The Nature of Consciousness and the Selfless Experience - Christopeher Shannon

i wanted to put my paper up here so people could see it and comment on it/ give suggestions... it took FOREVER and i did alot of hard work and research on the brain and stuff.... SOOOO... check it out! i think its preaty interesting!

here it is. comment

Empty yourself of everything
Let the mind rest at peace.
The ten thousand things rise and fall while the Self watches
Their return
They grow and flourish and then return to the source.
Returning to the source is stillness, which is the way of nature.
- Laotzu 600 BCE

A man’s life is lead as a man; throughout his time on earth he is self-aware. This is the one attribute with which mankind is most intimately linked; The human animal is inseparable from himself. Without his identity, his consciousness, the world would not exist. This feature is rarely cherished or even considered. Nature is not so vain, it holds no high ideal of itself, it has no concept of ego. It is happy to exist. The cruel joke then is that the entire of a man’s life is spent trying to reach such an existence as nature, to reclaim Eden lost. Despite his mighty ego the only way man can experience an authentic relationship with nature, a true comunitas, is through loss of self; without this his subconscious conception changes the landscape through intent. The nature of consciousness, though more complex then explanation is capable, has been predicated on mans ability to conceive abstract ideas which in turn is predicated on communication, the divine spark and great gift. Only by losing ego, whether by choice or design, is man thrust back to his natural state lacking any intention towards the outside world. During these moments the universe can be experienced without understanding or deliberation.

In this essay nature is to mean that which is not self. All things are of nature and therefore natural. It is the ego of man that tries to define it. The dirt and the smoke are the same; the oil and the water too. The conscious self fools man into believing he can identify nature, a ploy of communication which incorrectly sets us above the natural world. The ego in this context, not meant as the ego of Freud (although usually interchangeable), is taken from the Latin for self and includes all parts of its meaning. Understanding the mechanism of our consciousness may ultimately free us from our egos and allow us to experience that which is not. Here the essay will first address self, what it is and how it exists. Then it will discuss examples of existence without self, in mans practical existence. The last section will deal with the loss of self and pure existence.

The Nature of Self and Tie to Communication:

Communication, meant as conceptualization much broader then language, is the simplest tool with which the psyche may construct self awareness and conception. In the wild, awareness is inherent, but only as outside stimulation. Here action is determined by instinct. This is the genetic knowledge granted man by billions of years of biomass evolution and given during insemination. This has been granted all things. The human holds its breath in the womb; the elk outruns the lion; the grass feeds from the sun; the cell divides; the genes molecules cohere; the electron revolves; even the energy spools and vibrates; because it had to. Because if it had not, the universe would not exist. The chain continues I suspect until it comes full circle to the elk again. These properties are true not because they grew to be or learned to be, but because in order to exist there was no other choice. The universe shares in this knowledge constantly evolving, adding to its own basic intelligence. Like the biomass of a wetland, this cosmic mass is the purest form of intelligence; Information without the burden of ego, knowledge as existence, more vast than the entire of human experience could hope to learn.

In Nature, the birth of communication created a unique phenomenon: conventional knowledge (which is much less intrinsic than the cosmological). The meme, as geneticist Richard Dawkins refers to it in The Selfish Gene, is a property of the ego aided by memory. Outside of the self the most a creature can hope for is primal memory, which allows for comparison of experience leading to unconscious differentiation; even this may be impossible without simple communication to allow representation and comparison. Men have made the assumption that they are the only conscious animal in existence, an assumption no doubt aided by religion and the ego’s lust for consumption. This predication allows him to separate himself from other animals, even those with which he is explicitly linked, in turn justifying lordship over the earth and its creatures. Before this essay proceeds, it is important to realize the similarities between all living creatures suggests a less divided hierarchy in the world; an ideology practiced my many peoples including the Franciscan order of monks as well as many not touched by western thought.

All those with the burden of consciousness have communication to thank. In the human world this is hard to conceptualize (an ability which we usually base on past experience) because most of mankind has never experienced a true loss of self. Even if they have, it had been described and compared to non existence. It is with this that the conscious mind may allow a glimpse. By using what Owen Barfield termed “beta-thinking” in his book Saving the Appearances (which is a term for abstract thought not based on sensory stimulation which he terms alpha thinking; dependent on the sensory information itself which he terms figuration); we can construct a model of ego to understand the link between communication and perception a process that most likely evolved with the brains ability.

The ability to communicate begins with awareness of representations and objects, by allowing the user, who we will call Jeff to attach a name, or symbol, or abstract concept to an item or characteristic. Once this association is made Jeff can use the symbol to identify something in the present or the past using memory. If Jeff can represent the color “red” he can attach it to the red bike. This is Barfield’s figuration. The next step is to use these representations to describe other objects. For example, the bike is red and shiny and cold. Once Jeff has the ability to adequately describe objects he can begin to differentiate between them - comparison. That bike is red, that bike is blue. These are examples of Barfield’s Alpha-thinking. Not only can Jeff differentiate between different objects but also he can differentiate between himself and his environment or himself and others. This is the first flicker of Jeff’s self awareness. He can also begin to compare the present to the past. The air was cold the air is hot. The final and most important component of Jeff’s consciousness is abstraction, which allows him to create models in his mind. The bike is red the bike could be green like the tree. This ability along with comparison allows him to compare the past and create a probable scenario about the future. It was cold in the dark it is hot in the light in the future it will be cold in the dark again. This abstract awareness allows Jeff to use all higher brain functions. This is Barfield’s beta-thinking which grants consciousness and abstract awareness relative to other objects and times.

Memory plays a vital role in the self, but instead of consciousness being based on memory, it is actually an effect of communications gift of conception. If man had never been able to represent a bike he would have no way to store in his memory. A bike is a bike. If he were unable to represent characteristics of that bike he would not be able to describe it. Man would have nothing to store in memory. Perhaps he could store the image but then what would that be without the ability to say it was red or it was four feet tall. The image would be lost immediately; the moment after you experienced it you would experience something else. Life would just be a flash of sensations. Man’s actions would be governed by the instincts he was born with instead of a conscious mind. Stove hot - move hand. Taste bad – spit out. Feel hungry – eat food. These instincts are so strong they still largely govern mans lives today but only as hushed shouts from the universal mind muffled by the self-important ego.

An effect of ego, man must constantly wrestle with intent. Whether conscious or subconscious it is the burden of self. When a man wakes up he is lulled into self awareness. The first decision: what to do? Or to do nothing at all? – Man’s intention. A question so constantly raised it has become automatic. An alpha level intention. Every moment of existence man must decide his intent. Assume for a moment you appeared in a beautiful jungle. What do you do? Do you swim in the waterfall? Do you search for rescue? What if you were an environmentalist? So you stand still as not to spoil your surroundings? Perhaps you are an environmentalist and you see the last is more environmentally friendly. Your intention is to stay put. Nature would not. Nature is without intent, without ego. It would exist as it always has. And you? You are standing still alone in a beautiful jungle paradise. Man’s ego is what separates us from nature but its ego’s intent that changes the landscape.


Examples of pure instinct and pure existence are almost impossible to find in the realm of human experience. To be completely alienated from communication has been extremely rare since its birth countless ages ago. In Helen Keller, man can find an uncommon instance of pure instinct. As a blind deaf child Keller was unable to experience communication until young adulthood. In her autobiography, The Story of My Life she recalls her early life of pure experience:
I became impatient at her repeated attempts and, seizing the new doll, I dashed it upon the floor. I was keenly delighted when I felt the fragments of the broken doll at my feet. Neither sorrow nor regret followed my passionate outburst. I had not loved the doll. In the still, dark world in which I lived there was no strong sentiment or tenderness. I felt my teacher sweep the fragments to one side of the hearth and I had a sense of satisfaction that the cause of my discomfort was removed. She brought me my hat, and I knew I was going out into the warm sunshine. This thought, if a wordless sensation may be called a thought, made me hop and skip with pleasure.
We walked down the path to the well-house, attracted by the fragrance of honeysuckle with which it was covered. Someone was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand, she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly then rapidly. I stood still, my whole attention fixed upon the motion of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten--a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that "w-a-t-e-r" meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away.
I left the well-house eager to learn. Everything had a name, and each name gave birth to a new thought. As we returned to the house every object which I touched seemed to quiver with life. That was because I saw everything with the strange, new sight that had come to me. On entering the door I remembered the doll I had broken. I felt my way to the hearth and picked up the pieces. I tried vainly to put them together. Then my eyes filled with tears; for I realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt repentance and sorrow.
This excerpt may be the strongest evidence of the link between communication and consciousness. Even this though is not a completely true example, for by experiencing communication Keller radically changed her existence and her memory. She could now describe her experiences abstractly, based on what she learned and similar experiences she had since her awakening losing pure existence and gaining self.

