Latest / Vox Novus with Victor Fuhrman / Frank Forencich – Honor the Animal
Transcript
- 0:06Speaker 1: Vox Novus, the New Voice, Vox Novus, the new Dimension.
- 0:15Speaker 1: Vox Novus thought and movement leaders who will share from
- 0:19Speaker 1: their experience and offer tools to help us navigate our
- 0:23Speaker 1: rapidly changing world. My name is Victor Furman. Welcome to
- 0:29Speaker 1: Vox Novus, the New Voice. The human animal is in
- 0:43Speaker 1: big trouble. An ecological and social storm is upon us,
- 0:48Speaker 1: and the stress is growing more intense with each passing day.
- 0:53Speaker 1: To succeed, there must be a creation of new culture,
- 0:57Speaker 1: ideas and lifeways. We must be radically, ferociously, relentlessly creative.
- 1:05Speaker 1: My guest this week on Vox novis Frank Farensich, says
- 1:09Speaker 1: we must honor the Animal. Frank is a passionate advocate
- 1:14Speaker 1: for the human animal and a functional future. He earned
- 1:17Speaker 1: his BA at Stanford University in human biology and has
- 1:22Speaker 1: more than thirty years of teaching experience in martial arts
- 1:26Speaker 1: and health education. A former columnist for Paleo Magazine, Frank
- 1:31Speaker 1: is the author of numerous books about health and the
- 1:34Speaker 1: human predicament. His website is Humananimal dot earth, and he
- 1:40Speaker 1: joins me this week to share his path and latest book,
- 1:44Speaker 1: Honor the Animal, Experiential Design for Teachers coaches, trainers, therapists,
- 1:51Speaker 1: parents and health professionals. Please join me in welcoming to
- 1:56Speaker 1: Vox Novus Frank Forensics. Welcome, Frank glad to be here.
- 2:01Speaker 1: Please share with us your early path and challenges and
- 2:05Speaker 1: how it led to your background in martial arts and
- 2:08Speaker 1: human design.
- 2:10Speaker 2: Well, my origin story, I suppose starts as a very
- 2:15Speaker 2: young person where I had a lot of physical troubles.
- 2:18Speaker 2: I was very sick, had a lot of allergies, couldn't
- 2:22Speaker 2: really keep up with my peers on the athletic field
- 2:24Speaker 2: at all, and it wasn't looking good for me. But
- 2:30Speaker 2: my parents got me involved in swimming and that made
- 2:33Speaker 2: a huge difference over the course of a few years,
- 2:36Speaker 2: and I went from being really behind the curve physically
- 2:40Speaker 2: to catching up, and that led me to get really
- 2:45Speaker 2: interested in physical movement and the physical arts. I eventually
- 2:50Speaker 2: became involved with martial arts and rock climbing and a
- 2:54Speaker 2: whole host of studies having to do with the human body.
- 2:58Speaker 2: So that was my transformation, you might say.
- 3:01Speaker 1: For listeners who may have some physical issues. I was
- 3:05Speaker 1: told by a doctor I was having problems with one
- 3:07Speaker 1: of my knees and the doctor told me get into
- 3:11Speaker 1: into a swimming pool and start swimming. How important is swimming?
- 3:15Speaker 3: Oh?
- 3:15Speaker 2: For me, it was pivotal. It was fantastic because it
- 3:20Speaker 2: increased my vitality and it got me over a lot
- 3:24Speaker 2: of these sort of vague afflictions that I had. And
- 3:29Speaker 2: it only took a few years so consistently get in
- 3:32Speaker 2: the water and eventually joined the water polo team in
- 3:35Speaker 2: high school, and that made a big difference in the
- 3:39Speaker 2: long term trajectory of my life.
- 3:43Speaker 1: Tell us about your trips to Africa and what you
- 3:45Speaker 1: were searching for right.
- 3:47Speaker 2: Well, when I was in college, I was in the
- 3:49Speaker 2: program in human biology, and I had a lot of
- 3:52Speaker 2: professors who were very interested in human evolution and the
- 3:56Speaker 2: big history of the human animal. And they all said
- 3:59Speaker 2: pretty much the same, if you really want to understand
- 4:02Speaker 2: how the human body works, you need to go to
- 4:04Speaker 2: Africa and understand the environment that we grew up in.
- 4:09Speaker 2: And I took them seriously. I said, Okay, I'll do that,
- 4:12Speaker 2: and I went to Africa, and I was fortunate I
- 4:15Speaker 2: was able to go on safari to see the natural world.
- 4:19Speaker 2: But I was also able to go out with some
- 4:22Speaker 2: Plahari bushman, the hunters and gatherers of Tanzania, and that
- 4:28Speaker 2: was really exciting for me. I learned a lot.
- 4:30Speaker 1: What were some of the things that you learned from them?
- 4:33Speaker 2: Well, mostly it was the thought experiment of what would
- 4:38Speaker 2: it be like to live in an ancestral environment, that
- 4:42Speaker 2: that was normal for human beings for most of our
- 4:45Speaker 2: time on Earth, and how that lifestyle would have affected
- 4:50Speaker 2: our bodies, being outdoors twenty four hours a day, being
- 4:54Speaker 2: in small tribal bands, paying a lot of attention to habitat,
- 4:58Speaker 2: having a lot of agility, which is the ability to
- 5:01Speaker 2: walk long distances without fences or roads or interruptions, and
- 5:07Speaker 2: that contact with the natural world would have been very
- 5:11Speaker 2: awe inspiring and very good for the human body and
- 5:14Speaker 2: for human health.
- 5:16Speaker 1: Before we discuss your new book, Honor the Animal, please
- 5:19Speaker 1: share with us about your twenty twenty one book, Beware
- 5:23Speaker 1: False Tigers, Strategies and Antidotes for an Age of Stress.
- 5:27Speaker 1: What inspired that book and what do you share with
- 5:30Speaker 1: readers right?
- 5:32Speaker 2: Well, stress is such a big topic in the health
- 5:34Speaker 2: and fitness world, but it's even bigger than that. And
- 5:39Speaker 2: I know that it's such a hot topic because the
- 5:45Speaker 2: autonomic nervous system, which drives a stress response, is ancient
- 5:49Speaker 2: and it's a primal part of the human body and
- 5:53Speaker 2: it touches every sell, every organ, every tissue in the body.
- 5:57Speaker 2: So if we can use that system, well, our bodies
- 6:01Speaker 2: will flourish. But if we have trouble with that system,
- 6:04Speaker 2: then there's going to be lots of downstream and consequences,
- 6:07Speaker 2: not just for our health, but for our behavior and
- 6:10Speaker 2: our experience in the world. So that's what led me
- 6:13Speaker 2: to write the book. And I continue to be really
- 6:15Speaker 2: fascinated by stress and the stress responses.
- 6:18Speaker 1: And what did you share with readers about stress in
- 6:20Speaker 1: that book.
