Monthly Archives: July 2015

The Fourth Threshold

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P1160002The trainees have now been immersed in the wilderness for 8 weeks. Every day they are utilizing the essential survival skills they have learned, in order to face the challenges that arise. These skills include choosing the most ideal campsite, accumulating comfort points, wilderness navigation, weather forecasting, wilderness first aid, bow-drill fire making, primitive cooking without pots or utensils, empathetic communication, functioning seamlessly as a pack, and much, much more.

As they move from camp to camp, they carry everything they need with them on their pack frames. They are getting better at transforming their difficulties into learning opportunities. When only one trainee was able to produce a coal to start a fire, they created the Fire Challenge, where each one of them took on the responsibility of creating two fires for the clan. If there was no fire, there was no cooked food. This Challenge truly motivated them and brought out their best; everyone can now create a bow drill fire.

Throughout this time, they are meeting the Three Thresholds to Wilderness Attunement head-on. First is the Psychological Threshold, where they come face-to-face with themselves because they don’t have their accustomed distractions to fall back on. Second is the Tolerance Threshold, which looms when the discomforts of nomadic life in the wilds eat away at their dispositions. Once they work through the first two thresholds, they are greeted by the Gifting Threshold. Here they begin to realize the ebb and flow of living in the natural realm: that rain, mosquitoes, and biting flies come and go, that hunger is eventually sated. Tired muscles get rested, low spirits are lifted, and at some point, someone successfully builds a fire.

These first three thresP1150983holds are personal; each trainee must overcome them individually. The Fourth Threshold is different—it is social and typically looms after two moons (months) or so, when an individual starts truly missing friends and loved ones. Memories can sustain someone for only so long. The trainees successfully embrace the Fourth Threshold when they move out of the I-me-mine way of being and cross over to fully embrace themselves, one another, and the woodland community which hosts them on their journey.

This is no easy task. It requires the willingness and ability to fully accept themselves and others unconditionally. In this sense, it could be considered the first threshold of another level, because crossing over allows them to become a functioning organ within the organism.

The trainees are now in the midst of the Fourth Threshold. Tension surrounds two of the trainees in particular. One of them is efficient and goal oriented, and the other often struggles to keep up with the group. It’s not as much about skill level as it is about the underlying psychological patterns they both learned during childhood that are now taking center stage: super-responsible child who grew up too soon meets the child who was treated as inadequate. The more that Super-Responsible pressures Feeling Inadequate, the slower they go and the more agitated they both get.

In civil society, their conflict may be regarded as nothing more than incompatibility, and they could easily go their separate ways. But in the wild, everyone is needed—there is no choice but to work it out. This is forcing them to look more deeply at themselves and each other, to see why they react the way they do, and to find the gifts the other has to offer. If P1150964they are able to make the journey from their minds to their hearts and meet there, their clan may be able to thrive on the gifts the relationship brings, and together they will find their place within the realm of the Wild Relations.

To hear more about their experiences from the trainees themselves, you can listen to the latest recording below. And of course, stay tuned for more adventures…

Fire and Hearth

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When it rains, the trainees stay put wherever they are. It’s far better to catch up on sleep from the mosquito-infested nights than to get themselves and their gear wet, because once wet, they must wait until the weather clears in order to dry their gear. So far, there have only been a few days that required laying low.

The trainees’ comfort is determined by how well they evaluate and set up their campsite.  As a nomadic clan, they are getting a lot of practice assessing and choosing campsites based on comfort points.  These include finding a place with a good hearth area near a water source that is both high and dry, while taking into account sun exposure. When setting up their tarps, they must also assess whether their tarp placement will shield them from prevailing winds during inclement weather.

The effectiveness of setting up a successful camp hinges on consistently following these five steps, which are listed in order of importance:

  1. Scout area thoroughly to determine a location that meets all basic needs.
  2. Set up tarps to secure dry environment for self and gear.
  3. Set up hearth and fire.
  4. Find water access.
  5. Establish food storage.

