely make them happy, fill the void, provide the distraction from that certain annoying nagging on their conscience. Rare is the individual who is secure enough in their own identity to be able to sit alone without distraction, without T.V., music, or the Internet, and just quietly enjoy being present. Instead, we shop and work, not for our families directly, but for a person or people who have often conflicting motivations and a less than intrinsic rewarding goals. We come home too tired to a family to distracted by after school, extra meetings, the television, whatever, to sit and share stories around the table (modern version of the campfire) and just be present with each other. Our communities are dependent on distant communication rather than face to face exchanges. The results are institutionalized minds that perceive more out of fear, grief, or hopelessness rather than the heroes journey so common in our ancestral traditions. This is all part of the cycle of nations. It has a predictable ending, but only if the perceptions that perpetuate it continue. We know the consequences, we know the base existence of the survivors of these "decrescendos". So why don't we, the most intelligent (and humble) species to grace the Earth do something to prevent this formula from playing it again on an unprecedented scale? It's not greed, or laziness. It's brain patterning. We expect doors to be a certain with, burgers to taste a certain way, time to be at a certain pace and meter, routines to be regular and interuptions to be few and addressed quickly. Whenthese things don't happen, we feel uncomfortable. When the car doesn't start, or the power goes out, or the cook gets our order wrong, we feel slighted, uncomfortable, wronged. We have become shackled to our convieniences. Without need, time, or familiarity, many have lost the hunger and skills to gather food from the landscape, and with that, the connection that lanscape provided. A sense of purpose, belonging, and deep rooted community is becoming a rare commodity. And we continue to attempt to fill the void with "stuff". But don't be sad, there is a way out....a way to break the cycle(and no this is not a sales or religious pitch). And, it's free, it's personal and it's something you can share or keep to yourself. In fact, it starts with developing your own awareness and making a choice to commit to unplugging from "the Matrix" and reconnecting with what is real and important in your own life..It's hard, but it's always worth it. Remember, convienience kills. This will help as we explore some options in the next article.

Primitive Skills at Common Ground Fair '10

2010-09-27T17:47:00.000-07:00

Maine Primitive Gathering 2010

2010-09-14T19:46:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Wilderness Survival and Primitive Skills Instructors from all over the Northeast converge to share skills with the public. http://www.primitiveskills.com

Birch Basics - Wilderness Survival Uses

2010-08-29T11:18:00.000-07:00

Training Master Survivalist & Trackers in the "Old Way" pt.1 "Frog Asking"

2010-07-31T12:40:00.000-07:00

Two Person Bow Drill

2010-07-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

Scout 2 : Mobile Survival , Escape , and Evasion

2010-05-18T02:45:00.000-07:00

Outdoor Education

2009-12-13T16:36:00.000-08:00

No Child left Inside....it's actually a movement! Have we devolved so quickly from the fabric that supports us to become aliens to the basics? I've heard a story told by the Wampanoag about someone who surrounded themselves with tools and ceremonies designed to ward off the imperfect things of the Universe. In this effort, he lived in constant fear and condemned the folks in the village who had the ignorance to believe the Universe was made perfectly. He ended up bringing those things upon him that he feared the most. It is a powerful story of how ones focus determines their reality. The Maine Primitive Skills School shares tools of empowerment in the guise of a survival school, a tracking school, a community, a place to be with "like minded" people...whatever that means. Truth be told, it is a vehicle to unlock, awaken, gently slap the back of the head of all of the gifts that lay dormant from years of childhood chastizement. Don't play in the mud! Don't stick your fingers in things! We don't have time for that! Well meaning and overstressed adults actually believed that a whole human being developed from sitting for hours and learning out of a book....when we know unequivocally that the whole being has to be engaged in experiences with some emotional investment in order to really learn. I know many public educators who are left with no other response to, "Why do we have to learn this", than to say, "You'll need it for next year". Many even respond with disciplinary actions instead of really searching for ways to design experiences that alow these kids to truly be with how the skills they are learning apply to them. One of our elders, Ingwe, once said, "the wilderness holds all truth and knowledge". No matter how hard we train, how many degrees we earn, or how much dirt time we have with our students, we can never hold all truth and wisdom. We are the doorway. Rather, that is what we are supposed to be, but in not truly knowing what this means, we close the door and pull the shades on our youth, opting for the laptop, the standardized test, and the brilliant images of nature on the electronic screen at the expense of the back yard. So many folks have been condtioned by years of tools and ceremonies designed to keep them "safe" from the out of doors that, like the man in the Wampanoag story, they have found themselves in a "reality" of fear and dis-ease. In the face of irrifutable data showing how healthy wild edibles, direct sunlight, and outside air are, we wrap ourselves in climate control and cower in the fear of catching poison ivy, lymes disease, west nile, swine flue, rabies, and so many other threats just waiting to snuff us out lest we venture from our dimly lit, stale air filled abodes in to the beauty and lesson filled real and natural world.

There is another way.

2009-09-10T16:57:00.000-07:00

Environmental Education

Emily wanted chicken nuggets for dinner. I had just given her a head lamp to "explore" the darkened house (and buy me some time in preparing the food around the oven). Just as I attempted to tear the foil from the box, the serrated edge detached, creating a jagged piece of foil too small for the sheet pan. Suddenly, Emily peered in to the kitchen, head lamp ablaze. Without a second thought, I put the tattered foil on her headed and molded it to her cranium. I told her it was a helmet used to prevent aliens from reading her mind. I gave her instructions in it's use and how important it was to keep the shiny side out in order to reflect the alien mind control rays. Without missing a beat, she continued the story about how it also made her invisible. With that, she was off battling aliens in the darkened house. Armed with a foil helmet and a head lamp.

Invoking a deep imaginative state is a primary learning tool. It comes as standard equipment upon our arrival in to this world. I believe we are supposed to keep it active and challenged, or it may atrophy. This could lead to adults who lack the joy, spontaneity, and curiosity they had as children. I find this deep imaginative state in a modern context in some unique places. Actors, dancers, artists, musicians, and story tellers all seem to possess this ability to "shape shift" in to another state of being. This is what it is to "learn fully". It is by "becoming" not by rote memorization that we acquire experiences that lead to wisdom. Learning is done through experience. Memorization is done through reading. Not until we plug our bodies in to an experience and emotionally invest ourselves do we truly learn. While books are a great start, they are only just that. We have let our definition of learning lapse because it is easier, less costly, and easier to manage twenty sitting children than to challenge twenty dynamic personalities in an ever changing series of circumstances. A nasty secret of the dominant model is that the brightest are either bored or drugged. Those who "learn the game" are only challenged by the slight tweaking of their delivery of the norms and morays of the game as each new teacher presents a slightly different variation of the expectations. "Failure" is considered a dead end option, instead of a gateway to wisdom in this construct. Failure is also easier to "blame on" than to grow from. The student feels that they have "failed" if they do not obtain the "grade", the parent feels they have failed their child, the teacher...well, the parent usually projects the pain they see in their child to add to the teachers own sense of "failure". The blame is cast on the weakest link in this vicious cycle...let's leave it at that.

