The Cocoon V1.0
Plotkin and his colleagues have been working on developing and successfully guiding people through a nature based spiritual path for a few decades now. I had read parts of Soulcraft in 2009 in the depths of grad school, but decided I did not have the time to devote to what was required for understanding and transformation. Coincidentally, as I was laying out my vision for mF Freedom To Motherfuckers! project there were murmurings of some of Plotkin's other work Nature and the Human Soul a few times on the forum. I downloaded an audio version and immediately devoured it. His description of entering the cocoon and what that feels like was very, very similar to what I had experienced as I was in the thick of creating my Freedom-To vision. He outlines some of the hang-ups that can catch people (everyone has some) later on if they are not dealt with before going all in on finding your mytho-poetic identity. He had a large list of items, but a few that stuck out to me that were most common and are relevant for ERE were chemical dependencies and addictions to things like Western consumerism. Nature and the Human Soul goes through the entire lifecycle of a human so that is likely why it is a WL10 book. Plotkin's other works mostly focus on guiding people through the Cocoon stage (and surrounding stages). I do not have time to explain his entire methodology here (deserves it's own threads), but one of the first suggested exercises is to make a list of memorable nature encounters so you can then draw connections between them. Rationally, I know most of this is just in my head and I do not think that I can actually talk with nature. However, the search for one's mytho-poetic identity leaves the rational behind for more sensual explorations of your own imagination interacting with the world. Here is my attempt at the first exercise.
# Fasted Hiking and Night Plateau Run
In college I spent a few weeks hiking in the high deserts of Southern Utah. I did a fast for a few days while hiking with our group and it changed my perspective on how aware you could be of your surroundings. When you are fasted and out in the cold (at night) for a few days all of your senses are much sharper (see @theanimals journal for similar takes). On our last night I did a long run on this open high desert plateau under the stars. It was cold, but I was sweating and far from the group so I needed to make it back or risk hypothermia as all the daytime heat radiated back into space. For most of the run my arms were out embracing the milky way with tears flowing.
# Sunshine on snowy farm field
There were many farms around where I grew up and I would often play in the woods and wonder along the tree lines with my sibling. The first time I saw "god" in nature was on a winter afternoon when the sun was getting lower in the sky after melting some snow off of a farm field. I just sat there in the cold for a few hours and as the sun set over the distant farm field horizon.
# Face to face with water moccasin - Elmers!
My family has a history of being terrified of snakes. This started when my grandmother was in elementary school. The older boys would catch snakes in the field and then put them in my grandma's desk for her to discover. She was so terrified of snakes that we had to call them Elmers. This conditioning transferred to my father who was equally scared and taught my sibling and I to be scared. I was out exploring while my dad was fishing and I wandered out onto a log over the river. I was mainly focusing on trying not to fall in and then came face to face with a water moccasin (poisonous) that was coiled up on the log. Nothing happened of course, but I got back to my dad and was shaking violently. I have since come to have many mutual respect encounters with wild snakes and have held pet snakes.
# Last backpacking trip with DW
Not willing to share the details of this one publicly, but we had a great time with some amazing sunsets. Some of her ashes are scattered in this watershed.
# Psilocybin
The scariest and most delightful feelings and ideas in the world come from your own mind. I took a heavy dose in college and had the most delightful softening of my reality. I felt scared when I was peaking and the mycorrhizal network beneath the grass assured me that the trees would take care of me and that everything would be okay. I wandered back through the neighborhood at dusk and could feel the warmth of the light radiating from the houses on my block. I arrived back to our dilapidated college house and immediately my mood changed. There were no lights on and it looked cold, empty, and haunted with no trees in the yard to act as protectors. I took a long shower and tried to overcome the paranoia as I came down.
# Sitting zazen regularly
It was during a particularly deep meditation session that I decided that peacefulness of mind was the closest thing to God there was. I became atheist on the spot towards a traditional Judeo-Christian God (although I now think the sidelined mystical traditions within those religions are closer to what the founders had in mind and think the basic teachings about brotherhood with your fellow man are spot on). Right around the same time I was getting into Wilber et al. because they offered a much more holistic picture of what spirituality could offer. In the end decided that zazen had enough to offer in its own path (Wilber admits this many times) and is much simpler and translatable across cultures than some of the more esoteric cultural ceremonies and techniques. However, AQAL and these other models still have a lot to offer for understanding the different aspects of reality physically, mentally, and culturally (I, We, It, It's).
# Climbing flow states on hard routes
I first experienced a flow state when pitching in baseball. The focus and calming of nerves to accurately throw is the same mental muscle that I used during climbing trips with large multi-pitch objectives with a competent climbing partner. It is all about the now.
# Solo Shelter and Milky Way
I wrote about this briefly for my buckskinning post. Leaving the suburbs, building a primitive shelter next to my dad's camp in a river valley (low light pollution) using Tom Brown as a guide and being rewarded with a new moon (dark) night and a stunning milky way.
# Oregon Coast Backpacking Trip - Cougar
A cougar was hunting some animal right outside of our tent next to a creek. We were inside the tent, but heard the classic cougar scream followed by fighting and a deep SPLOOSH in the deeper part of the creek. Taking a look at the tracks in the morning confirmed cougar and deer. No blood though and no other animal sign. I could hear my heart beating inside my head. Being in fight mode while trapped inside a sleeping bag is next level discomfort. haha.
# Raft flip in Grand Canyon
I think that getting worked in a rapid or an ocean wave set are two of the best ways to show how insignificant we all are. Nature can flick any one of us. Relaxing and diving deeper will usually let the rapid release you. Fighting it directly is a sure way to lose.
# High Desert Deer and Wind Movement
We were camping in the high deserts of Eastern Oregon. It was really windy and set up our tent in this area where there was deeper brush cover. The area had an outhouse on the other end of the pull out and there was a spigot that was dripping water near our tent. In this water limited environment this could be why there was denser brush there. We went into the tent early to get out of the wind and read. As soon as it was past dusk I kept hearing movement outside of the tent. I could not see anything when looking out the door, but every time the wind would blow there would be the sounds of movement getting ever closer to the tent. Finally, after keeping my head out of the tent for the next gust, I noticed that we were surrounded by a herd of mule deer. They had come to lick the ground around the dripping spigot. They stayed around our tent all night drinking and milling about when the wind blew. As I was falling asleep I had a very strange disconnect between wind and movement of the deer and which one was causal. Did the wind cause the deer or the deer cause the wind? This also reminded me of how the Fremen move through the desert so they do not attract sandworms in the novel Dune.
Thanks for reading.