The Functional Dissociation of Self:

Although moments of comunitas outside of self are rare they are not contingent on a lack of communication as was the case with Helen Keller. There are many reports of people transcending self during meditation or under other specialized circumstances. Functionally there are situations that can cause temporary aphasia, or inability to produce or comprehend language, by neurological disassociation between parts of the brain which would be physically similar to a pure existence experience. During these times the areas of the brain most associated with language and communication, the Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, do not function or communicate properly with the rest of the brain. Current models of human language processing (based on research of aphasia victims) suggest the Wernicke’s area is where language is associated with meaning allowing for alpha and beta thinking (Stufflebeam). There are many causes for the type of dissociation leading to non communicative experience.

Current research suggests that during sleep the parts of the brain separate which would create such a communication-experience schism. During sleep, different areas disassociate to prevent neural cascade failures due to excessive neural imprinting. Different phases of sleep have different levels of interconnectivity between the parts of the brain. Even though all the parts of the brain are electrically active during sleep the REM phase is one of the most interconnected which could explain why some can remember their dreams (Bar-Yam). Disassociative sleep is also supported by research conducted at the University of Wisconsin in which passive electromagnetic pulses are introduced into the brain during deep sleep and wakefulness. During sleep, the pulse was localized and did not travel across the neural network while in wakefulness the pulse easily traveled across the network (Brown). Because memory, specifically long term, is not localized in one area of the brain (like other functions), it is possible to dream about people and places from your past. During REM sleep the communication centers of the brain are not active, this explains why most dream states are instinct driven and “‘sense-of-self’ [is] absent from dreams” (Bar-Yam 3). Other higher functions like reading and forethought are also regularly described as not present (Bar-Yam). Below are brain scans comparing REM sleep and random silent word generation They show clearly different parts of the brain being used for each; supporting REM sleep as a non communicative activity and suggesting existence without consciousness of self.

There is also evidence to support psychoactives can interrupt neuron transition allowing for experience and memory without communication. Salvia, which is a natural hallucinogen historically used in religious experiences, is known for producing states in which the user experiences loss of self and communion with nature. Below is a salvia experience as described by an individual who had a selfless experience.

The stinging sensation in my mouth woke me up from my slumber. I hardly recall the transition into the experience. I remember feeling it beginning to come on, and the next thing I recall is transitioning back into 'myself' after having been lifted up and 'merging with the night'. The night was this massive, incredibly ancient and benign entity that I was allowed to open myself up into and become part of. It was like an unfolding. Part of me became the ocean waves crashing on the beach that I live nearby, under a magnificent moonlit sky. Words fail to describe the peaceful and serene feeling I experienced. I had an understanding that the essence of life and consciousness can be likened to the bubbles of water moving through the crashing waves and the sea foam. Water is the physical aspect of life, which encases itself around the spirit (likened to the air bubbles), breathing life into being. The two are in a constant dance, which we call life. The night entity could be likened to the water and waves, and my consciousness likened to a bubble in undulating night entity.
(erowid.com: Erowid experience vaults)

Many drugs have similar properties which has led many, throughout history, to consider them to be a path to enlightenment. Drugs like these were especially valued during religious ceremonies and rituals. Newer drugs based on a complex understanding of neuro-chemistry are also being used. DMT, one of the world’s most powerful hallucinogens, short for dimethyltryptamine, is a neurotransmitter found in the human brain. It is released during death and deep sleep. DMT, or the “spirit molecule” as coined by Rick Strassman MD who published a book on the drug, is reported to be a mystical and religious experience.


During times of great physical or physiological stress mans primal instincts have the ability to silence the ego for short periods of time. This reaction is usually during an extreme fight–or-flight response which changes the brain chemistry to separate higher brain function in order to complete a genetically programmed response. During these times it is also common for the memory to be fragmented or cloudy. The chemical changes in the brain also inhibit complex speech and an individual’s ability to abstract. Mild dissociation of the brain allow for instinct to kick in. In relation to the genome this is a logical defense mechanism, as genes will always “strive” to reproduce. If they can override conscious thought to increase probability of survival it makes sense that genes with this trait would become dominant in the genome. (Dawkins)

The Loss of Self and Higher Experience:

All the previous examples show instances in everyday life where existence separated from self is possible. This is very different from pure existence as Helen Keller experienced it with no ability with which to compare or describe her experiences. The most powerful ego-less experience is one driven by transcendental enlightenment. Although functionally similar to communicative dissociation, the ability to consciously release self and experience the whole of existence in a direct authentic connection is the highest form of selfless experience.

By this essay’s definition of nature, pure experience can happen anywhere at any time. Although this is true; the traditionally natural landscape holds the highest likelihood of such an experience for the majority of man. The alienation of self necessary to enter a wild landscape encourages mans own alienation of his ego necessary for true comunitas. Mans biological ties to the land allow him to experience the natural world as a component of it, in contrast to the cityscape which, superficially, the ego clams as master. By pushing himself into the harsh unfamiliar landscape, man is more likely to have an experience free of ego.

Literature and religion are filled with accounts of non-communicative experiences, which inspire such pilgrimages into the wild. The Buddha spent 6 years of meditation in search of comunitas with existence while St Augustine searched for God in nature hoping to experience Him and His creations. Writer Annie Dillard’s experiences in the Appalachian Mountains inspired meditative prose like, “Experiencing the present purely is being empty and hollow; you can catch grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall”; a beautiful yet vain attempt to communicate the impossible. During a 300-mile hike through the Scottish landscape in the summer of 2006 I experienced an intense but fleeting connection with nature. While walking the trail, surrounded by tall green grass I sat on a rock. In that moment, seconds or minutes, I slowly exhaled and my self seemed to leave my body like a puff of breath. I was there experiencing the grass in the wind the cool breeze and the color of the sky, all of it. Connected like a breath in the breeze. Without intention. Without self. Just there. The moment was gone as unexpectedly as it came as my professor’s son shouted a question from just a few feet away. It was an experience I will not forget but will never really remember. And as my self grows with new experiences and ideas to describe the experience I cannot really know what it was like; not since the moment I breathed in. These experiences are rare and brief with no way to describe or remember but their existence alone is proof of the ability of man to truly and willingly loose self and experience that which is not.