Environmental Education has a different approach. It goes much farther and deeper than "Take all children outside". It is a series f adventures, where the student is ageless, the lessons are timeless and easily apply to daily life. More importantly, "failure"is an opportunity to listen, learn, adjust, and grow. Failure is not a dead end wrought with blame, it is a clarion call, and a challenge. It asks, "Here is the situation your in, know what are you going to do about it". There is no static linear equation, no standardized test, no one to blame. It is a multi-dimensional deep ecological approach to problem solving that stimulates growth and messages new neural pathways through all of the senses. Immersion in nature, coupled with native learning technologies produces superlative beings. It moves people of all ages through emotional, cognitive, and even spiritual boundaries.

The results are analogous to comparing a mass produced industrial chicken to a wild raven. One being responds to bells in order to move from one holding cell to another with only a small portion of their mind being intentionally addressed. The other has to problem solve daily to provide for themselves. While the entity at the industrial chicken farm mindlessly shuffles to external stimuli in a conditioned and predictable daily regimen, their feral counterparts are plugging in to their environment with their entire being and exercising everything from their brain, to their five senses as they interface with the landscape, the weather, and the other animate beings for such relevant items as shelter, water, and food.

So, Emily, age seven, has cleared the house of aliens. As I left the keyboard to check on her nuggets, I found her "helmet" at the top of the stairs, and she cuddled and asleep with her loyal dog Bo. I'm not sure how that will come out on standardized testing, but as far as becoming a well rounded human being, I see "honor roll".

Ira and his wife have their baby

2008-11-13T19:20:00.000-08:00

Wow, an event that goes on every day in the midst of so much routine and depressing news. We don't even notice it until it impacts our lives. The miracle of birth is a secret, awe inspiring event for husband and wife. It isn't a secret because we try to hide it. In fact, we do our best to scream to the mountain tops with pride, proclaiming our new found love and the beauty that moves our heart into a whole new world of being. Our best efforts to inform the world of the boundless joy of having a child are heard only by the wisened ears of veteran parents. It is a secret because no words can convey the joy, the rapture, the purity of goodness that looking in to the eyes of your own child, newly arrived brings to you and your wife. The mystery is unfathomable until you become an initiated member of the elite club of parenthood. Welcome to the club little brother, Kristen; welcome to the world little one! You are born in to a community that welcomes you and loves you. We are preparing the way so that you will be surrounded by peer mentors, wise Aunts and Uncles, and a council of Elders as you live your vision!

2008-09-10T14:45:00.000-07:00

Its been twenty years since I decided to teach Wilderness Skills as my way of "making it" in this world. Who would have thought that a displaced "Piney" could eek out a living sharing skills and playing in the woods. I have opportunities now to work at a college, my school is branching out, my instructors are outshining me in there areas of interest, and we have two books looking for publishers. It has been a long hard road, and we all have so much more to learn, but I feel it's been long past due that I recognize and honor those who have taught me and the rest of the staff so much in the last twenty years.

This work was made possible by the love and enduring patience of my three families. My first family is led by a powerful and giving matriarch, my mother Judy Szabo, who never shied from protecting her cubs, taught her children they could be anything they wanted, and gave more than anyone could ask in times of desperation, loneliness, and need. My present family, and central fire, begins with my wife, who has put up with friction fires in the living room, frogs in the bath tub, and foot prints on the ceiling since 1992, long before we had our three wild and amazing children, Dakota, Ryan and Emily. For this, my love and this book are dedicated to Karen Douglas. Finally, to my extended family, the Staff, Instructors, Volunteers, and Students of first, The Good Earth School, and now The Maine Primitive Skills School, I give my continued promise to keep the vision alive. You have become the Aunts and Uncles to my children, and the inspiration and comfort to my family and me during the hard times.

Thank you for remembering why it is so important to go outside and play.

Acknowledgements

I want to thank Tom Brown jr. for demonstrating that one person can make a difference, and Jon Young for showing how a community of people working together can change the world. I want to express my gratitude to Mark Elbroch for showing me the importance of carefully considering all the facts and evidence before committing to an answer. Hats off to Mal Stephens for his tireless hours of promoting primitive skills education within the context of building sustainable communities based on love and a purpose beyond self. To Dan Gardoqui, of White Pines Programs for being aloof and keeping the mysteries alive, I tip my hat. Thanks to Jeff and Alexia Stevens, who allowed me to play “capture the drone” and hang out with the amazing folks at Wilderness Awareness School in Duval, WA. Rob and Shelly, Ira Michuad, Bob Donahue, Matt Pikham, The Rowdens, and so many others who have been on this learning journey with me, I thank you.

I want to express my deepest respect to those who have gone before us, the ancestors. With our lineage, we must first recognize the Apache (N’deh). These people, through their expertise as trackers, survivalists and scouts, have influenced the world with their skills. Without them we would not have received the many teachings manifested through Lord Baden Powell’s Boy Scouting, Tom Brown’s Tracker School, David Scott-Donlan’s Tactical Tracking Operations School, Jon Young’s Wilderness Awareness School, and Saponkniona Whitefeather’s teachings. The Akamba of Africa have given us many gifts through Ingwe who brought rights of passage ceremony and cultural traits of a tracking community to the Wilderness Awareness School. We honor the Iroquois for the Thanksgiving Address, the Peacemaker Principles, and the Eight Shields model brought to us by Jon Young, and Jake and Judy Swamp of the Tree of Peace Society. The Lakota people through Tony Ten Fingers and Gilbert Walking Bull have our respect and honor for giving us the traits of a whole human being and many sacred teachings about the importance of ceremony. Thanks to Paul Raphael and the Odawa for the Sacred Fire ceremony and it’s wisdom. The Hiada, Cherokee, Wampanoag, and Abenaki have given us countless skills, from baskets to bows, as well as powerful teaching and healing stories.

Finally, on behalf of the staff of the Maine Primitive Skills School, I would like to acknowledge our personal elders, who pointed the way, showed us the path of the upright mind, and taught us the importance of listening to the landscape and the voice of the creator. We understand that grief is what divides us, and that it is not the color of your skin, but the way you live your life that makes you a whole human being. We thank our teachers for their dedication and vision. The following is a partial list of elders who have personally passed on wisdom to at least one member of our Medicine Council. There are many teachers on the path of life, so if we have forgotten any, please forgive us. Tom Brown, Jr., Bob Doyle , Bob Ekhart , Dan Gardoqui, Ingwe, Leonard Jacobs, Arny Neptune, Craig Ratzat, Paul Raphael, Nancy Reitze, Ray Reitze, Kevin Reeve, Paul Rezendes, Judith Szabo, David Scott-Donlan, Tony Ten Fingers, Saponkniona Whitefeather, Charles Worsham , and Jon Young , we thank you.

