RESPONSE FROM ROBERT ....
Walker's "brief poetic interlude" First, Walker's "brief poetic interlude" (aha! attempting to slip that in!) makes a good case for poetry as both a facilitator of human-nature relating, and as a very potent mode for communicating such experiences. There is one phrase that stops me, however. When Walker says "rather than talking about the human-nature relationship" -- implying that that's all ecopsychology does or can do -- especially my version, adopting a return to the inclusion of "scientific ecology", etc. And I believe that viewpoint demeans the potential of science, of rationality, of serious ecology, even of most psychologies! (Not to mention that it implies that poetry is above all that, and is not "about" things!) As I hope we can demonstrate over time -- yes, in words and concepts, stories, myths, and "pointings-to-experience" -- ecopsychologists and naturalists, even resource managers have transcendent experiences as frequently as do poets, musicians, and dancers-on-tops-of-mountains. We're discussing differences in routes up the mountains, as the Buddhist's describe different spiritual paths. The issue isn't who gets there first, or who gets higher than the folks on a different trail, but can we all make the peak of "Mt. Transcendence" (i.e., non-duality) whichever path works for us. So Walker! dampen the bias -- this isn't a lecture, but a pointing to a experiences that were nestled within the earliest forms of ecopsychology, got lost in the rush to embrace all modes of human-nature relating (including poetry) as "ecopsychology", losing over time a potential worth joining with all the many other routes to the summit. "Interlude" ... yeah, right! Another view of Walker's "interlude" statement Yes, the dominant culture within which we are all embedded is a juggernaut of reductionistic, materialistic, objectified (and increasingly technologized) basically dualistic Mode of Knowing. So, to paraphrase the bumper sticker, "I'd rather be doing music". But I believe the tragedy of dualism can be overcome by didactic means as well -- like, an extrapolation that utilizes fully rational (in this case, scientific thought) in a full-on embrace of ecology, coupled with a wide range of experiences depicted via both "findings" and metaphorical analysis (a psychology), and find depth and potential solutions -- to at least compliment those other modes that seem to many students "easier" or perhaps less affiliated with the Dominant Culture via the Academy. Perhaps we can find a synergy that moves the healing process, moves our understanding, facilitates the essential evolution we need out of which solutions to the massive environmental crisis can be found. So again, a strong ecological- psychological juxtaposition as ecopsychology ("EP") isn't being presented here as an alternative to poetic consciousness (e-gads!) but as a complimentary path. Such a didactic path isn't for everyone, just as not everyone can carry a tune, but before hardening up the resistance, think for a moment what a beautiful surfboard a fully developed EP might provide for the singing surfer -- or a base for very expansive poetry -- similarly to how Deep Ecology provided Gary Snyder with such rich insights into his own experiences of "wilderness" and "nature"; or that enhanced (according to her) the powder-snow skiing skills of Dolores la Chapelle! Further comments on Walker's "Interlude" comments With regard to the "psychological" and "physical" wilderness boundaries of wilderness areas -- yes, I've always found it easy to enter physically, very hard to bring the mind fully along. Harder now than when I began crossing the wilderness border many decades ago, in these days of minds cluttered with the billions of culture-bits. For the "wilderness experience" to be more than a brief interlude in one's cultural life, or a place for cheap therapy (the exploitation of wilderness, seen as resource for the broken, distorted psyches of our time, or a projection of Disney-like fantasy -- strong preparation, strong practices, rituals, and time -- a long time -- is needed. (And perhaps less Gore Tex and duplications of one's urban cuisine.) And your other "interlude" comment -- that it is easier to "drop the cultural flood" alone, rather than in the group -- I don't think I ever said that, nor do I believe it. I've found that there are some discoveries "in wilderness" that can only happen in groups -- and some only alone. It is as easy to avoid being fully present in the wilderness alone as it is in a group. A ritual, for example, say, built around tuning into the fire with a group of people is potentially as strong a channel into the wilderness as is sitting on a mountain peak, alone, for a number of days. (I DO believe that the so called 5-7-day "Vision Quest" activities in wilderness frequently have difficulty escaping the cultural forms whether alone or together -- not enough time.) ............................................................................................................................................................................. So Now, "Into the Wild", with Real Ecopsychology as Map So, now, let us (temporarily, I hope) drop the joys of poetry and music, and see what