This authentic relationship with nature, a true comunitas with all outside of self is a powerful and amazing experience. By truly experiencing self, not just trying to understand it; man can find the link between himself and the whole of existence. Not as a thing to be understood but a moment to be experienced. As man delves into the conscious explanation of all things he needs to be equally as vigilant to escape the ego and experience the existence of all things. By using both approaches, man will be closer to experiencing pure being; for just as the aforementioned vibrating strings of energy come back to the feeding blades of grass, so too may the conception of self circle back to the ego-less experience of nature.

nature poems and such - christopher shannon

i was in the midts of hell/finals week and i went to trader joes and randomly bought a bunch of flowers... it was awsome... and it made all the work i was dooing not that bad and my house smell like eucalyptise... it was realy nice... it inspired a break from my writing redicks thesis paper to write some poetry (that isnt very good..haha) so here it goes...

as the sun from my window streaches across the room, reflecting off the lake.
you breath your dying breths. all to make my kitchen table a little wooden eden.
i just wanted something prety and you were it.
white
green
tall, the color, form, impecable. in the modern ikea vase
i have a tallent for asthetics.

you dont care.
you take your last breaths, a slow death.

you lived in a garden once, fresh air and bugs crawling on you bees buzzing
sunlight without a window. on a cliff next to a waterfall overlooking the ocean. in a tropical paradise

then you lived in a farm. sorounded by maby others. too many others. with chemicals and a fake sun. floride in your blood

and now you die here because you are so beautyful that i needed you
in that ikea vase on that wooden table.

i only hope you find sollas in the view. the beautyful lake the trees and the sun coming through the window.

the view was made for you.
by me.
trying to find that one cliff ive been dreaming of since i was born. your home where you lived.



umm i also wrote some other poetry that was inspire by a trip i took to south america a few years ago... i had a dream on this beautyful train ride to maccu piccu and it was the first time that a few of my heaven included nature. (that i remember). i was there with my lover... who its for then and now is different and it changes. i hope to read it to my soulmate at my wedding or something.. the actual poem changes too.

i see you standing there
naked as god made you
sunburnt skin and rosy cheaks
the rock feels cool on the small of my back
a small retreat from the sun


here i am. perfect. and you.
over the edge the river tempts us to jump.
a death wish of 400 feet.

i can feel the bugs on my skin
and i can smell the jungle behind me.
and i can here my heart beat slow
my skin hurts as i smile
we were not ment for the sun. or this place.

no one cares here as we kiss and i cant tell the difference between your saliva and the beads of sweat from my upper lip.
we steady our hands in eachothers


a runing leap....



and one more... from the first time i ever came to VA... and got lost in the woods. which was weird becasue i grew up in the desert and had never seen so many trees.

a sky of green held up by living pillers of bark
lying in a puddle of mud i realize how pointless clothes are
pugs are cralling across my face
covered in mud its evrywhere
and its not as bad as i thought it would be.
i loose my self
i cant breath because its so hot
everything is sticky.
i never understood sweat till now.
for a moment i deside to run away like a wild man
raised by the bugs and the trees and the mud
even the air.
the courage escpes me like a breath.
i leave.
and i loose myself

nature portraits - Christopher Shannon

so im not very good at journaling but i take pictures all the time and always keep them to reflect on later. thanks to this class (and others from redick) ive come to look at nature in a different way. before i never photographed nature, perfering portraits. but thanks to this class ive learned that nature has a life its own... it can be funny, serious, happy, and sad... so i decided to include some pictures from nature walks ive gone on during this class... now its one of my biggest if not the biggest inspiration i have, even my portraits are almost all in nature... its weird to think that i never even considered nature at all let alone as important before redick... but its EVERYTHING





lots of these were taken from my facebook albums "nature EVERYWHERE" and "nature EVERYWHERE - part deaux"












its kinda weird how we feel the need to change nature... even by something as simple as picking a flower to take with us...



its amazing how it all works together like the fungis on the tree







this is like my new favorite place... its all wetlands as you first get on isle of white... i found it randomly and i love it.










man made beaches are kinda amixed bag for me... i like them cause thats what a "beach" is to me, or at least has been since i was a kid.. but i relay like natural beaches... ones where the trees or rocks or something go right up to the water... its my favorite place. where the water mets the land. there is this one place on rosavelt island in DC that is the epitomy of that... its my favorite spot to escape when im up in nova. so diferent then the man-made gardens or beaches










the drive to tech was so beautyfull i couldnt believe it... but it was weird because it was the day of the shootings... it make me feel better that the world was stil beautyfull and there... ive been thinking about the world in the context of nature constantly since this class started.









i have soooooo many more... thousands...
but i figured this was more then enough.. hahaha

Adam Richards

The Ecology of Eden book was well formulated. It set up an ending that made me want to continue reading it. I could tell there was more to the book than individual chapters. I am glad that I got to present the section on managers and fetishers. I felt like that was sort of the climax of the book. It began to unveil a solution to the problems with ecology. How can we be harmonious with nature by not harming it and still benefitting from its beautiful resources? It was also interesting when the Earth Jazz chapter revealed itself. Eisenberg did a great job in writing this book. I dont think you could have chosen a better text book for the class. It really brought religion and ecology together through metaphorical analogies such as the mountain and the tower.

Adam Richards

The film that we watched in class was interesting. It was interesting to lewarn about the aboriginese culture. They are a tight knit family. They show perfect harmony with nature. It was amazing how they live off the land but do not take away from it. The theme of the film went well with that of the class. It showed the importrance of being fetshers of the land rather than managers. The guy who painted on the tree bark was awesome. It must take forever to do such a painting. It was very symbolic as far as the animals he would paint. The huge crocodile he painted was great. I am glad we got to see this film. I wish I could remember the title of the film to reccomend it to others who are intersted in nature.

Eden is a parking lot -gordon Mallonee

The title i feel is the truth of the world around us. we cover our earth in asphalt and keep it from breathing. we build parking lots that are designed to keep you in just like the society that has been formed to keep people from getting out and thinking differently. the parking lots have there rows of cars and trees. at the base of the trees are mulch. this action traps the moisture so well that the base of the tree rots with time. we put little plants in the ground to make places look nice. landscaping the area to how we think nature should be. rows of trees all line up in military formation. you do not find that nature. you find cematry, (i hate trying to spell this wodrd, you know what i am trying to say) but not in how the plants are in relation to other plants. Parking lots here and there and roads everywhere asphalt absorbing the sunlight, making things hotter in here all the while we just trash the only planet we have.

tires dont go anywhere...

#14

When I read the beginning of Ecology of Eden it was brought to my attention that it is not just humans who destroy nature. Yes, because of technology we have created ways to greater destroy the environment, but we are not the only species whose choices impact the world. We kill animals and plants in order to eat, but that is the way of life for all species. We destroy the environment in order to create our habitats (homes) and so do other animals. This isn’t a way of rationalizing and saying it is ok to destroy the environment it was just something I noticed while hiking one day and I saw where deer had formed a home and destroyed a lot of plant life in the process.

#13

Should we separate ourselves from wilderness in order to preserve it? Shepard talked a lot about ideas to separate ourselves from the wilderness because in dwelling in it we change it. But are we not apart of the wilderness ourselves? By excluding ourselves are we not altering it? Throughout this class the question that has come to my mind is what is a healthy balance or is there a healthy balance in the way we live with the wilderness, and I have not yet found that balance but I continually read passages and come to the conclusion that we can NOT separate ourselves from the wild because we would lose touch with something we are a part of.

#12

The Dead by the Side of the Road.

This poem by Gary Snyder shows the loss of sacred not only in space but in the animals that live in a space. He paints a picture of animals that have been desecrated and now are lying dead on the side of an interstate. This made me think about the fact that a landscape is just a place if without what inhabits it and therefore a place isn’t sacred of its own accord, it is also sacred because of what it contains. We could see this in a video we watched earlier where this bird began to build its home as a part of its mating ritual. This bird makes up a part of the environment and its actions created something that was found sacred to the tribe that lived in this land.

#11

In philosophy I learned that some believe that without language and communication there is no way for people to experience the same world. Do we all perceive the world completely different? Is there a physical world? I would say yes there is a physical world but we all just experience it differently (as I said in an earlier blog about Kant). The idea we discussed about “storied place” is very relevant to this argument. We all go through this physical world experiencing the same materials yet our minds create different experiences induced by nature.

#10

Have humans forgotten how to interact with nature? Has technology seeped too deeply into our lives that we can no longer fully experience nature, or does thes separation from nature only make us have a greater appreciation for it. To me it seems that when I am in a place for an extended period of time I begin to take it for granted and then when I leave a situation I realize that I need it back. However, I find when I am in nature these days I can not appreciate it as greatly as when I was a child and around it more. When I am in the mountains these days I firstly can’t fully be in it. There is something in the back of my head that is reminding me of all the technology at home that comprises my daily life that I don’t have right now and I cant realize how to deal with not having it.