Foreward

This book is primarily about getting people of all ages outside as a means of developing human awareness, intellect, and empathy. This collection of cultural tools and environmental activities, started with a boy’s obsession with nature and wilderness survival. Forked River, New Jersey used to be a small town dominated by Pine Barrens and majestic Cedar Swamps. Every day after school I would explore old cranberry bogs, fire roads, and deer trails in my quest to be “better in the woods”. My little tribe of friends would sneak up on older kids partying at the fourth lake or take on each other in games of “war”. We would have fun as we sharpened skills in movement, awareness, and woodcraft. Every once in a while a favorite patch of woods would be marked with orange ribbons, than cleared and replaced with a house. We experienced loss, but it was soon forgotten as we went deeper in to the wilderness to continue our adventures. It wasn’t until years later, when massive development destroyed the entire area, that I realized what the woods gave me. I also noticed important changes in the community. Neighbors no longer stopped to talk to each other, people who drove past no longer waved, and a leisure stroll down the street soon became a forgotten activity. The lakes had the docks removed for liability reasons, and the waters soon became too contaminated to swim in. Wells had to be capped, and city water was a mandatory imposition on locals who relied on their wells for decades. I noticed a distinct difference in awareness and empathy levels in those who grew up loving and interacting in the wild places, and those who did not. My pursuits of wild places and skills took me through Scouting, to the Marines, and as many survival schools and wild places as I could afford. I moved to Maine and earned a degree in Education so that I could share the skills and an appreciation of nature. I also wanted my summers free in order to have my own wilderness survival school. I started that school in August of 1989.

After nearly twenty years, I have gathered many survival or “hard” skills of native cultures. The texts regarding theses skills are few, and many of them are filled with inaccuracies. My most valuable lessons came from my own experiences and my many mistakes. The “soft” skills are hardly written about at all. Much of what I have gathered was through the direct teachings of many of the folks mentioned in the acknowledgements. The rest was by seeing the results when these skills were applied. Oral tradition and direct experience are not only vital components of this methodology, they are the primary way of learning about the methedology itself.

“To write it down is to ruin it”, has been said by many elders and traditional natives. They say this when people ask them for references. As a Westerner and a student of the invisible school, I empathize with both perspectives. When something is written down it is open to misinterpretation or, worse, it is applied exactly as it is written. It is easy to be completely off the mark, or become too rigid, turning the written word in to a series of protocols, rules, and procedures, devoid of creative energy. However, the written word is a way to validate concepts and ideas. It triggers debate and stimulates discussion.

It was a hard choice to make, but I decided to write what I know of the invisible school to get folks talking about it. I wanted more awareness about what to do about nature deficiency in our children. I wanted to see biology classes go outside and hear children imitate actual bird calls in school hallways. Most important of all, I wanted kids to know they aren’t the ones who are “broken”. It is okay to want to wiggle after hours in a chair, it’s normal to wish you were outside, to fall down just for fun, and to sneak around and have adventures. The heart break of being unable to sit for six hours each day, listen to one voice, of fail at reaching goals you don’t completely understand isn’t what is supposed to happen, and it shouldn’t. Also, I wanted folks to know that the invisible school is going on without adult supervision, and manifesting in dangerous ways because of our inattention. Just because we refuse to play the game, doesn’t mean it will “go away”. I believe it is a design that evolved with our need to interact and survive in a dynamic landscape, not a prepackaged fad to be sold to the local school district. As such, it is powerful because it is “real”. The learning has applications that are immediate and last beyond the standardized testing cycle. Finally, if we don’t “plug in” to what is going on in spite of our best efforts to manage it, than we are guilty of nothing less than neglect.

The Invisible School is a term that refers to a collection of tools and skills sets present in hunter-gatherer nomadic cultures. These tools are not limited to the Natives of one tribe, nor are they to be found in only one continent or hemisphere. The skills we use and share in this book are evident around the globe. Many are being shared by the few remaining Elders or “traditionals” of tribes no longer connected to the earth. Some of these people are only a generation from losing a heritage that stretches back for thousands of years. There is little written about these technologies, as they originate from oral traditions. Countless generations of people, separated by vast oceans, language barriers, and ecological differences, refined approaches for learning and sharing information that best worked for their children and the survival of the tribe and came up with similar educational strategies. These strategies were not written in a book, or mandated by officials. They instead seem to occur intuitively, organically, and dynamically. Communities with direct interest in the learning and well being of their children adopted roles around teaching, modeling, advising, and guidance. An extended family of mentors was the norm. A child could go from one “Elder” to the next to learn. Learning was nearly always hands on, or in the form of a vivid story or song. The experience rather than the text was the primary mode of gaining understanding. The information was valued by all as relevant, as most of it was knowledge required for the survival of the tribe and dealt with the real and ever changing environment. The practice of these skills appears to create the cultural foundation for producing master trackers, productive citizens, and individuals with a drive to serve their community. They are what drove Lord Baden Powell to create the Scouting Movement and are the elusive elements that perpetuated the writings of Ernest Thompson Seton.

After using elements of the invisible school for twenty years with adults as well as children, I have seen an overwhelming effect on individuals and groups. People become more enlivened, more confident, with a greater sense of humility and centeredness. Groups experience a bond as close as family that, in many cases, lasts for decades. The assumption is that our collective ancestry, in order to gather food, learn, and pass on information, used similar strategies.

Over thousands of years of interacting with the landscape we have developed thought patterns around survival and learning in a natural context. This ancient mode of building a dialogue with the landscape, learning from each part of the environment as an active participant, is far older and much more ingrained in our students than is the construct of many modern school formats. It is important to understand that these tools have been with us far longer that any other traits, or survival strategies. We have, for instance, only recently eliminated most of the predators that would have hunted us. As an unforeseen result, our awareness levels have atrophied. “Tracking” is no longer a life sustaining skill, requiring years to hone with hunger as the primary motivator. “Tracking” is now more associated with public education and grouping students by ability. As we have removed the threats and rough edges to our environment, our environment has shaped us as well. In the times of our ancestors, food was not a given. Fasting was normal, and calories were precious. Lazing under the big tree on the Savannah was a survival strategy meant to conserve what energy we had so we could digest food, or have energy for the hunt. The bi-product of this collection of tools and strategies are individuals with a heightened sense of self and a deep understanding of their environment; master trackers and superlative (self-actualized) beings. For over fifteen years I have been studying primitive skills and the learning and teaching strategies of hunter-gatherer societies. My studies have brought me in contact with cultural tools from Australia, Africa, Asia, Old Europe, and North and South America. Each of the cultures studied or represented are unique and as individual as one would expect (being from landscapes so far removed from each other). However, there are to be found some common threads, or tendencies, that bind them to their landscapes and provide us with some trends inherent in cultures representative of our own collective ancestry.