- 6:21Speaker 2: The primary duality that people need to understand, and I
- 6:24Speaker 2: think a lot of people are coming around to this,
- 6:26Speaker 2: is understanding the difference between the sympathetic branch and the
- 6:30Speaker 2: parasympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system. And we've all
- 6:34Speaker 2: heard about the fight flight response, So that is the
- 6:38Speaker 2: response of the body for emergency physical action and typically movement,
- 6:45Speaker 2: and this is where we're running away from predators and
- 6:47Speaker 2: that kind of thing. And that's a very important piece
- 6:50Speaker 2: of the puzzle and it's very valuable in terms of
- 6:56Speaker 2: our survival and our performance. But the other side of
- 6:59Speaker 2: the system, the parasympathetic branch is just as important, and
- 7:03Speaker 2: that's the rest and digest response, or what in massage
- 7:08Speaker 2: school we called it the feed and breed response, And
- 7:11Speaker 2: that's the healing response that helps us put tissues and
- 7:14Speaker 2: organs back together when they've been overworked. So the key
- 7:19Speaker 2: in all of this is to use it wisely, to
- 7:23Speaker 2: have a stress response that is appropriate and acute at
- 7:27Speaker 2: the right time, and then to return back to the
- 7:30Speaker 2: rest and digest response as soon as possible, and to
- 7:34Speaker 2: hang out there to spend most of our time in
- 7:36Speaker 2: rest and.
- 7:37Speaker 1: Digest and not carry that stress with them right.
- 7:41Speaker 2: Right, So it's always the distinction between acute and chronic.
- 7:45Speaker 2: Acute is good, chronic is bad.
- 7:48Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 7:49Speaker 1: What inspired your new book, Honor the Animal and who
- 7:52Speaker 1: is it written for?
- 7:54Speaker 3: Right?
- 7:54Speaker 2: Well, I've been very fortunate in that I've been able
- 7:59Speaker 2: to study with all of different teachers in the world
- 8:01Speaker 2: of martial arts and massage therapy and athletic training, and
- 8:06Speaker 2: I started producing some workshops on my own and I
- 8:10Speaker 2: was able to start from scratch, and that was an
- 8:13Speaker 2: incredibly valuable experience because I didn't have to follow anybody
- 8:17Speaker 2: else's template. I could just make things up on the fly.
- 8:21Speaker 2: And I said what is the ideal experience, say, in
- 8:25Speaker 2: a three day workship, what do I want people to
- 8:27Speaker 2: take away from it? And that's what the book is
- 8:31Speaker 2: all about, is how to design this kind of experience.
- 8:34Speaker 2: And it's for anybody who works with the human animals,
- 8:37Speaker 2: So it could be teachers, parents, coaches, therapists, trainers, anybody
- 8:42Speaker 2: who who might want to do one of these experiences
- 8:46Speaker 2: with their people. It's a starting from scratch approach. You
- 8:50Speaker 2: might even call it a veterinary approach for working with
- 8:53Speaker 2: people or the human animal.
- 8:56Speaker 1: Where do we stand? What is the nature of the
- 8:59Speaker 1: modern human predicament?
- 9:01Speaker 3: Oh?
- 9:03Speaker 2: Well, the human animal is in really big trouble right now,
- 9:06Speaker 2: and for a lot of reasons, clearly, But the two
- 9:11Speaker 2: biggest ones are tied to our biology. The first one
- 9:16Speaker 2: is what they call mismatch, and that is simply the
- 9:20Speaker 2: fact that our bodies are ancient. Our bodies have this
- 9:23Speaker 2: aboriginal wiring you might say, these aboriginal inclinations, and we're
- 9:29Speaker 2: trying to use that kind of wiring in the modern world,
- 9:32Speaker 2: which which is radically different from the world that we're
- 9:36Speaker 2: used to. So that's a big challenge and a big
- 9:39Speaker 2: stressor for everyone. And then the other big challenge, of course,
- 9:43Speaker 2: is are ecological predicament and the fact that all of
- 9:46Speaker 2: our life support systems now are under continuous threat and
- 9:53Speaker 2: may actually be past the tipping points of a breakdown.
- 9:58Speaker 2: So the thing, the processes, the life systems that support
- 10:02Speaker 2: our bodies are under threat, and in turn, our bodies
- 10:06Speaker 2: are suffering.
- 10:07Speaker 1: And what are some of the things that we can
- 10:09Speaker 1: do about disconnecting from that aboriginal build in our body, Well,
- 10:15Speaker 1: we really can't.
- 10:16Speaker 2: I think that we are going to be aboriginal for
- 10:21Speaker 2: a very long time. And our inclinations and our preferences,
- 10:27Speaker 2: our behaviors have been shaped by evolution over the course
- 10:30Speaker 2: of hundreds of thousands of years, and the modern world
- 10:34Speaker 2: has come upon us in the matter of only a
- 10:37Speaker 2: few hundred years. So a lot of people have described
- 10:42Speaker 2: us as cavemen with cell phones, which is kind of
- 10:45Speaker 2: a cartoon, but I think that's kind of accurate. And
- 10:49Speaker 2: our social inclinations, our health and lifestyle inclinations have been
- 10:53Speaker 2: shaped by events that took place a very long time ago.
- 10:58Speaker 2: So we have to work with that, and we have
- 11:02Speaker 2: to be aware of it.
- 11:03Speaker 1: And where does artificial intelligence come to play in this?
- 11:07Speaker 2: Oh AI's that's really kind of a pet peeve for
- 11:12Speaker 2: me now, because it's yet another technology that we don't
- 11:16Speaker 2: really understand that's coming down the pipe here with incredible
- 11:20Speaker 2: speed and we haven't even had the conversation yet about
- 11:25Speaker 2: how that might play in. And my fear is that,
- 11:31Speaker 2: like many technologies, it's going to lead to atrophy in
- 11:35Speaker 2: some basic human capability. So it's just as if you
- 11:40Speaker 2: use a car all the time to drive and to
- 11:43Speaker 2: go places and you never use your legs to walk,
- 11:46Speaker 2: your legs will begin to atrophy and you'll become weaker.
- 11:48Speaker 2: And the same thing will be I'm sure true with
- 11:51Speaker 2: AI that if we rely on AI to explore the
- 11:56Speaker 2: world and to take over our creative capabilities and our judgment,
- 12:01Speaker 2: then those to those capabilities will also begin to atrophy.
- 12:06Speaker 2: And that does not bode well at all for our future.
- 12:10Speaker 1: And it seems that the companies that are making the
- 12:12Speaker 1: AI elements are pushing them for profit rather than taking
- 12:17Speaker 1: the societal dangers into question.