#9

Early in the semester we were told that “names convey power over things.” I didn’t fully understand this until in Wilderness as Sacred Place we watched a movie in which a man was lost in a land where he knew no one and no one spoke his language. In this time the man began to go crazy because he was in chaos. Eventually however, he broke down and began to weep and then began to give names to the things he recognized from back in his homeland of France. Afterwards the man was relieved at the fact that he could recognize things and he could feel power over anything, even if the only power he had was that of knowledge.

#8

“poets use language to give order”

The importance of language in our culture is very necessary, without it there would be confusion because we could not order our universe. We would live outside of a cosmos and in pure chaos. Language allows us to define and understand. Without language we wouldn’t even be able to define ourselves. Language also bridges the gaps between our storied places, it allows us to makes sense not only of ourselves and our world but others worlds also.

#7

“Give yourself up to a particular landscape.”

What does this look like? We watched a video early in the semester about a tribe of natives who fully experienced the land they lived in. Their activities and rituals fully revolved around the animals in it and the environment. They painted using all natural materials, they worshipped in sacred places, they ate of the land and they slept in the slept in the land. They used every part of the land and respected it and felt an attachment to it. The sad thing is they were dieing out and had no way to preserve these traditions because their children did not see the point in avoiding technology and truly dwelling in the land.

#5

I really enjoyed talking about the gardens that we create in order to replace the lack of nature we have in our towers. As a little girl I always had a garden and it was an easy way for me to escape from the mountain and be content without technology. However now the garden is not as fulfilling, I need more than a couple pretty flowers to keep me away from technology. I can of course leave for a weekend and go out into the mountains but eventually something will come up and I will come back to the tower only to crave the mountain. The only thing I can figure out to find contentment is that we need o find a way to live that includes the mountain into our daily lives, otherwise we are missing out.

#4

Technology has become our habitus. We no longer learn to dwell in nature we create our own islands away from nature. In Ecology of Eden we called this our tower away from the mountain. The problem with this is that we have depleted nature from where we live. Instead of finding some sort of balance we build up cities and push the mountain away. The problem that I see with this is, will we ever stop building our towers? If we don’t then we will continue to push the mountain away until there is no where to put it. If we do decide we have to stop, where and when do we stop?

#3

“to dwell in a place creatively over an extended period of time is to conduct oneself out of custom or habit.”

When we watched the video of images in class a couple weeks ago I thought back to this quote. There was a section where we watched the rhythms of the city and the patterns where cars were moving through the city and workers were performing their daily tasks. Is it good that we get into these patterns and where is the creativity in this? Maybe the creativity comes after the daily grind or maybe people find ways to change little parts of their life. DO we need pattern in order to enjoy spontaneity?

kant

In philosophy this year we studied Kant, who said that there is a world of objects, which is the real world, and then there is a world of phenomena, that is how we perceive the world after our mind processes what we see and experience. In our first class we discussed the idea that the world is different than what we ideally think. I just found it interesting to find that we had been discussing these ideas at the beginning of the year and later I had found that the philosopher who wanted to bridge the gap between empiricism and rationalism held these same views.

necessary agnosia for meeting God. michelle slosser

“If we cannot know God's essence, we can stand in God's place --- on the high mountain, in the lonely desert, at the point where terror gives way to wonder. Only here do we enter the abandonment, the agnosia, that is finally necessary for meeting God.” Belden C. Lane. Solace of Fierce Landscapes
This is not the first time I have heard this basic message. Abandon yourself to God, abandon your life to Jesus, take up your cross and follow him, lose your life to find your life. I have never had an easy time understanding it, but I have always found those phrases attractive. Wikipedia says that agnosia is “a loss of ability to recognize objects, persons, sounds, shapes, or smells while the specific sense is not defective nor is there any significant memory loss.” Perception is working, but recognition is not. This is a medical condition that usually follows brain surgery or neurological illness. So why would this lack of recognition be necessary for meeting God? Maybe Lane meant something else that Wikipedia does not cover, but if that is what he meant, I am again having a hard time really understanding these ideas. My best shot at explaining this is that we need to abandon what we think we recognize, and accept the “terror” of not knowing what/who God is or what is really going on in life. It is easier to meet God at his high dangerous mountain, because he is huge and terrifying. It is easier to meet God in the lonely desert because our tiny simple thoughts are lonely in the significance and depth of God and his plan that we cannot fathom. I don’t know, maybe I am stabbing the dark here, but I would be pretty happy if I am anywhere close to being right about the meaning of agnosia abandonment to meet God.

importance of stories. michelle slosser

I read Frederick Buechner’s The Magnificent Defeat a few times this semester, since it is only 144 pages long and packed full of great thoughts. Some chapters I liked better than others, a few even made my eyes well up with joy and awe, but some I just half read, not connecting to their meaning, since I am selfish and didn’t get any strong emotion from reading them. Then one day in class, when we were discussing sacred place as storied place, I recollected that in one of those “boring” chapters, Buechner wrote about stories and why they were so important to people. The first reason was that people are very curious, and very insistently want to know what will happen next. We will even read or watch stories over and over again, just for the fulfillment of seeing what happens, even if we already know. His second reason is just as insightful, saying that when authors put people and events into a story, they are given meaning, and a storyteller’s claim is that life has meaning. Buechner explains further by saying that stories mean a lot to people because they suggest that life’s actions “are leading us not just anywhere but somewhere.” If there is meaning in a character’s life, then there is meaning in our lives. And a story may just give us a clue to what our life’s meaning is. So is this what makes sacred place storied place? Because if it is storied, then is it full of meaning? And maybe is we stand in this storied place long enough, then we will find meaning. Or at least we will feel that there is meaning. I think many people long to just feel meaning, and they find it in heartbreakingly sad movies, or joining a “Save Darfur” facebook group, even though they will never do anything past that to save Darfur. I am not rebuking these actions, I am merely speculating on why people do things of that sort.
I don’t know why this chapter did not fascinate me until now, probably because I didn’t bother trying to understand how it related to me.

Alisha Richardson- Organic Foods

Apprehensive about eating that 10th generation genetically altered corn on the cob? Apparently, a lot of people are. Fear of human meddling and dangerous pesticides led to a huge boom in organic food production in the new millennium. Now organic food products can be found at practically every grocery store. Unforunately, raising crops without pesticides is not the most effiecent way, and this leads to the elevated prices of organic goods. Organics-only eaters make the more pricey purchase in the name of quality and peace of mind. Some people feel uncomfortable eating genetically enhanced or altered foods. Genetic engineers may see crop plants and livestock as property of humans verses relatives of wild things. It is feared that if plants are altered to protect against pests, the pests will eventually develop a resistance to the resistance, spawning a new generation of problems.

This process reminds me of the debate surrounding hand-sanitizer. By exposing germs to hand sanitizer, some conspiracy theorists propose that the germs will slowly become immune and eventually bacteria will enslave mankind. This seems very unlikely to me, at least during this lifetime. When bacteria become immune to bleach, then I'll be worried.

Alisha Richardson- Genetic Engineering

I still remember the day I opened my Scholastic News magazine in the third grade and saw a picture of a glowing bunny rabbit. The rabbit had been given the firefly gene for florescence, and it looked like something out of a cartoon. Our teacher introduced us to the concept of genetic engineering. We learned it was possible to take the trait of one living thing, and introduce it to a whole different species. Genetic engineering sounded like magic, and the possibilities seemed endless.

Nowadays, the process doesn't seem quite as glittery. I think humans may be getting in a little too deep with the trait swapping game.

How can we know if swapping frost-fighting skills between the genetic make-ups of fish and tomatoes is really a good idea? How much control is too much?

Alisha Richardson- The Wild Garden

"In its purest forms, the wild garden is well-suited to people whose wants are modest, whose tools are simple, and who are thinly scattered across the face of the Mountain. Most of us do not fit that description. The wild garden takes us closer to Eden than we can wisely go." Eisenberg 318.

When I heard this passage during presentations, it hit home. The message is simple: altering the earth has consequences that we can't foresee.