These rare, but similar traits, offer a common place from which to reconstruct an educational model based on the evolution of the human mind rather than the post industrial philosophies of a handful limited to the valuable but exclusive context of Westward European expansion. While certainly valuable, there is much in danger of being lost to the overwhelming dominance of European educational philosophy and ideology. The collection of similar traits found in hunter-gatherer nomadic cultures will be referred to as “The Invisible School”, because its participants don’t realize that they have been “schooled” at all. The people who field-tested and refined these learning strategies responded to the demands of their environment by learning or perishing. Over thousands of generations, many valuable strategies were woven in to a cultural experience without being separated from existence and defined as “school”. Each learning experience was tied in to a meaningful life and the development of the individual as an active member of the community who could increase their value by furthering their own skill and knowledge base.

The presence of mentors, individual ownership of ones skills and understanding, and the nurturing of an innate sense of wonder and curiosity about all things are a foundation and the dominating tenants for the invisible school. Instead of relying on one point source of information for learning (the teacher or school) the invisible school is about amplifying the student’s innate awareness and curiosity in order to interpret everything as a source of teaching, learning, mystery, wonder, empowerment, and enlightenment. The invisible school thrives off of the idea that people are actually happy to be alive, not plodding miserably from place to place dependent upon others for happiness.

In the ecological lab of the natural world, biology refines those skills important for survival and, following natural processes, culls those less efficient systems of information gathering and processing out of the genetic pool. The information gathering organs are developed and honed over thousands of years to couple with a dynamic environment to accomplish specific goals. These goals are the needs for physical survival and breeding. The more complex the society is, the more diverse the needs and the more complicated the approaches to those needs. It is why westerners wrongly believed that the native peoples of the world were uneducated savages. Without desks, curricula, and in most cases, without the written word, it was assumed that hunter-gatherer nomads were less intelligent. In actuality the opposite is true. That is to say, our ancestors, with the same sized cranium as us, utilized more of their physical and mental faculties, problem solved more actively with those faculties, and did so dealing with broad-spectrum situations in an environment where life and death situations were more the compelling motivators then they are today. In short, it takes more problem solving skills to track and hunt your prey than to take a box from the freezer and put it in microwave.

The results of modern research based neurology and educational psychology indicate correlation's between increased problem solving abilities, creativity, and a general sense of health and well being when aspects of the invisible school are employed. Typically, they are often employed as the latest in “modern educational research” or as part of the latest educational fad. The Invisible School is as powerful as it is subtle.

The construct of the Invisible School emerges in spite of formal educational models and manifests in our daily lives. We are hardwired from birth to learn and interact in a certain way. Contrary to popular practices, that “way” is not to sit in a classroom for six hours a day. Rote memorization of facts and thinking in a controlled and contrived environment opposes thousands of years of evolution. The human brain evolved to learn in a dynamic, natural environment. The mere act of bringing students outdoors increases their awareness. Also, by being outside, students tend to shift from high stress levels (which reduce learning and increase frustration and boredom) toward lower stress levels. Having them interact with the landscape stimulates their Medial Temporal Lobe, which binds the separate elements of their experience into an integrated memory. The interactions we yearn for, as children are best satisfied within the architecture of the invisible school. This means creating people with a joy for life and innate curiosity by bringing them into contact with their surroundings and awakening their senses.

Respect and Medicine,

Mike Douglas

Odd Things That Come Up

2008-07-03T17:57:00.000-07:00

My goal was, upon failing to find a publisher, to post my book on this site a little at a time. After going over the first post, I have to admit it is pretty dry reading. Today was supposed to be the second installment, and perhaps I'll post some. Fact is, a wisdom keeper crossed over to the other side today. He was one of the first frogmen to become a SEAL. He was a veteran of Korea and Vietnam. Even near the end he was a warrior who stood for the welfare of veterans. He picked today, the day before the nations birthday, to cross over to the other side. Lee was THE example of someone who stood for something larger than self. I grieve for my loss, assured by his tenacity that he's kickin' someone out of the bottom bunk in the barracks upstairs. I don't know why, but Lee's passing compelled me to take my daughter out to dinner. She's six and plum crazy, so it wasn't a decision based in practicality or the path of least resistance. We also don't have the money to support such a lifestyle. It just seemed...important. I must have told her how much I loved her a half a dozen times. Anyway, I have this book about how to raise whole human beings. I wrote it based on what I have been blessed to be a part of. Perhaps words can't capture the magic. Actually, after today, I know they can't. It's just that, after seeing so many amazing things all over the globe, and now, being at a place in life where the elders I looked up to are cashin' in their chips, it just seems more pressing to get things down, pass them along, increase the chances of some one else having just as much an amazing series of days on this ball of dirt as I have had, and will continue to have...for who knows how long. So, I'll end this with a few paragraphs more of the book, but understand that today, my heart is with an old friend looking at me from one side of the fence, and my daughter looking up at me from the other.

The Initial Premise and Peace Maker Principles
The impetus and foundation behind the Invisible School

The invisible school has many components in place. It is not ours to control, but if we recognize how it is unfolding, much like reading a plant to determine what stage of growth it is in and what it needs to flourish, we can than amp what is attempting to emerge naturally. Neglecting any part of the invisible school, especially the initial premise and the peacemaker principles, it is akin to teaching a twelve year old how to drive without the safety component in the instruction, and then sending them into rush hour traffic in a Porsche. Also, for the facilitators, it helps to build a barrier against the seductive allure of self engradizement, monetary gain, and the manipulation of others for self interest. Due to the inherent and profound personal growth one experiences through these technologies, the temptation and the opportunity to adulterate a students experience with selfish interests is certainly present. The struggle is great enough to keep ones own grief issues separate from the teaching of these skills. Loneliness, belonging, ego strokes, etc. are all aspects of our being that can run amok and taint the effectiveness of what we do. It is for these reasons and more that the Initial Premise and Peacemaker Principles must be in place.

The Eight Directions Model
The Foundation of The Invisible School
Beyond the initial premise (all people are inherently good and have a deep desire to feel appreciated) and the foundation of the Peace Maker Principles (Unity, Peace, and Good Message) we are ready to construct our invisible school. The working metaphor is that the initial premise is the motivating force behind the construction effort, the peace maker principles are the groundwork from which the foundation will be laid, and the rest of the technologies are the actual physical plant of the school itself.

