From TreeSouls@aol.com Fri May 27 22:18:26 1994 Date: Fri, 27 May 94 22:08:48 EDT From: TreeSouls@aol.com To: london@sunsite.unc.edu Subject: Applied Ecopsychology Article Hello, Recently you downloaded an article "Beyond Meditation" by Dr. M.J. Cohen at reconnecting-info@igc.apc.org. I thought you might be interested in reading a recent article from "Psychology Today" (May/June 1994 issue). Exciting things are happening! The next free e-mail course will start June 21st and another one is planned for September. If you are interested in learning more, or if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Thanks for your interest and enjoy the article! Sincerely, Linda Counseling With Nature: The process of achieving personal and global integrity >From the druids of the Celtic forests to the great tribes of American Indians, people have sought peace and wisdom by living according to the laws of Mother Nature. Unfortunately, this century will be remembered for unprecedented exploitation of nature--and widespread psychological disturbance of individuals. No coincidence to Michael J. Cohen, Ed.D., pioneer of what he calls integrated ecology. A synthesis of ecology and psychology, integrated ecology proposes that both the destruction of the Earth's environment and people's deep feelings of isolation and dysfunction stem from a fundamental denial of our connection to nature. And by going into the woods we can get out of the woods. Western civilization emphasizes only the faculties of sight, reason, and language, forcing most of us to suppress our natural senses--all 53 of them, by Cohen's reckoning. Among them: hunger, thirst, compassion; color, sex, place; community, nurturing and peace. Spending over 95% of our lives cloistered and indoors leaves these natural sensory connections wanting; human evils--cigarette smoking to greed to violence --naturally follow. Cohen is not a lone hunter of the bond between man and nature. According to Pulitzer-Prize winning sociobiologist Edward O. Wilson, Ph.D., of Harvard, people have an inherent biological need to be in contact with the out-of-doors. He calls it "biophilia", and believes that nature may hold the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive, and even spiritual satisfaction. Our childhood love of animals and natural myths and fairy tales may be early evidence of our basic affinity for nature and its instructive and healing properties. Counseling by campfire? Cohen has devised therapeutic home study training manuals, workshops, courses and vacations whose activities, in backyards or back country, re-create many conditions of earlier hunting, gathering, and communal living. In "The Humanistic Psychologist" (Vol. 21, No. 3), he reports that while on these education programs, participant's personality and eating disorders subside, learning and other cognitive abilities improve, and violence and prejudice dissolve. His participants learn to do unforgettable nature connecting activities that catalyze these results throughout their lives. Gradually, a deep environmental literacy evolves that rejuvenates their natural senses, balances and joy. >From his home base at the World Peace University in Roche Harbor, Washington (206-378-6313), Cohen runs Project NatureConnect, which offers books, workshops, training programs and information about ecologically oriented therapeutic methods. * * * Adopted from the 5/5/94 Psychology Today article by Paul Glanzrock.