- 12:20Speaker 2: Oh absolutely, I mean this is this is one hundred
- 12:22Speaker 2: percent apitalist enterprise. And it's not that people are making
- 12:27Speaker 2: the decisions here. Capital is making the decisions. Money and
- 12:30Speaker 2: profit are making the decisions, and so these these technologies
- 12:35Speaker 2: are basically being offered to us without reflection, and that
- 12:40Speaker 2: is that's just not a good way to introduce any
- 12:43Speaker 2: novelty or technology to people.
- 12:46Speaker 1: Absolutely, you've shared that humanity looks upon the animal kingdom
- 12:51Speaker 1: and nature as others. Why is this both wrong and dangerous?
- 12:57Speaker 2: Right? This is what some people call the myth of
- 13:00Speaker 2: human supremacy, and this belief that we are like the
- 13:04Speaker 2: apex of creation, we are the alpha animal, We're the
- 13:07Speaker 2: best animal that's ever lived, and that attitude, that philosophy
- 13:13Speaker 2: is really common in the modern Western world, but it's
- 13:17Speaker 2: not a human universal So in other words, a lot
- 13:19Speaker 2: of cultures, a lot of people on the planet have
- 13:24Speaker 2: held a different view, a more participatory view. But it
- 13:28Speaker 2: seems over the last couple hundred years we've shifted now
- 13:31Speaker 2: to this belief in human supremacy, this belief in human exceptionalism,
- 13:38Speaker 2: and that, at least from my point of view, is
- 13:40Speaker 2: a really dangerous attitude to hold, because we're just another
- 13:46Speaker 2: animal and we have some very impressive capabilities, but so
- 13:51Speaker 2: do a lot of other animals, and if we want
- 13:54Speaker 2: to have a functional future, I think we need to
- 13:56Speaker 2: take a more participatory approach to start seeing ourselves in participation,
- 14:05Speaker 2: in harmony with the natural world, and a lot of
- 14:08Speaker 2: conservationists have made this point, but it bears repeating because
- 14:13Speaker 2: to hold a arrogant approach to nature is bound belief
- 14:20Speaker 2: to trouble.
- 14:21Speaker 1: As we're saying, one hundred years ago, this would not
- 14:24Speaker 1: have been even a question. But where can we intervene
- 14:28Speaker 1: as a society, I guess, especially with children in schools,
- 14:32Speaker 1: and start to bring out the understanding of our relationship
- 14:36Speaker 1: with nature and with the wild kingdom?
- 14:39Speaker 2: Right, Well, it's got to be does my martial art
- 14:42Speaker 2: teachers always put it, They said, it's always about time
- 14:45Speaker 2: on the mat. In other words, we have to be
- 14:47Speaker 2: spending more time in contact with natural processes, more time outdoors.
- 14:54Speaker 2: And I think we're going to have to give up
- 14:56Speaker 2: some of our reliance on technology. I think that the
- 15:00Speaker 2: proliferation of smartphones, especially amongst young people, is a real problem,
- 15:06Speaker 2: and we're going to have to give up on some
- 15:08Speaker 2: of this headlong rush into a technological future. We have
- 15:12Speaker 2: to spend more time in nature. It's that simple.
- 15:15Speaker 1: Are we allowing our environment to be abused to the
- 15:18Speaker 1: extent that it actually could lead to extinction?
- 15:22Speaker 2: I think possibly that's the case, especially the threat of
- 15:27Speaker 2: climate chaos. We're on track now to be a three
- 15:33Speaker 2: degrees above pre industrial temperatures by twenty fifty, and so
- 15:39Speaker 2: that is within one generation. You know, people who are
- 15:43Speaker 2: born today will see some horrific climate consequences and whether
- 15:50Speaker 2: or not that leads to extinction and remains to be seen.
- 15:52Speaker 2: I think the effects will be patchy. There will be
- 15:54Speaker 2: some bioregions that are going to go down to extreme weather,
- 15:59Speaker 2: and I think they're going to be major food shortages
- 16:03Speaker 2: around the world, and there's going to be a lot
- 16:06Speaker 2: of chaos and a lot of stress. The consequences here
- 16:09Speaker 2: that we're looking at are really severe and we're not
- 16:12Speaker 2: really taking it seriously as a people. So maybe extension, yes,
- 16:16Speaker 2: but at the very least a lot of turmoil.
- 16:21Speaker 1: And again, what could be introduced into the educational process
- 16:24Speaker 1: to change this and to intervene.
- 16:28Speaker 2: Well, young people I think need to be told the
- 16:31Speaker 2: truth above all, and I think as parents we tend
- 16:35Speaker 2: to sugarcoat a lot of things, and we want we
- 16:37Speaker 2: don't want to frighten young people. We want them to
- 16:40Speaker 2: have a sense of hope, and that's all legit. However,
- 16:44Speaker 2: it's telling the truth is fundamental here, and we're having
- 16:48Speaker 2: trouble with that. We're having trouble telling people the truth
- 16:52Speaker 2: of what humans are doing to the biosphere now, and
- 16:57Speaker 2: we really can't shy away from that. We need to
- 17:00Speaker 2: tell the truth first of all, to one another and
- 17:04Speaker 2: to the adult community, and then as best we can
- 17:08Speaker 2: tell that truth to young people and then give them
- 17:11Speaker 2: the tools, their activist tools that they can carry forward.
- 17:15Speaker 2: And we're really failing to do that right now.
- 17:19Speaker 1: How do we generate how do we engender advocacy?
- 17:23Speaker 2: I think we need to teach people about the nature
- 17:25Speaker 2: of power, and the way power tends to consolidate, the
- 17:29Speaker 2: way wealth tends to consolidate, the extreme inequality of the
- 17:34Speaker 2: modern world, what the capitalist system is doing to people
- 17:38Speaker 2: around the world. Some people now are calling capitalism an
- 17:41Speaker 2: injustice machine, which I think is a fair description of
- 17:47Speaker 2: what it is. So young people need to have the tools,
- 17:51Speaker 2: especially the language tools they need to understand how politics
- 17:56Speaker 2: and power actually work, how especially the language of metaphor
- 18:01Speaker 2: to talk about some of these problems, and to be
- 18:04Speaker 2: good public speakers when they address the community at large.
- 18:09Speaker 2: So these are tools that we have, we just need
- 18:13Speaker 2: to make them available.
- 18:14Speaker 1: Absolutely, are we a Planet of the Apes in reverse.
- 18:20Speaker 2: Well, yes, I have no problem with this, with this
- 18:23Speaker 2: idea of humans as animals and humans as apes, humans
- 18:27Speaker 2: as primates, humans as mammals. Our wiring is so much
- 18:32Speaker 2: the same. And chimpanzees, for example, I've been to Africa
- 18:36Speaker 2: and I've been to Gombie where Jane Goodall did our work.