Following this “construction of a school” metaphor, the next step is the foundation. This essential piece, beyond the “initial premise” and the “peace maker principles” is the “eight directions model”. It is used to profile students and designed to accommodate planned as well as spontaneous program. Instinct and human nature are great tools and will serve you well in this model. They are essential tools for the implementation of the rest of this construct, as are the experiences you bring regarding pain and grief. The “condolences” of the Iroquois are an important part as well, woven in to the construct to get folks through “the wall of grief”.
We use the eight directions model as our foundation. We do this because it is amazingly fluid, organic, and can be picked up at any stage and carried forward. There is no true beginning or end to the model as it is cyclical and manifests on grand as well as minute scales, often simultaneously. For our purposes, I’ll explain the model as if it were being used to plan out an event or a day; a year or a life. While this works, it should be noted that when you encounter an event, a gathering, or an individual, most of the time they will be somewhere in this model other than where we usually begin. That's fine; listening/observing/sensing where folks are in “the wheel” of the Eight Directions and than "amping" the natural progression and flow of that energy is one of the major strengths of the Invisible School.

In the next piece, barring any other odd things that might come up, I will explain the directions and how each is used to nurture human beings to their full potential.

Respect and Medicine,
Mike

2008-05-18T18:17:00.000-07:00

Explaining the Invisible School

The Invisible School is a term that refers to the collection of tools and cultural characteristics present in hunter-gatherer nomadic societies around the globe. The bi-product of this collection of tools and strategies is individuals with a heightened sense of self and of their environment; master trackers and superlative (self-actualized) beings. For over fifteen years I have been studying primitive skills and the learning and teaching strategies of hunter-gatherer societies. At our school we have been fortunate enough to have learned cultural tools from Australia, Africa, Asia, Old Europe, and North and South America. Each of the cultures studied or represented are unique and as individual as one would expect(being from landscapes so far removed from each other). However, there are to be found some common threads, or tendencies, that bind them to their landscapes and provide us with some trends inherent in cultures representative of our collective ancestry.
These rare, but similar traits, offer a common place from which to reconstruct an educational model based on the evolution of the human mind rather than the post industrial philosophies of a handful of people, predominantly white european males, steeped in European philosophy and ideology. The collection of similar traits found in pre-basket hunter-gatherer nomadic cultures will be referred to as “The Invisible School”, because its participants don’t realize that they have been “schooled” at all. These people respond to the demands of their environment by learning or perishing.
The presence of mentors, individual ownership of ones skills and understanding, and the nurturing of an innate sense of wonder and curiosity about all things are a foundation and the dominating tenants for the invisible school. (develop in to a paragraph) Instead of relying on one point source of information for learning (the teacher or school) the invisible school is about amplifying the students innate awareness and curiosity in order to interpret everything as a source of teaching, learning, mystery, wonder, empowerment, and enlightenment. The invisible school thrives off of the idea that people are actually happy to be alive, not plodding miserably from place to place dependent upon others for happiness.
In the ecological lab, biology refines those skills important for survival and, following natural processes, culls those less efficient systems of information gathering and processing out of the genetic pool. The information gathering organs are developed and honed over thousands of years to couple with a dynamic environment to accomplish specific goals. These goals are the needs for physical survival and breeding. The more complex the society is, the more diverse the needs and the more complicated the approaches to those needs. It is why westerners wrongly believed that the native peoples of the world were uneducated savages. Without desks, curricula, and in most cases, without the written word, it was assumed that hunter-gatherer nomads were less intelligent. In actuality the opposite is true. That is to say, our ancestors, with the same sized cranium as us, utilized more of their physical and mental faculties, problem solved more actively with those faculties, and did so dealing with broad spectrum situations in an environment where life and death were much more intense than what most modern participants of Western Culture experience today.
The results of modern research based neurology and educational psychology indicate correlation's between increased problem solving abilities, creativity, and a general sense of health and well being when aspects of the invisible school are employed. Typically, they are often employed as the latest in “modern educational research” or as part of the latest educational fad. The Invisible School is as powerful as it is subtle.
The construct of the Invisible School emerges in spite of formal educational models and manifests in our daily lives. We are hardwired from birth to learn and interact in a certain way. Contrary to popular practices, that “way” is not to sit in a classroom for six hours a day. Rote memorization of facts and thinking in a controlled and contrived environment opposes thousands of years of evolution. The human brain evolved to learn in a dynamic, natural environment. The mere act of bringing students outdoors increases their awareness. Also, by being outside, students tend to shift from high stress levels (which reduce learning and increase frustration and boredom) toward lower stress levels. Having them interact with the landscape stimulates their Medial Temporal Lobe, which binds the separate elements of their experience into an integrated memory. The interactions we yearn for as children are best satisfied within the architecture of the invisible school. This means creating people with a joy for life and innate curiosity by bringing them into contact with their surroundings and awakening their senses.
Judy Willis echoes these sentiments through her studies of brain research as it applies to learning:

“Given the fact the neuro-imaging and qEEG studies of the human brain allow us to see what happens when students are stressed or affected by positive and negative emotions, how can teachers create the environments where destructive anxiety is low while providing enough challenge for suitable brain stimulation for each student?

From brain scan research, we know that pleasurably challenging lessons cause the amygdala to have moderately stimulated metabolism and that this warmed up state of alert stimulation stimulates the brain’s processing of information.”

The knowledge that simply bringing folks outside can profoundly influence growth, learning, creativity and memory will undoubtedly influence teaching strategies in a positive way, but caution must be used. Even with all of the tools of the invisible school in place, the results can shake a community as human potential is unleashed and fully realized. This is in stark contrast to systems that currently subdue this potential for the sake of order and efficiency. The warning comes as we realize that the accepted definition of learning has been allowed to atrophy as time has moved on. Learning is that which should change you. We now know, for instance, that television does not stimulate new neural pathways. What happens when we watch an “educational” program, therefore, is not learning, only the memorization of facts and images. Regardless of the contortions that new fads bring, the modern experience in the majority of public schools tends to favor rooms filled with nearly twenty seated children memorizing information long enough to be evaluated. Once the evaluation tool has been administered, the information, mastered or otherwise, is quickly forgotten to make room for the next in the series of testable material. When real learning occurs, it becomes a memorable, often moving experience. It is often an experience involving discomfort, hardship, joy, and any variety of intense emotional states. When it occurs often, the experience can be overwhelming and in stark contrast to what has become the “norm”.
Another aspect of the warning is to recognize what happens when we don’t acknowledge behaviors that manifest naturally, regardless of whether we nurture them or not; as has happened in our modern western experience. Many of the same tools used in a supportive community to raise superlative beings are also present in societies that don’t acknowledge the potential of such tools. Since we are predisposed toward interactions in a hunter-gatherer context, it should be no surprise that these ‘genetic pre-programs’ can manifest as dangerous, and even predatory. Sociopaths and psychopaths, shop lifters and con artists derive their pleasure from tapping in to these primal abilities and refining them. “Street smarts” or the “criminal mind” are descriptors of behaviors allowed to manifest and self nurture without the accompanying cultural tools to harness them for the betterment of society.