a "strictly constituted" focused EP (including both psychology and ecology) wilderness trip might look like. And be used as a map. First, a Couple of Caveats: (1) It's hard to say, from my current age, looking backwards in time, whether I too would just relax, say "forget it", and enjoy "poetry in the wilderness", or just, "zen" (and dance -- and ritual, a Bone Game or two) -- singing, fires, beautiful physical exertion, swimming in icy streams, baking on hot rocks, camaraderie of a group depending on each other for survival, the storing of exquisite (and sometimes scary) experiences that will "never stop giving" throughout life. I mean, isn't that enough?? (2) I also have difficulty finding full justification for such pleasures, given the state of the world and the fact that we live within a delusional bubble of privilege -- that wilderness, that would be a place to search for food for about 1/3rd to half of the world, exists for healing disease born of our culture. Do our wilderness discoveries and pleasures -- does "the wilderness effect" -- indeed filter down into the level of value- and wide-spread-opinion change? etc. So we push that aside, and we'll focus on dear Antoinette, a junior and in the last quarter of a two-year Greenway Ecopsychology Program at Walker University, which, if she survives, will culminate in a certificate of completion, good to hang up in the employees room of the local chain coffee house, her interlude while sending out applications for "wilderness work" and "ecopsychology" adjunct teaching jobs, honing her skills at attempts to participate in The Great Turning, she hopes, so that if this civilization can't be saved, the next one, growing from the Remnants, might start with the best possible non-dual oomph. As required for the two-year ecopsychology program, she has so far: - studied the 10 basic books of the ecopsychology canon (cf., earlier blog) -- required to scope out the various assumptions about the human-nature relationship either proclaimed, or more likely hidden, in the various books; - explored 10 other (other than ecopsychological) approaches to "the human-nature relationship" -- ranging from poetry and literature, art, dance, music, science, tantric sex, and food (cooked or raw). (The exploratory use of psychedelics, not officially allowed, has drawn frequent involvement with a third or so of the students in the program.) - diligently done the required meditation and yoga practices, has had several surprising "Kensho" experiences while sitting "Vapassana", and a rather severe Kundalina energy crisis at the end of too many "downward dogs"; - prepared for the two first-year wilderness experiences; -- the first of those led by a NOLS instructor -- mostly to learn how to travel lightly, "leaving no trace" etc. in the back country, and to tie tarps in hurricane-force winds while avoiding nearby lightening strikes. ( -- the second trip, following a human-nature journal-writing and "great nature-books" protocol, as well as introducing the psychological effects of sitting around fires into the night while avoiding texting and other electronically-assisted noospheric experiences, deepens the first wilderness experience class, and prepares for the one to come; - studied the philosophy of dualism and it's effect of isolating heretofore integrated aspects of the psyche, the culture, reality, as well as secondary effects and aspects of dualism, such as projection, anthropomorphism, various bi-polar psychopathology, and difficulties between genders, and humans and cats. She will have read Emerson, Dewey, Bateson, some Wilber, and poetry of Jeffers, Snyder, Abel, Oliver, etc. - passed the difficult test, the assignment, of "achieving intimacy with another species" -- without anthropomorphism -- and has developed a way of communicating this experience of intimacy with others; - carried her pack, with 50 pounds of books in it, for over a year. ( Most of the campus either believes she has a food-consumption problem, or is a hunchback. She doesn't care, thinks of the pack as a badge of honor, and as payback for being so addicted to books as a kid); - delved deeply into the courses in ecology -- learning what "ecological thinking" is, undertaking serious ecological study of a portion of the campus, and, on a larger scale, of the local bioregion (including culture and weather) -- learning to choose between various approaches to ecology, and the basic language inherent in the field -- able to define such terms ecologically as: resilience, sustainability, energy flows, principle of critical factors, succession of forms, and, most of all, relationships between all forms (observed, or hidden). She has been able to come to the conclusion that "ecology" is not the only way to access one's environment (whether acculturated or "nature") -- but that it is a way to develop insights not available via other modes of knowing; - surveyed the field of psychology, in a culture awash in pop-psychology and psychotherapy, and now understands how this massive psychobabble has entered into many forms of ecopsychology as "ecotherapy" -- which she finds as an interesting though sometimes ridiculous phenomenon, including "wilderness therapy", human-horse therapy, dogs in