- 18:40Speaker 2: I've been out with the chimpanzees, and ninety eight percent
- 18:44Speaker 2: of their genetic material is the same as ours. So
- 18:49Speaker 2: I don't think it makes a whole lot of sense
- 18:51Speaker 2: to say that they're somehow different from us. Obviously they're
- 18:55Speaker 2: different in subtle ways, but we're mostly the same. And
- 19:02Speaker 2: so yes, primates, mammals, vertebrates were all part of the
- 19:06Speaker 2: same family.
- 19:07Speaker 1: And what was the lesson from the movie The Planet
- 19:09Speaker 1: of the Apes? So what do we see in those movies,
- 19:11Speaker 1: that series of movies about about how they treated humanity.
- 19:17Speaker 2: You know, it's been a long time since I saw
- 19:20Speaker 2: that movie, and I can't really comment on it. But
- 19:24Speaker 2: my favorite example here comes from the movie Avatar and
- 19:31Speaker 2: Terminator and some of these works by James Cameron. We
- 19:35Speaker 2: talked a lot about our encounter with technology and our
- 19:38Speaker 2: encounter with native people, and that I think is super
- 19:43Speaker 2: relevant right now, and I think we really need to
- 19:45Speaker 2: need to revisit these movies and see the message that
- 19:49Speaker 2: was there.
- 19:50Speaker 1: Absolutely, we have the warning. Now we have to pay
- 19:52Speaker 1: attention to the warning. My guest is Frank Farensich. His
- 19:57Speaker 1: book is called Honor the Animal, Feriential Design for teachers, coaches, trainers, therapists,
- 20:03Speaker 1: parents and health professionals. Frank, please share with our listeners
- 20:07Speaker 1: where they can get your books and find out more
- 20:09Speaker 1: about you and your work.
- 20:11Speaker 2: Well, the book is available on all the usual outlets,
- 20:16Speaker 2: but you can go to my website Humananimal dot earth
- 20:19Speaker 2: and you'll find everything there and some of my other
- 20:23Speaker 2: books and some of my other videos and that kind
- 20:25Speaker 2: of thing. So it's all easy to find.
- 20:27Speaker 1: And what else do you offer there?
- 20:29Speaker 2: I also have a YouTube channel with some nature based
- 20:34Speaker 2: monologues that I do in commentary that I do in
- 20:36Speaker 2: the outdoor world, so that might be interesting to people
- 20:39Speaker 2: as well.
- 20:40Speaker 1: And we'll be back with more Frank and on the
- 20:42Speaker 1: Animal after these words on the Old Times Radio network.
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- 21:44Speaker 7: We ask parents who adopted teens to share their journey.
- 21:48Speaker 8: There are many times I thought I can't do this.
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- 23:04Speaker 11: much time as you can making sure they're safe and comfortable.
- 23:07Speaker 11: But it's just as important that you take some time
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- 23:45Speaker 4: Hi, this is bellemar. I can find humor and almost anything,
- 23:48Speaker 4: but one thing I never laugh about its cruelty to animals.
- 23:51Speaker 4: If you don't get the joke, A there right, People
- 23:54Speaker 4: for the Ethical Treatment of Animals five on one front
- 23:56Speaker 4: straight in Norfolk, Virginia, two three five one oh.
- 24:00Speaker 1: Back on Vox Novus. My guest this week Frank Parensis,
- 24:04Speaker 1: author of the book Honor the Animal Experiential Design for teachers, coaches, trainers, therapists, parents,
- 24:12Speaker 1: and health professionals. Frank, not many people talk about experiential design.
- 24:18Speaker 1: What is it and why is it important?
- 24:20Speaker 2: Oh? Good? I love this question because what happens when
- 24:25Speaker 2: we go through standard curriculums. Let's say you want to
- 24:28Speaker 2: be a teacher or a trainer or coach. We go
- 24:31Speaker 2: to school and we receive you might say, template, and
- 24:36Speaker 2: the template tells us how to conduct our educations that
- 24:40Speaker 2: we do with our clients. Our patients are our students,
- 24:45Speaker 2: and then we tend to stick with us. And what
- 24:49Speaker 2: I think we need to do in light of modern
- 24:52Speaker 2: knowledge about the human animal is we need to question
- 24:56Speaker 2: all of that and we need to start from scratch.
- 24:58Speaker 2: And that's what I talk about the veterinary model and say, Okay,
- 25:02Speaker 2: we've got these animals, with these human animals, and they
- 25:06Speaker 2: under they're under a certain amount of distress right now.
- 25:11Speaker 2: So starting from scratch with experiential design, what would we
- 25:16Speaker 2: do with people? If you just had a group of
- 25:18Speaker 2: people and unlimited resources, what would you do? And that's
- 25:22Speaker 2: a question that is that we don't ask often enough,
- 25:28Speaker 2: and I think it's a good place to start.
- 25:31Speaker 1: And what would you say we'd start with.
- 25:34Speaker 2: Well, we've got to start with the human body and
- 25:38Speaker 2: the history of the human body, and what are our
- 25:42Speaker 2: basic needs? You know, obviously we need to be in
- 25:46Speaker 2: contact with nature to some degree, we need to be
- 25:50Speaker 2: in contact with community, and we need to have a
- 25:53Speaker 2: sense of meaning and purpose. These are like our three
- 25:56Speaker 2: circles of life support that surround us. And that's a
- 26:01Speaker 2: good starting place. Habitat, tribe and community, and then met
- 26:05Speaker 2: a narrative, sense of meaning and a purpose. If we
- 26:08Speaker 2: start there, we won't go too far wrong. And I
- 26:13Speaker 2: enjoy the academic disciplines all of these. The traditional schooling
- 26:17Speaker 2: is fine in and of itself, but we need to
- 26:19Speaker 2: get underneath that something more primal.
- 26:22Speaker 1: You say that experience is the language of the body.
- 26:27Speaker 1: What does that mean?
- 26:29Speaker 2: I love this phrase because when you study neuroscience, you
- 26:33Speaker 2: walk away with a couple of insights. And whether it's
- 26:39Speaker 2: changes to synapses or nerve cells, the wrappings around nerve
- 26:43Speaker 2: cells called myelin, or whether it's changes to the cortex
- 26:47Speaker 2: of the brain, all of these things are what they
- 26:49Speaker 2: call use dependent. In other words, those changes only take
- 26:54Speaker 2: place in response to use, in other words, experience. So
- 27:00Speaker 2: you use the brain, you use synapses and neurons in
- 27:04Speaker 2: a particular way, and they will respond with transformation. They
- 27:09Speaker 2: won't respond to anything else. The experience is the driver.
- 27:14Speaker 2: Repetition is the driver of nervous system transformation. So it's
- 27:20Speaker 2: correct to say that experience is the language of the body.
- 27:23Speaker 2: And I happen to love language, and a lot of
- 27:27Speaker 2: us use language in trying to transform one another, and
- 27:30Speaker 2: language can have an effect. But really, when you get
- 27:33Speaker 2: right down to it. It's the experience that the whole
- 27:36Speaker 2: human animal has that changes the body, that changes the
- 27:40Speaker 2: nervous system.