An example of just one of the components of the invisible school, left unchecked in our modern experience, is “secret societies”. In a diseased or imbalanced construct, invisible societies are built around hate, greed, or power, rather than service and healing. Even when a greater common good is the foundation for such a group, without vital elements of the invisible school like “initial premise” and “peace maker principles”, the group quickly erodes, becoming “exclusive” or “elitist”. Without a defined purpose beyond self-centered motivation, gangs, hate groups, and criminal organizations are the result. They even manifest in four of the major archetypes of human development mapped out in the invisible school. In a healthy community, these archetypes are used as profiling tools to better understand and nurture growth. Here they are expressed as the four cardinal directions. In an unbalanced community we see Elders in the form of Original gangstas (north), Capos (West), Foot Soldiers (South), and new recruits (East). This occurs because Heroes journeys without the guidance of healthy mentoring relationships and elders are as powerful as what has occurred in our distant past, accept that the motivators and goals of these journeys are either random, or steeped in self absorbed energy. If we do not provide healthy heroes and archetypes, the children will devise their own. Arguably, they already have.
Even when everything is in place and working well, the outcome can be devastating. When we share primitive skills we awaken primal wiring in the brain. Passionate feelings emerge and folks light up with an interest level they cannot explain or control. It is an enjoyable and profound pursuit of something that is “real” in comparison to their “normal” life. I would argue that what they have been conditioned to view as “Normal” is the baseline of contrived western experience that they were born in to (APART from the natural world, as opposed as a part OF the natural world). In short, some one leaves their family and comes to a primitive skills program for a weekend, and returns home a different person.
This sounds good initially. We unplug a person from “The Matrix” and they come home energized and impassioned about what they know is right and real. They have a mission, a higher purpose for being. They are enlivened. Except, the people in their lives didn’t ask for this. They weren’t notified of an impending change in their loved one and are caught unprepared. Where is the person that they loved? Where is the known quantity and the routine that they have grown to love and be comfortable with? In short order, the person WE taught, no longer speaks the same language as their closest loved ones. There is a division and a loneliness that comes when one cannot share the joy that they have been awakened to. This is especially true with regards to those who feel awakened, yet surrounded by loved ones still “plugged in” to a system that is effective at generating a standardized experience based on, if nothing else, mass conformity .

Next, the initial premise of the invisible school.

Respect and Good Medicine ,
Mike

Living Your Vision

2008-04-24T03:47:00.000-07:00

A while back one of our instructors was helping at another school. The school he was at is amazing, and does great work with plugging children in to their natural environment. On this particular day our guy was frustrated with himself at not being able to convey a skill as effectively as he could have. One of the school's regular staff gently put a hand on his shoulder and said, It's okay, you can't do it all". Without thought, my friend replied, "Why not"?

Everyday I wake up and there is an endless banquet of adventures, challenges, and exciting things to learn. It startles me to see people "acting their age" in this society. Instead of greeting each day with enthusiasm and a joy for their purpose in this world, it seems those steeped in the maturity required of their age slog to the tune of a dirge created by their willingness to succumb to external forces. They have chosen, it seems, to become hapless players in a shallow routine, or victims of someone else's story. Each time I see this "energy" I wonder what ever happened to the wide eyed child to make them this bitter. I automatically honor my mother and even my absent father, for teaching me how to be and what to avoid. There is a remorse for the lost person bundled in routines of fast pace, frustration, and a creeping futility that needs to be drowned out by endless streams of video, cell phones, music and appointments.

To say this realm hasn't touched my life would be untrue. My children bring it home from school every day. Each student that comes to my school has to "unwind" from the general rush of the contrived world of the clock. In fact, until they do, they cannot reach the levels of awareness required for real learning. In my public school life I have to weave the primitive skills in to a construct that enforces the fight or flight response with bells, deadlines, clocks, and calendars. It is almost too late by eighth grade to preserve the sense of timeless wonder responsible for bringing people in to the moment. The elements necessary for a natural curiosity and sense of adventure have been absent for too long by the time I get most of them. Even the teachers unconsciously exude this aura of hapless commitment to something that once "fired them up". Alarmingly, I teach in a rural environment where opportunities to "go out and play" are right out most kid's front door. It would be far too easy to cave to the "pressure" of this artificial environment. To do so would be nothing less than surrendering your purpose for being.
I am sure that it is even more difficult in your world. Do you remember what you wanted to be when you "grew up"? Are you drawn to certain interests, activities, or locations? These are all elements of your identity. Suppressing them, ignoring them, or putting them off to remain entrapped in a "safe" routine is denying your self wholeness, wellness, and your purpose for being. Don't get me wrong, there is a balancing act between living your vision and your obligations to "the matrix", but knowing fully who you are and where you should be is the first step toward achieving that balance.
Holding "sacred space" for your path in this world will make you more content and affect those around you almost immediately. You'll find as soon as you release your commitment to the clock that you get more done and that you enjoy doing the things that used to seem mundane. Traffic jams become an opportunity to unwind and observe people. Challenges, deadlines, expectation, all transform in to an exciting obstacle course that need to managed in order to make room for the space required to be centered and to express your vision.
Many of us have a hunger to express in ways that are not "economically feasible". My purpose is preserving skills handed to us by our ancestors. Delivering these skills as proficiently as possible is my identity. It doesn't pay the bills, but it nourishes my sense of place, gives me joy, and creates a space where I am eager for each day coming and thankful for each day that has passed. Suddenly, the bills aren't that important. When money is tight, as it often is with three children on two teachers salaries, it is something that gets managed quickly in order to keep the space alive for living our vision. In my world we can do it all. It is our story to create and we are the main character. When I dive in to the middle school experience, I keep that light burning bright. By example I show these kids that one light can brighten a darkened room, and I challenge them to be that light.
We need more people living their vision in this world. It is hard, but it is fun. It is exhausting, but it brings peace to your heart and balance in your life. In my world, holding that sacred space for the youth, who desperately want adults to respect and have a hard time finding them in their modern experience, is the real way to "act your age". I'm forty and in a sling. In the last week I have been blessed with being able to work on friction fire, catch spring peepers with my children, teach my eldest son and youngest daughter how to shoot a bow, guided my eldest son through climbing the tree in the backyard higher than he ever has, prepped the garden for planting, built a cold frame, made four shelter videos, taught a class at Unity College, was present for the first wood frog call in the back yard, and fixed the dog runners. Not bad for just using your left hand, huh? Is my shoulder healing as well as it might? No, not really. But recent events have now made that a priority. Mark Morey, a friend who helped create the Vermont Wilderness School, was expecting me at his pace today to help with youth and rites of passage. He asked me an important question after finding out about my shoulder injury. It is a question we should ask ourselves every day. "How is your Sacred Fire, and what is this teaching you"? I knew the answer as soon as it was asked. For me it was that in order to continue to maintain the bright, warm glow of my sacred fire it is now time to honor the wisdom in movement and the gift of your physical being. What will it be for you? Honor that sacred space inside of you. Nurture that fire, that passion, and change the world by fully being that which you were meant to be. In short, be the hero of your own journey, not the victim of someone else's. If you don't know where to begin, go outside and play. Today, I am going to sit beneath the bird feeders and heal.

