Rewild Your Life
Rewild Your Life || Overall Courses Descriptions
Presented by Peter Michael Bauer, a leader in the cultural rewilding movement for over 20 years.
The word “rewild” has entered the mainstream as the latest buzzword. People are slapping the word in front of everything from shoes to vegan beer halls to garden shops to new age snake oil treatments, without much awareness of what it has historically meant to the movement who made it popular. Most people do not know there’s been a rewilding movement since at least the 1980’s. Different from the conservation strategy, a cultural rewilding began as an anthropological critique of domestication and the rise of sedentary, agrarian hierarchy and its deleterious effects on humans and the environment. For example, recent studies show that spending more time in nature, eating a “wilder” diet, and planting back native ecosystems is beneficial to human health and the health of the environment. However, rewilding is more than just a “back to the land” movement, and these are not “ancestral skills” or “survival skills” classes. We focus on the ideological side of rewilding: the hows and whys, along with its ecological, anthropological, and psychological principles and implications. Each class is designed to give you a set of tools to use in your day to day life to engage more with the world through a rewilding perspective.
What is cultural rewilding?
Fish evolved to breathe underwater because that was the environment in which they evolved. Take a fish out of water and they will suffocate to death. This is called the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation: evolution matches the things we need with the environments in which we live. If we are put into an environment that is mismatched with how we are best adapted, we may suffer in various ways. Cultural rewilding is about recreating or moving towards lifeways that we are better adapted to than contemporary society.
Contrary to what that majority of people believe today, overwhelming evidence shows that for most of human history (upwards of 2 millions years), we lived in small, cooperative bands of nomadic hunter-gatherers who did not even store food. “Work” was integrated into everyday life, enjoyable, and didn’t rule people’s lives. No one had bosses or deadlines or loans to pay back. Life was lived in the moment and in relative harmony with the landscapes and the other animals and plants that we shared our home with. This is what we mean when we interpret the word “wild.”
Only very recently has our environment become one of living in social hierarchies of competition and resource inequality, eating cancer-causing processed foods, melatonin-disrupting artificial light, spending most of the time sitting indoors, the burning of fossil fuels causing climate change, staring at little screens in our hands all day, losing our minds along with our eyesight. These are not aspects of existence that we evolved to with and we are suffering for it. Humans did not evolve in captivity and yet, like a fish taken out of the water, we are suffocating in this new, novel capitalist world. The “re” in rewilding is about acknowledging that we’ve strayed far from our environments of evolutionary adaptation and are working our way back–not to a specific time or place, but rather to the reciprocal relationships that we had in the past. Rewilding means learning from our ancient past in order to shape a resilient life for ourselves in the present and for future generations.
Why is it urgent?
We are living through the sixth largest mass extinction in the history of life on Earth, caused largely by human civilization. The world is being consumed by billionaires and we don’t have much time before the ecological fabric unravels. Rewilding is not a cute instagram lifestyle for connecting to nature. If you’re looking for an apolitical perspective, rewilding is not the movement for you. If instead, you are looking for a reality check and to push the boundaries of societal norms and buck against the authorities that are forcing us to consume the world to death, you’ve come to the right place.
Class Format
These graduate school-inspired courses will include lecture, group discussions, readings, and some homework. Be prepared to read materials between class sessions and share your thoughts and feelings around the topics presented in breakout groups and with the group at large. These classes are about social connection as well as knowledge. You may take the classes in any order you feel inspired to: just choose any that stick out to you most.
Rewild Your Mind (formerly Rewilding 101)
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
―Often attributed to Albert Einstein without a clear source
On the surface, this is a history class that answers the question “How did we get into this mess?” We take students on a journey of how and why certain human groups went from hunter-gatherers to the agrarian states that are causing the sixth mass extinction.
On a deeper level, this class is about how to see the world in a new way, inspired by ancient and modern day human cultures that continue to live in reciprocity with the land where they dwell. Together we examine the ecological role of homo sapiens throughout our time on earth, where we went wrong, and various ways in which we can correct our course.
You will learn the myths we’ve constructed about so-called prehistoric peoples, the problems that came with the transition to agricultural civilization, and the benefits of indigenous horticulture. We will look at the barriers that stand in the way of rewilding, the various ways and contexts in which people are rewilding, how to rewild in a way that is respectful across cultural boundaries, and take a look at how it is shaping up in the mainstream. This class breaks down old, outdated ways of knowing, and builds a new way of seeing the world. Rewild Your Mind will give you a broad understanding of how to make effective changes in your life and in the world.
