The American Nature Religion (ritual, punishment, Earth, mystic, tradition)

[doppelgänger]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

Nope. Can you tell me something about it?

A little. I read it years ago in college for a Philosophy course on Humans and the Environment. The central idea is that we should cease imagining "humans" as carrying a distinct moral classification because the inspiring beauty of the whole natural world tells us on a spiritual level that we as individuals are part of a greater whole for which "human" ends really aren't the measure. So it takes the spiritual experience of nature and formulates an ethical system based on Ecology and system dynamics oriented toward living in harmony with the natural world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Ecology

Drawing upon the Buddhist tradition is the work of Joanna Macy. Macy, working as an anti-nuclear activist in USA, found that one of the major impediments confronting the activists' cause was the presence of unresolved emotions of despair, grief, sorrow, anger and rage. The denial of these emotions led to apathy and disempowerment.
We may have intellectual understanding of our interconnectedness, but our culture, experiential deep ecologists like John Seed argue, robs us of emotional and visceral experience of that interconnectedness which we had as small children, but which has been socialised out of us by a highly anthropocentric alienating culture.
Through "Despair and Empowerment Work" and more recently "The Work that Reconnects", Macy and others have been taking Experiential Deep Ecology into many countries including especially the USA, Europe (particularly Britain and Germany), Russia and Australia.

Why does this remind me of Supertramp?

[painted wolf]

I think an awareness of native American culture had some significant influence on it. I'm not sure how much. It's my unproven hunch that the experience of encountering "raw" nature itself had the greater influence.

The thing is some of the first things encountered were the Native Population. Large villages with thier fields of crops and semi-perminate houses would have greeted them. If anything I think these early encounters with the unknown first instilled a xenophobia and fostered some religious fundimentalism. (look at early Massachusetts and the Puritians.)
It was only when the colonists discovered that they couldn't survive using the tactics that worked in Europe and they had to work with the First Nations to learn to survive.

Also different groups interacted with the people in different ways. The Spanish didn't use the same tactics that the French, Dutch, English or Germans did.

I think the "nature religion" was more a product of nostalga for the "lost indian way of life". Once the First Nations of the east coast had been pushed out of the way often the people who had done so felt regret and began to wax nostalgic over the "noble savage". (Benjamin Franklen began to write about the "Noble Savage" quite a bit at this time.) Of cource this didn't stop them from carrying on what was going on in the west....

thus I think it began as a sort of shame.... "white man's burden" they used to call it.

wa:do

[doppelgänger]

By the way, I spelled the name wrong. It's Arne Naess.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_N%C3%A6ss

The book I read in college is Ecology, Community and Lifestyle. I dug through my library and can't find it now. Oh well. Looks like another trip to Amazon.com.

I'm looking forward to re-reading it. I suspect it will be a wholly new work of art to the current me. He's also written extensively on the work of Spinoza, which is another favorite subject of mine.

[Sunstone]

Many, perhaps most, spiritual experiences are characterized by a deep feeling, sense, or perception, of all things being connected in some way. The science of ecology loosely conjures up the same notion that all things are connected. I don't think the two senses of "connection" are quite the same, but they share enough similarities to be remarkable.

[autonomous1one1]

Originally Posted by Sunstone

Many, perhaps most, spiritual experiences are characterized by a deep feeling, sense, or perception, of all things being connected in some way. The science of ecology loosely conjures up the same notion that all things are connected. I don't think the two senses of "connection" are quite the same, but they share enough similarities to be remarkable.

Greetings. Believe from my perspective that you have good thoughts on interconnectedness and nature, Sunstone. Guess you know this from my previous post : My thought is in full agreement with you that communion with nature can be deeply felt in connectedness. In my belief, the three - God, man, and nature - are one. This oneness can be realized directly in human consciousness, and communion with nature can help realize that oneness initially and sustain the unity in consciousness once realized.

However, in this current thread I had to vote 'other or depends.' My interpretation of the revelation that you are referring to in the OP is revelation for modern man, at the current time; and imo there are three primary sources - scripture, nature, and writings of other humans - and of course there are many practices that go along with these such as meditation, contemplation, and prayer. The writing of others has been very significant for me but I think the primary source will depend on the individual. Let me ask you a question. Did you discover nature first and then read Thoreau or read Thoreau first who led you to nature? I will admit for me that nature is a great source for 'rejuvenation' as is 'other' written material, and I have had friends for whom scripture alone was sufficient.