Part of the training includes building Fire with a bow drill… matches ran out weeks ago. Though everyone has been practicing, no one but Caretaking Woman, formerly known as Long-Haired Woman, P1140341has been able to call upon the gift of Fire. Recently, the trainees decided it was time to step up to the learning opportunity, so they designed a Fire Challenge.  Each person was assigned three days in which to bring forth Fire for the clan. If that person is not successful, then there is no Fire that day.

Playful Child, formerly known as Youngest Man, was the first trainee to step up to the Fire Challenge. The first day, the clan did not have Fire. Not succeeding puts a lot of pressure on the person who is charged with building one. Fire is essential for food preparation, for keeping mosquitos at bay, for drying wet gear, for warmth during cold spells, and serves as a gathering place for the clan at the end of the day.

Playful Child succeeded on the second night! He now goes by the name Embers Inside.

Listen to the latest recording of the Guardian Intensive trainees discussing their experiences in the wild.

 

Thresholds in the Wild

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The trainees have been immersed in the wilds for a little over a month now. Their guts are fully accustomed to drinking lake water, they are no longer dependent on matches for fire, and they have perfected their tarp set ups without the use of cordage.

The Guardian Intensive Training emphasizes a nomadic way of living. To better learn these skills, they broke down camp each day, without leaving any trace. They then packed all their gear on their pack-frames, which they are still modifying.  For many suns, they looked for good nearby spots to set up their tarps, to practice setting up quickly and packing up on a moment’s notice.  They are now skilled enough to venture further into new and unfamiliar territory.

Those who have spent time immersed in the wilderness know that everyone encounters at least three thresholds before finding peace and comfort living in the wild. The PsychoIMG_0318 (1)logical Threshold usually occurs within the first three days.  Without the distractions of modern life, such as commuting to work, music, email, Facebook, Netflix, and socializing, many people find that the emotional and relationship issues that exist in their lives are magnified. They will either make peace with these internal demons or pack up and leave with the intention of resolving them.

Within a week, they’ll encounter the Tolerance Threshold, a slow erosion of their morale due to the accumulating physical discomforts, such as rainy weather, the lack of food choices, being too cold or hot, and of course—bugs.  If they can make peace with these mounting factors, then the Gifting Threshold awaits them. This is also referred to as the Feast-and-Famine Threshold, because when a person is in the wilderness for a longer period of time, they experience the up-and-down cycles of the natural way of things—hot and cold, wet and dry, bounty and scarcity. Despite the discomfort, they begin to understand nature’s cycles. They know that if it is raining for several days, it will eventually stop and the sun will indeed shine again. If their sleeping bag is wet, it will dry. If the fish aren’t biting today, they eventually will, or perhaps they’ll find some clams or a marsh full of cattail roots over the next hP1150881ill.

Those who make it through these three thresholds will enter the Gifting Way, a way of being where they no longer exist apart from nature; they are nature. It is at this point that they can dwell in the wilderness indefinitely. They are now just as comfortable as they would be in their living room, and just as well-fed as at a restaurant. If they choose to leave the wilderness, they can return at any time, knowing they have a place there.

Last week, one of the remaining five trainees hit a threshold that he could not reconcile. Goes His Own Way decided it was best that he return home, and he left camp.

Any time a trainee leaves, it affects the morale of the entire group. To make matters more complicated, Goes His Own Way was the holder of the group tomahawk. Each group has one tomahawk, and the one they had just happened to be owned by Goes His Own Way. When he left, the tomahawk went with him.

With their smaller numbers, the group came together in a new and inspiring way. They realized that with fewer people, each person was going to have to step up and work together as a true organism; everyone became even more essential. They recommitted themselves to one another and to the group as a whole. They also learned that when an organ is ailing—in this case a fellow trainee—it is imperative that measures are taken to help that organ return to balance. In not recognizing the importance of the matter, the clan lost an organ and its vital assets.

To hear more about their experiences from the trainees themselves, you can listen to the latest recording below. And of course, stay tuned for more adventures…