hospitals, gardening, and scientific studies of whether or not parks are good for one's health. The course requires that she either choose one of the many psychologies, or to draw from various psychologies, adopting and adapting as many aspects as she wishes, but is required to prepare a clear summary of her own psychology and present to the EP students, including at least, specifically, the use of psychology as a tool for understanding in a general way (at least) human learning and development (what "stage of development" will she be in (and will her fellow students be in) when she next makes the journey into the wilderness); an understanding of dreams, archetypes, Maslow's "hierarchy of needs", group dynamics, cognition, "self psychology" and especially such terms such as "ego" and "ego-development", and "intersubjectivity" -- all expected to be part of her basic understanding. ("Peak Experiences" will be a pleasant attribute of her knowledge and the source of endless jokes among her colleagues.) Antoinette has pulled all this together over the past almost-two years, with two wilderness journeys behind her, high wilderness-survival-skills level, and so on. She knows what others do in wilderness, and for what reason; she knows the history of wilderness-as-idea in American Culture, and especially of the unique privilege of having wilderness to visit, and the luxury of time to do so. She is aware of the loss of wilderness, even in Western America -- and the instructors' promise to find "deep solitude" for the group. With the mixture of "preparation" now underway for almost two years, Antoinette has learned to not just adopt concepts (and especially not adopt information) without linking them to her own experience, or her rapport with others' experiences through the arts. Thus, an "idea of wilderness" -- as a cultural artifact, for example -- is already interactive with her own deep discoveries (joyful, to say the least) in wilderness excursion's she has already made. But when she ponders the goal of the wilderness experience and in general the goal of adopting the "map" to the experience that the ecopsychology she is constructing provides, she continues to be skeptical as to whether two fields, so conceptually laden as are "psychology" and "ecology", will move her to that non-dual place -- that place of "querencia" -- that her instructors frequently speak of, and which she feels more and more able to access via her yoga and mediation (and occasional entheogen) experiences. Why adopt such a rigorous "ecology-psychology" amalgamation, when there are so many other ways that seem to work -- to achieve the course's intention: to reach a "higher" stage of consciousness??? Her teachers argue that doing so isn't an alternative to the other ways, but (1) a parallel approach that touches places not touched by "the other ways", and (2) an approach that will deepen her own experiences -- especially in a way that "bridges" the masses in the dominant culture, including the growing army of techno-crazed people who think they can give up on "nature" altogether. So, out to the wilderness. Our Antoinette, along with her fellow students, have justified their use of petroleum and awesome vehicles by pledging carbon exchanges, and mitigation processes. Their gear is loaded, they bid goodbye to loved ones, make sure the electricity is turned off, and that the dog and/or cat will be cared for ..... and it's racing through an early morning, whizzing by farms and malls, telephone poles, noise of engines and radios ... and then silence, relative silence, that for some, though already experienced at least for the two earlier wilderness trips, is rarely or never experienced. It is jolting. Immediately "awakening" for some. They divide food ("just enough"), leave all books and writing material behind -- anything unessential -- circle together by the cars to promise each other that there will be no accidents, receive instruction as to how to walk in silence -- leaving space between each person. The essence of entry psychologically, physically, and spiritually into the wilderness, they are encouraged to understand, is analogous to an encounter with a lover. To what degree and in what instances will this ecopsychology "map" serve as a guide for achieving the intent of the trip, and of the entire program? The ways vary, and are legion. Here are a few possibilities (most been tried, some are speculative). Ecological Considerations: - overall, ecology helps "see into" the health of the wilderness -- if one knows where to look and what to look for. Physical damage from too many "boots on the ground" is obvious, near trails, or in fragile mountain meadows, for example. Lack of large carnivores is typical, with attendant signs of over-populated sub-populations. Or insect infestations, signs of disease in forests or other plant life. The health of fish populations along watersheds -- all this compared with studies of earlier times, or comparisons with earlier trips. - with more limited-area observations -- say a particular bend in the river, a square laid out in a meadow or along a ridge, with student's able to make full ecological assessments -- from ground insects, nocturnal animals and insects -- all carefully observed. Such