- 27:42Speaker 1: So I'm working in my kitchen and I don't have
- 27:45Speaker 1: a glove on my hand, and I reach out to
- 27:48Speaker 1: grab a pot and I don't take into consideration that
- 27:52Speaker 1: there's going to be heat coming from that pot, and
- 27:54Speaker 1: my hand starts to burn.
- 27:56Speaker 2: Is that experience, Oh absolutely, and it would be. It's
- 28:00Speaker 2: poignant in and of itself. But if it happens several times,
- 28:04Speaker 2: if you have repetitions of that, that will drive that
- 28:07Speaker 2: learning home deeply into your nervous system, and you will
- 28:12Speaker 2: have synaptic changes and changes to neurons and changes to
- 28:16Speaker 2: the cortex of your brain, all driven by that experience,
- 28:19Speaker 2: all driven by that use. So repetition is everything, and
- 28:23Speaker 2: athletic coaches know this, and we need to listen to
- 28:27Speaker 2: some of their teaching on this.
- 28:29Speaker 1: So in essence, this is a form of education that
- 28:33Speaker 1: comes really through the physical phenomenon, not through the intellectual phenomenon, right, And.
- 28:40Speaker 2: That's something that we need to maybe rethink, especially at
- 28:45Speaker 2: the level of academic education and the university, because this
- 28:52Speaker 2: model that came to us in the late middle ages
- 28:55Speaker 2: of the university, where students sit and take notes and
- 28:58Speaker 2: listen to lectures and try and drive knowledge into the
- 29:02Speaker 2: brain through academic learning. That's one model, but it's it's
- 29:08Speaker 2: not the only model. And if you look at it
- 29:12Speaker 2: in terms of human history, deep human history, the primal
- 29:18Speaker 2: body based knowledge has always been the core of this.
- 29:23Speaker 1: How has neglect led to the level of stress that
- 29:27Speaker 1: many experience today.
- 29:29Speaker 2: Neglect as in neglect of the body, neglect in terms
- 29:35Speaker 2: of sedentary living, neglect in terms of the domestication of
- 29:41Speaker 2: modern lifestyle. That's how a tremendous effect on the human body,
- 29:46Speaker 2: especially an atrophy of our muscular system, but also an
- 29:50Speaker 2: atrophy of our sensory systems, atrophy in our ability to
- 29:56Speaker 2: pay attention to the world. All of these things seem
- 29:59Speaker 2: to be a decline line. And you might even say
- 30:02Speaker 2: the vitality of the human animal itself seems to have
- 30:06Speaker 2: degraded over the last few decades. Even so, that's part
- 30:11Speaker 2: of our trouble.
- 30:12Speaker 1: And also with the advent of COVID and the isolation
- 30:17Speaker 1: of people, especially kids not going to a physical school
- 30:21Speaker 1: but adjoining school through means of computers and such. What
- 30:25Speaker 1: do you think that did.
- 30:27Speaker 2: That's been that's been a real big hit to all
- 30:31Speaker 2: of us. And obviously the technology enables people like us
- 30:36Speaker 2: to have a conversation at long distance, and that's a
- 30:40Speaker 2: welcome thing, but too much screen time. This is absolutely
- 30:45Speaker 2: clear that that cannot substitute for face to face interactions
- 30:51Speaker 2: with other people. I mean, this is deep social wiring
- 30:56Speaker 2: in the human animal. Our brains are literally social or
- 31:00Speaker 2: and we absolutely need that FaceTime. That's like the gold
- 31:04Speaker 2: standard for human social interactions. And technology is really getting
- 31:09Speaker 2: in the way of that. The smartphone, especially the earbuds
- 31:13Speaker 2: and the headphones, all of this is getting in the
- 31:16Speaker 2: way of our ability to know one another.
- 31:21Speaker 1: And one of the things that's been wired in my head,
- 31:24Speaker 1: especially the last few years, is I have to be
- 31:27Speaker 1: overly cautious when coming to an intersection that somebody. Most
- 31:32Speaker 1: of the time, teens are not crossing the street looking
- 31:34Speaker 1: at their phones and not looking at oncoming traffic.
- 31:37Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's everywhere now, and I think our ancestors
- 31:42Speaker 2: would be appalled at our inability to pay attention to
- 31:45Speaker 2: the world. I mean, this is not just a trivial
- 31:48Speaker 2: side effect of technology. This is going deeper, and I
- 31:52Speaker 2: really worry about young people and their ability, and even
- 31:56Speaker 2: older people now and the ability to pay attention and
- 32:01Speaker 2: in a consistent and sustained way. And if that goes away,
- 32:04Speaker 2: then we are at the mercy for all kinds of
- 32:09Speaker 2: forces in society that would tend to capture our.
- 32:12Speaker 1: Attention absolutely, and and also for me personally. I found
- 32:17Speaker 1: that those who spend a lot of time on their
- 32:19Speaker 1: phones are losing their communication skills right right.
- 32:25Speaker 2: And the thing that people forget is communication is not
- 32:29Speaker 2: just words. The body is always involved and has been
- 32:33Speaker 2: throughout history. So the body contributes in terms of our posture,
- 32:38Speaker 2: our facial expressions, are the pitch and volume of our voice,
- 32:44Speaker 2: all of these things that communication is fundamentally physical, and
- 32:48Speaker 2: the body knows this body language.
- 32:51Speaker 1: Yep, you're looking for common ground among teachers, therapists, coaches, trainers, parents,
- 32:59Speaker 1: and health profess How would you describe this overlap? Right?
- 33:04Speaker 2: This is a what I call a pigeonhole problem, because
- 33:07Speaker 2: all of these professions are working with the human animal,
- 33:10Speaker 2: and we all desire essentially the same thing for the
- 33:13Speaker 2: human animal. We all want our people to be healthier
- 33:17Speaker 2: and more functional in the world, and yet we're inhibited
- 33:21Speaker 2: by these pigeonholes that tell us, Okay, you're only going
- 33:24Speaker 2: to work with a certain aspect of the human animal.
- 33:28Speaker 2: You might be working with the human mind, you might
- 33:30Speaker 2: be working with the human body or part of the
- 33:32Speaker 2: human body. And this division of attention ends up being
- 33:39Speaker 2: really problematic. And of course, the biggest example of this
- 33:43Speaker 2: is the mind body split of Renee Descartes. And he
- 33:46Speaker 2: gave us this thing several hundred years ago, and he
- 33:50Speaker 2: believed that the mind and the body are two separate entities,
- 33:54Speaker 2: and modern neurosize tells us, no, that's not the case.
- 33:57Speaker 2: The mind and body are always in dialogue with one another.
- 34:01Speaker 2: And yet we have these pigeonholes that oftentimes force us
- 34:07Speaker 2: to ignore the totality of the human organism. And that's
- 34:12Speaker 2: a structure that gets in our way.