I remember as a little girl running around my grandparents' land in Bluewell, WV. My grandmother loved to garden, and her yard was always bursting with fresh blooms and bright colors. One side of the property was a freshly manicured lawn, but the other half was mostly woods. Through the forest, the land dropped off steeply. At the bottom of the incline was the neighbor's property, Claude's Pond. The pond was man-made, but it provided the locals with a great fishing spot, and helped support the wildlife of the forest.

These alterations seem harmless at surface level, but it is impossible for us to know the extent of our choices' effects on nature. Whether changing landscapes in big or small ways or introducing foreign flora and fauna, a ripple effect is felt throughout the local ecosystem.

Alisha Richardson- Bees

When I came to class at the beginning of the semester and saw a beehive sitting n the stage, I knew I'd made a good course selection. The intricate structure of a beehive is a fascinating phenomena of nature, but the nasty stings which accompany a swarm make it difficult to get too close and personal. This hive, with its amazing aroma of rotting apples and aging honeycomb, was a rare treat for sure.

As a kid, most of my experiences with bees and their hives were accidental and semi-painful. Numerous times I recall my friends and family members stumbling upon a hive of winged stingers who were not pleased at our intrusions. Running away from angry bees is an experience that nearly everyone has at some point. It's nice to be able to examine a hive and not get stung.

The movie we watched on bees was very eye opening. Bees can communicate with special buzz dancing! This is incredible. The scientist in the film was able to track the bees by tagging them with distinguishable paint marks. This is indeed a clever system. Then he was able to monitor the dances of the bees who knew the location of the food sources. The bees did their dance in a certain direction, at a certain speed, and the bees who saw the dance were able to locate the food source. All in all, this is amazing! No one ever told me that bees communicated through buzz dancing, so the film opened a whole new realm of possibilities. If bees are capable of giving each other directions, what other detailed messages can animals communicate with one another? If we can interpret the secret dance of bees, is it something we could replicate? What other forms of animal communication are accessable to the human world?

Alisha Richardson- George's Marvelous Medicine

Roald Dahl's George's Marvelous Medicine is a classic children's story. George becomes frustrated with his grouchy grandma and creates a home-made medicinal concoction in hopes of cheering her up. George manages to create a magical grow potion which makes his grandma house-sized. Seeing the large grandma, George's farmer father immediately wants some of the potion for his livestock, but sadly George cannot recreate the recipe.

This story reflects the human desire for a magic grow potion, the most obvious human quick-fix for world hunger. Though Dahl's story is entertainingly wacky and highly implausible, the end means are not so crazy. Science is trying to create what George stumbled upon accidentally: some heavy duty miracle-grow. The goal of genetic engeneering is to create heartier crops and larger harvests in hopes of making goods more bountiful, less expensive, and more avaliable. Some people fear genetic engieneering will go too far, and this has resulted in a back-to-basics sort of movement.

Alisha Richardson- Gaia

Eisenberg's Gaia hypothesis on page 145, "claims that the biosphere as a whole is a self-regulating system. How much of this is science and how much myth? Is Gaia an indulgent mother who will care for us no matter how badly we behave, or a jealous goddess who will strike us down in our pride?"

Hmm... an auto-pilot system which continues to function despite the amount of damage it receives? Sounds a little too good to be true. It's obvious there are limits to how much we can take from the earth. A couple crossing-the-line situations pop into mind: Chernobyl, oil spills, animal extinction. There's only so much rainforest left for us to destroy. 'Nonrenewable resource' is a self-explanatory label. There are some actions which can't be undone.

One thing is certain, ecological problems aren't going to just go away or get better by being ignored. We all have to work together to ensure a healthy, happy Gaia. We have to be planeteers, because saving our planet is the thing to do.

Alisha Richardson- Changing Nature

Is it acceptable to change nature?

How far is too far?

Kern County, CA, 1926- "Having made their world safe for livestock by diligently slaughtering every skunk, fox, badger, weasel, snake, owl, hawk, and coyote in sight, the farmers of Kern County found themselves confronted with an army of 100 million mice-- the greatest rodent infestation in history." Eisenberg, 102.

Often, when we try too hard to control nature, it easily backfires.

Another example of humans taking control and making mistakes is told in the childern's book The Old Ladies Who Liked Cats. In this story, the townspeople tire of the old ladies' cats and force the ladies to get rid of them. This disturbs the ecological balance of the town. Soon there are too many mice and grasshoppers, and the plants suffer. This leaves less grazing vegetation for the cows, so they produce milk that's not up to par. In turn, the sailors can't get energy from the crappy milk, and everyone suffers until the cats return while the old ladies say we told you so. All in all a great story.

What's really sad about humans taking control is that sometimes the damage we cause is irreparable. Animals become extinct all the time, and then all that remains of them is pictures. This one's for the dingoes and the kiwi birds. You're sorely missed.

Alisha Richardson- Limits on Growth and a Baby Turtle

Eisenberg discusses limits on growth in the Earth Jazz section, page 362.

"The concept of limits on growth is something that unites fetishers but divides managers." How much control is too much control? Humans have found ways to escape the limitations on growth by adding variables. We can fit more people in smaller spaces because modern architecture has allowed us to build incredible skyscrapers. Modern science helps us to live longer, healthier lives. But on the flipside, natural disasters, power outages, and the outbreak of disease can have dramatically worse effects if people are living in closer quarters. Now the exponential increase in human population seems like it's headed for an inevitable leveling off. Unfortunately, as we continue to multiply, cheating the system and finding ways around mother nature's boundaries, the environment around us is feeling the consequences.

In an effort to feed and house earth's booming population, a lot of land is cleared. Eisenberg says that, "[i]f there is one thing ecologists have learned in recent years, it is that wilderness cannot be kept in boxes; and the smaller the boxes, the more frantically they must be managed to retain even a semblance of life. ...Wildlife biologists now speak of wilderness areas as 'megazoos' in which endangered species are tagged, tracked, and provided with dating services." 362

As an extreme and literal interpretation of this quote, allow me to introduce Bert.
Bert is my pet turtle. I found him a week ago on the beach, and he is probably less than one month old. Bert is messy because he likes the water in his terrarium to be everywhere. I have to clean his tank daily, or else it gets stinky, or Bert risks a fungal infection from clammy, wet, vegatation. I don't plan to keep Bert once he reaches an adolecent size; I'll take him back to the shore of his origin. But in the meantime, his box of wilderness is exceptionally small, and I work frantically to make his stay pleasant.

Alisha Richardson- Keat's Pastoral Beauty

I'd like to preface this blog with a little background information. I love this poem. If I had read every poem ever, this would probably still be my favorite. I'm not claiming to be an expert, but let's just say I've done a little explicating.

To bounce off the Coleridge, a little John Keats seemed appropriate. Perhaps Keat's most famous poem, Ode on a Grecian Urn is a literary force to be reckoned with.

When someone quoted Eisenberg during presentations "Pastoral is a dream shattered by shouting in the streets," immediately Keats came to mind.

Keats begins the ode with images of bliss. Words like flowery, sweetly, Arcady, and ecstasy characterize the first stanza. Keats depicts a beautiful scene of lovers who are unable to touch, and yet remain together and ageless in time. The warmth continues throughout the third stanza, with exclamations of happy love, sweet music, and trees which never lose their leaves.

In the fourth stanza however, Keats details the opposite side of the urn with a different tone. The streets of the citadel are empty, and the priest leads a cow to be sacrificed. Keats' final stanza emphasizes the urn's capability to endure time. The urn is bittersweet for Keats because it depicts a world he cannot reach. Keats and his true love, Fanny Brawne, were separated because of his poor health. Keats was forced to move from London to Italy, and he could not see Fanny for fear of spreading his tuberculosis. Although this aspect of his personal life makes the poem mildly tragic, Keats words still manage to depict real beauty. His final two lines, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty,--that is all/ Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know" have given humanity a lot to ponder. Interpretations vary wildly, and experts debate the true meaning because of punctuation discrepancies. One thing is certain: John Keats was an amazingly talented poet, and the scene he describes on the urn is one of true pastoral beauty.


Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,
Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,
Sylvan historian, who canst thus express
A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:
What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape
Of deities or mortals, or of both,
In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?
What men or gods are these? What maidens loth?
What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?
What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard
Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;
Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,
Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:
Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave
Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;
Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,
Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;
She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,
For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed
Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;
And, happy melodist, unwearied,
For ever piping songs for ever new;
More happy love! more happy, happy love!
For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,
For ever panting, and for ever young;
All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,
A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.

Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
What little town by river or sea shore,
Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,
Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?
And, little town, thy streets for evermore
Will silent be; and not a soul to tell
Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.

O Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,--that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

Alisha Richardson- Xanadu

In discussing the search for Arcadia, “Xanadu” is often a term used synonymously. Originally, Xanadu (also known as Shengdu) was a beautiful city in Mongolia known for its splendor. The English Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote the famous poem Kubla Khan based on this luxurious locale, and now the term is used to describe a place of great beauty, opulence, bounty, or other utopian qualities.

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !
A savage place ! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover !
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain[1] momently[2] was forced :
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war !

The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves ;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw :
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
His flashing eyes, his floating hair !
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

I hadn't read the poem since 10th grade, so it was very refreshing to become reacquainted, especially in light of our discussion of Arcadia. I think the major irony is that very little remains of this society today. Kublai Khan's summer retreat/palace has not stood the test of time. In this sense, the Xanadu of Coleridge is just as fleeting as the next quixotic paradise. The essence of the city now survives through Coleridge's stanzas.

Austin Magruder - Do dogs believe in god?

Whenever I walk into my house, my dog comes running up to me, wagging his tail and begging for attention. I began to wonder, what does my dog think the meaning of life is? To him, at least from my perspective, life is very simple; eat, play, pee on the lawn, and sleep. Every day for his entire life he has basically the same routine, all he wants is attention. I provide him with food, I entertain him, and I let him outside to relieve himself. It is almost as if I am a God to him. So I wonder, do dogs believe that we run the universe, or do they know there is something more? Now obviously since we have not found a way to intelligently communicate what dogs are thinking, we will not be able to answer these questions. Just something I was thinking about.

Austin Magruder - Fred Phelps

The Topeka, Kansas.-based Westboro Baptist Church, which is not affiliated with any national Baptist organization, announced plans to protest at victims’ funerals only hours after 32 people were killed in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. They also may protest at other events on the Virginia Tech campus. Fred Phelps and his organization protest at many military funerals, and are extremely conservative in their political views to put it mildly. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church are protesting these funerals because they believe that God would not allow good christians to die this way. He feels that it is god's wrath on our nation. My question to Phelps is, how would god feel about protesting at funerals? Isn't that simply morally wrong? To make a statement such as those students must have been sinners is ludacris. But he takes it another step further, by going to these funerals where families and friends are mourning over their loss and saying these kids deserved it. This man disgusts me and i would not be surprised at all to see him physically harmed for what he says he wants to do.

Heather Lynn Building up layers

We talked about in class how many of these glaciers that you can see are only so big because they have grown over time. The way they do this is because the ice would melt in the summer and run down the mountain and then in the winter it would snow and freeze on top of that creating new layers every year. The building up of layers reminds me of how much stress people have in their lives, especially us college kids at CNU right now. We are all stressed because we are having to work on papers and other work and then exam week is right afterwards. I dont think it is good that we keep doing this to ourselves. Think of a time when you were really stressed because things kept building up more and more and you just got to the point where you were so stressed out you just couldnt take it anymore. i think this is how the gunman from the VT shootings felt before he killed all of those people. He was mentally ill and thought that everyone was out to get him. He became extremely paranoid and finally just thought i know how to make it go away and then he went and did what he did. Building up layers can be bad because one day it just going to burst.

Heather Lynn Natural Instincts

Another story that we talked about was when a women was attacked by a mountain lion in the woods and he dragged her a little ways only to eat her a little bit and them store her body for later when he would return with another appetite. People found her body in the wood like this before the mountain lion could return back home to finish off the rest of her. Mountain lions have a natural instinct just like any other animal including humans. we have a natural instinct to suvive and to live. Even though what happened to this woman was awful the mountain lion wasnt trying to be mean to this women. He was just trying to survive out in the wilderness and when he saw food walking by his natural instinct told him tp crouch down and then attack her so that he could eat and live.

Jackie Trono - Animism

As Wikipedia defines it,

“animism is a belief system that does not accept the separation of body and soul, of spirit from matter. As such it is based upon the belief that personalized souls are found in animals, plants, and other material objects, governing, to some degree, their existence. It also assumes that this unification of matter and spirit plays a role in daily life” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism).

I have chosen to write about animism because it is a view I have come to respect, one that I also used to reject. Growing up philosophically, I had encapsulated the world into a materialist framework, repudiating all things ethereal or spiritual. I believed the world to be no more than what exists in the physical realm. Accordingly, I was also a nihilist, believing the world to be utterly meaningless. I was so focused on the meaning behind Sartre’s comment that

“Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance” (Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea 180).

My thoughts centered on all the misery abound on the Earth, the suffering and tragedy. I had no concern for anyone or anything besides myself. Now, as a result of a personal telepathic experience, an experience that shook the footholds of my materialist views and made it impossible for me to continue believing such exclusionary nonsense, I no longer hold such a depressing worldview. The shocking thing about the telepathic experience was that it happened to me in spite of the fact that I did not believe such a thing was possible. I realize that citing telepathy as the source of my paradigm shift makes me sound sort of cuckoo, but I can’t change the fact that it occurred that way.

Whatever the cause for the change, all I can say is that I am so much happier for it. I feel fuller and I have greater warmth for other people and earthly life in general. The shift has caused me to care about things that I used to think were just more symbols of a dying planet. That destruction of which I speak is clearly the fault of humanity, and I hope that I can help others in eradicating the pessimistic, close-minded, and inaccurate materialist ideology that pervades intellectual society and is at the heart of such irresponsible behavior.

Heather Lynn Can you face your fears?

A story that we were told about professor redick was a time when he was walking through the woods and came across a bobcat on the trail that was sitting on toop of a rock. The bobcat was startled but Redicks present and began to run off into the wood. Redick decided to run after the bobcat as if it were his prey because that is what bobcats would normally do to you but instead he was chasing the bob cat. It made me think of all the things i am scared of in my life and would i be able to chase somthing like a bobcat who could rip me apart or would i run in the other direction to make sure he wouldn't eat me. How many other people would run after the bobcat? It doenst have to be a bobcat of course because you dont come across them often but it could be anything that you are scared of; spiders, snakes, dogs, etc. would you get close to them to pet them even though you know they could bite you maybe at anytime or would you walk away from them and continue to live in fear your whole life. Facing your fear i think is a could thing even if you do it small steps. You could live your life knowing you had accomplished something you thought to be impossible.

Jackie Trono - Kahler On Science As Model, Not Reality

Erich Kahler regards science as merely modeling the world, not actually depicting reality in The Nature of the Symbol. Referring to the geometrical figures, diagrams, and models of science, Kahler writes,

“In all these kinds of images the instrumental, mediatorial element predominates; none of them is meant actually to represent reality…. A model, being just a modulus, a measure of the real thing, will never permit us to forget its provisional, hypothetical nature; it can never stand for an established reality” (Erich Kahler, The Nature of the Symbol 60).

I find this passage very interesting as it reflects something about which I have often thought. I have considered the concept of science as a religion. Many scientifically minded people take science as unquestionably representing reality. In my opinion, science merely models the world, which is what Kahler argues as well. Science offers us an excellent means of predicting the events of the world, but we will never know that our models actually correspond to reality.

I also found Kahler’s ideas, expressed in a footnote, about the separation between word and meaning rather stimulating. Kahler comments,

“The word and its meaning are independent things. Here is the word – a complex of sounds and signs; there is what it means. The two are separable; each exists by itself, the word without the thing, the thing without the word. The same thing is designated in different languages by different words…” (Kahler 68).