observation might be fully "ecologically oriented", and yet mesh well with an "alone-time" period (see below) - with interrelationships (apart from humans, at first) carefully observed. What signs of, say, bear or coyote or river otters from close observations of scat, or markings on trees or rocks. Holes in the ground, nests, etc. -- study what animals are eating ... other animals, insects, plant life; what is "perturbing" the area chosen for study, etc. - an "ecological survey" might be based on studies of vegetative succession that follows rises and falls in altitude (or -- from past studies if available, showing seasonal changes, historic changes. - An ecological viewpoint might also include weather, moon cycles, shifts in sun patterns, even more cosmic events. The ecological approach is to see that all levels are to be studied as one interactive system. Psychological Considerations - Wilderness excursions are known to arouse strong psychological effects -- or at least to provide time and space for existing psychological states to become conscious -- either through day-time awareness, or through the consciousness arising in dreams. Most psychological input during the space wilderness provides is repetitive (no need to grasp at them, they'll come again!). Most reflect -- as always -- the history of a person, the wounds carried, the strengths and weakness, the ability to process, to not over-process, to observe (both externally and internally -- both objectively and subjectively). - The key to "healing the human-nature relationship" (presuming this to be the -- or at least one - of the foundational intensions of the EP program and the wilderness experience within that program) is to be able to experience relationships in expansive and healthy ways. What this actually means emerges over time with practice. The ground for the relationship will be the encounter with one's " psychological knowledge" (about oneself and others) with one's "ecological knowledge" -- developed both before a wilderness trip and especially during one. - The few ecopsychologies that have both "psychology" and "ecology" tend to jump into the process of their juxtaposition too soon. Extended stays in the wilderness allow time for such "relating" to take place. It can start in a formal manner ("here's my mind, flowing with tree-archetypal images -- from Jung, Hillman, etc.") "here's my curiosity about the life (and wisdom? and interest in me?) of the tree", all sorts of detailed questions might arise; "here's my need to feel the tree ... to wonder at its life". Our student Antoinette wonders all these things, feels unpleasantness at the distance from the object of her curiosity (or awe, or affection) and decides to hug the tree, pressing against it, feeling, not the warmth of a fellow human, or the terror from the embrace of a large carnivore who might see her as dinner, but something, apparently, unresponsive. Here, her "rational ego" might draw from her memory of botany (tree) studies, their incredible relationship with soil fungi ("mycorrhizae"), their water and food transport systems, their need for many trees around them, the water they tap into; and (perhaps a key) a relationship forms as her knowledge opens her mind -- from her needs to the trees -- and then (if lucky ... perhaps over time) the growing awareness that here she is, and here is the tree: two beings, alive, in some very very subtle ways interacting. By doing this (again and again) Antoinette can begin to sort out the cultural projections commonly emanating from humans to trees, etc. - these are psychological concepts I have found crucial as a base for joining psychological language with ecological knowledge: · the ego, as need-fulfilling function (an heuristic, but a useful one); · the ego functioning in accord with Maslow's hierarchy of needs; · the degree to and patterns by which consciousness enters into the human-relating process -- whether via perception, intuition, other levels of awareness; · the ability to focus for long periods of time; · the distortion of reality - the penchant for dualistically splitting the world (and the mind, and all things) into separate (and separated spheres). · The "lesions" that might exist due to blocked "lines of development" that still spin out ego-shaping energies. (Here I tend to draw on the work of Ken Wilber -- his crystal-clear gatherings of thousands of "findings" -- in order to track on the lines of development; and to put those lines of development into the four major "realms" of how people look at the world: I. Individual Subjective, II. Individual Objective; III. Collective Subjective; IV. Collective Objective -- his four-quadrant summary of "domains" that shape the mind, when, added to multiple "lines of development" -- with everyone at different levels of development, with different "lesions" along those lines, tending to use as a "center of gravity" this or that of the four major perspectives -- result in his now famous and exceedingly useful "AQAL" map. Within this, the above connections or "modes of relating" arise at many points; Wilber's "Integral Psychology" tends to touch on most or all of them. This, or other "transactional-" or "self-" or "holistic-" psychologies can result