While living at a small apartment complex in the Adirondacks, surrounded by woods and streams and about a half mile from a river, I often observed children — varying in age from about four to twelve — playing in the parking lot.  They didn’t play ball in the open grass.  They didn’t climb trees in the woods.  They didn’t play in the brooks running through the woods.  They played on the blacktop.

          I once asked a kid why he played in the parking lot instead of exploring the woods.  “I’m not allowed to,” he said sadly.

          When I walked my dog in the woods nearby, if one of the kids saw me, they always wanted to tag along, and were filled with questions about everything they saw.  It seemed their parents never walked in the woods with them.  They were always worried about coyotes.  I imagined that their parents put that fear into them with silly stories.

          One day a handful of boys between the ages of about seven and ten were running around playing, and found their way into the woods.  I heard them out there from my window, and thought, “Good for them!”

          Sure enough, within an hour I heard a man’s voice booming, “Get out of the woods!”

          Get out of the woods?  Get OUT of the WOODS?  GET OUT OF THE WOODS???  This is something to say to a child?

          When I was a kid, besides our house yard, the woods for miles around were our playground.  It would have been unimaginable to hear my father yelling, “Get out of the woods!”  On the contrary, he was more inclined to yell at us for running through the shrubs he planted around the house, using them for shelter in water-gun fights and hide-and-seek, complaining that we had so much woods to play in, there was no reason to be crashing through his plants.

          What is a childhood without climbing trees?  Without getting wet in the brook?  Without catching frogs?  Without digging rocks out of a stream to pile up in futile efforts to make a dam?  What is a childhood without dirt?  I believe that it leads to an adulthood lacking a realistic sense of reality, an irrational fear of Nature, and an imbalanced inner self lacking the inspiration of Nature.  There are faculties of mind and body that only Nature can nurture.  No television, computer, or electronic game can do it.

          In an article for the National Wildlife Federation magazine adapted from his book, Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficiit Disorder, the author relates how his sixteen-year-old son asked him, “Dad, how come it was more fun when you were a kid?”

          Louv explains about his son’s concern, “He was right. For eons, human beings spent most of their formative years in nature. But within the space of a few decades, the way children understand and experience nature has changed radically.”

          He adds, “Our children’s world, limitless in cyberspace, is shrinking in reality. A 1991 study, reported in the journal Environment and Behavior, found that by 1990 the radius within which children were allowed to roam on their own from home had shrunk to a ninth of what it had been in 1970.  … Society is sending an unintended message to children: Nature is the past, electronics are the future, and the bogeyman lives in the woods.”

          Yeah, so what?  Well, it matters.

          Louv points out why:

Environmental psychologists report that exposure to nature around the home, or simply a room with a view of a natural landscape, helps protect the psychological well-being of children. Children with disabilities gain enhanced body image and positive behavior changes through direct interaction with nature. Studies of outdoor-education programs geared toward troubled youth—especially those diagnosed with mental-health problems—show a clear therapeutic value. Some of the most interesting research has been conducted at the Human-Environment Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois. Researchers there have discovered that children as young as five showed a significant reduction in the symptoms of attention-deficit disorder when they engaged with nature.

Research also shows that schools that use outdoor classrooms and other methods of direct-experience learning produce students with improved standardized test scores and grade-point averages and enhanced skills in problem-solving, critical thinking and decision-making. Last year, the California Department of Education and the American Institutes for Research revealed that sixth-grade kids in environment-based programs improved their math and science scores 27 percent. They were also more engaged in the classroom and more open to conflict resolution. In addition, anecdotal evidence suggests that time in natural surroundings stimulates children’s creativity.

          It works for adults, too.  Louv calls it “nature-deficit disorder,” and I believe that adults are susceptible to it, too.

          Louv defines nature-deficit disorder as “… not an ordained medical diagnosis but my shorthand description of the human costs of alienation from nature. Among them: diminished use of the senses, attention difficulties and higher rates of physical and emotional illnesses. This disorder damages children and shapes adults, families, whole communities and the future of nature itself.”

          Get out INTO the woods!  For some ideas about how to reunite yourself and your children with nature, visit the NWF Greenhour page.

          There is a related article link and blog postings on this topic in the Wall Street Journal blog, “The Juggle.”

