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Living in the Woods, Part I
by
Chuck Hall
 In
my latest book, Green Circles: A Sustainable Journey from the
Cradle to the Grave, I devoted a chapter to my experiences
living in the woods of the Appalachian foothills. At that time I had
gone into the woods on a quest of self-discovery. I built a small
cabin on a three-acre parcel I owned, and lived off the natural
resources around me. As I became adjusted to this lifestyle, I
noticed that my perceptions about the world underwent several
permanent and life-altering changes. I learned a great deal about
myself, about the natural world around me, and about what it means
to live as a spiritual being having a human experience.
A
lot of people began their spiritual journeys by going off into the
woods. Buddha did it, Jesus did it, Mohammed did it, Moses did it,
the Native Americans did it, and so did most of the great spiritual
leaders throughout history. There is something about seeing the wild
places firsthand that awakens our deeper, more intimate and personal
levels of awareness.
Science
in recent years has begun studying the psychological aspects of
wilderness experiences. In a 2005 study, van den Berg & Heijne researched some of these
characteristics. The study, Fear versus fascination: An
exploration of emotional responses to natural threats, explains
that there are two basic types of attentional focus: focus
and fascination. Focus is the type of attention we
experience most often in artificial environments. Human hands make
most of the things we see indoors. Since we evolved in the
wilderness, but have only been living in artificial environments for
a few thousand years, our brains are wired to be ‘on guard’ in
unfamiliar surroundings. The more primitive parts of our brains
recognize artificial places as somehow alien. Because of this, we
tend to use more energy to focus our attention while indoors in
order to avoid these man-made distractions. Fascination is
the type of attention we tend to experience more outdoors. The
deeper, older parts of our brains recognize natural environments as
something familiar, so we tend to use less mental resources for
focusing attention. This means that more mental energy is available
to generate more meditative states. So unless a bear is chasing you,
you’re calmer and more relaxed in the woods or on a beach.
Serenity is a prerequisite to spiritual events, so experiencing
nature is highly conducive to spiritual awareness.
While
nature helps you to achieve serenity much more easily, it’s hard
to be serene when you’re cold and hungry. Many of the people
who’ve read my book have written to ask about the practical
aspects of living in the wilderness. They want to seek their own
spirituality in nature, but they’re not sure how they would manage
to survive in the meantime, so I thought I’d address some of the
more mundane tasks of having your own Walden experience. Next week
we’ll look at how to prepare yourself for your own journey of
discovery in the wilderness.
Chuck
Hall is a graduate student and author. His latest book, Green
Circles: A Sustainable Journey from the Cradle to the Grave, is
now available at the Culture Artist Web site at
www.cultureartist.org. You may contact Chuck by email at: chuck@cultureartist.org.
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