in a bewildering array of sometimes contradictory concepts. Antoinette, through personal reading, personal explorations, and guidance through dialogue with teachers, has put together her own (tentative) psychological "map". This she brings with her, into a wilderness with which she seeks relationship, via ecological studies -- a relationship meant to be one of equality. - And (finally!) -- during initial walk-in, during times around a fire, encouragement to avoid chattering, especially about "the other world", times moving along trails, times exploring, time alone, perhaps ritual times -- in every situation (not obsessively, but as often as is comfortable) the "psychology" and the "ecology" are considered as constant guides for processing experience. ("I am now ....." '' it is now....") and, in time there is a "we" that emerges, even an "I-Thou" emerges, and the experience begins to transcend the separate self walking into those mighty "resources" over there. "We" are in each other's presence. (and again, the group experience of this uncovers interesting differences than the individual experience -- simply because the experience itself (group vs. individual) is profoundly different, though the "channel" into "the center" ("querencia") often gets to the same place. Summary: minds – fully engaged rational ordering of knowledge – fully engaged projections of acculturated and romanticized assumptions – filtered out Antoinette finds her place in her context in ways she has never before experienced. First the experience, then the poetry. .......................................................................................................................................................................... Explanatory note: querencia a beautiful Spanish sound -- has grown from many experiences, such as "being at the center", or reaching "the stillpoint", or the "moment of truth" long noticed in the bullfight, when the animal-human relationship reaches some kind of balance, prior to death (of the animal, of course). I have several friends, working deep within Jungian psychology, who resonate with the word -- meaning for them something like "synergy", the place where synchronicity occurs -- the place of "an expanded consciousness". I like all of the above, and would add, from an ecological perspective: every "system" seems to have a "center" -- what poets might call "the motif" of the system. (And, an aside, note that our galaxy swirls around a "center" -- which happens to be a black hole -- but we won't ... go there. "Querencia works for that center as well ....) And so, in a true ecology-psychology EP, querencia becomes that motif, that center, arising when the two systems (the psychology, and the ecology) are meshing (like those collisions far off in the universe when two galaxy collide, and come to share a common center!) And the experience of finding that center (common in meditation and yoga practices) can also happen in a true ecology/psychology EP -- "peak experiences" ... "kensho" ... "the numinous experience" .... and so on. And, here's the pitch, it tends not to happen when EP slights ecology, and wraps itself in the confusions of psychology alone.
1 Comment
While we wait for Robert's next response, I thought I'd insert a brief poetic interlude.
For those that know me, and which may be obvious on this web site, I consider myself more of a poet than a prose expositor of ecopsychology. I do my best with that latter mode of expression, but so often for me, a poem gets to the heart of the matter more efficiently. As we all know, rather than talking "about" the human/nature relationship, a poem can aspire to be an actual "expression" from a particular (and preferred) quality of that relationship. Some poems may serve as emissaries or ambassadors from another way of being, and they show us something gently, rather than lecturing us. They often may choose to draw us toward something in the human/nature relationship, rather than tell us where we are lacking or wounded. My house itself is in what most would consider a quite remote location, and yet I am still surprised at how even a short backpack into a wilder location can alter my perceptions and feelings. I'm a proponent of that, though evidence seems to be that fewer and fewer are actually going backpacking these days. Furthermore, I'm a proponent of going alone sometimes. To briefly use Greenway terms, there is something he calls the "psychological wilderness boundary". He says it is very easy to cross the physical boundary, but more difficult and subtle to let go some of our cultural conditioning and enter wilderness in some kind of "healed" way. In any case, a group Greenway trip usually includes some Alone Time, because he notes that it is very easy in company to carry the culture, and some more chance for it to drop away when we are left alone in the more-than-human. So this simple poem gets at these ideas a bit: But Three Miles In Grass and oak trees, river below. Couple days of rain life is fine under tarp. When color fades at dusk stems with sheen of water shapeshift to pure silver. Oaks are silent as their roots and silent the mountain clouds move. Only three miles in there’s a place so big lift one leaf, it’s uncovered.