Respect and Medicine,
Mike Douglas

Living Your Vision

2007-05-14T09:03:00.000-07:00

During one of our last classes I sat and observed a young man who has attended many of the courses we offer. The profiling process for me, after twenty six years of this, comes without a conscious decision to activate it. Like breathing, it just happens. This individual presented about a year ago thoroughly immersed in his own grief. In a clinical setting I would state that he presented with angst and anger surrounding an abnormal concern for environmental issues he percieves are beyond his control. This time, he was different. His economic situation is far worse, and, at the time of the class, he was living in a shelter. Yet, he seemed at ease, relaxed, and eager to be alive. His whole mannerism was that of wellness. It was apparent that while he had no real long term "plan", he was more than content with who he was and where he was at. "Priceless" was the thought the entered my mind. I have had the opportunity to meet and work with the well educated and the affluent; governors, rock stars, and wealthy folks. In each case I found that the criteria for happiness and being grounded had nothing to do with job security, economics, geography, or occupation. Some of the most "self actualized" folks I have met have been homeless, others with multiple homes across the country. Always, for each grounded and joyful life I have encountered, there were a dozen who were somehow prevented from reaching that level of "success". Joy was what seemed to be the missing component. The joy of a sunset with loved ones lasts as long as the sunset, or the loved ones. The joy of fulfilling ones purpose, ones reason for being, ones "vision", lasts a lifetime. Those embroiled in a life that falls short of this might lash out that this is the realm of the "pipe dreamer" or a selfish fantasy. I would answer that living a life of light and beauty is our duty. That, through example, we inspire those around us and encourage wellness to spread through individual accomplishment and fulfillment. Regardless of where that vision brings us, it is always frought with hard work, resistance, and alienation. The primary difference is that these things are our teacher. They test our resolve, sharpen our abilities, raise our awareness, increase our intellect, and validate our being. Those who are off of their path often see the obstacles that come up as excuses, or debilitating circumstances. So what is missing, and how do we find it?

You have to start from the beginning of your own memory. Your purpose is yours alone to discover or, more accurately, relearn. It starts with that "thing" you always wanted to be, or were drawn to as a child. As you grew it was always there. As you let your life unfold, other things, other voices, tempted you away from your purpose. If you are on your path, there is no doubt that you are doing what you are supposed to be doing. If your not on your path, it gnaws at you, huants you. Your favorite t.v. show, animal, topic of discussion all point the way to where you are supposed to be or be doing.

The next piece is faith. It takes a huge leap of faith and a commitment to live your vision. To do so means nothing less than to completely metamorphose in to the well human being that is your birthright. People around you may not recognize who emerges. Many who have fallen in love with, or have become dependant upon the misery and grief that was a part of your character will feel alienated, even betrayed, as you nurture the wellness within your being and let the "dis-ease" slip away. Oddly, with initial growth in to who you truly are, comes a wall of grief. When you awaken the joy, the strands of pain tug harder and become more vibrant. Addressing these is part of the healing process. Once they are dealt with, they become manageable and less overwhelming. It is after this process, which may take years, that living a whole, vibrant, and grounded life can really begin. This metamorphosis is an event to be celebrated.

So, I said to this young man, "You are a well and found being in a world that seems sick and lost." I wanted to let him know that riding that crest is a great thing. That it is easily lost if we get sucked in to the abyss of so many lost souls. It is much more important to walk with wellness as a living example, than to surrender to, and ultimately drown in, the insurmountable grief of those who don't even know they are lost.

The Heavier Side of Survival and Awareness

2007-03-26T13:40:00.000-07:00

We all have reasons that bring us to the study of survival, tracking, and awareness. Some folks are drawn to the tactical aspect of each area of study. Some love the outdoors and use the skills to further immerse themselves in to the temples of creation. Other folks see these skills as a means of becoming connected, self confident, or more independent. The reasons, and combinations of reasons are infinite. The results, however, tend to follow a trend. This trend begins with an increase in over all awareness of ones surroundings. Suddenly, there is no such thing as a "vacant lot". Birds that once went unnoticed convey valuable survival and awareness information through their song, location, or their behaviors. We look at plants with an eye toward food, medicine, fire making, or cordage. The pattern of tree branches aides us in direction finding and where to find an optimum location of dry shelter locations, or fire making materials, or water sources. The landscape becomes an extension of self. For the novice who initially finds themselves "plugging in" to the natural world, regardless of initial intent, any disturbance wrought upon the landscape by those less aware tends to have a traumatic effect. The student of survival, trying to test out their debris shelter for the first time, finds themselves annoyed, even threatened by the par tiers who pull up in their off road vehicles to drink and listen to loud music...even if they used to do the same thing. A practitioner of edible and medicinal plant study might get upset when they find that the field they forage in has recently been sprayed by pesticides. Beyond this, there is the grief one experiences when loved ones can not connect the way you do when you are out side. After spending years observing the subtle changes in the seasons, the patterns of growth, and the movement of wild life, it would take hours for you to explain what you see and notice in an instant to someone who has not patterned on the natural environment and how energy flows through that environment.

Awareness leads to empathy, and empathy often leads to grief. Like any period of growth, a certain degree of discomfort, even pain, is to be expected. What should not be expected is a prolonged wallowing in this "tracker grief". Some have likened this bout with alienation or hyper sensitivity as a wall. This is a good description in that it feels like you are smacking in to a disorienting wall of pain. But it is more accurately a semi-permeable veil or mist. It is something we can get lost in but, with the right supports, we not only find ourselves on the other side, we find ourselves stronger and wiser for the wear.

This is important. We all know that a positive mental attitude is the number one determining factor in a survival situation. Growing through the primary wall of grief and learning to embrace reoccurring trauma and pain as teachers and opportunities helps strengthen that primary directive. A degree of peace and strength is achieved when we are confronted with the choice as to whether we are to be victims of circumstance, or heroes of our own journey .

The trick then, is to not shut off your empathy, as that is the key to razor sharp awareness, but to not "own" the destruction, alienation, or grief as your own. Simply acknowledge the situation and ask yourself where the lessons and opportunities reside in the event or situation. I use the word "simply" sarcastically. It takes the initial overwhelming experience and artful mentoring by a supportive community to be able to handle reoccurring bouts of grief around the same incident, or new events. This is done through recognizing grief through symptoms, linking what is perceived to the actual event that caused the grief, and finding an appropriate venue to release the grief or turn it's energy in to something therapeutic or productive.