- 34:15Speaker 1: You touched upon this before you advocate for a veterinary
- 34:19Speaker 1: approach to the human animal. Please elaborate.
- 34:23Speaker 2: Well, I just try and get away from the pigeon holes,
- 34:28Speaker 2: as you might say. And what if we had a
- 34:31Speaker 2: veterinarian come to our planet from Mars, and suppose that
- 34:37Speaker 2: veterinarian had an interest in the welfare of the human animal,
- 34:42Speaker 2: and this veterinarian has experience working with other creatures and
- 34:48Speaker 2: has a start from scratch approach. So what would he
- 34:52Speaker 2: or she see as the big stressors and the challenges
- 34:56Speaker 2: to the modern human animal. And we've touched on some
- 34:59Speaker 2: of those already, but I think that martian veterinarian would
- 35:02Speaker 2: be inclined to have what some people have called a
- 35:06Speaker 2: saluteogenic approach. Saluteogenic means going as far upstream as possible,
- 35:12Speaker 2: So salute referring to health genesis meaning beginnings, let's go
- 35:17Speaker 2: as far upstream as possible and start there.
- 35:22Speaker 1: I just had this vision when I started reading your book,
- 35:24Speaker 1: about jumping up on a table in a BET's office
- 35:26Speaker 1: and getting on my hands and knees and sort of
- 35:29Speaker 1: a panting just I don't know why that came to me,
- 35:32Speaker 1: but that's what that's what's suck. But I think, you know,
- 35:35Speaker 1: to a certain extent, maybe are our physicians today our
- 35:38Speaker 1: veterinarians treat their patients better than physicians are treating their patients.
- 35:43Speaker 2: Well, yes, I've had that thought myself, and I've heard
- 35:48Speaker 2: other people talk that way, and it does seem to
- 35:50Speaker 2: be true. I've gotten more attentive care for my dog
- 35:56Speaker 2: sometimes than I receive in a medical office, and there's
- 36:02Speaker 2: a lot of things that contribute to that, and I
- 36:05Speaker 2: don't think we have time to go into all that,
- 36:07Speaker 2: but yes, I do think it's true that sometimes veterinarians
- 36:10Speaker 2: pay more attention to their patients than medical doctors do
- 36:14Speaker 2: to theirs.
- 36:15Speaker 1: Yeah, unfortunately, you draw on three models for experiential design,
- 36:21Speaker 1: martial art, athletic training, and West African drum and dance.
- 36:26Speaker 1: How can these models inform our practices right?
- 36:30Speaker 2: Well, you can kind of cherry pick here, because not
- 36:34Speaker 2: everybody's a martial art teacher, not everybody's an athletic trainer,
- 36:38Speaker 2: not everybody's a drummer. But you can take elements from
- 36:42Speaker 2: each of these. So, for example, you might take from
- 36:45Speaker 2: the athletic training model the immersion of the body and
- 36:51Speaker 2: the challenge that athletic trainers bring to their athletes, especially
- 36:57Speaker 2: what is known as specific training. That's where we look
- 37:01Speaker 2: exactly and precisely at the outcomes we're trying to achieve,
- 37:05Speaker 2: and then we train people specifically toward those outcomes. So
- 37:09Speaker 2: that's a great model. The martial art model, we can
- 37:12Speaker 2: draw on things like the focused practice, the community practice
- 37:16Speaker 2: that we do together in the dojo. That's a great model,
- 37:21Speaker 2: and then in West African drama dance, the beauty of
- 37:24Speaker 2: rhythm and the fact that everyone in class is working
- 37:28Speaker 2: together to share in the quest to perfect that rhythm.
- 37:32Speaker 2: That's something that we can bring in. Even if you
- 37:34Speaker 2: don't know how to drum, everybody can do a beat
- 37:37Speaker 2: and that's a really valuable experience as well.
- 37:41Speaker 1: I've witnessed I watched several of your videos on YouTube
- 37:45Speaker 1: and some of the things that you do in terms
- 37:48Speaker 1: of the martial arts, and some of the exercises look
- 37:51Speaker 1: more like a refined dance to meet in martial arts.
- 37:55Speaker 2: It's just yeah, and there's big overlap there. And in fact,
- 38:00Speaker 2: some of martial arts styles are very dance, like kung fu, kappawara,
- 38:05Speaker 2: all these things really overlap with dance and you can
- 38:09Speaker 2: have a lot of fun with that. But then you
- 38:11Speaker 2: could also draw on some of the practical self defense
- 38:17Speaker 2: parts of the martial arts, and that's relevant to some people,
- 38:21Speaker 2: and so there's a lot of ways you can go
- 38:24Speaker 2: with this.
- 38:25Speaker 1: You know, it's interesting. In the last couple of years,
- 38:27Speaker 1: I've spent more time outside of my vehicle and walking
- 38:31Speaker 1: using my feet against the ground and probably probably all
- 38:35Speaker 1: of my life and what a change has come through me.
- 38:38Speaker 1: From a physical I'm seventy two, and from a physical standpoint,
- 38:41Speaker 1: the change has been phenomenal.
- 38:44Speaker 2: Right, And that's the primary locomotior pattern for bipedal humans,
- 38:51Speaker 2: So it would make sense. I mean, you're tapping into
- 38:53Speaker 2: something that's very old, probably five or six million years
- 38:57Speaker 2: of bipedal history, and of course our bodies and our
- 39:02Speaker 2: brains would work better with that type of rhythmic engagement.
- 39:06Speaker 1: So yes, absolutely, And not only that, but my doctors
- 39:11Speaker 1: have given me glorious reviews. My bloods are wonderful, my
- 39:15Speaker 1: blood pressure is wonderful. My heart, which I had to
- 39:18Speaker 1: actually have stents put on when I was in my
- 39:20Speaker 1: early fifties put in when I was in my early
- 39:22Speaker 1: fifties is wonderful. Everything's working beautifully, and I'm grateful that
- 39:26Speaker 1: that transition from getting out of the car and onto
- 39:29Speaker 1: the ground and also just looking at things as I'm walking,
- 39:32Speaker 1: getting into that rhythm I walking, and then observing the
- 39:34Speaker 1: beauty of the sky and the trees and the plants
- 39:38Speaker 1: and the flowers. You become one, literally become one with
- 39:42Speaker 1: that environment.
- 39:43Speaker 2: Right. There's something about that speed and that tempo of
- 39:47Speaker 2: moving through the world that's so different from driving, because
- 39:51Speaker 2: driving at sixty miles an hour whatever it is, you're
- 39:53Speaker 2: taking in this highly visual stimulation and your body's not
- 40:00Speaker 2: participating really at all. So that's pretty abnormal for the
- 40:05Speaker 2: human animal. And getting back to walk in that's a
- 40:10Speaker 2: more holistic sensory experience for us, and it reminds us
- 40:16Speaker 2: of our normal experience on this planet.
