Ira and his wife have their baby

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

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

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

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

Acknowledgements

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

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

 

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

Foreward

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Respect and Medicine,

Mike Douglas

Odd Things That Come Up

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

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

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

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

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

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

Respect and Medicine,
Mike

Explaining the Invisible School

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

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

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

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

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

Next, the initial premise of the invisible school.

Respect and Good Medicine ,
Mike

Living Your Vision

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

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

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

Respect and Medicine,
Mike Douglas

Living Your Vision

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

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

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

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

The Heavier Side of Survival and Awareness

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

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

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

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

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

Increasing your intelligence by playing in the woods

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

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

Notes from the Director

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