For this, we look to native cultural tools and modern scientific research. They are startlingly supportive of each other with regards to stress, distress, and recovery. Ceremony, quest experiences, and the heroes journey are a small part of the repertoire of recovery techniques. The nuts and bolts of these skills are too extensive to be covered in this one entry, and are best handled through our more esoteric courses. It should be noted that the broader perspective regarding this "cycle" is that it is a cycle of profound learning rather than a crippling one time experience if viewed through the kaleidoscope of a healthy culture. For more information, instructional videos, details about our staff, school, or courses, please visit http://www.primitiveskills.com

Increasing your intelligence by playing in the woods

2007-02-15T11:26:00.000-08:00

The hardest part about really learning, not the rote memorization of lifeless fact found in our public schools, is that it gets inside of you and changes you. Real learning involves every aspect of our being. Nothing could be more perfect an illustration of this than Tracking. Tracking involves memory, measurement, knowledge of physics, behavioral sciences, meteorology, ecology, geology, and fluid dynamics. As we track, the trail rarely remains constant. Strides shorten and elongate as elevation and speed changes. The "formula" does not remain static. We do not have an eraser to fix mistakes on a paper that does not move or reflect our own shortcomings as we accidentally erase the trail with our own in our eagerness to solve the mystery. I would put a tracker against a mathematician any day for problem solving ability, and I teach math and science for a living. When I bring the technologies of hunter-gatherer cultures in to our seventh grade culture, I know of only one certainty....hold on to your hats. I say this because really learning and having adolescents as students in combination is a whirlwind of emotion fraught with angst, uncertainty, and explosive events. In short, it is everything it is supposed to be, but not allowed to fully become. It is the invisible school, and a sort of rehab for injured and atrophied minds. Let me explain.

The western mind of today, that's yours and your children's way of looking at and interpreting the universe, has patterned on very short pieces of information and images given at a sixth grade reading level and spoken with loudness and repetition. These "sound and image bites" come at us in two to four second bursts. Time a cartoon or television program to see how long it takes a scene to change if you need verification on this. In our cities it tends to be even more compressed, as we expect our food, comfort, information, and transportation to occur almost instantaneously. As a result, we have developed a brain that expects a "reality" of instant gratification. With quick and darting eyes we scan the landscape for that which can serve us and discount the rest. As a result the gifts of our ancestors lie dormant. Our innate yearnings are stifled, ridiculed and soon forgotten under the pressure of quizzes, tests, exams, and deadlines. The time piece becomes our master, delegating how much time we spend at each event as our mind races from the last appointment toward the next. We talk in our cars as we speed across invisible landscapes, building a mythical future at the expense of the moment. All the while, that yearning small voice knows there is more, that something isn't being satisfied, that a very important piece of the personal landscape is being neglected.
We wake up one morning as adults. Moments before the alarm goes of your mind, trained as smartly as a soldier, commands you to turn it off and begin your routine. You can no longer sit comfortably alone and without distraction. Your logical mind has been so conditioned that it automatically craves the distraction of the cell phone, the blackberry, the laptop, the news program, or the text. Welcome to the Matrix.
For hundreds of years we have intuitively known that nature has "therapeutic" benefits. Now we can prove it. Everything from the shades of greens and browns, to the sounds and smells of the natural landscape effect our entire being. We know that children who are allowed to climb trees and play in the mud are better adjusted than their near sterile counterparts. Creativity increases and stress levels decrease as we head to the wild places to "get away from it all". Every major belief system hails the importance of "the temples of creation". In modern brain research we know that the natural landscape induces the "alpha" state. In other words, we find our selves relaxed, yet aware. Our creative juices begin to flow. Our physical resistance to disease and self healing mechanisms are optimized. We can learn faster and easier as well as remember things with greater ease and accuracy. We now have the technology to see how the Reticular Activating System (RAS) no longer filters out the "crush" of sounds that is our modern society once we are removed from it. Suddenly we are moving with more efficiency, talking less and hearing more. Our whole body begins to awaken. Our senses tingle and our stress melts away. Three days in to a wilderness experience a hermit thrush singing sounds almost deafening, yet we don't cringe. Instead we are surprised to have never heard such a beautiful song. The RAS in our minds filtered all that wasn't necessary while we ran, like hamsters on a wheel, the never ending cycle of from home to work, work to lunch, lunch to work, and work to home. When we leave our quest for "manifest destiny" we begin to see what we already have. This is the magic of learning anything that gets you deeper in to the out of doors. Many folks I know are old and broken. They have become bitter at the realization they worked hard for a living, sacrificing health and happiness for forty plus years, and they have never truly lived. Now, at the end of their trail, they look back at the wasted and meaningless efforts of thankless toil, all at the expense of the youthful joy they yearned for all of that time. If only someone could have shown them that the clock could be forgotten and that the backyard had all that they needed. Life would have been the joyful dance I experience every day, along with the many others who track and play in this wild landscape.

Notes from the Director

2007-01-10T18:08:00.000-08:00

Running a Wilderness Survival and Tracking School is not nearly as fun as learning and teaching at one. This blog is designed to help emergent skills schools avoid all of the mistakes we made and also to fill in some of the skills gaps that the other instructors aren't writing about. I know I should remain professional and detached when I share thoughts here, but that isn't possible. I have this thing bout being a human being and there is a certain degree of honesty in sharing thoughts and ideas that might challenge folks, including you. First, I want to address some "reality" shows and how they have impacted a lot of wilderness survival and nature education programs. I feel the show "Survivor" did more harm to the wilderness skills community than any other show. Instead of delving in to skills and community cooperation, or group survival strategies, it turned in to a soap opera. The newer "reality" type programs where one guy goes out with a camera and suffers by dragging himself out of the woods doesn't do a lot for the public either. Most of this is due to the producers obsession with having to get out of the situation instead of real techniques being demonstrated that could actually save lives. The shelters are usually haphazzard, the skills are barely touched upon with regard to water gathering, fire making, food procurement and real versus perceived hazzards. There is also a degree of "lack of knowledge" by those who advise and produce each show. One man slept in a metal aircraft on ice and wondered why he was so cold, the same guy harvested the aerial parts of Cattail in the fall and complained they were already past the time they could be eaten when the rich starchy tubers lay in the soft mud inches from his feet. On a similar show a man risked his life belaying off a cliff to get to a high way on parachute cord. The technique is well established, but completely unnecessary, and hardly worth the risk in a real situation. Either, might I add, is the need to squeeze moisture out of animal dung for water. This type of sensationalism is often impractical, inaccurate and at times, dangerous. There is no reason to point the finger at the host, or any one person for these productions and what they portray. Who knows what was edited and who made what decisions. The best one can do is take notes and test the skills presented on your own or against your own experiences. We are lucky here. I go out atleast once a month in a full or semi survival trip, and have instructors who do the same. We train as a staff four times a year and practice skills on our own at least twice a month related to survival, tracking and awareness. Every day I find myself learning or sharing new things within our staff and community of students and other schools. My only regret is that millions of viewers, having seen the "Survival Dude" type shows may actually believe they can whip out a bow drill fire from materials on the landscape any time they need to after seeing one episode. For more information, instructional videos, details about our staff, school, or courses, please visit http://www.primitiveskills.com