- 40:20Speaker 1: Absolutely. My guest Frank Parensich. His book is called Honor
- 40:23Speaker 1: the Animal, Experiential Design for teachers, coaches, trainers, therapists, parents
- 40:29Speaker 1: and health professionals. We'll be back with more after these
- 40:32Speaker 1: words on the Own Times Radio network.
- 40:35Speaker 9: Humanity Healing International is a small nonprofit with a big dream.
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- 41:00Speaker 9: Humanity Healing dot org. Humanity Healing is where your heart is.
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- 44:18Speaker 1: Back on box NOBUS. My guest this week is Frank Parensich.
- 44:22Speaker 1: His book is called Honor the Animal Experiential Design for teachers, coaches, trainers, therapists,
- 44:29Speaker 1: parents and health professionals. Frank, you share that we have
- 44:33Speaker 1: to be adapted and adaptable. How do we start?
- 44:38Speaker 2: Oh? I love this distinction because I think it tells
- 44:41Speaker 2: us a lot about how we can train and educate ourselves.
- 44:46Speaker 2: To be adapted means your body and your skill set
- 44:52Speaker 2: is consistent with a particular environment, one that is usually
- 44:59Speaker 2: u changing. So if you're adapted to a particular sporting environment,
- 45:04Speaker 2: say basketball, you're really good at playing basketball. You're adapted
- 45:07Speaker 2: to that set of demands on your body. But what
- 45:12Speaker 2: if things change and now you're required to be adaptabull,
- 45:17Speaker 2: And that's a completely different skill demand, because now you
- 45:21Speaker 2: have to rewire yourself. You have to learn about some
- 45:24Speaker 2: new environment and some new skill set. So for the
- 45:29Speaker 2: human animal to be fully functional, we have to be both.
- 45:33Speaker 2: We have to be both adapted and adaptabule. And to
- 45:37Speaker 2: really understand this, I just turned to my dog, because
- 45:40Speaker 2: my dog is really adapted to my house and he
- 45:44Speaker 2: knows every corner and every smell and everything about the house,
- 45:47Speaker 2: and he can run at high speed through the house
- 45:50Speaker 2: and do all his fun things. But he's also incredibly adaptabull,
- 45:54Speaker 2: So when we move to a new place, it's not
- 45:57Speaker 2: very long before he learns that. I think he's a
- 46:01Speaker 2: good role model for all of us.
- 46:03Speaker 1: You know that with the dog, they say the dog
- 46:05Speaker 1: knows everything through scent, that the dog knows when their partner,
- 46:11Speaker 1: their keeper, their family is returning. Based on the fact
- 46:16Speaker 1: that the scent of the family disappears over a certain
- 46:18Speaker 1: period of time, and then they know the timing when
- 46:20Speaker 1: they're coming back something for that effect. I'm not an
- 46:23Speaker 1: expert on it, but that's what I've read. We're not
- 46:26Speaker 1: that adaptable, though, are we.
- 46:29Speaker 2: Well, that's what remains to be seen, because what's going
- 46:34Speaker 2: to happen with our ecological crisis now is that we
- 46:37Speaker 2: are going to be forced into situations now that are
- 46:40Speaker 2: extremely unfamiliar and challenging to us. And that's going to
- 46:44Speaker 2: be the key is to be adaptable. Can we leave
- 46:50Speaker 2: our adapted the cocoons that we live in now and
- 46:54Speaker 2: live in some new way? So we're going to do that.
- 46:57Speaker 2: We're going to need practical skills, but we're also going
- 47:01Speaker 2: to need the psychological flexibility to simply give up the
- 47:04Speaker 2: security that we've enjoyed for a long time and now
- 47:07Speaker 2: live in some completely new lifestyle. And it remains to
- 47:11Speaker 2: be seen whether we can do that.
- 47:13Speaker 1: Are there dangers in embracing the change?
- 47:16Speaker 10: Oh?
- 47:16Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. I mean this is this is our encounter
- 47:21Speaker 2: with ambiguity and uncertainty, and there's going to be danger ahead. Absolutely,
- 47:27Speaker 2: And I think the more we resist that, the more
- 47:31Speaker 2: we resist this ambiguity, the tougher our transition is going
- 47:37Speaker 2: to be. And this is that Alan Watts used to
- 47:40Speaker 2: talk about a lot. He talked about the wisdom of
- 47:42Speaker 2: insecurity and the fact that the more we tie ourselves
- 47:46Speaker 2: to security, the more security we're going to want because
- 47:52Speaker 2: we're separated from a flux of life. So yeah, yeah,
- 47:57Speaker 2: this is this is on our calendar, this is what's
- 47:59Speaker 2: coming up for us.
- 48:00Speaker 1: But in embracing the change, we are really manifesting an evolution.
- 48:08Speaker 2: I think so. I think so. And there may be
- 48:12Speaker 2: opportunity in this crisis, and there may be a way
- 48:16Speaker 2: for us to enter into some new domain of human experience,
- 48:20Speaker 2: at human function, of human new human social relationships. All
- 48:25Speaker 2: of these things are possible if we could stay alive
- 48:28Speaker 2: long enough to do that. But there's going to be
- 48:31Speaker 2: a big transition period ahead.
- 48:34Speaker 1: Tell us about your book and organization activism is medicine.
- 48:39Speaker 2: Oh right. So this is my attempt to reframe activism
- 48:46Speaker 2: because for most of us, when we talk about activism,
- 48:50Speaker 2: it just sounds really stressful, and going into politics on
- 48:55Speaker 2: any level seems like a world that's just rife with conflict,
- 49:00Speaker 2: and we're going to have to start pushing an agenda
- 49:02Speaker 2: whatever it is, and that's difficult, that's stress inducing, and
- 49:08Speaker 2: I think a lot of us are unwilling to go there.
- 49:12Speaker 2: So we don't get involved politics, we don't get involved
- 49:15Speaker 2: in activism. We avoid the whole thing. But what if
- 49:19Speaker 2: we looked at it from a different angle. What if
- 49:21Speaker 2: we said, well, this activism is really an encounter with
- 49:26Speaker 2: meaning and purpose, and what if having that meaning and
- 49:30Speaker 2: purpose actually makes our bodies and our minds work better,
- 49:34Speaker 2: then we're going to get somewhere. And that's what I
- 49:36Speaker 2: believe to be the case, because if you have that
- 49:39Speaker 2: sense of meaning and purpose, there's medical evidence to show
- 49:44Speaker 2: that people are stronger and more resilient when they have
- 49:47Speaker 2: that sense of meaning and purpose and act on it.
- 49:50Speaker 2: So that's what I mean when I say that activism
- 49:53Speaker 2: is medicine. It can make us stronger people.