          Not convinced that there’s such a thing as nature-deficit disorder?  Consider the growing number of research reports available at the Children & Nature Network, with titles like these:

- Direct Experience in Nature Is Critical and Diminishing
- Unstructured Free Play Brings Cognitive, Social and Health Benefits
- Direct Experience and Mentoring Are Key Elements
- Contact with Nature Is Important for Children
- Nature-Smart Kids Get Higher Test Scores
- School Achievement Is Enhanced When Curricula Are Environment Based
- More Evidence Corroborates Environment-Based School Achievement
- Outdoor Experience for Teens Has Self-Reported Life-Changing Results
- Green School Grounds Foster Achievement and Responsibility
- Naturalized School Grounds Benefit Children and Communities
- There Are More Benefits from Naturalized Playgrounds and School Grounds
- Schoolyard Habitat Projects Bring Natural Benefits to School and Students
- Natural Settings Provide Psychological Benefits
- Access to Nature Nurtures Self-Discipline
- Nearby Nature Reduces Stress in Children
- Nearby Nature Boosts Children’s Cognitive Functioning
- Design Cities Where Children Can Play and Learn Independently
- City Parks Bring Social, Community Health and Economic Benefits
- City Parks Offer a Sense of Place

          GET INTO THE WOODS!

- The Balsamean

… the refuge …

April 23, 2008, revised May 5, 2008.

This is a preliminary statement of how and why we regard and use Balsamea Forest Refuge (BFR) as a REFUGE. Over time, we will expand on this topic with information and essays, and welcome your participation.

A Nature and Wildlife Refuge …

BFR is certified wildlife habitat under the auspices of the National Wildlife Federation. In keeping with NWF’s conservation principles and other environmental concerns we support, we do all we reasonably can to protect and conserve flora and fauna. We avoid unnecessary killing or damage to any species or its habitat, prohibit hunting and trapping wildlife, restore damaged or spoiled habitat, conserve energy and water, and avoid chemicals, substances and activities harmful to the environment. All development of the BFR property for things like trails and campsites, and disposal of human wastes, must be done in a responsibly low-impact manner that protects and conserves the natural habitat. Thus, BFR is a refuge for nature and wildlife.

We strongly believe that this makes BFR an ideal refuge for human beings, too. BFR is a place where people can gently open themselves to the restorative, invigorating, and rejuvenating influences of Nature, helping us to be all we can be as earthlings. Of course, our Balsamea is not the only place people can do this. We hope this blog encourages you to find or create your own refuge in Nature, and to share the experience with us, if only as a “remote” friend of Balsamea.

Our Ecopsychology, with Nature as Refuge for Mind, Body and Soul …

We are not affiliated or allied with a specific religious orientation or dogma, but we respect the eco-centric ways of aboriginal peoples, and we make use of the buddhistic concept of “taking refuge.”

In Buddhism, taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha is a process of affirmation of one’s commitment to an understanding of reality and a way of life harmonious with that reality. The Buddha is the awakened or enlightened consciousness. The Dharma is the practical and conceptual teaching, or “the way.” The Sangha is the community of practitioners of the way.

Our concept of taking refuge in Nature is somewhat similar, where our notion of awakened or enlightened consciousness relies upon communion with Nature as a primary cause or source of such awareness, combined with the special faculties of human intellect and insight as it comes under the influence of Nature.

Our dharma is what we can learn, sense, and realize from direct experience of Nature, how we develop practices and ways of living in harmony with Nature, and what we learn from others about it. Nature teaches us to be enlightened humans in subtle ways that transcend cognition, too. Its influence exists regardless of whether we realize it, recognize it, understand it, or even think about it.

Sometimes it is better not to think at all about it, but to simply experience it, be with it, and let it be with you, in non-destructive, tolerantly accepting ways. This is akin to meditative processes, and we encourage meditative practices within periods of taking refuge in Nature.

Our sangha is not only other people pursuing such understandings and practices, but also the community of all species and things in Nature. This includes rocks and soil, animals and insects, plants and trees, air, water and fire, everything in the sky, and all states and phases of things. It includes the varieties of weather and seasonal climate — from dry, hot sunlight to darkly overcast skies. It includes soft wind and fierce gale, all forms of precipitation and their accumulations, and all hours of the day from dawn to dusk, and from bright noon to dark, silent midnight. It includes moonlight and starlight as much as daylight, and the pitch black of the darkest night.

In this sense of Nature as Sangha, we regard everything in Nature as much like family or brethren, cousins, brothers, sisters, ancestors and even children. When we plant, prune or cultivate something, it can be regarded as something like our own offspring, the offspring or outcome of our investments and our intercourse with Nature. We arose from the natural environment, upon which we depend for survival, making us children of Nature, too. In cultivating our natural environment to protect and conserve it, and our relationship with it, and in learning from it, we cultivate ourselves.

Immersion in the natural environment for extended periods, involving minimal use of unnecessary human inventions, or what we like to call “living close to the ground,” naturally evokes and inspires the best of humanity. We believe that there is a scientific basis for this, a natural process that automatically occurs within our human bio-psycho-social nature as it is immersed in wild nature, especially when done frequently for prolonged periods.

Nature therapy, wilderness therapy, and outdoor recreational therapy are recognized modalities for treatment of a variety of human troubles, with a number of colleges now offering related degree programs. Why use Nature only to treat or manage dysfunction or disease? Why not let it nurture us, aid and protect us from the imbalances caused by life too far separated from Nature? The dualistic notion that there are TWO natures, one “natural” and one “human” is unnatural, even for humans.