Takeaways
- A deep history of humankind and our evolution.
- An understanding of the human role in ecology.
- Etiquette and tricks for increasing rewilding in your life.
- Examples of rewilding groups and actions leading the way to inspire your own path.
Rewild Your Health
“Perhaps the only way out of our poor physical state, created by our culture of convenience, is a return to the behaviors of our ancestors.”
― Katy Bowman, Move Your DNA: Restore Your Health Through Natural Movement
On the surface, this is a health class with tips and tricks to live a healthier, more satisfying lifestyle.
On a deeper level, this is a class that presents up-to-date science on how evolution has impacted our health, how and why so many people have debilitating health problems in today’s world, and processes to follow to learn how to break out of unhealthy cycles, or manage pain and symptoms in ways that can diminish them.
How are you supposed to engage in life-changing rewilding projects if your poor mental health prevents you from even getting out of bed in the morning? If your back pain prevents you from doing much? If you experience fatigue? If you can’t focus? While this may be our most cliché “self-help” styled class, it’s deeply important to find ways to reclaim your health so that you can tackle life’s bigger problems. We recognize that all of us live in a world where our health prevents us from doing some of the hard lifting of culture change. This is why we have to start with ourselves.
Takeaways
- Understand the underlying aspects that affect our mental health and how to improve it.
- Learn how various foods impact health and get tools to help you determine what’s best for you.
- Come out of the class with a better understanding of the importance of movement, and ways to start moving more.
- Become an advocate for your health, with systems that are designed specific to your own body and history.
Rewild Your Senses
“People say that what we’re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don’t think that’s what we’re really seeking. I think that what we’re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.”
― Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
On the surface, this is a class where you’ll learn fun and engaging ways to connect to nature, using all your senses.
On a deeper level, this class is a study in perception, phenomenology, animism, and a deep exploration of what it means to experience consciousness. You’ll get tools for expanding your sense of place and belonging through embodiment.
Takeaways
- Sensory games you can play alone or in a group that will expand your perception.
- Regular routines in sensory awareness to connect you more to a place and the other-than-humans who live there.
- Begin to develop a knowledge of place through engagement in the natural world around you.
- Share stories and inspiration between classmates.
Rewild Your Child
On the surface, this class demonstrates tried and true methods of raising competent, capable children as demonstrated by living communities of hunter-gatherers.
On a deeper level, this is a class about how to learn and how to create culture. This class is not just for parents, but all educators and culture makers. If culture is the “real” teacher, but we have the ability to design culture, how can we create learning environments that require little input once they get going? Like a perennial garden that requires little maintenance once established, a learning culture, even in the microcosm of your own living room, can do a tremendous amount of heavy lifting.
Takeaways
- Time tested mentoring techniques.
- An understanding of education in human evolution.
- Meet and connect with like-minded families/parents/educators.
- Learn how to map education to the cycles of seasons.
Rewild Your Life
Rewild Your Life || Overall Courses Descriptions
Presented by Peter Michael Bauer, a leader in the cultural rewilding movement for over 20 years.
The word “rewild” has entered the mainstream as the latest buzzword. People are slapping the word in front of everything from shoes to vegan beer halls to garden shops to new age snake oil treatments, without much awareness of what it has historically meant to the movement who made it popular. Most people do not know there’s been a rewilding movement since at least the 1980’s. Different from the conservation strategy, a cultural rewilding began as an anthropological critique of domestication and the rise of sedentary, agrarian hierarchy and its deleterious effects on humans and the environment. For example, recent studies show that spending more time in nature, eating a “wilder” diet, and planting back native ecosystems is beneficial to human health and the health of the environment. However, rewilding is more than just a “back to the land” movement, and these are not “ancestral skills” or “survival skills” classes. We focus on the ideological side of rewilding: the hows and whys, along with its ecological, anthropological, and psychological principles and implications. Each class is designed to give you a set of tools to use in your day to day life to engage more with the world through a rewilding perspective.
What is cultural rewilding?
Fish evolved to breathe underwater because that was the environment in which they evolved. Take a fish out of water and they will suffocate to death. This is called the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation: evolution matches the things we need with the environments in which we live. If we are put into an environment that is mismatched with how we are best adapted, we may suffer in various ways. Cultural rewilding is about recreating or moving towards lifeways that we are better adapted to than contemporary society.