Thank you, Robert, for your careful and articulate words.
Your annotated book list is extremely helpful, since I know you read about everything out there, so to get your winnowed down selections is enlightening to me, as I'm sure it will be to all viewers, especially younger ecopsychologists wanting to develop their background in the subject. But let me dive into your opening summary about ecopsychology and the meaning of that term. While I agree with you entirely that the term ecopsychology is now applied to a vast array of disparate and only loosely connected ideas and emphases, I must say that I think the enterprise of trying to reclaim that term in some way closer to what you would like it to mean, is a lost cause. That crossroads was passed long ago. Massive and hidden currents carry cultural language one way or another, and whether we like it or not, the momentum of those currents has carried "ecopsychology" into the broadness that you would prefer to call "human/nature relationship studies" or something like it. I would suggest as an alternative, for us at least in this discussion, which is to try to find and adopt a new term that would represent what you wish "ecopsychology" had come to mean. I will say in my own life and discussions with others, I tend to refer to what I know of your theories as "Greenway ecopsychology". That immediately creates a subset, and it allows us to fruitfully compare that subset with other subsets. Now the term "Greenway ecopsychology" may not be your ultimate choice, but I wonder what you might come up with? Along these lines, we might for a moment look at what other ecopsychologists (human-nature relationists) are doing to define their subsets. From your own booklist, we have for example Andy Fisher and "radical" ecopsychology. We have the Wilber people with "integral ecology". Freya Mathews has "panpsychism". Warwick Fox, "transpersonal ecology". As you know better than me, there are dozens and dozens of others. We might think of David Abram and his phenomenology, Joanna Macy and despair and empowerment, Richard Louv and the nature principle, Jon Young and "deep nature connection", Bill Plotkin with soul craft, Starhawk and others with a goddess or pagan slant, Thich Nhat Hahn and lots of others with various environmental Buddhism spinoffs, and of course all the people with rites of passages of one kind or another. So yes, the field is vast and disparate, but what you have developed has its own unique parameters and its own unique contribution to the whole, but like all subsets, it will also have areas of overlap with what others are saying and doing. Furthermore, since you were one of the originals, before "ecopsychology" had even been coined, I think many of your ideas and practices that were cutting edge and revolutionary at the time, have now been incorporated into their "ecopsychologies", though they may not even know the role you played in bringing them into the cultural matrix. For me, when I think about this subset I'm temporarily calling "Greenway ecopsychology", a number of core ideas come to mind. Certainly, the "psychological wilderness boundary" as opposed to the physical map-drawn wilderness boundary, is significant. You have had volumes to say about how difficult it can be, but how important it is, to be able at least temporarily to step free of our cultural conditioning (which imprints us with a dualistic and alienated relationship with nature) and to experience some degree of true connection, intimacy, and belonging with nature. As part of that, you have analyzed the "disease" or "dysfunction" of current Western materialistic/scientific culture as well as anyone I know. You have made the dynamics and ramifications of "dualism" a particular focus of your theories. Besides wilderness work, you have also worked with and taught meditation as a path of healing, along with many other simple practices like gardening, eating, singing, etc. So maybe as the next direction to go here, I can ask you to consider this idea of beginning to set out more clearly the domain of "Greenway ecopsychology". Your first step may be to propose an alternative tag. One place where I am unclear (even me, your devoted student) is exactly how "ecology" is intertwined with your "psychology". In other words, I don't really remember the science of ecology being a big part of our studies or practice. I mean I always knew it was present, as an underlying influence, but it didn't seem to play as active a role as psychology, sociology, anthropology, consciousness studies, etc. If I had to pick one place where I think your ecopsychology excels, it is in your analysis and critique of the mechanics by which our current culture creates its ego formations and all the problems therein. (As a side note, let me say that this blogging so far is all dealing with theory. I will say now, however, for future directions in this blog, that for me it was your applied practice of group wilderness trips in which you really worked your magic. Truly, that's where it all happened, and I saw great revelations rippling through myself and others. We'll want to talk at some point about what you "did" out there, what the group "did" to each other, and what nature "did" to us all.) |
AuthorDiscussion between Walker Abel and Robert Greenway. Archives
January 2015
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