I find it interesting to reflect on language. It appears to be our only tool in navigating the conceptual world, and yet, it is practically useless in performing a physical activity, such as kicking a soccer ball. I may have learned technique from a coach through his spoken instruction, but the actual implementation of the act referenced by those words is beyond language. Curious, indeed!

Heather Lynn God is powerful

A picture that was shown in one of our classes is described as someone being knocked over. This is because there was a volvanoe near by where the picture was takin and the volcanoe made a loud noise like an explosion causing the person who was having their picture taken to be knocked over. This makes me think of if God created the earth that he must have created this volcanoe and if that is true that he made the volcanoe explode when it did. This to me shows how powerful God can truly be in order to make a volcanoe explode and knock some one who has their feet firmly planted on the ground to be knocked over but just a sound. I mean that was just a little baby thing can you imagine if we as humans had that kind of power what this world would be like especially with the war that we have going on right now with Iraq. How many lives could we destroy with this kind of power. Or how many of them could we save?

Garrett Dalton-Sikhism and Ecology

People acquire their values and beliefs from many different sources. Religion is one of the most common places in which one can find the origins of cultural beliefs. Few religions explicitly express any notions of how the environment is supposed to be treated. Christians, for the most part, accept nature as a part of God's creation just like humanity. However, Christianity portrays humans as superior to nature in all ways. Man is after all created in God's image. Like Christianity, Sikhism explains that God created both humans and nature. Unlike Christianity, Sikhism also explains that all of God's creations are equal in the eyes of God because they are part of God. As such, human beings have the responsibility to live in harmony with nature and to find ways in which to preserve the environment. Unlike many religions, care for the environment is a major tenant in the Sikh faith. Ecology is bound to suffering not only in nature but among humans. By finding solutions to the problems found within humanity, humans can come to understand the problems facing nature.

Jackie Trono - Buber: You, Not It

In I and Thou, Martin Buber identifies the two most basic words in human language, I-It and I-You, and argues that each word carries with it an associated ontology. Those who view the world through the experience of I-It understand everything as objects for use. Those who view the world through the I-You relation encounter the external as a sacred subject.

Buber contrasts the I in the I-It with the I in the I-You. He writes,

“The I of the basic word I-It appears as an ego and becomes conscious of itself as a subject (of experience and use). The I of the basic word I-You appears as a person and becomes conscious of itself as subjectivity (without any dependent genetive). Egos appear by setting themselves apart from other egos. Persons appear by entering into relation to other persons….The purpose of setting oneself apart is to experience and use, and the purpose of that is “living” – which means dying one human life long. The purpose of relation is the relation itself – touching the You” (Martin Buber, I and Thou 112-113).

Elaborating on the distinction between viewing the world as It versus viewing it as You, Buber writes that the I in I-It is a self-absorbed ego, whereas the I in I-You is a conscientious person. This distinction can be applied as ecological perspectives. The ego who views the world as It sees it as mere resource to be exploited. On the other hand, the person who views the world as You bears a respectful relation to his environment, recognizing the relation as symbiotic.

In applying Buber’s ideas to the realm of ecology, I feel that there is a correlation between the two basic words and the two basic civilizations, primal and modern. While modern people view the world as It, primal peoples view the world as You. This interpretation would account for why modern industry has no qualms with destroying the massive forests that support our existence. They see nature as simply It, a thing with only utilitarian value. Conversely, primal people appear to have much greater respect for their surrounding ecosystems and attempt to live in harmony with them, performing sacred rites for the animals they kill and aiming to not waste anything they reap. I agree with Gary Snyder that the modern world has a lot to learn from primal people.

Heather Lynn God is their Creator

We watched another movie that wasnt as long as the movie with the Japanese man about a Shaman and his helper and another man who was being held captive on the island with them. He saw them as evil and hated them and wanted to run away from them, so one day he gets mad and runs away. However, they Shaman creates this thing represents the center of the world and he is the controller of it. He outs a stick into the ground and attaches one end of the string to the stick and the other end attached to a lizard. The Shaman then draws a cirlce on the sand in order to create the "center of the universe." Outside of the circle is considered to be the world of chaos and the Shaman wants him to come back into the circle so that he will not have to face that world. The Shaman doesn different things to the lizard which in makes those things happen to the man who escapes as well such as pouring water on the lizard and then the man would fall in water. When the lizard finally runs around the stick a certain amount of times he is stuk at the center of the world which also makes the man show up right back where he started. He then tells the Shaman the concept of yourself is language and what you do. He says this becuase he is trying to figure out who he is and discover why he is where he is. Is this really where he is suppose to be or is he suppose to be somewher else? He then goes on to talk about how God created him the Shaman and the helper and if God created all of them then they must not be so evil as he once thought and maybe there is a reason for him being with the two of them.

Alisha Richardson- Arcadia

Throwing the discussion back to class presentations 2/26/07, we spent some time talking about Arcadia and "real country." Essentially, people are torn between the mountain and the tower because they want both simultaneously. This is tricky. Eden and Walmart can't coincide. As time passes, people insist on more and more modern conveniences, but the farther we stray from nature, the more we ache for the utopia of the garden. For example, although they were stranded on a tropical island, the characters in Gilligan's Island didn't have it all bad. The professor was generally able to manufacture any sort of device or appliance, as long as the construction of such item didn't lead to a rescue. The women were roughing it, but they were blemish-free and fashionable in the process.

Our society continues to grow larger, faster, and increasingly more technological, and everyone feels the pressure to hustle and keep up. Computers and ipods become obsolete and outdated almost as soon as they are introduced to the market. Grocery stores become more and more vast, to the point where a redistribution of inventory in the store leads to droves of lost shoppers- Kroger chaos and Harris teeter traffic jams.

The desires for convenience and the low prices of supermarkets are so great that many people go to extreme lengths to reach the stores. In Mexico, people living in border cities will often cross the US border with day passes or illegally just to buy cheap goods at Walmart. Basic items like milk and eggs are actually cheaper in the US, so many poverty-stricken parents have no choice. Obviously this is not a great system.

Anyway, back to Arcadia. We'd love to have our cake and eat it too, but it's hard to bake a cake in the forest. Plus, ants and bears also love to eat cake, and we're generally not fans of sharing resources with the wildlife.

Garrett Dalton-Bees and animal communication

A film we watched about bees explained that they maintain their own form of language with which to communicate with the rest of the hive. I found this to be extremely interesting to learn that a bees ability to locate sources of pollen is entirely dependent on the bees ability to communicate clearly the location of said pollen. Bees are apparently much more intelligent than I had previously believed them to be or this is simply a genetic trait that is programed into a bee from birth. Are bees language the product of associative learning or a genetic trait? The movie got me to think of how other animals communicate with one another and with humans as well. Take cats for an example. Cats communicate with one another through scent by way of marking territory. They scratch to show territoriality as well. Cats also use body language to tell other cats their intentions. It is interesting to note that cats do not "meow" when in the wild. This is only used when communicating with human beings.

Heather Lynn Movie with Japenese man

In a few of our classes we watched a movie that involved a japanese guy that was going to Iceland to do some rituals for his parents death so that souls could finally rest in peace. He didn't do very much for them when he was alive and thought that it was his duty to do this for them since he hadn't seen them in forever. He was suppose to be going to Hawaii for vacation but instead took an extra week off and began his long journey to Iceland and to the river where he chosen to perform his rituals. He encountered many "different" people on the way who made his journey a bit difficult but he eventually caught up with the right man who would help him find his way. This movie although it was VERY strange related back to some of the thigns we have talked about in previous classes. How people wonder off into the wilderness to find food or to stop for something and then they end up losing their way (when the couple steal his car) and think that there is no hope but then as they are walking along and see somthing that looks like a path (the hotel with the man who helps him in the end) they realize that they are going to make it out of the wilderness.