- 49:56Speaker 1: Absolutely, we are touched upon Western medicine before. From personal experience,
- 50:03Speaker 1: it seems that traditional Western medicine as of late is
- 50:06Speaker 1: more business oriented than patient oriented. Would you agree? And
- 50:11Speaker 1: how can we address this?
- 50:12Speaker 2: Absolutely? Yes, And in fact, there's an emerging discussion now
- 50:18Speaker 2: not just around the capitalism and the for profit part
- 50:23Speaker 2: of this, but also you might even call it the
- 50:27Speaker 2: tyranny of the medical model over the human experience and
- 50:30Speaker 2: the medicalization of human life. And there's Ivan Illits used
- 50:35Speaker 2: to write about this. He was worried. He was concerned
- 50:40Speaker 2: that modern medicine would become so dominant in our lives
- 50:44Speaker 2: that it would eclipse our primal capabilities. And that seems
- 50:48Speaker 2: to be the case because more and more human experiences
- 50:52Speaker 2: and human qualities now are falling under the umbrella of medicine.
- 50:58Speaker 2: So for example, if you you are shy and you
- 51:01Speaker 2: have social anxiety, now that's considered a medical condition. Or
- 51:05Speaker 2: if you're short, that's now we have a medical solution
- 51:10Speaker 2: for that. We have medical solutions for all kinds of
- 51:14Speaker 2: things that used to be simply part and parcel of
- 51:17Speaker 2: human life. And that is restructuring our entire approach to
- 51:24Speaker 2: what it means to be alive. And as a people,
- 51:27Speaker 2: we have yet to take this on. That's a conversation
- 51:30Speaker 2: we really need to be having.
- 51:32Speaker 1: Absolutely. In your book, you say no is not enough.
- 51:36Speaker 1: What does that mean?
- 51:38Speaker 2: Well? I took that from author Naomi Klein, and she
- 51:42Speaker 2: has been writing about activism and culture for a long time,
- 51:46Speaker 2: and she talked about Trump two point zero and that
- 51:50Speaker 2: whole challenge, and she said, yes, we have to protest,
- 51:53Speaker 2: we have to resist. All of those things are important,
- 51:56Speaker 2: but as she puts it, no is not enough. In
- 51:59Speaker 2: other words, there has to be a building. There has
- 52:01Speaker 2: to be a creation. There has to be a new domain,
- 52:07Speaker 2: a new thing that we build to replace the old.
- 52:11Speaker 2: It's not enough simply to tear down the existing system.
- 52:15Speaker 2: There needs to be a foundation of something new and
- 52:18Speaker 2: something better. And I think a lot of activists, in
- 52:22Speaker 2: our frustration, we fail to see that, or we're content
- 52:25Speaker 2: simply to protest and tear down the old. But that's
- 52:29Speaker 2: dangerous if there's nothing to put in its place. So
- 52:33Speaker 2: that's what she was talking about.
- 52:35Speaker 1: And this really starts on the community level, doesn't it.
- 52:39Speaker 2: Absolutely it's all about culture, and individual people can have
- 52:43Speaker 2: great ideas and great activist inclinations, but yes, any effective
- 52:50Speaker 2: work on culture and policy has to be communal and
- 52:54Speaker 2: there has to be discourse. There has to be conversation.
- 52:57Speaker 2: And as what concerns me now, we with a few exceptions,
- 53:02Speaker 2: really aren't talking that much about our ecological crisis. And
- 53:07Speaker 2: that's where I hope to make a difference in my work,
- 53:12Speaker 2: is to get more people talking about it.
- 53:14Speaker 1: Absolutely. There's a wonderful word in various iterations in Africa.
- 53:20Speaker 1: The word is ubuntu and it translates as I am
- 53:24Speaker 1: because we are. When a child is born in these villages,
- 53:28Speaker 1: a gathering takes place where the question is asked, whose
- 53:32Speaker 1: child is this? And the village exclaims, simultaneously and unanimously,
- 53:38Speaker 1: my child. Are these the philosophies and tenets we need
- 53:41Speaker 1: to adopt in our country?
- 53:43Speaker 2: Yes, absolutely. The philosophy of Ubuntu is identification with the tribe.
- 53:53Speaker 2: It's a social identification. And in contrast the modern world,
- 53:57Speaker 2: especially in the West here, we're a pretty individualistic some
- 54:03Speaker 2: will even say a narcissistic society, and that focus on
- 54:09Speaker 2: the individual and individual achievement that really distracts us from
- 54:15Speaker 2: having a sense of community at all. So we need
- 54:18Speaker 2: to go back to that fundamental and look at our
- 54:25Speaker 2: deep seated need to affiliate with one another that's wired
- 54:29Speaker 2: into us. And in that sense, modern culture, modern individualistic culture,
- 54:34Speaker 2: is an outlier and an exception. So this is something
- 54:39Speaker 2: that we're going to have to reckon with and.
- 54:41Speaker 1: Soon, and that really is part of honoring the animal.
- 54:45Speaker 2: Right absolutely, because we are a hypersocial animal.
- 54:49Speaker 1: There you go, what would you like readers to take
- 54:51Speaker 1: away from Honor the Animal.
- 54:54Speaker 2: Well, I think the title alone is valuable for people
- 54:59Speaker 2: because we get so distracted in honoring other things, most
- 55:05Speaker 2: notably money and power and status and that kind of thing.
- 55:10Speaker 2: But the title of this book takes us back to fundamentals.
- 55:14Speaker 2: If we honor our biology, honor the human animal and
- 55:18Speaker 2: the needs of the human animal, not just in ourselves
- 55:21Speaker 2: but in the people we work with, then we we'll
- 55:25Speaker 2: make a step in the right direction. So that would
- 55:28Speaker 2: be my desire for this book, simply to remember the
- 55:32Speaker 2: title wonderful.
- 55:34Speaker 1: My guest, Frank Farensich his book Honor the Animal Experiential
- 55:38Speaker 1: Design for teachers, coaches, trainers, therapist, parents and health professionals
- 55:42Speaker 1: and all of us. Frank, please one more time share
- 55:45Speaker 1: with our listeners with it and get your books and
- 55:46Speaker 1: find out more about you and your wonderful work.
- 55:49Speaker 2: You can go to Humananimal dot earth and the book
- 55:52Speaker 2: itself is available in all the usual places, so that's
- 55:57Speaker 2: easy to find.
- 55:58Speaker 1: But also have that YouTube website right.
- 56:02Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I've got the Honor of the Animal YouTube channel.
- 56:05Speaker 1: Frank, thank you so much for joining us today and
- 56:07Speaker 1: sharing this valid and very important information.
- 56:11Speaker 2: Well, thank you. It's been our real pleasure. I've really
- 56:14Speaker 2: enjoyed it.
- 56:15Speaker 1: And thank you for joining us on Box Novus. I'm
- 56:17Speaker 1: Victor the Voice Firman. Have a wonderful week.