| Our Global Intelligences
Family and How to Connect with Them by David Givers Lao Tzu, circa 600 BCE, is said to have said, "The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The Nameless is the origin of Heaven and Earth." The Nameless IS our birthright, but most of us have been taught and conditioned to disconnect from it in our everyday lives. In contemporary society, more than 95 percent of our time and 99 percent of our thinking is destructively disconnected from nature and the Nameless. Given our destructive thinking and actions, it is no wonder that humanity remains divided and at war with each other and the earth itself. Yet, there is a felt knowledge, frequently hidden deep inside each of us, which beckons and whispers that we must reverse our personal and collective ecological destructive activities. These attractive reminders are messages from our much-neglected global intelligence. If you were given the opportunity to take a free course in connecting with our global intelligence, would you even hesitate? If you could easily learn and sustain recuperative and regenerative healing powers, what would that mean for you personally and the earth? Fortunately, there really is a simple, teachable method to reconnect with nature and the nonverbal global intelligences that Lao Tzu tells us is the origin of heaven and earth. This pathway to connection is known as the Natural System Thinking Process (NSTP). NSTP is the tool that restores our trust in our other 48 natural senses that we are given at birth. We ignore and sometimes deny the existence of these senses, because we are taught and rewarded from a very early age to focus excessively on just sight, reasoning or intellect, and language. A free online introduction to NSTP that will restore your trust in nature and our 53 senses is available through the Institute of Global Education and Project Nature Connect (www.ecopsych.com/giftpersonal.html). The originator of NSTP is Michael J. Cohen, Ed.D. He is the Director of the Institute of Global Education, where he coordinates its Integrated Ecology Department and Project Nature Connect. He serves on the faculty of Portland State University, Akamai University where he directs its Applied Ecopsychology Institute, and the International University of Professional Studies. He has devoted over 35 years to developing some 200 reconnecting-with-nature activities and has made them available through the internet. As one of the faculty of Project Nature Connect, I have learned that nonverbal attractions in nature are universal and exist independently of culture or language. I have facilitated online NSTP activities with students in Turkey, Japan and Nigeria and across North America. Together we have been able to help each other understand that Nameless is universal and is our common heritage. Together we have experienced our individual, but mutually connected global intelligences. Together, we have experienced universal family across many boundaries. When we consistently exercise all 53 of our natural senses, personal and societal anxieties are tamed and our natural attractions become the stuff which makes us wholesome; through the attractions found in nature and people, we relearn to honor the nameless -- that nonverbal song of the web of life -- and its global intelligences. Thousands of individuals using NSTP have demonstrated this fact to themselves and to others and have reported this to Project Nature Connect. The Natural System Thinking Process can be integrated with a variety of healing, counseling and life coaching modalities, because it is based on the natural-attraction energies that exist from the subatomic to the galaxies. Through Project Nature Connect, you can sign up for the free introductory course or enroll as a student for graduate or undergraduate credit or professional certification through the Institute of Global Education and its affiliated institutions. In my own daily life, paying attention to natural attractions helps me to stay connected and compassionate with the Nameless, the nonverbal part of life and the earth. In gratitude and sense of community, I give back my spare time to Project Nature Connect. Perhaps we will meet online some day. David R. Givers lives in Moorhead, Minn. He works for the North Dakota University System as an administrator of research infrastructure development programs. He has an M.S. in Natural Resources Management. He is an unabashed tree hugger, prairie perambulator and member of Veterans for Peace. He can be reached at natureweb@ctusa.net. Copyright © 2004 David R. Givers |
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Jan 2004 |
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