Garrett Dalton-The Road

Imagine a world in which nature is but a memory and the human race is on the brink of extinction. In The Road, Cormanc McCarthy presents a post apocalyptic world in which a man and his son struggle to survive in a dying world. After a nuclear war, the earth is left in desolation. Most plants and animals are gone and only a few humans remain. The survivors live on what rations they can, mostly what is left over from the previous life. others turn to cannibalism in order to survive the inhospitable reality. This book, among other things, shows humanities need for the natural world. Human beings rely so heavily on agriculture to sustain life and the absence of it makes survival almost impossible. Humanity needs to care for the environment not only for ecological morality but also to ensure the security of the human race itself. The Road was extremely well written and deservedly gained much acclaim from reviewers. I thoroughly look forward to the film adaptation that is scheduled to come out this year.

People and Rain - Gordon Mallonee

So it was raining today. not just a little rain where you don't really get wet. this was a storm of sorts. it moved in fast turned on its water made some noise in the clouds and a little light show and was gone. i was lucky enough to be able to be outside while this was going on. most people however might think that it is not a good thing. i saw many people running to get out of the rain and cursing it as them sped on by. RAIN is the LIFE of the planet. people do not think about it and see it as something that they would rather not have to deal with. i love running around outside in the rain and even better during thunder storms at night when the sky is lit up for a FLASH of a second. Thunder storms are the best thing in the world. i remember sitting on my side porch at home in the summer just to enjoy the storms and occationally go out running in them. Rain is a good thing so next time it storms go and run around in it, it feel nice. :-)

FROGS are the Rain Callers in many cultures so that might have some reason behind it.

As Evernden talks about in his article, the word nature means different things to different persons. It could mean trees, animals, or the whole world itself. I think that he made a good argument and started from scratch. Maybe we should define the word nature before we can move any further. We must all agree somewhat on a common idea of what nature is.

I found this to be a very appealing beginning to his article. This allows him to go into different ideas of nature. He talks about nature being perceived as an object, miracle, self, etc. He also talks about the pollution issues, which may be the most important of them all. Pollution is the key cause to our ecological crisis situation today. That is the basic element of destruction in the world. Developments of living quarters, businesses, roads, and so forth are all polluting the environment. If we found a consistent alternative fuel, and a way to control its' waste, we would be much better off. It is much easier said than done though of course.


Evernden then talks some on the self and extensions as we have discussed in previous philosophy classes. It is important to include one's self in to this crisis of nature. This author does so but also takes many other people's opinions and beliefs into consideration. He talks about one of my favorite philosphers being Rene Descartes. Everndon appreciates his words wisdom and talk s about his "laws of nature" too. Both Everndon and Descartes at least seem to be open-minded and start from the most fundamental ideas possible. (As Descartes did in his meditations.)

I found Evernden's article a bit more interesting than White's, probably because I agreed with him more. He uses a much more open-minded approach to the ethics of the environment. I have already emphasized in previous responsed as to what I feel about White and his degrading of the religion Christianity. I do not think that religion is at the heart of our problem. It is only a nuasance to making progress, as White quite obviously disagrees. He puts full blame on religion, specifically the Christian faith.

The trail that we walked at nike park was interesting. I enjoyed hearing the history of the park. It was a nice short hike although the wind made it a little rough. The correlation between religion and ecology became more evident as I listened to you speak and observed my surroundings. God created everything for a reason I believe. This was clear as I learned about the shallow ocean we saw that was mostly white. It is where a buch of oysters were, or use to be.

Ecological ethics

Two famous American philosophers were the cause of the thoughts involved in Transcendental Preservation Ethics. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were the two great thinkers. A man named John Muir used their thoughts to campaign this idea of preserving wild nature. They had the idea of the world being used for something other than the norm of what most see it as. They see nature as a "temple" which is used to come close with God. This also relates to the effort to harmonize society with nature. It could be a solution if the majority of people saw the world as this "tool" to come close with God. Instead the majority is using society as a way place to build and increase technology.

We need not be so materialistic is what he is getting at I believe. Nature itself is a blessing which we should appreciate as it is rather than change it.

Another man named Pinchot insisted on a different mode of ethics in nature. This is called Resource Conservation Ethics which is based upon the notions of equity and efficiency. Just as the name spells out, the main objective is to conserve. Conserving resources would not prevent negative effects on the globe, but will slow things down a bit.

That is an interesting concept which differs some from the ethical view according to Muir. He beleived that using these natural resources as they are is more important than Pinchot's idea of using nature for our material desires as he refers to John Stuart Mill. Muir thinks that nature should only be appreciated for its aesthetic beauty and value. To him that is what is "morally superior".

"...people going to forest groves, mountain scenery, and meandering streams for religious transcendence, aesthetic contemplation, and healing rest and relaxation put these resources to a "better" ---i.e., morally superior---use than did lumber barons, mineral kings and captains of industry hell-bent upon little else than worshiping at the shrine of the Almighty Dollar and seizing the Main Chance." (177)

The third ethical idea that Callicot discusses is known as Evolutionary Ecological Land Ethics. This sort of evolves from Darwin's ideas of evolution and ecology. This method includes God as a big part of what is ethically right as far as nature. Every creature has some importance in this world acording to this theory. Therefore we should not kill things in order to beneift ourself as a society in some manner. This set of ethics is similar in a way to the preservation ethics stated above, only slightly stricter. Nothing should be changed and humans should not consider themselves as the primary species.

Human impact on nature

I think that it would be nearly impossible for society to enforce a control method to prevent, or even reduce the effect humans have on nature. The world today is so dependent on technology. Technology is so far advanced now too that society would not be tempted to make things harder on ourselves to prevent harm on nature. The population across the globe is increasing which makes things even more difficult to harmonize culture with nature. In the ancient times nature was much more harmonized and appreciated because the simple fact that technology was not yet introduced.

"The changes that take place in the modern world do resemble those of the ancient world, yet the accelerated pace at which change happens today could cause the effects of human civilization to be exponential in modern society."

Technology and nature are on opposite ends of one another. There is no sure way to harmonize the two without reverting back to old ways of doing things. The reason that I say it is nearly impossible, is because very few people today will go about living in an old fashion sort of way if not necessary, especially if the reward is only to preserve nature. It would be great if it happened so that we could achieve the harmoniztion of nature and society. Another basic reason that I don't think that society can create a way of enforcing control over humans is for selfish reasons. By the time that such things as global warming effect the society we live in, we will be long gone. It is difficult to think of people that it will effect who don't even exist yet. For instance, your great grandchildren or even further down the line.

Only if everyone was into nature for their own beliefs or religion would it be possible for society to manage a relationship between itself and nature. That is the difficulty with this global issue, not everyone is as concerned or effected by the environment. Just as not everyone has the same religious beliefs which could lead to a resolution.

Austin Magruder - Prayer in public schools

This has been a hot topic for a while. Opponents of prayer in public schools cite the establishment clause of the firt amendment which prohibits the state from forcing religion upon anyone. People in favor of prayer in public schools cite the free exercise clause which allows for people to freely excercise any religion they choose. I studied a case this year in one of my government classes that focussed on a student led prayer before every home football game. The procedure was that first the students would vote whether or not to have a speaker before each game, then they would elect a student to do so. In 2000, in the case of Santa Fe v. Doe, the supreme court decided to not allow the public school to do this citing that it was in violation of the establishment clause because the speaches were in public forum, using the public school's PA system. I would argue however, that if the students voted for this, they should be allowed to have the invocations. If you don't wish to pray, don't its as simple as that. I feel that the supreme court overstepped their bounds in this case and violated the free exercise clause of the first amendment.

Austin Magruder - Cleric Interview

For my Religion and Politics in America class we were required to interview a cleric and ask them questions based around the relation between religion and politics. One of the questions I asked was "do you believe that polititians are inherintly virtuous people?" his response was quite interesting. He pointed out he had a couple of friends who were congressmen. Both of these men retired after not too long. He said these people ran for office because they wanted to make a difference, but they felt they did not have much impact at all. He stated that political positions often force you to compromise your morals, so it is not necessarily the people that are immoral, but the position forces them to be not as virtuos as the may be. If you are for more strict gun control for example, but you need money from the NRA to get anything done, you will have to compromise. Just thought that interview was good insight into what religious figures think of politics.