The experience of Nature immersion is good for body and mind in numerous ways. It also carries psychological and emotional benefits. Many people feel what they understandably regard as spiritual grounding or uplifting through immersion in experiences of Nature. Nature inspires epiphany for some people.

Recognizing the natural value of wild nature to human nature, we believe that disconnection from Nature, living continually in “boxes” (houses) and vehicles, using artificial light and shade, heating and cooling, cutting ourselves off from Nature, diminishes our truest and best humanity. Conversely, frequent and repeated immersion in the natural environment energizes and inspires us to be all we can be, to be the best of what we were naturally born to be. It makes us more truly and genuinely human.

Our innate attraction and identity with Nature has been dubbed “biophilia,” most notably by Pulitzer winning Harvard University science professor Edward O. Wilson. Wilson defines biophilia as “the innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes.” He asserts that “to the degree that we come to understand other organisms, we will place greater value on them, and on ourselves.”[1]

There is growing evidence that we rely on our natural biophilic tendency for health in mind and body. Increasing separation from Nature alienates us from an aspect of ourselves that is a formative root of our own nature, a uniquely human problem. We depend on natural systems to orient and regulate our human nature. Alienation from Nature may be a significant cause of an increasingly disoriented and imbalanced regulation of our own being. Wilson explains, “For more than 99 percent of human history people have lived in hunter-gatherer bands totally and initmately involved wiith other organisms … the brain evolved in a biocentric world, not a machine-regulated world.”[2]

With a brain and a nature evolved in a biocentric world, what will become of it in a lifestyle and culture disassociated or detached from Nature? Absent frequent and prolonged intimacy with Nature, we may be losing critical faculties of being human, not only as an evolutionary development over generations, but within our individual lifetimes.

The solution is a natural process, requiring nothing special of us except to open ourselves to the influences of Nature, preferably by extended periods of immersion, to the degree you are able just as you are, easing yourself into Nature as you might ease into a soothing hot bath for its positive influences.

Sometimes there are challenges involved, especially with things unfamiliar to us because of our disconnectedness with Nature. These challenges, pursued cautiously with respect, are part of an awakening, enlightening, and healthfully restorative or uplifting process.

Taking refuge in Nature, we need no allegiance to cultic dogma or doctrinal orientations, no guru or master to tell us how to let Nature minister to us. We need only a positive, open-minded, healthy respect for the concepts mentioned here and willingness to experiment responsibly with them, both solo and in small groups. There is a value to the “group dynamic,” sharing our experiences, their effects, and our insights about them.

Mother Nature and our shared experience of Her are our teachers. Life is its own guru, living in its own diverse ways within each of us as individuals, in all of us as a community of people with related interests and mutual respect, and in all that surrounds us and inspires us along the lines discussed here.

In our idea of taking refuge in Nature, just as diversity exists in harmony in Nature, we embrace racial, ethnic, cultural and spiritual diversity. We shun patriarchalism and misogyny, holding the female spirit in the highest regard, by no means anything less than the male, recognizing the interdependence of degrees of the “yin and yang” within and between all. Likewise, we respect the value in community of both young and old and all between.

We also recognize that there are limiting kinds of subconscious or unconscious conditioning infused into people by their particular cultural and social background, experience, education and degrees of awareness or ignorance, understanding that nobody is perfect in their grasp of high and noble ideals. We believe that taking refuge in nature, alone and in groups, helps to foster insight, understanding, and peaceful ways in human relationships, but this is a lifelong process of maturation and development. Thus, we encourage tolerance and patience with others, just as we must with Nature’s sometimes-difficult or challenging ways. The shared human effort of engaging Nature’s challenges together can inspire and encourage human interpersonal harmony and respect, when pursued in a generally kindred spirit.

As we said at the outset here, this is only a preliminary summary of what we mean by an “ecopsychology” involving “taking refuge” in Nature. Visit this website again for information and essays expanding on these concepts in the future. We welcome contributions, too. See our Aranyaka Yahoo! Group for online participation and discussion, or post comments here in our blog. Or, email us at aranyaka-owner@yahoogroups.com. Please allow three weeks for a reply, as we are often out there in the woods, off the grid and the electronic web! We are not “anti-technology,” but currently there are limited means of access to it at Balsamea. We like it that way!

- The Balsamean

———-

[1] – Scott McVay quoting Wilson in Prelude: “A Siames Connexion with a Plurality of Other Mortals,” foreword to the book, The Biophilia Hypothesis, by Stephen R. Kellert and Edward O. Wilson; Island Press, 1993; pp 4-5.

[2] – Edward O. Wilson, The Biophilia Hypothesis, p. 32.