Contrary to what that majority of people believe today, overwhelming evidence shows that for most of human history (upwards of 2 millions years), we lived in small, cooperative bands of nomadic hunter-gatherers who did not even store food. “Work” was integrated into everyday life, enjoyable, and didn’t rule people’s lives. No one had bosses or deadlines or loans to pay back. Life was lived in the moment and in relative harmony with the landscapes and the other animals and plants that we shared our home with. This is what we mean when we interpret the word “wild.”
Only very recently has our environment become one of living in social hierarchies of competition and resource inequality, eating cancer-causing processed foods, melatonin-disrupting artificial light, spending most of the time sitting indoors, the burning of fossil fuels causing climate change, staring at little screens in our hands all day, losing our minds along with our eyesight. These are not aspects of existence that we evolved to with and we are suffering for it. Humans did not evolve in captivity and yet, like a fish taken out of the water, we are suffocating in this new, novel capitalist world. The “re” in rewilding is about acknowledging that we’ve strayed far from our environments of evolutionary adaptation and are working our way back–not to a specific time or place, but rather to the reciprocal relationships that we had in the past. Rewilding means learning from our ancient past in order to shape a resilient life for ourselves in the present and for future generations.
Why is it urgent?
We are living through the sixth largest mass extinction in the history of life on Earth, caused largely by human civilization. The world is being consumed by billionaires and we don’t have much time before the ecological fabric unravels. Rewilding is not a cute instagram lifestyle for connecting to nature. If you’re looking for an apolitical perspective, rewilding is not the movement for you. If instead, you are looking for a reality check and to push the boundaries of societal norms and buck against the authorities that are forcing us to consume the world to death, you’ve come to the right place.
Class Format
These graduate school-inspired courses will include lecture, group discussions, readings, and some homework. Be prepared to read materials between class sessions and share your thoughts and feelings around the topics presented in breakout groups and with the group at large. These classes are about social connection as well as knowledge. You may take the classes in any order you feel inspired to: just choose any that stick out to you most.
Rewild Your Mind (formerly Rewilding 101)
On the surface, this is a history class that answers the question “How did we get into this mess?” We take students on a journey of how and why certain human groups went from hunter-gatherers to the agrarian states that are causing the sixth mass extinction.
On a deeper level, this class is about how to see the world in a new way, inspired by ancient and modern day human cultures that continue to live in reciprocity with the land where they dwell. Together we examine the ecological role of homo sapiens throughout our time on earth, where we went wrong, and various ways in which we can correct our course.
You will learn the myths we’ve constructed about so-called prehistoric peoples, the problems that came with the transition to agricultural civilization, and the benefits of indigenous horticulture. We will look at the barriers that stand in the way of rewilding, the various ways and contexts in which people are rewilding, how to rewild in a way that is respectful across cultural boundaries, and take a look at how it is shaping up in the mainstream. This class breaks down old, outdated ways of knowing, and builds a new way of seeing the world. Rewild Your Mind will give you a broad understanding of how to make effective changes in your life and in the world.
Takeaways
Rewild Your Health
On the surface, this is a health class with tips and tricks to live a healthier, more satisfying lifestyle.
On a deeper level, this is a class that presents up-to-date science on how evolution has impacted our health, how and why so many people have debilitating health problems in today’s world, and processes to follow to learn how to break out of unhealthy cycles, or manage pain and symptoms in ways that can diminish them.
How are you supposed to engage in life-changing rewilding projects if your poor mental health prevents you from even getting out of bed in the morning? If your back pain prevents you from doing much? If you experience fatigue? If you can’t focus? While this may be our most cliché “self-help” styled class, it’s deeply important to find ways to reclaim your health so that you can tackle life’s bigger problems. We recognize that all of us live in a world where our health prevents us from doing some of the hard lifting of culture change. This is why we have to start with ourselves.
Takeaways
Rewild Your Senses
On the surface, this is a class where you’ll learn fun and engaging ways to connect to nature, using all your senses.
On a deeper level, this class is a study in perception, phenomenology, animism, and a deep exploration of what it means to experience consciousness. You’ll get tools for expanding your sense of place and belonging through embodiment.
Takeaways
Rewild Your Child
On the surface, this class demonstrates tried and true methods of raising competent, capable children as demonstrated by living communities of hunter-gatherers.
On a deeper level, this is a class about how to learn and how to create culture. This class is not just for parents, but all educators and culture makers. If culture is the “real” teacher, but we have the ability to design culture, how can we create learning environments that require little input once they get going? Like a perennial garden that requires little maintenance once established, a learning culture, even in the microcosm of your own living room, can do a tremendous amount of heavy lifting.
Takeaways